'-etic' perspective), and by applying different theoretical perspectives from that taken by the o... more '-etic' perspective), and by applying different theoretical perspectives from that taken by the original interpreter. In Take 3, reconstructing for action, we compare the three perspectives in Take 2 in order to generate an alternative classroom plan, with a view to dealing with the issue more effectively in our own professional practice. The idea is that we might then repeat the three stages-Take 1, 2 and 3-on this reconstructed classroom plan after it has been put into practice. We have two ultimate goals: first to understand our teaching and our students' learning more deeply, in Allwright's words moving "from prescription to description to understanding" (point 1) and moving" from simplicity to complexity (point 2) and, second, to realize the overlapping roles we play as teachers, students, researchers and teacher trainers-Allwright's point 6: "from academics to practitioners as the knowledge-makers in the field." We will demonstrate the three-stage approach-our three 'takes-with two published transcripts: Painting and a box from Richard-Amato (1988; 1996) and Carlos's trousers from Long (1980). We will invite you to apply the three-stage approach with Hats and ties, an excerpt from Fanselow (1977b). Painting and a box Transcript 1, Take 1 Recreating interaction We have selected the following extract, published in a methodology book (Richard-Amato, 1988; 2 nd edition, 1996), which seeks to illustrate the issue of the negotiation of meaning between teacher and learner. Although this is not made explicit, it may be assumed that Richard-Amato was aware of the specific features of the context in order to make her interpretation.
In our introduction to this volume, we pointed out that many academic journals do not have enough... more In our introduction to this volume, we pointed out that many academic journals do not have enough space to enable the authors of empirical studies to discuss important methodological details of their projects
Mackey, A. (Ed.). (2007). Conversational interaction in second language acquisition: A collection... more Mackey, A. (Ed.). (2007). Conversational interaction in second language acquisition: A collection of empirical studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-019-4422249-9. 496pp. Applied linguists working within the mainstream of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research owe a considerable debt to Stephen Krashen. His bold claim that comprehensible input and a low affective filter were necessary and sufficient condition for language acquisition gave rise to a rich research agenda that is still alive and kicking. Among those who challenged his "hypotheses" can be numbered Merrill Swain, who has for twenty years developed her argument for the importance of comprehensible output, Manfred Peinemann whose Teachability Hypothesis has led to some interesting studies, and Michael Long, who over the years has refined his Interaction Hypothesis, which, in its current version, includes elements of a hypothesis (an idea that needs to be tested about a single phenomenon), elements ofa model (a description of processes or a set of processes of a phenomenon), as well as elements of a theory (a set of statements about natural phenomena that explains why these phenomena occur the way they do (Gass & Mackey, 2006, p. 174, cited in the present book, p. 5). Certainly, Long's Interaction Hypothesis has generated a very large number of published reports and many more unpublished theses and dissertations.
Nation has published over twenty articles and books on issues related to learning and teaching vo... more Nation has published over twenty articles and books on issues related to learning and teaching vocabulary. This new book, published in the Cambridge Applied Linguistics series, builds on his earlier book on the same subject (Nation 1992). As he says in his introduction, "although it is largely written from the viewpoint of a teacher of English, it could be used by teachers of other languages" (p. 4), and he makes the point that he generally conflates foreign and second language teaching and learning. It will be particularly useful for those who are following graduate programmes in second language teaching or applied linguistics-and, of course, their lecturers. It is also highly relevant to the classroom teacher because the book provides extremely useful, and clearly written, practical guidance. The eleven chapters of the book cover: the goals of vocabulary teaching, what it means to know a word, teaching and explaining vocabulary, vocabulary and listening and reading, vocabulary and reading and writing, specialised uses of vocabulary, vocabulary learning strategies, word study strategies, chunking and collocation, testing vocabulary knowledge and use, and designing the vocabulary component of a language course. There are also several appendices, comprising the headwords of the Academic Word List (Coxhead 1998), four examples of different vocabulary tests, and a list of 320 function words. There is a very comprehensive list of references and two indices; one of subjects covered in the text and the other of authors cited. From an overview of the titles of the chapters, one can readily see how comprehensive has been the author's scope. Within the chapters, he has also presented a detailed discussion of theoretical issues, research studies, and pedagogical implications of each topic. It would be impossible to discuss the full range of issues dealt with in such a long book within the limits of this review; so the contents of one chapter will be examined in detail. Chapter 3, 'Teaching and explaining vocabulary' (pp. 60-112), begins with looking at the psychological conditions required for effective vocabulary learning, and it does so by asking and answering four questions: what is the learning goal of the activity?
