Language Learning In Education Research Articles

The monolingual problem of computer-assisted language learning

AbstractThis paper sets out to discuss the monolingual problem within computer-assisted language learning (CALL) research and CALL product development, namely a lack of knowledge about how CALL products and projects can support learners in using all their linguistic resources to achieve language-learning- and language-using-related goals, and a lack of CALL products and projects that realize this potential, or that support specific plurilingual skill development. It uses an analysis of CALL-related papers to demonstrate how far CALL is impacted by a monolingual bias that it inherited from language learning pedagogy. An analysis of articles from four CALL journals across 10 years shows that although the wordsbilingualandmultilingualappear in these journals fairly regularly, terms such asplurilingual,third language,tertiary language,L3,translanguaging, andtranslingualare extremely rare. Also, only eight articles could be identified that use any of these eight keywords in their title. Trends across those papers are identified. In a discussion of existing CALL products and projects that incorporate more than one language, it is argued that while commercial products often include more than one language, this is frequently in a behaviorist or grammar-translation tradition, while innovative plurilingual products and projects tend to be non-commercial and often EU/EC-funded initiatives. The article argues that CALL research and product development can not only avoid this monolingual bias, but also actively contribute to our knowledge of how all linguistic resources can be used for language learning. It makes suggestions for relevant future research areas related to multilingual computer-assisted language learning (MCALL).

EFL TEACHERS� AND LEARNERS� PERSPECTIVES ON THE PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUCTED LANGUAGE LEARNING: CONFLICT OR CONSENSUS?

The developmental nature of second language acquisition research has resulted in various and at times seemingly contradictory theories, methods and approaches. In 2005, Rod Ellis published his Principles of Instructed Language Learning, which he considered to be a set of teaching generalisations that could stimulate debate and reflection among teachers in the post-methods era (Richards Rodgers, 2014). The purpose of this study was to investigate Elliss principles in terms of their perceived relevance and applicability in an adult EFL learning environment. In order to achieve this aim, a mixed methods research approach was utilised. Separate questionnaires were administered to seventy-one students and eight teachers employed in the English Language Department of a Training Institute in Doha, Qatar. Additionally, thirteen students participated in two single sex focus group sessions. The results revealed consensus between students and teachers regarding the importance they placed on some principles, but not others, particularly the contentious issue of meaning vs. form. Furthermore, while both groups emphasised the importance of interaction, many students nonetheless felt uneasy interacting in English with other Arabic speakers. A further key finding was that neither party clearly understood the concept of the learners built-in syllabus. The principal conclusion is that the best way to deal with the aforementioned anomalies involves experimentation with task-based approaches as these allow for a focus on meaning, opportunities for interaction, and a retrospective focus on form via corrective feedback, which takes into account the learners built-in syllabus.DOI: doi.org/10.24071/llt.2020.230105

PELATIHAN PENGGUNAAN SCAFFOLDING TALK DALAM PENGEMBANGAN INSTRUKSI PEMBELAJARAN BAHASA INGGRIS BAGI GURU PAUD INTI KOTA BENGKULU

This paper aims to discuss the training on the use of scaffolding talk in developing English language learning instruction for kindergarten teachers of Bengkulu City. The purpose of the training was to enhance the quality of the kindergarten teachers’ professional development.Followed by 20 kindergarten teachers of English, the training used the inductive participative training method was held in PAUD Intan Insani in Muara Bangkahulu of Bengkulu city on August 3, 2019. The training consisted of three phases: presenting the training materials, developing lesson plans, and practicing using the lesson plans in the classroom. This training was also the application of the books of Kiddos: An Integrated, Communicative and Character-based Material for Kindergarten Students, the outcome of the national research grant in 2005-2016. In this training, the teachers were trained to use the scaffolding talk in developing the instruction for learning English. The result show that the teachers are able to develop the lesson plans based on the chosen topics in the books but there is no video of the teaching practices in the classroom were submitted by the teachers yet. It could probably caused by many administrative tasks and activities they have to fulfil at schools. In addition, there is also the tendency among the teachers that they prefer a short training instead of the one which take three phases and long time to finish. Therefore, it is suggested to conduct a short training which takes one short time only and has not had many phases to be fulfilled .

