scholarly journals The social brain of language: grounding second language learning in social interaction

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Li ◽  
Hyeonjeong Jeong
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Hatim H. Tawfiq

The present study investigates the sociocultural factors that affect second language learning. The investigation is built under five factors that are presumed to affect second language learning. The first factor is related to the effects of personality traits that are linked to second language learning, such as: self-efficiency, willingness, extraversion, and introversion, etc. The second factor pertains to motivation and second language learning. The third one is stereotyping and its effects on second language learning. The fourth is about social distance as a sociocultural factor of second language learning. And the fifth factor is about attitude. The study looks for how much effects do the factors mentioned so far have got in second language learning. A questionnaire is constructed to extract perceptions about the hypothesized factors from 62 participants. Responses are analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to get statistical descriptions about the factors that mostly affect second language learning. The analytic statistics gives the following mean values for each factor: attitude = 20.58, stereotype = 20.00, motivation = 19.84, social distance = 19.74, and personality 18.85. The study concludes with the consensus belief that attitude is a crucial factor of second language learning.


ReCALL ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 3-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Metcalfe

The recent history of the teaching of grammar, both for first- and second-language learning, has produced highly polarised and acrimonious debate. The repercussions have extended beyond the boundaries of linguistics into the social and political domain. The present generation of foreign-language undergraduates has been profoundly (if unknowingly) affected by this debate, as reflected in their approach to the learning of grammar, and any consideration of the methodology of language teaching, including that of CALL, must take account of it.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengying Qian

With the internationalization of education, Chinese students have constituted the largest international student group in the world as well as in Canada. The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences, challenges, and supports specific to the Chinese student population at Canadian universities. In order to triangulate the data from different sources, individual interviews with eight Chinese international students and three International Student Advisors were conducted in this qualitative research. Hofstede's theory on cultural dimensions and the bilinear model of acculturation and enculturation are applied to explain the findings about Chinese international students' experiences and challenges with regard to second language learning, academic studies, social interaction, post-graduation plans, and personal development and identity reshaping. Moreover, based on Chinese international students' awareness and use of supports available to them, this study has implications for practice as to how to improve their support system. Key words: Chinese international students; cultural dimensions; acculturation and enculturation; international student support; second language learning; academic studies; social interaction; post-graduationhengying plans; personal development; identity reshaping


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengying Qian

With the internationalization of education, Chinese students have constituted the largest international student group in the world as well as in Canada. The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences, challenges, and supports specific to the Chinese student population at Canadian universities. In order to triangulate the data from different sources, individual interviews with eight Chinese international students and three International Student Advisors were conducted in this qualitative research. Hofstede's theory on cultural dimensions and the bilinear model of acculturation and enculturation are applied to explain the findings about Chinese international students' experiences and challenges with regard to second language learning, academic studies, social interaction, post-graduation plans, and personal development and identity reshaping. Moreover, based on Chinese international students' awareness and use of supports available to them, this study has implications for practice as to how to improve their support system. Key words: Chinese international students; cultural dimensions; acculturation and enculturation; international student support; second language learning; academic studies; social interaction; post-graduationhengying plans; personal development; identity reshaping


1994 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merrill Swain

In this article the emotive, social aspects of learning ESL in small group settings are explored. The feelings and beliefs of one learner, an adult Japanese woman, are captured as she reflects on her classroom experiences. It is argued that her conscious reflection about her negative emotions and their sources allowed her to act on them, resulting in enhanced second language learning. It is also argued that it may be as important to help learners deal with the social dimensions as the cognitive dimensions of second language learning in order to experience success as a second language learner.


Author(s):  
Jinjing Zhao

Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are perceived to afford informal, contextualized L2 interaction. While earlier CALL research examined MMOGs as a tool for interaction and negotiation, more recent research is moving towards a game-as-ecology view, showing that L2 learning in MMOGs is a complex, interconnected, and dynamic process that is highly contingent on context. This chapter presents an ethnographic study of informal ESL learning mediated by multiplayer gameplay. Drawing on data from questionnaires, interviews, gaming sessions, and gaming journals, the author argues that L2 learners, when playing MMOGs at their own discretion, engage with those game discourses that align with their preferences of gameplay and goals of language learning. The study presented here adds to the growing evidence that affordances of MMOGs must be understood in relation to the learner's history, ability, and preference within the social context of gameplay. These components are interconnected and change dynamically in a coherent learning-gaming ecology.


ReCALL ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noa Talaván ◽  
Ana Ibáñez ◽  
Elena Bárcena

AbstractThis article explores the effects of collaborative reverse subtitling as an activity for the promotion of writing skills in English as a second language. An initial analysis is undertaken of the pros and cons of the role of translation in second language learning historically and the role of information and communication technology in this process, with special attention being paid to recent initiatives on the didactic use of audiovisual translation in the form of subtitling, and the evidence of their efficacy obtained so far. Subsequently, a completed research project is described, which was aimed at promoting second language learning among distance learning university students through collaborative reverse subtitling. Specifically, the project aimed to explore both the potential of a guided subtitling activity for the development of written production skills, and also the dynamics of undertaking such an activity collaboratively, in order to gain insights on the social, cognitive, metacognitive and transfer mechanisms that can be activated in collective study. Finally, we reflect on the need to accumulate evidence on multimodal translating scenarios combining individual and collective work for the development of communicative language competences, through further research and classroom use, in order to consolidate and refine these findings.


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