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About Language : Tasks for Teachers of English / S. Thornbury.
Abstract
Fondo Centro de Lenguas - Impresos
... First of all, being language-aware means possessing explicit knowledge about language. This should not be confused with language proficiency: while language proficiency is implicit and intuitive, LA is conscious and explicit (Thornbury, 2017). Even very proficient speakers of a language may find it difficult to discuss its properties (e.g., grammar, vocabulary) explicitly. ...
... This book explores the pedagogical implications of the global spread of English and proposes innovations for teaching a global language effectively. Thornbury, S. (2017). About Language: Tasks for Teachers of English. ...
... During the past 25 years, there has been a growing interest to the understanding of the nature of teachers' language awareness and the impact of such knowledge on teaching and learning (see for example, Freeman & Johnson, 1998;Freeman, 2004). Thornbury (1997) defines teacher's language awareness as "... the knowledge that teachers have of the underlying systems of the language that enables them to teach effectively" (p. x). ...
... x). Reviewing the literature, teachers' knowledge of the language system or what called subject-matter knowledge is the most important part of language awareness (James, 1999;Shulman, 1999;Thornbury, 1997;Wright & Bolitho, 1993). According to Andrews (2001), subject-matter knowledge is the core of declarative dimension dealing with explicit knowledge of grammar and grammatical terminology required by language teachers. ...
The relevance of metalinguistic knowledge in effective teaching of the four language skills is evident. As such, the present study sought to determine the degree of Iranian EFL teachers' metalinguistic knowledge by focusing on the role of academic degree in English Language Teaching (ELT) and teaching experience. The study drew on a mixed-methods research design, and the data were collected through a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview, exploring teachers' perceptions and evaluations of metalinguistic knowledge. Additionally, in order to evaluate the declarative knowledge of teachers regarding their grammatical awareness, a test of English Grammar Knowledge was administered among 94 novice and experienced EFL teachers with and without an academic degree in ELT teaching in private language institutes. The results of the questionnaire and interview indicated that while the importance of having grammatical knowledge was evident for participants, experienced teachers displayed more positive views toward grammar awareness. Furthermore, the teachers' performance on the grammar test showed that while formal education helps teachers improve their knowledge, it is not the only determining factor for high levels of declarative knowledge of language. On the contrary, teachers' background knowledge was found to result in high levels of metalinguistic knowledge. Additionally, the results revealed that years of teaching experience does not determine the levels of teachers' metalinguistic knowledge. The study provides implications for EFL teachers and teacher trainers.
... From the pedagogical perspective, there is a growing necessity to specify the scope and nature of language awareness as expected from language educators. There is no doubt that teachers' language awareness is a factor necessary for effective teaching and for developing learners' language awareness (Thornbury, 1997;Verity, 2003;Wright & Bolitho, 1993). Traditionally, teachers' language awareness is defined as " [t]he knowledge that teachers have of the underlying systems of the language that enables them to teach effectively" (Thornbury, 1997, p. x). ...
... The quality of language teaching and learning largely depends on teachers and their preparation for the job. Traditionally, teachers have to learn the methodology of teaching a particular language and they have to be aware of how the language functions in terms of its underlying systems (Andrews, 2007;Thornbury, 1997). This is, undeniably, an important component of their professional knowledge, as discussed above. ...
The present paper discusses the components of language teachers' awareness, which should differ qualitatively and quantitatively from that of language learners and users. It is argued that especially teachers of English, the European lingua franca, should develop plurilingual awareness to train learners to become multilingual citizens. This awareness involves crosslinguistic, metalinguistic and psycholinguistic knowledge concerning multiple language acquisition. Apart from that, teachers should ideally be multilingual themselves. The paper reports on a survey carried out on over 230 pre-service and in-service Polish teachers of English. It compares their levels of plurilingual awareness relative to their teaching experience, bilingualism/multilingualism factors and the level of L3-Ln languages known. Their awareness seems to be linked with both teaching experience and multilingualism, but it is higher for multilingual teachers proficient in several languages. The paper also presents a qualitative study in the form of a guided interview on a focus group of five in-service teachers. This provides in-depth insight into how they understand plurilingual language teaching. Finally, conclusions are drawn concerning changes in teacher training that would enable teachers to promote plurilingual approaches in class.
... In students, Langauge Awareness has evolved 'through the encouragement of language usage and the incremental insight in how languages function' (Bolitho et al., 2003). Language Awareness is 'knowledge of the underlying language systems that allow teachers to effectively teach' teachers (Thornbury, 1997). It encompasses both language skills and language skills. ...
This research provides an in-depth investigation into the views of teachers beliefs’ a language knowledge approach to foreign language education in secondary school. The goal of the study is to deepen our understanding of the differences in the views of teachers on language awareness and to encourage debate on the inclusion of language awareness in foreign language curricula. Two EFL teachers have been interviewed about their language awareness values. Review of the interviews found that teachers do not have a common understanding of the notion of language awareness. The findings suggest a range of issues that need to be tackled when integrating language knowledge into the education of foreign languages. These problems could serve as a starting point for a conversation with teachers and between them. In addition, teachers should be motivated to figure out how language knowledge works best within the new EFL curriculum.
... Thornbury focused on the importance of word's sound, he suggested that providing songs, rhythms, rhymes are among the best techniques (7-86). Pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening are three main stages teachers and learners go through while using audio material and each stage has its related activities (Selinker, 1972;Seal, 1991;Thornbury, 1997). Teachers draw their vocabulary objectives at each level of listening. ...
The article illustrates the important features of vocabulary in receiving knowledge in a foreign language. The author of the article analyses the core hypothesis of vocabulary, crucial strategies, vital techniques, variety of instruction, and various approaches (methods) theoretically and practically. To conclude, teaching/learning vocabulary is one of the most crucial and difficult tasks in the field of foreign language teaching/learning. Learning a new word is considered a challenge to foreign language learners. Different strategies are suggested to handle the learning process. So that, teachers should consider that they are responsible to help learners use the most appropriate strategies, and carry on strategies they lack. Teachers should be aware of almost all issues related to this linguistic phenomenon.
