Understanding the beliefs about culture that E.F.L. (english as a foreign language teachers) Hold at C.L.U.S. (Centro de Lenguas de La Universidad de La Salle)

Tesis (Licenciado en Lenguas Castellana, Inglés y Francés).--Universidad de La Salle. Facultad de Ciencias de La Educación. Licenciatura en Lengua Castellana, Inglés y Francés, 2014

The interaction factor as a challenge for foreign language learning in the technology based education: a pedagogical reflection

The author carries out a pedagogical reflection on how the technology driven distance learning repeatedly neglects the scientific achievements of Second Language Acquisition and Language Pedagogy. Seeing communicative competence as a major goal of a language classroom, she presents the main challenges that the communicative approach poses to distance learning. To this end, a general distance learning theory by Moore is adapted to the needs of language education, through a distinction between three aspects of learner interaction – with the teacher, with other learners and with content. In this three-dimensional paradigm the learner is seen as the main actor of the process, the teacher as a facilitator, the text as a main source of communicative data and the learner autonomy as the fundament of the process.

Does gender make a difference? Gender-related fairness of high-stakes testing in A-level examinations in English as foreign language in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the context of Educational Governance

The shift from decentralized to centralized A-level examinations (Abitur) was implemented in the German school system as a measure of Educational Governance in the last decade. This reform was mainly introduced with the intention of providing higher comparability of school examinations and student achievement as well as increasing fairness in school examinations. It is not known yet if these ambitious aims and functions of the new centralized examination format have been achieved and if fairer assessment can be guaranteed in terms of providing all students with the same opportunities to pass the examinations by allocating fair tests to different student subpopulations e.g., students of different background or gender. The research presented in this article deals with these questions and focuses on gender differences. It investigates gender-specific fairness of the test items in centralized Abitur examinations as high school exit examinations in Germany. The data are drawn from Abitur examinations in English (as a foreign language). Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis reveals that at least some parts of the examinations indicate gender inequality. (DIPF/Orig.)

Perceived benefits, motivations and preferences for foreign language learning by older adults. Insights from an initiative in Cuenca, Ecuador

El presente estudio analiza las percepciones y actitudes que tienen los adultos mayores de la ciudad de Cuenca, Ecuador hacia el aprendizaje del inglés. Un total de 151 adultos mayores (con edad promedio de 70.3 años) respondió a un cuestionario con 50 ítems. Se llevó a cabo análisis factoriales, de regresión múltiple y cluster con el propósito de definir las dimensiones subyacentes en las percepciones, motivaciones y ambiciones de los adultos mayores para aprender un idioma extranjero, y su relación con las características sociodemográficas de los participantes. Los resultados señalan que el interés por estudiar un idioma extranjero está basado en la percepción de que aquello mejora la interacción social de las personas, su desarrollo personal, el funcionamiento y mantenimiento de la mente y memoria, y que activa y vuelve su vida más dinámica. Los resultados además revelaron que la principal motivación de los participantes para tomar un curso de inglés está relacionada con el potencial de usar este idioma en la vida diaria y el de leer profusamente en esa lengua extranjera. La duración del curso y la obtención de un certificado fueron factores determinantes que permitieron agrupar a los participantes en función de sus preferencias en lo que respecta al diseño práctico de un curso de inglés. Adicionalmente, la edad y el nivel de instrucción fueron variables determinantes de motivación que influyeron en la mayor parte de las respuestas dadas por los participantes.

An ESL/EFL Computer Assisted Language Instruction (CALIS) Micro-Teaching Lesson on Coherence Through Sentences When Writing Compositions in the Foreign Language Classroom

[Sin resumen]

The teaching of reading English in a foreign language in Libyan universities: methods and models

