Language Learning Histories Research Articles

A Methodological Reflection on the Process of Narrative Analysis: Alienation and Identity in the Life Histories of English Language Teachers

beliefs on grammar teaching. RELC Journal, 30, 1-17. Kalaja, P., Menezes, V., & Barcelos, A. M. F. (2008). Narratives of learning and teaching EFL. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan. Kanno, Y. (2003). Negotiating bilingual and bicultural identities: Japanese returnees betwixt two worlds. Mahwah, NT: Lawrence Erlbaum. Lam, W. S. E. (2006). Re-envisioning language, literacy, and the immigrant subject in new mediascapes. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 1 , 171-195. Levy, M. (2009). Technologies in use for second language learning. The Modern Language Journal, 93, 769-782. Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research: Reading analysis and interpretation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Madge, C., Meek, J., Wellens, J., 8c Hooley, T. (2009). Facebook, social integration and informal learning at university: It is more for socializing and talking to friends about work than for actually doing work. Learning ' Media and Technology, 34, 141-155. Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender , ethnicity and educational change. London, England: Longman. Nunan, D., 8c Choi, J. (Eds.). (2010). Language and culture: Reflective narratives and the emergence of identity. New York, NY: Routledge. Oxford, R. L. (1996). When emotion meets metacognition in language learning histories. International Journal of Educational Research, 23, 581-594. Pavlenko, A. (2007). Autobiographic narratives as data in applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics, 28, 163-188. Riessman, C. K. (2008) . Narrative methods for the Human Sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Selwyn, N. (2009) . The digital native myth and reality. Perspectives, 61, 364-379. Szesztay, M. (2004). Teachers' ways of knowing. ELT Journal, 58, 129-136. Thorne, S. L. (2008). Transcultural communication in open internet environments and massively multiplayer online games. In S. Magnan (Ed.), Mediating discourse online (pp. 305-327). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins. Xu, S., 8c Connelly, F. M. (2009). Narrative inquiry for teacher education and development: Focus on English as a foreign language in China. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 219-227.

Online Language Learning Histories Exchange: Hong Kong and German Perspectives

Online Language Learning Histories Exchange: Hong Kong and German Perspectives

Investigating the relationship between belief and action in self-directed language learning

Abstract Employing the principles of a contextual approach to learner belief research and applying it to a self-directed learning context at a Japanese university, this longitudinal study investigates the complex interplay between beliefs and actions and its contribution to the development of language learning skills. Through the triangulation of various qualitative data sources, including language learning histories and reflective accounts of students’ self-directed learning actions, with detailed documentation of these actions, we demonstrate the differing belief trajectories of two learners, and the role interaction played in the emergence, appropriation and refinement of their beliefs. In illuminating the important role that action plays in this belief development, this paper further problematises the validity of research which depends primarily on learner belief statements and suggests that future research on beliefs would benefit from in-depth examination of behaviour. It is argued that only through centralising the role of action that researchers will be able to gain a more precise understanding of the true nature of a learner’s beliefs.

Border talk: narratives of Spanish language encounters in the United States

US foreign language education is often presented as an opportunity to foster intercultural communication; yet, curricula frequently build borders between an English-speaking ‘we’ and a non-English-speaking ‘they’. Little is known, however, about how language students make sense of their changing linguistic identities as they encounter users of the language of instruction outside the classroom. This paper examines the stories those enrolled in university-level Spanish courses tell about their language learning histories and experiences. It considers how these stories construct particular, and frequently asymmetrical, social and linguistic borders.

The beliefs of two expert EFL learners

Much of the research into ‘expert’ language learners has focused largely on their learning strategies or styles. Less attention has been paid to other expert learner characteristics, such as learner beliefs. However, the importance of learners' beliefs in guiding their behaviours and how they interpret their experiences is widely recognised. This article examines the situated belief systems of two expert, tertiary-level EFL learners. Qualitative data were generated with the students in a set of two extended interviews and were analysed employing a grounded theory approach. Based on the findings, the article attempts to indicate some of the complexity and interrelatedness of learners’ beliefs, as well as the close connection between a learner's beliefs and their personal language learning history. It concludes by raising questions about understandings of beliefs which categorise them as being fundamentally ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. It suggests that it may be more appropriate for researchers and educators to consider learner beliefs in terms of their appropriacy for a particular individual in their unique sociocultural, educational and personal contexts.

