scholarly journals Editorial

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Mercer ◽  
Stephen Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Educational Activity ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Aims And Scope

The various papers that make up this special issue of Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching have emerged from the first Psychology in Language Learning (PLL) conference, which took place in May 2014 at the University of Graz, Austria. We would like to open this special issue—the first of a series of two—by discussing that conference’s background, its focus, and its possible future in the hope that such a discussion will clarify our current aims and scope in this special issue. The original impetus for organising the conference came from a book that we, the editors of this special issue, were privileged to edit (Mercer, Ryan, & Williams, 2012). The rationale behind that book was to bring together different areas of language learning psychology within a single volume. The experience of working on the book in conjunction with so many distinguished scholars from around the world convinced us of the potential of an approach that emphasises the commonality between various strands of research that had previously been developing in isolation from each other. Many subareas of our field, such as motivation, autonomy, self, identity, strategy use, and beliefs, have existed as separate communities, with little exploration of the interplay and connections between these closely related areas. Our aim in organising the 2014 conference was to build on the momentum of the book by creating a shared space that would facilitate exchange, and providing opportunities to explore and expand upon how these different areas are interlinked. A secondary aim was to reinterpret the word psychology within the context of foreign language education. For so long, psychology has been closely associated with cognitive processes in second language acquisition and with psycholinguistics, but in our book, the conference, and in this special issue, we are seeking to specifically foreground social and educational psychology themes. Language learning is primarily a social and educational activity and we feel that these dimensions also need to be reflected in how we frame discussions of the psychology of learning a second or foreign language.

scholarly journals Christopher Brumfit Award 2014

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-433
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Quality Of Presentation

The Editor and Board of Language Teaching are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2014 Christopher Brumfit thesis award is Dr Hilde van Zeeland. The thesis was selected by an external panel of judges based on its significance to the field of second language acquisition, second or foreign language learning and teaching, originality and creativity and quality of presentation.

scholarly journals Christopher Brumfit Ph.D./Ed.D. Thesis Award 2011

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-408
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Quality Of Presentation

The Editor and Board of Language Teaching are pleased to announce that there were two tied winners of the 2011 Christopher Brumfit thesis award: Dr Cecilia Guanfang Zhao and Dr Catherine van Beuningen. Both theses were selected by an external panel of judges on the basis of their significance to the field of second language acquisition, second or foreign language learning and teaching, as well as their originality, creativity and quality of presentation.

scholarly journals EMERGING FACTORS OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) AND ITS APPLICATION IN INDONESIAN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL) CLASSROOMS

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Abd Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Communicative Language Teaching ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Efl Context ◽  
Main Factors

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been adopted in many countries and has influenced the foreign and second language learning and teaching. This article aims to explore the emerging factors of CLT and how CLT is practiced in Indonesian EFL classroom. This study finds that there are three main phases of the development of CLT. Started from the works of Hymes (1967, 1972), Canale and Swain (1980) and Bachman (1990). Moreover, recent theories in second language acquisition and globalization are two main factors which lead to the widespread of CLT. Finally, in the EFL context the application of CLT has faced many challenges. Socio-cultures, grammar and reading-based exam, and teachers’ low English proficiency make the application of CLT in Indonesian EFL classroom has not reached its objectives yet.  

scholarly journals Review of Directed motivational currents and language education: Exploring implications for pedagogy; Author: Christine Muir; Publisher: Multilingual Matters, 2020; ISBN: 978-1-78892-884-7; Pages: 252

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 807-811
Author(s):  
Mirosław Pawlak
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Learning Frameworks

The construct of a directed motivational current (DMC), or “. . . a surge of motivational energy that seemingly picks an individual up and carries them sometimes unimaginable distances” (p. xvi) was introduced into research on motivation in second and foreign language (L2) learning less than a decade ago (e.g., Dörnyei, Ibrahim, & Muir, 2015; Muir & Dörnyei, 2013). Despite being a relative newcomer to the field, the concept has provided an impulse for empirical investigations which have primarily focused on validating its core assumptions and proposed dimensions using largely qualitative methodology (e.g., Safdari & Maftoon, 2007; Zarrinabadi & Tavakoli, 2017). The book Directed Motivational Currents in Language Education: Implications for Pedagogy by Christine Muir is another valuable addition to this line of inquiry and it can be seen in a way as a follow-up to and extension of the monograph Motivational Currents in Language Learning: Frameworks for Focused Interventions that she co-authored with Zoltán Dörnyei and Alastair Henry in 2016. Since I had the opportunity to write a review of this volume for Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching (Pawlak, 2017), I was all the more curious to see how research on DMCs has progressed and what promise it currently holds for L2 pedagogy. Therefore, the moment the publisher contacted me with the suggestion that SSLLT might be a good venue for a review, I immediately jumped on the offer and simply felt compelled to take on this task myself. I have to say from the get-go that the book has lived up to my expectations and, although I might be somewhat skeptical about some of the implications for classroom practice, I have to admit that Christine Muir’s work represents a so-much-needed step forward in the study of DMCs. This certainly cannot too often be said about all the apparently innovative ideas introduced into the domain of second language acquisition research.

scholarly journals Editorial

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-560
Author(s):  
Mirosław Pawlak
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Individual Factors ◽  
Learning And Teaching

