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Educational social media tools: Promoting student investment and language identity in the midst of digital surveillance
No full textThere is increasing interest in how educational technologies can be used to promote and create meaningful learning opportunities, and more specifically, how social media tools can be harnessed to encourage language learning through online interactions. Educational social media tools, however, thrust student learning from a private space to a public one and raise ethical concerns regarding digital surveillance. Drawing from Norton’s (2013) conceptualisation of language investment and identity and Bourdieu’s thinking tools of habitus and field, this paper explores the attitudes and experiences of 30 Japanese exchange students, studying at a high school in Australia, as they engage with the educational social media platform, Edmodo. This action research study aimed to encourage language investment by providing an online space for students to develop their English language identities in and amongt their Japanese peers. However, this study found that many of the participating students resisted and/or disliked using Edmodo due to feeling restricted by the platform, highlighting the need for students to have a sense of autonomy in the midst of teacher control and surveillance. Additionally, this study reveals that the students who engaged regularly, and without the prompting of the teacher, were students who were academically stronger, suggesting that students’ self-efficacy is closely linked to language investment and the willingness to develop their language identity
Using ALC Press Inc.’s NetAcademy next as the main resource in lower-level university English CALL classes in Japan: A case study
No full textIn this article, the results of a case study are reported. The focus was on the development and implementation of a “regular class” format (a standard lesson plan) for teachers of lower-level English learners whose English call courses incorporate alc Press Inc.’s NetAcademy Next as the main resource. The relevant literature was firstly drawn upon to determine what a class for lower-level English learners should aim to provide (including chunk-based reading, reading aloud, repetition, etc.). The “regular class” format and a handout template to complement it were then created. Both were then implemented in the researcher’s Spring, 2018 call classes and feedback sought from ninety-four learners
Sign language learning and assessment in German Switzerland: Exploring the potential of vocabulary size tests for Swiss German Sign Language
No full textIn German Switzerland the learning and assessment of Swiss German Sign Language (Deutschschweizerische Gebärdensprache, DSGS) takes place in different contexts, for example, in tertiary education or in continuous education courses. By way of the still ongoing implementation of the Common European Framework of Reference for DSGS, different tests and assessment procedures are currently been developed and their potential are explored to support the learning and assessment of DSGS. Examples of this are two vocabulary size tests. The first is a web-delivered Yes/No Test, the second a Translation Test from written German to DSGS. For both tests, the same set of items was used. The items were sampled from DSGS teaching materials.
For the development of the two vocabulary size tests, 20 DSGS adult learners of ages 24 to 55 (M = 39.3) were recruited as test takers. An item analysis of the test results yielded candidates for removal from the item set. Cronbach’s Alpha showed good results for both tests (>.90), and inter-rater reliability of the translation test also indicated promising results (Cohen’s Kappa = .613, p <.001). Evidence contributing to content validity was collected based on the sampling method of the test items. Due to the lack of a second DSGS vocabulary test that could be used to establish concurrent validity, external variables were identified and investigated as possible external criteria contributing to the performance of the test takers. One variable, number of courses attended, showed a significant correlation with the test results
Foreign language vocabulary learning and the type of processing-resource allocation model
No full textThis paper argues the nature of adult foreign or second language (L2) vocabulary learning and points out the importance of word-form learning at the initial stage of vocabulary development. The Type of Processing-Resource Allocation (TOPRA) model is introduced as a prominent theoretical framework to capture it. Finally, some future studies are proposed to reinforce TOPRA-based studies with respect to (1) types of vocabulary processing tasks and (2) dimensions of vocabulary development
Evaluating a flipped intermediate Spanish course through students and instructor’s perceptions
No full textThis case study examined students’ and their instructor’s perceptions and experiences in a flipped intermediate Spanish course which aimed to leverage class time for more interactive and communicative tasks to increase the use of language. Through student surveys and instructor interviews, this study found contrastive perspectives between the students’ and instructor’s experiences. Results from student surveys showed that their perceptions were lower but positive at the end of the course when compared to the start of the course. In contrast, the instructor had mixed perceptions before and after the course. Discussion of these contrastive perceptions and experiences are presented, as well as of online tasks and classroom activities. In addition, implications are presented in light of increasing our understanding of the affordances that flipped learning offers for language learning, learners’ agency, and instructor’s support
The council of Europe reference framework of competences for democratic culture: Ideological refractions, othering and obedient politics
