Second Language Curriculum Development

The purpose of the study was to establish the fact that teachers surfaced as ineffective role models to teach empathetic and pro-social skills at the primary level.The study was qualitative in nature and followed a case study approach.Observations of regular English language classes were done from Grades 1-5 to see if class lessons incorporated the said themes and whether teachers displayed the stated skills in classrooms. Another set of observations were conducted after teachers were requested to highlight empathetic and prosocial themes in texts and activities. The second set of observations noticed if the use of empathetic and pro-social textual materials and activities raised awareness among students about the said themes and affected student interest and teacher behaviour in any way. Teachers were also interviewed to register their thoughts on their own empathetic and pro-social behaviours and their experience of teaching the samein classrooms. The deputy curriculum developer from Grades 1-5 was also interviewed to take her opinion about teachers as appropriate role models to teach the said skills and the time given to the development of such skills in the professional development programmes. The findings established teachers as weak role models for the demonstration of empathetic and pro-social skills in classrooms. However, they successfully incorporated and taught the same skills through texts. The paper encourages teachers to exhibit more empathetic and compassionate skills in classrooms so that students can be equipped with sound academic and affective skills for a more positive assimilation in society at large.

Technology is often viewed as a necessary component for the facilitation of learning, especially for second language learners in early-childhood education. However, integrating technology in the classroom is a difficult task. The existing literature often does not bridge the fields of technology, second language learning, and cognitive development in childhood. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to develop a theoretical framework stemming from a critical literature review of conceptual and empirical works as they pertain to technology, second language learning, and cognitive development. This framework is used to describe conceptual issues and to identify educational implications for the use of technology in the second language classroom in early-childhood education. Furthermore, the chapter concludes with educational, conceptual, and methodological implications as they pertain to technology research and development in early second language classrooms.

Language learning involves learners getting engaged with the language. We know that exposure to language through visual / print and oral medium is essential.  This is what the textbook, other print and audio materials, and the teacher’s language attempt to do. This exposure is alone not sufficient. We need to give opportunities to children to work with language. Children should read, think about the ideas of the text, understand the meaning of the words, associate them with ideas and other words, notice the form of the structures, etc. while being exposed to the language and working with language on their own. This engagement with language makes them internalise meaning of words and structures. In addition to textbook activities, project work could be used as an effective strategy to promote collaborative ways of language learning where learners in groups work together to do an activity or a task for some period. When learners work together on a particular idea / topic, they collect information, ideas, observe language being used, use language in real life situations, exchange views and debate on ideas, write the ideas into a report, edit their writing and produce the report in a suitable form.  National Curriculum Framework (NCF) – 2005 and the Position Papers on Teaching of English and Indian Languages lay stress on learner-learner interaction and moving beyond the textbook to connect the classroom with the life outside the classroom to maximise learning. Projects can be an instrument in realising this aim. Projects can be designed to be carried out by a group of learners on topics/ themes. This helps in achieving learners constructing ideas and make critical judgments to arrive at a decision / conclusion. More importantly learners use language in contexts.  This paper presents how project in languages, particularly English as a second language could be designed and carried out by students in school.

The introduction of this thesis talks about the emergence of ESP, designing course for ESP, procedures involved in identifying the students need and selection of materials of ESP to teach language through content. The following are the highlighted points:

This volume offers a collection of papers addressing contemporary issues in foreign and second language education. In particular, it addresses language learner autonomy, both as a theoretical construct and in relation to areas of application such as the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), the European Language Portfolio (ELP), teacher training, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and minority language provision. David Little, to whom the volume is dedicated, was Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and Head of the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. He is recognised worldwide as a leading proponent of the theory of language learner autonomy, and has been a driving force behind many influential language education initiatives internationally.

Tout d'abord il faut signaler que nous sommes devant une notion relativement nouvelle et par là même difficile à préciser. Il s'agit d'un concept flou et non uniforme, ce qui complique un peu les choses à didacticiens et linguistes lorsqu'ils veulent fournir une définition valable.