The last 2016 issue of Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching includes six papers, five of which are reports of original research projects and one is a conceptual piece. The initial two contributions are concerned with different aspects of pragmatics, both with respect to the teaching of this subsystem and the process of its acquisition. In the first of these, Andrew D. Cohen addresses the crucial issue of how native and non-native teachers of second and foreign languages deal with sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic features in their classes. He reports the findings of an online survey of 113 teachers of different additional languages from across the world, which demonstrated that while there exist many similarities between the native and non-native instructors, the former are often at an advantage, although they by no means confine themselves to reliance on their intuition. In the second, Qiong Li undertakes a synthesis of 26 original longitudinal research studies on naturalistic pragmatic development in adult learners with the purpose of identifying patterns of variation in the acquisition of pragmatic features and providing potential explanations for the occurrence of such variation. The analysis showed that there are differences in the rate of development of various aspects of pragmatics (e.g., speech acts vs. lexical features), which can be accounted for in terms of factors related to the target language (e.g., the frequency of the feature in the input), the situation (e.g., social status) and the learner (e.g., initial knowledge about the target feature). The following two papers shift the emphasis to the role of individual factors in the process of second language acquisition, more specifically the contributions of motivation and willingness to communicate (WTC). Ali Al-Hoorie reports the results of a survey study conducted among 311 young Arabic adult learners of English as a foreign language, providing evidence, somewhat in contrast to much previous research, that achievement in second language learning is a function of implicit attitudes to L2 speakers and L2 learning experience rather than the ought-to self or attachment to the L1 group, with such constructs as the ideal L2 self or intended effort being unrelated to success. The study by Mystkowska-Wiertelak investigated fluctuations in WTC of advanced learners of English during seven conversation classes which she taught over the period of one semester. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data gathered by means of self-assessment girds, interviews, questionnaires and detailed lesson plans indicated that WTC was indeed in a state of flux, both within single lessons and over time, with such changes being attributed to an intricate interplay of contextual and individual factors. The last two contributions focus on the role of critical thinking in foreign language learning. Jelena Bobkina and Svetlana Stefanova present a model of teaching critical thinking skills with the help of literature, arguing that such skills can be fostered through encouraging critical reader response to fictional work embedded in social phenomena as well as illustrating how this model can be applied to classroom practice. In the last paper, Paweł Sobkowiak underscores the interdependence of critical thinking and the development of intercultural competence, discussing the findings of a study of 20 coursebooks used in the Polish contexts and concluding that activities used in these coursebooks fall short of achieving either goal. As always, I am confident that all of the papers included in the present issue will provide food for thought to the readers and serve as a springboard for future empirical investigations that will help us better understand the exceedingly complex processes of second language learning and teaching.

scholarly journals Christopher Brumfit award 2015

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-151
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Quality Of Presentation

The Editor and Board of Language Teaching are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2015 Christopher Brumfit thesis award is Dr Armin Berger. The thesis was selected by an external panel of judges based on its significance to the field of second language acquisition, second or foreign language learning and teaching, originality and creativity, and quality of presentation.

scholarly journals Christopher Brumfit Ph.D./Ed.D. Thesis Award 2013

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-412
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Quality Of Presentation

The Editor and Board of Language Teaching are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2013 Christopher Brumfit thesis award is Dr. Ellen Johnson Serafini. The thesis was selected by an external panel of judges based on its significance to the field of second language acquisition, second or foreign language learning and teaching, originality and creativity and quality of presentation.

Improving The Students’ Pronunciation Competence in a Second Language Acquisition Through the Implementation of Lesson Study in Faculty of Language Education of Indraprasta PGRI University Jakarta

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syahfitri Purnama
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Target Language

When speaking or reading a foreign language, Students always doing mispronunciations. When speaking or reading a foreign language. They are errors in encoding at the productive phonological level. They still do not know the system of the target language sounds which are different from their first language but the fact that few second language learners are able to speak a second language without showing evidence of the transfer of pronunciation features of their native language is evidence of the difficulty of acquiring a native like pronunciation, but also of the goals learners set for themselves. Many learners are quite comfortable to show evidence of their native language on their second language phonology, since it is sometimes viewed as a core part of their cultural identity. The research question is how to improve the students’ pronunciation competence in a second language learning through the implementation of lesson study? The lesson study team meets to plan a research lesson to discuss the research lesson and in which classroom it will be taught. They decide what data the team will collect and how to collect it. This phase happens one day to one to make the syllabus design through the lecturers collaboration with the purpose is to learn successful teaching techniques and behaviors from other lecturers, to improve students learning based on observation. This research is qualitative research and data are taken from the students’ pronunciation while they are presenting paper in the classroom. The lecturer found some mispronounce words, they did not pronounce well for dental [θ] for think, labio- dental [f] for phoneme, cluster [kj] for occurrence, diphthong [ai] for phsychology. They did interlingual and intralingual processes. For helping the students better in pronouncing, it is done by using the lesson study by doing; plan, do, check and acts. Lesson Study is appropriate to encourage a learning community consistently and systematically and also can help lecturers and students in their competences.

scholarly journals Christopher Brumfit Ph.D./Ed.D. Thesis Award 2012

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-436
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Quality Of Presentation

The Editor and Board of Language Teaching are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2012 Christopher Brumfit thesis award is Dr Jim Ranalli. The thesis was selected by an external panel of judges based on its significance to the field of second language acquisition, second or foreign language learning and teaching, originality and creativity and quality of presentation.

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