Literature In Language Teaching Research Articles

Geoff Hall, Literature in Language Education (2nd ed.) Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, xi + 340 pp.

本書評は，科研費助成事業の学術研究助成基金助成金（2018年度基盤研究（C））課題番号18K00374「文学の原作とそのリトールド版との比較に基づいた英語学習法及び教材の開発」（研究代表者：小野 章）の補助を受けて執筆された。

Teaching Techniques Implemented by Preschool Teachers in English Early Literacy Instructional Practices: A Case Study

This multiple case study aims to address preschool teachers’ practices implemented in early literacy instruction specifically in terms of the teaching techniques used by teachers during English early literacy classroom instruction. Four in-service teachers from three types of preschool which are private, government and non-government organizations located in a suburban area, were selected as the study’s participants. Data collectionsinvolved throughout the study were field notes, checklist, video recording and classroom observations. A teaching technique checklist is used as an instrument to analyze types of teaching techniques implemented by teachers. Results show that the preschool teachers only implement general teaching techniques and often do not implement specialist teaching techniques during English literacy instruction. The most common teaching techniques implemented by the teachers during English literacy instruction are: 1) demonstrating, 2) describing, 3) encouraging, praising, and helping, 4) facilitating, 5) listening, 6) positioning people, 7) questioning, 8) recalling, 9) singing and 10) telling and instructing. Generalization may not be fair at this stage, but the findings may reflect the need to provide appropriate training for preschool teachers. Larger samples are crucial to understand the scale of the teaching practice being appropriate or not for effective English language literacy instruction.

Teacher Professional Development in Language-Driven CLIL: A Case Study

The professional development of and language integrated learning (CLIL) continues to be a niche in the language education literature, particularly in Latin America. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of a continuing professional development course delivered in 2018 to support language-driven CLIL implementation in state secondary schools in Argentina. Built as a case study, the investigation draws on data from one teacher collected through multiple sources for triangulation purposes. Two research questions guided the study: 1) What beliefs does a teacher have of language-driven CLIL? and 2) What are the effects of a continuing professional development course on language-driven CLIL targeted at EFL secondary school teachers? Findings show that authenticity, rather than language-content integration, is a salient feature of language-driven CLIL in this teacher’s practice. Findings also reveal that CLIL success depends on learners’ English language proficiency. Drawing on its teacher’s beliefs of CLIL, the course had an impact on the teacher’s identity as a materials developer and autonomous and critical practitioner who could theorize by reflecting on her practices and the readings provided by the course tutor.

The Untapped Potential of Preschool Classroom Volunteers in Language–Literacy Instruction: A Feasibility Study

Purpose This pretest–posttest study examined the effects of a professional development training on five volunteer instructors' (VIs) utilization of language and literacy facilitation strategies within interactive shared book readings with low-income preschool children. The training specifically targeted the VIs' use of wh -questions, expansions, and references to story grammar elements (SGEs) with use of a corresponding visual aid. Method VIs participated in a 3-hr training composed of lecture, video models, role playing, four opportunities to explicitly practice the target strategies, and four opportunities to receive immediate feedback from the investigators. The VIs led storybook readings that were video-recorded for comparison prior to and after the training sessions (two pretraining, two posttraining). The investigators analyzed the VIs' language and literacy strategy usage in the readings. The investigators compared the raw number of wh -questions asked, expansions of child responses or comments, the number of references (out of 20) to SGEs, and use of the visual aid pre- and posttraining. Results After the training, four of the five VIs increased the number of wh -questions asked during readings, and one VI maintained a large number of questions asked, compared to pretraining readings. All VIs provided an increased number of references to SGEs (character, setting, problem, fixing problem, solution) in a variety of capacities (name, definition, book-specific element, visual aid use) to reinforce narrative concepts. VIs had inconsistent increases in expansions of child responses or comments posttraining. Conclusion Results revealed the VIs generally increased their facilitation of language and literacy strategies after participating in a professional development training, suggesting utilization of volunteers as instructors may be a valuable area to explore, especially in low-income environments where children may be at risk for language and literacy delays. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12070824

A Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effectiveness of Descubriendo la Lectura

We present findings from a randomized controlled trial of Descubriendo la Lectura (DLL), an intervention designed to improve the literacy skills of Spanish-speaking first graders, who are struggling with reading. DLL offers one-on-one native language literacy instruction for 12 to 20 weeks to each school’s lowest performing first-graders. Examining literacy outcomes for 187 students, hierarchical linear model analyses revealed statistically significant effects of student-level assignment to DLL on all 9 outcomes evaluated. Impacts were as large as 1.24 standard deviations, or a learning advantage relative to controls exceeding a full school year of achievement growth. The mean effect size of d = 0.66 across the nine literacy measures is equal to approximately two thirds of the overall literacy growth that occurs across the first-grade year.

Morphological Awareness Strategies to Promote Academic Success at Tier 1 Through Interprofessional Collaboration

Purpose Many school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are interested in interprofessional collaborations with teachers to provide classroom-based services but are often unsure how to design and implement these services in a way that will meet teachers' curricular standards and serve the specific language needs of students. The purpose of this article is to provide SLPs an interprofessional model for providing quality classroom-based language–literacy instruction that facilitates language success for children with and without language–literacy deficits using a morphological awareness strategy approach. Conclusion The 8-week teacher–SLP collaborative classroom model focused on morphological awareness to improve 3rd-grade vocabulary, reading, and writing presented in this article provides a framework for implementing classroom-based services relevant to the curriculum.

Description of -mA/-mAK Structures in Turkish from Perspective of Second/Foreign Language Pedagogy

Views on language education have changed along with developments in global society. Today, most learners seek to acquire a foreign language for daily communication. Consequently, instructors focus on communicative activities in language classrooms. When performing such activities, the most challenging issue for teachers is to create accurate and consistent grammatical content in harmony with communicative activities. In language education literature, triad classifications are often used to classify grammatical content: form, function and use. In this study, I introduce the grammatical content classifications mentioned in the literature and then classify -mA and -mAK suffixes, one of the most difficult subjects for learners of Turkish. With this aim, I review both reference grammar and textbooks, the kind of resources typically used by classroom teachers, who do not have time to perform an in depth linguistic description. With this in mind, the study focuses on the classification of the information depicted by linguistic resources. As a result, the form, function and usage characteristics of the -mA and -mAK suffixes are listed item by item and sample lesson content is presented. This research will help instructors of Turkish to construct the content of their lessons and gain a new perspective on grammar teaching.

Book Review: Geoff Hall, Literature in Language Education

Book Review: Geoff Hall, <i>Literature in Language Education</i>

LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

As a perspective, it seems that the main objective of EFL teaching is to facilitate a fluent communication on the target language. This makes many facilitators believe that an ELF class should focus on mastering linguistic components only. But the main concern of EFL facilitators should be to help learners acquire communicative competence. So, As obvious, the recent trend in EFL teaching indicates necessity of blending literature approach for its rich potential to provide an authentic model of language use. Theoretically, using of literature in language teaching is very advantageous. This paper will review some ideas and research regarding the importance of literature in language classes. It will show how students are enhanced of learning through literature as an impact of the motivational texts. The purpose of this paper is to familiarize language teachers with the effectiveness of using literary contents and to teach how to exploit the text for enhancing student’s skills. It will also look for scopes of methodological innovation within teaching language through literary texts. It will include a lesson plan for young learners of an English medium school of Bangladesh where literature is used in language classes to blend all the skills of learning. It will also provide the potentials and challenges toward using literature as a resource for language teaching.