Bu tez eğitim programlarını değerlendirmede özgün bir yaklaşım olan ICODE
modelini geliştirmek amacıyla hazırlanmıştır. Modelin temel özellikleri,
tasarım süreci, uygulama ilkeleri, uygulanabilirliği ve işlevselliği üzerine
araştırma yapılmıştır.
Araştırmanın birinci alt amacı doğrultusunda, I-CODE modelinin öznelci
ve faydacı felsefeye sahip; göreceli ve yararlanıcıya yönelik ideoloji taşıyan;
yararlanıcı ve katılımcı odaklı tasarımı olan; değerlendirme türüne göre dışarıdan
yönlendirilmiş, informal, girdi, işlem, çıktı ve etki değerlendirmesi yapan,
Hedeften Bağımsız Değerlendirme, Yararlanıcıya Yönelik Değerlendirme ve
İhtiyaca Cevap verici Değerlendirme yaklaşımlarına dayanan temel özelliklere
sahip olduğu sonuçlarına ulaşılmıştır.
I-CODE modelinin tasarım sürecinde yararlanıcıların ihtiyaçlarının analizi
görüşmeler üzerinden yapılmış, bu analizler alan yazın taramasıyla desteklenmiş
ve modelin program değerlendirme soruları belirlenmiştir. Aynı çalışmaya paralel
olarak I-CODE modeline ait myicode.com eğitim programı değerlendirme sitesi
tasarlanmış ve özel okulların değerlendirildiği pilot uygulamalara açılmıştır. Pilot
uygulamadan ve uzman görüşlerinden elde edilen dönütler üzerinden I-CODE
modeli geliştirilmeye devam edilmiştir.
I-CODE modelinin uygulama ilkeleri alan yazın taraması ve görüşmeler
üzerinden netleştirilmiştir. Model veli ve öğrencilerin myicode.com sitesine üye
olarak okullarının eğitim programlarını değerlendirmesine dayanmaktadır.
Türkiye’deki bütün özel okullar sistem üzerinde görüntülenebilmektedir.
Değerlendirme yararlanıcıların okullarının eğitim programı hakkındaki on soruyaon üzerinden puan vermeleri ile gerçekleştirilmektedir. Her yararlanıcı
değerlendirmesinde güncelleme yapılmaktadır. Ek olarak, okulun eğitim
programına dair genel ve alt istatistikler ayrı ayrı ve sürekli görüntülenmeye
açıktır.
Araştırmanın ikinci alt amacı doğrultusunda modelin, ihtiyaçlara yönelik
hazırlanmış, işlevsel ve yararlı olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Eğitsel
uygulanabilirlik olarak sıkıntısı olmamakla birlikte hukuki boyutlarda hassas
olmayı gerektirmektedir.

English language curriculum development in a culturally and linguistically diverse setting is always site of struggle. Particularly in Indonesia, there has been a dramatic change in English language curricula in the secondary education sector during the past decade. This change has much been driven by the ideological and political agenda instead of pedagogical benefits of interested stakeholders (e.g., students, teachers, and parents). This is evidenced by the fact that the current curriculum, The 2013 ELT Curriculum, does not detail key elements, such as curriculum materials, pedagogy, and assessment from relevant theories of language, language learning, and language teaching. Though there is much literature on English language curricula in Indonesia, it does not specifically highlight key principles of reframing English language curricula in the Indonesian secondary education sector from a critical situated perspective (Tollefson, 2015). To fill this gap, the present chapter attempts to provide directions for reframing the current curriculum and to give fresh insight into the design of English language curricula, which takes into account agencies of teachers and students as well as socio-cultural environments. These directions are also applicable to other ELT contexts in Asia or the context where the status of English is a foreign language or an additional language.

