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Content Type: 3
Title: The Essentials of Concept-Based Language Instruction
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James P. Lantolf is the director fo the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at Pennsylvania State University. His areas of specialization include sociocultural theory, second language acquisition, and cultural-historical psychology.
Concept-Based Language Instruction, or CBLI, is grounded in principles of learning proposed by L. S. Vygotsky and makes use of conceptual knowledge (CK) of language based on Cognitive Linguistics and Systemic Functional Linguistics. CBLI proposes that it is possible to compensate for lack of robust exposure to input typical of immersion settings by providing learners with access to high-quality explicit knowledge of the semantic concepts available in a language that allow users to flexibly manipulate that language to meet their own communicative needs. The following is a condensed version of the more important principles and procedures in CBLI.
- Language is a flexible meaning-making (conceptual) tool for thinking and communicating
- Learners must have opportunities to manipulate the concepts of a language to meet their own communicative needs rather than to match the performance of native users of the language.
- Examples of concepts include verbal aspect and mood in Spanish, word order in Chinese, article use in English, discourse cohesive devices in German, addressivity in French, figurative concepts (i.e., metaphors, metonymy) etc.
- CK must be presented to learners graphically and holistically rather than verbally and in a piecemeal fashion.
- CK must be linked to communicative activities.
- Learners must be able to explain their understanding of CK and how they use it in communicative activities.
- Learner development occurs in two domains: CK of language features and ability to use this knowledge in guiding their own flexible communicative (speech and writing) activities.
- Using an L2 effectively does not require using it according to native speaker norms. It does require understanding the concepts available in a given language to create meaning.
- Focus is neither on the learner nor on the teacher but on the joint activity of teaching-learning.
- The psychological mechanisms that guide development are not inside of a learner’s head but are in the social interaction that unfolds between learners, concepts, and others.
- Education is a special kind of development that should be different from what occurs in the everyday world; consequently, the teaching should not try to replicate the learning that occurs outside of the classroom.
- The more complex a language feature is (e.g., tense, aspect, mood, addressivity, word order, etc.) the more explicit instruction is useful.
- Useful reference for explaining the theory and principles underlying CBLI along with summaries of classroom studies: Lantolf, J. P., & Poehner, M. E. (2014). Sociocultural theory and the pedagogical imperative. New York: Routledge.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 5
Title: CASLS Staff Retreat
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Last Tuesday, CASLS staff spent a day together in a strategic planning retreat. We started the retreat off by visualizing ourselves working at our best, and when we opened our eyes, we found caricatures of ourselves in front of us, ready for our own and our co-workers’ descriptions of each of us at our best. All of us at CASLS are passionate about fostering innovation in language teaching and learning, and we enjoyed applying our passion and positive feelings to the task of prioritizing and streamlining our work on the projects that support our mission. See what we’ve been up to on our website; or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We will certainly keep you informed of our ongoing work and newly available resources here in the InterCom CASLS Spotlight.
Source: CASLS Spotlight
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Content Type: 4
Title: The Pragmatics of "How Are You?"
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This activity of week is designed to interact with LingroToGo, a new Spanish-language mobile app designed by LingroLearning and the Center for Applied Second Language Studies. The app’s short, instructional videos on language pragmatics pair perfectly with this week’s Topic of the Week.
Learning Objectives: Learners will be able to
- Identify multiple approaches to asking how someone is and responding
- Demonstrate understanding of how to respond to the question “How are you?” in Spanish and how that response differs from what is common in English.
Modes: Interpretive Listening, Interpersonal Communication
Materials: LingroToGo or this video, handout (two copies)
Procedure
- Have students download LingroToGo on their mobile devices and access the video by first clicking “My life” and then clicking “All About Me.” Then, they should select “Asking and answering the question: How are you?” and select “Pragmatics video.” If you do not have access to mobile devices, you may access the video here.
