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Macrostrategies for the Second/Foreign Language Teacher
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... Recognition of teachers' and learners' agency in conjunction with avoiding mechanistic approaches in which the teacher is a slave to a method has a long tradition in language education. One response has been argued by authors such as Kumaravadivelu (1992Kumaravadivelu ( , 1994. We agree with Kumaravadivelu's argument that language teaching cannot be effectively addressed by narrow views of 'method' (i.e. ...
... However, we would argue that these decisions must be informed by a view of learning. We have argued in this paper that PT and our alternative dynamical approach offer a viable view of learning that meets this teacher need and operationalises a principle such as called for by Kumaravadivelu (1992Kumaravadivelu ( , 1994. We have also argued that this combination offers a way of seeing how language resources intersect with a level of planning/use needed for both learners and teachers. ...
We demonstrate the possibility of a principled integration of the predictable char-acteristics of learner language and the unpredictability of socially embedded language use. In contrast with the claim that dynamical systems’ behaviour is uni-versally unpredictable, we demonstrate that dynamical systems theory embraces predictability as a fundamental tenet. We refer to the utterance-oriented basis of processability theory for insights into predictions about L2 learning sequences that simultaneously embrace learner variation. We sketch empirical findings offering ways to connect variation and learner pathways. These findings provide evidence of how learner options emerge that are linked to unproductive pathways. We argue that building on these insights enables teachers to avoid the DST-inspired chaos narrative and locate specific regularities in learners’ dynamic language use. We show that interpersonal variation and intrapersonal variability can be inte-grated with a pedagogic perspective on predictable developmental sequences. We outline how this perspective offers nuanced support for teacher decision-making.
... That is to say, for teachers, being equipped with academic and professional characteristics would not be sufficient to set up a positive, learnable and teachable classroom climate. Particularly, the factors that best assist student learning are being purposeful, task-oriented, relaxed, warm, supportive and having a sense of order and humor in an integrated sense (Kumaravadivelu, 1992). He (Kumaravadivelu, 1992) also considers positively other factors facilitating learners learning in a positive way, such as mutual respect and rapport, etc., all of which stem from conveying to students that you understand, share and value their feelings as individuals on a complete range of matters and experiences, academic, social and personal. ...
... Particularly, the factors that best assist student learning are being purposeful, task-oriented, relaxed, warm, supportive and having a sense of order and humor in an integrated sense (Kumaravadivelu, 1992). He (Kumaravadivelu, 1992) also considers positively other factors facilitating learners learning in a positive way, such as mutual respect and rapport, etc., all of which stem from conveying to students that you understand, share and value their feelings as individuals on a complete range of matters and experiences, academic, social and personal. IELTS teachers especially can connect with their students as they explain how difficult it was for them to learn the new language. ...
An Investigation into the Elements of the International English Language Testing System: Instructors' Success
Educating for a more sustainable future in its broadest sense includes improving quality basic education, reorienting education to address sustainability, improving public awareness and providing training to many sectors of society. In order to reorient teacher education to address sustainability, we need to examine the major tenets of sustainable development and apply them to education and teacher education. This study reports on an exploratory study into the distinctive characteristics of International English Language Testing System (IELTS) instructors. Six IELTS instruction institutes in Iran were selected. Totally, there were 122 students studying IELTS, distributed in 18 classes available in these institutes, and 15 teachers were teaching IELTS preparation courses there. All 18 classes were videotaped to be used and analysed in more detail. In addition, three questionnaires were developed for the purpose of identifying the most frequently occurring practices and strategies. The questionnaires were filled in by researchers, students and the teachers themselves. The results of the study demonstrated that knowledge and command of the target language, an ability to organize, explain, clarify, arouse, sustain interest and motivation among students, fairness to students by showing neither favouritism nor prejudice and availability to students were among the most significant characteristics and qualities of a successful IELTS instructor.
... That is to say, for teachers, being equipped with academic and professional characteristics would not be sufficient to set up a positive, learnable and teachable classroom climate. Particularly, the factors that best assist student learning are being purposeful, task-oriented, relaxed, warm, supportive and having a sense of order and humor in an integrated sense (Kumaravadivelu, 1992). He (Kumaravadivelu, 1992) also considers positively other factors facilitating learners learning in a positive way, such as mutual respect and rapport, etc., all of which stem from conveying to students that you understand, share and value their feelings as individuals on a complete range of matters and experiences, academic, social and personal. ...
... Particularly, the factors that best assist student learning are being purposeful, task-oriented, relaxed, warm, supportive and having a sense of order and humor in an integrated sense (Kumaravadivelu, 1992). He (Kumaravadivelu, 1992) also considers positively other factors facilitating learners learning in a positive way, such as mutual respect and rapport, etc., all of which stem from conveying to students that you understand, share and value their feelings as individuals on a complete range of matters and experiences, academic, social and personal. IELTS teachers especially can connect with their students as they explain how difficult it was for them to learn the new language. ...