Mobile pedagogy for english language teaching and learning: A case study on the english as second language learners

There have been remarkable changes in the educational field in the twenty-first century and the concept of teaching and learning has taken a new dimension. The old and traditional methods have been avoided by most of the teachers and they have been using the latest methods of teaching. This change is also observed in teaching English also. While teaching to the learners of English as a second language also, the teachers have been implementing all techniques and methods to make the learners understand the concept. In this regard, the teachers are welcoming modern technology in their classrooms. The teachers as well as the learners of English have been using mobile devices on order to make the learning a successful one in the classroom. Since learning through mobile devices creates more interest among the learners, the teachers have been encouraging the learners to use their mobile devices in the classroom. This paper mainly focuses on the mobile pedagogy for English language teaching and learning to teach the learners of English as a second language. It also

Using Jazz Chants to Increase Vocabulary Power among ESL Young Learners

The foundation of learning starts for children from pre-school and progresses to young learners in school. They come from various backgrounds with abilities to use home languages and mother tongue. However, their exposure to English Language is very limited due to the importance of this language is neglected as it is seen as impossible to master. Therefore, this paper investigates the effects of jazz chants approach to teach English Language to 30 pupils who are 10-year-old that have low proficiency level in a primary school located in a state in Malaysia. To improve teacher support and student involvement, it is crucial to have suitable strategies in educational contexts that would be able to develop a positive attitude among the pupils and improve their academic performance in English Language. The objective of this paper is to propose language learning strategies for low performance ESL pupils. It will highlight a direction which might improve the second language learning pedagogy in classrooms. Data was collected through pre-test and post-test, and satisfaction questionnaire which was given to the pupils (purposive sampling). The findings showed a marked increase in scores involving 15 students who achieved 100% scores. As a conclusion, they had motivating fun learning experience while they progressed in their learning activities.

L2 Motivational Self System, International Posture, and the Socioeconomic Factor in Efl at University Level: The Case of Chile

Abstract Motivation plays a critical role in L2 language learning and has proven to be a strong predictor of success in learning a foreign language (Biedroń & Pawlak, 2016). The Second Language Motivational Self System (L2MSS) is one of the most prominent theories developed by Dörnyei (2009), which has been studied in relation to different variables affecting language learning motivation. The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between L2MSS components, international posture, and socioeconomic status among university students. The participants of this study were 134 non-English major university students. The results suggest that the ideal L2 self, and the L2 learning experience are related to international posture insert a comma after posture whereas the L2 learning experience is a stronger predictor of students’ motivated behavior. Future research should investigate the development of future selves in instructed language learning contexts conducive to enhancing and increasing motivation to learn English.

Teaching acronyms to the military: A paper-based DDL approach

This research investigates the use of Data-driven learning (DDL) tasks in the teaching and learning of acronyms in a specialised corpus. Our target population is professional military staff (n=16). The researchers collected and analysed the Salvage and Rescue of Submarines Corpus (SAR) where the patterning of acronyms, neglected in English for Specific Purposes (ESP), plays a substantial role. Using a mixed-methods methodology, this research looked at the students’ interaction with DDL, as well as at the subsequent interviews with the students. Deductive and inductive paper-based DDL tasks with concordance lines of acronyms were used with two groups of students of different rank. Both groups found the tasks challenging and showed mixed reactions towards concordance lines. While there has been a much-needed emphasis on tools and corpus methods training in DDL, we suggest that conversations with adult, professional students about the nature of instructed language learning and language patterning are absolutely essential to promote a more active learner role in DDL approaches.

