![Beliefs, agency and identity in language learning and teaching](/api/image/getissuecoverimage?id=picture_2016_30758.jpg)
We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
When bilingualism and multilingualism are the main focus of research, it is usually impossible to refrain from defining these concepts although they may initially seem self-explanatory. The reason for this are terminological inaccuracies and lack of consistency in applying proper terminology associated with these concepts, which is prevalent in publications on the topic of the learning and use of multiple languages. Therefore, it is important to identify who bilinguals are, what multilingualism is and what monolingualism refers to in light of constant growth of the number of multilingual language users. The present article is an attempt to provide responses to such questions as it defines bilingualism and multilingualism and, at the same time, contrasts the terms with each other and with the concept of monolingualism. The article also discusses the issue of including language learners under the notion of bilingualism or multilingualism and demonstrates the latest achievements as well as future research directions with respect to these two areas. Thus, the main aim of the paper is to present the key issues in multilingualism while systematizing and summarizing the background knowledge on the topic.
More...
The article constitutes and attempt to define the role of language transfer as form of preparation for professional consecutive translation. Transfer in translatology is a cognitive process of interpreting and producing L1 texts in L2. Training with elements of language transfer is necessary in the process of education at every level. It is surely indispensable for prospective translators or interpreters. Even though the article is grounded in the assumptions of the theory of translation, it deals with the issue from a practical perspective. The author presents examples of exercises which contain elements of language transfer and demonstrates how they could develop a translator’s competence as both a communicator and a teacher of translation.
More...
The complexity of while-viewing activities (listening, viewing, reading, and writing simultaneously) has been mostly ignored in the fields of teaching and testing L2 listening. To address this gap, an innovative technique has been proposed: the use of audiovisual comprehension questions imprinted in the video in the form of subtitles. In essence, questions appear on screen a few seconds ahead of the fragment to which they are associated, and they continue on screen until the end of the pertinent scene. This work reports on an approximate replication of Casañ-Núñez’s (2017c) study on this methodology. The original study researched if imprinted questions had an impact on second language students’ audiovisual comprehension test performance and what examinees thought about this technique. The aim of the replication study is twofold. Firstly, it was designed to confirm or not the results of the original study. Secondly, it investigates for the first time whether imprinted questions have an effect on second language learners’ viewing behavior with regard to the video image. As in the original study, imprinted questions do not have a statistically significant effect on test performance, but participants’ attitudes towards this technique are positive. The results also suggest that this technique could be an effective way of reducing the conflict of visual attention between watching a video and completing a written task simultaneously. Finally, the limitations of the study are addressed and some possible directions for future research are proposed.
More...
This study examined the effect of types of post-reading vocabulary tasks and spacing intervals on L2 incidental vocabulary learning. This study adopted a 2*2 between-subjects factorial design, the two factors being types of post-reading vocabulary tasks (matching vs. fill-in-blanks) and spacing intervals between reading and post-reading vocabulary tasks (short vs. long). The participants were 90 Chinese-speaking L2 English learners in a comprehensive university in China. They read two texts and were then given an unannounced immediate vocabulary test. Depending on which experimental group they were in, they did the post-reading vocabulary tasks either right after the immediate vocabulary test or one week later. The retention test was given to participants five weeks after the completion of post-reading vocabulary tasks. The ANCOVA results showed L2 vocabulary retention (both receptive and productive) was associated with types of post-reading vocabulary tasks and initial L2 incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading, but not spacing intervals.
More...
Despite growing evidence that ASR-dictation practice provides benefits for L2 pronunciation learners (Liakin, Cardoso, & Liakina, 2014; McCrocklin, 2019; Mroz, 2018, Wallace, 2016), there is little research into the ways students engage in ASR-dictation practice. This study examines learners’ perceptions of the ASR-generated transcript as feedback and strategy use during practice. Participants (N = 15) dictated 60 sentences to Google Voice Typing in Drive while being audio recorded. Following a mis-transcription, participants thought-aloud, discussing their interpretation of the transcript, utilized strategies and resources, and tried the sentence again with Google. Data analysis included qualitative analysis of think-aloud comments and quantitative analysis of both strategies used and improvement in dictation accuracy for subsequent attempts. Results showed that participants used the transcript to identify individual words with errors, but also hypothesized about segmentals and articulatory features causing errors. The most frequent strategy to improve production was covert rehearsal of target words, followed by listening to dictionary recordings of targets. Possibly novel pronunciation learning strategies were also documented, however. Participants were able to improve the accuracy of the transcript in subsequent attempts, earning a perfect transcription by the third attempt in the majority of cases (91%).