Abstract. References to other scholars’ work is an important component of research writing, and one which requires careful attention in order to convey the writer’s stance toward the reported propositions and their relationship to each other and to the writer’s own work. Second language writers often find it difficult to master the skill of selecting appropriate forms for reporting verbs, and this is an area in which English for Academic Purposes (EAP) materials and teachers are called upon to provide guidance. However, accounts of reporting verb usage have demonstrated that this is a complex area, and simple prescriptions or proscriptions are not sufficient: appropriate choices are dependent on the relationship between form and function, both locally and globally in the citing text. The present paper extends the existing research literature on reporting verbs by examining some of the factors which guide the citing writer’s choices. Implications for the EAP classroom are also taken up.

To have a “Productive Curriculum Innovation” means that the curriculum as a whole, is improving to meet the ultimate objectives of Higher Education. As such innovation in curriculum cannot be only changes in courses content, or in teaching techniques. Such changes will not increase necessarily the productivity.

Enhancing productivity needs more challenging changes in the curriculum, which will tackle the vision behind it. Productivity as such means avoiding redundancy, saving time but also and especially giving the graduate the main concepts related to their major integrated in the “conceptual fields” which link their domain to other fields of knowledge.

With such a vision, curriculum will gain not only flexibility, but it broaden the horizon of the students enabling them to work in a changing world. The Cognitive Approach, by linking knowledge acquiring to “in-act” conceptualization, offers the means for such enhancing. It will definitely change, the curriculum engineering, but the course contents, the teaching/evaluation methodology and the student’s participation in their learning. The chapter plan will be the following:

1- Introducing the topic.
2- Describing the specificity of the Cognitive Approach in terms of Curriculum design.
3- Presenting the main changes to be adopted to implement such changes and their expected enhancement implications.
4- One or two cases to illustrate the proposal.
5- Conclusion.

This book argues that the force of capitalism is currently strong enough to appear in all areas of our existence. Thus, a cultural product common in our language classrooms, the textbook, contains traces of the current phase of capitalism, neoliberalism. Drawing on insights from Karl Marx, Critical Theory and Critical Pedagogy, this book contributes to an emergent turn to political economy in applied linguistics, providing a comprehensive framework to analyze the links between neoliberalism and language-teaching textbooks. It develops a multimodal critical approach to examination of content in language textbooks in relation to social class and neoliberal values and practices. The analytical model proposed is applied to textbooks for teaching a non-global language, Catalan. The book discusses the impact of neoliberal ideology on Catalan textbooks. The results suggest the textbooks prioritize and promote the construction of an entrepreneur and consumer identity among learners. The book also addresses the reasons why current language textbooks, whether they are for a global language such as English or for a smaller one such as Catalan, frequently tend to transmit a similar neoliberal worldview.

EAP 1 (English for Academic Purposes 1) is the first course offered in the Bilingual Business Leader (BBL) program, and is therefore a key course in not only the extension of students’ language abilities, but also an introduction to the BBL program and the philosophy behind its teaching approaches.  The curriculum of EAP 1, therefore, was built on the concepts of student-centeredness, and collaborative learning.  That is, all tasks and projects in the curriculum require collaboration with peers in order to be successfully completed.  This report examines the curriculum of EAP 1 in detail, particularly looking at how collaborative learning can be forged by a student centered curriculum, making the students themselves accountable for their language learning.  First, learning outcomes of the course will be outlined, followed by an explanation of the content of the curriculum and its lessons.  Then, data from research into the course will be presented along with an evaluation of the course’s success in meeting its outcomes.  Finally, implications that this course has on curriculum design will be offered.

This PhD thesis seeks to investigate foreign language curriculum planning, design and development in Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The languages of focus are English and Spanish. The course curriculum documents are taken from the First Cycle programmes in Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LLC). Through a mixed methods approach and purposive sampling, the English and Spanish curriculum documents (75) of four Portuguese state universities will be subject to content analysis to see how closely they are aligned to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001) and to the generally accepted principles of curriculum design and development (Richards, 2001; Richards & Rodgers, 2014; Biggs & Tang, 2011). An online survey, directed at the English/Spanish teachers (31), will be designed and implemented to obtain additional information on curriculum design and development. Data will be analysed quantitatively and qualitatively.

