scholarly journals The Literature-Enactment-Process

2021 ◽  
Vol XV (1) ◽  
pp. 76-92
Author(s):  
Christina Poeckl
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
Teaching Literature ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Interdisciplinary Teaching ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
The University ◽  
Gain Access

This project promotes reading literature for students through a new approach termed the Literature-Enactment-Process (LEP) where students can gain access to and comprehend narratives and associated topics of inquiry through a range of phases, with drama-based conventions as a pivotal point. As a pedagogical tool, these performative strategies are embedded in a larger approach that combines individual and collaborative comprehension processes. The LEP seeks to explore literature interactively, in that the student’s individual views, the perceptions of others, and the text details are equally taken into account. Teaching literature should not remain restricted to correctly answering interpretative questions. If teachers demand only one “right” interpretation, learners are deprived of the enrichment and multiple meanings texts can generate. Students must be motivated to think and learn for themselves and for a world which is constantly changing, often to the detriment of our natural environment. For this purpose, the Literature and Ecology (LITECO) workshop was designed to fuse the study of literature and ecological learning using and exemplifying the LEP. At the University of Graz, the Literature-Enactment-Process was tested with current and future teachers as well as language arts students and positively evaluated as an interdisciplinary teaching approach for the (foreign) language classroom in secondary education.

scholarly journals Incorporating theatre techniques in the language classroom

2015 ◽  
Vol IX (2) ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Abigail Paul
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Augusto Boal ◽  
Second Language Learner ◽  
Improvisational Theatre ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Communicative Approach ◽  
The University

The following workshop was presented at a Foreign Language and Drama Conference at the University of Reutlingen on July 10, 2015. It outlines the use of improvisational theatre techniques in the foreign language classroom by making parallels between the communicative approach to language learning and improvisational theatre techniques learned in various books read and seminars attended by the author throughout the years in numerous cities, but predominantly with Second City Chicago1, iO Chicago2, Keith Johnstone, and Comedy Sportz3. As Friederike Klippel states, “activities are invented, but we rarely know who invented them. Like games or folk songs they are handed on from teacher to teacher” (Klippel 1985: 1). Similarly improvisational activities morph over time, with each teacher adding his or her own personal flair. The seminar is built predominantly on the games and philosophies as outlined by theatre practitioners Augusto Boal, Viola Spolin and Keith Johnstone, but from the viewpoint of the author. While these activities can be used for a variety of purposes with native and non-native English speakers in a number of areas, the focus in the following is on the second language learner. The generally-accepted understanding of a communicative approach to language learning is that it focuses ...

The Analysis of the Foreign Language Classroom

1986 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette Grandcolas ◽  
Nicole Soulé-Susbielles
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Diary Studies ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Foreign Language Classroom ◽  
University Of Paris ◽  
The University ◽  
Classroom Analysis

In this article the foreign language classroom is argued to be a legitimate and important arena for educational and linguistic research. First, a survey of the research which has been conducted in France on the analysis of the foreign language classroom is presented. Secondly, two research projects currently underway at the University of Paris VIII are discussed. The first looks at the foreign language classroom through diary studies, and the second, through classroom analysis by teachers and pupils.

scholarly journals FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY IN STUDENT LEARNING

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (102) ◽  
pp. 18-23
Author(s):  
Asta Lileikienė ◽  
Lina Danilevičienė
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Low Achievement ◽  
Language Class ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Foreign Language Classroom ◽  
The University ◽  
Research Analysis

Background. Anxiety includes uncomfortable feelings when learning or using the new language. It continues to exist in the university foreign language classroom as well. A number of foreign language students report feeling anxious about language learning. Research aim was to investigate the foreign language anxiety (in our case, English as a foreign language, EFL) in the classroom context at tertiary level in relation to its effect on foreign language acquisition as well as to design recommendations of how to reduce or exclude foreign language anxiety from the university foreign language classroom. Methods. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale developed by E. K. Horwitz, M. B. Horwitz, and Cope (1986) was used. The questionnaire consisted of 5 statements about the respondents’ general background and 33 statements which were evaluated on the Likert scale from 1 to 5 by the research participants. The research sample involved 200 first and second year students of Lithuanian Sports University . Results. The research analysis revealed that the respondents generally felt anxious speaking in the language class, making mistakes and being corrected by the teacher, worrying about the consequences of failing foreign language class and speaking with native speakers. The correlation between the students’ level of knowledge and their feeling of anxiety was established: students of lower level (A2 and B1) tended to feel higher levels of anxiety. Moreover, female participants of this study exhibited higher levels of foreign language anxiety. Conclusions. Foreign language anxiety proved to be a powerful predictor for demotivation in foreign language learning and impeded the acquisition of foreign languages. The research analysis revealed that the majority of younger respondents demonstrated a higher degree of anxiety. The more mature the students were, the more confident they felt in EFL classes. It was found that female students felt higher level of anxiety in learning English as a foreign language than male students. They were more inclined to hesitate and felt anxious in the language classroom, while male undergraduates were more confident and had a greater ability to cope with the feelings of anxiety and nervousness. Students with higher knowledge of English language (level B2) showed lower levels of anxiety and felt more confident in language class. A large number of failures was observed at the pre-intermediate and lower intermediate (A2/B1) levels. Therefore, the learners with high anxiety often got low achievement and low achievement made them more anxious about learning.

