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Language Education (language + education)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Kinds of Language Education

  • foreign language education
    		•

    Selected Abstracts

    Early Versus Late Start in Foreign Language Education: Documenting Achievements

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 4 2005
    Rocío Domínguez
    Abstract: This study compares 27 sixth grade students who have been learning Spanish since kindergarten with 5 who have had Spanish for only 1 year using a battery of Spanish oral and written tests. The students who started early outperformed the new students in listening, speaking, and writing Spanish. Those who started early also displayed a positive attitude toward speaking Spanish in the classroom, a high level of confidence in their Spanish oral and literacy skills, and the use of sophisticated language structures in writing. These findings provide additional evidence supporting the case for early foreign language learning. [source]

    Some Practical Suggestions for Systemic Improvements in Foreign Language Education

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 2 2002
    Ray Clifford
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]

    The Discipline of Foreign Language Studies and Reforming Foreign Language Education

    MODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 2 2008
    THE COMMENTARIES
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]

    Foreign Language Education: Whose Definition?

    MODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 2 2007
    JUNE K. PHILLIPS
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]

    Second Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics, and the Teaching of Foreign Languages

    MODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 3 2000
    Claire Kramsch
    Given the current popularity of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as a research base for the teaching and learning of foreign languages in educational settings, it is appropriate to examine the relationship of SLA to other relevant areas of inquiry, such as Foreign Language Education, Foreign Language Methodology, and Applied Linguistics. This article makes the argument that Applied Linguistics, as the interdisciplinary field that mediates between the theory and the practice of language acquisition and use, is the overarching field that includes SLA and SLA-related domains of research. Applied Linguistics brings to all levels of foreign language study not only the research done in SLA proper, but also the research in Stylistics, Language Socialization, and Critical Applied Linguistics that illuminates the teaching of a foreign language as sociocultural practice, as historical practice, and as social semiotic practice. [source]

    An Essay on the Role of Language in Collegiate Foreign Language Programmatic Reform,

    DIE UNTERRICHTSPRAXIS/TEACHING GERMAN, Issue 2 2009
    Hiram Maxim
    This position paper argues that collegiate foreign language (FL) education has lost sight of the central role that language plays in the profession. Regardless of one's sub-field within foreign language education (i.e., linguistic, literary, or cultural studies), the profession shares the common focus of exploring how to make and interpret meaning in and through language. The paper therefore recommends that an acknowledgement of and re-commitment to this foundational principle provides common ground to effect the types of change within departments that have long been called: the integration of upper- and lower-level instruction; the reform of graduate student teacher education to foster curricular thinking; the explicit and systematic attention to the development of advanced language abilities; and the establishment of a collaborative departmental culture centered around publicly shared beliefs and concerns. [source]

    Cultures and Comparisons: Strategies for Learners

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 3 2005
    Sandra J. Savignon
    Abstract: This article suggests a set of strategies for developing the sociocultural competence of language learners. These strategies extend the notion of coping strategies, or strategic competence (Savignon, 1972, 1983, 1997), to include the intercultural dimension articulated in current goals for U.S. world language education. Adopting the integrative, communicative perspective of language development reflected in the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (National Standards, 1999), this article offers classroom strategies for teaching and learning with particular reference to the goal areas of "cultures" and "comparisons." This proposal is grounded in a theory of language inseparable from culture,one that views ability in both a first language (L1) and subsequent languages as the result of socialization and the language classroom as a site of exploration in the development of communicative competence. Suggestions for classroom implementation of strategy training are supported by classroom research (Savignon & Sysoyev, 2002). [source]

    Exploring New Frontiers: What Do Computers Contribute to Teaching Foreign Languages in Elementary School?

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 3 2002
    Joyce W. Nutta
    ABSTRACT: Two growing trends in foreign language education, the study of foreign languages in the elementary school (FLES) and the use of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), have been well researched independently but rarely in concert. This study compares the use of a print and multimedia program to teach Spanish to second through fifth graders from quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The experimental portion of the study showed that the achievement and proficiency of students using print or multimedia materials did not differ at posttest. However, a small but statistically significant difference in achievement emerged at the delayed test point in favor of the students who used the multimedia materials, although this finding is limited by participant attrition over the 13-month study. The qualitative portion of the study detected differences in language behavior, with the students who used multimedia spending more time to stop, check, and revise their language production, leading to greater precision in pronunciation and the use of larger chunks of language when repeating phrases. [source]

    Mediating between predetermined order and chaos: the role of the teacher in task-based language education