No full textThe popularity of the idea of interculturality, in different parts of the world, means that there are many differing meanings and ways in which the notion is understood, represented, and expressed. In contrast to the polysemy of the intercultural, democracy often appears on the surface to be understood through universalist and/or absolutist conceptualisations. Combining the intercultural and democracy thus requires problematisation. In this article we use The Council of Europe Reference Framework On Competencies For Democratic Culture (2018) as an example showing how the notion of the intercultural is constructed. We use a form of intertextuality in order to show the performance of competing ideologies found in this document. Some of the ideologies found within the texts clearly mark Eurocentric discourses and a stigmatization of the other. Also, the way in which the political is sanitized can engender a language of depoliticization and obedience. As a result, we problematise Critical Interculturality as a way to move beyond culturalist self-centered notions of the intercultural arguing that the political and the social cannot be separated from the intercultural when discussing democracy
Japanese EFL learners’ perceptions of different accents in spoken English
No full textDue to the worldwide spread and diversification of English, there is far more variety in English accents than ever before. Nonetheless, most Japanese English language learners have continuously been only exposed to “native” English accents, particularly Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA), in their English language classrooms. As the number of “non-native” English speakers exceeds the number of “native” English speakers in the world, it has been recently questioned whether exposing English language learners to only “native” English accents in English language classrooms is appropriate in this globalised world. The present study attempts to investigate 78 Japanese EFL learners’ perceptions of different accents in spoken English. More specifically, the study examines the influence of “native” and “non-native” English accents on Japanese EFL learners’ perceptions of grammaticality. Four “native” English speakers (i.e., the UK, the US, and Australia) and four “non-native” English speakers (i.e., Vietnam, Japan, Zimbabwe, and Russia) provided the speech samples used in the study. To measure the Japanese EFL learners’ perceptions of grammaticality, they were asked to listen to thirty-two grammatical and ungrammatical sentences read out by the eight speakers and judge each sentence using binary categories (i.e., grammatical/ungrammatical). Moreover, they were asked to identify the place of origins of each speaker and label them as either “native” speaker or “non-native” speaker. The potential underlying factors influencing their judgements and evaluations are discussed, and the implications for research and teaching are also suggested
Evaluating corpora with word lists and word difficulty
No full textThis study examines the application of an IRT analysis of words on lists including the General Service List (GSL), New General Service List (NGSL), Academic Word List (AWL), New Academic Word List (NAWL), and TOEIC Service List (TSL). By comparing line graphs, density distribution graphs, and boxplots for the average difficulty of each word list to related lists, we can get a visualization of the data’s distribution. Japanese EFL students responded to one or more of 84Yes/No test forms compiled from 5,880 unique real words and 2,520 nonwords. The real words were analyzed using Winsteps (Linacre,2005) resulting in IRT estimates for each word. By summing the difficulties of each word, we can calculate the average difficulty of each word list which can then be used to rank the lists. In effect, the process supports the concurrent validity of the lists. The analysis indicates the word family approach results in more difficult word lists. The mean difficulties of the GSL and the BNC_COCA appear to be more divergent and more difficult particularly over the first 4000 words, possibly due to the use of Bauer and Nation’s (1993) Affix Level 6 definition for their compilation. Finally, just as we should expect word lists for beginners to have higher frequency words than subsequent lists, we should also expect them to be easier with more words known to learners. This can be seen with the gradual but marked difference between the different word lists of the NGSL and its supplemental SPs
Promoting social inclusion for migrant populations through media, technologies and languages
No full textWhile the globalized nature of contemporary society can be empowering for many, it may mean the maintenance of social iniquities for others, such as migrant populations. Spain, like many other European countries, has faced a high migration influx in the last decades. As a result, the government has invested in measures orientated toward social inclusion for these populations, including policies for the acquisition of language and culture. To support these efforts, the aim of the present study is twofold: Firstly, to evaluate the design of a cloud-based platform which supports learning authentic language and culture material appearing in media. Secondly, to present the results of a group of 12 trainers teaching language and culture courses through the platform and 63 adult A2-B1 migrants taking the courses offered there. The research examines the main findings of how migrants’ profiles may play a role in the effectiveness of online media as a teaching tool
Interculturality as collaborative identity management in language education
No full textJust over ten years ago, Block (2007, p. 2) called the increasing attention that second language researchers-and social scientists at large-were giving to the construct of “identity” an “obsession.” Since then, the identities of those who use, learn or study a language have been investigated in greater detail (e.g., Benson, Barkhuizen, Bodycott & Brown, 2013; Clarke, 2008; Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009; Edwards, 2009). It may seem that intercultural language education is lagging behind this tendency. However, a number of publications (e.g., Kramsch, 2009; Rivers & Houghton, 2013) suggest that, considering contemporary global societies, the intercultural goals of language learning and teaching can be better promoted by replacing the notion of “culture” with that of multiple “identities” or “subjectivities.” More specifically, language education can aim to make students capable of selecting the language resources available to them in order to express their (developing) desired identities and, at the same time, to recognise the multiple identities that their interlocutors put forth in a given context (Borghetti, 2016). To make the case for this “identity-related intercultural language education,” the article reviews and discusses a number of studies which, from different perspectives, have already argued for a more prominent role of the construct of “identity” in the field of second language education