... Appreciation of language-related issues on the part of the teachers or the so-called Teacher Language Awareness (TLA) is described as a deep insight into how the language works, how to use it, and how to show a high level of proficiency (Edge, 1998, p. 10). It refers to the knowledge that teachers have of the underlying systems of the language that enables them to teach effectively (Thornbury, 1997;Andrews, 2007), namely the knowledge about the language demands of the curriculum and the students (Gibbons, 2002;Glegg, 2007). This knowledge implies empathy for the students' difficulties in acquiring and learning a vehicular language (Andrews, 2003), and understanding the support students need in order to accomplish subject tasks through a second language (Clegg, 2007). ...
Spanish Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) provision perfectly reflects what is happening in the kaleidoscopic European language learning landscape. Even though English is the most widely used language in this type of programme, in the course of more than two decades of implementation, CLIL has adapted to the diverse and ecological language policy of the European Union through disparate models in the different regions. Despite the differences among the various contexts, CLIL implementation has morphed into the design of language policies at school level (San Isidro & Lasagabaster, 2019), and these language policies are inextricably connected to teacher qualification, training and collaboration, along with curriculum integration. CLIL schools have thus become cross-curricular language ecosystems involving all the languages of instruction. In this article we offer a theoretical discussion of the state of the art on CLIL as far as planning and implementation are concerned. We first provide a general overview of the Spanish challenges towards multilingualism. In the second part, we address and discuss in detail the key points in the articulation of a CLIL ecosystem: the role of language itself as an articulator, and the teachers' profiles and their roles in designing a 'language aware' project based on curriculum integration (Otto, 2017b). RESUMEN La regulación de AICLE refleja perfectamente lo que está ocurriendo en el panorama caleidoscópico del aprendizaje de idiomas en Europa. Aunque el inglés es el idioma más utilizado en este tipo de programas, en el transcurso de más de dos décadas de implementación, AICLE se ha adaptado a la política lingüística diversa y ecológica de la Unión Europea a través de modelos dispares en las diferentes regiones. A pesar de las diferencias entre los distintos contextos, la implementación de AICLE se ha transformado en el diseño de políticas lingüísticas a nivel escolar (San Isidro y Lasagabaster, 2019), y estas políticas lingüísticas están inextricablemente relacionadas con la cualificación, la formación y la colaboración de los profesores, así como con la integración curricular de los planes de estudio. Los centros educativos que implementan AICLE se han convertido así en ecosistemas lingüísticos interdisciplinarios en los que se tienen en cuenta todas las lenguas de instrucción. En este artículo ofrecemos una discusión teórica sobre el estado del arte de AICLE en lo que se refiere a la planificación y la implementación. En primer lugar, ofrecemos una visión general de los retos de España con respecto al multilingüismo. En la segunda parte, abordamos y discutimos en detalle los puntos clave en la articulación de un ecosistema AICLE: el papel del lenguaje en sí mismo como articulador, y los perfiles de los profesores y su papel en el diseño de un proyecto "consciente de la lengua" basado en la integración curricular (Otto, 2017b). Palabras clave: AICLE, educación bilingüe/multilingüe, integración curricular, aprendizaje de idiomas, formación de profesores.
... Appreciation of language-related issues on the part of the teachers or the so-called Teacher Language Awareness (TLA) is described as a deep insight into how the language works, how to use it, and how to show a high level of proficiency (Edge, 1998, p. 10). It refers to the knowledge that teachers have of the underlying systems of the language that enables them to teach effectively (Thornbury, 1997;Andrews, 2007), namely the knowledge about the language demands of the curriculum and the students (Gibbons, 2002;Glegg, 2007). This knowledge implies empathy for the students' difficulties in acquiring and learning a vehicular language (Andrews, 2003), and understanding the support students need in order to accomplish subject tasks through a second language (Clegg, 2007). ...
Spanish Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) provision perfectly reflects what is happening in the kaleidoscopic European language learning landscape. Even though English is the most widely used language in this type of programme, in the course of more than two decades of implementation, CLIL has adapted to the diverse and ecological language policy of the European Union through disparate models in the different regions. Despite the differences among the various contexts, CLIL implementation has morphed into the design of language policies at school level (San Isidro & Lasagabaster, 2019), and these language policies are inextricably connected to teacher qualification, training and collaboration, along with curriculum integration. CLIL schools have thus become cross-curricular language ecosystems involving all the languages of instruction.
In this article we offer a theoretical discussion of the state of the art on CLIL as far as planning and implementation are concerned. We first provide a general overview of the Spanish challenges towards multilingualism. In the second part, we address and discuss in detail the key points in the articulation of a CLIL ecosystem: the role of language itself as an articulator, and the teachers’ profiles and their roles in designing a ‘language aware’ project based on curriculum integration.
... Despite the significance of LAK for language teachers, the majority of them have a limited understanding of the fundamentals of language assessment (Malone, 2013;Thornbury, 1997). To equip teachers with LAK, they need to develop assessment skills supplemented by language-specific assessment knowledge. ...
Within recent advances in education, teachers are expected to be aware of and apply effective procedures of instruction and assessment to enhance learning. This requires teacher education programs to provide opportunities for teachers to improve their knowledge in different areas, including assessment knowledge, to meet the new challenges. To help EFL teachers to improve their language assessment knowledge (LAK), the first step is to have information on their present status of LAK. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the LAK needs of EFL teachers. Fulcher's needs assessment questionnaire (2012), expanded by some open-ended questions, was administered to 246 EFL teachers to explore their perceptions of the importance of major issues in language assessment and the level of their own knowledge. The findings revealed that the majority of the participants considered the major topics in language assessment as either essential or important to be included in language assessment courses. However, major differences were found between the priorities given to these topics by various groups of teachers. Further, it was observed, in line with the findings of previous research, that EFL teachers claimed they needed to improve their LAK. Details of the findings and implications for teacher education programs are discussed.
