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The role of literature in intercultural language education
No full textIn this article we discuss how the design of a higher education language course can challenge the power of sentimentality in the classroom. In particular, the paper analyses the role of literature in intercultural language education through the lens of affect theory, while focusing on minimizing sentimentality in the classroom, especially when the literary texts used confront students with trauma-related content involving human rights abuse, death and suffering, and trigger discomforting emotions in students such as sadness, anguish, fear and more. We suggest that it is important for educators and students in higher education to recognize the affective and biopolitical dimensions of literature teaching in intercultural language education. This is illustrated through the design of an English language course syllabus in an Argentinian higher education setting. The paper concludes with a discussion of the curricular and pedagogical implications for intercultural language education
Image-text relations and interjections in animated language-learning materials
No full textThis study examined image-text relations in English-as-a-foreign-language textbooks focusing on moving-image animations that accompany verbal dialogues. It also explores how animations support verbal dialogues in the textbooks. Data sources include three major versions of junior high school textbooks locally-produced in Taiwan, each consisting of 6 books, one for each semester. Findings show that animations enter into one specific type of image-text relations with the textual dialogue, i.e., a relation of Complementarity: Augmentation, by providing information that is consistent with and additional to the dialogues in a number of ways. The animations provide the rationale for a particular part of the dialogue not otherwise apparent, they portray another participant in the dialogue in addition to the speaker of the conversation turn, and they reveal a speaker’s emotional response that is not expressed verbally in the dialogue. In naturally-occurring conversations, these emotions would usually be expressed through interjections, but are mostly absent from the verbal dialogues in these textbooks. As such, the animations also serve to substitute the pragmatic markers that should have been present in the verbal text. Based on these findings, the article concludes by providing pedagogical recommendations for how animations could be used to guide language learners in exploring the possible communicative functions of appropriate interjections in the textbook dialogues in order to develop learners’ pragmatic competence
Review of Contextual Language Learning: Real Language Learning on the Continuum from Virtuality to Reality
No full textContextual Language Learning: Real Language Learning on the Continuum from Virtuality to Reality edited by Yu-Ju Lan & Scott Grant, Springer Nature (2021). xii, 202pp., 978-981-16-3415-4 (paperback), ISBN 978-981-16-3416-1 (eBook)
A commentary on four papers in the second language vocabulary learning strand for the JALT Vocabulary SIG
No full textIn this commentary, the following four papers have been reviewed and discussed: Vocabulary Learning Outside of the Classroom: Institutional Use of a Spaced Repetition Vocabulary Learning App (Mueller & Hays, 2022), Developing a Discipline-Specific Corpus and High-Frequency Word List for Science and Engineering Students in the Graduate School (Uehara et al., 2022), Rasch-based Instrument Validations for an Augmented Reality Vocabulary Acquisition Experiment (Dabrowski, 2022), and Orthographic Processing of Proper Names: A Proposal to Investigate the Orthographic Cue for Second Language Readers (Klassen, 2022)
Dealing with the “elephant in the classroom”: Developing language students’ machine translation literacy
No full textIn this article, we discuss the need for a new digital literacy among language students, namely a literacy in relation to the use of machine translation (MT): MT literacy, following Bowker and Buitrago Ciro (2019). This article does not focus on translation students who, due to the demands of the translation market, have already received a lot of attention from researchers. Rather, we focus on undergraduate language students, and argue that because of their massive use of free online translators–either to translate or to read and write in the language they are learning–instructors need to include a discus-sion on such tools. We argue that this discussion should include technical and ethical considerations, with a focus on how to ensure that students are able to use MT critically, identifying and correcting errors, for future professional use. Finally, we discuss the thorny issue of evaluation for this type of digital literacy. The discussion is based on several experiments conducted with undergraduate students enrolled in their final year of a three-year program in applied languages. We also believe that the teach-ing of such skills should not be restricted to language students, since students of all disciplines use online translators, and may continue to do so throughout their professional lives
Review of Teacher Transition into Innovative Learning Environments: A Global Perspective