Relationship Between Rapid Naming Speed and Reading Speed as a Marker of Reading Difficulties of Estonian Children from 6 to 8 Years
Reading is one of the fundamental skills for successful performance in modern society. Reading acquisition is one of the most important tasks in primary level of education. The early identification of reading difficulties (RD) enables educators to apply the treatment as early as possible. Rapid naming (RN) is one of the reliable methods used to identify RD and risk for RD. The relationship between RN skills, especially RN speed and reading decoding speed, is investigated as a good tool for predicting reading at decoding level and welldocumented in languages using non-transparent orthography. Few researches are carried out on RN skills in transparent orthographies. The current research is the first attempt to investigate RN skills of children speaking Estonian, highly transparent Finno-Ugric language. The aim of this study is to examine longitudinally RN speed and decoding skills of children at the age 6, 7 and 8 years to detect the relationship between RN speed in prereading age and reading age after starting formal reading instruction.
... Yet, as Allwright (1984) put it, the teacher is the side who should plan the lesson and manage the tone of the interaction in the classroom for learning to happen. In an attempt to provide some general premises for language teachers to optimize classroom interaction, Kumaravadivelu (1992) listed macro strategies for language teachers, which are to ''create learning opportunities in class, utilize learning opportunities created by the learner, facilitate negotiated interaction between participants, activate the intuitive heuristics of the learner, contextualize linguistic input' ' (pp. 41-46). ...
... Despite the fact that language teacher education seems to be eager to give more voice and respect to teachers and their knowledge, it has moved to other extremes of the continuum (Akbari, 2007). Akbari (2007) argues that the postmethod controversy (Kumaravadivelu, 1992(Kumaravadivelu, , 1994(Kumaravadivelu, , 2001(Kumaravadivelu, , 2003(Kumaravadivelu, , 2006 can be investigated as one of the reasons for the promotion of reflective teaching in ELT. Therefore, teachers in the field of education have their personal beliefs about teaching, personal styles for teaching, personal perceptions of students' needs and even personal assumptions of what good teaching includes. ...
Given that reflectivity could help keep the teaching profession vibrant and responsive, reflective teaching practice has become an essential component of teacher education. In recent years, some efforts have been underway to implement it in our educational system, in general and in language teaching, in particular. The present study aimed to investigate the extent to which Iranian English language teachers are reflective, if at all. To this end, a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire including 26 items, originally developed by Akbari et al. (2010) and validated for the purposes of the current study, was used. The participants of the study comprised 217 practicing EFL teachers selected through random sampling. Data analysis, conducted through descriptive statistics, revealed that Iranian English language teachers are reflective in all dimensions of reflection, though degree of reflectivity varies across these dimensions. This finding is promising and suggests that reflectivity is gaining a foothold in our language education.
... It grows as you grow older. This is what Newton (as cited in Celce-Regarding the notion of maturity, Kumaravadivelu (1992) grounds his argument for the need many unpredictable needs, wants, and situations; we can only help them develop a capacity to generate varied and situation-specific ideas within a general framework that makes sense in classroom factor. Maybe in his view it was a micro strategy for the classroom. ...
... 31). Based on his previous work in the context of CLT (Kumaravadivelu, 1992(Kumaravadivelu, , 1993, he, then, presents a set of macro-strategies to help teachers discover their own context-sensitive micro-strategies (1994, 2001, 2003, 2006a). Also, Kumaravadivelu (2001Kumaravadivelu ( , 2003Kumaravadivelu ( , 2006a conceptualizes three parameters for postmethod pedagogy. ...
This paper is a critical review of the concept of post-method language teaching. The author first presents a quick review of the history and concept of method and introduces the concept of postmodernism as a source of influence for post-method-ism. The author, then, adopts a critical approach to reviewing the concept of post-method and the idea of searching for "an alternative" to method (Kumaravadivelu, B. (1994). The postmethod condition: (e) merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 28, 27-48.). The paper argues that these two concepts can have the same mode of existence in reality and the difference between them is only a virtual one that would exist in the mind of the practitioner/expert. Finally, it is further argued that skepticism toward the concept of method and the search for "an alternative" to method (as Kumaravadivelu has put it) would not guarantee the future of practice in the field of language teaching, as this search has not proved to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
... From the outset of postmethod era, Kumaravadivelu (1992Kumaravadivelu ( , 1994 proposed two dominant macro strategies as a general framework. Primarily, these two broad guidelines are typically relevant to "situation-specific", "need based" dimensions of practitioners' objectives to generate micro strategies or classroom techniques. ...
The paper investigates the possible facilitative approaches to parts of speech learning and the ways of interpreting them as functional categories rather than merely syntactic units. Participants in this study were 38 students of General English Course at Sharif University of Technology. They received a treatment in a way that the comparison group was given a text, word forms chart, and pattern practice exercises and the control group was deprived of receiving a text. The paper concludes with the emphasis on the interactive model of contextualization of the lexical categories and the intentional commitment of grammatical items to memory.