... Reconceptualising grammar in the terms suggested above should be seen within the broader context of promoting language awareness within English language teacher education, whether this be in the narrower sense of developing explicit knowledge about the underlying systems of language (Thornbury 1997) or in the wider sense of exploring language from the socio-cultural perspective of language-in-use (van Lier 1995;Arndt, Harvey & Nuttall 2000). In both senses, the route towards the goal of developing more linguistically-aware teachers involves a particular focus upon developing competence as a language analyst, which is seen as one of the key competences which an English teacher needs (Edge 1988). ...
... While both Andrews (2012) and Thornbury (1997) are talking about TLA in relation to language teachers who are teaching a foreign language, it is not hard to see the relevance to the CLIL teacher of much of what they identify. ...
This RPLT Special Issue aims to bring to ‘dialogue’ different perspectives on research issues related to Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) as an educational challenge. It addresses issues in the area of CLIL both at a national, in Greece, and international level, and deals with concerns, which are relevant to a range of stakeholders namely educational policy makers, researchers, teachers, material developers. The contributors of this issue report and discuss challenges of CLIL application in diverse contexts, insights in various research undertakings, and issues related to the provision of education and training for CLIL teachers. It is important that understanding the perspectives and responding to the challenges of CLIL method offer potentially powerful new ways for successful and effective implementation at all educational levels.
Ιt is expected that through the publication of this RPLTL special issue on CLIL, we can contribute to a further in-depth understanding of CLIL. The contributions provide perspectives from different angles to the above concerns, since they highlight some key issues in CLIL, demonstrate that this method could be fruitful to language development and content knowledge for various purposes in different contexts, stressing, however, the need for teacher training and raising at the same time important questions about the identifiable ways and limits CLIL needs to have in manifesting itself. We hope that these studies will prove useful to researchers and practitioners, send strong messages to policymakers in education and inspire future research in this direction in Greece and elsewhere.
... Language awareness generally denotes 'explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and language use' (ALA, 2016). Teachers' language awareness, necessary for effective teaching and for developing learners' awareness (Wright & Bolitho, 1993) has been defined as their knowledge of the underlying L2 systems, which enables them to teach the language effectively (Thornbury, 1997). Such awareness stems from teachers' cognition, knowledge, beliefs and assumptions about language (Ellis, 2012), and has to be qualitatively and quantitatively different from that of learners, and distinct from that of educated language users (Andrews, 1999;Andrews, 2007). ...
The training of language teachers still follows traditional models of teachers’ competences and awareness, focusing solely on the target language. Such models are incompatible with multilingual pedagogy, whereby languages are not taught in isolation, and learners’ background languages are activated to enhance the process. When teaching bilinguals/multilinguals, the English-only policy is inadequate, and teachers’ competence in only one language may not suffice. Thus, an extended model of teachers’ plurilingual awareness is proposed, including metalinguistic, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic awareness, and the traditional model of teachers’ language awareness as a part of the cross-linguistic component. In the model, teachers’ plurilingual awareness partly stems from their multilingualism.
The impact of multilingualism on teachers’ awareness was tested on Polish teachers of English (N = 222) differing in language knowledge beyond English (L3-Ln). Their attitudes towards principles of multilingual pedagogy were surveyed. Next, cluster analysis was used to differentiate between the teachers’ degrees of proficiency in other languages known, and factor analysis was run to identify the main factors in the survey, which correspond to the components in the teacher's plurilingual awareness model. A subsequent MANOVA revealed that English teachers’ multilingualism indeed underlies their plurilingual awareness and readiness to comply with multilingual approaches to teaching.
KEYWORDS: Teachers’ language awareness, plurilingual awareness, multilingualism, English as a foreign language, language teachers
link: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WbNy98YIAp3y7Tb2tqJy/full
... klasy intelektualny kontrakt edukacyjny pomiędzy nauczycielem oraz uczniem (przy czym, im wyższa jest sama klasa wspomnianego kontraktu, tym lepiej dla ucznia). Jakość tego kontraktu zależeć będzie nie tylko od poziomu świadomości języka u nauczyciela (tak, jak zjawisko to rozumie Leech, (1998), Thornbury, (2004), bądź Andrews, (2007)), lub od kwalifikacji glottodydaktycznych nauczyciela, ale także od niezbyt dobrze zbadanej sfery empatii dydaktycznej, czyli nie w pełni świadomego "zgrania się" wielu działań nauczyciela i ucznia, wspólnie dążących do osiągnięcia wcześniej zaplanowanych celów. Należy jednak powiedzieć, że niezrealizowanie dowolnego z wyszczególnionych powyżej warunków skutkuje pojawieniem się wielu sytuacji niezbyt przyjemnych (i niezbyt oczekiwanych) zarówno przez nauczyciela, jak i ucznia, z których najsmutniejszą jest bez wątpienia rezygnacja ucznia z dalszej nauki języka. ...
The article discusses a number of fundamental glottodidactic issues relating mainly to the issue
of recognition of English as a global language. The article observes that the mere suggestion
that English is to be regarded as a global language is not a sufficient condition to consider it
for this kind of language. First, what is to be to assessed is the precise answer to the question
what one means while thinking about learning a global language, as well as what are (if any)
the fundamental differences between learning this kind of language and learning a
foreign/second language. The second part of the article is an attempt to answer such questions.
... Finally, the findings indicate the potential absence of two important components in participants' TESOL teacher training. Language teacher education programs normally tend to cover teacher knowledge, teacher beliefs, teacher language awareness, and practical knowledge (Borg, 2011;Borg, 2015;Edwards & Mercer, 2013;Gay, 2010;Shulman, 1987;Thornbury, 1997), yet the elements of language awareness and practical knowledge -crucial for teachers' further teaching practice -were not mentioned by teachers. ...
The research focuses on Chinese English teachers studying TESOL program in Australia. The findings are discussed to informing the current policies and practices regarding the offering of these programs in Western contexts, and development of professional development initiatives within local educational institutions that employ graduates from these programs.<br /
... According to Cvetek (2008), the traditional teaching methods (e.g. the presentation-practice-production/PPP model) in English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching are being replaced by concepts that put more emphasis on the learners and the conditions for achieving learner involvement, on negotiated interaction in the classroom, for instance, on task-based learning (Willis, 1996), and, specifically as regards grammar learning, on learners" language awareness and identification of language forms and meanings (Thornbury, 1994). There seems to be a general agreement in the field of foreign language teaching that a focus on meaning and information processing is needed (Cvetek, 2008), for instance, through guessing, simulation, problem-solving and roleplay activities. ...