This is a PIONEER study which will seek to offer guidelines for foreign language curricular reforms in Portuguese HEIs, for those HEIs which are contemplating curricular reforms, and for those HEIs which are yet to do so.

Keywords: Foreign Language; Foreign Language Learning and Teaching; Foreign Language Learning; Foreign Language Teaching; Language Learning and Teaching; Language Learning; Language Teaching; English; Spanish; Curriculum; Foreign Language Curriculum; Language Curriculum Development; Curriculum Planning, Design and Development; Curriculum Planning; Curriculum Design; Curriculum Development; Higher Education.

В этой статье содержатся предложения касательно принципов, учебных материалов и методик, с помощью которых можно улучшить знание английского языка. Большинство высказанных идей применимы к изучению любого иностранного языка. Во-первых, описывается механизм и стадии освоения нового языка. Далее формулируются и объясняются общие принципы самостоятельного изучения английского языка. После этого даются рекомендации о конкретных пособиях, аудио- и видеокурсах, словарях и др. учебных материалах по английскому языку. Наконец, предлагаются некоторые идеи для преподавателей относительно того, как использовать на занятии аудио- и видеоматериалы более продуктивно и как стимулировать активное участие студентов в процессе обучения.

Extensive reading (ER) means frequently reading for enjoyment many books at or below your level. Research indicates that this activity improves reading rate, reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, and spelling acquisition. Also, other researchers are finding that massive amounts of input lead to successful output such as speaking, writing, and test taking abilities.

ER, for most students in Korea, means reading graded readers. However, many people ask me this question. “How can you be sure that your students are really reading the books?” One answer is a wide variety of ER activities that have students demonstrate comprehension of their texts. These activities exist in a variety of teacher resource books, which I will bring and let you play with. However, the activities in these books are not in the proper order of presentation for students in a class/semester. They are all mixed up.

In this interactive workshop, I will introduce a hierarchy of thinking skills which will help you organize any ER activity to use with the appropriate level of student at the appropriate time in the course/semester (beginning, middle, end). Then we will do a variety of activities in order to give you a feeling for the difference in thinking skills required at each level.

This study explores English language teaching in multilingual situations, where learners speak more than two languages. The following issues were investigated in two multilingual schools in New Delhi:
1. the role of English and the English language curriculum
2. English language teaching-learning processes and classroom practices
3. the perceptions of teachers and learners of the existing practices of English language education.

The effectiveness of English language provision in Hong Kong’s English-medium university sector has become particularly central to students’ learning experiences with the implementation of the new four year university curriculum in 2012. The reforms are part of a wider push for Hong Kong to increase the number of non-local students in its courses, to align more closely with overseas educational systems and to establish the territory as a hub for higher education in Asia. Under the new curriculum, students enter university a year earlier and enroll in programmes which often contain more time for extracurricular experiences and greater exposure to disciplines outside the student’s major field.  In this chapter I show how university language centres have responded to this new context and, in particular, focus on the restructured provision of English at Hong Kong University around the idea of  “English in the Discipline”. I discuss how the Centre for Applied English Studies has gone about creating a more context-sensitive approach to English provision based on closer cooperation with academic disciplines and research-informed course design.