Age as a factor in Russian EFL teacher attitudes towards literature in language education

Age as a factor in Russian EFL teacher attitudes towards literature in language education

Literature in language teaching: A recipe to maximize learning

The pedagogic rationale for welcoming literature in multiple learning settings lies in the claim that it is conducive to language learning. Language and literature are mutually supporting experiences. In fact, sufficiently sophisticated grasp of language is witnessed when literature is introduced in language study. Language is an input-rich source for coming to good terms with knowledge of language structures, reading proficiency, enriched vocabulary, improving skill in the target language, thinking skills, and cultural awareness. To put the matter at its most basic, language learners can accrue quite tangible benefits from exposure to literature. The core premise of using literature is that it provides clear advantages for learners to perceive the characteristics of target structures in contexts. Both preliminary and final survey questionnaires included the same questions for revealing learners' experiences in relation to literature and its potential contributions to language development. Initial and final responses of the students were compared to each other to determine whether the study of literary texts provided them an occasion to make noticeable gains regarding language proficiency development. A large majority of the survey participants indicated vested interest in the inclusion of literature in language teaching owing to its effectiveness as a valuable tool on augmentation of language learning.

Incorporating the Use of Literature as an Innovative Technique for Teaching English

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The Contentious Debate over the Language Literature Division

Abstract In the early 20th century literature was woven into language curriculum to endorse learners to acquire language structures and perform drills successfully. The actual use of the target language upstaged grammar instruction as the primary focus of language learning in the fields of language pedagogy. In the late 1960s and 1970s literature fell into disuse on the grounds that it was not in conformity with standard grammar rules and the widespread perception was that literature was complex and inaccessible for learners. In the late 1970s and 1980s a decisive swing against literature was experienced and literature came into prominence to enable learners to make huge leaps in language learning. Learners can reap many benefits from the inclusion of literature in foreign language teaching. In attempting to support their arguments of incorporating literature into language teaching a considerable number of researchers offer a number of reasons why literature is an ideal medium for extending language use. By means of inclusion of literature in language teaching, learners are at an advantage to acquire profound knowledge of language. The present paper investigates the language-literature division and focuses on the three phases with regard to the inclusion of literature in language teaching. The supportive role of literature in the development of language awareness is another issue the paper deals with.

Literature in Language Education Evolving Language Pedagogies and Text Preferences in Contemporary Russia

The use of authentic texts, including literature, as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) resource has gained wider currency in classrooms, notably in Europe and Asia, where this integration is being encouraged as linguists acknowledge the vital importance of lexical knowledge to foreign language acquisition. The adoption of communicative language teaching (CLT) methods, pointing to a shift away from teacher-centric models of language pedagogy, has also led to a greater emphasis being placed on the use of authentic texts, including literature, which has in turn given rise to debates regarding appropriate teaching techniques, methodology and text selection. In terms of foreign language education in Russia, literature has a storied history of use, although relatively few empirical studies exist on contemporary teacher practices and how these have evolved in the post-Soviet era. Indeed, as teaching practices evolve to incorporate authentic texts in EFL education in Russia, it is important for all stakeholders to understand what texts are actually being used in classrooms and in what way. To address this gap, data, as part of an exploratory study, was collected from 152 Russian EFL teachers via a semi-structured questionnaire. The results show that while Soviet teaching practices continue to influence, to some extent, teaching approaches and text selection with regard to literature in language education (LLE), there are notable shifts in teachers’ attitudes towards learner interest and ability that reveal evolving teacher priorities and motivation.

Literature in Language Education (second edition)

Since its first edition, published in 2005, Hall’s book Literature in Language Education had been a source of information and ideas I recurrently went back to when doing my own research. For over a decade, it served as a valuable point of reference for academics and practitioners interested in the use of literature in English language teaching. Ten years on, it largely remains the only publication that attempts to provide an overview of various theoretical approaches to literature in language teaching and learning as well as a review of the research done in the field. However, as the author points out himself, the considerable amount of research conducted since the first edition came out demanded a revision of each chapter ‘in detail’ with ‘substantial new sections’ and ‘more than 100 new references’ (p. x) being added to this second edition. Despite the additions and changes, the book remains faithful to the objective of the series which is to provide a ‘cross-over between research in applied linguistics and its practical applications in the professions’ (p. viii).