This paper outlines the rationale, purpose, context and practices of a reflective training course addressed to in-service state EFL teachers in Greece. The so-called Major Training Programme attempted to inspire new teaching ideas, methods and attitudes towards EFL teachers " autonomy and professional development in the " New School " era. It followed the reflective model of teacher training which facilitated teachers in making informed decisions that prioritise learning by becoming autonomous and " open " to experimentation and, thus, enjoying their teaching to the benefit of their learners as well as the Greek state-school foreign language classroom. It was a teacher education course focusing on previous school experience through trainees " critical and autonomous thinking processes. The training programme was structured around the " New School " purpose and principles relied upon modern pedagogical theories such as the intercultural approach to learning within a cross-thematic framework combining arts with environmental education and educational technology.
... While both Andrews (2012) and Thornbury (1997) are talking about TLA in relation to language teachers who are teaching a foreign language, it is not hard to see the relevance to the CLIL teacher of much of what they identify. ...
This paper analyses Multiple Intelligences Teaching Approach (MITA) in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course in higher education. This holistic teaching method creates new ways of engaging students to achieve maximum performance in class and to leverage their knowledge. Authors discuss how this approach helps teachers to understand students’ intelligence and have a greater appreciation of their strengths, how it helps students to learn English for Specific Purposes in authentic learning situations and increase exam achievements. Reflecting on the five stages of Multiple Intelligences Teaching Approach, the authors state that this approach provides numerous opportunities for students to increase their motivation and optimal brain potential to develop the eight intelligences or the eight ways to learning a foreign language, in this case English.
... Since Maule (1988) introduced a new division, many subsequent writers (e.g. Thornbury, 1997) prefer to use his classification of "real" and "unreal" conditionals. Using this more recent classification, I will focus non-past "unreal" conditionals. ...
... While both Andrews (2012) and Thornbury (1997) are talking about TLA in relation to language teachers who are teaching a foreign language, it is not hard to see the relevance to the CLIL teacher of much of what they identify. ...
... The teacher language awareness course, which was part of an initial teacher education programme in Hong Kong, aimed at developing studentteachers' language awareness as it relates to different language systems. According to Thornbury (1997), teacher language awareness refers to the knowledge that teachers have of the 'underlying systems of the language [i.e. English in this case] that enables them to teach the subject [i.e. ...
... According to the Association for Language Awareness, language awareness is ''explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and language use'' (http://www.languageawareness.org/web.ala/web/about/tout.php). As can be seen from this definition, the notion of explicit knowledge, explained by Roehr and Gánem-Gutiérrez (2009, p. 165) as ''knowledge that can be brought into awareness, that is potentially available for verbal report, and is represented declaratively'', appears to be at the core of the various definitions of language awareness offered by different researchers (Andrews 2007;Thornbury 1997). The concept of language awareness is very broad and, thus, overlaps with other related concepts. ...
The article focuses on the presentation of the results of a study conducted on three groups of Polish users of English: EFL teachers, English majors (who were at the same time teacher-trainees), and advanced EFL learners, students of Economics, who had no intention of becoming teachers. The main aim of the study was to investigate the levels of the participants’ metalinguistic knowledge (including the knowledge of grammar rules and metalinguistic terms) and their ability to provide explanations concerning English grammar. Moreover, the research aimed at pinpointing any significant differences among the three groups of participants. In line with previous assumptions, the findings showed that the teacher-trainees’ and teachers’ overall levels of language awareness were higher than those of the advanced learners. There were, however, considerable differences with regard to the participants’ performance on particular tasks in the tests. Although most of the differences in favor of the English majors or the teachers were statistically significant, their levels of metalinguistic knowledge may seem largely disappointing and bring up relevant questions about the role of metalinguistic awareness raising in teacher education.
... All are concerned with developing the language awareness of teachers and making them autonomous learners/language investigators. Tasks from resource books such as Wright (1994), Bolitho & Tomlinson (1995) and Thornbury (1997) might be adapted for research purposes. ...
This paper outlines the context in which Language Awareness (LA) research is currently situated and where it might be going. The starting point is Eric Hawkins's vision (40 years ago) of LA as a bridge between school subjects and, in wider society, between people of different backgrounds and languages. Although considerable progress has been made in language education, this vision remains very relevant in today's society, characterised by large population movements and economic instability. In the UK, there is a mismatch between the multilingualism of communities with roots outside the UK and the shortage of foreign language skills sought by employers. Globally, English as a foreign language dominates, especially in higher education. Against this background, The paper reflects on LA research in the last four years; the topic areas which are most commonly addressed, the languages targeted, and the context in which research is taking place. It is noted that a complex dynamic systems world view is evident in much of current LA research, and discuss some of the implications.
... Language awareness has been identified as 'a person's sensitivity to and conscious awareness of the nature of language and its role in human life' (Donmall 1985:5, cited in Thornbury 1997; James and Garrett 1992; Hawkins 1999; James 1999) following a declaration of the National Council for Language in Education Working Party on Language Awareness dated in 1985. Similarly, a more recent definition available in the Association for Language Awareness website describes Language Awareness " as explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and language use " (ALA, 2007). ...