... Thus, the central focus of EP is local practice. Kumaravadivelu's (1992, 1994, 2001, 2003) macrostrategic framework is based on the hypothesis that language learning and teaching needs, wants, and situations are unpredictably numerous, and therefore, we cannot prepare teachers to tackle so many unpredictable needs, wants and situations; we can only help them develop a capacity to generate varied and situation-specific ideas within a general framework that makes sense in terms of current pedagogical and theoretical knowledge. (1992, p. 41) A product of the postmethod condition, his framework is shaped by three operating principles: particularity, practicality, and possibility. ...
This article traces the major trends in TESOL methods in the past 15 years. It focuses on the TESOL profession's evolving perspectives on language teaching methods in terms of three perceptible shifts: (a) from communicative language teaching to task-based language teach- ing, (b) from method-based pedagogy to postmethod pedagogy, and (c) from systemic discovery to critical discourse. It is evident that during this transitional period, the profession has witnessed a heightened awareness about communicative and task-based language teaching, about the limitations of the concept of method, about possible postmethod pedagogies that seek to address some of the limitations of method, about the complexity of teacher beliefs that inform the practice of everyday teaching, and about the vitality of the macrostruc- tures—social, cultural, political, and historical—that shape the micro- structures of the language classroom. This article deals briefly with the changes and challenges the trend-setting transition seems to be bring- ing about in the profession's collective thought and action.
... I n the past few years, we have seen a steady stream of evaluative thoughts o n the nature a n d scope of method (Allwright, 1992; Brown, 199 1 ; Larsen-Freeman, 1990; Pennycook, 1989; Prabhu, 1990; Richards, 1989; Widdowson, 1990 ). We have also witnessed the emergence of alternative ideas that implicitly redefine o u r understanding of method (Kumaravadivelu, 1992Kumaravadivelu, , 1993a Richards & Lockhart, 1994; Rivers, 1992; Stern, 1992). Not only d o these studies caution us against the uncritical acceptance of untested methods, but they counsel us against the search for the best method a n d indeed against the very concept of method itself. ...
Recent explorations in L2 pedagogy signal a shift away from the conventional concept of method toward a “postmethod condition” that can potentially refigure the relationship between theorizers and teachers by empowering teachers with knowledge, skill, and autonomy. So empowered, teachers could devise for themselves a systematic, coherent, and relevant alternative to method, one informed by principled pragmatism. The postmethod condition can also reshape the character and content of L2 teaching, teacher education, and classroom research. In practical terms, it motivates a search for an open-ended, coherent framework based on current theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical insights that will enable teachers to theorize from practice and practice what they theorize. This paper explores one such framework consisting of 10 macrostrategies, based on which teachers can design varied and situation-specific microstrategies or classroom techniques to effect desired learning outcomes. The paper maintains that the framework can be used to transform classroom practitioners into strategic teachers as well as strategic researchers.
... 31). Based on his previous work in the context of CLT (Kumaravadivelu, 1992Kumaravadivelu, , 1993), he, then, presents a set of macro-strategies to help teachers discover their own context-sensitive micro-strategies (1994, 2001, 2003, 2006a). Also, Kumaravadivelu (2001, 2006a) conceptualizes three parameters for postmethod pedagogy. ...
This paper is a critical review of the concept of post-method language teaching. The author first presents a quick review of the history and concept of method and introduces the concept of postmodernism as a source of influence for post-method-ism. The author, then, adopts a critical approach to reviewing the concept of post-method and the idea of searching for "an alternative" to method (Kumaravadivelu, B. (1994). The postmethod condition: (e) merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 28, 27-48.). The paper argues that these two concepts can have the same mode of existence in reality and the difference between them is only a virtual one that would exist in the mind of the practitioner/expert. Finally, it is further argued that skepticism toward the concept of method and the search for "an alternative" to method (as Kumaravadivelu has put it) would not guarantee the future of practice in the field of language teaching, as this search has not proved to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
... 14), and who both had masters degrees in ESL. With one teacher he promoted the effectiveness of five macrostrategies for successful CLT (see also Kumaravadivelu, 1992). He then transcribed the two teachers' classes and concluded that the episodes showed "different kinds of classroom input and interaction" (p. ...
The aim of this article is to report on a study that documented the views and practices of communicative language teaching (CLT) by Japanese second language inservice teachers. Compared to theoretical developments of CLT (e.g., see Savignon, 1991), little is known about what second language teachers actually understand by CLT and how they implement CLT in classrooms. Using multiple data sources including interviews, observations, and surveys, the article reports how teachers defined CLT and implemented it in their classrooms. The study identified how teachers actually dealt with CLT in their classrooms teaching Japanese. It is interesting to note that their views and actions dealt little with the academic literature pertaining to CLT or their education (be it preservice or inservice) in learning about CLT. Instead, teachers resorted to their personal ideas and experiences, solidifying their notions of foreign language (L2) teaching in further pursuing their evolving conceptions of CLT.
