scholarly journals Cross-cultural Language Learning: Interpretative Engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-96
Author(s):  
Anzhelika Solodka ◽  
Oksana Filatova ◽  
Oksana Hinkevych ◽  
Oleksandr Spanatiy
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Context Analysis

Conceptualization of foreign language teaching as a cross-cultural interaction means engaging learners in various cultural mediations. Language use becomes a form of interpretative architecture of a target language. Understanding language use from a discursive perspective develops meta-pragmatic awareness and interpretative capacities of learners. The study answers the question of how to design the architecture of context analysis. This research aims to determine the effective ways of interpretative engagement of learners with aspects of pragmatics in the Ukrainian university setting. The study investigates how the process of interaction shapes the engagement of learners in practices of noticing, reflection, and comparison of cross-cultural situations. The data came from a case study on cross-cultural language learning within the second semester, 2021. The study analyzes the audio-recording of the classes, researcher notes, and post-course interviews of 24 participants. This research used a method of the content analysis. The study of the results, based on six categories (narrative analysis, discourse analysis, semiotic analysis, interpretative analyses, conversation analysis, and critical analysis), showed that the learners started to consider the nature of their cross-cultural mediation. The research proved that through such an interpretative engagement, students become engaged into working with languages and cultures. The study presents some recommendations for language teachers to create a meaning-making process from multiple perspectives.

scholarly journals Cross-cultural Language Learning: Interpretative Engagement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anzhelika Solodka ◽  
Oksana Filatova ◽  
Oksana Hinkevych ◽  
Oleksandr Spanatiy
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Context Analysis

Conceptualization of foreign language teaching as a cross-cultural interaction means engaging learners in various cultural mediations. Language use becomes a form of interpretative architecture of a target language. Understanding language use from a discursive perspective develops meta-pragmatic awareness and interpretative capacities of learners. The study answers the question of how to design the architecture of context analysis. This research aims to determine the effective ways of interpretative engagement of learners with aspects of pragmatics in the Ukrainian university setting. The study investigates how the process of interaction shapes the engagement of learners in practices of noticing, reflection, and comparison of cross-cultural situations. The data came from a case study on cross-cultural language learning within the second semester, 2021. The study analyzes the audio-recording of the classes, researcher notes, and post-course interviews of 24 participants. This research used a method of the content analysis. The study of the results, based on six categories (narrative analysis, discourse analysis, semiotic analysis, interpretative analyses, conversation analysis, and critical analysis), showed that the learners started to consider the nature of their cross-cultural mediation. The research proved that through such an interpretative engagement, students become engaged into working with languages and cultures. The study presents some recommendations for language teachers to create a meaning-making process from multiple perspectives.

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 A Study of Language Anxiety among English Language Learners in Saudi Arabia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Badia Muntazer Hakim
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Self Awareness

Classroom anxiety is a recurrent phenomenon for language learners. There are various factors that cause language anxiety, the most common of which include learners’ excessive self-consciousness and self-awareness concerning their oral reproduction and performance and their peculiar, and quite often misplaced and mistaken, views and beliefs regarding different approaches. Other potential reasons for this problem could include the fear, and the consequent deterrence occasioned thereof, of encountering difficulties in language learning, specifically learners’ individual problems regarding the culture of the target language and the varying social statuses of speakers. The most important fear is, perhaps, the deterrent fear of causing damage to one’s self-identity. Therefore, while needing to paying special attention to language learners’ anxiety reactions, language teachers have a crucial role in helping their students achieve the expected performance goals in the target language. Another factor that could potentially lead to language anxiety is simply the poor command of the target language. This problem could be attributed to linguistic barriers and obstacles language learners encounter in learning and using the target language. In the current study, using a qualitative, semi-structured interview and the focus-group discussion technique, the researcher aims to investigate the factors that contribute to language anxiety among Arab language learners. It focuses on learners both within the classroom setting and without, i.e. in the social context, and recommends a number of approaches to manage and overcome this problem.

scholarly journals Cross-cultural Training and Second Language Learning

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Zhonghao Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Training ◽  
Cross Cultural Training ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Culture Teaching ◽  
Culture And Language

Culture and language are inseparable, and cultures as groups adopt particular practices and norms of behavior. Culture teaching is a long and complex process concerning something more than language use itself. The two popular theories influencing practice today are the Constructivist and the Creative Constructionist approaches, and the technique for conveying cultural awareness is cultural assimilator, which has been designed for specific cultures around the world. Cross-cultural training can be used to promote cultural awareness, that is, sensitize people to the influence of culture on people’s values and behaviors and help them recognize and accept the existence of cultural differences.

scholarly journals Teachers’ Perception of Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom

EL LE ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Cucinotta
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Classroom Climate ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Motivational Strategies ◽  
Language Classroom

Motivation can determine success or failure in second language learning process, however there is a limited number of published investigations dedicated to motivational strategies in a European context. The purpose of the present study is to replicate Cheng’s and Dörnyei’s (2007) research to test the validity of their findings in a different cultural milieu. 101 foreign language (FL) and second language (L2) teachers were asked to rate a list of 47 motivational strategies according based on the degree of importance they perceived. In addition, they were also invited to specify how they acquainted with each strategy. The results of the study suggest that, even though the use of motivational strategies is decidedly context-dependent, the prevailing importance of some strategies might be cross-cultural. In particular, strategies related to classroom climate could also be considered as preconditions to employ further strategies. The highest-rated strategies are also indicated as acquired mostly through experience, which highlights the far too little attention that motivational strategies have so far received in education programmes for the formation of language teachers.

Bringing Cross-Cultural Communication Analysis Into Foreign Language Classrooms

2019 ◽  
pp. 71-97
Author(s):  
Trudy O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Language Classrooms

The teaching of a second or foreign language has always incorporated some aspect of cultural information, but the full and rather complex nature of cross-cultural and intercultural communication has not always been an explicit pedagogical focus. The chapter outlines the key components of cross-cultural and intercultural communication (CCC/ICC), and reviews some major theories that have dominated the area. It is suggested that providing explicit instruction in CCC/ICC to language learners will prepare them for interacting appropriately in the target language in whatever global context they may wish to use it. Learners need to be not only linguistically and pragmatically but culturally competent as well as they move into multicultural contexts of interaction in that language. Specific elements of cross-/intercultural communication with regards to linguistic features and potential points of confusion in the EFL (English-as-a-foreign language) classroom are discussed as accessible examples. The chapter then relates some ways that cross-/intercultural mindfulness and understanding can form an active part of the teaching of a second/foreign language in order to enhance the full language learning experience and subsequent entry to successful communication.

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>

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