This chapter focuses on the issues of language awareness and strategy use and their importance for effective and efficient foreign language learning. Language awareness, which has been defined as a person's conscious awareness of the nature of language and the sensitivity to the forms and functions of language (Carter, 2003; Malmberg, 2001), is a crucial aspect of language learning (van Lier, 1996) on a meta-cognitive level (Prtic- Soons,2008). Learning strategies have been conceived as devices, which a learner may use to acquire knowledge, and operations used by a learner that facilitate the acquisition, storage, retrieval or use of information (O'Malley, 1985; Oxford, 1990). Learning strategies act as catalysts when employed by EFL students in order to facilitate themselves in reading, writing, listening and speaking and ultimately affect mastering the target language. The study was designed and conducted with the purpose to assess the needs of primary school students concerning their language awareness and identify their language strategies in FL. The sample consisted of a total of 1107 students (562 boys and 545 girls, mean age 11.3) who attended the 5th grade (591 students) and the 6th grade (516 students) of public primary schools in Northern Greece. A self-report questionnaire was used as the basic instrument, which comprised three basic sections: a) language awareness components, b) learning strategies and skills, c) language learning aspects. The findings revealed statistically significant differences between the two school grades in a number of items related to language awareness and language strategies. Nevertheless, it was indicated that students would benefit from developing a greater degree of selfawareness in FL learning and metacognition in strategy use. For this reason, the raising of students' language awareness and the improvement of strategy use need to be reconsidered and reinforced through the introduction of specifically stated objectives in the FL primary education curriculum and the provision of systematic student training.
... However, this knowledge and skills are not sufficient on their own to ensure that the teacher will deal with the new content with ways which are most conducive to learning as discussed in the literature. Such ways, according to Thornbury (1997) and Andrews (2001), involve choosing appropriate examples, using the appropriate level of language for different classroom purposes, selecting the right activities and material and adapting these to pupils" level where necessary and generally mediating any kind of input available to the pupils. Relevant textbooks and teacher"s manuals in Cyprus provide detailed explanations and terminology of the new content and of the methodology through which this content is expected to be taught. ...
This exploratory study aims to investigate pre-service and in-service teachers' perceptions regarding the knowledge and skills required for effective language teaching at primary level. A mixed-method sequential approach was employed to data collection and analysis and was carried out in two phases. Data were initially obtained through a questionnaire-based survey and supplemented by individual and focus group interviews. The findings have highlighted the primacy of subject-matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, showing evidence that both are necessary in order to avoid fragmented language teaching. The importance of teacher language awareness in forming the bridge between these two types of knowledge has also been stressed. The issues discussed can be used for future planning in the field of initial teacher education, especially in countries where early foreign language learning forms part of their educational agenda.
... All are concerned with developing the language awareness of teachers and making them autonomous learners/language investigators. Tasks from resource books such as Wright (1994), Bolitho & Tomlinson (1995) and Thornbury (1997) might be adapted for research purposes. ...
Following on from my state-of-the-art article on Language Awareness and language learning (Svalberg 2007), in this paper I will discuss specific research tasks which are centrally concerned with different aspects of language awareness (LA): explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and language use'. The overall argument is that research is needed into how LA is constructed by language learners and teachers through engagement with language (Svalberg 2007; 2009). I will sometimes refer specifically to awareness of grammar (form-meaning) but hope the paper will stimulate ideas for research into other LA aspects of language learning and teaching. The absence of other issues and areas (such as LA and multilingualism, intercultural LA, critical LA, LA and language policy) is a function of the personal nature of the paper and the limitations of space.
... Within a decade, several researchbased books have appeared on task-based language learning and teaching (Bygate, Skehan, & Swain, 2001;Crookes & Gass, 1993;Ellis, 2003;Nunan, 2004;Prabhu, 1987;Skehan, 1998). In addition, there are specifically targeted textbooks that provide tasks for language learning (Gardner & Miller, 1996;Willis, 1996), tasks for language teaching ( Johnson, 2003;Nunan, 1989;Parrott, 1993), tasks for teacher education (Tanner & Green, 1998), tasks for classroom observation (Wajnryb, 1992), and tasks for language awareness (Thornbury, 1997). ...
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.
... 1993a, b;Ellis, 2003;Nunan, 2004;Skehan, 1998). In addition, there are specifically targeted textbooks that provide tasks for language learning (Gardner & Miller, 1996;Willis, 1996), tasks for language teaching (Johnson, 2003;Parrott, 1993), tasks for teacher education (Tanner & Green, 1998), tasks for classroom observation (Wajnryb, 1992), and tasks for language awareness (Thornbury, 1997). In addition, numerous textbooks that claim to follow task-based approaches for teaching various skills at various levels of proficiency are available. ...
In the context of task-based language teaching, a challenge facing the language teaching profession is to determine how learners perceive and treat the formal and functional properties of language learning tasks. The preliminary study reported here presents the interplay between teacher objectives, task input, peer interaction and learner perception of transactional tasks. The study shows that the formal, functional and interactional dimensions of a task seem to operate in tandem when learners perform a task in order to get business done in the classroom and, by extension, in the outside world. The study also suggests that the boundaries of the three dimensions are blurred in the learner's mind, and that the degree of attention to the three dimensions is determined largely by learners themselves. This finding has implications for the study for task development, task complexity and also for larger issues of syllabus and methodology.
Geographical inquiry is an approach to learning that acknowledges the constructivist view of knowledge and prioritises the need for students to make sense of what they are learning for themselves. Alexander (2003; 2008) advanced dialogic teaching as a strategy for eliciting students’ understanding and engaging students in using language as a tool for constructing knowledge. This suggests that the successful use of geographical inquiry as a pedagogy entails learning how to think and talk like a geographer. Geography teachers in Singapore are encouraged to use inquiry-based pedagogies in order to help students understand the nature of disciplinary work in geography and as the main route to knowledge construction (CPDD, 2013; 2014). This chapter draws on a study that examines geography teachers’ language knowledge for content teaching (Morton, 2018) through the use of dialogic talk to guide multimodal data analysis, interpretation, and knowledge construction in geography. Using examples of teachers’ enactment of knowledge in the classroom, we suggest how geography teachers can help students make sense of geographical data through greater attention to language use. We further argue that exploring the qualitative dimension of using dialogic talk as a pedagogic strategy addresses a gap in geography education and contributes to the growing body of work on disciplinary literacy.
