Language teaching - Cambridge University Press · 98-152 Andrews, Stephen (U. of Hong Kong)....

Language teaching

Language teaching

98-151 Akyel, Ay§e (Bogazigi U., Istanbul).Experienced and student EFL teachers'instructional thoughts and actions. The CanadianModern Language Review/La revue canadiennedes langues vivantes (Toronto, Ont.), 53, 4 (1997),677-704.

The study reported here examined if experienced andstudent teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL)differ from each other in terms of: (a) their use of stu-dent performance cues; (b) their instructional actions inresponse to student performance cues; and (c) theirinstructional goals and instruction-related knowledgethey recalled applying during the process of EFLinstruction. Transcriptions of videotaped lessons of fiveexperienced and five student EFL teachers and explana-tions of their instructional goals and instruction-relatedknowledge were analysed. The results indicated thatthere were patterns of similarities and differencesbetween experienced and student teachers' instructionalactions and thoughts. The results concerning the differ-ences confirmed the findings of previous studies con-ducted in instructional contexts with native speakers ofEnglish. Moreover, a comparison of the findings of thisstudy with those of a previous study on the instructionalthoughts and decisions of student teachers of English asa Second Language (ESL) indicated that there may bepatterns of goals and instructional actions that areunique to ESL/EFL instructional contexts.

98-152 Andrews, Stephen (U. of Hong Kong).Metalinguistic awareness and teacher explanation.Language Awareness (Clevedon), 6, 2/3 (1997),147-61.

In Hong Kong in the past five years, there has been amarked increase of interest in the language awareness ofteachers (their'metalinguistic awareness'). This interesthas been stimulated pardy by a concern about decliningstandards of student achievement in both Chinese andEnglish. Dissatisfaction with learners' standards ofEnglish is linked to officially expressed concern aboutthe quality of teachers of English, many of whom areneither subject-trained nor professionally trained. Thestudy reported here is part of on-going research intothe metalinguistic awareness of Hong Kong secondary-school teachers of English. One observable behaviourmost obviously exemplifying the metalinguistic aware-ness of second language teachers is explaining gram-mar. The aim of this particular study was to explore therelationship between a teacher's metalinguistic aware-ness and her ability to explain a grammar point: howmight the latter be affected by the former, and whatmight the latter reveal about the former? A number of

teachers with different backgrounds and experiencewere asked to role-play the explanation of a grammarpoint on two separate occasions. The explanations werevideo-taped, transcribed and analysed. The paperreports the results of the analysis of four samples ofperformance.

98-153 Argondizzo, Carmen (U. della Cambria).Once more on syllabus design: the ESP/EAPcontext. Rassegna Italiana di Linguistica Applicata(Rome), 29, 1 (1997), 27-40.

This article reviews the components of syllabus designand examines the principles which are used to organisesyllabuses. Discussion begins from the premise that asyllabus is not a fixed product; designing a syllabus is aconstantly evolving process. It traces the developmentof a number of types of syllabus through formal andfunctional-communicative syllabuses to task-based,skill-based and process-based types, highlighting themajor features of each. A number of questions is thenproposed which the ESP/EAP (English for Specificand/or Academic Purposes) syllabus designer mightusefully answer in order to ensure that an ESP/EAPsyllabus is as wide-ranging as possible. Finally, all thestrands of the discussion are brought together by meansof a practical example, i.e. designing an EAP course forEconomics. The proposed design draws on the featuresof each syllabus type which are most relevant for theEAP course, resulting in a 'comprehensive syllabus' ormulti-syllabus, with an explanation of how each ele-ment will contribute to the EAP/ESP student's finalcompetence in English for Economics

98-154 Bach, Stephanie A. and Somerholter,Kerstin E. (U. of Texas, Austin). Deutsche Welle tv:using video to introduce business German. DieUnterrichtspraxis/Teaching German (Cherry Hill,NJ), 1(1997), 30-35.

This paper provides a description of the use of authen-tic video in a business German course at the UniversityofTexas at beginners level.Video material is taken fromDeutsche Welle tv, and is chosen to tie in with the unitsin the textbook used: Deutsch Zusammen (Donahue/Watzinger).The authors discuss the advantages of intro-ducing authentic video material into the foreign lan-guage classroom, mention points of relevance inchoosing suitable video clips, and finally introduce asequence of viewing and related activities: from view-ing without sound, through pre-viewing, viewing andpost-viewing activities. Several of these activities arepresented in an appendix. The authors found, via aquestionnaire administered mid-semester, that authen-

72 Lang.Teach. 31,72-110. Printed in the United Kingdom © 1998 Cambridge University Press

https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800012982Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 54.39.106.173, on 05 Jul 2021 at 11:14:50, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at

https://www.cambridge.org/core/termshttps://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800012982https://www.cambridge.org/core

Language teachingtic video material occasioned an enthusiastic responsefrom students. They stress that video is the medium parexcellence which allows introduction of (multiple) nativespeakers into the classroom.

98-155 Barbot, Marie-Jose (Ecole NormaleSuperieure de Fontenay, Saint-Cloud). Cap surI'autoformation: multimedias, des outils as'approprier. [Multimedia as tools of autonomouslearning.] Le Frangais dans le Monde (Paris),special issue (July 1997), 54-62.

Autonomous language learning is replacing the codi-fied teacher-centred approaches of the past. This articleaffirms students' need, however, for help and guidance:they need to learn how to learn. Adapting multimediato the personality and approach of individual learners isan important factor in creating and reinforcing motiva-tion; and materials have to be developed to correspondto different learning styles. The potential of multimediahas to be fully exploited—something that the paperclaims many existing commercially produced systemsyet fail to do, largely for reasons of cost. It is difficult toassess the impact of multimedia at present, while tech-niques, content and presentation are in a constant stateof flux, but careful analysis will reveal how they can bestbe integrated into autonomous and distance learning.

98-156 Barton, Amanda (U. of Warwick). Boys'under-achievement in GCSE modern languages:reviewing the reasons. Language Learning Journal(Rugby), 16(1997), 11-16.

Recently there has been debate in the UK about boys'poor performance in secondary-level modern lan-guages. This article re-assesses some of the possible rea-sons, with the aim of developing strategies to reversethis trend. Influences in childhood and the home areexamined, including male-female conflict, subsequentstereotypes which can emerge during play, and theimportance of role models. It is suggested that, becauseboys' talk and girls' talk are reinforced differently, boysand girls do not develop identical communicationskills. Thus, foreign language learning may require boysto employ unfamiliar linguistic skills. Research indi-cates that adolescent boys do not actively reject lan-guage learning as 'feminine'; rather, they perpetuate amacho culture of failure. This highlights the importanceof non-threatening and relevant language lessons andthe need for an integrated approach to developing lan-guage awareness beginning in primary school. Lack ofself-confidence and the need for acceptance by peersare seen as causes of adolescent male ethnocentricity.Reasons for girls' preferences for languages are pro-posed, such as the predominance of female languageteachers, and a warning is sounded that teachers them-selves must avoid stereotyping in the language class-room. Parental involvement is required to promotelanguages as a viable career option.

98-157 Beeching, Kate (U. of the West ofEngland, Bristol). French for Specific Purposes:the case for spoken corpora. Applied Linguistics(Oxford), 18, 3 (1997), 374-94.

This paper argues that the increasing number of non-specialist students of French in British universitiesrequires urgent investigation of the adequacy of 'gen-eral purpose' syllabi, grammars, and methodologies.Drawing on the work of researchers of English forSpecific Purposes, of corpus-based approaches, ofautonomous learning, and of the exploitation ofauthentic text, the paper illustrates its thesis by refer-ence to the detailed analysis of a small corpus ofspontaneous spoken French video-recorded at a horti-cultural research station in Normandy. This serves tohighlight not only the lexical features associated with aparticular field but also the syntactic features whichcharacterise spoken French. Two difficulties of analysisare raised, relating to the indeterminacy of languageand the non-discreteness of grammatical categories. A'fuzzy' approach is recommended to the attribution offunctional descriptors to syntactic elements and to thecategorisation of grammatical forms. It is concludedthat the effective design of syllabi and methodologiesfor Specific Purposes students is substantially enhancedthrough the detailed analysis of a spoken corpus whichshould be examined as a communicative event, notsolely as an assemblage of linguistic items.

