Language Awareness

A partire dalla riflessione sull’educazione linguistica sorta e sviluppatasi nel contesto italiano (Coste, 2009), il dibattito europeo sulla valorizzazione delle risorse del plurilinguismo ha portato alla creazione di strumenti di progettazione come il Quadro di Riferimento per gli Approcci Plurali (Candelier et al., 2012) attraverso cui orientare la costruzione di percorsi didattici di educazione plurilingue. Sullo sfondo di queste riflessioni e a partire da una preliminare indagine sugli atteggiamenti degli insegnanti rispetto al ruolo del plurilinguismo in classe (Sordella, 2015), il contributo presenta un’esperienza didattica condotta in alcune scuole primarie torinesi, nell’ambito del progetto Noi e le nostre lingue, volta alla sensibilizzazione alla diversità linguistica e a stimolare la riflessione metalinguistica in chiave interlinguistica. Vengono discusse le scelte operate ai diversi livelli della progettazione didattica, nella selezione delle lingue, dei testi, dei contenuti linguistici oggetto dei diversi laboratori, nonché le attività progettate e alcuni materiali sviluppati per il lavoro con la classe, a partire da strumenti di analisi tipici dell’analisi linguistica – l’uso di sistemi di glosse e traduzioni interlineari – declinati in chiave didattica. Le ricadute didattiche attese (in parte già discusse in Andorno e Sordella, 2018) riguardano principalmente il piano della sensibilizzazione sociolinguistica, la promozione di strategie di ascolto e comprensione di fronte a lingue sconosciute, l’attenzione ai rapporti tra oralità e scrittura e la riflessione metalinguistica mediante il confronto interlinguistico. Le prospettive auspicate riguardano la promozione di un approccio all’educazione linguistica che supporti e sviluppi quella naturale tendenza degli esseri umani a “muoversi tra le lingue” (Bialystok et al., 2012).

In this paper, the authors have used different definitions of ‘attention’ from the viewpoint of different scholars each of whom sees it from a certain perspective, emphasizing one aspect of it. Meanwhile, the application of attention in SLA is studied. In so
doing,  the  idea  proposed  by  Krashen  (incidental  learning)  is  rejected  which  claimed  that  one  can  learn  well  even  without
paying  attention  (the  issue  of  language  acquisition),  but  later  on,  it  was  mentioned  that  since  we  have  different  levels  of learning, it is not always necessary to have attention for learning; however, the type of learning without attention would not be different from the time that the person learns by paying attention. So, attention determines deep or shallowlearning.

Packed with contemporary examples from the business world, this is an exciting and engaging textbook which explains how language works in business, how to analyse it and how to use it in an informed and creative way.

The book is split into three parts, which look at business communication from corporate, management and employee perspectives. Wide-ranging in nature, it explores a variety of topics ranging from stakeholder communication and brand narratives to managing conflict and self-branding. Each chapter contains ample opportunity for readers to put new skills into practice, while case studies act as springboards for further discussion.

This is essential reading for students of both language and business-related disciplines, both during and beyond their studies. It is also an indispensable resource for teachers of business communication.

Foreign language education has had a long life in Portuguese schools.
Indeed, by the end of the nineteen century, Latin, French, English,
German and Greek were already part of the curriculum. More recently,
the range of foreign languages was broadened to include Spanish, and
since 2015 Mandarin has become an option in selected secondary schools.
At present, all students learn at least two foreign languages, in alignment
with the current European language policy recommendations. English is
mandatory for seven years (grades 3 to 9), occupying a prominent role in
the curriculum.

La presentazione rappresenta una carrellata di attività sulla didattica plurilingue, in particolare sul translanguaging e sulle competenze di literacy e biliteracy anche sulla base della teoria CUP (Common Underlying Proficiency) di Jim Cummins quale unico motore linguistico-cognitivo che agisce alla base delle lingue conosciute da ogni individuo.