Since its introduction in 1980, the concept of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) has attracted much attention. Although many studies have been conducted in science and mathematics, there are insufficient studies to capture the PCK of EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers. Accordingly, the present study aimed to unearth EFL teachers' PCK through a grounded theory approach in the Iranian context. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 English teachers at senior high schools in three provinces of Ilam, Lorestan, and Kermanshah. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using coding procedures. The results yielded five main dimensions of EFL teachers' pedagogical content knowledge: English language proficiency knowledge, pedagogy knowledge, student knowledge, curriculum knowledge, and assessment knowledge. Data analysis also revealed the sources of EFL teachers' PCK construction and demonstrated that contextual and intervening conditions influence EFL teachers' PCK enactment. The findings may have theoretical and practical implications for high school EFL teachers, educators, and education programs.
This paper aims to assist trainee or novice ESL teachers who have some knowledge of linguistic theory but little or no knowledge about the grammar of discourse-or topic-oriented languages with no article and null pronouns, including Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Proposing an activation model for DP in these Asian languages, the properties between English determiner phrases (DP), including articles, pronouns, demonstratives, and (alienable) possessives, are compared with those in the East Asian languages. The conscious awareness of explicit knowledge about the grammar of DP in two typologically distinct languages will provide additional benefits to the teachers' teaching in Asian contexts.
The current study investigated integrating Google keyboard (Gboard) into L2 writing and the associated effects
on lexical error reduction. The participants were 47 intermediate level Turkish English as a foreign language
(EFL) learners, who were divided into four groups (one control group and three experimental groups). During
the study, they were asked to write paragraph-length responses to a number of topics during classroom hours.
The participants in the control group used pencil and paper in their writing, yet the participants in two
experimental groups produced four responses using Gboard and four responses using pencil and paper at
different weeks, and one experimental group used Gboard for writing about all the topics. Data analyses
indicated that the use of Gboard resulted in a significant reduction of various lexical errors and increased
accuracy ratios in the participants’ written responses. The implications of the study have been discussed.
Many research have proved the role of contrastive analysis (CA) in helping EFL students to avoid negative interference and improve positive transfer in their language acquisition process. However, the application of CA is quite new in the context of English teaching at high-school level in Vietnam. This paper aims to test the effectiveness of CA application as well as compare the effects of two instruction approaches accompanied with CA, namely direct explicit instruction and indirect explicit instruction. An experimental project was carried out with an achievement test and an attitude survey. Its results statistically prove the effectiveness of CA application and highlight the indirect explicit instruction treatment with consciousness-raising tasks over the other one on both the knowledge achievement and its application in simple translation, except for the attitudes, in which the direct explicit instruction treatment brought more positive effects. The results also indicate a positive correlation between the knowledge achievement and language transfer, and some relations between student's attitudes and their backgrounds including Vietnamese literature knowledge, English level, negative transfer history and self-confidence. This paper can serve as a useful reference for Vietnamese high-school teachers of English.
Keywords: contrastive analysis (CA), direct explicit instruction, indirect explicit instruction, consciousness-raising task, language transfer
SOURCE: Phạm, Ngọc Trường Linh. (2018). Direct versus indirect explicit methods of teaching English: A model of contrastive analysis application at Marie Curie high school. In Some issues of social sciences and humanities (Postgraduate Science Workshop 2017, pp. 590-603). HCMC: HCMC National University Publisher.
This chapter highlights the Functional Language Awareness approach, or FLA, which centers on examining and analyzing how mathematics teachers for Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) attend to and incorporate language into their teaching. The FLA approach puts activity, or what is happening in the classroom, at the core of the model. Activity is surrounded by language functions, features, and contexts that work collaboratively to help teachers think about language as a teaching tool in the mathematics classroom. As a conceptual tool, this approach assists teachers in creating student participation through language in the mathematics classroom. Drawing on discourse from both middle and high school mathematics classrooms, this chapter reveals how teachers of EBs use language within this approach to reach all learners, as well as to promote their participation, interaction, and language use in mathematics class.
How do we put texts together, and how might that be changing? This chapter examines new forms of discourse in the twenty-first century and addresses the question about whether traditional boundaries between writing and speaking still have validity. A range of analytical tools are used for this: cohesion, coherence, register, and style, amongst others. Classroom strategies suggest ways to teach micro-level discourse analysis features such as deixis, as well as to encourage awareness and debate on the macro-level topics of change. The role of authentic material is considered in developing learners’ skills and language, and authentic texts are used throughout the chapter to exemplify discourse features and classroom strategies.
The thesis is entitled "the Syntax of Journalism with Reference to English and Kurdish". It is an attempt to shed some light on the syntactic features of the language of journalism. It tries to provide and describe newspaper headlines and texts in English and southern Kurdish (Central Kurmanji).
The contents of the study can be used as implications of the process of communication in general. It is designed to be useful for the students of English, students of Kurdish, and both English and Kurdish journalists.
The current study consists of five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction, specifies the title, the problems and justifications, the objectives, the limitations, the procedures, and the data and the language used.
Chapter two is devoted to theoretical issues. It includes human communication, media communication and news stories.
The third chapter which is entitled the syntactic analysis of English journalism refers to the syntactic features of English journalism through providing examples from English newspapers.
Chapter four deals with the syntactic features of Kurdish journalistic language and provides examples from some Kurdish newspapers.
Chapter five, the final chapter, comprises the conclusions and the summary of the study. It reveals that the language of journalism is a special sub-variety with special syntactic features, and there are many points of similarities and differences between English and Kurdish journalistic language with regard to syntax.
At the end a bibliography of reference books, journals and internet sites used throughout the study is presented.
