Planning lessons and courses : designing sequences of work for the language classroom.

Recurso sobre la planificación de clases y cursos para estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera. La mayoría de los capítulos están organizados alrededor de preguntas que el profesor se podría hacer al planificar una lección o un curso. Cada capítulo ofrece respuestas a las preguntas planteadas o implícitas en el título del capítulo como: quiénes son los estudiantes; cuál es la lección; cómo se aprende; cómo puedo enseñar; qué materiales se pueden seleccionar; cómo empezar a trabajar en la planificación; qué actividades se pueden utilizar y adaptar.

Lessons from nothing : activities for language teaching with limited and resources.

Recurso con alrededor de setenta actividades de enseñanza de idiomas para profesores que buscan actividades fáciles de utilizar, que fomenten la interacción y la cooperación en el aula y que no requieran gran cantidad de recursos, instalaciones o preparación.

Teaching adult second language learners.

Responde a las necesidades de los adultos que estudian inglés, en particular aquellos que han emigrado a países de habla inglesa y ofrece un resumen de los principios implicados en la enseñanza de adultos. El texto se divide en tres secciones: la sección I hace una introducción al estudiante adulto de idiomas y trata sobre la evaluación de los estudiantes y sobre la organización de cursos y clases. La sección II incluye técnicas docentes para formar una comunidad en el aula y la sección III proporciona actividades diseñadas para estudiantes de varios niveles que se organizan de forma temática sobre temas tales como la identificación personal, la comida, la salud, la ropa y el trabajo.Siempre que es posible, también se proponen actividades alternativas para satisfacer las necesidades de las clases multinivel o de niveles múltiples.

Keep talking : communicative fluency activities for language teaching.

Guía práctica con actividades de comunicación para la enseñanza del inglés como segundo idioma, adecuado para su uso con alumnos desde el nivel elemental al avanzado. Está dividido en dos partes, la primera contiene instrucciones para cien ejercicios diferentes, incluyendo entrevistas, juegos de adivinanzas, rompecabezas, resolución de problemas, mímica, juegos de rol y cuenta cuentos. Cada actividad va acompañada de notas sobre sus objetivos lingüísticos y educativos, el nivel, la organización, el tiempo y la preparación necesaria. La segunda parte incluye las hojas de trabajo para cada actividad, una tabla con todos los ejercicios y un índice para facilitar la consulta del libro.

Using the board in the language classroom.

El libro ofrece consejos y sugerencias para ayudar a los profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera a usar la pizarra de una forma más eficaz y eficiente. Ofrece más de ciento treinta actividades diseñadas para ser usadas en un amplio rango de edades y niveles, que permitirán a los alumnos aprender y practicar vocabulario, pronunciación y gramática, conseguir más fluidez al hablar, leer y escribir, enseñar a y aprender de los compañeros, aprovechar las estrategias de enseñanza visuales y sensoriales, y auto-evaluarse.

Testing spoken language : a handbook of oral testing techniques.

Guía práctica para diseñar y usar tests orales de habilidad lingüística, dirigido a profesores, examinadores, diseñadores de cursos y planificadores de educación. El libro presenta las etapas en que debe desarrollarse el programa de evaluación de las habilidades lingüísticas, con ejemplos prácticos y temas de debate que pueden surgir en cada etapa, y considera la evaluación de las habilidades de expresión oral como una parte integral del programa de aprendizaje de cualquier idioma. Incluye una descripción de diferentes tipos de tests y su idoneidad según los objetivos y recursos, cincuenta técnicas comentadas de evaluación oral, integra el sistema de puntuación en el proceso de diseño de tests y proporciona sugerencias para supervisarlos y mejorarlos una vez que se están utilizando.

Confucius, constructivism and the impact of continuing professional development on teachers of English in China

In this article we explore issues around the sustainability and appropriateness of professional development for secondary teachers of English in China offered by overseas providers from the perspective of teachers who completed courses at the University of Reading between 2003 and 2010. We start by offering an overview of English teaching in China. We then describe the collection and analysis of interviews and focus groups discussions involving former participants, their teaching colleagues and senior management, as well as classroom observation. Evidence is presented for changes in teachers’ philosophies of education directly attributable to participation in the courses; for improved teacher competencies (linguistic, cultural and pedagogical) in the classroom; and for the ways in which returnees are undertaking new roles and responsibilities which exploit their new understandings. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for both providers and sponsors of CPD for English language teachers. We conclude that the recognition of English as an essential element in the modernisation of China, together with the growing awareness of the weaknesses of traditional approaches to the teaching of the language, has opened up new spaces for dialogue concerning pedagogy and professional practice. It is clearly important, however, that new approaches to the teaching of English are presented in a way which allows teachers to decide which elements should be incorporated into their teaching and how.

Language capital and development: the case of African language publishing for children in South Africa

In recognizing 11 official languages, the 1996 South African Constitution provides a context for the management of diversity with important implications for the redistribution of wealth and power. The development and implementation of the language-in-education policies which might be expected to flow from the Constitution, however, have been slow and ineffective. One of the casualties of government procrastination has been African language publishing. In the absence of well-resourced bilingual education, most learners continue to be taught through the medium of English as a second language. Teachers are reluctant to use more innovative pedagogies without the support of adequate African language materials and publishers are cautious about producing such materials. Nonetheless, activity in this sector offers many opportunities for African language speakers. This paper explores the challenges and constraints for African language publishing for children and argues that market forces and language policy need to work in mutually reinforcing ways. Further progress is necessarily dependent on the political will to implement language-in-education policies that promote additive bilingualism and, in the process, guarantee sales for risk-averse publishers.