98-158 Benrabah, M. (U. Grenoble 3). Word-stress: a source of unintelligibly in English. IRAL(Heidelberg, Germany), 35, 3 (1997), 157-65.

After a 'swing of the pendulum' in the mid-eighties, theteaching of pronunciation has again emerged as a skillwhich the author considers teachers cannot do with-out. This paper is concerned with English word-stress, afeature deemed essential for efficient communication.The difficulty in assigning this phonological aspect isconsidered, as well as the effect of its misplacement oncomprehension. As an illustration, it is shown howEnglish word-stress differs from that of anotherstress-timed language, namely Arabic. Data are thenpresented from three non-native speakers (Indian,Nigerian and Algerian) to show how incorrect word-stress placements can result in miscomprehension.The author concludes by emphasising what he consid-ers the importance of teaching this feature of Englishpronunciation.

98-159 Berry, Roger (Lingnan Coll., Tuen Mun,Hong Kong). Teachers' awareness of learners'knowledge: the case of metalinguistic terminology.Language Awareness (Clevedon), 6, 2/3 (1997),136-46.

This paper describes a study which investigated theknowledge of metalinguistic terminology in a group of372 first-year undergraduates in a tertiary institution inHong Kong and compared this to their English teach-ers' estimation of that knowledge and desire to use such

73



Language teachingterminology. It found (1) wide differences betweenlearners in their knowledge of terminology; and, (2)wide discrepancies between this and the teachers'expectations, some of which could lead to serious diffi-culties in the classroom. In general the teachers' aware-ness of the learners appeared to be rather poor. Reasonswhy this situation is so serious are offered - notably theclash of academic cultures in the transition from sec-ondary to tertiary education — and ways of resolvingthe problem are discussed.

98-160 Block, D. (U. of London). Learning bylistening to language learners. System (Oxford),25, 3, (1997), 347-60.

This paper describes a personal version of the actionresearch cycle seen from the point of view of a practis-ing language teacher. In the first part of the paper amodel of the cycle is presented which describes thesteps the researcher followed in the various researchprojects carried out over several years. The outlines oftwo research studies using interview and questionnaireprocedures are then discussed as examples of thismodel, and it is suggested that, at the end of the cycleoutlined in the model, the researcher is informed intwo ways. Firstly, he or she gains an answer to the ques-tions which motivated the research in the first place,providing information which may lead to significantchanges in language teaching practice. Secondly, he orshe receives information about the research process, inparticular research design and data collection proce-dures. It is suggested that, beyond mere reporting ofwhat research has indicated about a particular situation,there is a need to address what research actually teachesabout the process of research itself.

98-161 Bouza Alvarez, I. (U. of Vigo).Enseignement et apprentissage du frangais dansles differents domaines d'activite. [Teaching andlearning French for special purposes.] Revue dePhone"tique Appliquee (Paris), 118-119 (1996),17-29.

The teaching and learning of French for special pur-poses by undergraduate and graduate students requirelanguage instruction of a specific kind, preciselybecause they need to learn the language in order to beable to follow specialised courses of study. Such instruc-tion has to be based on the learners' needs, which in theinstitutional context in question means enabling themto read authentic texts in their field of specialisation. Itis pointed out, however, that the teacher cannot andshould not try to teach law, economics or any otherparticular discipline, but should instead aim at develop-ing a global approach to reading comprehension whichwill allow him or her to deal with a variety of texttypes. Such an approach is illustrated by a detailedanalysis of the formal, contextual, thematic, discursiveand pragmatic features of an economics text which isprovided as an appendix.

98-162 Burns, Anne (Macquarie U., Sydney),Gollin, Sandra and Joyce, Helen. Authenticspoken texts in the language classroom. Prospect(Macquarie U., Sydney), 12, 2 (1997), 72-86.

In most contemporary language teaching contexts oneof the main aims of teaching is to enable students toengage in successful spoken exchanges with speakers ofthe target language. This aim is inevitable in an increas-ingly mobile world where people need to communi-cate across national borders to do business on aworldwide scale and to develop relationships beyondthe confines of a particular culture. This article arguesthat learners need to be given the opportunity to listento authentic discourse within the language classroomand to practise forms of language which will enablethem to engage in successful exchanges beyond theclassroom. The article also examines the main questionswhich confront the classroom teacher when integratingauthentic spoken discourse into a language programme.

98-163 Butzkamm, Wolfgang (Lehrstuhl furEnglische Sprache und ihre Didaktik, Aachen).Communicative shifts in the regular FL-classroomand in the bilingual content classroom. IRAL(Heidelberg, Germany), 35, 3 (1997), 167-86.

This article discusses the methodological concepts ofmedium- and message-oriented communication andapplies them to both the conventional foreign languageclassroom and the bilingual content classroom whereschool subjects are taught through the medium of aforeign language. It is based on personal classroomobservations, mostly in German grammar schools, andmakes use of some 200 autobiographical reports, col-lected over the past few years, in which German uni-versity students of English analysed their own languagelearning at school. The findings are supported byempirical studies where classroom communication wasanalysed in a more systematic way. It is argued that theinterplay between message- and medium-orientation isan important feature of the successful foreign languageclassroom as well as the bilingual classroom. The articleprovides two checklists for the analysis of fluctuationsbetween communicative levels in the classrooms, whichmay be used both for teachers' self-observations andalso as tools in further research.

98-164 Byram, Michael (U. of Durham). 'Culturalawareness' as vocabulary learning. LanguageLearning Journal (Rugby), 16(1997), 51-7.

Following recommendations in the U.K. NationalCurriculum in 1991, the term 'cultural awareness' hasassumed greater significance in foreign language teach-ing. This has focused attention on the importance ofmaking learners aware of the cultural connotations oflanguage items. The author of this article suggests that itis in the area of vocabulary acquisition that language-culture links are particularly significant. Threeapproaches to the investigation of vocabulary in termsof cultural content are presented. Dictionary methods

74



Language teachinginvolve students listing words they associate with cho-sen vocabulary in the first language and then using abilingual dictionary to collect meanings and associa-tions in the target language. Ethnographic methodsinvolve the learner in the collection of language datarelating to certain vocabulary items, using methodssuch as semi-structured or informal interviews.Historical and literary methods employ literary andethnographic texts in order to provide insight into cul-tural contexts such as British school life. Finally, a textto facilitate choice of words is recommended, and fourdimensions implicit in this approach to the culturalteaching of vocabulary are summarised.

98-165 Campbell, Ian (U. of New England,Armidale). A question of language awareness:using English to support second language learning.Babel (AFMLTA) (Victoria, Australia), 32, 2 (1997),10-13,34.

This paper argues that a knowledge of how Englishworks can help English-speaking students learning aforeign language, particularly one that is cognate withEnglish, such as German. It can help to reveal similari-ties and differences between English and the target lan-guage, thus encouraging students to transfer similaritiesand to be wary of transfer where there are differences.Areas suggested for useful comparison are the use of'do', word and sentence stress, separable and inseparableverbs, dental suffixes, weak and strong verbs, vocabularyextension, and idiomatic expressions. It is concludedthat, as well as having a direct effect on students' learn-ing, using English as a springboard for their languagelearning can also enhance their interest in their ownlanguage and in language in general.

98-166 Carter, Ronald (U. of Nottingham).Speaking Englishes, speaking cultures, usingCANCODE. Prospect(Macquarie U., Sydney), 12,2 (1997), 4-11.

Descriptions of the English language and of Englishgrammar, in particular, have been largely based on writ-ten sources and on written examples. This is inevitable,since examples of written English are easier to obtainand it is only recently that audio technology has facili-tated recordings of the spoken language. Corpora ofspoken language are now being assembled which willallow more precise description of the properties of spo-ken English and thus make learners of English moreaware of a wider range of forms and structures thanhitherto. This article seeks to outline work in thedescription of spoken English and to discuss some ofthe implications for English language teaching of using'real' data, recognising that the term real carries positiveconnotations in our culture (e.g. real ale; get real; enjoythat real country taste; real English; you're not living inthe real world), but remembering that the inflections ofwords like 'real' and 'authentic' and 'natural' are neverwithout their problems in the context of English lan-guage teaching. The corpus which is drawn on is

referred to as CANCODE, Cambridge/NottinghamCorpus of Discourse in English.

98-167 Chambers, Gary N. (U. of Leeds). Theexchange vs. the media: the struggle for culturalawareness. Language Learning Journal(Rugby),16(1997), 58-65.