More...
The article focuses on the phenomenon of learner agency in the English as a foreign language (henceforth EFL) context. Agency has recently attracted the attention of educational researchers because of the need of our times where the rapid development and social changes require from individuals to take responsibility for their own lives, to make meaning of their experience and learn from that. I will define the phenomenon of agency, as well as briefly introduce a chordal triad model of agency proposed by Emirbayer and Mische (1998). The researchers assume an ecological perspective on human agency and see value in the analysis of one’s life stories. The benefit of such an approach is not only for researchers who can grasp an interplay of various factors also from outside the formal education context which are often ignored by EFL teachers as the ones that have had a real impact on the learners’ competences and their learning process; it is also useful for the learners themselves, as in a way they need to distance themselves from their experience, reflect upon and evaluate it, thus in consequence they will understand themselves better. In the article two Polish student-narratives on their way to English competence were selected and analysed to understand what drives individuals to achieve their EFL goals, what means they apply and what meaning they make of their experiences and reflections. Such an analysis allows identifying different tones of EFL learner agency, which may give us a broader insight into the language learning process itself.
More...
This study aims to explore the relationship between content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and language learning anxiety, namely the impact of CLIL on students’ anxiety in different cultural contexts. As a part of a larger research project, this study is conducted at the secondary school level in the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland and includes students enrolled in CLIL programs. The participants completed a questionnaire based on scales already used by Gardner (1985), Schmidt and Watanabe (2001) and Lasagabaster and Doiz (2017), which is a measure of affective factors. The learners’ responses were measured on a 5-point Likert scale covering the range: strongly disagree; rather disagree; don’t know; rather agree; strongly agree. The responses were transformed into numerical values ranging from 1 to 5 for statistical analysis, thereby allowing the comparison of anxiety over time and among the participants under investigation.
More...
Although boredom is among the most frequently experienced emotions in the L2 classroom, so far it has not received due attention on the part of researchers and teachers (Chapman, 2013; Malkovsky, Merrifield, Goldberg, & Danckert, 2012; Merrifield & Danckert, 2014). Consequently, the present paper seeks to investigate the reasons for student boredom and changes in its levels during four naturally occurring English lessons. It is divided into two parts, the first one provides a definition of boredom, its causes and typology followed by research overview, while the second one discusses the authors’ own study. Its participants were three students who scored the lowest, average and the highest on the English Classroom Boredom Scale. The data were gathered by a variety of research instruments (e.g., the English Classroom Boredom Scale, the English Classroom Boredom Grid, the Overall Assessment Scale) and analyzed quantitatively. The findings provided evidence that boredom reported by these individual students had changed both from one lesson to the next and within single classes. These fluctuations were related to such factors as language activities, organization of the lessons or their phases.
More...
The present study considers the role of a weekly blog in the professional development of pre-service world language teachers. In conjunction with student teaching, candidates take a seminar course devoted to practical and professional issues in world language instruction. Over a fifteen-week semester, participants posted on a weekly blog prompt designed to encourage individual inquiry and collective sharing within the cohort. Using an inductive qualitative research design, the blogs were reviewed at the end of the semester for discursive indicators of professional development in the areas of identity, critical thinking, reflection, and community of practice. Such analysis is consistent within a sociocultural framework, where language is the medium of thought and practice (Vygotsky, 1986). Results showed that the blogs can serve as a witness to the transformation from student to teacher as well as growth in critical thinking and reflective skills. While there was some indication of peer interaction, a re-design of the tasks associated with the blog would be needed in order to encourage additional dialogue and cooperation within the community of practice.
More...
Throughout the history of L2 teaching, various approaches toward the presence and functions of the L1 in L2 instruction have been observed. While L1 use was a cornerstone of some methods, it was totally rejected in others. The article reports the findings of a qualitative content analysis of thirty handbooks for teacher education published in the years 1970-2015, conducted with the aim of investigating what recommendations for teachers’ use of the L1 were made, as well as tracing the differences in this respect between materials published in particular decades. The results show that although certain recommendations for L1 use in L2 teaching have always been present in the training materials, a wider and more differentiated range of L1 functions is addressed in more recent sources. Moreover, a greater appreciation of the L1 as a useful resource, and not only as a last resort, can be detected in contemporary L2 teacher education handbooks.