Resumen:
Una gramática pedagógica ha de recoger los conocimientos gramaticales relevantes para la educación lingüística y ha de mostrar cómo estos conocimientos permiten reflexionar sobre la lengua y utilizarla de forma más consciente en sus distintos usos sociales. En parte, estos conoci-mientos hacen referencia a las nociones de la tradición gramatical, pero consideradas desde una perspectiva funcional, es decir, en relación con el papel que tienen en el discurso. Por ello, no se trata solo de saber cómo es una forma lingüística, sino también para qué sirve y cómo se utiliza adecuadamente en distintas actividades discursivas. Esta reflexión ha de vincularse, además, a actividades de aprendizaje que muestren la relación de la reflexión gramatical con el dominio de prácticas discursivas. En este trabajo, tomaremos como ejemplo la noción de adjetivo. Examina-remos los conocimientos teóricos disponibles sobre esta noción y exploraremos cómo se usa en la enseñanza de la lengua, fundamentalmente en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, y para ello tomaremos como referencia algunos de los libros de texto de enseñanza del castellano de mayor circulación en el ámbito estatal. Finalmente, mostraremos algunas vías alternativas de trabajo gramatical en el aula, relacionadas con el aprendizaje del uso.
Palabras clave: gramática pedagógica, adjetivo, uso reflexivo de la lengua, reflexión metalingüística.

Abstract: A pedagogical grammar needs to include the relevant grammatical knowledge for linguistic education, and it needs to show how this knowledge allow us to reflect upon the language being learned and use it more consciously in different social uses. In part, this knowledge refers to the traditional grammatical notions, but from a functional perspective; that is, in relation to
the role they play in discourse. However, a pedagogical grammar is not only about linguistic forms, but also about what they are for and how they are used appropriately in discursive activities. In addition, language forms and use must also be related to learning activities that show the links between grammatical reflection and the mastering of discursive practices. In this article, we take as an example the notion of adjective, and we examine the theoretical knowledge available about this notion and explore how it is used in language teaching, mainly in secondary education. In order to do this, we take as a reference some of the most regularly used textbooks for the tea ching of Spanish in Spain. Finally, we show some alternative ways to carry out grammatical work in the classroom with links to the learning of adjective use.
Key words: pedagogical grammar, adjective, reflexive use of language, metalinguistic awareness.

Gestalt Therapy techniques are considered to be powerful tools for the remobilization of human growth and change. I will attempt to show that the power of these techniques lies in the fact that they are effective ways of dealing with our "internalizations". I will first briefly review object relation theory and then discuss gestalt techniques as they pertain to internal objects.

This study examined whether differences in phonological awareness were related to differences in speech comprehensibility. Seventeen adults who learned English as a
foreign language (EFL) in academic settings completed 14 tests of phonological awareness that measured their explicit knowledge of English phonological structures, and three tests of phonological short term memory. The same participants also read aloud
a passage and narrated picture stories. These tasks were used by 12 native speakers of English to rate the EFL speakers’ comprehensibility on a 9-point scale. There was a strong positive correlation between composite phonological awareness scores and rated comprehensibility and between composite phonological awareness scores and phonological short term memory. The correlation between rated comprehensibility and phonological short term memory was not significant. A simple linear regression
analysis showed that approximately 19% of the variance in rated comprehensibility scores was accounted for by composite phonological awareness scores. The study offers support to the view that phonological awareness is related to differences in speech comprehensibility and the results suggest that form-focused instruction in phonology may contribute to the comprehensibility of EFL speakers.

As was the case with many newly independent African nations, Somalia was beset by a language problem whose complexity had begun well before independence and the unification of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland in 1960. With three languages (English, Arabic, and Italian) used as media of communication in government offices and in schools, various Somali administrations struggled to contain the impasse but found no tangible solution. Barely three years after Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in October 1969, he had his military regime introduce the Somali orthography in the Latin alphabet. Based on this milestone, Siad Barre's military rule is highly commended for taking a remarkable step forward in what came to be known as the Somalization project. However, officials of the government and Somali scholarship failed to

Description
Bien que le plurilinguisme soit un élément important de nos sociétés modernes, on constate que les enseignants sont souvent peu préparés à gérer les variétés de langue et la variation dans les diverses formes qu’elle peut présenter dans les contextes régionaux européens. Leur travail est également peu reconnu lorsqu’ils cherchent à élaborer des démarches visant à favoriser la compréhension et la reconnaissance de la valeur des langues parlées par leurs élèves qui ne sont pas la variété scolaire officielle ou dominante.