Preface language instruction should be motivated by theories of, and research into, the cognitive... more Preface language instruction should be motivated by theories of, and research into, the cognitive processes instructional treatments attempt to manipulate. The book as a whole, as well as the contributions of individual authors, is an attempt to demonstrate how this important connection can be made.
A review of the book "First Language Use in Second and Foreign Language Learning," edit... more A review of the book "First Language Use in Second and Foreign Language Learning," edited by Miles Turnbull and Jennifer Dailey-O'Cain is presented.
This paper is a tribute to J.C. Richards, whose publications over 50 years have inspired many tho... more This paper is a tribute to J.C. Richards, whose publications over 50 years have inspired many thousands of language teachers and student-teachers. Particular attention is paid to the three editions of Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, co-authored with Theo Rodgers, which are reviewed in detail. The author has known Jack Richards for thirty years, whose professional life has influenced his own, especially in terms of encouraging emerging scholars to co-author academic articles and co-edit volumes of case studies. Jack Richards’ contributions to academic society extend beyond language teaching and applied linguistics to embrace music, literature and the fine arts, for which he has been honored by many universities. He has been recognized by the international TESOL organization as one of the most significant applied linguists in the world.
Abstract. This article suggests that Activity Theory (AT) can be applied as a holistic framework ... more Abstract. This article suggests that Activity Theory (AT) can be applied as a holistic framework to analyse the complex sociocultural issues that arise when academics wish to engage in collaborative activity across institutional and cultural boundaries. Attention will initially focus on how Activity Theory, first formulated in the 1930s by Leont’ev (1978), and subsequently developed into a second generation by Engeström (1987), can help to analyse and illuminate the inherent complexity within any one community of practice. A more elaborate model of AT (Engeström, 2001) is currently being developed and applied to analyse and illuminate collaborative activity across institutional bound-aries, so as to transform discourse communities into speech communities of practice through expansive learning. It is suggested that this ‘third generation ’ model can be fur-ther refined to analyse specific contact zones, within and between activity systems, as a precursor to undertaking collaborative ...
This report discusses findings from a small-scale scoping study, which is part of a larger curric... more This report discusses findings from a small-scale scoping study, which is part of a larger curriculum project—a collaborative venture between staff from the Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa'e (UNTL) and a New Zealand university. The aim of the wider project is to develop a context-sensitive English language
Learner autonomy (LA) is a key goal for tertiary EFL learning in China, yet teachers’ understandi... more Learner autonomy (LA) is a key goal for tertiary EFL learning in China, yet teachers’ understanding of this concept has remained obscure. This study investigated forty seven Chinese university EFL teachers’ perceptions and practices about LA as well as the affecting factors behind. Data was collected through a questionnaire, ten interviews and four LA-focused workshops. Findings showed that teachers understood the basic features of LA, and to some extent implemented the idea in their practices, yet their practices were inhibited by various contextual challenges regarding students, teachers, the institution and Chinese culture. The LA-focused workshops were found beneficial in enhancing teachers’ understanding of the notion as well as practical application. The study calls for teachers’ awareness of the cultural stereotype about LA, a positive view towards student autonomy and contextual constraints. It proposes a continual teacher support mechanism in the form of a virtual teacher l...
Since the 2001 Curriculum Reform in China, collaborative groupwork has been widely promoted as a ... more Since the 2001 Curriculum Reform in China, collaborative groupwork has been widely promoted as a means to develop learner autonomy in English language classrooms. However, few empirical studies in China have investigated teachers’ practices or their beliefs about this issue. Similarly, although autonomy has been studied from various theoretical perspectives in the west, language teachers’ understandings about autonomy have not received much attention (Borg and Al-Busaidi, 2012). This presentation reports an empirical study based in a private secondary school in northern China. 22 lessons by 9 teachers’ were observed to explore classroom practices of using the school-promoted model of collaborative group work to develop student autonomy, and these observations were followed up in individual interviews to elicit these teachers’ underlying beliefs.The data were subjected to a process of grounded analysis (Charmaz, 2006) to identify and then interpret key themes. The findings showed tha...