- Observe: Direct learners to watch the video. As they watch, they will take notes on the handout regarding 1) ways to ask “How are you?” in Spanish; 2) ways to respond to the question in Spanish; and 3) the impact of responding honestly in Spanish.
- Analyze: Next, discuss as a class the similarities and differences in responding to the question “How are you?” in English and in Spanish. Learners should document this discussion in the Venn Diagram provided on the handout.
- Extend: Next, ask learners to find two examples of expert Spanish speakers asking one another “How are you?” These examples might come from observing people they know speak or from internet sources. The learners will record their observations on another copy of the handout. These observations will inform a closing class discussion that could potentially result in the class’s creation of a robust vocabulary related to asking and answering the question “How are you?” that will then inform subsequent practice.
Notes:
- LingroToGo embeds a variety of games for learners to use to practice video content. These activities could be utilized for extension, supplementation, or self-study.
- While this activity does feature Spanish, it can be easily adapted for other languages.
- LingroToGo is currently only available for iOS devices. However, the Android version will be released later this Fall.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Content Type: 3
Title: Addressing Pragmatic Skills at the Novice Level
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By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director
While often the source of funny anecdotes, pragmatic missteps can cause frustration for learners as they interact with expert speakers of their target language. Pragmatics, or “meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader)" (Yule, 1996, pp.3-4), is critical for successful communication. Often relegated to advanced levels of instruction, pragmatics is unnecessarily absent from novice-level classrooms. This week’s Activity of the Week exemplifies ways in which new media can be implemented in small bursts starting at a learner’s first week of class, when they typically learn common greeting expressions. This is a great place to start with pragmatics and extend cultural differences beyond formal and informal structures. Take, for example, the common English greeting, “Hey, how are you?” with the typical response of “I’m well” or “I’m fine.” For a speaker who interprets “How are you?” to be a sincere inquiry into one’s well-being, their response can extended beyond a short phrase and can be interpreted as too much sharing. This pragmatic misstep, due to mismatched expectations, can cause frustration on the part of both speakers. If one is expecting to talk about their day and the other is expecting a short greeting sequence both are not interacting in the way they had hoped. As learners move through the beginning levels of language learning, small chunks are a very useful start to considering the way meaning is expressed in language.
Reference
Yule, G. (1996). Speech acts and events. Pragmatics (pp. 47-58). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 3
Title: Reaching Students: Multimodal Approaches to Instruction
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By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director
In InterCom this month, we are exploring how to reach the most students possible through multimodal approaches to instruction. Language learners around the world are a heterogeneous group of students requiring numerous types of resources and instruction. We will start to explore various perspectives and tackle the key principle:
Multimodal approaches to instruction should be used whenever possible to be as inclusive as possible of a diverse group of learners.
Multimodal approaches move beyond the commonly oversimplified notion of learning styles, to instead, offer information and learning approaches to students in ways that layer information and provide choice of format. Throughout the month, we will explore techniques for adapting language courses to students with diverse physical, emotional, and cognitive needs and address ways in which technology can facilitate differentiation and availability of resources in language classes.
To start, every teacher can begin with these simple tips:
- Offer all instructions orally and in a visual format.
- Allow for color coding and/or linear lists whenever possible.
- Avoid the use of jokes or contexts that might only apply to half of the learners or offer resources that can be interpreted from a variety of viewpoints.
- Let students use scissors, glue, markers and tape to create visual resources or, if they prefer, avoid tactile activities if that is their preference.
- Encourage student reflection on their own preferences and encourage them to try formats they may not have tried before.
- Group learners intentionally by similar skills sets, sometimes, and by diverse skill sets other times.
- Consider seating assignments and or your presence in the physical space, depending on each group of students you teach.
