Language Teachers’ Target Language project: Language for specific purposes of language teaching

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexey Korenev ◽  
Carolyn Westbrook ◽  
Yvonne Merry ◽  
Tatiana Ershova
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Test ◽  
State University ◽  
Future Teachers ◽  
Language For Specific Purposes ◽  
Moscow State University

The Language Teachers’ Target Language project (LTTL) aims to describe language teachers’ target language use domain (Bachman & Palmer 2010) and to develop a language test for future teachers of English. The team comprises four researchers from Moscow State University (MSU) and Southampton Solent University.

Pedagogical Descriptions of Language: Grammar

1989 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 187-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Larsen-Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Focus On Form ◽  
Form Versus ◽  
Learner Performance ◽  
Language Form ◽  
Teaching Grammar

For hundreds of years, language educators have alternated between favoring language teaching approaches which focus on language form and those which emphasize language use or which focus on the message (Celce-Murcia 1979). For the greater part of this past decade, it has been the latter which have been fashionable. As a consequence, language teachers have been discouraged from teaching grammar. In fact, during the 1980s explicit grammer instruction has even been proscribed by certain methodologists (Krashen 1982; 1985, Krashen and Terrell 1983, Prabhu 1987). Although this position has been repeatedly assailed (Higgs and Clifford 1982, Long 1983; 1988, Harley and Swain 1984, Pienemann 1984), the proscribers persist. Only as recently as June 1988, Van Patten concluded that “…research evidence to date does not suggest that a focus on form is either necessary or beneficial to early stage learners’ (1988:243). Undeniable is the fact that research has pointed to a difference in learner performance (e.g., type of errors made) depending on whether there is a focus on form or not (Pica 1983, Spada 1987); still to be resolved, and surely an issue which will motivate much research in the next decade, is the extent to which a focus on form versus on a focus on message affects the rate of target language attainment. Such research will hopefully be conducted in a way which disambiguates “focus on form” (Larsen-Freeman and Long 1988, Beretta 1989).

scholarly journals Linguistic Loneliness and Study Abroad

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-58
Author(s):  
Cynthia Slagter ◽  
Marcie J. Pyper
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Test ◽  
Before And After

This article considers the conflict between students’ desire to improve their target language skills and their desire for belonging and community . The stud y, conducted over three years, examines student perceptions of barriers to target language gain during semester long study abroad. Participants completed surveys, took the Versant Language Test before and after their study abroad experience, and partici pated in a post program interview . Results suggest that students experience conflicting priorities in decisions governing native language versus target language use during study abroad. Although some persist in speaking the target language with their co national peers, they find it unsatisfying because they are unable to meet their social needs . Valuing relationships over linguistic improvements, students resort to speaking their native language among themselves during study abroad . The research ers suggest strategies for how to best prepare students to reconcile these tensions.

How to Engage Learners in Authentic Target Language Use - Examples from an Autonomy Classroom

10.47908/9/5 ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 96-117
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Autonomous Learning ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Not Given ◽  
German School ◽  
Authentic Language ◽  
Positive Results

‘But how can they say anything in the foreign language if they are not given the words beforehand?’ Language teachers often ask this question when I present examples of target language use in an autonomy classroom. This article explains how from the very beginning it is possible to engage pupils in authentic target language use, including communication that does not involve the teacher. The oral and written examples that I use to support my argument were produced by learners aged between 10 and 16 and ranging in proficiency from beginners to intermediate level. When I introduce each activity I also describe the pre-requisites for its success. In the last section of the article I summarise the positive results achieved in the autonomy classroom, which I illustrate using two sets of peer-to-peer talks collected by the LAALE project (Language Acquisition in an Autonomous Learning Environment), one from a ‘traditional’, communicative classroom in a German school, the other from a Danish autonomy classroom. I conclude by listing the essential features of an autonomous classroom supporting authentic language use.

A contextualised examination of target language use in the primary school foreign language classroom

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Carless
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Classroom Language

Abstract This article discusses an issue which is of longstanding and central importance to foreign language teachers in a variety of contexts, namely teacher use of classroom language. It uses detailed qualitative case study data to explore how and why an expert practitioner uses English in her Hong Kong Primary school language classroom. Through the interplay between teacher beliefs, experiences and classroom transcript data, the paper develops a contextualised picture of classroom language use with young foreign language learners. The paper suggests that it is not necessarily the language proficiency of the learners which plays a major role in the quantity of target language use, but the teachers’ own proficiency, experience and beliefs.

scholarly journals Qualities of an Ideal Language Teacher: A Gender-Based Investigation

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
OLANIYAN-SHOBOWALE, K.O. (Ph.D) ◽  
Arimiyau Olanike Sekinat
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
T Test ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
State University ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Lagos State ◽  
Ideal Language ◽  
Gender Based

<em>Teachers influence to a large extent, the attitudes learners of a language have towards a target language. The question is thus asked, What do the language students want to see in their teachers?, what personality traits and professional qualities would endear teachers of languages to the their students? and how would these qualities be determined or influenced by the gender of selected respondents?. This study aims at identifying the qualities of an ideal language teacher as perceived by language undergraduates students at the Lagos State University. Selected respondents answered to a 42-item Likert-scale questionnaire concerning their perceived notion of qualities or personality traits of a successful language teacher. Independent sample t-test was used to calculate and identify any gender-based differences. Recommendations was made along the need to enhance the inherent personality traits and professional qualities of language teachers, explore the optimum potentials in order to maximize students language learning potentials. </em>

scholarly journals Teaching intercultural communicative competence through the four skills

