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.

What Culture? : Cultural representations in English as a foreign language textbooks

Teaching the cultural aspect of foreign language education is a complex and sometimes difficult task, especially since English has become an international language used in different settings and contexts throughout the world. Building on the idea that the spread of the English language and its international status in the world has made English an important school subject to develop students’ cross-cultural and intercultural awareness, this paper has studied what research reveals about the influence this has had on cultural representations in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks. Findings from a systematic literature review that analyzed four different international studies on the topic are presented. The study showed that EFL textbooks often present stereotypical and overgeneralized representations of culture and that the cultural aspect of EFL education is not adequately addressed since focus tends to lean towards language proficiency. Results also indicated that though steps are made to include cultural representations from different international contexts, the target culture of countries where English is the first language remains dominant in EFL textbooks. The findings are discussed in correlation with the Swedish national curriculum and syllabus.

Developmental language disorders and adolescent risk: a public-health advocacy role for speech pathologists?

Within the multi-disciplinary team concerned with child and adolescent development, speech pathologists are uniquely positioned to understand the nature and overall developmental significance of language acquisition in childhood and adolescence. Other disciplines contribute valuable insights about psychosocial development during the childhood and adolescent years. The field of developmental psychology, for example provides a large and convincing body of evidence about the role of academic success as a protective factor against a range of psychosocial harms, in particular substance misuse, truancy, early school leaving, and juvenile offending. In this paper, we argue that juvenile offending embodies the notion of "adolescent risk", but in Australia in particular, has been under-investigated with respect to possible associations with developmental language disorders and subsequent academic failure. We present findings pertaining to a sample of 30 male juvenile offenders completing community based orders. Performance on a range of oral language processing and production skills was poorer than that of a demographically similar comparison group. Our results confirm the need to conceptualize language within a broader risk and protective framework. We therefore emphasize the public health importance of early language competence, by virtue of the psychosocial protection it confers on young people with respect to the development of prosocial skills, transition to literacy and overall academic achievement. We argue that speech pathologists are best positioned to advocate at a policy level about the broader public health importance of oral language competence.

Cultural racism, language prejudice and discrimination in hospital contexts : an Australian study

This article explores the idea that racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare may be expressive of unacknowledged practices of cultural racism. In conducting this exploration, the researchers identify, describe and discuss the practice of language prejudice and discrimination by health service providers, discovered serendipitously in the context of a broader study exploring cultural safety and cultural competency in an Australian healthcare context. The original study involved individual and focus groups interviews with 145 participants recruited from over 17 different organisational and domestic home sites. Participants included health service managers, ethnic liaison officers, qualified health interpreters, cultural trainers/educators, ethnic welfare organisation staff, registered nurses, allied health professionals, and healthcare consumers. Participants self-identified as being from over 27 different ethnocultural and language backgrounds.

Analysis of the data revealed that English language proficiency, like skin colour, was used as a social marker to classify, categorise, and negatively evaluate people of non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) in the contexts studied. Negative evaluations, in turn, were used to justify the exclusion of NESB people from healthcare relationships and resources. Further data analysis revealed that underpinning the negative attitudes and behaviours in hospital domains concerning people who spoke accented English or who did not speak English proficiently were a dislike of difference, fear of difference, intolerance of difference, fear of competition for scarce healthcare resources, repressed hostility toward difference, and ignorance.

Highlighting the implications of language prejudice for the safety and quality care of NESB people, the researchers call for further internationally comparative research and debate on the subject.

Proficiency and collaborative learning

This study reports on the effect of different levels of proficiency on the students' achievements in collaborative learning instruction among 30 Persian-speaking EFL college students. Having been divided into dyads with different levels of proficiency, these subjects participated in nine sessions of collaborative instruction based on the form focused collaborative text-editing task. The results of this study are obtained through the analyses of the proficiency gains in formal aspects of language in text-editing pre and post-tests and text-reconstruction post-test. The study highlights the significant effect of this type of instruction on more proficient students. Reasons provided in this study are the language analytic ability of the students, learning styles and strategies, and motivation. The findings of this study are helpful to teachers of the classes with heterogeneous language proficiency.