Despite legislation for the teaching of cultural aware-ness in the U.K. National Curriculum for ForeignLanguages, stereotypes and generalisations about for-eign cultures persist in school-age children. This articledescribes a research project which examines the atti-tudes towards French and German people of threecohorts (aged 11, 13, and 15) of Leeds school pupils.Pupils were asked to complete the sentences 'I thinkFrench (German, British) people are...'. The analysisrevealed that the youngest pupils appeared to likeGerman and French people, but there were less positiveattitudes in the 13-15 age group.Among the 15-17 yearold pupils, however, the response became more positive.Possible factors influencing pupils' views are suggested,i.e. children's limited experience of visits abroad, theirlack of opportunities for chance encounters with for-eigners, and the fact that they did not personally knowany French or German people. It is proposed that, over-all, these pupils had less chance than their Germancounterparts of finding themselves in an authentic lan-guage context. The author also expresses concern thatpupils attached only slight importance to exchangeprogrammes which could provide them with anauthentic context and thus potentially counteract theirstereotyping of foreign people.

98-168 Chevalier, Yves (U. Lille III), Derville,Bettina and Perrin, Dominique. Vers uneconceptualisation des apprentissages assistes?Je vous ai compris, plate-forme pour unerecherche. [Towards a theory of assisted learning?Je vous ai compris as a starting point for research.]Le Frangais dans le Monde (Paris), special issue(July 1997), 133-7.

In this paper the authors evaluate a system they havedesigned for semi-autonomous foreign language learn-ing, Je vous ai compris, which uses multimedia materialsallowing students to participate in interactive situations.The program is designed to take on the role of tutor inthe interaction, while still allowing students a degree ofindependence in decision-making. The authors con-clude that such materials for the development of com-prehension and expression should be as 'real' as possible,i.e. requiring students to use the skills needed in real-lifesituations. Although the computer is designed to be atutor, complex situations still need to be prepared anddiscussed with a human tutor too. Problems still remain-ing are linked to the nature of artificial intelligence: dia-logue with a computer is not the same as dialogue withanother person, since the cognitive structures of humansand computers are still very different.

75



Language teaching98-169 Christ, Ingeborg (Ministerium fur Schuleund Weiterbildung des Landes NRW, Dusseldorf).Schulische Wege zur Mehrsprachigkeit. [Achievingmultilingualism through school.] Zeitschrift furFremdsprachenforschung (Bochum, Germany), 8,2(1997), 147-59.

This article refers to a new agreement of thePermanent Conference of the Ministers of Educationin the Federal Republic of Germany concerning theimprovement of teaching and learning foreign lan-guages in school in order to prepare young people fortheir lives in a multilingual Europe. In Germany somesteps to multilingualism have already been taken, suchas one compulsory foreign language for all pupils; thepossibility of opting for two or three foreign languagesin some types of secondary schools; programmes ofheritage languages for children of migrant families; lan-guage teaching in primary schools; and teaching lan-guages through other subjects. It is suggested that thereremains much to be done, however, given that manypupils study only one modern foreign language. Thearticle discusses how to improve organisational, peda-gogical and psychological conditions in order to moti-vate more pupils and their parents to dare the adventureof multilingualism.

98-170 Christianson, Kiel (U. of Aizu). Dictionaryuse by EFL writers: what really happens? Journal ofSecond Language Writing (Norwood, NJ), 6,1(1997), 23-43.

The research reported in this paper is an attempt tobetter understand what happens when for one reasonor another 'communication conflicts' occur despite dic-tionary use. All of the words that 51 Japanese studentsof English as a Foreign Language (EFL) had looked upin their dictionaries were identified in a 41,024-wordcorpus of student writing. Forty-two per cent of these'dictionary words' were found to have been used incor-rectly in some way. An analysis of the errors themselvesand of interviews with more and less successful dictio-nary users was conducted in an attempt to betterunderstand why these errors were committed and whatcan be done to assist students in avoiding such errors.The findings indicate that successful dictionary users,regardless of their level of English proficiency, employ avariety of sophisticated look-up strategies. It is claimedthat this research brings into question some of theclaims of previous studies into FL dictionary use.

98-171 Cobb, Tom (City U. of Hong Kong). Isthere any measurable learning from hands-onConcordancing? System (Oxford), 25, 3 (1997),301-15.

The study reported here attempts to identify a specificlearning effect that can be unambiguously attributed tothe use of concordance software by language learners. Abase-level hypothesis for learning from concordances isproposed, that a computer concordance might simulateand potentially rationalise off-line vocabulary acquisition

by presenting new words in several contexts. To test thisidea, an experimental lexical tutor was developed tointroduce new words to subjects, either through concor-dances or through other sources of lexical information.In a series of tests involving transfer of word knowledgeto novel contexts, a small but consistent gain was foundfor words introduced through concordances.

98-172 Cook, Manuela. Fifty years of Portugeseteaching: an overview. Vida HispAnica (Rugby), 15(1997), 12-18.

Portugese is now taught in no fewer than 18 U.K. uni-versities, as compared with only four in 1947, and isincreasingly studied in its own right and not as anadjunct to Spanish. Afro-Portugese studies are takingtheir place alongside Brazilian and Portugese studies;and Portugese is now widely taught in schools and inadult education. Crucially, there is now secure exami-nation provision for Portugese, in spite of the threatposed by the National Curriculum. However, theauthor affirms that much still remains to be done ifPortugese is to attain a more visible share of the mod-ern languages scene in the U.K., to shed the label of alesser-taught language, and to be recognised as a majorworld language.

98-173 Coonan, Carmel Mary (U. of Venice).Reactions to practice: implications for teaching.Rassegna Italiana di Linguistica Applicata (Rome),29, 1 (1997), 117-31.

This article begins by questioning to what extent ateaching qualification and teaching experience alonecan equip teachers to judge the effectiveness of theirteaching. It is suggested that the experience of becom-ing a language learner again can usefully complementpractitioners' teaching experience, by enabling them tore-evaluate the effectiveness of their own practice andthe theories underlying it. To this end, the authordescribes her own attempt at documenting andanalysing a personal language learning experience. Anaccount is given of her experience of trying to learnsome Ngala, one of the languages of Zaire: she under-took six hours of instruction in a native-speakingteacher's classroom. Data were collected through lessonrecordings and diary-writing. From the analysis of herlearning experience, the author attempts to draw outgeneral implications relating to effective teaching.

98-174 Crosnier, Elizabeth (INSA, Toulouse).Etude contrastive de modeles etablis a partir detextes scientifiques en frangais et en anglais en vuede I'apprentissage de I'anglais L2. [Contrastivemodel analysis of English and French scientifictexts, and ESL learning.] Les apres-midi de LAIRDIL(Toulouse), 8(1996)15-29.

This paper emphasises the cultural dimension whichFrench scientists face when confronted by publicationsin a specialist domain dominated by Anglo-Americanworking practice. The author argues that success

76



Language teachingdepends not so much on grammatical accuracy as thefailure to grasp the differing priorities of the English-speaking discourse community. The paper sets outSwales' move-based approach to rhetorical structureand relates this to the contrastive analysis of French andEnglish scientific articles. The paper compares a bilin-gual corpus of fifty abstracts and introduction sectionsfrom the field of computer science. Concordancingtools are used to establish the general differencesbetween each text. Changes in tense usage and externalreference are used as primary dimensions of analysis. Ingeneral, English abstracts demonstrate a distinct prefer-ence for reporting findings whereas French abstractstend to prioritise background information.There is noone-to-one correspondence between the tense systems,although there may be other explanations for these dif-ferences. The author stresses the dynamic nature ofmodels and the importance of individual variationas opposed to an attempt to impose fixed culturalstereotypes in English for Specific and/or AcademicPurposes.

98-175 Deignan, A. (Leeds U), Gabrys, D. andSolska, A. Teaching English metaphors usingcross-linguistic awareness-raising activities. ELTJournal (Oxford), 51, 4 (1997), 352-60.

Now that metaphor is recognised as being pervasive inlanguage, it is argued that more attention should be givento the teaching of strategies for comprehending and gen-erating metaphors in a second language (L2).This articlereports on a translation exercise undertaken by advancedPolish learners of English which revealed ways in whichmetaphorical expressions vary between the two lan-guages, and the problems this raises for learners. It is sug-gested that awareness-raising through discussion andcomparison of metaphon in LI and L2 is a usefulapproach to helping learners to understand and appro-priately produce metaphon. This is followed by somesample teaching materials which have been designed toencourage learnen to investigate and comparemetaphors in LI and L2.