In Pakistan the established importance of the reading skill is generally not reflected in the pedagogical practices - to help students read to a better comprehension. At times, students find reading of the original text a boring activity. Consequently, students fail to develop language expressions that are according to the expected standard of university students. There are many factors contributing to this situation one of which is that students lack the motivation to read the original text because the examination system requires them to reproduce in writing - answers to some of the most probable questions. Teaching materials are imported and embedded in a foreign culture, which students fail to understand and personalise. At the same time, teacher-training is almost non-existent; students finishing their post-graduate studies are immediately inducted as teachers. There is an acute dearth of audio-visual aids, which deprives teachers of the opportunity and motivation to improve their pedagogical techniques. Moreover, teachers have to teach literature in the English classroom and they are expected to help improve the language skills of students. The syllabus does not refer to the teaching of the language skills. Students usually find the structure of the language used in literary text difficult to comprehend. The examination requires them to produce answers in a language close to the language often used in literature. The study does not aim to suggest any changes into the existing system of education in Pakistan. Rather, it aims at proposing strategies that the teachers of English literature could adopt to improve reading skills of students. A qualitative case study helps explore a problem in its natural settings. Therefore, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, taught at the degree level in the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan was chosen to be a case study novel. The proposed strategies were to require a minimal usage of audio-visual aids and still improve reading proficiency. An analysis of the literature coupled with the previous experience of the researcher helped devise certain strategies and activities that had the potential of improving reading and language skills without extensive use of audio-visual aids. The study concluded that a personal engagement of students with the text, structural understanding of the language and the development of meta-cognitive skills could help develop reading skills.
This chapter builds on the analyses in the previous chapters to discuss the implications of teacher cognition in teacher learning. The key message of this chapter is teacher cognition that is a process of social construction and negotiation, and the aim of language teacher education is not to develop ‘best’ teachers but ‘empower’ individual teachers by understanding their practice in ‘live’ contexts. It is therefore crucial to recognise teacher learning as an ongoing process where reflection can play a significant role. This chapter focuses on three strands: teacher education and development, pedagogy and teacher knowledge.
The present study is an attempt to deal with inflections. Affixes differ in their position and function. Two fundamentally different functional categories of affixes are distinguished: derivational affixes and inflectional affixes. Inflection can be defined as the modification in the form of a word typically by adding prefixes and suffixes in a systematic way to yield a new word which reflects grammatically conditioned information such as number, gender, tense, mood etc. These grammatical relationships are obligatory for the word class depending on a particular grammatical context. The affixed nature of inflection is characterized by being regular and fully productive. The inflectional affixes are characterized by stability in meaning and are never category changing. The major syntactic categories that are marked by inflections are nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
One of the aims of the study is to assess the various aspects of inflectional suffixes in Standard English and Central Kurdish with respect to their morphological forms, meanings, phonological and grammatical aspects by investigating the role of inflection when attached to a stem. It is generally assumed that the inflectional suffixes are closing suffixes in English i.e. they are the last suffix of any type in the word.
The current study falls into five chapters:
Chapter one introduces the problem to be tackled, the aims, the hypotheses, the procedures, limits of the study, and the value of the study.
Chapter two explains some basic concepts in inflectional morphology. The section of affixes comprises definition of affixes, and types of affixes according to position and function. A section is devoted to criteria for distinguishing between clitics and affixes. The last sections demonstrate the syntactic, semantic and formal differences between inflectional affixes and derivational affixes, definition of inflection, inflection and syntax, and inflectional categories for nouns, verbs and adjectives.
This study explores native and nonnative English-speaking teachers' expectations of teacher's manuals accompanying general English skills books and pronunciation teaching books, as well as their impressionistic evaluation of a printed and online teacher's manual. The study has a mixed-methods design incorporating an online survey and 2 interviews. Findings showed that teachers expected a teacher's manual to provide additional guidance on which pronunciation features to teach and how to present them effectively. The online teacher's manual was preferred over the printed one by most of the teachers because of its technological design features. This study suggests that both native and nonnative English-speaking teachers welcome online manuals because of their increased accessibility and practicality. Additionally, greater amounts of guidance can be given in an online teacher's manual and this guidance can be presented in different modalities, such as in printable text, audio, or video.
This paper contains a collaborative video-based approach to foster prospective teachers’ diagnostic skills with respect to pupils’ L2 reading processes. Together with a peer, the prospective teachers watched, systematically selected, analysed and commented on clips from a comprehensive video corpus on L2 reading strategies. In order to assist the prospective teachers in this demanding process, a Standardised Clip Protocol (SCP) was developed and tutorial support was provided. The SCPs were subjected to various empirical procedures. Quantitatively, the frequency of all learning challenges mentioned by the prospective teachers was counted. Qualitatively, the nature of the diverse reading challenges identified by the prospective teachers was investigated. In that respect, a focus was put on the prospective teachers’ diagnostic findings regarding pupils’ lexical and conceptual awareness. The results indicate that the skills to notice and diagnose L2 learners’ lexical and conceptual reading challenges form an essential part of Teacher Language Awareness (TLA) and should be integrated into teacher education programmes.
The language awareness of teachers is defined as 'the knowledge that teachers have of the underlying systems of the language that enables them to teach effectively' (Thornbury, 1997: x). English language teacher education curriculum involves several courses which focus on the language which aims to improve language awareness. The question is whether pre-service teachers know and think about language awareness and more importantly, what it means to them. This paper aims to investigate the knowledge of pre-service English teachers about what Language Awareness entails in a Turkish state university. The overall approach is qualitative, drawing on interviews conducted with the pre-service teachers. The paper concludes with discussion of the scope pre-service teachers have on Language Awareness.
This guide has been developed specifically to assist student teachers who are practising teaching in a school classroom. Student teachers are expected to give their best in teaching students as it is time to showcase skills gained from theoretical courses. Much as the student teachers will be ‘practising teaching’, the students will not be ‘practising learning’ but they will be ‘actually learning’. Thus, the student teachers should treat the teaching component of their school-based experience seriously. This guide takes you through a few decisive elements of classroom teaching and learning process.
Discourse analysis is the study of language in either spoken or written form. Written discourse is considered an imperative aspect that needs to be analysed. Cohesion, coherence, clause relations and text patterns are all parts of written discourse. This paper, therefore, aims to shed some light on the analysis of several written texts by discussing the possibility of applying written discourse analysis in English language teaching contexts. The paper starts by reviewing related literature about the meaning of cohesion, coherence, cohesive devices and text patterns, followed by reasons for choosing written discourse analysis in particular. Following this, an analysis of several written texts, together with the possibility of applying written discourse analysis in English language teaching, is presented. Before concluding this paper, an evaluation of the proposed application is provided. It is found that applying written discourse analysis in teaching written texts via the use of a problem solution pattern (SPRE) can increase what to expect in reading texts and the ability to write coherently. Although the author did not have the opportunity to apply this task, generally speaking, most text patterns involving SPRE are highly recommended for students when it comes to shaping their writing and this therefore makes students' writing coherent and easily readable.