Global English corner : using Elluminate to enhance international students' English language skills

Students at Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne, Australia, undertake their study in an English language context and they have a range of support options to assist with English language development. VU has partner universities in China (Sichuan University, Henan University and Liaoning University). VU’s programs in China often have fewer language support options than programs in Melbourne. The Australian Government’s Transnational Quality Strategy requires that educational programs on- and offshore provide students with a comparable learning experience. Given the relative lack of English speaking opportunities available to VU’s students in China, the university is exploring how technologies might achieve a greater comparability of the student experience. This paper reports on a pilot program that uses Elluminate to conduct English conversations between students in China and Australia. The perceived lack of English competence of international students has been an ongoing issue in Australian higher education while the ‘English corner’ is ‘a characteristically Chinese approach to informal practice’ (Jin & Cortazzi, 2002) that helps students learning English in a foreign context to develop their English language proficiency. How might the idea of ‘English corner’ be used with educational technologies to encourage international students to practise and develop their English? This paper discusses a pilot program at VU that combines the idea of the English Corner together with the online conferencing tool Elluminate and a blog developed in WordPress, to engage Chinese students offshore in English language conversations. Through Elluminate and the Global English Corner blog, a pair of student peers in Melbourne conducts semi-structured conversations with groups of students offshore. In Elluminate, students can both hear and see each other – and they can simultaneously txt chat, share documents, images and websites and use the collaborative whiteboard function of Elluminate – to have dynamic conversations in real time. Preliminary findings of this pilot that uses technology to emphasise the societal aspects of learning – including language learning – will be presented. The discussion will consider how a more widespread English Corner program could aid the transition of international students in Australia, encourage the interaction of local students and international students, increase opportunities for international students to practise English and achieve a greater comparability of language support options on- and offshore.

Young learners : teachers' questions and prompts as opportunities for children's language development

One highly regarded context for language learning is book reading, as teachers engage children in discussions around texts read. However, there is considerable variation in teachers’ patterns of talk that mediate this learning with preschool children’s oral language development dependent on the opportunities for engagement in language use provided by teachers. To explore the affordances of talk interactions within book reading a systematic analysis of teachers’ questions and children’s responses was undertaken. Results of this analysis show that the highest proportion of questions asked by this group of 18 preschool teachers were closed questions with a small proportion of open teaching questions asked. However, while open questions provided the most substantial opportunities for children’s extended talk, the range of questions asked provided opportunities for preschool teachers to extend children’s responses, support children’s understanding of the text, develop vocabulary and world knowledge, and to model more complex language structures.

Perfil da fluência em tarefa de narrativa oral em indivíduos com Síndrome de Down

Pós-graduação em Fonoaudiologia - FFC

O ensino de produção oral nos cursos de graduação em letras (inglês) de Belém-PA: uma abordagem por gêneros do discurso

Esta dissertação tem por objetivo investigar o ensino de produção oral de língua inglesa nos cursos de graduação em Letras de Belém-PA sob a perspectiva dos gêneros do discurso (Bakhtin, 1992; Bazerman, 2005). Para esse fim, foram realizadas observações de aula em turmas de duas instituições de ensino superior de Belém-Pará e foram coletados os livros didáticos utilizados nestas. Eles foram analisados focalizando-se as atividades de produção oral, verificando se elas incorporam, explícita ou implicitamente, a noção de gênero do discurso em sua formulação e o tratamento dado a linguagem oral presente nos mesmos a fim de comparar as propostas metodológicas desses manuais e o que efetivamente é realizado em sala de aula. Também foram aplicados questionários a professores e alunos das turmas observadas. A análise dos dados revela que a presença de uma concepção de língua como gênero ainda é incipiente na elaboração de atividades de oral e que há carência de uma variedade de gêneros orais como objeto de estudo durante a graduação, já que praticamente o único estudado é o diálogo didático.

Avaliação: meio para intervenção pedagógica na formação do professor de língua estrangeira e (re)construção da sala de aula

Pós-graduação em Estudos Linguísticos - IBILCE

A tradição oral no ensino de línguas indígenas: uma proposta para o povo Parkatêjê