Pragmatic competence in the teaching-learning of foreign languages: an analysis of the linguistic production of FLE students in specific contexts

Este artículo este busca presentar un análisis de la producción lingüística de estudiantes de Francés como Lengua Extranjera (FLE), enfocado en cuestiones pragmáticas. El objetivo es identificar el nivel de competencia pragmática que poseen los alumnos de FLE, así como los recursos y las estrategias pragmalingüísticas que éstos emplean para poder establecer la comunicación en la lengua meta en un contexto determinado. A su vez, este estudio busca evaluar el nivel de competencia pragmática a través de grilles d’évaluation preexistentes, es decir, previamente elaboradas por especialistas en la enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas. Finalmente, se presentará una reflexión en cuanto a la evaluación de la competencia pragmática en la enseñanza-aprendizaje del francés, proponiendo una grille d’évaluation, basada en las propuestas de los especialistas, para hacer que la evaluación sea más formativa, más justa, más transparente y más auténtica.

Effects of the CLIL approach in oral production of english students in the second year of the united general baccalaureate at a high school in Cuenca, Ecuador.

The necessity to foster second language oral production has created the imperative need to analyze and explore new teaching methods and techniques in order to develop oral communication skills in the target language. This study investigated the effect of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in second language oral production of Ecuadorian second language learners of United General Baccalaureate (BGU). This study was carried out using one class of second of baccalaureate. A total of 22 study participants took part in this research. In order to gather data, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed, which allowed the researcher gain a better understanding of the problem under investigation. The study participants took part of a pre-test to determine their level of proficiency in their speaking skills. After three months of CLIL intervention they took a post-test and the results were compared to measure the effect of CLIL approach. In addition, every single CLIL lesson was documented, and a semi-structured survey was also applied to investigate the students’ perceptions to the CLIL approach. The findings of this research reveals the effectiveness of CLIL in students’ oral production compared with the traditional language learning instruction. At the same time the learners expressed positive opinions towards the new approach.

Strategies for Learning Foreign Languagesamong Professionals

Language teaching and learning has, as a matter of fact, on par with subject teaching and learning, gained importance in universities in view of the tremendous developments in science and technology. Candidates, irrespective of their disciplines of study, are considered potential, if they have language competence. This research paper titled “Strategies for Learning Foreign Languages in Engineering Aspects” begins with an introduction on the importance of enhancing language abilities, discusses, in detail, the existing methodologies in language teaching-learning and the shortcomings encountered by the teachers and the taught in implementing the methods and approaches. The paper, besides highlighting the academic and professional requirements on the part of the candidates in the global market, lays stress on certain down-to-earth strategies that could be experimented and implemented for the benefit of teaching and learning foreign languages.

Strategy instruction and transfer in the EFL classroom

This study examines the generalizability of research in the areas of instruction; learning; and transfer of learning to the role these play in the area of the use of strategic competencies in foreign language contexts (FLC). While previous studies have tended towards a focus on learner variables, this study includes the conditions of applicability with a task that can impact learning and transfer as well. The contributions of both variables, learner and task, were investigated through note-taking strategy instruction and transfer, to ascertain the effect on reading comprehension of textual materials in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. Learning was measured as a precursor to transfer. In order to investigate the role of instruction and transfer in the transfer of strategy use, a mixed design using both qualitative and quantitative approaches for design and analysis was used. Findings suggest that the relationship between instruction and transfer as represented by strategy use and task performance is a multidimensional one, and that there are implications for language learning instruction in the foreign language classroom.