No full textTeacher Transition into Innovative Learning Environments: A Global Perspective, edited by Wesley Imms and Thomas Kvan Springer, 2021. 334pp, $99.00 (Paperback) Open Access (eBook). ISBN 9789811574962
Bridging out-of-school digital literacy through multimodal composition for EFL students with developing proficiency
No full textThis action research examined the process of integrating students’ out-of-school digital literacy into a second language composition class and the role of social mediation in developing learner agency. It involved EFL students with pre-basic and basic proficiency (pre-A1 to A1-A2 on the CEFR level) in a Saudi Arabian university. Using socially mediated view of literacy and learner agency as a theoretical framework, this study reveals the complex ways in which the students composed multimodal texts while relying on their agency to utilize the digital tools. Data sources include interviews with the students, teacher-researcher reflections, and the students’ multimodal texts. The data reveal that through three distinct bridging practices, the students skillfully navigated through different reading sources and digital tools when they composed their multimodal texts (technological bridging), thus affording the opportunities for them to express themselves authentically (identity bridging) and to engage with the text that they composed meaningfully (semiotic bridging). However, there was a trade-off in terms of the teacher’s role in facilitating learner agency and linguistic accuracy. Focus on content lowered the bar on acceptable grammar mistakes. This insight corroborates existing literature on the need for a balanced pedagogical focus on content and accuracy in multimodal composition. This study has implications for teachers who wish to reimagine EFL composition by connecting it to students’ literacy practices, particularly to those with pre-basic and basic proficiency
Student engagement with computermediated teacher written corrective feedback: A case study
No full textMuch of the research on the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) scope and strategies has been (quasi-)experimental, generating results peripherally related to authentic classroom contexts. Underpinned by a multidimensional conceptual framework of student engagement with WCF, this classroombased study has explored the scope and strategies used by the teacher regarding WCF. It also investigated how two ESL university students behaviorally, cognitively, and affectively engaged with the scope and strategies of computer-mediated teacher WCF to improve the accuracy of the second draft of the introduction and methodology sections of their research proposal. Data from multiple sources, including students’ written texts, screencasts that captured students’ revision process, stimulated recall, and semi-structured interviews were analyzed. The findings revealed that the scope of computer-mediated teacher WCF was comprehensive, and the most frequently employed feedback strategy was direct WCF, often accompanied by metalinguistic explanation. Behaviorally, the students improved their drafts’ accuracy based on such feedback; however, their cognitive engagement was mediocre. Although affectively the students often experienced positive reactions toward feedback strategies, they felt overwhelmed by a large number of comments
Text-based SCMC for SLA: A narrative review
No full textThis review discusses and compares the findings of 38 peer-reviewed studies on text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication for second or foreign language learning from over the past twelve years. Research themes that emerged include: modality, corrective feedback, noticing, alignment and uptake, as well as task design/conditions and grouping. The comparison of findings revealed that the medium may enhance or hinder language learning depending on the context, method of implementation, and pedagogical aims. It also uncovers implications for language learning theory and practice that are less evident when examining each study in isolation, including findings on face-preservation and learner engagement, features of communication besides negotiation of meaning that lead to language acquisition, as well as a possible interaction between cognitive complexity and modality in the effectiveness of language learning tasks
Revisiting effective language learning environments for learners in the digital era: A literature review
No full textThe purpose of this article is to offer a narrative review of research on effective language learning environments for learners in the digital era. To do this, a search strategy was employed to retrieve both conceptual analyses and empirical studies, initially including whether published as journal articles or book chapters. The collected data were compared conceptually, analyzed, synthesized, paraphrased, and eventually coded into related sub-headings or themes. Subsequently, the researcher reconceptualizes contributing factors to an effective language learning environment for the digital generation. Interrelationship between the language learning environment and learners’ performances is also reviewed. Theoretically, this comprehensive revision will help language teachers and stakeholders have a clear insight into the language learning environment and assist them in taking appropriate actions to create more effective learning conditions for their learners