Teacher stance as reflected in feedback on student writing: An empirical study of secondary school teachers in five countries

This study examines the feedback practices of 110 EFL teachers from five different countries (Cyprus, France, Korea, Spain, and Thailand), working in secondary school contexts. All provided feedback on the same student essay. The coding scheme developed to analyse the feedback operates on two axes: the stance the teachers assumed when providing feedback, and the focus of their feedback. Most teachers reacted as language teachers, rather than as readers of communication. The teachers overwhelmingly focused on grammar in their feedback and assumed what we called a Provider role, providing the correct forms for the student. A second role, Initiator, was also present, in which teachers indicate errors or issues to the learner but expect the learner to pick this up and work on it. This role was associated with a more even spread of feedback focus, where teachers also provided feedback on other areas, such as lexis, style and discourse.

Teacher beliefs about listening in a foreign language

This study investigated, through a questionnaire, the stated beliefs and stated practices of 115 foreign language teachers in England regarding listening pedagogy: whether such beliefs and practices reflect the literature on listening, whether beliefs and stated practices converged, and what factors might underpin them. Responses indicated a mismatch between teachers’ stated belief in the importance of teaching learners how to listen more effectively, and the lack of evidence in their stated practice of such teaching, with a focus instead on task completion. Findings are discussed against the accountability agenda of the study’s context, and its implications for teacher development highlighted.

Competing priorities: Singapore teachers’ perspectives on critical literacy

This paper explores a group of Singaporean English language teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about critical literacy as well as their perspectives on how best to teach literacy and critical literacy in Singapore schools. A face-to-face survey was conducted among 58 English language teachers by using open-ended questions. The survey covered various topics related to literacy instruction including text decoding, meaning construction, and critical analysis of texts. The participating teachers believed strongly that reading and writing are transactional and interactional practices. However, they were less certain in their beliefs about teaching critical literacy including the critical, analytical and evaluative aspects of text reading. Some teachers saw a conflict between using time on teaching critical literacy and preparing students to pass their exams. As critical literacy is not a requirement at exams, they found it difficult to justify using time teaching it. The results suggest that the teachers’ belief systems are strongly influenced by the broad macrostructure of the educational system in Singapore and their own educational experiences.

Reading aloud in high schools: students and teachers across the curriculum

Reading aloud is apparently an indispensible part of teaching. Nevertheless, little is known about reading aloud across the curriculum by students and teachers in high schools. Nor do we understand teachers’ attitudes towards issues such as error correction, rehearsal time, and selecting students to read. A survey of 360 teachers in England shows that, although they have little training in reading aloud, they are extremely confident. Reading aloud by students and teachers is strongly related, and serves to further understanding rather than administrative purposes or pupils’ enjoyment. Unexpectedly, Modern Language teachers express views that set them apart from other subjects.

Evidence from neurolinguistic methodologies: can it actually inform linguistic/ language acquisition theories and translate to evidence-based applications?

This special issue is a testament to the recent burgeoning interest by theoretical linguists, language acquisitionists and teaching practitioners in the neuroscience of language. It offers a highly valuable, state-of-the-art overview of the neurophysiological methods that are currently being applied to questions in the field of second language (L2) acquisition, teaching and processing. Research in the area of neurolinguistics has developed dramatically in the past twenty years, providing a wealth of exciting findings, many of which are discussed in the papers in this volume. The goal of this commentary is twofold. The first is to critically assess the current state of neurolinguistic data from the point of view of language acquisition and processing—informed by the papers that comprise this special issue and the literature as a whole—pondering how the neuroscience of language/processing might inform us with respect to linguistic and language acquisition theories. The second goal is to offer some links from implications of exploring the first goal towards informing language teachers and the creation of linguistically and neurolinguistically-informed evidence-based pedagogies for non-native language teaching.

Pedagogical methods in web-based language teaching-mapping

The purpose of this presentation is to introduce the research project progress in “the mapping of pedagogical methods in web-based language teaching" by Högskolan Dalarna (Dalarna University). This project will identify the differences in pedagogical methods that are used for online language classes. The pedagogical method defined in this project is what the teachers do to ensure students attain the learning outcomes, for example, planning, designing courses, leading students, knowing students' abilities, implementing activities, etc. So far the members of this project have analyzed the course plans (in the language department at Dalarna University) and categorized the learning outcomes. A questionnaire was constructed based on the learning outcomes and then either sent out remotely to teachers or completed face to face through interviews. The answers provided to the questionnaires enabled the project to identify many differences in how language teachers interact with their students but also, the way of giving feedback, motivating and helping students, types of class activities and materials used. This presentation introduces the progress of the project and identifies the challenges at the language department at Dalarna University. Finally, the advantages and problems of online language proficiency courses will be discussed and suggestions made for future improvement.

Machine Translation and the Disruption of Foreign Language Learning Activities

This study examines the question of how language teachers in a highly technologyfriendly university environment view machine translation and the implications that this has for the personal learning environments of students. It brings an activity-theory perspective to the question, examining the ways that the introduction of new tools can disrupt the relationship between different elements in an activity system. This perspective opens up for an investigation of the ways that new tools have the potential to fundamentally alter traditional learning activities. In questionnaires and group discussions, respondents showed general agreement that although use of machine translation by students could be considered cheating, students are bound to use it anyway, and suggested that teachers focus on the kinds of skills students would need when using machine translation and design assignments and exams to practice and assess these skills. The results of the empirical study are used to reflect upon questions of what the roles of teachers and students are in a context where many of the skills that a person needs to be able to interact in a foreign language increasingly can be outsourced to laptops and smartphones.