Research has shown that any assumption that L2 learners of English do well to rely on the feedback provided by generic spell checkers (for example, the MS Word spell checker) is misplaced. Efforts to develop spell checkers specifically for L2 learners have focused on training software to offer more appropriate suggestion lists for replacing misspellings, but research suggests that students often select the wrong word from such lists. Moreover, since their spelling errors are often competence errors arising from misconceptions about the target language, students might benefit from feedback that addresses the underlying problem rather than simply suggesting the correct word. This article describes the use of a corpus of learner English to identify common misspellings produced by Spanish learners of English. For each of these errors, hand-crafted feedback has been written explaining how the correct spelling is consistent with the orthography or morphology of English. This material has been incorporated into a prototype spell checker for learners of English. Meanwhile, the software simply flags other errors as “not amongst the 90,000 commonest words of English”. Because it also detects unusual bigrams (word pairs), the program finds more spelling errors than generic spell checkers and additionally detects some non-spelling errors. Tests indicate that such easy-to-build spell checkers might become useful tools for L2 learners, and, along with other recent technological developments, suggest that student self-correction of compositions (including grammatical and lexical errors as well as spelling errors) is becoming increasingly feasible.
The main purpose of our paper is to focus on the intrinsic nature of irregular plurals in order to understand the evolution of English throughout the centuries. We intend to show how teaching and learning the irregular plurals can be not only of the utmost importance, but also good fun. By presenting creative activities, we wish to make teachers aware of these issues in the teaching of English as a foreign language. Keywords: English as a Foreign Language; irregular plurals; Old English; Middle English; Modern English. Resumo Este artigo centra-se na análise da natureza intrínseca dos plurais irregulares, com vista a possibilitar a compreensão da evolução do inglês ao longo dos séculos. Pretendemos demonstrar de que forma o ensino dos plurais irregulares não só se afigura como de importância indiscutível, mas também pode ser divertido. Através da apresentação de atividades criativas, pretendemos fomentar a consciencialização dos professores de inglês face à relevância destes itens no ensino do inglês como língua estrangeira. Palavras-chave: inglês como língua estrangeira; plurais irregulares; inglês antigo; inglês médio; inglês moderno
This book is about the current pedagogical grammar of English which is taught on training and degree courses to teachers and then taught by those teachers to learners. It is also about a new pedagogical grammar which should be taught to teachers and taught by them to their learners.
This book was revised slightly in November 2014. Please download a copy from the link provided.
The Main Arguments
The main arguments made in this re-imagining of English grammar are:
1. English is convention-based not rule-based.
2. All words have meanings; some have form meanings as well.
3. Words combine [bond] with co-text [other words] to create utterances and sentences which mean something in the context they are used.
4. How words bond together is governed by the conventions of the language - especially the conventions of
collocations [words which mean together, appear together], and the conventions of the sequence [i.e. word order] which can form pathways of choices.
5. There is an underlying deep structure system of distance which can be seen in some word form meanings, and in the conventions of the sequence, and in sentence and utterance structure.
6. Language is about making associations between words clear for meaning purposes. Languages differ in
how they achieve this but [perhaps] all languages follow the broad outline of the Associative Model - the
differences are in the details: English is heavily reliant on word order and thus word proximity; some
other languages are not.
Who is this book for?
This book is for everyone involved in English language teaching/learning. For teachers, trainers, materials
writers, publishers and, most of all, for learners.
This paper tackles the issue of using corpora in translator training, focussing more specifically on the question of awareness raising. The paper presents a discussion on the role of corpora in translation, their applicability in professional development, and their importance in leading to a better understanding of how language is constituted. Two example analyses are offered and detailed, so that they are applicable to contexts in which computational resources are scarce. The analyses center around the linguistic choices in a translated newspaper text and in the Brazilian version of a slogan from an American advertising campaign. It is suggested that these activities may be carried out with translation students, in such a way that they enable students, while they explore electronic corpora, to become aware of both the complexity and the specificity of the linguistic choices involved in the process of translation.
An in-depth investigation is currently being conducted into the metalinguistic awareness of a group of practising L2 teachers, all non-native speakers teaching English in Hong Kong secondary schools. The investigation focuses on teacher metalinguistic awareness (TMA) as it relates to grammar. As part of this in-depth study, a test was administered in order to explore the declarative dimension of TMA: the teacher's explicit knowledge of grammar and grammatical terminology. The test was based largely on Alderson et al. (1996), which in turn draws upon Bloor (1986). The present paper reports on the test performance of these serving teachers as an indication of the level and nature of their explicit knowledge of grammar and grammatical terminology. It also compares their performance with that of two groups of prospective teachers of EFL/ESL: one group of native-speakers and the other of non-native speakers. Comparison with the former helps to shed light on the native/non-native issue (see, for example, Medgye...
This paper provides an introduction to teacher language awareness (TLA) and a personalreconceptualisationoftherelationshipbetweenTLAandotherdimensionsof teacher knowledge, revisiting issues discussed in Andrews (2001). In the first part of the paper, knowledge of subject matter is identified as the core of TLA. Given the increased recognition in education that subject-matter knowledge is a key element of teacher professionalism, it is argued that TLA should be seen as equally important for the teacher oflanguagesubjects.The middle part of the paperoutlines apersonalview of the nature and scope of TLA, focusing particularly on the link between knowledge about language (subject-matter knowledge) and knowledge of language (language proficiency), on the metacognitive nature of TLA, and on TLA as encompassing an awareness of language from the learner perspective. The latter part of the paper explores the link between TLA and the professional knowledge of the L2 teacher, drawing on two recent models of teacher knowledge (Tsui, 2003; Turner-Bisset, 2001), andexaminestheimpact ofTLAonpedagogical practice.Finally,the paper arguesthat TLA research and discussion could enhance our understanding of ' what makes our teaching language teaching ' (Freeman & Johnson, 1998: 413).
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.