The Early Bird Gets the Word

Success in an increasingly globalized world sets requirements for versatile communication skills and understanding about other cultures. One of the keys to success is versatile language skills, on which the European Commission spoke out as early as in 1995, recommending that every European citizen should learn two foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue. Now, more than twenty years later, the launch of early A1 language teaching that is to begin in the first grade in Finland, in January 2020, is a significant step towards this goal. Studies show that early foreign language learning needs to be carefully carried out in order to achieve positive effects and the effects that have been set for it in the national language program and curriculum. The age when language teaching is started is, however, just one of many variables that are seen to be relevant to the development of foreign language skills in the framework of early foreign language teaching and learning. As early foreign language teaching is a very recent area of teaching in Finland, the policy - makers and teachers play a significant role in creating new kind of learning environments, operating culture and pedagogy for foreign language learning. This article discusses early foreign language learning landscape in the context of early foreign language learning theory, initial education pedagogy and operation culture, as well as functional foreign language learning. The cornerstone of this review is the Contextual Pedagogical approach to Learning, which creates a bridge between the theory and practice of early foreign language learning, creating an inspiring and stimulating basis for later language learning. Keywords: early foreign language learning, functional language learning, learning environments, Contextual –Pedagogical approach to Learning

Avaliação diagnóstica em propostas de sequência didática elaboradas por professores de português em formação inicial

Este trabalho é um recorte de um estudo mais amplo relativo à formação inicial de professores de Português como língua materna, no que diz respeito à didatização dos gêneros textuais por meio do procedimento Sequência Didática. No presente texto, tratamos da integração da avaliação formativa ao processo de ensino-aprendizagem de línguas, com foco na importância da avaliação diagnóstica em prol da regulação da ação docente no ensino da produção textual e da autorregulação da aprendizagem por parte dos aprendentes. Para tal, procedemos a uma pesquisa documental, selecionando nove propostas de Sequência Didática (SD) elaboradas por alunos de licenciatura em Letras-Português, buscando evidenciar a apropriação, por parte deles, da perspectiva formativa que o procedimento SD propõe. Nosso trabalho apoia-se nas reflexões teóricas de Fernandes (2005, 2007, 2008), Bakhtin (1997) e Dolz, Noverraz e Schneuwly (2010).

Towards Translanguaging with Students at Public School: multimodal and transcultural aspects in meaning making

The aim of this paper is to report on an experiment that approximates with translingual and multimodal practices in workshops about migration involving secondary public school students and to rethink its implications in relation to the teaching of English in contemporary transcultural landscape from a critical perspective. It is situated in a community project on critical education through languages, which involves a set of workshops from a partnership between a public university and a public secondary school. As a collaborative work, it includes language professors, undergraduate students and a teacher and her students from a public secondary school where the project took place. It reports on the students’ context, from which meaning making emerges and it is analyzed in the light of the theoretical conceptions here selected. It is founded on qualitative and interpretive methodology and it relies on contingent processes and procedures of the workshops in question. It assumes critical literacy as a social practice, translingual practices as part of the everyday experience resembling assemblage (instead of fixed and linear movements in meaning making) and multimodality as inherent to interaction in knowledge construction. The notion of workshop is equivalent to secondary school students’ meaning making. The result suggests that resources and practices resembling translingual and multimodal ones might enhance students’ engagement, creativity, critique and ethics modifying language teaching-learning and the use of technology.Keywords: insights for creative learning; teacher education; translingua-lmultimodal practices in public school.

Creative interactions with art works: an engaging approach to Arabic language-and-culture learning

ABSTRACTThis study explores whether and how interactions with art works can amplify and enrich language-and-culture learning in foreign and community language contexts with a focus on Arabic and the work of artist Ali Omar Ermes. The central cross-curricular orientation draws significantly on a range of other theoretical perspectives, both general and specific to language learning pedagogy. The application of this approach in practice is illustrated in sample material drawn from a new resource entitled ‘Language into Art and the Work of Ali Omar Ermes’ aimed at Intermediate and Advanced students of Arabic. Activities in the resource reflect the dual focus on content and language and are based around three stages of Approaching-Exploring-Creating. This leads on to presentation of a small-scale qualitative research study based on teaching of a unit from the resource at a London school employing an action research methodology. Substantial evidence emerges from analysis of the data collected indicating high levels of student engagement and Arabic language-and-culture learning. Other outcomes include a deeper appreciation of the interfaces between linguistic and artistic expression in the context of Middle Eastern art and the stimulus provided for student voice. The study is distinctive in its conceptualisation, in the detailed pedagogical model it provides and in the attention given to analysis of its impact in a classroom situation. It validates the integration of visual arts and foreign and community language-and-culture learning and reveals the benefits of a more personalised, intercultural and holistic approach.

