Author: Shona Whyte
Enseigner les langues vivantes à l’école primaire avec le numérique
Groupe Départemental Langues Vivantes (GDLV84)
Cette intervention est destinée aux enseignants, conseillers, formateurs et décideurs dans le domaine de l’enseignement-apprentissage des langues vivantes à l’école primaire. A partir d’exemples concrets de pratiques de classe pour jeunes apprenants, nous aborderons les principes d’acquisition-apprentissage des langues secondes ou étrangères qui sous-tendent les méthodes d’enseignement, les activités pédagogiques qui permettent de répondre aux besoins des élèves, ainsi que les bases de l’accompagnement d’enseignants de langue novices ou expérimentés. L’intervention prendra appui sur des exemples de productions d’élèves, d’activités pédagogiques, d’actions de formation et de ressources pédagogiques issues de projets européens tels que ITILT, TeachMe et ViLTE (voir ci-après).
Shona Whyte est professeur d’anglais au département des Cultures et Langues Etrangères à l’Université Côte d’Azur à Nice. Formée en acquisition et didactique des langues secondes ou étrangères (Indiana University Bloomington) elle est enseignant-chercheur à Nice depuis plus de vingt ans. Ses recherches portent sur le numérique en classe de langue et la formation des enseignants, ainsi que sur la didactique de l’anglais de spécialité. Elle a une expérience de formation des enseignants des premier et second degrés en didactique des langues et tient un blogue professionnel à shonawhyte.wordpress.com.
Bibliographie et ressources
Blogue
On teaching languages with technology https://shonawhyte.wordpress.com/
Projets
ITILT
Interactive teaching in languages with technology http://www.itilt2.eu/Pages/default.aspx
Digital resources. ITILT mini-guide. http://bit.ly/2h7gOoj 2017
Digital tools. ITILT mini-guide http://bit.ly/2h6ENUi 2017
Digital networks. ITILT mini-guide http://bit.ly/2yMzwe0 2017
TeachMe
Using mobile technology in foreign languages: a telecollaborative task for primary classes. In Zubikova, O., Braicov, A., Pojar, D. (Eds). E-teaching: studii de caz. Chisinau: Tehnica-Info. https://teachme.ust.md/handbooks/e-teaching-studii-de-caz/ 2018
ViLTE
Video in Language Teaching Education project, Warwick University
Peer filming in task-based language teacher education. Background. https://shonawhyte.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/1_background1.pdf
Peer filming in task-based language teacher education. How it works https://shonawhyte.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/2_peerfilm1.pdf
Peer filming in task-based language teacher education. Design brief https://shonawhyte.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/3_designbriefs_criticalincidents1.pdf
Acquistion L2 et âge
Some research on young and very young learners
A sharply defined critical period
Publications
Whyte, S., & Cutrim Schmid, E. (2018). Classroom technology for young learners. In Garton, S., & Copland, F. (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of Teaching English to Young Learners. Routledge.
Whyte, S. (2014). Digital pencil sharpening: technology integration and language learning autonomy. EL.LE, 3(1): 31-53. Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia. [PDF]
Acquisition et enseignement des langues étrangères en milieu guidé : entre second language studies et didactique des langues
Résumé
L’enseignement-apprentissage des langues est un enjeu majeur dans notre monde en transformation, et la classe de langue constitue pour beaucoup le premier contact formel avec une langue étrangère ou seconde.
Cette conférence commence avec un tour d’horizon des notions clés du domaine, notamment les termes acquisition / apprentissage et enseignement / didactique, qui sont utilisés de manières différentes par les linguistes, acquisitionnistes et didacticiens en français et en anglais (la lingua franca de la recherche). Après un bref aperçu historique des méthodologies de l’enseignement-apprentissage et de l’évolution institutionnelle de la didactique des langues,
je présente mes récherches récentes en lien avec le numérique en classe.
En conclusion je propose certaines recommandations pour la classe de langue en lien avec les résultats de ces recherches.