In England, fewer and fewer secondary-school students decide to continue studying a foreign language. Nonetheless, there is a lack of context-specific research applying the most recent theories on second language (L2) motiva- tion to better understand students’ attitudes to modern foreign languages (MFL). This article reports on the quantitative findings of a mixed methods inquiry which adopted the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) to explore the relationships between future L2 selves and L2 performance among secondary students in England. A survey was conducted on 397 students of French in the second and fourth year of secondary education from two schools in the East of England. They responded to a L2MSS questionnaire, the results of which were correlated to the students’ current grades in French. The results showed that all the three perceived future L2 selves variables significantly correlated with L2 performance with different intensity, with the ideal L2 self being most strongly associated with L2 performance. Accordingly, this article recom- mends further research on the relationship between attitudes and perfor- mance in MFL in the form of action-research in order to devise and implement pedagogies aimed at strengthening secondary students’ future L2 selves to increase L2 performance.
This study explores literal and metaphorical narrations of age by looking closely at two picturebooks published at the turn of the twenty-first century. The evolutionary Western understanding of the child, childhood and children’s literature is briefly periodized as a tension between pragmatic and philosophical concerns. Representations of age are taken to be embedded in socio-cultural positions that implicate historical periods, geographic locations, and economic structures. Ethnicity and gender are similarly discussed as immanent features. Age is presented as much a biological phenomenon as a performative social act of a given culture. The ideas, feelings and events depicted in each picturebook are approached from a structuralist and a postmodernist perspective with the aim of providing a complementary analysis of child representations in alignment with the adult presence, and not necessarily through the lens of aetonomativity. My analysis points to possible applications of the design of age narrations to current and future literacies.
It is our aim to share a proposal for a new syllabus model and learner-centered methodology for English as a Foreign Language students in the Degree in Teaching in Primary Education at the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain), presenting the theoretical tenets and analyzing samples of resources and materials that have been designed. In a context of great diversity of levels and learning profiles in the abovementioned educational setting, it is no longer valid to conceive this part of teacher training only in terms of language proficiency, but rather it is necessary to equip students with learning to learn tools and metacognitive strategies as well as materials and resources purposefully designed bearing in mind their context, professional interests and linguistic needs. As a result, throughout the three 6 ECTS courses in the Degree (English in Primary Education I, II and III, for 1st, 2nd and 4th year students respectively) we seek to implement active methodologies and make use of a variety of resources following Communicative Language Teaching and Task-based Instruction principles, such as the following: (i) Deep Learning (Clark, 2009a, 2009b) and Scaffolded, Visible Thinking (Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison, 2011); (ii) Cooperative Learning (Kagan and Kagan, 1994); (iii) ICTs and EdTech; (iv) reflective learning, promoting self-assessment and peer-assessment, and (v) Project Based Learning (BIE, 2003). Overall, the teaching proposal designed has enabled us to partially respond to heterogeneity in our large classes and make our students’ learning of a language relevant and meaningful.
Este artículo presenta una propuesta desarrollada en las asignaturas de inglés como lengua extranjera (Inglés en Educación Primaria I, II y III) en el Grado de Educación Primaria en la Facultad de Educación, centrada en el estudiante y su aprendizaje. Esta propuesta supone un cambio en la programación de tal modo que el foco no está puesto en la consecución de un nivel de lengua estandarizado sino en el desarrollo de competencias y estrategias de aprendizaje y de pensamiento para lo que se hace uso de técnicas, materiales y recursos específicos teniendo en cuenta el contexto de instrucción, las necesidades de los alumnos, así como sus intereses formativos y profesionales. Es nuestro objetivo plantear a los alumnos la realización de tareas que sean significativas y cuya consecución lleve a un uso realista de la lengua (Ellis 2003; Richards 2006; Willis y Willis 2007). Para ello nos centramos en temas que sean de relevancia y que supongan una fuente de aprendizaje siguiendo el enfoque CELT (Content Enhanced Language Teaching – Ball 2016). Además, buscamos hacer el aprendizaje visible (Clark 2009; Project Zero – Visible Thinking) para lo que utilizamos diferentes organizadores gráficos (think charts, Venn diagramas), y rutinas de pensamiento visible (p. ej. See-Think-Wonder, Think-Puzzle-Explore, Carrousel) que ayudan a los estudiantes a procesar, estructurar y comunicar ideas de una forma más profunda y significativa. Por otro lado, se fomenta el trabajo en grupo y el aprendizaje colaborativo planteando roles y fomentando el diálogo y la discusión y el desarrollo de destrezas sociales e interactivas, así como la reflexión sobre el aprendizaje mediante rúbricas y listas de comprobación. Finalmente, el uso de herramientas TIC es fundamental, tanto dentro como fuera del aula, por parte del profesorado para el diseño y presentación de las tareas y de los estudiantes en su consecución y presentación.
