Body and difference in the EFL classroom

Language Arts in Asia, 2012

It has been observed for decades that techniques of performance, drama, literature and other creative disciplines enhance second language learning. Academic journals abound with reports from dedicated individual teachers detailing the success of their methods. The techniques are so widespread, so varied, so idiosyncratic that it would be pointless here to attempt a comprehensive, coherent survey of the whole field or even refer to key texts. The practices are simply too dispersed, diverse and inconsistent. It would require a major research undertaking to make sense of the rich plenitude of methods and techniques; an undertaking which, if conducted with sufficient scope and scale, could revolutionise the understanding of processes of second language acquisition. This venture would need to draw on questions of the creative ground of language and of the processes of creativity in itself-newly-opening fields of study which need to develop appropriate empirical, theoretical and technological innovations to establish even the basic fundamentals of their enquiry. This vast enterprise is beginning and will no doubt transform the study of language and all the humanities as we understand them at turn of the twenty-first century.

Ilha do Desterro A Journal of English Language, …, 2008

In this paper, based on principles of systemic-functional grammar and critical discourse analysis, as well as on my experience as a teacher of Applied Linguistics, I discuss issues related to the observation of EFL classes. The analysis (qualitative, ethnographically-based) arises from discussions in my Applied Linguistics course and students' reports on the classes they observed. The study aims at contributing to an awareness of the relevance of an educational practice that goes beyond the mere listing of personal pronouns with the corresponding forms of the verb to be, for instance, and suggests a discussion of topics which could somehow integrate sociocultural perspectives into EFL teacher education.

Manuscrito

In this review, I briefly explain some of the key concepts of the book in order to offer a panoramic view of the theory of linguistic bodies. Following the book's structure, I first describe the authors' notion of body, then refer to their notion of dialectics, after that, I expose the steps of the model and, finally, get to their conception of languaging.

M.-C. Bertau, M. M. Gonçalves and P.T.F. Raggatt (Eds.) Dialogic Formations. Investigations into the Origins and Development of the Dialogical Self. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, pp. 145-153, 2012

In his last book, L'énonciation impersonnelle, Christian Metz tackles the question of enunciation in cinema in order to show that fijilmic enunciation is not anthropomorphic but textual, impersonal, and metadiscursive. According to Metz, fijilmic enunciation 'is the semiological act through which some parts of the text speak to us of this text as an act'. In consequence, 'the last I is always outside of the text'. Discussing autobiographical cinema, this chapter explores how Metz's conception of impersonal enunciation can be reconciled with autobiographical discourses that seem opposed to his theory, and how some of its shortcomings can be overcome by resorting to Vivian Sobchack's semiotic phenomenology of fijilm experience and Käte Hamburger's phenomenological narrative theory.

LLT Journal: a Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 2022

It is well-established that the notion of language competence often bandied about in English language teaching scholarship owes much of its allegiance to the Chomskyan tradition, which privileges mind over body and other materiality. Tracing this tradition to its root, one may surmise that the infamous Chomskyan competence has been the sustenance of Cartesian linguistics as the Neo-Platonic philosophical tradition known for its condemnatory arguments against body in the pursuit of knowledge. Basing on the idea of somaesthetics initially proposed by Richard Shusterman, I argue in this conceptual article that English language teaching landscape needs to embrace insights generated by current research and theorization on the pivotal role of the soma (the living body) as a source of competence in facilitating communicative practices. I will first discuss the notion of somaesthetic, and then demonstrate that research in language teaching and language acquisition scholarship (albeit limited in numbers) has long been inspired by this body philosophy. Implications for English language teaching will be offered.

S. Cormeraie et al.(Eds.), Revolutions in consciousness: local identities, global concerns in Languages & intercultural communication -- ISBN-1-898883-09-2, 2002

Human utterances actualise much more than what is predicated by the propositional content they may have. Thus, over the centuries, another current of language studies has developed as well, one that sees ordinary speech as the concrete expression of situated meaning, revealing both an individual psychology and a people's mind set or Weltanschauung. The present paper will try to justify this second linguistic current and, with it, the teaching of cross-cultural communication as a redefinition of one's existential stance.

Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Cultura, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas – UCP, 2009

Esperamos, pois, que a grande variedade de temas e perspectivas, de abordagens teóricas, métodos e propostas didáticas, que este volume disponibiliza, contribua para o aparecimento de novas ideias na área de investigação e teorização do ensino e da aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira, assim como para a introdução de novas práticas dentro da sala de aula. Alterar hábitos de ensino é, como se sabe, um assunto delicado que exige tempo. Acreditamos, todavia, que este volume contribuirá para a concretização dos objetivos já patentes na titulação do nosso projeto de investigação: Translating Europe across the Ages. Com base numa decisão do conselho da redação do volume, aplicamos a todos os textos do livro, editados pela redação, a ortografia estabelecida pela reforma ortográfica. No entanto, mantivemos em cada um dos artigos publicados a forma ortográfica escolhida pelo respetivo autor. contributions of specialists in didactics like Jürgen Kurtz, from the University of Justus-Liebig, Gießen, Germany, there are articles in this volume from linguists, such as Marta Albelda Marco from the University of Valencia, Spain, and from specialists in classroom practice, such as Carolyn Leslie, lecturer in English as a foreign language at the Universidade Nova of Lisbon and the British Council. The essays in this book are grouped in theoretical-thematic areas, beginning with didactics, and paying particular attention to the teaching of the speaking skills. The opening introductory essay Promoting Oral Proficiency in the Foreign Language Class: Improvisation in Structured Learning Environments of Jürgen Kurtz from the Justus-Liebig of Gießen explores the controlled teaching of speech in the foreign language classroom. It also underlines the importance of an ample approach to speech, that frees the learning processes and the teaching methodologies and techniques. Despite these being universally recognized and applied, they do not guarantee the communicative success of the learner in real situations, that is, outside the artificial environment created in the classroom. Jürgen Kurtz exposes an alternative methodology aiming at overcoming the limitations of a controlled teaching/learning environment. In this context, the author points out the voids there are in basic research in this area, namely the research fields of philosophy, sociology and psychology, which offer certain "truths" that are widely accepted without the much needed critical reflexion Falar-Speaking [13] beforehand. The author also scrutinizes mainstream learning theories which form 'truths' as a foreground to the teaching, learning and acquisition of foreign languages. These then lead to questionable emphasis on the cognitive component, or learning as a means for automatic behavioural alterations change. Therefore, Kurtz's holistic method is not only based on new theoretical reflections in didactics, but also develops a perspective which includes knowledge from different existing trends. In practice, in the classroom, complex learning environments are made available, which are previously structured by the instructor, and which induce the learners to spontaneous and improvised interactions. Besides the partially guided communication led by the teacher, the method aims at making the interactivity of spontaneous communication amongst learners easier. Kurtz ends his essay by reporting several concrete examples of this method in the classroom, so as to illustrate its practice. Sara Vicente, Ph.D. candidate from the Technical University of Darmstadt and the Universidade Nova of Lisbon, with a vast experience in teaching German as a foreign language, also explores in her article, A aquisição da competência oral na aula de LE: Subsídios para uma prática de interação comunicativa continuada e significativa, the crucial role of a methodology that, in the context of a foreign language lesson, aims at creating situations that spontaneously trigger talking among students. The author also underlines a didactic method where the teacher of a foreign language should create real communicative situations in the classroom. However, it seems that in practice these objectives continue to not be met and little communicative stimuli and occasions for an authentic use of the language are offered. According to the author, this is due to the fact that the communicative situation in the classroom is a sui generis situation which in many aspects different from that lived outside the school environment. Therefore, according to Sara Vicente, the foreign language teacher should not try to reproduce in the classroom the authentic communicative structures, without having first studied the differences between both. This leads Sera Vicente to unmask the myth of the silent and reserved teacher, by stressing the necessity of an intense verbal input: for the teacher must talk a lot more than the learner. According to the author, instead of trying to replicate the norms of the target language in the schoolroom, the teacher should try to spot moments of authentic communication and use them in a more effective learning process of a foreign language. Thus, it is particularly relevant that the main language used in class be the foreign language. The input given by the teacher is key-for it models, motivates and enlightens the interaction in class. Within this context, 25% of a lesson, which is taken up with formalities, should be used instead to help the learners develop their communication skills. Finally, Vicente gives a few defined in theory, and how the process occurs, in practical terms, in foreign language teaching. Sieberg and Jürgen Kurtz share an ample approach to this matter, however from a linguistic perspective and not a didactic one such as Kurtz. The essay promotes a new consciousness regarding the teaching and learning of a foreign language or of a second language. According to Sieberg, many morpho-syntactic features, of spoken language, which he considers essential to oral communication, are ignored in most models used in the teaching and learning of a foreign language. However there is an abundance of linguistic studies that describe and define. As examples Sieberg points out the operators in structures operators + scopes which serve, among other functions, as links between turn taking in a dialogue. He also highlights the different variants of elliptical structures, that often occur as an outcome of the integration of verbal action in non-verbal action.