This article suggests that Activity Theory (AT) can be applied as a holistic framework to analyse... more This article suggests that Activity Theory (AT) can be applied as a holistic framework to analyse the complex sociocultural issues that arise when academics wish to engage in collaborative activity across institutional and cultural boundaries. Attention will initially focus on how Activity Theory, first formulated in the 1930s by Leont'ev (1978), and subsequently developed into a second generation by Engestrom (1987), can help to analyse and illuminate the inherent complexity within any one community of practice. A more elaborate model of AT (Engestrom, 2001) is currently being developed and applied to analyse and illuminate collaborative activity across institutional bound- aries, so as to transform discourse communities into speech communities of practice through expansive learning. It is suggested that this 'third generation' model can be fur- ther refined to analyse specific contact zones, within and between activity systems, as a precursor to undertaking collaborati...
Ministries of Education in many countries have adopted various forms of school-based assessment (... more Ministries of Education in many countries have adopted various forms of school-based assessment (SBA) to replace (for example, New Zealand) or complement (for example, England, Australia and Malaysia) more conventional forms of assessment such as tests and examinations. Central to these alternative approaches to SBA is formative assessment. In recent years, a body of research has been built investigating various aspects of SBA in Malaysia, but there has been a dearth of studies exploring what practising teachers believe and do regarding implementing formative assessment in their own classrooms. The present article reports some of the findings of a case study in which ten Malaysian primary school teachers of English were interviewed to identify the extent of their understanding of formative assessment and their reported practices of providing feedback in an SBA environment. Initially, the teachers revealed a general lack of understanding of the difference between formative and summat...
This paper reports on a survey of New Zealand teachers ' attitudes towards grammar and grammar te... more This paper reports on a survey of New Zealand teachers ' attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching in their own particular teaching contexts. It uses a questionnaire adapted from that used in a survey of teachers of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in British universities (Burgess & Etherington, 2002), followed by a series of email interviews with volunteer respondents. The findings of the present study indicate that, like the teachers reported in the 2002 study, EAP teachers in New Zealand appreciate the centrality of grammar in their language teaching and have a critical awareness of many of the problems and issues involved. There is also evidence to suggest that the teachers favour the treatment of grammar through its emergence in whole texts, rather than its presentation in decontextualised sentences and structures. In this regard, there is support for an approach tending towards Focus on Form (Long, 1991: Long & Robinson, 1998). However, the teachers' comments on the importance of systematic practice of grammatical features and detailed error correction suggests that there is a preference for more extensive treatment of grammatical issues than is usually suggested by proponents ofa strictly incidental Focus on Form approach.
Reviewed by ROGER BARNARD, University of Waikato This is an important new book presenting nine ca... more Reviewed by ROGER BARNARD, University of Waikato This is an important new book presenting nine case studies on the micropolitical agendas of individuals and institutions involved in ELT projects in various parts of the world. It opens windows on some nefarious activities usually hidden from public eyes, but which may be well understood by those who work in the academic and professional worlds of English language education. After a seven-page overview of the topic of micro-politics and a summary of the nine case studies, Alderson's first chapter sets the scene with a 37-page review of key concepts which provide a rationale for the book. He begins this with a dozen vignettes of misconduct by individuals or organisations involved in different sorts of ELT projects in various parts of the world, claiming that such "tales from the field" are simply not reported in publications about such projects a matter which he discusses from his personal experience at more length in the final chapter in the book. He argues that there is a need for honest and open descriptions of the real process and outcomes of language education in specific cases, so that an appropriate and adequate theory of the politics of language education can eventually be developed. In this respect, he is following up the point made by Fishman 1994, p. 91 that language planning needs to be informed by ethnographic studies, and later by Kaplan and Baldauf 1997 and Baldauf 2006, although, interestingly, he does not refer to any of the standard works in the area of language policy and planning by these and other authorities. His review of background sources, however, is otherwise broadly based, taking into consideration key works in psychology, general education, organisational culture, etc.