Cultural Fantasy Narratives and Heritage Language Learning: A Case Study of Adult Heritage Learners of Spanish

This study investigates the case of 7 female heritage learners of Spanish who have chosen, as adults, to enroll in online Spanish language instruction at the postsecondary level. Drawing on symbolic convergence theory, it identifies a cultural fantasy metanarrative that participants collectively constructed as they made sense of their language learning histories and desires. Analysis of this metanarrative revealed several subthemes on which participants drew to understand their multilingual identities, their borderland communities, and their language learning perceptions, actions, and responses. It is argued that the heritage learners in this study appropriated and reproduced a metanarrative in which the acquisition of “proper Spanish” (as opposed to a more local variety) was consonant with the attainment of an idealized identity for which they all strived. This metanarrative shaped both the way in which they approached and experienced the learning of Spanish in these online settings. As such, recommendations are provided for designing more responsive and responsible heritage language pedagogies, particularly in computer‐mediated environments.There is something fundamentally different about learning a language, compared to learning another skill or gaining other knowledge, namely, that language and self are so closely bound, if not identical, that an attack on one is an attack on the other. (Cohen & Norst, 1989, p. 61)

The Revised Hierarchical Model: A critical review and assessment

Brysbaert and Duyck (2009) suggest that it is time to abandon the Revised Hierarchical Model (Kroll and Stewart, 1994) in favor of connectionist models such as BIA+ (Dijkstra and Van Heuven, 2002) that more accurately account for the recent evidence on nonselective access in bilingual word recognition. In this brief response, we first review the history of the Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM), consider the set of issues that it was proposed to address, and then evaluate the evidence that supports and fails to support the initial claims of the model. Although 15 years of new research findings require a number of revisions to the RHM, we argue that the central issues to which the model was addressed, the way in which new lexical forms are mapped to meaning and the consequence of language learning history for lexical processing, cannot be accounted for solely within models of word recognition.

The status of metalinguistic knowledge in instructed adult L2 learning

This study investigated second language metalinguistic knowledge, or explicit knowledge about the second language, in English-speaking university-level learners of German and Spanish. The status of metalinguistic knowledge in relation to the individual difference variables of language-learning aptitude, working memory for language, and participants' language-learning history was identified. Language-learning experience in formal settings was found to be the strongest predictor for levels of metalinguistic knowledge attained by the participants. Moreover, it was found that despite a significant relationship with language-learning aptitude, metalinguistic knowledge is separable and distinct from both aptitude and working memory. In conclusion, suggestions for further research are put forward.

A reality check on students' preparedness for 21st century CALL activities

The information age requires students to develop and hone a different set of literacies in order to cope with information overload; to efficiently use technology to access, adapt and create knowledge; and to benefit from the networked society (Warschauer, 2003). Moreover, there is a growing trend today toward using new types of web applications (e.g., wikis and blogs) in language classrooms to provide students with meaningful language learning experiences. However, a 25 year history of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) research has provided little information regarding students' computer access and usage patterns, and the state of their computer literacy (Barrette, 2001; Winke & Goertler, 2008). This study investigated 389 university students who were learning English as a foreign language in relation to their computer ownership, usage patterns, and levels of perceived Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills. The study also explored how students perceived the usefulness of ICT in language learning and their interest in integrating ICT into the language classrooms. Findings from the questionnaire suggested that substantial training should be made available to students and that these aspects should be considered when designing and implementing CALL courses.

Focus on the Student Teacher: The European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL) as a Tool to Develop Teacher Autonomy

This article discusses the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL), which was recently developed by an international project group at the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) in Graz, Austria. It describes the history, aims and structural components of the portfolio emphasising the need for a reflective tool in initial language teacher education. In view of the rising importance of the concept of learner autonomy in the recent history of language learning and teaching, an instrument which fosters reflection on the part of the student teacher entering his or her teacher education programme seems to be indispensable. Consisting mainly of more than 190 can-do descriptors relating to the core didactic competences a teacher should strive to attain, the EPOSTL also appears to provide a valuable tool for self-assessment. Under the close guidance of the teacher educator the descriptors will form springboards for discussions and assist the student teacher to become aware of his or her beliefs about and attitudes towards teaching. Seeing a high value in the use of the EPOSTL for professional development, the authors still voice some criticism such as the lack of a system of reference or the sole focus on didactic competences.

Narrative and Identity in the “Language Learning Project”

This article reports on a study that analysed life history accounts of language learning. The key aim of the study was to understand how the experience of language learning was discursively constructed through recourse to particular cultural worlds and narrative strategies. The study contributes to the growing field of research using language learning histories to extend our understanding of the learner as a social actor who derives and acts upon different identity positions that are institutionally and culturally situated but that are also dynamic and individually interpreted. Using the ethnographic concept of “figured worlds” (Holland, Lachiotte, Jr., Skinner, & Cain, 1998), we report here how participants—British adults who have learned a foreign language to a high level of proficiency—structure the “language learning project” through discursive representations of social structures meshed with personalised narratives of individual experience. By combining theoretical and methodological frames for narrative inquiry with an ethnographic perspective, we were able to identify a number of discursive worlds, both material and symbolic, that are figured into the autobiographical accounts. In the concluding discussion, we offer some possible directions for extending this type of investigation and also suggest some practical ways in which our analysis might enrich the teaching and learning of foreign languages.