Due to an increase in globalization, international business, and the Tokyo Olympics being held in 2020, Japan faces a growing need to develop a population with the English language skills and cultural awareness needed for global success. The need to address these goals has been noted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) who is spending large amounts of money on various initiatives in schools, universities, and businesses across Japan. This papers outlines some of the key policy changes and educational initiatives that are being spearheaded by MEXT in order to develop the Japanese populous’ English language proficiency and to create a more international higher education system in order for Japan to remain competitive on the global arena. These initiatives will then be framed within the concept of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) or English as an international language (EIL). Finally, this paper specifically describes a number of programs, all of which have received considerable funding from MEXT, that have been developed at one university in Tokyo to develop globally minded bilingual individuals capable of performing in international academic or business contexts. Results of some of these programs are described in terms of language gains, study abroad placement, and post-graduation employment statistics.

Using the literature of curriculum studies and second language (L2) education, this article discusses the fundamental role of vocabulary within the L2 curriculum. In doing so, certain aspects of curriculum will first be outlined and then the L2 curriculum will be considered in light of the field of curriculum studies. Next, I will argue the central place of English vocabulary within the English as a second and foreign language (ESL/EFL) curriculum. Finally some of the educational implications of this reality will be noted by suggesting topics and questions that ESLEFL educators are encouraged to reflect on and act upon in their own pedagogy and classroom research.

Critical thinking is an important 21 st century learning skill. In practice, how it is integrated into the curriculum is still in question, especially in a language curriculum, where its aim is to develop learners' proficiency. In the context of Thailand, educational reform has led to a revised curriculum and Thai universities have responded to this. In one such university, a case study analysed a language curriculum and learning materials to determine the extent to which thinking skills were infused within them. The theoretical frameworks used in the analysis were the revised Bloom's taxonomy and an active learning model. Low-level thinking skills were found to be dominant factors in the language curriculum when the revised Bloom's taxonomy was used. However, active learning was seen to promote higher order thinking in the language curriculum. The suggested way to integrate thinking within the language curriculum is thus to embed a thinking skills framework and active learning in the curriculum design and learning materials.

Depuis son introduction par Gumperz dans les années 1960, le concept de « répertoire linguistique » a été largement utilisé en sociolinguistique. Il est normalement défini comme l'ensemble des variétés d'une ou plusieurs langues connues (activement ou passivement) par les membres d'une communauté linguistique. Ceux-ci disposent donc d'un éventail de variétés linguistiques (codes, styles, registres) qu'ils choisissent en fonction des exigences des différentes situations communicatives. Il ne faut pas voir les répertoires linguistiques comme des groupements chaotiques de ressources linguistiques car celles-ci sont hiérarchisées et liées à des fonctions et à des significations sociales précises (Boix, 1998: 121; Gumperz, 2000: 181-183; Lorenzo, 2000: 358).

This research report aims to encourage the research, development and production of interactive educational animated series in southern Africa such as the highly successful US series Dora the Explorer, specifically to teach southern African languages. Over the years mediums of imparting knowledge to children have changed rapidly (mainly due to ever-evolving technology), but the fact that children learn best when they are having fun has remained constant. Animation has been a leader in children’s entertainment as it has the power of expanding their imaginations and at the same time captures their attention. Animated series such as Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues have been popular with preschool children and impart valuable lessons. Dora the Explorer in particular helps children learn Spanish as a second language. The research takes a look at how children acquire a second language and how animation can aid the process of learning. Various theories on how children learn reveal the link between language, age and play. It is revealed that during production, careful consideration of content is required for educational animation to be an effective learning aid. This leads to the discovery of Richard Mayer’s principles that are recommended to be considered when creating effective educational animation. Included is a comparative analysis of the development processes of successful US children’s educational animated series to similar southern African productions. The research aims to inform the possible creation of an educational interactive animated series to enhance second language development for preschool children.

This study triangulates multiple data sources and methods to build a consensus on the English language tasks faced by graduates in their lives and careers as a practical basis for L2 program development. It addresses a problem similar to what West (1994) refers to as TENOR (Teaching English for No Obvious Reason). TENOR is problematic in that it frequently results in unfocused instruction, lower than normal learner motivation, and graduates who have no clear idea of what they have learned or who do not have the ability to use it for any functional purpose. Employment records, interviews and a sequence of surveys were used to build consensus on the L2 tasks faced by graduates over the 25-year period preceding the study. Results demonstrate that it was possible to identify and build consensus on task types common across workplace domains, and that, given adequate support, graduates could specify target tasks as a basis for organizing focused, goal-oriented instruction in a context where TENOR was the norm. The study is intended to provide a heuristic framework and procedures for future task-based needs analyses.