Les différentes activités qui ont eu lieu dans le cadre du projet ont montré la transférabilité dans d’autres contextes des parcours didactiques proposés. Ceux-ci s’appuient sur des activités d’identification des langues et des cultures et de leurs analogies et spécificités, d’écriture collaborative visant l’interculturalité et d’intercompréhension à l’oral. Les supports sont variés et basés sur l’environnement: documents écrits et oraux, correspondance électronique, plateforme, vidéos, films, blogs, etc.


LA VALEUR AJOUTEE
• Le kit didactique permet d’envisager le plurilinguisme comme processus d’apprentissage favorisant la réflexion interlinguistique et l’intercompréhension entre des variétés de langues apparentées, voire les « autres langues ».
• Les activités proposées ont été élaborées et/ou expérimentées par les enseignants associés dans leurs classes.
• Le site web du projet est conçu comme un hypertexte comportant des liens vers des documents multimédias, objets de pratiques didactiques validées dans des réseaux d’écoles.

The study examines performance on an evaluation instrument for classroom use for the purpose of improving instruction that focuses on awareness of language in reading and writing. Findings are reported on the piloting of the first in a series of literacy assessments with students from a rural elementary school in Ecuador. All students who participated in the pilot study are first language speakers of the language of instruction, Spanish. The report follows up on two recent studies on: awareness of language in self-correction (writing ability of bilingual and second language learners, Mexico), and overall literacy attainment comparing boys and girls in rural schools in Latin America with the objective of confirming or disconfirming recent UNESCO estimates of gender parity. The authors present a proposal for monitoring literacy learning in elementary school that will help teachers to integrate teaching and evaluation, an approach that can more effectively link classroom testing to act...

Im Kontext des noch wenig erforschten frühen gleichzeitigen Einsetzens von Unterricht in zwei Fremdsprachen stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit es sinnvoll ist, bereits in der Schuleingangsphase mit Sprachvergleich zu arbeiten. Die hier vorgestellte Studie untersucht einerseits, inwieweit die Lehrkraft Sprachvergleich benutzt und wie dieses von den Lernenden aufgenommen wird und andererseits, inwieweit Kinder selbst  sprachvergleich anstellen. Erste Beobachtungen zeigen nur wenig Sprachvergleich bei allen Beteiligten. Die Daten lassen vermuten, dass eine entsprechende Aufmerksamkeitslenkung durch die Lehrkraft eine häufigere Nutzung seitens der Schüler/innen anregen würde.

This article explores the interface between language play and language awareness. Grounded in an understanding of two kinds of language play, ludic language play and language play as rehearsal, it shows how the shared theoretical underpinnings and distinctive features of both overlap with the concept of language awareness. Spanning across cognitive, affective, and social dimensions of learners' language awareness, both types of language play highlight learners' conscious perception and sensitivity to linguistic forms and functions, attention, noticing, alertness, and particularly engagement. The paper contends that there is a close connection between language play and language awareness, and thereby argues that language play episodes, whether for the purpose of amusement or private rehearsal, could yield insights into students' knowledge about language and their ability to reflect on it through engagement with language. Finally, the paper outlines implications for research on language play episodes and for their use in teaching to incorporate humor into the language classroom.

http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WbNy98YIAp3y7Tb2tqJy/full

The training of language teachers still follows traditional models of teachers’ competences and awareness, focusing solely on the target language. Such models are incompatible with multilingual pedagogy, whereby languages are not taught in isolation, and learners’ background languages are activated to enhance the process. When teaching bilinguals/multilinguals, the English-only policy is inadequate, and teachers’ competence in only one language may not suffice. Thus, an extended model of teachers’ plurilingual awareness is proposed, including metalinguistic, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic awareness, and the traditional model of teachers’ language awareness as a part of the cross-linguistic component. In the model, teachers’ plurilingual awareness partly stems from their multilingualism.

