scholarly journals Cultivating student understanding of context through drama and scriptwriting

2016 ◽  
Vol X (2) ◽  
pp. 22-36
Author(s):  
Matthew Michaud ◽  
Todd Hooper
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Private University ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Student Understanding ◽  
Language Aptitude ◽  
Japanese Students ◽  
Communicative Abilities ◽  
English Instruction

This paper presents an English as a foreign language (EFL) drama in language acquisition scriptwriting project that took place at a four-year private university located in Japan. The focus of this project was two-fold: firstly, to see if students’ cognition of situational context improved after completing scriptwriting exercises, and secondly to see if role-playing the scripts increased awareness in the identification of setting, roles of speakers, and purpose while increasing language aptitude. Furthermore, this study addresses the insufficient communicative competence abilities of Japanese students who have had years of structured English study. Their lack of communicative abilities may be attributed to the method of English instruction used in Japan such as focusing on grammar and vocabulary in isolated example sentences. This lack of context in second language (L2) instruction may leave students with limited communicative competence (Brown, Collins & Duguid 1989; South, Gabbitas & Merrill 2008). If students improve their understanding of the context of language use, they may become better equipped to use the language they know. One approach that may help students improve this understanding of context is scriptwriting and drama (Belliveau & Kim 2013; Davies 1990). The results of this study indicate that participating in scriptwriting activities may improve students’ ability to identify the context of conversations.

The Relationship Between Conceptual Level and Communicative Competence in French

1982 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine K. Horwitz
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Cognitive Complexity ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Language Aptitude ◽  
Foreign Language Aptitude ◽  
Interpersonal Maturity ◽  
The Relationship

This study explored the relationship between conceptual level a social cognitive variable and second language communicative competence. Conceptual level indexes both cognitive complexity and interpersonal maturity which have been related to first language communicative abilities. The research hypotheses stated that conceptual level was related to the development of communicative competence while foreign language aptitude was related to linguistic competence (mastery of the structural components of a second language).Conceptual level was found to be related to both communicative and linguistic competence(r = .54, p < .001;r = .48, p < .001)as was foreign language aptitude(r = .40, p < .01; r = .41, p < .01). However, foreign language aptitude was not found to be related to linguistic competence when conceptual level was statistically controlled (r = .20, p < .135). Conceptual level, on the other hand, was found to be related to communicative competence when foreign language aptitude was statistically controlled (r = .42, p < .01). Thus, conceptual level appears to be an important individual variable in second language learning.

The symbolic dimensions of the intercultural

2010 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 354-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Kramsch
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Third Place ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Language Classrooms

While communicative competence is characterized by the negotiation of intended meanings in authentic contexts of language use, intercultural competence has to do with far less negotiable discourse worlds, the ‘circulation of values and identities across cultures, the inversions, even inventions of meaning, often hidden behind a common illusion of effective communication’ (Kramsch, Lévy & Zarate 2008: 15). The self that is engaged in intercultural communication is a symbolic self that is constituted by symbolic systems like language as well as by systems of thought and their symbolic power. This symbolic self is the most sacred part of our personal and social identity; it demands for its well-being careful positioning, delicate facework, and the ability to frame and re-frame events. The symbolic dimension of intercultural competence calls for an approach to research and teaching that is discourse-based, historically grounded, aesthetically sensitive, and that takes into account the actual, the imagined and the virtual worlds in which we live. With the help of concrete examples from the real world and foreign language classrooms, the paper attempts to redefine the notion of third place (Kramsch 1993) as symbolic competence.

scholarly journals Review of dissertation "An exploratory study of the lived experiences of Japanese undergraduate EFL students in the flipped classroom" by Jeffrey Gerald Mehring

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-119
Author(s):  
N.B. Florova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Flipped Classroom ◽  
Educational Technologies ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Traditional Lecture ◽  
Japanese Students ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Somatic Disorders ◽  
Communicative Abilities ◽  
Multicultural Schools

It is commonly believed that the pedagogical model of an inverted learning facilitates learning in students with somatic disorders (for example, hearing and visually impaired), who have sensory difficulties in course of a traditional lecture learning. Practice shows that this model also proved useful in teaching philological disciplines, in training of translators, managers, and psychologists in multicultural schools. As an example, the article describes the framework of the undergraduate language program "English as a Foreign Language» in the population of Japanese students as bearers of historically isolated ethnic group of languages. The article presents a psycho-pedagogical situation in which the language is initially culturally alien to trainees, but the processes of globalization urgently require language skills and communicative abilities. Readers may be interested in the description of the dynamics of the internal conditions of the students in the process of such training, the formation of conscious positive relation to contemporary educational technologies

scholarly journals The role of transformational text in the development of students’ communicative abilities in Russian as a foreign language