English language teacher learning in professional learning communities: a case study of a Chinese secondary school

ABSTRACTThrough a discourse analysis of the qualitative data collected in an ethnographic approach, this study investigates learning emerging in an English teachers’ professional learning community (PLC) at a Chinese secondary school in Shanghai. It explores the discourse features of situated interactions in two types of typical events occurring regularly in this PLC, participant roles in the interactions, and how learning occurs in the community. This study reveals that different foci and functions of the meetings largely determined the discourse features, and that community members tended to take different roles and demonstrate different aspects of their identity. Despite the differences, the two meetings both had a high percentage of episodes of pedagogical reasoning(EPRs) and low rate of distributed participation per episode. It is implied that both meetings were conducive to teacher learning, but the learning foci (topics covered in the two meetings) were different. More distributed participation may be needed to encourage collaborative learning.

An Assessment Instrument of Product versus Process Writing Instruction: A Rasch Measurement Analysis

Recent researchers continuously stress on the importance of writing instruction in language learning. Therefore, there is an immense need to have an appropriate instrument to measure the writing instruction and the instrument has to be fully tested for validity. Therefore, we developed and validated an instrument using Rasch Measurement Model to assess two prominent approaches (product approach versus process approach) used in writing instruction contemporarily. We tested the instrument by computing its infit, outfit, item reliability, item separation, item difficulty and item discrimination. The results demonstrated that the instrument showed adequate estimates of reliability in assessing both the approaches used by teachers in ESL classrooms. The raw variance result showed that the accuracy of the items of product approach (85.7%) and process approach (63.7%) were excellent and good. The values of item reliability and item separation for product approach were 0.98 and 6.33, while process approach showed the item reliability and separation values of 0.65 and 1.37 respectively. The results showed that product approach is being dominantly practised that did not enhance students’ writing skills in the long run. To address this issue, we propose a new framework for writing instruction as a guide to ESL teachers.

Multimodality in Language Education – Implications for Teaching

The aim of this article is to discuss how a multimodal approach to meaning-making can contribute to language education and how multimodal meaning-making is supported in the Swedish curricula. Considering the rapid digitalization of contemporary communication, the aim and content of language education has been challenged. The article describes contemporary communication and meaning-making from a socio-semiotic, multimodal approach. Based on an example from a poetry assignment and students’ solutions in a Swedish as a first language framework, we want to discuss the possibilities and challenges for meaning-making and teaching, while opening up the subject of Swedish for multimodality. Two poems are viewed from a multimodal perspective showing the usage of different modes and media. Based on this the article investigates the support in the curricula for multimodal meaning-making. The article concludes by stressing the importance of recognizing multimodal meaning-making as learning in language education.

Machine Translation for EFL

This paper reports on an ongoing study into the affordances of free online machine translation for students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) at the tertiary level in Japan. The researchers are currently collecting data from a questionnaire, task performance, and interviews with 10-15 EFL learners in an English Language Institute in a university in Japan. The paper provides some background on the changing role of translation in language learning theory and pedagogy, before focusing literature related to technical developments in machine translation technology, and its application to foreign language learning. An overview of the research methodology is provided, along with some insights into potential findings. Findings will be presented in subsequent publications.

Developing, glocalizing & validating a quality indices rubric in English language teaching: A case of CIPP model

This study aims to develop and glocalize a set of quality indices that can enhance the English language teaching learning output at Iranian private institutions. CIPP (Context, Input, Process, and ...