98-176 De Jabrun, Pierre (Mansfield State HighSchool, Brisbane, Australia). Academicachievement in late partial immersion French. Babel(AFMLTA) (Victoria, Australia), 32, 2 (1997), 20-23,35, 37.

In the project described here, secondary level English-speaking pupils at an Australian school were taughtmaths, science, history and geography through themedium of French. The maths and science strands arethe focus of this paper. It was found that, although therewere some initial problems, these were overcome bythe second half of the year. As far as mastery of the sub-jects was concerned, in maths the immersion studentsmaintained their slight lead on the English-mediumcontrol group throughout, and in science they latermade up an early deficit, as they became more profi-cient in French. It is concluded that, if anything thelearners' education in general was enhanced by their

involvement in the immersion programme; and there isanecdotal evidence of improved academic performanceat a later stage. The area of French immersion studies iswell-documented, and these learners seem to have per-formed as well as, or better than, participants in otherstudies.

98-177 Depecker, Loic (U. de la SorbonneNouvelle Paris III). L'internet, un medium quibouleverse les contenus linguistiques. [TheInternet: a medium which radically changeslinguistic content.] Le Frangais dans le Monde(Paris), special issue (July 1997), 165-82.

This article discusses the influence of the Internet onthe evolution of new French vocabulary. A discussion ofthe various lexicographical resources available on-lineis followed by a description of the 'france-langue'forum, an on-line discussion group set up by theGovernment body, La Delegation Ginirale a la LangueFranfaise, to enable those interested, e.g. teachers andtranslators, to discuss the French language. This largelyinvolves debates about new technology-based vocabu-lary. The article examines some of these neologisms anddescribes 'Balneo', a database of new vocabulary. Theprocess by means of which terms become accepted isdiscussed, along with the implications for the compilersof dictionaries and other lexicographical tools. Theauthor concludes by looking forward to new possibili-ties for active, interactive and reactive lexicographicalresources on the Internet that could be open toinput from users and so constantly updated anddeveloped.

98-178 Develotte, Christine (Ecole NormaleSuperieure de Fontenay/Saint-Cloud). Lecture etcyberlecture. [Reading and cyber-readingjLe Frangais dans le Monde (Paris), special issue(July 1997), 94-104.

This article explores the potential of multimedia CD-ROMs in the teaching of French as a foreign language:those aimed at the general public are analysed, ratherthan any with a more explicitly pedagogic function.General features of multimedia materials are discussed,and their advantages and disadvantages for languagelearners and teachers are outlined. They are seen asallowing an interactive relationship between learnerand materials, and as being intrinsically enjoyable; fea-tures such as the use of several languages and the provi-sion of both textual and oral materials also make themparticularly suitable for language learning. Their disad-vantages are mainly linked to new spatio-temporalpractices associated with their use: instantaneous accessto large amounts of information can mean students feeloverwhelmed; since there is no physical object tomanipulate, it is difficult to gain an overview of the sizeand limits of the material available; and the traditionalparatextual apparatus of a book, e.g. chapter headingsand indexes, is radically changed, necessitating newtechniques of finding one's way around the material. Itis argued that teachers should carefully analyse possible

77



Language teachinguses of multimedia materials; and that new methodsshould be devised for assessing their potential use inlanguage learning.

98-179 Diffey, Norman (U. of Windsor, Ontario).A Scottish approach to differentiation in thelanguage class. Language Learning Journa/(Rugby),16(1997), 17-21.

This article describes a modern languages programmein Scotland where mixed ability teaching and differen-tiation are successfully incorporated into the schoolcurriculum. First, the syllabus, based on principles ofautonomous learning, is outlined. The course is dividedinto topics with 'menus' of tasks and assessment criteriafor students to follow, colour-coded for difficulty andto help teachers monitor progress. Results of twice-yearly tests appear to show that students work to theirability level. Teachers believe that all students can expe-rience success and they find it easier to negotiate goalswith individuals. They particularly acknowledge thebenefits for weaker students but stress that detailedplanning and preparation and clear instructions areessential for classes to run smoothly. Next, some impli-cations of a task-based approach for language develop-ment are discussed, questioning the quality of the inputstudents receive and whether or not the approach tolearning is too atomistic. Concern about the achieve-ment of more able students is also voiced. A class surveyshows that students generally maximise their opportu-nities for learning but tend to dislike group work.Finally, the author proposes a number of questionswhich could be usefully addressed by future researchinto differentiation in the language classroom.

98-180 Duff, Patricia A. (U. of British Columbia)and Uchida, Yuko. The negotiation of teachers'sociocultural identities and practices inpostsecondary EFL classrooms. TESOL Quarterly(Alexandria, VA), 31, 3 (1997), 451-86.

This article explores the complex interrelationshipsbetween language and culture, between teachers' socio-cultural identities and teaching practices, and betweentheir explicit discussions of culture and implicit modesof cultural transmission in their classes. A six-monthethnographic study examined how teachers deal withinstitutional and curricular expectations regarding theirteaching of (North American) culture in their Englishas a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms in a postsec-ondary institution in Japan. The study also explored theteachers' changing understandings of what constitutesculture and of how they viewed themselves in terms oftheir various social and cultural roles. Common themesincluded (a) the complexities and paradoxes associatedwith teachers' professional, social, political, and culturalidentities and their (re)presentation of these in class; (b)their quest for interpersonal and intercultural connec-tion in that EFL context; (c) their desire for educational(and personal) control in the face of contested culturalpractices; and (d) disjunctures between teachers' im-plicit and explicit messages in relation to their cultural

understandings and practices. These themes arediscussed and recommendations are made for teachereducation purposes. It is argued that the culturalunderpinnings of language curricula and teaching mustbe examined further, particularly so in interculturalsituations in which participants are negotiating theirsociocultural identities as well as the curriculum.

98-181 Fernandez-Toyo, M. (U. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne). Subject-specific video projects forbeginners. Language Learning Journal (Rugby), 16(1997), 40-45.

A language-teaching project is described which seeksto make use of video to bring together a range of fea-tures including an interdisciplinary approach, learnerautonomy, language for specific purposes, and transfer-able skills, as well as the use of media technology toteach subject-specific language. The first section of thepaper describes how the project was set up to answerthe needs of students from science and engineering fac-ulties embarking upon language courses, and who havelittle time to study. The paper goes on to describe thesuccessive stages of the project and discusses the alter-native procedures in terms of teaching and learning.There are five production stages: preparation, data-gathering, script-writing, script-learning, and oral pre-sentation; and three post-production stages: editing,feedback, and assessment. The article concludes with adiscussion of potential disadvantages of the procedure,with respect to the technical requirements and learnercharacteristics.

98-182 Freland-Ricard, M. (U. Aix-Marseille I).Mai formes ou mal informes? [Badly trained orbadly informed?] Revue de Phone'tique Applique'e(Paris), 118-119 (1996), 93-112.

Teachers of French as a foreign language are oftenaccused of being inadequately trained for the teachingof prosody, but this paper claims in their defence that, ifprosody is to be taught in a formal, rigorous fashion,much remains to be done in the way of developingappropriate theoretical and methodological concepts.At present, the position and role of prosody in languageteaching remain unclear, and there is no generallyaccepted set of written conventions for representingprosodic phenomena in a simple, practical way.Moreover, the assessment of learners' prosodic perfor-mance is either completely unsystematic or neglected,since teachers have no theoretical framework on whichto base their judgements, and learners mistakenly regardprosody as unimportant. However, with greater empha-sis being placed on communicative rather than purelylinguistic competence, there are signs that teachers arebecoming increasingly sensitive to prosody. The authorcalls on researchers in phonetics and didactics to devel-op the knowledge, methodology and materials whichteachers urgendy need.

78



Language teaching98-183 Furstenberg, Gilberte (MassachusettsInst. of Technology). Scenarios d'exploitationpedagogique. [Applications of multimedia inteaching.] Le Frangais dans le Monde (Paris),special issue (July 1997), 64-75.