Bibliographie
Chomsky, N. (1959). Chomsky, N. 1959. A review of BF Skinner’s Verbal behavior. Language, 35 (1), 26–58.
Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learner’s errors. IRAL-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 5(1-4), 161-170.
Dewaele, J. M. (2018). Why the dichotomy ‘L1 versus LX user’is better than ‘native versus non-native speaker’. Applied Linguistics, 39(2), 236-240.
Doughty, C. J., & Long, M. H. (2003). Optimal psycholinguistic environments for distance foreign language learning. Language learning & technology, 7(3), 50-80.
Ellis, N. C. (2002). Frequency effects in language processing: A review with implications for theories of implicit and explicit language acquisition. Studies in second language acquisition, 24(2), 143-188.
Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford University Press.
Erlam, R. (2016). ‘I’m still not sure what a task is’: Teachers designing language tasks. Language Teaching Research, 20(3), 279-299.
Galisson, R. & Coste, D. (Eds) (1976). Dictionnaire de didactique des langues. Paris: Hachette.
Gougenheim, G., Michéa, R., Rivenc, P., & Sauvageot (1956). L’élaboration du français élémentaire; étude sur l’établissement d’un vocabulaire et d’une grammaire de base. Paris: Didier.
Krashen, S. (1977). The monitor model for adult second language performance. Viewpoints on English as a second language, 152-161.
Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lado, R., & Fries, C. C. (1958). English pronunciation: exercises in sound segments, intonation, and rhythm Ann Arbor, MI.
Lightbown, P. M. (1985). Great expectations: Second-language acquisition research and classroom teaching. Applied linguistics, 6(2), 173-189.
Lightbown, P. M. (2000). Anniversary article. Classroom SLA research and second language teaching. Applied linguistics, 21(4), 431-462.
Long, M. (1985). A role for instruction in second language acquisition: task-based language teaching. In K Hyltenstam and M Pienemann (Eds). Modeling and assessing second language acquisition (pp. 77-99). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Long, M. H. (2009). 21 Methodological Principles for Language Teaching. The handbook of language teaching, 373.
Long, M. (2014). Second language acquisition and task-based language teaching. John Wiley & Sons.
Robinson, P. (2011). Task-based language learning (Vol. 5). John Wiley & Sons.
Savignon, S. (1976). Communicative competence: theory and classroom practice. Paper presented at the Central States Conferences on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Detroit, MI.
Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. IRAL-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 10(1-4), 209-232.
Skehan, P. (1998). Task-based instruction. Annual review of applied linguistics, 18, 268-286.
Les enseignants du supérieur en transition : SHOUT4HE
Des liens vers les projets évoqués lors d’une communication plénière avec Cédric Sarré sur les Technologies dans l’enseignement et pour la formation : les enseignants du supérieur en transition dans les projets CATAPULT et SHOUT4HE au colloque du Pôle d’Elaboration de Ressources Linguistiques de l’Université Sorbonne Paris Cité le 13 décembre 2019.
Sondage : SHOUT4HE cadre de référence
Si vous êtes enseignant-e dans le supérieur vous pouvez nous renseigner sur vos pratiques pédagogiques avec le numérique en répondant aux 12 questions suivantes :
PROJETS
CATAPULT : Computer Assisted Training and Platforms to Upskill LSP Teachers
SHOUT4HE : SHaring Open practices Using Technology for Higher Education
Pedagogical practice videos (beta)
ITILT : Interactive Teaching in Languages with Technology
Handbook (PDF)
Guides : ressources, outils, réseaux (PDFs)
Pedagogical practice videos (beta)
SoNetTE : Social Networks in Teacher Education
TeachME : Moldovan e-network for continuing professional education
Video in Language Teacher Education
Ressources vidéo et documents complémentaires
Research report British Council (Mann et al, 2019)
Peer filming (S. Whyte)
References: finding, reading, citing research in applied linguistics
Why are references important?