Selection, Frequency, and Functions of Literary Texts in Finnish General Upper-Secondary EFL Education

ABSTRACTAlthough the number of studies on literature in language education has increased in the past two decades, the subject is still in need of empirical research. This case study examines literary texts, their selection, frequency, and functions in Finnish general upper-secondary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. The data was collected from 21 Finnish EFL teachers using a survey, and the content was thematically analyzed. In these contexts, literary texts had a marginal role. The texts were mostly twentieth-century poetry and novels. Selections by teachers were primarily based on the texts. Often students chose texts independently. Literature was mainly used to teach language, particularly reading skills, and secondarily as content. In light of EFL teaching, the results suggest a need for a conceptual expansion of literature, the wider use of literary texts with visual components, and the use of literary texts for developing students’ intercultural competence.

Interview with Amos Paran, Specialist in L2 Reading and Literature in Language Teaching

Dr. Amos Paran teaches MA and PhD students at the University College London’s Institute of Education. Fluent and literate in English, Hebrew, and German himself (with a bit of Spanish and French), he is probably best known for his research and writing on literature in foreign language learning. Among the recent books he has written, edited and co-edited are Literature —Into the Classroom with Pauline Robinson (2016), Testing the Untestable in Language Education (Multilingual Matters, 2010) with Lies Sercu, and Literature in Language Teaching and Learning (2006, TESOL).

Teaching language through the use of literature in ESL classes with the implementation of CEFR

For language teaching many resources have been used as a vehicle to teach the language more efficiently in the course of time. It is, however, widely accepted that literature has proved to the the best and the most beneficial resource in language teaching. It is of great value in this sense. This paper will first present some ideas about the use of literature in language teaching, then, I will explain why we use literature, and how we should choose literary texts in our language classes. In the following part, I will present the second part of the paper, which is composed of the literary genres like novel, short story, drama and poetry. And in the closing part, I will give an interpretation of Common European Framework of References (CEFR) and how the use of literature can be implemented into CEFR in language teaching.

A comparison of inter-professional education programs in preparing prospective teachers and speech and language pathologists for collaborative language–literacy instruction

Ensuring teacher and speech and language pathology graduates are prepared to work collaboratively together to meet the diverse language literacy learning needs of children is an important goal. This study investigated the efficacy of a 3-h inter-professional education program focused on explicit instruction in the language skills that underpin early reading and spelling acquisition. The combined program incorporated student teachers and student speech and language pathologists (SLPs) working together on case-based instructional planning supplemented with structured opportunities for the groups to share their respective expertise in curriculum and linguistic knowledge. Student teachers (n = 18) and student SLPs (n = 27) were randomly assigned to this combined intervention or a comparison intervention that replaced the structured opportunities to share curriculum and linguistic knowledge with spending time together focused on non-language/literacy based activities. Before-and-after comparisons indicated that only the students in the combined condition increased their linguistic/curricular knowledge (p < 0.05). However, neither of the interventions improved students’ case-based instructional planning for children’s literacy learning over and above what they could achieve working individually. Implications for the pre-service preparation of teachers and SLPs are discussed.

Development and Validation of an EFL Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire

Self-regulated learning, strangely enough, though having swept educational psychology's literature like a tidal wave and also, compared to other constructs such as metacognition and learning strategies, has remained rather uncharted in language education literature and L2 research. Hence, among the main purposes of the current study was to form a link, even tenuous, between the two fields by developing a questionnaire in English and Persian to measure self-regulated language learning capacity and behaviour of Iranian EFL learners. The development of the inventory was guided by two pilots (412 participants), content validation by expert judgment, cognitive interviews, expert review of the items, translation quality checks and factorial validation by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Drawing on the literature of educational psychology and the results of EFA (exploratory factor analysis), thirteen sub-scales with 41 items were yielded in the study: intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, locus of control orientation (attribution), attitude, organisation, memory strategies, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, planning and goal setting, concentration and sustained attention, effort regulation, regulation of environment, and help seeking. In addition, some linguistic criteria were used as benchmark to simplify the items. The words comprising the items of the English version of the questionnaire are within the 2 000 most frequent words of the BNC and COCA corpora, which increases the readability of the questionnaire for lower-level language learners. The results show that the inventory enjoys satisfactory psychometric properties and construct validity.