'-etic' perspective), and by applying different theoretical perspectives from that taken by the o... more '-etic' perspective), and by applying different theoretical perspectives from that taken by the original interpreter. In Take 3, reconstructing for action, we compare the three perspectives in Take 2 in order to generate an alternative classroom plan, with a view to dealing with the issue more effectively in our own professional practice. The idea is that we might then repeat the three stages-Take 1, 2 and 3-on this reconstructed classroom plan after it has been put into practice. We have two ultimate goals: first to understand our teaching and our students' learning more deeply, in Allwright's words moving "from prescription to description to understanding" (point 1) and moving" from simplicity to complexity (point 2) and, second, to realize the overlapping roles we play as teachers, students, researchers and teacher trainers-Allwright's point 6: "from academics to practitioners as the knowledge-makers in the field." We will demonstrate the three-stage approach-our three 'takes-with two published transcripts: Painting and a box from Richard-Amato (1988; 1996) and Carlos's trousers from Long (1980). We will invite you to apply the three-stage approach with Hats and ties, an excerpt from Fanselow (1977b). Painting and a box Transcript 1, Take 1 Recreating interaction We have selected the following extract, published in a methodology book (Richard-Amato, 1988; 2 nd edition, 1996), which seeks to illustrate the issue of the negotiation of meaning between teacher and learner. Although this is not made explicit, it may be assumed that Richard-Amato was aware of the specific features of the context in order to make her interpretation.
In our introduction to this volume, we pointed out that many academic journals do not have enough... more In our introduction to this volume, we pointed out that many academic journals do not have enough space to enable the authors of empirical studies to discuss important methodological details of their projects
Mackey, A. (Ed.). (2007). Conversational interaction in second language acquisition: A collection... more Mackey, A. (Ed.). (2007). Conversational interaction in second language acquisition: A collection of empirical studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-019-4422249-9. 496pp. Applied linguists working within the mainstream of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research owe a considerable debt to Stephen Krashen. His bold claim that comprehensible input and a low affective filter were necessary and sufficient condition for language acquisition gave rise to a rich research agenda that is still alive and kicking. Among those who challenged his "hypotheses" can be numbered Merrill Swain, who has for twenty years developed her argument for the importance of comprehensible output, Manfred Peinemann whose Teachability Hypothesis has led to some interesting studies, and Michael Long, who over the years has refined his Interaction Hypothesis, which, in its current version, includes elements of a hypothesis (an idea that needs to be tested about a single phenomenon), elements ofa model (a description of processes or a set of processes of a phenomenon), as well as elements of a theory (a set of statements about natural phenomena that explains why these phenomena occur the way they do (Gass & Mackey, 2006, p. 174, cited in the present book, p. 5). Certainly, Long's Interaction Hypothesis has generated a very large number of published reports and many more unpublished theses and dissertations.
Nation has published over twenty articles and books on issues related to learning and teaching vo... more Nation has published over twenty articles and books on issues related to learning and teaching vocabulary. This new book, published in the Cambridge Applied Linguistics series, builds on his earlier book on the same subject (Nation 1992). As he says in his introduction, "although it is largely written from the viewpoint of a teacher of English, it could be used by teachers of other languages" (p. 4), and he makes the point that he generally conflates foreign and second language teaching and learning. It will be particularly useful for those who are following graduate programmes in second language teaching or applied linguistics-and, of course, their lecturers. It is also highly relevant to the classroom teacher because the book provides extremely useful, and clearly written, practical guidance. The eleven chapters of the book cover: the goals of vocabulary teaching, what it means to know a word, teaching and explaining vocabulary, vocabulary and listening and reading, vocabulary and reading and writing, specialised uses of vocabulary, vocabulary learning strategies, word study strategies, chunking and collocation, testing vocabulary knowledge and use, and designing the vocabulary component of a language course. There are also several appendices, comprising the headwords of the Academic Word List (Coxhead 1998), four examples of different vocabulary tests, and a list of 320 function words. There is a very comprehensive list of references and two indices; one of subjects covered in the text and the other of authors cited. From an overview of the titles of the chapters, one can readily see how comprehensive has been the author's scope. Within the chapters, he has also presented a detailed discussion of theoretical issues, research studies, and pedagogical implications of each topic. It would be impossible to discuss the full range of issues dealt with in such a long book within the limits of this review; so the contents of one chapter will be examined in detail. Chapter 3, 'Teaching and explaining vocabulary' (pp. 60-112), begins with looking at the psychological conditions required for effective vocabulary learning, and it does so by asking and answering four questions: what is the learning goal of the activity?