This study focuses on the learning and teaching of Reading in English as a Foreign Language (REFL), in Libya. The study draws on an action research process in which I sought to look critically at students and teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Libya as they learned and taught REFL in four Libyan research sites. The Libyan EFL educational system is influenced by two main factors: the method of teaching the Holy-Quran and the long-time ban on teaching EFL by the former Libyan regime under Muammar Gaddafi. Both of these factors have affected the learning and teaching of REFL and I outline these contextual factors in the first chapter of the thesis. This investigation, and the exploration of the challenges that Libyan university students encounter in their REFL, is supported by attention to reading models. These models helped to provide an analytical framework and starting point for understanding the many processes involved in reading for meaning and in reading to satisfy teacher instructions. The theoretical framework I adopted was based, mainly and initially, on top-down, bottom-up, interactive and compensatory interactive models. I drew on these models with a view to understanding whether and how the processes of reading described in the models could be applied to the reading of EFL students and whether these models could help me to better understand what was going on in REFL. The diagnosis stage of the study provided initial data collected from four Libyan research sites with research tools including video-recorded classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with teachers before and after lesson observation, and think-aloud protocols (TAPs) with 24 students (six from each university) in which I examined their REFL reading behaviours and strategies. This stage indicated that the majority of students shared behaviours such as reading aloud, reading each word in the text, articulating the phonemes and syllables of words, or skipping words if they could not pronounce them. Overall this first stage indicated that alternative methods of teaching REFL were needed in order to encourage ‘reading for meaning’ that might be based on strategies related to eventual interactive reading models adapted for REFL. The second phase of this research project was an Intervention Phase involving two team-teaching sessions in one of the four stage one universities. In each session, I worked with the teacher of one group to introduce an alternative method of REFL. This method was based on teaching different reading strategies to encourage the students to work towards an eventual interactive way of reading for meaning. A focus group discussion and TAPs followed the lessons with six students in order to discuss the 'new' method. Next were two video-recorded classroom observations which were followed by an audio-recorded discussion with the teacher about these methods. Finally, I conducted a Skype interview with the class teacher at the end of the semester to discuss any changes he had made in his teaching or had observed in his students' reading with respect to reading behaviour strategies, and reactions and performance of the students as he continued to use the 'new' method. The results of the intervention stage indicate that the teacher, perhaps not surprisingly, can play an important role in adding to students’ knowledge and confidence and in improving their REFL strategies. For example, after the intervention stage, students began to think about the title, and to use their own background knowledge to comprehend the text. The students employed, also, linguistic strategies such as decoding and, above all, the students abandoned the behaviour of reading for pronunciation in favour of reading for meaning. Despite the apparent efficacy of the alternative method, there are, inevitably, limitations related to the small-scale nature of the study and the time I had available to conduct the research. There are challenges, too, related to the students’ first language, the idiosyncrasies of the English language, the teacher training and continuing professional development of teachers, and the continuing political instability of Libya. The students’ lack of vocabulary and their difficulties with grammatical functions such as phrasal and prepositional verbs, forms which do not exist in Arabic, mean that REFL will always be challenging. Given such constraints, the ‘new’ methods I trialled and propose for adoption can only go so far in addressing students’ difficulties in REFL. Overall, the study indicates that the Libyan educational system is underdeveloped and under resourced with respect to REFL. My data indicates that the teacher participants have received little to no professional developmental that could help them improve their teaching in REFL and skills in teaching EFL. These circumstances, along with the perennial problem of large but varying class sizes; student, teacher and assessment expectations; and limited and often poor quality resources, affect the way EFL students learn to read in English. Against this background, the thesis concludes by offering tentative conclusions; reflections on the study, including a discussion of its limitations, and possible recommendations designed to improve REFL learning and teaching in Libyan universities.

Translation as a resource for the teaching of linguistic diversity in foreign language

Translation has played many roles in foreign language teaching. It has been, on the one hand, considered a fundamental methodological tool, constituting the core of the grammar-translation approach, and, on the other hand, heavily criticized and excluded from the classroom, whether from the practical or the theoretical point of view. Currently, with the communicative approach to language teaching, the study of language varieties has become very important to the learner, and considering the need to understand and interpret the meaning of a word within a specific socio-cultural context during the translation process, it is of paramount importance to acknowledge sociolinguistic variations in the text to be translated. Thus, our goal is to show, through a reflective analysis, that translation can be an educational resource for the teaching of linguistic diversity in foreign language. This study isbased on theoretical assumptions on translation dating from the time of Cicero and Saint Jerome to the present times.

Reflexive teacher on orality appropriation in the foreign language teaching-learning process

This is a qualitative, documental and interpretative metasearch article on Applied Linguistics (LA) area, where the characteristics of the subjects involved (teachers and learners) in orality appropriation in the Foreign Language (LE) teaching-learning process are studied. In order to develop this article, theatrical texts, body and voice should be considered as appropriation mediators. The assumptions of Ortiz-Alvarez (2009) and Basso (2008) – reflexive competence – concerning the attitude of the teacher as a language professional who is reflexive on his/her practices, together with the definitions of Perrenoud (2000; 2008); Dewey (1959; [1916]2012; Freire (1975; 1976; 1984; 1996); Libâneo (2006) and Schön (1992; 2000) are here used. The professors metasearched on this article are Massaro (2001; 2007; 2008), from the University of São Paulo (USP) and Reis (2008; 2011; 2012), from the University of Brasilia(UnB); they are (re)analyzed according to the paradigms: a reflexive teacher in the exercise of his/her reflexive practices. The search for the conciliation between a practice peddled by theories and the classroom reality is visible on teachers’ thoughts – those professors not only contemplate their approaches and techniques, but also try to change or propose changes on the world perceptions of learners, other language teachers and, sometimes, their institutions. The term reflexivity is used to define the proposal of acting-thinking-(re)acting as a constant of language professionals lives. Along the reading of the metasearched professors’ work, it is noticed that they have a critical reflexive path (reflexivity) on their reflexive practices reality. They demand an emotional and cognitive involvement that supposes personal unique attitudes - such as an open mind that has the ability of listening to different opinions, with no prejudices or resistance which can block a certain question to be seen from a different point of view.