One element which distinguishes university research – academic or scholarly or scientific work – from other kinds of research and writing is the citation of sources. In applied linguistics, for instance, we rely on research in education, psychology, and linguistics to inform our own research and we summarise, synthesise, and quote articles and books in these fields to support our arguments. We use definitions of key terms which have been agreed on by previous researchers, we make claims about what we know which are supported by earlier research, and we aim to build on these earlier studies in our own work.
As academics and university students and perhaps future teachers, we aim to ensure the quality of our research by careful reading and reporting of good work by good researchers published in good journals. Often this means peer-reviewed articles and books written by university faculty with established publishing houses.
How does peer review work?
In order to publish an article in a reputable academic journal, researchers submit their work to the journal’s editors, who are usually university faculty. If it is suitable, the paper is sent out for review by two or three other academics, who submit written reports recommending revisions or indeed rejection. Revised papers are then edited for publication. This process is called peer-review, and is usually anonymous and unpaid work. Authors, reviewers, and editors often draw salaries from schools and universities for teaching and research but do not receive payment for writing articles which are published in journals, or reviewing or editing these articles. Nevertheless, the peer-review process is considered essential to control the quality of published research.
This kind of peer-review is conducted by all major journals: see for example an overview of journals publishing research on teaching and learning second or foreign languages, an important area of applied linguistics.
What’s not to like?
Unfortunately our current academic publishing model has two drawbacks. First, this quality-controlled content is usually NOT free or open access. Articles are paywalled, meaning that readers or institutions like university libraries have to pay publishers to access research. This means these articles are simply not available to the academic community of university lecturers and students. Many consider the academic publishing model to be irretrievably broken, since it relies on the unpaid labour of academic editors and reviewers, while providing revenue for large publishing houses such as Elsevier and Springer.
A second problem concerns a parallel publishing system which has emerged in the form of predatory journals. These journals have names similar to the major established journals, but do not control quality through peer-review. Instead authors simply pay a publication fee to have their work accepted. These articles are easy to find and free to read online but generally do not meet academic standards for good scholarship. Some critics see these journals as a response to the ‘publish or perish’ injunction, that is, increased pressure on academics, perhaps especially in developing countries, to produce evidence of research to justify recruitment, promotion, or funded projects.
Difficulties in reading academic journal articles
Due to the current situation in academic publishing, there are two problems for students, teachers, and researchers in applied linguistics:
1. to distinguish good research published in established journals which use rigorous peer review from lower quality work which has not been reviewed and revised in this way
2. to gain access to research which has been published behind paywalls and thus require readers or institutions to pay fees to publishers for access to full articles.
In the following pages I offer some guidance for identifying appropriate articles, gaining access to full versions of papers, and then using these references correctly in your own work. I work from the position that neither students nor academics should consider spending their own money to fulfil academic obligations.
Finding good articles
A good place to start looking for articles is the reference list of an article you already have. Read the literature review section of the paper to identify relevant articles and authors, then look them up on Google Scholar (scholar.google.com). This specialised search engine can help identify research articles and books and has a number of useful functions.
1. Search by keyword
If I want to see research into how learners can memorise L2 vocabulary deliberately (as opposed to picking it up incidentally) I can type “deliberate vocabulary learning” into Google Scholar.
This search shows articles in this area with the name of the journal and the date, so I can immediately see if it is a reputable journal and whether the article is recent. We are often interested in more recent research, and there’s a filter on the left where you can set a date limit or range.
This search also gives names of authors under the titles. If a name is underlined I can click and check the author’s profile (academic affiliation, other publications). Otherwise I can still use the name in Google Scholar to look for other work by this author. I might be interested in Irina Elgort, the second hit in my initial search, since she has a recent paper (2011) in a good journal (Language Learning).
2. Search by author
Here you can see a list of publications by Irina Elgort, which you can filter by date (left menu). On the right are direct links to PDF versions of the papers where these exist, though you need to click to find out whether you can access the paper freely or whether there is a paywall.
ResearchGate is a social network for academics where researchers share their work, so it is worth a click on these links to see whether a paper is available there. Sometimes these papers are pre-publication versions which are not formatted for journal publication and which may not include revisions undertaken during the peer-review process. This means you can trust the information but should not quote directly in your own work because you’re not using the ‘version of record.’