Emoções e pesquisa narrativa: transformando experiências de aprendizagem

Este artigo explora a influência de uma pesquisa narrativa nas experiências de aprendizagem de estudantes de Letras/Inglês. Ao refletir sobre suas histórias de aprendizagem, eles deram voz e sentido às suas experiências, sentindo-se valorizados. Suas histórias de aprendizagem expõem a relevância das emoções no desenvolvimento de habilidades orais, na reflexão e na responsabilidade por sua trajetória profissional. Três participantes transformaram suas experiências de aprendizagem de inglês ao refletir sobre as emoções que limitam seu desempenho oral e ao projetar imagens que representassem o desejo de se tornarem falantes fluentes. Porém, transformar os desejos em ações pode envolver investimentos que extrapolam a tomada de consciência na reflexão pela pesquisa.

Speaker-independent factors affecting the perception of foreign accent in a second language

Previous research on foreign accent perception has largely focused on speaker-dependent factors such as age of learning and length of residence. Factors that are independent of a speaker's language learning history have also been shown to affect perception of second language speech. The present study examined the effects of two such factors--listening context and lexical frequency--on the perception of foreign-accented speech. Listeners rated foreign accent in two listening contexts: auditory-only, where listeners only heard the target stimuli, and auditory + orthography, where listeners were presented with both an auditory signal and an orthographic display of the target word. Results revealed that higher frequency words were consistently rated as less accented than lower frequency words. The effect of the listening context emerged in two interactions: the auditory + orthography context reduced the effects of lexical frequency, but increased the perceived differences between native and non-native speakers. Acoustic measurements revealed some production differences for words of different levels of lexical frequency, though these differences could not account for all of the observed interactions from the perceptual experiment. These results suggest that factors independent of the speakers' actual speech articulations can influence the perception of degree of foreign accent.

Language, Ideology and Power: Language-Learning Among the Muslims of Pakistan and North India (review)

Reviewed by: Language, ideology and power: Language-learning among the Muslims of Pakistan and North India by Tariq Rahman Mohammed Sawaie Language, ideology and power: Language-learning among the Muslims of Pakistan and North India. By Tariq Rahman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp. xix, 689. ISBN 0195796446. $35 (Hb). This book is a lengthy study of language learning among the Muslims of Pakistan and North India. It consists of sixteen chapters, in addition to a preface, fourteen appendices, a comprehensive bibliography, and an index. In Ch. 1, the introduction, Rahman provides a detailed description of the school system in Pakistan, including both schools supported by the state and others established and funded by religious institutions or groups. Ch. 2 establishes the theoretical framework for the study, in which R provides definitions of concepts such as power, ideology, worldview, and language acquisition. Each chapter from 3 to 13 is devoted to an examination of the history of the teaching of individual languages such as Arabic, Persian, English, Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto, Punjabi, Balochi, and other, minor languages, in addition to their present status in the school system. Ch. 14 explores the teaching of foreign languages that were not included in the Pakistani school system in the past such as French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Turkish, and Hindi. Ch. 15 examines, from a theoretical perspective, language texts and how they shape learners’ worldviews. And, finally, Ch. 16 provides a conclusion to the study and makes recommendations, for example, that English should be taught to all children in Pakistan in order for them to gain access to a liberal democratic worldview and for them to acquire international mobility. Furthermore, R identifies problems facing the teaching of English, important among which is the problem of finding competent teachers. While a major part of the book is a historical study of teaching and learning languages in designated geographical areas, the main thematic thread throughout is the link between power and language. Language learning, R maintains, is linked to employment opportunities and social prestige (22). Native Pakistani languages, for example, are often perceived by many to be not particularly conducive to employment for political and educational reasons. What makes R’s study invaluable is that it sheds light on the status of language teaching and learning in multilingual communities in Pakistan and North India, with special focus on a community defined by its religious affiliation to the exclusion of other communities. R’s study may be an impetus for further research by others to complete the task begun by him. It would be not only interesting but also significant, for comparative reasons, to explore the history and current status of language teaching and learning among other religious groups in Pakistan and North India. Such insights into complex linguistic communities are of value to linguists in general, as well as language planners and educational policy-makers and politicians, among many others. This book is engaging, written in clear, lucid prose. Occasionally, however, some expressions are colored by R’s Pakistani English (54, 1.3). One grammatical error went unnoticed (12). One author’s name, Khleif, was spelled differently (51, 59, and 651); the order of authors in the bibliography was misplaced (Mitre was cited before Minault; 654). Despite these minor points, R has written a well-researched book and has provided a valuable source for anyone interested in the linguistic situation in Pakistan and North India, or in the study of multilingual communities in general. Mohammed Sawaie University of Virginia Copyright © 2004 Linguistic Society of America