scholarly journals Foreign Language Anxiety in Taiwanese Student Interpreters

2009 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung-Nan Chiang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
The University ◽  
Taiwanese Student

Abstract Although anxiety has been found to be a key variable in both interpretation performance and second language (L2) acquisition, there has been virtually no dialogue between these two fields. In order to bridge this gap, this study investigated Taiwanese undergraduate student interpreters’ foreign language (FL) anxiety using Horwitz, Horwitz et al.’s (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. Results showed that (1) Taiwanese student interpreters did have FL anxiety despite the language facility expected from them; (2) the scope of their FL anxiety was slightly less prevalent than regular Asian L2 learners, as widespread as American L2 learners, and more far-reaching than European L2 learners; and (3) the level of their FL anxiety was slightly less severe than in most of the university students from several cultural groups with various L2s, except for American college students of Arabic and Russian. Implications for pedagogy and future research are suggested.

scholarly journals Learning to Read Authentic Texts in Chinese as a Foreign Language: An Action Research-Based Investigation of a New Approach towards Raising Students’ Awareness of Literary Function Words

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-232
Author(s):  
Christina Bazant-Kimmel
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Authentic Texts ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Strategic Reading ◽  
The University ◽  
Dictionary Use ◽  
High Degree

Abstract Understanding the gist of Chinese authentic functional texts is a particular challenge for advanced beginners not only because of the morpho-syllabic writing system, but also due to the particular literary style. A didactic concept based on Stanovich’s (2000) and Gernsbacher’s (1997) reading models was developed for teaching Chinese as a foreign language at the university level. It is aimed at drawing the students’ attention to highly frequent literary function words in everyday texts, facilitating both the formation of relevant units of meaning and the application of higher-level strategic reading skills. The implementation of this new approach was investigated using the framework of action research. The data were analysed with qualitative methods and the results incorporated into the several teaching cycles. Two quasi-experiments were conducted to elicit individual problem solutions by the students. These data were collected in the form of video recordings of group work and student worksheets. Due to the predictability of specific literary structures, a certain automatisation in processing literary structures could indeed be achieved. Further construction of meaning, however, will have to be achieved through attentive-driven strategies, e.g. targeted dictionary use. It is important to train the students’ executive control mechanisms (e.g. comprehension monitoring), since Chinese can easily lead into a ‘dead end’ due to the absence of word segmentation and a high degree of polysemy.

scholarly journals Beyond the classroom: WebCT and learning Modern Hebrew

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yona Gilead
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Discourse Communities ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Modern Hebrew ◽  
Face To Face Learning ◽  
The University

<blockquote>The developments of new technologies over the last decades provide some answers to the limited exposure imposed on second/foreign language (L2) learners, who study a target language in an academic setting in countries where that language is not actively used. Not only are such learners restricted in their exposure to the L2 in the formal academic framework, due to the limited face to face learning time, but, more significantly, they lack the exposure to the language's 'real world' as it exists outside the language classroom. They are isolated from the target language's authentic discourse communities and its native speakers. Instead, learners mainly experience the language in its 'modified format' as manifested within the classroom itself.<p>This paper analyses the rationale for, and the process of, the development of the Modern Hebrew Beginners <em>WebCT</em>site at the University of Sydney as a means of increasing students' exposure to the language and especially enhancing their communication in Hebrew through the use of technologies.</p></blockquote><p> </p>

The role of corpus analysis in the study of English loanwords and in teaching a second foreign language (on the example of French and Italian)

2021 ◽  
pp. 46-58
Author(s):  
Elena I. Zimina ◽  
Dmitrii A. Gubanov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
English Language ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
The Media ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Language Context

We argue that corpus linguistics should be used as a tool for teaching students a second foreign language. The researchers focus on the study of English loanwords in French and Italian. We propose a new approach to teaching a second foreign language to students who are fluent in English as a first foreign language. We emphasize the importance of concordance in linguistics and teaching a second foreign language. We analyze the works of the methodologists who suggest using corpus technologies in the language classroom to develop students’ lexical skills. We touch upon the characteristics of corpus technologies, define the term “loanwords” and refer to the concept of “English borrowings”. The researchers analyze the role of English loanwords in French and Italian, and identify the spheres where English borrowings are mainly used. Based on the language of the media, we study the models of assimilation of English loanwords in French and Italian. We focus on the most popular English loanwords used in France and Italy, provide statistical data on their use and analyze their grammatical and semantic assimilation. We analyze the most popular loanwords from the English language; study their origin, language context and the way they were modified according to the patterns of the receiving languages. It is advisable to implement the proposed approach in teaching the vocabulary of a second foreign language and to use other tools of corpus linguistics as teaching methods.

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