This article describes and analyses two video-cassettes:an interactive story and an interactive documentary.The primary objective of both is the development ofcomprehension. Comprehension is not, however, anend in itself; by focusing on visual images and non-ver-bal communication, hypermedia stress the culturaldimension, and foster comprehension in the widestsense. The article suggests that the fragmentation ofimformation characteristic of the hypermedia can beexploited in the follow-up in the exchange of informa-tion between groups and individuals. The tasks giventhe learners need to be appropriate, interactive, and nei-ther too open-ended nor too circumscribed, andshould be able to be adapted to suit the level of the stu-dents. Hypermedia remain, however, simply a tool, nota replacement for the teacher, who now has a differentrole: to assist, guide, and encourage, rather than to directand control.

98-184 Gardner, Rod (U. of Sydney). The listenerand minimal responses in conversationalinteraction. Prospect(Macquarie U., Sydney), 12, 2(1997), 12-32.

A very common activity of conversationalists is the reg-ular provision of minimal feedback, which includesyeah, oh, mm, mm hm and okay. These tokens are animportant means for letting an interlocutor know howtheir talk has been received. They can best be under-stood by a consideration of the turn-taking system inEnglish, and an examination of the kinds of turns theyrespond to. Minimal feedback tokens are, however,rarely to be found in language teaching materials, andwhen they are, their distinctive functions are rarelypointed out. In this paper it is argued that enough isnow known about these tokens in English for them tobe specifically taught. Examples of some of their mainuses are presented, together with attention to associatedintonation contours and to the conversational environ-ment in which they are found. The paper concludeswith one or two suggestions concerning ways in whichfeedback tokens might be taught.

98-185 Gnutzmann, Claus (TechnischeUniversitat Braunschweig, Germany).Multilingualism and language teaching: somepedagogical implications with reference tolanguage awareness. Fremdsprachen Lehren undLernen (Tubingen, Germany), 26 (1997), 156-66.

This paper reports on linguistic and educational aspectsof multilingual classrooms, and possible implications forlanguage learning and teaching; in particular, the lan-guage situation of migrant workers' children in Germanschools is discussed. It is argued that some awarenessregarding the nature of intercultural communication is a

pre-requisite for adequate communication with speak-ers of different cultural backgrounds, whether in one'sown home country or abroad. The importance of cul-tural awareness does not imply, however, a disregard forlinguistic aspects of communication: here, too, theauthor suggests that language awareness has a role toplay. There would seem to be general consensus on thefollowing proposals, in order to meet the linguistic andcultural requirements of growing multilingualism:pupils' competence in their mother tongue should bestrengthened; 'systematic' instruction in a foreign lan-guage need not necessarily start at primary school level;and pupils should start as early as possible to acquire thepre-requisites of intercultural understanding.

98-186 Gnutzmann, Claus (TechnischeUniversitat Braunschweig, Germany). Languageawareness: progress in language learning andlanguage education, or reformulation of old ideas?Language Awareness (Clevedon), 6, 2/3 (1997),65-74.

Internationally, the term 'language awareness' (LA)seems at present to be regarded as a new concept oflanguage pedagogy, perhaps even a new 'paradigm' ofour discipline. A review of some of the earlier LA-re-lated work in other European countries suggests, how-ever, that the major ideas of present-day LA have beenaround for some time, e.g. under such labels as 'con-science metalinguistique', 'Reflexion iiber Sprache','SprachbewuBtsein', 'taalverkenning' and 'taalgevoel'.With regard to the preceding discussion, the paperaddresses the following two alternative questions. Arethere important characteristics, similarities and parallelsbetween the various concepts of LA which have beenunduly overlooked by the continental followers ofBritish LA? If this is the case, the term LA would prob-ably be not much more than an inadequate generalisa-tion of educational, language-related problems andfindings within a specific context. On the whole, therecent continental use of LA would not amount tomore than a reformulation of old ideas. Or, has theterm LA and the British concept behind it added a newdimension to European language learning/teachingmethodology and language education? If the latter isthe case, then LA should be considered a significantstep forward, a landmark of progress in the history ofour discipline.

98-187 Guariento, W. A. (U. of Manchester).Innovation management issues raised by adistance-learning project in Eritrea: can suchprojects be successfully transplanted from onedeveloping country to another? System (Oxford),25, 3 (1997), 399-407.

This paper, using field work carried out in Eritrea,examines ways of promoting'ownership' resulting fromthe adaptation of a project originally developed outsidethe host country. The author argues that, while projectorganisers will probably encounter basic problems con-cerning local competence, the stress must, above all, fall

79



Language teachingon an awareness of what Holliday has termed 'inter-competence', 'an intermediate stage in behaviouralcompetence which occurs during confrontation with anew culture' (Holliday, 1994).The author believes thatmore effort should be dedicated to ways of adaptingEnglish language teaching material produced in onedeveloping country in order to enable use in another.Just as there are situations in which context-specificityand differing needs clearly preclude adaptation andtransplantation within the developing world, so arethere cases in which context and needs resemble oneanother to an extent suggesting that adaptation may beworthwhile. In countries which lack the resources tofund improvements in teacher training and/or thetrainer expertise required to provide such development,the use of materials already existing elsewhere providesa low-cost alternative, and one able to offset local skills-shortfalls.

98-188 Guimbretiere, Elisabeth (U. de laSorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris III). La prosodie dansI'enseignement de I'oral. [Prosody in teaching oralskills.] Rassegna Italians di Linguistica Applicata(Rome), 29, 2(1997), 85-93.

This article discusses the contribution of phonetic the-ory to language teaching: in particular, the role ofprosody in encoding and decoding speech. The differ-ences between encoding and decoding spoken lan-guage are presented, the latter involving the selection ofsalient information from a very rich sensory input. Tomake sense of a sequential input of sound, memory andanticipation are important, supported by an underlyingknowledge of the language. Prosody plays an importantpart in the decoding process. Differences in intonationare used to mark suprasegmental features of languagesuch as sense unities, to accentuate important parts ofphrases, and to mark hierarchies in meaning such asparentheses in speech. The author suggests some teach-ing strategies to give students an awareness of such fea-tures, including written exercises to help visualisemelodic patterns in phrases. In particular it is suggestedthat simple repetition of prosodie structures is notenough to give students an awareness of their meaning,since it involves the use only of short-term memory;rather, teaching strategies should be developed thatallow students to integrate awareness of prosodiefeatures with their existing linguistic knowledge.

98-189 Harvey, Keith (U. of East Anglia) andYuill, Deborah. A study of the use of a monolingualpedagogical dictionary by learners of Englishengaged in writing. Applied Linguistics (Oxford), 18,3(1997), 253-78.

This paper is an account of a study of the role played bya dictionary (in this case, the 1987 Collins COBUILDEnglish Language Dictionary) in the completion of writ-ten (encoding) tasks by learners of English as a ForeignLanguage. There were 211 informants, from either lan-guage schools or university. The study uses an intro-spective methodology based on the completion of

80

flowcharts. The results highlight, in particular, theimportance of information on spelling and meaningand the central role accorded to the examples forobtaining a wide variety of information, notably onmeaning, grammar, and register. COBUILD's full-sen-tence definitions, together with its real examples, arerevealed to be of considerable use to learners. On theother hand, coded syntactic information in the dictio-nary is largely neglected by learners. Implications forlexicographers and for language teaching and learningare considered.

98-190 Holliday, Adrian (Canterbury ChristChurch Coll.). Six lessons: cultural continuity incommunicative language teaching. LanguageTeaching Research (London), 1, 3 (1997), 212-38.

This paper is about what makes 'good' communicativeEnglish language teaching as discovered through anethnographic study of six undergraduate universitylessons. Ideas about good teaching emerged from one-off ethnographic observations of the six 'communica-tive' English language classes in China and India. Thelessons were all taught by non-native speakers in classesof between 25 and 45 students. Through analysis of thebehaviour and physical environment of the culture ofeach classroom, it emerged that aspects of a popularview of'communicative' connected with groupwork,oral practice and teacher withdrawal may be ques-tioned. Instead, cultural continuity between traditionaland innovative forms emerges as an essential feature ofsuccessful communicative language teaching.

98-191 Holliday, Adrian (Canterbury ChristChurch Coll.). The politics of participation ininternational English language education. System(Oxford), 25, 3 (1997), 409-23.