Preface language instruction should be motivated by theories of, and research into, the cognitive... more Preface language instruction should be motivated by theories of, and research into, the cognitive processes instructional treatments attempt to manipulate. The book as a whole, as well as the contributions of individual authors, is an attempt to demonstrate how this important connection can be made.
A review of the book "First Language Use in Second and Foreign Language Learning," edit... more A review of the book "First Language Use in Second and Foreign Language Learning," edited by Miles Turnbull and Jennifer Dailey-O'Cain is presented.
This paper is a tribute to J.C. Richards, whose publications over 50 years have inspired many tho... more This paper is a tribute to J.C. Richards, whose publications over 50 years have inspired many thousands of language teachers and student-teachers. Particular attention is paid to the three editions of Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, co-authored with Theo Rodgers, which are reviewed in detail. The author has known Jack Richards for thirty years, whose professional life has influenced his own, especially in terms of encouraging emerging scholars to co-author academic articles and co-edit volumes of case studies. Jack Richards’ contributions to academic society extend beyond language teaching and applied linguistics to embrace music, literature and the fine arts, for which he has been honored by many universities. He has been recognized by the international TESOL organization as one of the most significant applied linguists in the world.
Abstract. This article suggests that Activity Theory (AT) can be applied as a holistic framework ... more Abstract. This article suggests that Activity Theory (AT) can be applied as a holistic framework to analyse the complex sociocultural issues that arise when academics wish to engage in collaborative activity across institutional and cultural boundaries. Attention will initially focus on how Activity Theory, first formulated in the 1930s by Leont’ev (1978), and subsequently developed into a second generation by Engeström (1987), can help to analyse and illuminate the inherent complexity within any one community of practice. A more elaborate model of AT (Engeström, 2001) is currently being developed and applied to analyse and illuminate collaborative activity across institutional bound-aries, so as to transform discourse communities into speech communities of practice through expansive learning. It is suggested that this ‘third generation ’ model can be fur-ther refined to analyse specific contact zones, within and between activity systems, as a precursor to undertaking collaborative ...
This report discusses findings from a small-scale scoping study, which is part of a larger curric... more This report discusses findings from a small-scale scoping study, which is part of a larger curriculum project—a collaborative venture between staff from the Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa'e (UNTL) and a New Zealand university. The aim of the wider project is to develop a context-sensitive English language
Learner autonomy (LA) is a key goal for tertiary EFL learning in China, yet teachers’ understandi... more Learner autonomy (LA) is a key goal for tertiary EFL learning in China, yet teachers’ understanding of this concept has remained obscure. This study investigated forty seven Chinese university EFL teachers’ perceptions and practices about LA as well as the affecting factors behind. Data was collected through a questionnaire, ten interviews and four LA-focused workshops. Findings showed that teachers understood the basic features of LA, and to some extent implemented the idea in their practices, yet their practices were inhibited by various contextual challenges regarding students, teachers, the institution and Chinese culture. The LA-focused workshops were found beneficial in enhancing teachers’ understanding of the notion as well as practical application. The study calls for teachers’ awareness of the cultural stereotype about LA, a positive view towards student autonomy and contextual constraints. It proposes a continual teacher support mechanism in the form of a virtual teacher l...
Since the 2001 Curriculum Reform in China, collaborative groupwork has been widely promoted as a ... more Since the 2001 Curriculum Reform in China, collaborative groupwork has been widely promoted as a means to develop learner autonomy in English language classrooms. However, few empirical studies in China have investigated teachers’ practices or their beliefs about this issue. Similarly, although autonomy has been studied from various theoretical perspectives in the west, language teachers’ understandings about autonomy have not received much attention (Borg and Al-Busaidi, 2012). This presentation reports an empirical study based in a private secondary school in northern China. 22 lessons by 9 teachers’ were observed to explore classroom practices of using the school-promoted model of collaborative group work to develop student autonomy, and these observations were followed up in individual interviews to elicit these teachers’ underlying beliefs.The data were subjected to a process of grounded analysis (Charmaz, 2006) to identify and then interpret key themes. The findings showed tha...