In the sociopolitics of language, sometimes yesterday’s solution is tomorrow’s problem.  This volume examines the evolving nature of language acquisition planning through a collection of papers that consider how decisions about language learning and teaching are mediated by a confluence of psychological, ideological, and historical forces.  The first two parts of the volume feature empirical studies of formal and informal education across the lifespan and around the globe.  Case studies map the agents, resources, and attitudes needed for creating moments and spaces for language learning that may, at times, collide with wider beliefs and policies that privilege some languages over others.  The third part of the volume is devoted to conceptual contributions that take up theoretical issues related to epistemological and conceptual challenges for language acquisition planning.  These contributions reflect on the full spectrum of social and cognitive factors that intersect with the planning of language teaching and learning including ethnic and racial power relations, historically situated political systems, language ideologies, community language socialization, relationships among stakeholders in communities and schools, interpersonal interaction, and intrapersonal development.  In all, the volume demonstrates the multifaceted and socially situated nature of language acquisition planning.

This paper draws on the generic theory of curriculum in an attempt to discuss how this concept can be viewed in foreign language teaching. The main argument presented is that no consensus can be reached on what a curriculum actually entails because the concept is philosophically and ideologically driven and that. Hence, it is argued that any definition of curriculum is complex because issues of policy, power and epistemology usually underpin the concept. The paper first discusses how curriculum is defined. Then, it looks at issues of policy and power as the fundamental underpinnings in any conceptualization of curriculum. After that, the paper discusses curriculum with reference to educators’ epistemological beliefs and looks at how different views are inextricably linked to conceptions of learning, teaching and knowledge. Finally, the paper draws on the generic discussion to discuss how curriculum can be viewed in foreign language teaching.  It is hoped that this discussion can represent an initial platform for debate in the field.

When we discuss the legacies and impact of trans-Atlantic enslavement on the Diaspora, we must consider several issues. Among these is the tendency of the word “legacy” to have a positive connotation for many – where the enslavement of African people may fail with regard to this criterion. More importantly, in this paper I would like to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that in many places, such as the United States, slavery has never been abolished by law, merely renamed. As such, it becomes difficult to discuss a legacy or aftermath of something that is still in progress. Therefore, we will take the United States as a case study of slavery changing names/forms yet remaining essentially the same in spirit and nature if not worse in terms of impact on African people.

Professional English is a mandatory module in all Chinese universities, being taught alongside the students major. However, students often find learning English somewhat tedious as it can seem disconnected from their major and aspirations for the future. To try to overcome this shortcoming we have introduced the use of creative science as a means of linking language learning to exploring futuristic technologies with the aim of fuelling their engagement with language learning while at the same time helping them acquire valuable creative-thinking skills. In this paper we describe a two year trial be conducted at Shijiazhuang University where we operated this scheme with two batches of students, reporting our findings which show this approach produces significant learning gains over traditional methods. Finally, we describe our plans for developing an online EFL facility based around an i-Lab n the form of a virtual spacestation.

An expert is a fool a thousand miles from home. Having successfully failed to learn about nine languages, I’m a veteran language learning imbecile, always a thousand miles from success, and an eternally hopeful beginner. I’ve also had the cheek to teach my native language to hopeful novices for over thirty years, which sometimes leads them and others to mistake me for a wannabe guru. The sheer hypocrisy of this dilemma should condemn me to embarrassed silence forever, yet I persist probing the reasons and remedies for my own language learning incompetence. After all, my exasperated search is surely shared by millions of others. The discussion which follows is informal, but makes serious points. It builds on an original e-mail exchange with a correspondent in 2005.