2008 ◽  
pp. 157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Usó Juan ◽  
Alicia Martínez Flor
Keyword(s):  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Communicative Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
Point Of Departure

Nowadays, the most accepted instructional framework in second or foreign language (L2) programs is Communicative Language Teaching, whose main goal is to increase learners’ communicative competence. This theoretical term means being able to use the linguistic system effectively and appropriately in the target language and culture. However, the implementation of a communicative methodology is not an easy task since it requires an understanding of the integrated nature of the theoretical concept of communicative competence (Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2005). Therefore, it is the main goal of this paper to help language teachers better understand such a theoretical concept for improving their classroom practices. In so doing, we first provide an explanation of the theoretical concept of communicative competence. Then, a current framework of communicative competence, which aims at highlighting the function of the four macro-skills to build discourse competence for communicative purposes and reflects our conceptualization of language teaching is briefly discussed (Usó-Juan and Martínez-Flor, 2006a). Finally, on the basis of this framework, and taking the intercultural component as the point of departure, a variety of activities in the four language skills are presented for teaching learners intercultural communicative competence.

Environmental Aspects of Successful English Language Teaching Practices in Rural Sabah Low Enrolment Schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Norazrina Ag-Ahmad ◽  
Bernadette Peter Lidadun
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Environmental Aspects

This study explores the environmental aspects or concepts underlying successful English Language Teaching (ELT) as well as the support needed and the challenges that are faced by a group of primary school teachers in the context of a low enrolment school in a rural area in Sabah, Malaysia. This study adopted an exploratory qualitative approach which involved seven English language teachers who have had more than five years of teaching experience. A set of semi-structured interview questions were formulated to elicit data on the  concepts and the conditions that could either help or hinder the incorporation of those concepts in ELT. Qualitative analysis of participants’ interview data indicated that exposure to the target language, motivation and goals were the environmental aspects of language teaching practices that   affect students’ success in second language acquisition. Support from   parents, teachers and school authorities were essential in     assimilating these aspects in the teaching practices. It was found that the participants expressed tension between what they believed to be good practices and what they were restricted to do due to contextual barriers. Among the main barriers identified in this study were changes in education policy, insufficient financial support and infrastructure as well as lack of monitoring of the execution of activities in schools. Findings in this study have important implications to policy makers and curriculum developers.

scholarly journals ATTRIBUTES OF EFFECTIVE FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS: INSIGHTS FROM UKRAINE

2021 ◽  
pp. 33-41
Author(s):  
Marianna Levrints (Lőrincz) ◽  
Svitlana Myshko ◽  
Kateryna Lizák
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Effective Teaching ◽  
Teacher Effectiveness ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Foreign Language Teachers ◽  
Significant Difference

  The paper set out to explore pre-and in-service foreign language teachers’ perceptions of attributes of effective teachers in Ukraine within a framework developed by the authors of the study to unravel the construct of effective language teaching. Two groups of pre-service (n=105) and in-service (n=127) teachers were recruited using a snowball sampling technique. The independent samples t-test and MANOVA statistical procedures were utilised to analyse and compare data generated from a self-report questionnaire. The findings indicated that the highest value was assigned to the performance category of teacher effectiveness, followed by the prerequisite category, including teacher competence, with the lowest value attached to the output category. A considerable degree of convergence was observed in students’ and teachers’ views on many attributes of teacher effectiveness.  Both groups endorsed such attributes as clear teaching, target language proficiency, knowledge of language pedagogy, active engagement of learners, downplaying the importance of learners’ test scores. Nevertheless, a statistically significant difference was detected between the perceptions of the two groups of subjects. The students accentuated teachers’ personality and rapport domains, as well as motivating instruction. They also endorsed traditional approaches to language teaching in giving preference to form-focused instruction. Conversely, the teachers associated effective teaching with competence, careful planning and ongoing professional development. Teachers gave precedence to current methodological approaches in favouring meaning-focused instruction. A conclusion was drawn that teachers form more sophisticated cognitions of effective teaching in the process of professional maturation, thus implying the necessity for closer attention to the development of prospective teachers’ cognitions in teacher education programmes. 

scholarly journals TASK-BASED LEARNING IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL) CLASSROOM: WHAT, HOW AND WHY?

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-146
Author(s):  
Muhammad Badrus Sholeh ◽  
Kisman Salija ◽  
Sahril Nur
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Communicative Language Teaching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Real Language ◽  
English Classroom ◽  
Authentic Language

Task-based Learning is increasingly prevalent worldwide. It emphasizes on authentic language use and asks students to perform meaningful tasks. English teaching by tasks is considered useful in a language classroom because the students are expected to learn better the target language when tasks are used in language teaching. The tasks are designed to establish a real language use objectives and to create a natural language acquisition setting. Task-based Learning, often considered being the powerful Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) version, gradually becoming second-language learning. This article describes the Task-based Learning definition, to recognize the principles and characteristics of Task-based Learning, to examine how to implement Task-based Learning in the English classroom, and to clarify the advantages of this approach.

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