Within certain influential spheres of internationalEnglish language education, 'active' student participa-tion is often seen as central not only to the 'good' les-son, but also to the successful conference or trainingevent. It is argued in this paper, however, that thisnotion of participation seems to be generated by a dis-course of power belonging to a particular culture ofprofessionalism. It is thus deemed ethnocentric andpotentially inadequate beyond certain contexts. Theargument is based upon a small amount of qualitativedata presented as instances of a particular notion of par-ticipation occurring within professional events. If thereare to be principles of good practice which are appro-priate in different contexts within an international sce-nario, they need to exist at a significantly higher level ofgenerality. It is argued that such principles require asociological imagination and local knowledge on thepart of teachers, curriculum designers and researchers.



Language teaching98-192 Jones, Martha A. (Nottingham U.),Kitetu, Catherine and Sunderland, Jane.Discourse roles, gender and language textbookdialogues: who learns what from John and Sally?Gender and Education (Abingdon), 9, 4 (1997),469-90.

Much work has been done on gender stereotyping intextbooks for foreign language teaching. However, littlehas focused on the language of dialogues, which are acharacteristic feature of language textbooks. In the lightof this gap, this article describes the author's own studyanalysing discourse roles in dialogues in three recenttext books for the teaching of English as a ForeignLanguage. The results showed an encouraging level ofgender fairness. The authors then explore whether thisfairness was achieved through the creation of genderbalance in social and occupational roles, and suggestthat this was so in the case of these three books. Theyalso discuss the negative implications of gender-imbal-anced dialogues for female students and language prac-tice opportunities. This study has implications forlanguage teachers, teacher educators, and writers andpublishers of language teaching materials.

98-193 Kasper, Loretta Frances (KingsboroughCommunity Coll./CUNY, NY). The impact of content-based instructional programs on the academicprogress of ESL students. English for SpecificPurposes (Oxford), 16, 4 (1997), 309-20.

Research has suggested that content-based English as aSecond Language (ESL) instruction results in improvedproficiency in English language skills and appears toease students' transition into the academic mainstream.Although this research indicates that content-basedinstruction enhances performance in individual ESLand some related content courses, to date there hasbeen no quantitative evidence that a content-basedinstructional programme has any further impact onESL students' academic progress. The study reportedhere claims to provide such evidence. Analysis of datacollected from 152 college students enrolled in inter-mediate ESL Reading and Writing, 73 allocated to anexperimental group and 79 to a control group, suggest-ed that content-based instruction enhanced perfor-mance. Moreover, it also appeared to facilitate students'subsequent performance in the college academic main-stream and increase their likelihood of earning a collegedegree.

98-194 Klapper, John (U. of Birmingham).Language learning at school and university: thegreat grammar debate continues (I). LanguageLearning Journal (Rugby), 16(1997), 22-7.

Taking as its starting point the perceived lack of gram-matical accuracy demonstrated by first year foreign lan-guage (FL) undergraduates, this article (die first of two)explores the apparent methodological gulf between FLteaching in secondary and higher education (HE), andidentifies certain weaknesses in both sectors. HE lecturers

are seen to be out of step with the nature of the FL cur-riculum at secondary level, and to have failed to takeaccount of developments in language teaching methodol-ogy and research into language acquisition. It is suggestedthat the lack of formal accuracy in secondary schoolpupils is a consequence of public examination syllabusesand assessment procedures, and of methodology that isinappropriate to FL classroom conditions in its over-reliance on communicative activities and neglect of focuson form and structure.

98-195 Laufer, Batia and Kimmel, Michael(U. of Haifa, Israel). Bilingualised dictionaries: howlearners really use them. System (Oxford), 25, 3(1997), 361-9.

Bilingualised dictionaries contain the monolingualinformation about a word and its translation into thelearner's mother tongue. This study investigatedwhether learners read the monolingual or bilingualpart, or both, when looking up an unfamiliar word. Thetest items were 15 unfamiliar low frequency words (10targets, 5 distractors) in their bilingualised form. The 10target items contained a deliberate mismatch betweenthe English and the Hebrew parts of the entry: in five,the English part was wrong, in the other five theHebrew. 70 learners of English as a Foreign Language,native speakers of Hebrew, were given a multiple-choice test requiring them to mark the correct mean-ing^) of the target items. Two responses on each testitem corresponded to the Hebrew part, two to theEnglish: one response of each two was an exact equiva-lent, the other approximate. Learners' responses weredivided into Hebrew-motivated, English-motivated,English- and Hebrew-motivated; and learners wereclassified by their favourite look-up pattern, i.e. usingone specific language, or different languages for differ-ent words, or both languages for the same words. Onthe basis of the results, it is argued that the bilingualiseddictionary is very effective, as it is compatible with alltypes of individual preferences.

98-196 Lepetit, Daniel (Clemson U., S. Carolina).Le francais des affaires: problemes et perspectives.[French for business and international trade:problems and prospects.] The Canadian ModernLanguage Review/La Revue canadienne deslangues vivantes (Toronto, Ont), 53,4 (1997),648-62.

In order to counteract the drop in student numbers,some university departments of French and ModernLanguages have successfully established courses in busi-ness French. This article describes the pedagogical andadministrative choices made by two universities whensetting up such courses, and the repercussions on theinternal organisation of the departments concerned.The aims, structures and syllabuses of the two coursesare analysed and compared, and a number of problemsare identified. These include the low status accorded tothe teaching of language, as opposed to literature andculture, the refusal to recognise as research the work

81



Language teachingbeing carried out by teachers in the field, and the con-sequent failure of those teachers to obtain tenure orpromotion. These points are confirmed by a biblio-graphical analysis of the relevant literature.

98-197 Leung, Constant, Harris, Roxy andRampton, Ben (Thames Valley U.). The idealisednative speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroomrealities. TESOL Quarterly (Alexandria, VA), 31, 3(1997), 543-60.

TESOL practice in the schooling sector in England hasimplicitly assumed that English as a Second Language(ESL) students are linguistic and social outsiders andthat there is a neat one-to-one correspondencebetween ethnicity and language. This perspective hastended to conceptualise second language learners as alinguistically diverse group (from non-English-speak-ing backgrounds) but with similar language learningneeds. However, demographic and social changes in thepast 30 years have rendered such assumptions inade-quate and misleading, particularly in multiethnic urbanareas. This article seeks to (a) offer an alternativeaccount of the classroom realities in contemporarymultilingual schools where the linguistic profiles andlanguage learning needs of ESL students are not easilyunderstood in terms of fixed concepts of ethnicity andlanguage; (b) draw on recent developments in culturaltheory to clarify the shifting and changing relationshipamong ethnicity, social identity, and language use in thecontext of postcolonial diaspora; and (c) question thepedagogical relevance of the notion of native speaker andpropose that instead TESOL professionals should beconcerned with questions about language expertise,language inheritance, and language affiliation.

98-198 Lewis, Derek (Exeter U.). MachineTranslation in a modern languages curriculum.Computer Assisted Language Learning (Lisse, TheNetherlands), 10, 3 (1997), 255-71.

This article briefly reviews the current state of MachineTranslation (MT) (understood to refer to computer sys-tems that attempt some degree of automatic natural lan-guage translation). Particular reference is made to twooperational systems and to the training needs of studentswho will be the professional translators of the immedi-ate future. The experiences of teaching MT to modernlanguage students at the University of Exeter using acommercially available system are described; anoverview of the main features of the system is given,along with samples of translation output and indicationsof how such material may be pedagogically exploited.

98-199 Liu, Ngar-Fun and Littlewood, William(Hong Kong Poly. U.). Why do many studentsappear reluctant to participate in classroom learningdiscourse? System (Oxford), 25, 3 (1997), 371-84.

Teachers sometimes comment on East Asian students'reluctance to adopt active speech roles in classrooms. Intwo large-scale surveys conducted at the University of

Hong Kong, however, students gave no evidence ofsuch reluctance. They expressed a liking for commu-nicative work at school and a preference for universityclasses in which students do most of the talking. What isthe cause, then, of the reticence that some teachers haveobserved? The surveys indicate that most students haveenjoyed inadequate speaking opportunities at school,where 'listening to teacher' has been their most fre-quent classroom experience. Many have low confi-dence in their ability to speak without prior planning.Although most see no conflict between speakingEnglish and their Chinese identity, many feel uneasewhen speaking it. This unease is often reinforced bystudents' anxiety to speak well and some teachers' errortreatment techniques. It is suggested in this paper thatschoolteachers need to provide more and better con-texts for students to develop oral English skills and usethese skills in active learning roles in the classroom; andthat tertiary teachers need to develop strategies forencouraging students to step into the active learningroles which both sides seem to want. These practicalimplications are explored further in the paper.