In Kafka’s very short story “Eine kaiserliche Botschaft” (1917/1950, “An Imperial Message”), an emperor lying on his deathbed sends a final, undisclosed message to a remotely located “Du.” The emperor relays the urgent decree by way of his messenger, who hustles tirelessly through the city of the imperial seat striving to accomplish this task with which he has been entrusted. He pushes through the jostling crowds and expansive palaces, but is ultimately unable to reach the intended recipient, “gar mit der Botschaft eines Toten.” This apparently disheartening text appeared in the Jewish weekly Selbstwehr during the First World War, just four months after the death of Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph I and—as is the case with many of Kafka’s writings—“Eine kaiserliche Botschaft” has often been interpreted as a parable of power, a story about how states, divinities, patriarchs, and/or texts address their subjects, and with what amount of success.

We draw on Kafka’s tale of hermeneutic failure here to explore yet another parabolic layer, among the already vast ranks of extant interpretations of this text, one that might help us to elucidate a pedagogical stance we call Contact Pragmatics (see also Gramling and Warner, 2010). ...

This article presents a brief overview of the state of university language education in the United States. Despite the impact of the world economic crisis on university language education in the United States, the profession has not yet been impacted to the extent many believe it has. Current scholarly debates allow for both a sober assessment of and an optimistic perspective on the field's trajectory in recent years. A brief summary is offered of recent enrollments in university courses in languages other than English, which shows that enrollments have indeed remained stable, though even these stable numbers point toward shortcomings in the place of language education in academia overall. The key points of the 2007 Modern Language Association Ad Hoc Committee Report, 'Foreign languages and higher education: New structures for a changed world', are then presented, along with some scholarly responses to it. The report, and especially the academic debate it sparked, point toward a period of transformation in university language education; an increased attention to crucial links between theory, curriculum, research, and pedagogical practice; and an encouraging mood of advocacy for language education that transcends the defensive response to program reductions and eliminations.

Practical proposals (and their theoretical underpinnings) to improve the teaching of languages in university degree courses and in Language Centers.

Proposte pratiche (giustificate teoricamente) per riqualificare l'insegnamento delle lingue nei corsi di laurea in lingue e nei CLA.
.

ACTFL highlights the five Cs of language learning; of these, culture is widely recognized to be an often-overlooked part of the language curriculum, especially for the less-commonly taught languages. Although strengthening the cultural component at the curricular level can and should happen, seemingly “ordinary” classroom activities can be spaces for instructors to implicitly share cultural knowledge. This does not need to be in the form of explicit lessons, but can involve implicit references to cultural touchstones, use of language-specific discourse and pragmatic markers, and making connections between these cultural resources to the lived experience of students. Many instructors do this without realizing its significance; it is my hope that highlighting how these implicit lessons unfold can provide teachers with the meta-awareness to add intentionality and durability to these moments of cultural exchange. The data highlighting these implicit cultural lessons comes from an ethnomethodological study of an 8-week residential language immersion program. Through a micro-analysis of particularly robust interactions, I unpack instances of an instructor responding to moments of pedagogical tension, not from a primary stance of a classroom manager, but a practitioner of Egyptian culture. This culturally-specific stance, as opposed to one that presumes cultural neutrality, opens a space for extracurricular cultural lessons. This study seeks to broaden our definition of what constitutes “culture” in the language classroom, not to dilute it, but to integrate more fully into the students’ learning environment.