More...
Since the 1970s, the monolingual approach to foreign language (FL) teaching has been subject to heated debates among language teachers, applied linguists and other language scholars. The present study seeks to examine the merits of the 100% target language view by investigating the actual use of language in a Ghanaian university context through the use of audio recordings and classroom observations. Questionnaires were also administered to teachers and students with the aim of identifying their perceptions and attitudes towards code-switching in the FL classroom. Finally, the author discusses the factors that influence the language practices of teachers and students and their possible effects on effective FL teaching and learning.
More...
Learning word formation mechanisms (reception level) and acquiring the ability to use derivatives in communication (production level) is a vital issue for foreigners learning Polish, which lets them enlarge immensely their active and passive vocabulary. The derivative system partially belongs to grammar, and partially to lexis, and this fact should be reflected in the language teaching/learning process. In that process, however, it very often ‘belongs exclusively to grammar’. The author, invoking psycholinguistic research, claims that such a solution, though not thoroughly wrong, may result in a lower than achievable level of internalization of derivatives in Polish language learners’ mental vocabulary. An alternative solution, she suggests, is to link teaching of derivatives with particular subject topics.
More...
Le seconde generazioni degli adolescenti polacchi presenti in Italia, intendendo per tale chi vi è nato o ha compiuto almeno una parte significativa della sua scolarizzazione, costituiscono una particolare sottocategoria nella più generale categoria sociale degli adolescenti. Questi ragazzi, come gli altri nella stessa loro posizione, devono mediare tra culture diverse cercando modelli con cui identificarsi, cosa che può talvolta suscitare tensione e senso di frustrazione. L’indagine esplorativa svolta a Roma tra gli adolescenti polacchi di età tra i 13 e i 18 anni, ha mirato a descrivere il fenomeno della seconda generazione dei ragazzi e ha provato a rispondere alle domande sulla loro identità e sui fattori che ne favoriscono l’integrazione nella società italiana, nonché a individuare quali siano gli elementi di difficoltà che i ragazzi devono affrontare. Obiettivo Primario era quello di indagare la percezione dell’identità degli adolescenti di seconda generazione di origine polacca che frequentino sia la scuola italiana che la scuola polacca con le relative conseguenze in ambito personale, famigliare e sociale. Attraverso l’analisi della condizione e dell’esperienza scolastica dei ragazzi si è voluto mostrare la complessità della ricerca e dello sviluppo dell’identità nel processo d’integrazione in una città come Roma. Obiettivo Secondario era quello di portare avanti uno studio empirico sulla percezione che gli adolescenti polacchi di seconda generazione hanno del proprio processo di sviluppo dell’identità e della propria condizione, allo scopo di mettere in risalto la loro doppia appartenenza e i problemi che la frequentazione sia della scuola italiana sia della scuola supplementare polacca presenta.
More...
The main aim of the foreign language learning is to form the foreign language communicative competence. The reality is such that we could not even imagine what jobs will appear on the labour market in the nearest future in the conditions of increasingly developing information society. There is a kind of a gap between the demand and offer of language skills and this gap should be bridged if want to integrate as equal members of the European community. Currently we can distinguish three paradigms of professional education: cognitive-oriented, activity-oriented and personality-oriented. But currently there is also competence-oriented paradigm, where the main priority is not a mere knowledge accumulation, but the formation of various skills, wish and ability to study life-long. Nowadays there is a variety of innovative language education types which appeared in response to social and economic needs: online education, distance learning, electronic learning, cross-cultural learning, multi-lingual learning, resource-based learning, virtual education, problem-based learning, technology-based learning, project-based learning, flexible learning, active learning, case-based learning, discovery learning, digital learning, blended learning, web-based learning, computer-aided learning, situation-modelling learning, debatable issues learning, content-based instructions method and many others. The main distinguishing feature of the foreign language teaching for special purposes is its communicative bias, based on the following methodological principles: authenticity, informative richness, novelty, functionality, actuality. The processes of globalization and internationalization influence the system of higher education demanding changes in syllabuses and curricula structures and contents, especially of foreign language for special purposes.