98-200 Lozano, Anthony G. (U. of Colorado atBoulder). Spanish reflexives: a critique ofpedagogical descriptions. Hispania (Ann Arbor, Ml),80, 3(1997), 549-55.

This paper focuses on Spanish reflexives, first touchingon two factors contributing to learning difficulties,namely, unexpressed Spanish subject pronouns, and theoverlapping use of English object pronouns as subjects;and then providing a critique of pedagogical descrip-tions in current high school textbooks. It is noted thattextbook writers rarely present the full reflexive con-struction, e.g., Me contradije a mi mismo, displayed withall the grammatical persons and complete Englishglosses in its expanded form. The textbooks surveyedare also silent on the differences between Spanish andEnglish reflexives, including the permeability ofEnglish subject/object pronouns; and they includepseudo-reflexives, including directional verbs, e.g.subirse, and verbs of emotion, e.g. enojarse, in a fragmen-tary fashion. Neither does the 'waking-up scene' whichappears in various textbooks serve as a stepping-stoneto higher levels. It is concluded that the treatment ofreflexives in the textbooks examined is uneven; andthat a more comprehensive and coherent presentationis required.

98-201 Lynch, Tony (IALS, Edinburgh U.).Nudge, nudge: teacher interventions in task-basedtalk. E/TJcwna/(Oxford), 51, 4 (1997), 317-25.

This article considers two practical questions for themanagement of learner-centred group work in the lightof the notion of'comprehensible output' (Swain, 1985):firstly, whether teachers should intervene when com-munication among learners breaks down, and secondly,what form such intervention should take. The authordiscusses extracts from three adult English foreign lan-guage classes, where learners resorted to conversational

82



Language teachingrepair in order to clarify faulty expressions used in per-forming a communication task. In two cases, the teach-ers used different repair tactics to 'nudge' the grouptowards a successful resolution. In the third case, theeffect of the teacher's intervention was to stifle a learn-er's attempt at repair. In their different ways the extractssuggest that the temptation to step in as soon as learnersencounter communication problems should be resisted,and that any eventual intervention needs to be tailoredto the specific difficulty.

98-202 McDevitt, Barbara. Learner autonomyand the need for learner training. LanguageLearning Journa/(Rugby), 16 (1997), 34-9.

This article discusses the concept of learner autonomyand its significance in language learning. That learnersshould take responsibility for their learning has longbeen recognised but the author suggests that inclusionof aspects of autonomous learning in some languagecourses can be simply token gestures. The definition ofautonomy proposed here has at its centre the learners'capacity to improve their own competence and managetheir own learning process. It is also deemed importantthat the learners perceive the teacher as 'enseignante' or'informed interlocutor' rather than authoritarian rule-giver. The author suggests that learner training is of theutmost importance, and describes a pilot programme atthe University of Aberdeen which has three compo-nents: a self-access language learning centre, a course inlanguage awareness, and a course in study skills for lan-guage learning. It is suggested that self-access provisionshould be integrated into the teaching programme, thatstructural and grammatical awareness are a first step tolanguage awareness, and, finally, that simple and fre-quent practice is an important aspect in acquiring studyskills.

98-203 Modard, Daniel (U. of Rouen).Enseignement a distance: strategies et outils.[Distance teaching : strategies and tools.] LeFrancais dans le Monde (Paris), special issue(July 1997), 150-58.

This paper outlines the problems encountered by over-seas teachers following the University of Rouen's dis-tance courses for teachers of French as a foreignlanguage, and discusses technological means availablefor addressing these problems, notably that of'pedagog-ical distance'. Rejecting the use of audio-or video-con-ferencing as inappropriate and costly, the paper goes onto propose a greater use of the Internet. It argues thatthe first steps toward this goal would involve a personalcommitment by teachers and learners to acquisition ofthe necessary technical skills, and an in-depth examina-tion of the real effectiveness of this new tool as a meansof interaction between students and teachers.

98-204 Mondavio, Anna (U. of Budapest). Lesrepresentations des etudiants et des enseignantsdes classes preparatoires de BTS sur I'italien languede speciality. [Perceptions and representations ofItaly and Italian of students and teachers of Italianfor Specific Purposes.] Rassegna Italiana diLinguistica Applicata (Rome), 29, 2 (1997), 167-82.

This paper is concerned with the socio-cultural contextin which a low-diffusion language is taught and learned.It reports a study of French students and teachers ofItalian for Specific Purposes. The study focused on therespondents' conceptions and representations of Italy,Italians and the Italian language as expressed through aseries of word-association tasks. Three major themesemerged: beauty, vivacity and culture. The representa-tions were found to have their origin in personal touristexperience and media influence rather than previousformal education or the current course which was basedon the socio-economic realities of Italy. Affective factorswere more important than cognitive factors. It is sug-gested that such studies can serve as a useful startingpoint for work on the culture of the target language.

98-205 Morgan, Brian (Ontario Inst. for Studiesin Ed., U of Toronto). Identity and intonation:linking dynamic processes in an ESL classroom.TESOL Quarterly (Alexandria, VA), 31, 3 (1997),431-50.

Through conceptual tools that decontextualise, gener-alise, and objectify, the field of English as a SecondLanguage (ESL) has implicitly supported a notion ofidentity as insular and static, passed down intact overtime and across locations. This article suggests thatidentity is not so much a map of experience—a set offixed coordinates—as it is a guide with which ESL stu-dents negotiate their place in a new social order and, ifneed be, challenge it through the meaning-makingactivities they participate in. The author seeks todemonstrate how issues of language, power, and chang-ing identity might be approached in ESL pedagogy. Thecentral focus for the discussion is a classroom activitythat developed awareness of sentence-level intonationas a strategic resource to challenge forms of ascriptionbased on gender and ethnicity.

98-206 Pinto, Maria Antonietta (U. of Rome,'La Sapienza'). Une education plurilingue pourtous,des I'ecole maternelle. Analyse de quelquesexperiences europeennes. [A multilingual educationfor all, starting in nursery school. Analysis of someEuropean experiments.] Rassegna Italiana diLinguistica Applicata (Home), 29, 2 (1997), 131-66.

This article consists of a series of reports by differenthands-on experiments in the early teaching/learning offoreign languages in Spain and Italy, followed by theauthor's analysis and general conclusions. The first, 'Atthree years old I can read Spanish in French', describesthe methodology used to introduce a class of Spanishthree year-olds to spoken French. The children, who

83



Language teachingare learning to write in Spanish, read aloud in Frenchlabels and posters in Spanish produced by the teacher.Some of these labels are translations of the children'sown oral productions in French, so that work on oralFrench helps develop their use of written Spanish andwork on written Spanish helps them develop their spo-ken French. The second report, 'Regional language,national language and foreign language', concernsexperiments in trilingual (Castillian, Catalan or Basque,English) education carried out in Catalonia and theBasque country. Methodological principles and experi-mental design are discussed and described, and details ofprogress over the first three years of what is going to bea twelve-year project involving 2,500 children aregiven: the study shows that, compared with children inthe control groups, children who undergo trilingualeducation are better equipped to deal with all lan-guages, including their home language. The thirdreport, 'With my body, I discover the sounds of French.With French words I rediscover my body', describesthe pedagogical context and materials as well as thehypotheses and methodology of a five-year researchproject in Italy. Statistics are given in support of theclaim that 'spectacular' results in general cognitivedevelopment and in mother-tongue competence wereobtained, independendy of the children's social back-grounds. In her own conclusion, entitled 'A foreign lan-guage helps me understand my first language better',Pinto argues, partly on the base of further evaluationand testing, that early-childhood learning of a foreignlanguage is shown by these experiments to increasemetalinguistic skills and cognitive flexibility.

98-207 Place, J. Dianne (St Andrew's HighSchool, Croydon). 'Boys will be boys': boys andunder-achievement in MFL. Language LearningJournal (Rugby), 16 (1997), 3-10.