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2009
    Kris Van den Branden
    interactie; taakgericht onderwijs; leerkracht; taalleren Tasks are not blueprints for action. A number of empirical studies carried out in authentic classrooms have shown that teachers and students reinterpret the tasks they are offered by syllabus developers in ways that suit their own purposes, learning needs, and interaction styles. This observation has raised fundamental questions about the degree to which teachers who are working with tasks can make any prediction concerning the learning that will come of out of task-based interactional work. In addition, if learners' reactions to tasks are fairly unpredictable, teachers may be inclined to associate task-based work with organisational chaos and with the seemingly unattainable challenge of having to cater to every individual learner's personal whims. Drawing on classroom-based research carried out in Flanders, and describing two task-based lessons that were observed in authentic Dutch as a second language (DSL) classrooms, this paper shows that between the extremes of deterministic predictability on the one hand and complete chaos on the other lies a rich pedagogical space that teachers and learners who work with tasks can exploit to construct shared projects with clearly determined goals. Taaltaken zijn geen blauwdruk voor activiteit in de klas. Uit heel wat onderzoek naar klasinteractie blijkt dat leerkrachten en leerlingen de taken die ze krijgen voorgeschoteld, herinterpreteren, zodat ze beter aansluiten bij hun leerstijlen, interesses en interactiestijl. Dit roept de vraag op of leerkrachten die met taken werken nog wel enige voorspelling kunnen doen over wat hun leerlingen uit de taakuitvoering zullen leren. Bovendien dreigen heel wat leerkrachten taakgericht onderwijs te associëren met chaos in de klas, en met de schier onhaalbare uitdaging om op alle behoeften en reacties van alle individuele leerlingen te moeten inspelen. Op basis van onderzoek in Vlaamse klassen, en voortbouwend op 2 taakgerichte lessen die werden geobserveerd in Vlaamse NT2-klassen, illustreert dit artikel dat er tussen chaos en complete voorspelbaarheid een rijke pedagogische ruimte ligt. Binnen die pedagogische ruimte gaan leerkrachten en leerlingen samen aan de slag rond een gezamenlijk taakgericht project met duidelijke doeleinden. [source]

    Emphatic ne in informal spoken French and implications for foreign language pedagogy

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, Issue 1 2009
    Rémi A. Van Compernolle
    variation linguistique; langue française; négation verbale; compétence sociolinguistique; enseignement des langues étrangères This paper investigates the variable retention vs deletion of the negative particle ne in a corpus of informal spoken French, and compares the results with previous studies in which a variationist approach was used. A qualitative analysis of ne use revealed that the negative particle co-occurs most often with a number of prosodic features of discourse used for emphasis. The final part of this paper provides a number of recommendations for teaching and learning the sociolinguistics and pragmatics of verbal negation in conversational French, and discusses broader implications for the treatment of variation in foreign language education. Cet article explore l'omission variable de la particule négative ne dans un corpus de français parlé de tous les jours et situe les résultats de cette recherche par rapport aux études variationnistes antérieures. Une analyse qualitative de l'emploi du ne met en lumière la corrélation entre la présence de la particule négative et l'accentuation prosodique. La fin de cet article se concentre sur l'enseignement et l'apprentissage de la négation verbale en mettant en valeur les aspects sociolinguistiques et pragmatiques de la particule négative dans le français parlé de tous les jours. Par extension suit une discussion des implications plus larges quant au traitement de la variation linguistique dans les cours de langues étrangères. [source]

    Problems with the ,language-as-resource' discourse in the promotion of heritage languages in the U.S.A.

    JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2005
    Thomas Ricento
    In the United States, language ,rights' have been tethered to ethnic or racial entitlements as a means to redress historical patterns of discrimination and exclusion. The perception that language ,rights' are about the redress of past wrongs has had negative effects on efforts to gain broad public support for the teaching and maintenance of languages other than English. The language-as-resource orientation (Ruiz 1984) is considered as an alternative to a language rights approach. However, analysis of texts produced by advocates of the heritage language movement reveals the shortcomings of the language-as-resource metaphor in advancing broad-based support for the teaching, maintenance, and use of minority languages in the U.S. While efforts to promote heritage language education as a national strategic priority may result in short-term governmental support, wider and more sustained popular support for such programs will require significant modifications in the underlying values and ideologies about the status and role of languages other than English in education and public life. [source]

    Verbal Artistry: A Case for Education

    ANTHROPOLOGY & EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2009
    Richard B. Henne
    This article expands our understanding of how language-minoritized children's communicative competence interrelates with schooling. It features a verbal performance by a young Native American girl. A case is made for greater empirical specification of the real extent of children's non-school-sanctioned communicative competence. The case disrupts Euro-Western ideologies of language and corresponding instructional policies and practices that pervade U.S. schooling. It also offers productive ways of reframing and reforming language loss in language contact situations.,[ethnography of communication, verbal art, language ideologies, language policy and planning, Indigenous language education, Lakota] [source]