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo principal “apresentar uma proposta para o ensino da língua parkatêjê apoiada na tradição oral do povo de mesma denominação, com vistas a sua implantação na Escola Indígena Pẽmptykre Parkatêjê”, da aldeia Parkatêjê, localizada na Terra Indígena Mãe Maria, à altura do quilômetro 30 da rodovia BR 222, no município Bom Jesus do Tocantins. Com base em Severino (2007), caracteriza-se como uma pesquisa etnográfica, por visar compreender a cotidianidade da aludida escola, no que se refere ao ensino e aprendizagem da língua tradicional, e também como pesquisa bibliográfica, tendo em vista a natureza das fontes utilizadas para sua tessitura. A pesquisa está vinculada à Linguística Aplicada, uma área da INdisciplina ou transdisciplinar, segundo Moita Lopes (2006), pautada na democracia cognitiva por uma educação emancipadora, conforme Petraglia (2013). O texto está estruturado em quatro partes, além da introdução e das considerações finais. A primeira parte apresenta considerações gerais sobre os Parkatêjê. A segunda parte trata de uma abordagem histórica acerca do desenvolvimento da linguística indígena no contexto educacional brasileiro, com base nos acontecimentos observados desde o ano de 1540 até os dias atuais. A terceira parte reúne algumas características de sociedades reguladas pela tradição oral, ou principalmente por meio dessa tradição, e, a partir de uma definição de cultura, apresenta reflexões sobre cultura oral e cultura escrita. A quarta parte trata do histórico da educação formal na aldeia parkatêjê e aborda informações referentes ao protagonismo do povo de mesma denominação no momento contemporâneo da mencionada escola. Ainda nesta última parte, a aludida proposta de ensino, que se intitula “A tradição oral no ensino da língua parkatêjê”, é apresentada, com o apoio de Queiroz e Pereira (2013), Belintane (2007; 2008), Calvet (2011) e de outros estudos levados a efeito por autores favoráveis à pujança da oralidade no ensino de língua. A pesquisa destaca os velhos da aldeia, índios de primeira geração, como atores importantes no processo de ensino e aprendizagem da língua tradicional na educação formal.

Desenvolvimento da linguagem oral em crianças afastadas da família de origem

For a complete development of oral language it's necessary the development of genetic roots of thought and utterance postulates by Vygotsky, yet the meditation of adult and the influence social and cultural that is around the child. In cases of children moved away from their birth family by judicial ways because of neglect there, is a new modality of refuge in Brazil, that is the home refuge, which is the object of our research. The present study shows an investigation about the development of speech in a child that was moved away from his birth family and forwarded to Foster Family to comprehend the contributions and activities that help in child development. The research was performed through an approach of qualitative interpretation of bibliographic type and area type. The data analysis allowed us conclude the new social and cultural way that the watched child was inserted helps in his development in a significant way enabling a qualitative jump in speech and psychic functions phase

Desenvolvimento da linguagem oral em crianças afastadas da família de origem

For a complete development of oral language it's necessary the development of genetic roots of thought and utterance postulates by Vygotsky, yet the meditation of adult and the influence social and cultural that is around the child. In cases of children moved away from their birth family by judicial ways because of neglect there, is a new modality of refuge in Brazil, that is the home refuge, which is the object of our research. The present study shows an investigation about the development of speech in a child that was moved away from his birth family and forwarded to Foster Family to comprehend the contributions and activities that help in child development. The research was performed through an approach of qualitative interpretation of bibliographic type and area type. The data analysis allowed us conclude the new social and cultural way that the watched child was inserted helps in his development in a significant way enabling a qualitative jump in speech and psychic functions phase

Plasticity in the adult language system: a longitudinal electrophysiological study on second language learning

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to trace changes in brain activity related to progress in second language learning. Twelve English-speaking exchange students learning German in Switzerland were recruited. ERPs to visually presented single words from the subjects' native language (English), second language (German) and an unknown language (Romansh) were measured before (day 1) and after (day 2) 5 months of intense German language learning. When comparing ERPs to German words from day 1 and day 2, we found topographic differences between 396 and 540 ms. These differences could be interpreted as a latency shift indicating faster processing of German words on day 2. Source analysis indicated that the topographic differences were accounted for by shorter activation of left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) on day 2. In ERPs to English words, we found Global Field Power differences between 472 and 644 ms. This may due to memory traces related to English words being less easily activated on day 2. Alternatively, it might reflect the fact that--with German words becoming familiar on day 2--English words loose their oddball character and thus produce a weaker P300-like effect on day 2. In ERPs to Romansh words, no differences were observed. Our results reflect plasticity in the neuronal networks underlying second language acquisition. They indicate that with a higher level of second language proficiency, second language word processing is faster and requires shorter frontal activation. Thus, our results suggest that the reduced IFG activation found in previous fMRI studies might not reflect a generally lower activation but rather a shorter duration of activity.

Inter-acción : lenguaje oral y pedagogía teatral

Esta investigación aplicada, mantuvo la línea de trabajo que se viene sosteniendo desde el período 05/07 y pretendió profundizar el sesgo de la pedagogía teatral orientada a interaccionar con aprendizajes lingüísticos, fundamentalmente del discurso oral. Se trabajó con un grupo de muestra acotado, probando una secuencia pedagógico-didáctica que diera resultados que permitieran afirmar que el lenguaje Teatro posibilita, en la escuela, la investigación guiada de “los modos en los que el afuera interviene en la conformación del adentro" y facilita a los alumnos desarrollar su oralidad y gestualidad en el nivel interaccional, impactando positivamente en su desempeño académico y social.