The impact of multilingualism on teachers’ awareness was tested on Polish teachers of English (N = 222) differing in language knowledge beyond English (L3-Ln). Their attitudes towards principles of multilingual pedagogy were surveyed. Next, cluster analysis was used to differentiate between the teachers’ degrees of proficiency in other languages known, and factor analysis was run to identify the main factors in the survey, which correspond to the components in the teacher's plurilingual awareness model. A subsequent MANOVA revealed that English teachers’ multilingualism indeed underlies their plurilingual awareness and readiness to comply with multilingual approaches to teaching.

KEYWORDS: Teachers’ language awareness, plurilingual awareness, multilingualism, English as a foreign language, language teachers

Après l’exploration des coins bibliothèques de classes dans lesquelles des études de cas inspirées de l’ethnographie de la classe ont été menées en Colombie-Britannique, nous nous attacherons à montrer comment certains enseignants, dans leurs pratiques quotidiennes, développent un rapport au monde de l’écrit chez leurs élèves à partir de livres bi-/plurilingues. Ces pratiques, qui s’inscrivent à l’intérieur d’approches plurielles, créent pour les élèves des espaces de continuités et de rencontres entre les sphères scolaires, familiales et sociales pour embrasser la diversité croissante des contextes d’appropriation dans lesquels évoluent les enfants.

In this article we explore the role of linguistic landscapes, which refers to language on display in public spaces, in the teaching of languages and enhancing language awareness. Signage can be useful for language learners as a pedagogical tool for language acquisition and to explore issues of multilingualism.

We focus in particular on the multilingual education context in the Basque Country in Spain, where the three languages of instruction are Basque, Spanish and English. Our analysis is based on data collected in public spaces, from students in primary schools and masters-level students at university. Our data include signage in a local covered market, and on the walls of schools as well as that collected among students who carried out learning tasks investigating the signage that surrounds them. We conclude that the languages on display in public spaces are an important resource for language learning and teaching, and they can also be used for raising language awareness.

Listening to and processing the pronunciation of speakers of different native and non-native varieties of English presents a challenge for many learners. The general consensus among authors of ELT handbooks is that teachers need to use listening material that will help learners become aware of different accents of English (i.e. Harmer, 2007; Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000)

In order to discover if teachers of English share this view and if this is reflected in their teaching practices, a questionnaire was completed by a representative sample of 47 English language teachers in Thessaloniki, Greece. The mean response for each questionnaire item was calculated and the paired-samples t-test was undertaken in order to determine if any differences in the scores were statistically significant.

The questionnaire results indicate that the perceived importance of learners' exposure to a standard British or American variety is greater compared to the learners' exposure to standard regional, non-standard regional, or non-native varieties of English. A similar pattern emerged in terms of the teachers' responses to the question addressing the frequency of learners' exposure to various accents of English through the listening material of the course. Conversations among non-native (but fluent) speakers of English received the lowest rating of all questionnaire items; this is disappointing since nowadays English is primarily used for communication among non-native speakers of English (Jenkins, 2000). This study suggests that the views expressed in ELT handbooks in this area have had little impact on teachers' practices and the reasons why this is the case will be revealed.

Debates about linguistic relativity commonly focus on one question: Does language affect thought? This yes-or-no question does not do justice to the complexity of Whorf’s ideas and skirts several issues of great importance to Whorf. My first aim in this paper is to recover the arguments that got lost in translation of Whorf’s ideas into the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. I will show that, for Whorf, languages were also one of the ways in which we think, scientists were not immune to language effects, and the key to advancement of Western science was multilingual awareness. My second aim is to draw on these insights to articulate a Whorfian agenda for the field of second language acquisition (SLA) that asks new questions about second language learning and cognition and expands the boundaries of the field and the scope, duration, and locations of SLA research.