2020 ◽  
pp. 94-100
Author(s):  
Igor I. Yazykov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Foreign Students ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Variation Patterns ◽  
Didactic Material ◽  
Communicative Abilities

The article deals with the issue of forming the communicative competence of students-inophones in learning Russian as a foreign language based on changes and / or additions (transformation) of the original didactic material. The article contains examples of exercises aimed at text transformation of the prepositive didactic material (language variation patterns) with the help of which foreign students (level of language proficiency on the TRKI-1 and TRKI-2 scales) are invited to create their own modified and/or amended (transformation) text. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the educational capabilities of the prepositive didactic material (language variation patterns) in developing communication skills of foreign students in Russian as a foreign language lessons.

scholarly journals Language use in the classroom: Identity in classroom discourse

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhlisin Muhlisin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Classroom Discourse ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Identity Theory ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
English Instruction

AbstractThis study concerned group of Indonesian EFL learners’ perceptions regarding the use of Indonesian (L1) and English language (L2) by their teachers in the classroom. In particular, the study aimed to unravel how these learners perceived the use of their L1 and L2 during the course of English instruction in the classroom and how their perceptions might have been shaped by different aspects of “identity construction” to which they were oriented. Data were gathered through administering a questionnaire to one hundred seventy-three adult Indonesian EFL learners. Analysis of the learners’ responses suggested that they maintained different perceptions with regard to the use of their L1 and L2 and that their perceptions may be subsumed into two broad categories, each of which reflects the differences in their perceptions. Factors that might have affected the learners’ perceptions were then critically discussed in the light of identity theory in the context of L2 pedagogy. In particular, the theory suggests that different aspects of identity construction to which learners are oriented affect their perceptions of the use of theirL1 and L2 in the classroom. Further, these different aspects of identity construction may also affect how learners are likely to respond to the use of an L1 and L2 in the classroom (and beyond).Keywords: English as a foreign language (EFL), language use, identity theory in L2 pedagogy

The Effects of Digital Game Play on Second Language Interaction

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayo Reinders ◽  
Sorada Wattana
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Digital Game ◽  
Game Play ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Discourse Functions ◽  
Role Playing Game

This paper reports on a study into the effects of digital game play on learners' interaction in English as a foreign language. 30 Thai learners of English enrolled in a 15-week University language course completed 18 face-to-face classroom lessons, as well as six sessions playing Ragnarok Online, a popular online role-playing game. The game had been altered to include a number of quests for learners to complete. To gauge the effects of playing the games, participants' language use in both text and voice chats was recorded and analysed. Game play resulted in a large and significant increase in English interaction that used a wider range of discourse functions, and also resulted in significantly more frequent contributions compared with English interaction in class. We discuss some of the theoretical and pedagogical implications of these findings.

The role of communicative abilities in foreign language teaching

10.12737/597 ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Кочкина ◽  
O. Kochkina
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Discourse Practice ◽  
Communicative Abilities

The article highlights communicative aspects of foreign language teaching, namely, communicative competence and communicative abilities. The author stresses the importance of students’ abilities for successful mastery of the language and singles out a special type — discourse abilities — applied in the process of realization of discourse practice.

scholarly journals THE USE OF GAMING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE OF FUTURE SPECIALISTS

2020 ◽  
pp. 98-105
Author(s):  
Лариса Максимук ◽  
Лилия Левонюк
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Developmental Potential ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
Role Playing Games

The article deals with the problem of the formation of foreign language professional communicative competence of future specialists of non-linguistic profiles. The process of teaching a foreign language becomes interesting and creative thanks to game technologies that expand the range of topics for communication, make the process of foreign language communication more dynamic and expressive, and also give the possibility to create models of future professional activities of students and teach them how to act in certain real life situations. Role-playing and business games, which are one of the most dynamic methods of teaching a foreign language, are widely used in foreign language classes at non-linguistic specialties of universities. In role-playing games, personal interaction not limited to professional activity takes place, while in business games situations, which are close to the real future professional activity of students, are played. The use of role-playing and business games in the process of teaching foreign languages contributes to the formation of the cognitive interests of students, their conscious and motivated mastering of the target foreign language, and also contributes to the development of such qualities as independence, initiative, the ability to work in a team, the desire for self-education and self-improvement. Thus, gaming technologies have a great developmental potential and are an effective means of improving and modernizing the educational process at universities, professionalizing foreign language teaching for students of non-linguistic specialties, and forming their foreign language professional communicative competence.

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