English Immersion in Paraguay: Individual and Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Learning and Use

This investigation of English immersion learners explored processes of learning English, patterns of language use, and levels of comprehensibility among 34 predominantly Spanish-speaking 12th graders at the American School of Asuncion in Asuncion, Paraguay. The analysis of data from language learning histories, group interviews, perceived comprehensibility ratings, and questionnaires about language use led to the identification of linguistic dimensions affecting comprehensibility and of individual and sociocultural dimensions related to language learning and use. When judging comprehensibility, the native-speaker raters were influenced mainly by prosodic elements and overall fluency. Higher comprehensibility corresponded to girls as well as to students with some schooling in English language contexts, aspects of integrative motivation and more frequent L2 use. Findings were congruent with studies in immersion education, second language acquisition, sociolinguistics and social psychology.

THE LANGUAGE CONTACT PROFILE

Efforts to gather data of various sorts—demographics, language-learning history, contact with native speakers, use of the language in the field—as they relate to participants in SLA research studies are inherent to understanding more about language acquisition and use. Scholars frequently develop questionnaires of their own, which are rarely shared widely in the profession. Consequently, much time and effort is invested in reinventing the process of gathering the types of data that are commonly needed. This research was funded in part by a grant to Barbara F. Freed from the Council for International Educational Exchange (New York), in part by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to Norman Segalowitz, and in part by a grant from the Dean's Office, Faculty of Arts and Science, at Concordia University to Segalowitz.

Exploring Learners' CALL Experiences: A Reflection on Method

While there has been discussion in the literature concerning the need to identify research methods appropriate to the investigation of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), what appears to be missing is an examination of the effectiveness of particular methods in specific circumstances. This article reflects on a configuration of methods—personal language learning histories, journals, video observation, interviews, and pre/post-language proficiency tests—used to explore the experiences of 23 French second-language learners as they worked independently with an interactive video program. While any one of these methods did not necessarily yield a lot of information, configured as a network they produced data which provided not only a picture of the learners' experiences from their point of view but the kind of information deemed crucial to further research and development in the field. In this case, the data suggested alternate theoretical directions, offere d insights into the learners' metacognition, and elucidated their relationship to the methods and materials employed by one specific piece of interactive courseware.

Language Learning and the Applied Linguistics: A Historical Sketch

This article reviews the history of applied linguistics together with the history of the journal Language Learning, indicating the journal's particular place in that larger history and honoring its 50th anniversary. I adopt a chronological perspective, starting from antiquity but focusing on developments in Europe and North America in the later 19th and 20th centuries. I offer evidence that from the late 1940s onward Language Learning played a distinctive role in the popularization and widespread adoption of the term applied linguistics as well as the systematic, theoretical, and research orientation associated with it.

On Becoming a Language Teacher: Insights from Diary Studies

This study presents the results of a secondary analysis of 26 diary studies by novice ESL teachers. All of the U.S. teachers were enrolled in a master's degree program in TESOL and had less than 6 months of prior teaching experience. Each participant wrote (a) a personal language learning history, (b) diary entries during a 10-week teaching semester, and (c) an analysis of their diaries. The data were examined to identify common themes shared among the novice teachers. General themes that emerged from this secondary analysis were novice teachers' early preoccupations with their own teaching behavior, transfer and rejection of teaching skills used in the novice teacher's own L2 learning, unexpected discoveries about effective teaching, and continued teaching frustrations. These results offer some insight into the most pressing needs of novice teachers. They are discussed in relation to the design of introductory practicums.

English in foreign langauge education policy in Japan: Toward the twenty‐first century

ABSTRACT: In this paper, we will try to show how foreign language education in Japan toward, and in, the twenty‐first century may be affected by the changing social, economic and political streams of thought, particularly by the educational policies of the Ministry of Education. In order to get a broader perspective, we will present a profile of Japan's natural and socio‐economic conditions, a brief history of foreign language and culture learning by the Japanese, and the Japanese government's foreign language education policies since the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Such background knowledge may contribute to understanding the plausible raison d'être of changing foreign language teaching in Japan.