More...
This paper analyses the way that Polish learners of English articulate plosive and affricate consonants preceding another obstruent occlusive in both L1 and L2. Considering that English allows unreleased plosives before any stop, that is in a wider range of contexts than Polish, a Polish learner may find it confusing that it is regarded unacceptable to block the affricate release before another (in English always homorganic) affricate. In Polish the first of two homorganic affricates is often reduced to the occlusion phase, while unreleased plosives appear very rarely in non-homorganic contexts. This apparent paradox in the treatment of affricate and plosive consonant clusters may lead to complicated transfer patterns, which we examine by observing the release suppression tendencies in Polish and English phrases and sentences read by phonetically trained and untrained Polish learners of English. The results indicate strong negative transfer tendencies and suggest a connection between gemination patterns and unreleased occlusive distribution in a language.
More...
As a result of ever-growing changes affecting educational discourse, the roles and importance of textbooks have often been reexamined and redefined. This article reports the findings obtained from a comparative analysis of three English language textbooks used in the third grade in primary school. The main criterion used for the selection of these textbooks relates to the cultural and linguistic background of their authors. This study examines the complex nature of textbooks and the multifaceted perspectives involved in the evaluation of their quality and purposefulness within the learner-oriented teaching framework. It compares structural organization and linguistic devices used in three English language textbooks written by authors coming from different backgrounds, intending to establish differences or similarities in approaches and methods utilized to present a certain content. This article also aims at drawing attention to the importance of employing textbook theory knowledge while selecting a textbook to be used in English language teaching.
More...
When lexemes are borrowed from a foreign language they go through different phases of integration, typically divided into four types: phonetic, orthographic, morphological, and semantic. The question of which gender to assign to a loanword and which gender assignment criteria to apply is still ambiguous in linguistics. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to determine the regularities of gender assignment to lexicalized and non-lexicalized anglicisms in German within linguistics and glottodidactics. In addition, the present study also investigates the question of whether deviations in gender assignment, in the case of lexicalized anglicisms from our corpus, can be explained by their semantic differences. The corpus for our research is composed of a total of 194 scientific articles, containing a wide range of linguistic topics and issues in the field of glottodidactics. The analysis showed that different criteria are used to assign different genders. Thus, in the case of feminine and neutral nouns, the suffixal analogy prevails, while in the case of masculine nouns, semantic analogy and monosyllabicity play a greater role.
More...
The article examines socio-cultural aspect of professional training of future foreign language teachers. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the pedagogical conditions and structural and functional model of the socio-cultural competence formation of future foreign language teachers in the system of the pedagogical college. The main task of the study is to determine the structure, criteria, indicators and levels of socio-cultural competence of future foreign language teachers and to develop a structural and functional model of formation of their socio-cultural competence and its experimental verification. The research hypothesis lies in the assumption that the effectiveness of the socio-cultural competence of future foreign language teachers in the process of professional training in the pedagogical college will increase with the implementation of the following pedagogical conditions: the use of integrated socio-cultural tasks with variable content and innovative teaching methods. The formulated structural and functional model of sociocultural competence formation among future foreign language. The author's contribution to the development of the scientific field lies in the fact, that the use of interactive teaching methods encourages students to feel like subjects of socio-cultural competence and be active participants of this process. And this subjective position contributes to the development of cognitive motivation for socio-cultural competence, which contributes to the effective acquisition of socio-cultural knowledge and the effectiveness of the socio-cultural competence formation in general.
More...
The paper demonstrates the feasibility of information and communication technologies (ICT) in English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching and learning process. The organizational and pedagogical approaches to efficient EFL learning in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic have been outlined. Furthermore, the main perspectives and challenges appearing in an online learning environment have been characterized. The proposed paper aims to consider the possibility of integrating innovative computer technologies into online foreign language learning to foster students’ autonomy and boost their language proficiency. The findings suggest that using ICT is beneficial for mastering a foreign language in out-of-class settings. Admittedly, there is no perfect or universal blend that may suit all the EFL learning environments. Therefore, it is claimed that blended programs should be created for each academic course regarding students’ wants, needs, and abilities. Furthermore, each higher educational institution needs to have a strategy for designing and implementing a distance EFL learning program that considers instructional, pedagogical, and technological factors.
More...