DICT IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: CHALLENGES IN ITS APPROPRIATION BY BEGINNER-LEVEL TEACHERS IN TRAINING

Our work is primarily concerned with the challenges involved in the appropriation of DICT by beginner-level participants of the Institutional Program for Scholarships for Initiation in Teaching in Brazil. Although the current generation of beginner-level undergraduate students may be seen as “digital natives”, their use of digital technologies, however frequent, takes place only outside the school environment. The technology skills which they acquire in their daily lives are not transposed to the classroom when they find themselves in the position of teachers. It is still challenging to understand their difficulties in appropriating technology to educational purposes, since educational agents seem all to agree on how important digital technologies are in school, while failing to put it to actual classroom use, and while simply providing access to digital technology is far from sufficient. These skills should be understood and applied in schools by meaningful teaching practice, which should go beyond the mere instrumental use of technology. Therefore, we here focus on the process of elaboration of digital technologies assisted teaching practices in the foreign language classroom. Our corpus is composed of classroom activities and classroom interventions, elaborated and staged by beginner-level teachers in training, who are the project participants, during the course of a school year. These activities comprise the development of an intervention project, which consists of an activity plan, its critical discussion, its application and further reflection.

Language learning in the public eye: an analysis of newspapers and official documents in England

This article considers the issue of low levels of motivation for foreign language learning in England by exploring how language learning is conceptualised by different key voices in that country through the examination of written data: policy documents and reports on the UK's language needs, curriculum documents, and press articles. The extent to which this conceptualisation has changed over time is explored, through the consideration of documents from two time points, before and after a change in government in the UK. The study uses corpus analysis methods in this exploration. The picture that emerges is a complex one regarding how the 'problems' and 'solutions' surrounding language learning in that context are presented in public discourse. This, we conclude, has implications for the likely success of measures adopted to increase language learning uptake in that context.

Modern foreign languages get a voice: the role of the journals

This chapter investigates the significance of specialized journals for the development of modern language teaching. It begins by explaining the development of language journals up to the point at which language teaching reform really took off with the emergence of the so-called Reform Movement in the 1880s. The principal journal for this movement was Phonetische studien [Phonetic Studies] founded in 1888 and renamed Die neueren Sprachen [Modern languages] in 1894. The style of the early issues of this journal allows modern readers an insight into the discourse practices of that community of language scholars and teachers, the opportunity to hear its characteristic ‘voice’ and recreate the means by which modern foreign language teaching became an independent discipline.

Preservice EFL teachers’ beliefs about teaching writing and learning to teach writing before their practicum : a case study in Vietnam

The standard of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education has prompted calls for reform to preservice EFL teacher education. Field experiences are central to their professional development and for implementing reform measures. This study aims to examine preservice EFL teachers’ attitudes, needs, and experiences about learning to teach writing in English before their practicum in Vietnamese high schools. An open-ended questionnaire collected data from 97 preservice EFL teachers at the beginning of their final practicum. The data suggested that these preservice EFL teachers were motivated to learn to teach English in general and teaching writing in particular but required mentors to model effective teaching practices and share their teaching experiences. They also needed their mentors to be enthusiastic and supportive, and provide constructive feedback. These findings may assist teacher educators and school mentors for motivating and developing preservice EFL teachers’ practices.

Case study of collaborative learning in two contexts : what do English language learners gain?

This chapter describes the use of collaborative learning as an approach to enhance English language learning by students from non-English speaking backgrounds. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) principles were applied to two case studies, one comprising of undergraduate English as Foreign Language Learners in Turkey and the other involved English as Second Language learners in Australia. Social constructivism inspired communicative language teaching using collaborative learning activities such as team work, interactive peer-based learning, and iterative stages of learning matrix were incorporated to enhance students' learning outcomes. Data collected after the CLT intervention was made up of field notes, reflective logs and focus group interviews which revealed complementarities, as well as subtle differences between the two cases. The findings were summarized as learning dispositions; speaking fluency and confidence; learning diagnostics and completion deficiencies; task engagement, flow theory and higher order thinking skills; in addition to self efficacy and development of student identity. CLT has the potential to provide a more inclusive and dynamic education for diverse learners through vital outcomes and benefits which resonate with the real world.

The relationship between listening and other language skills in International English Language Testing System

Listening comprehension is the primary channel of learning a language. Yet of the four dominant macro-skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), it is often difficult and inaccessible for second and foreign language learners due to its implicit process. The secondary skill, speaking, proceeds listening cognitively. Aural/oral skills precede the graphic skills, such as reading and writing, as they form the circle of language learning process. However, despite the significant relationship with other language skills, listening comprehension is treated lightly in the applied linguistics research. Half of our daily conversation and three quarters of classroom interaction are virtually devoted to listening comprehension. To examine the relationship of listening skill with other language skills, the outcome of 1800 Iranian participants undertaking International English Language Testing System (IELTS) in Tehran indicates the close correlation between listening comprehension and the overall language proficiency.

Let's eat the captain! Thinking, feeling, doing : intercultural language learning through process drama

This research investigated the sustained use of process drama in a middle school foreign language classroom. The experience led to widespread learner engagement, a deeper contextualisation of the language as a socio-cultural practice, and a willingness to use the spoken and written language, regardless of limited proficiency. The drama required that language use be context and culture specific, contingent and multi-modal, which encouraged the beginner students to "mushfake" or improvise spoken and written text. Particularly important was the way the body was used through drama to express emotion, remember language and to illustrate the sociocultural context of its use.