scholarly journals The evolution of L2 education and research: An overview of paradigm shifts in applied linguistics

2021 ◽  
pp. 211-223
Author(s):  
Agata Wolanin
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Ecological Approach ◽  
Transnational Identity ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
New Approaches

The main aim of the article is to present and discuss the evolution of L2 education and research expressed in two major paradigm shifts that could be observed over the last century: from the modernist approach, through postmodernism and postmethod, to transmodernity. The article also offers an overview of new approaches and trends in L2 education and research that emerged as a result of those watershed changes, in particular: complexity theory, the ecological approach, transnational identity and translanguaging. The paper ends with a brief discussion on how these changes affected L2 researchers and educators and what implications can be grasped.

New Approaches for Managing Tourism Complexity

2011 ◽  
pp. 123-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Ndou
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
New Economy ◽  
Sustainable Competitive Advantage ◽  
Demand Side ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Leverage Points ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Management Approaches

This chapter’s main objective is to provide a new conceptualization of the tourism which has major implications for management approaches, business models and strategy techniques of the sector. The objective is to try to reconcile the complexity of the environment with the managerial techniques and strategies that aim to create sustainable competitive advantage. The author will begin with a review of tourism characteristics of supply and demand side. Then they will analyze the paradigm shifts that are taking place overall in the new economy and the main challenges they bring on in the tourism context. Subsequently, they will discuss the need to realize a shift in tourism conceptualization and management in itself. The author will move their focus of analysis away from traditional, mechanical views of tourism to dynamic approaches that take into account the behavior of the overall system and help identify key leverage points of change and transformation.

Ecological perspectives on foreign language education

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Kramsch
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Foreign Language Education ◽  
Ecological Perspective ◽  
Ecological Approach ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Institutional Contexts

Ecological approaches to language learning and teaching have captured the interest of language educators as both native and non-native speakers find themselves operating in increasingly multilingual and multicultural environments. This paper builds on Kramsch & Whiteside (in press) to conceptualize what an ecological perspective on foreign language education, based on complexity theory, would look like. It first explains some of the major tenets of complexity theory, and analyzes transcriptions of exchanges taking place among multilingual individuals in multicultural settings using the ecological approach offered by complexity theory. Based on what these analyses reveal about the ability of these individuals to shape the very context in which language is learned and used, it discusses the notion of ‘symbolic competence’ recently proposed by Kramsch (2006) and explores how symbolic competence might be developed through foreign language education in institutional contexts.

Tearing us apart again

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 229-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim McNamara
Keyword(s):  
Social Values ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Language Testing ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Individual Test ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
Validation Research

Language testing research is an increasingly divided field, as it responds to the paradigm shifts in broader applied linguistics research. One the one hand, language testing validation research places a fundamental emphasis on the generalisability of results and the appropriateness of inferences based on observed learner performances. This involves a rigorous interrogation of the elicitation instruments, judgments, and observations used to make inferences about individual test takers. At the same time, input from non-measurement traditions are leading to the exploration of new insights into the limitations of such inferences, and to a greater understanding of the social values which imbue tests. This epistemological ferment is as much productive as problematic, and its implications extend to research in other areas of applied linguistics, including SLA.

scholarly journals The learner, the media and the community: How does learning take place in the other CALL triangle?

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Sockett
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
The Other ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
On Demand ◽  
The Media

In this research project, students in applied linguistics were asked to keep blogs over a three-month period in which they reported on their online informal learning of English through activities such as social networking, downloading films and TV series and listening to music on demand. The study is situated within the framework of complexity theory, many aspects of which are well suited to describing informal language development. The blogs are analysed according to a number of learning processes suggested by Larsen-Freeman and Cameron (2008) and a corresponding range of learning activities are observed. Finally, suggestions are made as to possible classroom applications of this work.

scholarly journals Understanding Cities through Networks and Flows

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Boeing
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Nonlinear Dynamic ◽  
New World ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
System Complexity ◽  
New Science ◽  
Large Systems ◽  
New Evidence

Complexity theory has become a popular frame for conceptualizing and analyzing cities. The theory proposes that certain large systems are characterized by the nonlinear, dynamic interactions of their many constituent parts. These systems then behave in novel and unpredictable ways—ways that cannot be divined by examining the components of the system. Complexity theory problematizes traditional reductionist, linear methods of scientifically analyzing and predicting cities. It also opens up a new world of scholarship to researchers keen to formulate new kinds of sciences that take complexity into account. These attempts usually follow Kuhn’s theory of paradigm shifts: new evidence and modes of thinking undermine an established science, and a new science emerges to replace it.

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