1,720,966 research outputs found
Interactional competence in the online space: Affordances, challenges and opportunities for TESOL practitioners
No full textInteractional competence (IC) is a concept gaining growing currency in language learning, teaching and assessment. First proposed by Kramsch (1986), IC focuses on developing second language (L2) speakers’ abilities to use language for functional purposes, ranging from “survival as a tourist or a student to negotiating treaties” (p. 366). The conceptualization of language competence as an ability for use differentiates IC from traditional understanding of proficiency, which consists of componential, de-contextualized ability indicators such as lexical range, grammatical soundness, and pronunciation. The ethos of IC emphasizes that language teaching education needs to focus on cultivating L2 speakers’ abilities to use their linguistic resources (e.g., vocabulary and grammar) to achieve meaningful social actions in real-world interactional contexts. This special issue comprises three research articles and three book reviews, each of which exemplifies the ways in which IC can be applied to face-to-face and online learning opportunities for L2 speakers
TESOL in Context, Vol. 32 No. 2 (2024): General Issue
Full text linkThis issue of TESOL in Context contains two articles and two book reviews that illustrate the breadth of the field and scope of the journal. We hope each member of the diverse TESOL in Context readership will find material in this volume that assists in classroom practices or invites higher level reflection of professional identity and the role TESOL practitioners play in ensuring inclusive practices and social cohesion in an increasingly globalised world.
The editors of this issue, Dr Averil Grieve, Dr Sharon Yahalom, and Dr David Wei Dai would like to express their sincere gratitude to the authors, reviewers, editorial board members, the preceding journal coordinator Skye Playsted, and the current journal coordinator Dr Fiona Tang for their efforts, expertise, and dedication in bringing this issue to completion through a challenging period
TESOL in Context, Vol. 31 No. 2 (2023): Digital technology in language teaching and learning
Full text linkThe prevalence of technology in all aspects of life over the past few decades has dictated that schools prepare and equip students to live and work in a world where information is produced and disseminated rapidly. Schools have a further responsibility to train students to acquire critical digital literacy so that they can consciously and responsibly use technology not only for learning but also in all other spheres of their lives. This responsibility was further accentuated when the COVID- 19 pandemic significantly changed the role of instructional technology in schools. Homes became classrooms and teachers had to find innovative ways to impart knowledge and engage learners, especially in language teaching and learning classrooms. It is then very appropriate that TESOL in Context has dedicated this special issue to the ways in which technology is being used across a variety of classroom contexts, ranging from school to university and adult literacy settings. This special issue comprises five research articles and three book reviews expounding on how teachers, guided by particular pedagogical principles, have chosen and employed different technological tools in their language teaching to inspire student learning.
The editors of this special issue, Dr Shashi Nallaya, Dr Julie Choi and Dr Sue Ollerhead would like to express their immense gratitude to the reviewers, editorial board members and journal coordinator Skye Playsted for their time, expertise and dedication in bringing this issue to fruition
Adolescent identity and pragmatic marker acquisition in a study abroad context
Full text link© 2010 Dr. Averil GrieveThis longitudinal study investigated the acquisition of interpersonal markers by adolescent German students on a five or ten month exchange to Australia. Interpersonal markers were defined as syntactically optional elements of speech that provided implicit information about the relationship between the speakers and the message. The study also explored how structured and semi-structured data collection methods impacted on interpersonal marker use.
The data consisted of audio-recordings of informal conversational interviews and the retelling of a story based on Mr Bean DVD clips. A language contact questionnaire was also used to help explain variation in acquisition. Three groups of sixteen to seventeen year old adolescents were recruited for the study: an experimental group of twenty-six German exchange students to Australia, a control group of twenty adolescents in Germany and native-speaker data from a group of twelve Australian adolescents. The experimental group was further divided into fourteen teenagers on a ten month exchange and twelve adolescents on a five month exchange to Australia.
The exchange students acquired a large number of those interpersonal markers most associated with adolescent language within the first five months of their exchange. However, even after ten months of the exchange, levels of interpersonal marker use did not always match that of native speakers. Lower levels of interpersonal markers were found for students participating on a five month exchange compared to those on a ten month programme. This was most likely due to lower levels of personal investment and social integration in the five month cohort. Little or no acquisition was observed for German high school students who did not participate in an extended exchange. On a methodological level, a reliable system for the coding of pragmatic markers was developed. The study also highlighted issues of task effects in interview versus retelling data collection and of collecting information via written language contact profiles. The research adds to the growing repertoire of study abroad and developmental pragmatic competence literature and is of particular interest to exchange programme development as well as curriculum design for second language teaching
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Changing demographics: Supervising international social work students on placement in Australia
Full text linkThis paper reports on a 2017 Australia-wide survey of placement supervisors who work with international social work students. This project is one of the first of its kind that aims to understand the experiences of placement supervisors working with international students, and to identify their professional development needs. The Australian student cohort is currently changing, with a quarter of all university enrolments from overseas (Australian Government, 2015; Harrison & Ip, 2013). The number of international students studying professional degrees has likewise significantly increased (Harrison & Felton, 2013). There is concern, however, that some placement supervisors may have limited skills and experience working with international students, and that there may be a need to strengthen their skills and training for working with international students on placement (Felton & Harrison, 2017; Hvalič-Touzery et al., 2017; Mikkonen et al., 2016). This project is innovative in that it seeks the perspectives of placement supervisors. Preliminary results reveal only a quarter of surveyed supervisors have received training for working with international students, yet a significant majority of respondents feel it should be offered. By engaging the social work placement community, we aim to identify preferred professional development needs, as training for supervisors of international students in social work placements has been found to be uncommon (Felton & Harrison, 2017; Gursansky & Le Sueur, 2012)
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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