El presente trabajo informa acerca de los resultados del avance de un proyecto de investigación correspondiente al ámbito del Diseño de Materiales de Enseñanza de Lenguas Extranjeras. El propósito es identificar los rasgos específicos de manuales de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras adaptados para el contexto educativo local y analizar cualitativamente la presencia de estos en una selección de manuales para la enseñanza del alemán, inglés e italiano. Estos manuales son adaptaciones para la Argentina o para hispanohablantes de manuales producidos por editoriales extranjeras para ser usa- dos por un público no determinado, y constituyen un intento de localización de los materiales para su empleo con grupos de aprendientes específicos. Se espera que el presente trabajo sea un aporte para los docentes de lenguas extranjeras en el área del análisis de materiales didácticos y que pueda influir en el diseño de materiales mejor adaptados para contextos educativos determinados.

Although the relationship between language proficiency and learner beliefs is generally viewed as weak, indirect, and distant, there are empirical findings which show that the relationship between syntactic complexity measures and language learning beliefs is statistically tangible. Since syntactic complexity is only one constituent of the linguistic complexity system, it seems plausible to question whether other constituents of the system are also in statistically measurable relationships with language learning beliefs. This research project explores the relationship between 25 lexical complexity measures (Lu 2012; 2014) and four subscales of language learning beliefs that are suggested for Horwitz's (2013) Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory-BALLI 2.0 (Kovačević 2017). For three semesters (Fall 2014, Spring and Fall 2015), 152 freshman students at the International University of Sarajevo responded to BALLI 2.0 and wrote in-class exam essays which were converted into an electronic format. The results show 15 statistically significant correlation coefficients between 14 lexical complexity measures and three BALLI 2.0 sub-scales. Overall, it may be concluded that the relationship between lexical complexity measures and language learning beliefs is statistically detectable. The findings imply that the lexical complexity framework offers valuable opportunities for exploring how and to what extent particular individual differences manifest in foreign language production.

Après 2001, l’apprentissage de l’arabe s’organisait autour de la classification de « critical languages » dont l’importance est déterminée par l’axe géopolitique. A cause de cette classification, les matières pour enseigner l’arabe aux Etats-Unis se focalisent sur les sujets comme l’économique, la politique, le militarisme et la diplomatie. En revanche, plusieurs études sur la motivation des étudiants de la langue arabe indiquent que les raisons pour apprendre l’arabe s’alignent mal sur le curriculum sous-jacent de la langue arabe aux Etats-Unis. Plus troublant est que l’emphase sur l’arabe standard limite les occasions d’enseigner les variétés orales en tant que les compétences socioculturelle ; les programmes laissent l’enseignement de ces compétence pour ceux qui étudient à l’étranger.
Donc, le défi est d’entreprendre des moyens d’imaginer un nouveau curriculum qui s’appuie sur les intérêts des étudiants en tant que la possibilité d’ouverture vers une autre culture. Le cadre de Deep Learning, surtout le Deep Approach to learning language and culture (Tochon, 2013), offre une philosophie d’apprentissage des langues qui permet la création d’un curriculum qui tient compte de la grande diversité des langues et cultures du monde arabe.

Research on the place of culture within the foreign language curriculum has shown that current teaching practices often consider culture as simply something to be added on instead
of effectively integrating it (Durocher, 2007; Knutson, 2006; Kramsch, 1993; Magnan, 2008; Omaggio Hadley, 2001; Perraudin, & Porfilio, 2011; Schulz, 2007; Wilbur, 2007). This study takes an emic perspective to explore how the experience of a first-semester foreign language course can shape learners’ understanding of culture and perceptions of the interconnection between language and culture. Twenty-two students, native English speakers, enrolled in four first-semester French courses, were interviewed three times during a semester. The four instructors were interviewed at the end of the semester. Data analysis revealed that a majority of the participants viewed language and culture as separate entities, that they were mainly concerned with linguistic competence and possessed an incomplete understanding of
the concept culture. Based on these findings, pedagogical recommendations are discussed to support the development of learners’ understanding of the intrinsic link between language
and culture.

ESL English as a second language ESOL English for speakers of other languages HEFCE Higher Education Funding Council for England IELTS International English Language Testing System L1/L2 First/second language TLS Top level structures RCT Randomised controlled trial