The current study details the development and validation of a measuring instrument for the teachers' willingness to implement postmethod pedagogy principles in the Iranian context. Three postmethod components were identified after (1) undertaking a comprehensive review of the literature on the postmethod pedagogy and second language (L2) teacher education and (2) conducting interviews with domain experts and practicing language teachers. In Phase 1 of the study, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted with a randomly selected and nationally representative sample (N = 255) of Iranian EFL teachers, resulting in three internally consistent factors: (a) Teacher Sense of Social Justice, (b) Teacher Autonomy, and (c) Teacher Sense of Academic Enthusiasm. In Phase 2 of the study, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was completed with a new sample (N = 648) of practicing teachers. Strong model fit estimates in Phase 2 confirmed the factor structure of Phase 1 and resulted in a final 29-item scale called "Postmethod Scale" (PMS).
Identifying the characteristics of high-quality foreign language teachers has been a matter that has occupied researchers and teacher trainers for decades, resulting in an assortment of diverse sets of qualities presented in various publications. However, these sets of characteristics differ depending on the cultural context they exist in. The role and position of a teacher are closely linked to existing cultural values which impact the ways educators and students are supposed to behave. Furthermore, educational objectives are often perceived in diverse ways. Nevertheless, the author of this article strongly believes that despite flagrant culture-related differences, there exist culture-indifferent characteristics of effective teachers which may be either transferred between cultures or rediscovered in one’s native cultural reality. Therefore, the first part of the chapter tackles Western and Eastern educational philosophies and the most striking, culture-based differences between foreign language teacher characteristics in Eastern and Western cultures. The study described in the following section aimed at identifying the characteristics of good foreign language teachers that pertain to every cultural environment or that may transcend from one culture to another. The data was gathered with the use of interviews. The final section contains conclusions and suggestions for further research.
Teachers play pivotal roles in EFL classrooms. Characteristics of EFL teachers may affect students’ attitudes and motivations to language learning. The effective/good characteristics of the EFL teachers perceived by the students have been extensively investigated by the previous research works. However, the perceptions of the students from different backgrounds to EFL teachers may vary in different learning settings. In addition, the research works on both favorable and unfavorable characteristics of EFL teachers are comparatively scarce. This study aimed to investigate the favorable and unfavorable characteristics of the EFL teachers perceived by Thai university students. The data were collected from 6o students at Vongchavalitkul University. Open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used as the main instruments for data collection. Useful information about EFL teachers’ personal trait-related characteristics and classroom teaching-related characteristics emerged from the data. The information is very useful and beneficial for the EFL teachers to reflect their personal characteristics and reconsider their classroom teaching, which may be very helpful for them to do some adjustment and preparation in their teaching to achieve better education results.
Researchers suggest that language learners taught with the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach tend to have trouble acquiring semantically less salient grammatical forms. This study describes an experiment in input enhancement in general, and specifically Typographical input enhancement which is one of the three main types of input enhancement and it attempts to find out which two sets of materials are better in helping students to use the past tense form of English more accurately: unenhanced texts, or enhanced materials in the form of short stories. The framework of the study was the incorporation of focused comprehension tasks. 40 female students at the age range of 18-28 participated in the study and test results indicated that the participants in the Experimental group (which received enhanced input) increased significantly in their ability to use the simple past tense verbs accurately in oral narratives on the posttest. However, inter-groups differences were not statistically significant. It was concluded that typographically enhanced input can be a valuable addition to the CLT curriculum in order to improve learners’ accuracy in their speaking skill through increasing noticing by the means of enhancing input typographically. © 2012, Australian International Academic Centre PTY LTD. All rights reserved.
This paper discusses the issues with EFL teaching in Saudi Arabia, including the reliance on traditional teaching methodologies and banning use of first languages in classrooms. As a result, these traditional teaching practices produce less proficient learners who have limited knowledge about proper linguistic use. In order to overcome these issues and have proficient learners who can effectively use the language, however, language teachers should understand an effective change is required. Kumaravadivelu's framework (2006) is an opportunity for teachers to adopt new methods because it relies on global-level strategies, macrostrategies, that are general enough to allow teachers the opportunity to freely adjust their precise implementation in relation to individual teaching demands, along with more particular implementation tactics, microstrategies, that operationalize the macrostrategies in flexible and customizable ways according to perceived needs during the in-context process of teaching. © the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.
The TESOL Quarterly invites commentary on current trends or practices in the TESOL profession. It also welcomes responses to rebuttals to any articles or remarks published here in The Forum or elsewhere in the Quarterly.
If, as research reveals, even those teachers who are committed to communicative language teaching (CLT) fail to create genuine communication in their classrooms, it is partly because teacher educators have not given them the necessary tools to achieve their desired goals. This paper proposes that a framework of five macrostrategies offers a possible tool to make the communicative classroom genuinely communicative. The paper presents a classroom observational study to assess whether the macrostrategies framework will help CLT teachers maximize learning potential in the classroom. An analysis of two classroom episodes taught by two committed CLT teachers featuring the same group of learners revealed that one episode was evidently more communicative than the other. The relative success in maximizing learning potential witnessed in one episode and the relative failure witnessed in another is attributed to the use and non-use of the macrostrategies framework. The study shows that given appropriate tools CLT teachers will succeed in making their classes genuinely ycommunicative.