This article suggests that Activity Theory (AT) can be applied as a holistic framework to analyse... more This article suggests that Activity Theory (AT) can be applied as a holistic framework to analyse the complex sociocultural issues that arise when academics wish to engage in collaborative activity across institutional and cultural boundaries. Attention will initially focus on how Activity Theory, first formulated in the 1930s by Leont'ev (1978), and subsequently developed into a second generation by Engestrom (1987), can help to analyse and illuminate the inherent complexity within any one community of practice. A more elaborate model of AT (Engestrom, 2001) is currently being developed and applied to analyse and illuminate collaborative activity across institutional bound- aries, so as to transform discourse communities into speech communities of practice through expansive learning. It is suggested that this 'third generation' model can be fur- ther refined to analyse specific contact zones, within and between activity systems, as a precursor to undertaking collaborati...
Ministries of Education in many countries have adopted various forms of school-based assessment (... more Ministries of Education in many countries have adopted various forms of school-based assessment (SBA) to replace (for example, New Zealand) or complement (for example, England, Australia and Malaysia) more conventional forms of assessment such as tests and examinations. Central to these alternative approaches to SBA is formative assessment. In recent years, a body of research has been built investigating various aspects of SBA in Malaysia, but there has been a dearth of studies exploring what practising teachers believe and do regarding implementing formative assessment in their own classrooms. The present article reports some of the findings of a case study in which ten Malaysian primary school teachers of English were interviewed to identify the extent of their understanding of formative assessment and their reported practices of providing feedback in an SBA environment. Initially, the teachers revealed a general lack of understanding of the difference between formative and summat...
This paper reports on a survey of New Zealand teachers ' attitudes towards grammar and grammar te... more This paper reports on a survey of New Zealand teachers ' attitudes towards grammar and grammar teaching in their own particular teaching contexts. It uses a questionnaire adapted from that used in a survey of teachers of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in British universities (Burgess & Etherington, 2002), followed by a series of email interviews with volunteer respondents. The findings of the present study indicate that, like the teachers reported in the 2002 study, EAP teachers in New Zealand appreciate the centrality of grammar in their language teaching and have a critical awareness of many of the problems and issues involved. There is also evidence to suggest that the teachers favour the treatment of grammar through its emergence in whole texts, rather than its presentation in decontextualised sentences and structures. In this regard, there is support for an approach tending towards Focus on Form (Long, 1991: Long & Robinson, 1998). However, the teachers' comments on the importance of systematic practice of grammatical features and detailed error correction suggests that there is a preference for more extensive treatment of grammatical issues than is usually suggested by proponents ofa strictly incidental Focus on Form approach.
Reviewed by ROGER BARNARD, University of Waikato This is an important new book presenting nine ca... more Reviewed by ROGER BARNARD, University of Waikato This is an important new book presenting nine case studies on the micropolitical agendas of individuals and institutions involved in ELT projects in various parts of the world. It opens windows on some nefarious activities usually hidden from public eyes, but which may be well understood by those who work in the academic and professional worlds of English language education. After a seven-page overview of the topic of micro-politics and a summary of the nine case studies, Alderson's first chapter sets the scene with a 37-page review of key concepts which provide a rationale for the book. He begins this with a dozen vignettes of misconduct by individuals or organisations involved in different sorts of ELT projects in various parts of the world, claiming that such "tales from the field" are simply not reported in publications about such projects a matter which he discusses from his personal experience at more length in the final chapter in the book. He argues that there is a need for honest and open descriptions of the real process and outcomes of language education in specific cases, so that an appropriate and adequate theory of the politics of language education can eventually be developed. In this respect, he is following up the point made by Fishman 1994, p. 91 that language planning needs to be informed by ethnographic studies, and later by Kaplan and Baldauf 1997 and Baldauf 2006, although, interestingly, he does not refer to any of the standard works in the area of language policy and planning by these and other authorities. His review of background sources, however, is otherwise broadly based, taking into consideration key works in psychology, general education, organisational culture, etc.
Uploads
Papers by Roger Barnard