L’étude du rôle de la conscience morphologique dans le développement de la lecture et de la reconnaissance des mots a connu ces dernières années un essor important. Depuis les quinze dernières années, un nombre grandissant de recherches suggèrent que les apprentis lecteurs prennent en compte, très tôt, la structure morphologique des mots. Ce qui ressort de la recension de ces recherches est qu’il n’existe pas d’uniformité par rapport à l’utilisation des tâches utilisées pour évaluer la conscience morphologique. En effet, la manière dont les auteurs qualifient les tâches qu’ils utilisent varie grandement d’une étude à l’autre. L’objectif principal de cet article est de proposer une typologie regroupant les diverses tâches de conscience morphologique recensées en fonction de l’opération mentale qu’elles sollicitent. Au total, dix catégories de tâches ont été établies; ces tâches seront présentées en fonction des appellations utilisées pour les désigner, des objectifs qui leur sont associés, des conditions expérimentales qui les caractérisent, des principaux effets recherchés (âge, niveau de lecture…) et du type de matériel relié à l’utilisation de ces tâches. Cette typologie devrait permettre de clarifier et d’uniformiser les différentes tâches de conscience morphologique et de faciliter le travail des chercheurs qui s’intéressent à ce domaine.

IF YOU CONSIDER THAT THE PRESENCE OF ALL FIVE SENSES ARE REQUIRED TO BE FULLY AWARE OF ANYTHING, THEN OUR AWARENESS DOES NOT EXTEND BEYOND OUR FARTS. 

MEANWHILE EVERYTHING ELSE KNOWS EVERYTHING = AWARENESS DUE TO THE ANU AND SPACE.  ONENESS IS REAL AND A PROBLEM AS MIGHT BE OBVIOUS SINCE WE ARE NOT IN IT, BY DESIGN.

(Canada) et DILTEC/DILFOP, Université Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle (France) Cette contribution, qui porte sur les représentations des langues et du fonctionnement de l'écrit chez de jeunes enfants plurilingues confrontés à divers systèmes d'écriture, se veut un hommage au travail précurseur d'Anne-Claude Berthoud sur les représentations, les savoirs et les bricolages métalinguistiques des apprenants plurilingues dans la construction d'hypothèses sur les langues et leurs fonctionnements (Berthoud, 2001). Nous présentons quelques réflexions à partir de deux exemples tirés d'une étude pilote récemment menée avec de jeunes enfants de cinq ans dans la province anglophone de la Colombie-Britannique au Canada, que nous avons confrontés à une tâche grapho-scripturale de dessin et de coloriage de sinogrammes dans le but de recueillir leurs représentations sur les systèmes d'écriture présents dans leurs répertoires et leur environnement.

Hoy en día es importante tener conocimiento de diferentes lenguas como el inglés, francés, etc. por eso las instituciones educativas adoptan y reforman nuevos métodos de enseñanza, pero ¿es realmente suficiente enseñar francés con un input de francés estándar, en otras palabras, francés de Paris? ¿Si un estudiante fuera expuesto a un input diferente del que conoce qué efectos se producirían en él? ¿Podría defenderse ante otras variaciones lingüísticas que no sea de Francia como la de Canadá? Es por ello que el objetivo de este trabajo es exponer a los estudiantes de francés intermedio y avanzado a un input diferente, es decir, al francés acadiano para conocer los efectos producidos para hacer conciencia sobre otras variantes del francés además de la estándar y conocer su importancia, ya que esto mejora la competencia lingüística del estudiante. La investigación se lleva a cabo con un enfoque cualitativo y con un método de investigación acción de tipo práctico. Asimismo, el estudio da a conocer las diferencias entre estas dos variaciones concentrándose en el léxico, la fonética-fonología y la morfología. Explica también la importancia de cada variación y los efectos producidos, en su mayoría negativos que los estudiantes pueden tener a causa de la exposición a un input diferente. Adicionalmente se presenta una serie de recomendaciones que se espera contribuyan a que el estudiante tenga una experiencia más agradable en caso de tener contacto con alguna variación lingüística que no sea la estándar.