Presents a comprehensive view of management and leadership in language programs as situated in a complex, globalized context with rapidly changing characteristics. This book offers case studies and overviews of 'nuts and bolts' issues of administration such as financial, data, and people management, as well as suggestions for further research.
This article reviews the topical and methodological trends in the past 85 years of research on language classrooms in The Modern Language Journal. The primary focus is on empirical investigations into oral classroom instruction in post-secondary classes, which include comparisons of language teaching methodology, observational procedures in classrooms, examinations of teacher and learner talk, and some reports on the influence of specific factors such as tasks and learner attitudes on instructional interaction. Since the review is limited to studies published in the MLJ, a critical comparison of findings is not feasible, although some general trends are noted. The article documents a substantial broadening of scope and sophistication of the methodology adopted for research on instruction in language classrooms. Some critical improvements in methodology are suggested.
The MLJ, with its origin in 1916, was the first foreign language (FL) pedagogical journal in the United States to serve a variety of languages and teachers on both the secondary and postsecondary levels. This article traces the development of its editorial policy through examination of each editor’s policy statements and personal reflections and the contents of the Journal including articles, "News & Notes," and other columns, readers’ comments, and announcements used as page filler. The examination reveals the MLJ’s proactive role in helping to shape a unified, national FL teaching profession and in developing FL education and second language acquisiton (SLA) as scholarly disciplines anchored in empirical research, which has, especially in the past 2 decades, filled many MLJ pages. The history of reflections of the profession provided here offers insights into the development of the disciplines we know today and suggests possibilities for future editorial policy of the MLJ.
The preparation of U.S. foreign language (FL) teachers has been a frequently discussed topic during the past century. As the oldest, continuously published American journal devoted to FL learning and teaching, the MLJ provides an overview of the many issues pertinent to FL teacher education that the profession has grappled with. This historical review traces discussions and developments in teacher preparation and certification since the MLJ 's inception in 1916. In three sections, each covering a quarter century of the Journal 's publications, the article describes the most relevant discussions and events that have helped shape FL teacher education in the United States. Although many efforts —and doubtlessly many advances —have been made to assure a supply of qualified FL teachers for the nation 's schools, many of the problems discussed more than 80 years ago still remain unsolved. The author hopes that a critical look at the past will help the profession to focus on those proposals that are finding emerging consensus and to prioritize those needs and activities that help effect meaningful change in improving the qualifications of FL teachers.
Title from PDF t.p. Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, November, 2002. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-93) Mode of access: World Wide Web. System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alberta. Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references. Photocopy.
The study reported in this article compared the comprehension of 16 nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English on directions to a task presented by a native speaker (NS) under two input conditions: premodified input, in the form of a NS baseline lecturette modified by decreased complexity and increased quantity and redundancy, and interactionally modified input, consisting of the NS baseline lecturette without linguistic premodification, but with opportunities for interaction with the NS. It was found that comprehension was best assisted when the content of the directions was repeated and rephrased in interaction; however, reduction in linguistic complexity in the premodified input was not a significant factor in NNSs' comprehension. It was also found that NS-NNS interfactional modifications in the form of comprehension and confirmation checks and clarification requests served as a mechanism for NS modification of input, either by encoding or, more frequently, by triggering repetition and rephrasing of input content, and thus played a critical role in comprehension. Results of the study support current theoretical claims regarding the role played by interfactional modifications in facilitating second language comprehension. These results also provide guidelines for restructuring interaction in the classroom to serve learners' needs for comprehensible input.
In the process of comprehending a sentence, a reader or listener identifies its grammatical constituents and their relationships. The resulting grammatical analysis is eventually combined with lexical information and world knowledge to arrive at the message conveyed by the sentence. We propose that one or more distinct components of the human cognitive system are responsible for identifying the grammatical characteristics of a sentence (see Berwick and Weinberg, 1983, 1984; J. A. Fodor, 1983; J. D. Fodor, 1979; Forster, 1979, for similar views).
This paper examines the role of syntactic constraints on the reactivation and assignment of antecedents to explicit and implicit anaphoric elements during sentence comprehension. Evidence from on-line studies examining the time course of coreference processing supports the view that reactivation of potential antecedents is restricted by grammatical constraints when they are available. When structural information cannot serve to constrain antecedent selection, then pragmatic information may play a role, but only at a later point in processing.