- Encourage evaluation all modes of communication in which multimodality can be extremely valuable – e.g., using visual elements to interpret text or understanding what you hear through written cues.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Title: Book: Creating Orthographies for Endangered Languages
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Creating Orthographies for Endangered Languages
Edited by Mari C. Jones and Damien Mooney
Published by Cambridge University Press
Creating an orthography is often seen as a key component of language revitalization. Encoding an endangered variety can enhance its status and prestige. In speech communities that are fragmented dialectally or geographically, a common writing system may help create a sense of unified identity, or help keep a language alive by facilitating teaching and learning. Despite clear advantages, creating an orthography for an endangered language can also bring challenges, and this volume debates the following critical questions: whose task should this be - that of the linguist or the speech community? Should an orthography be maximally distanciated from that of the language of wider communication for ideological reasons, or should its main principles coincide for reasons of learnability? Which local variety should be selected as the basis of a common script? Is a multilectal script preferable to a standardized orthography? And can creating an orthography create problems for existing native speakers?
Visit the publisher’s website at http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/creating-orthographies-endangered-languages#GtomU4txad7Y9fFa.97
Source: Cambridge University Press
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Title: Book: Teacher Education in Computer-Assisted Language Learning
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Teacher Education in Computer-Assisted Language Learning: A Sociocultural and Linguistic Perspective
By Euline Cutrim Schmid
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing
Even though many pre-service and in-service teacher programs now address information and computer technology, computer- assisted language learning (CALL) teacher education is still reported as inadequate. Why is this? This book elaborates on some of the existing concerns and through deft analysis of longitudinal data begins to piece together a future road map for CALL teacher education.
The book adopts a sociocultural approach, based on the principle that teaching (and learning how to teach) is a long term, complex developmental process that operates through participation in social practices that come with the territory. Euline Cutrim Schmid highlights the need for situated and localized learning, pre-service and in-service collaboration and collaborative peer-assisted learning. Above all of this, the book recommends and proves the efficacy of socially aware and professional reflective practice. This is an essential sociolinguistic take on the computer learning revolution.
Visit the publisher’s website at https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/teacher-education-in-computer-assisted-language-learning-9781474292757/
Source: Bloomsbury Publishing
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Title: Call for Proposals: Language Testing Research Colloquium
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From http://www.iltaonline.com/page/LTRC2018CFP
Language Testing Research Colloquium
July 2-6, 2018
Auckland, New Zealand
Theme: Language assessment in times of movement, transition and change
LTRC 2018 invites proposals for research papers, symposia, demos, posters, and works-in-progress. The proposal deadline is November 10.
View the full call for proposals at http://www.iltaonline.com/page/LTRC2018CFP
Source: ILTA
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Title: Call for Paper: 2018 Arabic Applied Linguistics and SLA Conference
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From https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/arabic-sla-conference/
Second U-M International Conference on Arabic Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition
Arabic Second Language Learning, Teaching, and Testing
September 1-2, 2018
The conference is an open forum for scholars interested in exploring empirically topics and issues in Arabic applied linguistics and second language acquisition. The conference themes are Arabic second/foreign language learning, teaching, and testing as well as the interface and connections between them.
Abstract submission deadline: March 1, 2018.
View the full call for papers at https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/arabic-sla-conference/call-for-papers/
Source: University of Michigan
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Title: Call for an Edited Volume on Assessment in CLIL
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From https://linguistlist.org/issues/28/28-3732.html
This edited volume will aim at conceptualizing content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and establishing the theoretical basis/bases for assessment practices in the CLIL classroom. It will focus on the theoretical perspectives of assessment linked with CLIL in foreign language or second language contexts, or in tool-mediated online learning management systems.
The editors welcome theoretical, conceptual, and empirical contributions pertaining to the state-of-the-art research in CLIL assessment in both foreign and second language contexts with the specific emphasis on assessment that supports learning and/or is considered to be indivisible from teaching and learning. While the language of the contributions should be English we encourage submissions reporting on assessment in CLIL where target of instruction are languages other than English.
Expressions of interest and extended abstracts should be submitted by September 29.
View the full call for contributions at https://linguistlist.org/issues/28/28-3732.html
Source: LINGUIST List
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