1,720,992 research outputs found
Giving voice and face to other cultures: the Soliya Connect Program and the development of intercultural communicative competence
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Book Review
Full text linkObra ressenyada: Researching Online Foreign Language Interaction and Exchange, Theories, Methods and Challenges. Melinda Dooly (ed.), Robert O'Dowd, 2012.This book looks at online interaction and exchange which is a language teaching approach that has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers and practitioners in the field of foreign language (FL) education. The book outlines some of the key theoretical approaches, methods and tools that have been productively applied to the study of this type of interaction.Este libro analiza la interacción del intercambio virtual, facilitado por la red, que tiene como su objetivo promocionar el aprendizaje de las lenguas extranjeras. Es un enfoque didáctico que cada vez más atrae la atención de los investigadores y educadores en el campo de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. El libro describe algunos de los enfoques teóricos, métodos y herramientas que se han aplicado de manera productiva para el estudio de este tipo de interacción.Aquest llibre analitza la interacció de l'intercanvi virtual, facilitat per la xarxa, que té com el seu objectiu promocionar l'aprenentatge de les llengües estrangeres. És un enfocament didàctic que cada vegada més atreu l'atenció dels investigadors i educadors en el camp de l'ensenyament de llengües estrangeres. El llibre descriu alguns dels enfocaments teòrics, mètodes i eines que s'han aplicat de manera productiva per a l'estudi d'aquest tipus d'interacció
Writer visibility and agreement / disagreement strategies in online asynchronous interaction: a learner corpus study
No full textAbstractThis paper investigates the language used by a group of Italian advanced EFL learners participating in a private online discussion forum with a group of American university students: using corpus analysis tools, all the contributions to the online debate were investigated to explore which linguistic patterns and pragmatic strategies were used by both groups to express personal visibility in the discussion, as well as to show agreement and disagreement. The Italian learners’ misused interlanguage patterns were then further analysed against the reference model to explore whether mother-tongue habits had influenced their production. The results of corpus observation were finally used to design corpus-based exercises to be used with L2 students to bring their output closer to idiomatic use
“Improvisation is not allowed in a second language”: A survey of Italian lecturers’ concerns about teaching their subjects through English
Full text linkEnglish Medium Instruction (EMI) is increasingly being introduced across European universities in countries where English is not a commonly-used language, such as Italy and other central and southern European countries. However the competences and concerns of the lecturers involved are not always considered when such developments are introduced and support or training may not be offered. This paper reports on a survey on English-Medium Instruction (EMI) to which 115 lecturers in a public university in northern Italy responded. The survey was carried out by the university’s Language Centre as part of the LEAP (Learning English for Academic Purposes) Project which was developed to support lecturers in EMI. The survey sought to identify what the lecturers perceived as their strengths and weakness in English, their concerns and also their evaluations of the experience of teaching through English if they had had any. The findings discussed in this paper shed light on the needs of lecturers that are involved in EMI, which relate to methodology as well as language issues. The implications of this for European Language Centres intending to support EMI at their universities are discussed in the conclusions
Negotiating a transcultural place in an English as a lingua franca telecollaboration exchange: a mixed methods approach to the analysis of intercultural communicative competence and third space in an online Community of Practice
Full text linkThe study presented in this thesis was designed so as to explore the impact of an ELF (English as a lingua franca) telecollaboration exchange on its participants’ intercultural learning and negotiation of shared spaces and subject positions (Kramsch 2009a). After describing the two groups of students involved in the project - one from the University of Padova (Italy), and one from the University of Innsbruck (Austria) - as well as the tasks, topics and tools that were used to prompt discussion on issues related to culture, identity and representation, the study adopted a mixed methods approach to respond to two research questions. The first of these (RQ1) aimed at searching for evidence of intercultural communicative competence (Byram 1997) in the personal texts that the Italian students had produced over the course of the project: in particular, the primary source of data for this investigation were the participants’ weekly diaries, seen as a valuable and uncontaminated source of information about the students’ feelings and experiences (Pavlenko 2007). The second research question (RQ2) explored the emergence of a transcultural “third space” (Kramsch 1993) among the two groups of participants, as well as the construction of fluid and hybrid subject positions within it. For the purposes of this investigation, all the students’ reflective diaries were taken into account together with their posts to online forums and comments to the exchange activities. Overall, the study presented in this thesis offers a new lens through which to look at the nature of intercultural communicative competence, and provides insights into its strict relationship with third space as it emerges in an online Community of Practice (Lave and Wenger 1991). Furthermore, the study highlights the complexity and variety of subject positions that are activated in online intercultural encounters, and which mirror the transnational and transcultural essence of third space. Finally, the study also suggests the utility of combining qualitative and quantitative research approaches so as to gain deeper and more comprehensive understanding of intercultural learning and negotiating processes
Focus on form in CMC: using written learner data to foster language and pragmatic skills in communicative contexts
No full textA survey of lecturers’ needs and feedback on EMI training
No full textThis chapter describes the research study which was carried out at the University of Padova as part of the LEAP project (Learning English for Academic Purposes). It begins with the rationale of the project, which entailed the provision of professional development for lecturers after having identified their needs through a needs analysis. This is followed by a brief review of the literature as regards professional development and lecturer needs in English-medium instruction (EMI). Then a description of the different phases of the project and the relative research questions are provided, followed by our findings and their implications
Sharing Perspectives on English-Medium Instruction
No full textEnglish is increasingly used as a medium of instruction in European higher education not only in northern countries, but also in the European ‘south’. This volume is fruit of a project which was carried out in a public university based in the north-east of Italy with the aim of delivering professional development for university lecturers engaged in EMI. It begins with an overview of the European context, the Italian context, and some of the arguments against the indiscriminate spread of English as a medium of instruction in higher education. The volume then focuses on the microcontext of the university, giving voice to the various stakeholders in EMI. These include researchers, lecturers, administrative staff, those involved in professional development and students. The central part of the volume presents the views and experiences of twelve EMI lecturers from a range of academic disciplines. In sharing these perspectives on EMI, the volume hopes to stimulate critical dialogue and research on the many issues involved in this aspect of internationalisation in higher education institutions
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