3. Search for related articles
Use the links under each article entry on Google Scholar to see which other articles have referenced your article (Cited by) and articles on the same topic (Related articles).
You can also visit journal homepages and search their content for your keywords. There’s a Wikipedia list of applied linguistics journals here and I have a blog post on instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) journals.
You should be cautious about predatory journals which are not on these lists and generally avoid articles from these journals since they do not use rigorous peer review.
Adopting good habits
I recommend separating the hunt for articles, which can be quite fun, from actual reading, which is also rewarding but requires a different kind of concentration. You will need several cycles of reading, looking for new sources, and reading again before you can be sure to have found enough key work.
I also recommend saving articles methodically in folders and making a Word file with the APA citation for each. Use a citation manager such as Zotero by all means, though if you have never used one it may not be worth the investment of time and energy.
Your reference list will include all and only work that you actually mention in your paper (either with an actual quotation or simply discussion of the work). However it’s hard to tell which papers you will end up using, so it’s best to save each PDF and the APA reference. You can always remove a reference later.
Use Google scholar (scholar.google.com) for a copy of the reference: click on the quote marks under the title and copy the APA style option.
Accessing full papers
Once you have identified an article you wish to read, there are a number of ways to access the paper. Sometimes you will be lucky and the article you want is published in a good open-access journal. Remember we do not recommend open access journals which do not use peer review (predatory journals) since there is no guarantee that this research has been rigorously conducted and carefully written up. However some journals do have good peer review and are also open access, meaning that all their papers can be freely accessed without paying, as soon as they appear, and for an unlimited period.
From this you can infer that other journals offer articles which can be accessed a) if you or your institution pays, b) after a specified period of time (called an embargo, often a year), or c) for only a short time, after which they are paywalled.
1. Open access
Language Learning and Technology is an excellent online journal for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and all its papers can be freely accessed a) without paying b) as soon as they appear and c) for good.
Another possibility is that your paper is in a paywalled journal but freely available. This can happen sometimes when a new paper appears, in which case the paper will only be accessible for a short time, or when the authors’ institution has paid extra to make the article free for good.
If this is the case for the paper you want, just ‘take the money and run’: download the PDF and save it. If not, the next best option is institutional access via your university.
2. University access
If you are working on a computer on campus or logged into your university account from elsewhere, you will have access to all articles and journals for which the university has a subscription. (University subscriptions are somewhat complicated and tend to change, so I recommend a ‘suck-it-and-see’ approach rather than trying to work out which journals the university is subscribed to.)
A click on the title of the Elgort (2011) paper will take you to its page on the journal website. The screenshot below shows I am identified as a reader at Bibliotheque de l’Universite de Nice-Sophia Antipolis and that I have ‘full access.’
This means I can click on the PDF and download the paper, and I recommend always doing this in case you lose access on a return visit.
You can also start from the university library at https://bu.univ-cotedazur.fr
In the search box type the name of the journal: here I want Language Learning
Click through to online access if available and search the journal by author name or volume/issue.
3. Last resort
As noted, your options for accessing full journal articles which are not open access are as follows
a) Access via the university library, typing in the journal name and checking from this starting point
b) Look on Google, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate or Academia.edu to see whether authors have posted copies
Failing this it is perfectly possible and quite acceptable to contact the author as follows …
c) E-mail the corresponding author, whose name and e-mail usually figure on the page of the journal’s website with the title, authors, and abstracts. Authors are generally very happy to oblige since everyone likes their work to be read and possibly cited.
Dear Professor X
I am a student in English at the University of Nice working on [topic] and I came across your article [title] published in [journal] in [year]. Our institution does not have access to this journal and I wonder if you would be willing to share an electronic copy with me.
Sincerely Y
Citing references
Academics, scholars, and scientists have different conventions regarding how they refer to articles and books published in their disciplines. The rules are given in style guides, and different journals use different styles.
Two aspects are important:
1. how to refer to someone’s work in the body of your own writing, often called in-text or inline citation,
2. how to list your references at the end of your paper.