The developments in linguistic theory over the last three decades have given us a better understanding of the formal properties of language. However, as the truism goes, language does not exist in a vacuum. It in teracts with a cognitive system that involves much more than language and functions as the primary instrument of human communication. A theory of language must, therefore, be based on an integration of its for mal properties with its cognitive and communicative dimensions. The present work is offered as the modest contribution to this research paradigm. This book is a revised and slightly enlarged version of my doctoral thesis submitted to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In writing the original version, I had the privilege of working with Professor Charles E. Osgood, who is widely recognized as the founder and one of the leading figures of modern psycholinguistics. I have benefited from ex tensive and stimulating discussions with him, not only on this topic but in the development of his theory of language performance in general (see his Lectures on Language Performance, 1980, in this series). However, the re sponsibility for the particular formulations of the theory, hypotheses, in terpretations, and conclusions found in this work-which have been in fluenced, no doubt, by my training as a linguist, rather than as a psychologist-are my own.
This important new book provides a critical overview of recent classroom-centered research and its implications for the teaching and learning of languages. Chaudron synthesizes and evaluates crucial research about the way student and teacher behaviours affect language learning and discusses research methods. Second Language Classrooms will be of vital interest to researchers, language teachers, and curriculum specialists, as well as readers with a general interest in education, linguistics, sociology, or psychology.
The following article1 attempts to account for empirical findings (Doughty and Pica 1986; Long and Sato 1983; Pica and Doughty 1985a, b, in press; Pica and Long, 1986) regarding the relative absence in classroom discourse of interactional moves through which learners and their teachers seek clarification or check comprehension of each other's message meaning. Data are presented to illustrate how these interactional features, i.e., confirmation and comprehension checks and clarification requests, assist language comprehension and production, and current theoretical claims are reviewed to emphasize their proposed importance to the second-language acquisition process. Absence of these interactional features in the classroom, it is argued, is a reflection of the unequal participant relationships which shape and are shaped by classroom activities. In support of this argument, examples of discourse from a variety of classroom activities are given. Finally, results are reported from research on two activities believed to promote more equalized relationships among classroom participants-a decision-making discussion, and an information-exchange task. Results on the latter are used as a basis for suggesting ways in which the classroom can serve as a social and linguistic environment more favourable to second-language acquisition.
This article reports the results of a questionnaire survey of how the teaching practicum is conducted in U.S. graduate TESOL programs. Information was sought on the objectives of the practicum, the kinds of training experiences and activities employed, and how the practicum is implemented. The results are discussed with reference to key issues in the field of practice teaching in TESOL.
A collection of works concerning classroom research methodology, learner strategies and variables, teacher speech, teacher and learner feedback, and second language classroom communication has been compiled. It includes: "What Is Classroom Oriented Research?" (Herbert W. Seliger and Michael H. Long); "Inside the 'Black Box': Methodological Issues in Classroom Research on Language Learning" (Michael H. Long); "Risk-Taking and the Language Learner" (Leslie M. Beebe); "Competitiveness and Anxiety in Adult Second Language Learning: Looking "at" and "through" the Diary Studies" (Kathleen M. Bailey); "Inferencing: Testing the 'Hypothesis-Testing' Hypothesis" (Ellen Bialystok); "Foreigner Talk in the Classroom--An Aid to Learning?" (Craig Chaudron); "Foreigner Talk in Content Classrooms" (Linda A. Schinke-Llano); "Teacher-Student Interaction in Bilingual Classrooms: Four Approaches to Error Feedback" (Nancy Johnson Nystrom); "Learner Feedback: An Exploratory Study of Its Role in the Second Language Classroom" (Stephen J. Gaies); "Exploring Relationships between Developmental and Instructional Sequences in L2 Acquisition" (Patsy M. Lightbown); "Learner Interaction in the Classroom and Its Effects on Language Acquisition (Herbert W. Seliger); "Classroom Foreigner Talk Discourse: Forms and Functions of Teachers' Questions" (Michael H. Long, Charlene J. Sato); and "Assessing Global Second Language Proficiency" (Diane Larsen-Freeman). (MSE)
This paper offers an examination of classroom language learning from the perspectives of research and teaching. It addresses two questions: (1) What are the specific contributions of the classroom to the process of language development?; and (2) In what ways might the teacher exploit the social reality of the classroom as a resource for the teaching of language? The paper explores the classroom as a special social situation and identifies certain aspects of classroom language learning that seem to be neglected by current research. It offers also new directions for research and proposals for language teaching deduced from particular social and psychological characteristics of classroom life.
Knowledge of a second language includes knowledge of syntax, phonology, lexicon, and so forth. While there is no a priori reason to assume that abilities in these areas develop independently of one another, most studies dealing with the acquisition of L2 grammars treat each of these components singly. In fact, Long and Sato (1984) call for more studies investigating the ways in which grammatical components interact in the acquisition of a second language. This paper deals with the complex issue of sentence processing in an L2, showing how L2 learners resolve the problem of competing factors of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics in the processing of L2 utterances. We present the results of a study involving sentence interpretation of compex sentences by 111 L2 learners of English and suggest that the acquisition of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics is an interactive phenomenon. It is further suggested that part of learning the syntax of a language is not only learning the word-order configurations of the language, but also learning the importance of word order in a given language in relation to semantic and pragmatic factors.(Received December 14 1984)
René Dirven teaches English linguistics and applied linguistics at Duisburg University, FRG. He has written several papers on pedagogical grammar, has just published – as general editor – his third English grammar and is at present working on the fourth, which is called ‘Conceptual English Grammar’. Other research interests are listening comprehension, computer-assisted learning, intercultural communication, languages in contact and conflict in Africa, cognitive approaches to these areas and to metaphor as a central factor of language, thought and culture.