Some styles involve giving the full names of authors and the titles of their work in your own text, and others use footnotes for references. Reference lists are always ordered alphabetically by author last name, but conventions regarding the use of quotation marks, capitalisation, italics, and parenthesis are highly codified and differ across styles.
In applied linguistics we frequently use APA style. In-text citations require only author last name and date (e.g., Elgort 2011), while the reference entry has last name, first initial, date, title, journal. You can find information about APA style online or you can simply copy from any recent APA article. You can also click on the quote marks below an article listed on Google Scholar and copy-paste the APA format, though you should also check for accuracy and completeness.
Happy hunting!
Applied Linguistics showcase: open access to curated collection
The journal Applied Linguistics is making available a number of recent papers on the teaching and learning of languages. The papers have been selected by Zhu Hua, Anna Mauranen, and Christina Higgins, and organised into 10 rubrics, each including between 1 and 9 articles originally published in the journal since 2016.
The editor’s contribution appears to be limited to the selection and classification of the 37 articles; 5 are also marked “highlighted article” and the introduction reads as follows:
Language teaching and learning remains central to Applied Linguistics as an academic journal and as a field of enquiry. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the journal, we have put together an extensive reading list of the latest articles in language teaching and learning published in Applied Linguistics since 2016 to showcase new research in this core area. These articles cover conceptual debates, various learning contexts, learning theories, the role of culture, language ideologies, learning of specific domains of language, testing, motivation, individual differences, and teachers’ perspectives. We hope these articles can give readers a bigger picture of the latest research for an area that has long and well-established research histories.
The papers include a number of well-known researchers (e.g., Dewaele, Biber, McNamara, Kramsch) and cover a wide range of topics. They might usefully form the basis of an applied linguistics course focusing on language teaching and learning, though some may be too technical for the general reader. Perhaps OASIS https://oasis-database.org/ has some in accessible summary format to help disseminate findings among teachers.
Enlightened amateurism: grassroots approaches to language teaching in the past
A brief report on a recent conference organised by Sabine Doff, Tim Giesler and Richard Smith under the aegis of HoLLT, the History of Language Learning and Teaching group, which is a well-established AILA research network shepherded by Richard (@RichardSmithELT, @HoLLTnet)
The conference was called Valorizing Practice: Grounded Histories of Language Learning and Teaching and held at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg near Bremen (an excellent site for this purpose, being a small, well-resourced research centre). Here are the programme and the abstracts.
It was a three-day event with a single strand of around 30 papers. The plenary was given by Henry Widdowson on New starts and different kinds of failure, and thereafter papers were programmed in sessions organised more or less chronologically.
I live-tweeted at the event and collected my tweets at this link: https://wke.lt/w/s/mv8gU1. I tried to run a quick search on speakers and their projects or publications so they might be useful to readers interested in this topic.
The conference concluded, as we often do, that the theme was a rich, interesting, and relevant one to our own language learning and teaching concerns. Organiser Sabine Doff underlined the particular advantages of looking at history “from below” by focusing on teaching and learning from the perspective of practice (rather than theory).
Widdowson noted how cultural differences often condition how people have conceived of language learning and teaching, and that a contemporary geographical snapshot of language teaching practices might yield similarly striking similarities and differences as the historical panorama attendees could derive from this conference.
Friedericke Klippel cautioned researchers to remain humble about their capacity to escape from their own twenty-first century mindset, but also to remember the power of storytelling as an important way of bringing history to life.
Nicola McClelland welcomed this opportunity to include contexts outside western Europe: there were papers from and about Japan, Korea, the country of Georgia to name only these.
Tim Giesler regretted that the important findings from the history of language education are not included in teacher preparation programmes.
Richard Smith saw HoLLT studies as an opportunity to revive ideas of how people learned from one another and acknowledge that there are other ways of thinking and other ways of conceiving of language teaching beyond our local, contemporary hegemonies.
Upcoming events for the HoLLT group include the AILA conference in Groenigen this summer