Researchers studying language comprehension have assumed that, all else being equal, more complex sentence constructions will take longer to process. However, results from experiments, such as the one presented in this paper, which use reading rates as the dependent measure suggest that it is the interaction of specific types of deep structure representations with their surface structure forms that accounts for fluctuations in readers' on-line processing of various sentence types. In particular, those sentences in which the deep structure direct object immediately precedes the verb in the surface structure sequence are easier for comprehenders to process. These data support a dual, parallel processing model of sentence comprehension in which lexical and morphological/relational information are processed independently.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles--Applied Linguistics. Typescript (photocopy). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-201).
Action Research in the Language Classroom Second Language Teacher Education
- David Nunan
Nunan, David. "Action Research in the Language Classroom." Second Language Teacher Education. Ed. Jack C. Richards & David Nunan.
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990:
62-81.
Second Language Classroom. Cambridge
- Craig Chaudron
Chaudron, Craig. Second Language Classroom.
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988.
Comprehending Sentences with Long-Distance Dependencies Linguistic Structure in Language Processing
- Charles Clifton
- Lyn Frazier
Clifton, Charles. J r. & Lyn Frazier. "Comprehending Sentences with Long-Distance Dependencies." Linguistic Structure in Language
Processing. Ed. Greg N. Carlson & Michael
K. Tanenhaus. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1989:
273-318.
Functionalist Approaches to Grammar Language Acguisttion: The State of the Art
- Elizabeth Bates
- Brian Macwhinney
Bates, Elizabeth, & Brian MacWhinney. "Functionalist Approaches to Grammar." Language
Acguisttion: The State of the Art. Ed. L. Gleitman
& E. Wanner. New York: Cambridge Univ.
Press, 1982: 173-218.
The Psychologut and the Forezgn Language Teacher
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- M Wilga
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The Listening Approach: Methods and Materials for Applying Krashen's Input Hypothesis
- Marvin J Brown
- Adrian S Palmer
Brown, Marvin J, & Adrian S. Palmer. The Listening Approach: Methods and Materials for
Applying Krashen's Input Hypothesis. London:
Longman, 1988.
Aspects $Language Teaching
- Henry G Widdowson
Widdowson, Henry G. Aspects $Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1990.
Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1983 in Retrospect Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics
- H H Stern
- Peter Strevens
Stern, H. H. & Peter Strevens. "Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1983 in Retrospect." Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics.
Ed. James E. Alatis, H. H. Stern & Peter Strevens. Washington: Georgetown Univ. Press,
1983: 1-6.
Language Learning and Language Teaching: Towards an Integrated Model Linguistics in Context: Connecting Observation and Understanding
- Peter Strevens
Strevens, Peter. "Language Learning and Language Teaching: Towards an Integrated
Model." Linguistics in Context: Connecting Observation and Understanding. Ed. Deborah Tannen.
Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1988: 299-312.
Experiments in Language Learning
- Edward Crothers
- Patrick Suppes
Crothers, Edward, & Patrick Suppes. Experiments
in Language Learning. New York: Academic,
1967.
~ b e r die Verschiedenheit des menschlzchen Sprachbaw-(Berlin: InselVerlag, 1836); as cited by Noam Chomsky, Aspects of the The09 oj-Syntax
- Wilhelm Humboldt
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Humboldt, Wilhelm von. ~ b e r
die Verschiedenheit
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Linguistics and Philosophy Language and Mind
- Noam Chomsky
Chomsky, Noam. "Linguistics and Philosophy."
Language and Mind. Enlarged ed. New York:
Harcourt, Brace, 1972: 161-94.
Aspects of Reference and the Pronominal Syntax Preference in the Speech of Young Child L2 Learners Second Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective
- Helmut Zobl
Zobl, Helmut. "Aspects of Reference and the
Pronominal Syntax Preference in the Speech
of Young Child L2 Learners." Second Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Ed. Roger
Anderson. Rowley, MA: Newbury House,
1984: 375-91.
The Second Language Curriculum
- Michael P. Breen
- Christopher N. Candlin
- Leni Dam
- Gabrielsen Gerd
Talking to Learn: Conversation in Second Language Acquisition
- Teresa Pica
- Long Michael H.
Ltnguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisttion
- M Susan
- Jacqueline Gass
- Schachter
Ltnguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisttion. Ed. Susan M. Gass & Jacqueline
Schachter. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ.
Press, 1989.