This paper reports on classroom-based action researchprompted by the significant under-achievement of boysin U.K. 16+ examinations in French and German.Single-sex language teaching is not always a practicalproposition, so strategies for mixed classes are proposed.Teachers should remember the vulnerability experi-enced by pupils in the early stages of secondary foreignlanguage learning, where they are ignorant and theteacher is the possessor of knowledge. Employing awide variety of praise words, in the target language,generates new interests amongst pupils, particularlyboys. Boys often find it hard to concentrate on extend-ed speaking tasks in the classroom. The teacher canraise the status of these tasks by setting homework tobe recorded on individual cassettes, which is thenmarked, with suggestions for pronunciation practice.Encouraging pupils to reorganise chaotic files and keepsystematic vocabulary books helps them all, but espe-cially boys, at revision time. Teachers should hold classdiscussions of strategies for both vocabulary learningand revision, and point out that learning new wordsmeans knowing their meaning, pronunciation andspelling; this again aids boys, who tend to 'half know'

vocabulary. It is helpful to communicate with boysthemselves, and their parents, and the nature of theproblem.

98-208 Popkin, Debra (Baruch Coll., CUNY).Teaching language through literature at the earlystages: an NEH model for proficiency in French.The French Review (Champaign, IL), 71,1 (1997),22-32.

This article oudines how, as part of an NEH Project tofoster proficiency, nine CUNY French professorsdeveloped modules incorporating literary selection atall levels of language study, starting with first and sec-ond year French. Pre-reading activities such as brain-storming, word association, and role-playing lay thefoundation for in-depth reading probes. Studentsworking in small groups tackle a new text directly inclass, skimming, scanning, analysing idioms, and guess-ing possible outcomes. Post-reading activities, designedfor three different levels of proficiency, range from dra-matic recitations to the writing of stories, poems, andimaginary sequels. The article gives a practical accountof the methodology devised to teach poems by Eluard,Prevert, Apollinaire, andVerlaine.

98-209 Pothier, Maguy (U. Blaise Pascal).Hypermedia etautonomie. [Hypermedia andautonomy.] Le Frangais dans le Monde (Paris),special issue (July 1997), 85-93.

This paper asserts that learner autonomy-or self-access-is not the preferred option for every student,and that not every learner knows how to learn.Hypermedia do not create or ensure autonomy, but canfacilitate it, however. Two CD-ROMs devised for inter-mediate or advanced students of business French areexamined, and the related learning activities aredescribed; they can be used either by individuals or ingroups, with or without teacher guidance. The paperconcludes with a call for training for teachers in recog-nition of their changing role in the face of hypermedia;and acknowledges the research currently being under-taken into students' learning strategies in respect ofcomputer-assisted learning.

98-210 Pugh, Anthony Cheal (Durham U).CALL in context: French means business.Computer Assisted Language Learning (Lisse, TheNetherlands), 10, 3 (1997), 273-97.

Increased student numbers and declining fee incomehave focused attention on the need for efficient andinnovative teaching in British universities. Meanwhile, anumber of initiatives have encouraged a policy of inte-gration of Information Technology into the teachingand learning process. It is, however, far from clear whatpedagogical rationale is appropriate for advanced lan-guage teaching, especially when materials developmentand research into applied pedagogy are undervalued.Studies have also shown that levels of grammaticalknowledge and communicative competence in both

84



Language teachingfirst year and final year students in British universitiesvary gready, and, more seriously, are in some cases indis-tinguishable. The CALL software produced by govern-ment-funded consortia is intended to help remedy thissituation, but this paper argues that more than a 'remedi-al' strategy is required if investment in hardware is to bejustified by demonstrable outcomes: this will requireseeing how the overall 'learning environment' has beenmodified by economic forces and developing appropri-ate strategies for countering the negative aspects ofchange. The experience of designing, delivering andrefining the systems and materials involved in deliveringa 'French for Business' course is then generalised with aview to showing how new thinking about the nature ofuniversity teaching might be combined by the develop-ment of more effective CALL programs for advancedlanguage learners about to enter die world of work.

98-211 Reed, Bill and Nolan, Sharon (AbbeyCommunication Training, UK). Survey review:Business English materials. ELT Journal (Oxford),51,4(1997), 383-97.

Business English publications have to provide challengeand support for users of all nationalities and educationalbackgrounds, on bom extensive and intensive courses.This review looks at a range of publications, eitherrecent or recendy updated, classified into coursebooks,business communication skills, and supplementarymaterials. In concluding, the authors recognise theprogress made over recent years in incorporating flexi-bility, interest and relevance into coursebooks.They sug-gest, however, that there is still room for more practice aswell as study of the language, and for more snappy simu-lation activities; although, to offset this, more targeted,specialised materials are also now available. It is alsonoted that most materials now overcome Anglo-cen-tricity with a variety of native and non-native speakerson audio and video; that resource books for teachershave been gready extended; and that, pardy due to theavailability of corpus material, there is a new type offocus on words. Materials have yet to incorporate morefully the language of information technology, however.

98-212 Savic, Jelena M. (Belgrade U.). TeachingSpanish as a foreign language in Belgrade,Yugoslavia: a need to overcome the old ways.Hispania (Ann Arbor, Ml), 80, 3 (1997), 541-45.

Although the popularity of Spanish as a foreign lan-guage has grown immensely in the last ten years inBelgrade, little attention has been given to the attitudesof Spanish teachers and instructors towards foreign lan-guage teaching or to their education and continuoustraining. This paper reports a survey of twelve femaleteachers conducted to help better understand teachers'role in promoting and teaching Spanish language andculture to Yugoslav students. The teachers' attitudestoward and assumptions about curriculum and methodswere surveyed. The results indicate that the Spanishteaching staff in Belgrade still have very traditionalviews of the language instruction process. The author

sees the results as indicating that a strong need exists forthe organisation of Spanish teachers' training pro-grammes, and for their integration into a broader inter-national community of Spanish teachers throughvarious means of professional communication, whichwould enable teaching staff to receive informationabout the most recent developments in this area.

98-213 Schleicher, Antonia Folarin (U. ofWisconsin-Madison). Using greetings to teachcultural understanding. The Modern LanguageJournal (Madison, Wl), 81, 3 (1997), 334-43.

Sociolinguistic journals and books are inundated withissues regarding greetings and forms of address. In theseworks, the major concern has been to analyse the wordor words used to refer to someone greeted. Others havealso looked at issues of familiarity, reciprocity, polite-ness, gestures, and respect in regard to greetings.However, despite this sizeable literature, little or noth-ing has been done with respect to cultural informationprovided in the language of greetings. This paper looksat the roleYoruba greetings play in understanding theculture of the speakers. It also illustrates that Yorubagreetings do more than establish an atmosphere ofsociability; they also communicate cultural informationand serve as value reinforcement for participants andobservers. Therefore, teaching greetings in Yoruba goesbeyond teaching the meanings of the greetings. It alsoinvolves teaching Yoruba learners the link betweenwords and cultural content. It is suggested that variousexamples of greetings and accounts of personal experi-ence could be useful in methods courses to illustratethe interaction of words and actions in a cultural frame.

98-214 Seedhouse, Paul (York U.). Combiningform and meaning. ELT Journal (Oxford), 51, 4(19971,336-44.

One of the most controversial areas of second language(L2) pedagogy concerns the extent to which classroomteaching should focus on form and accuracy, or mean-ing and fluency. This article illustrates the problemsinherent in an extreme focus on either of these alterna-tives. It is argued that current language teaching theoryviews a 'dual', simultaneous focus on form and accuracyas well as meaning and fluency as highly desirable.However, evidence is lacking as to whether and howsuch a dual focus can be achieved in practice. There fol-lows an account of a search of a database of L2 lessontranscripts for such evidence, followed by an analysis ofthe features of an authentic example of dual focus.

98-215 Seedhouse, Paul (York U) . Reviewarticle: The case of the missing "No": therelationship between pedagogy and interaction.Language Learning (Cambridge, MA), 47, 3 (1997),547-83.

This article reviews the relationship between pedagogyand interaction by analysing numerous extracts fromSecond Language (L2) classroom lessons using a

85



Language teachingConversation Analysis (CA) methodology. The particu-lar case examined involves the preference organisationof repair in form and accuracy contexts. In general,pedagogical recommendations tend to assume that theL2 classroom does not have an interactional structure ofits own. However, in the particular case here, the peda-gogical message works in direct opposition to the inter-actional message. The relationship between pedagogyand interaction is necessarily reflexive; it is concludedthat it would be preferable for pedagogical recommen-dations to work in harmony with the interactionalorganisation of the L2 classroom, rather than in opposi-tion to it.

98-216 Sharwood Smith, Michael (Utrecht U).'Consciousness-raising' meets 'LanguageAwareness'. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen(Tubingen, Germany), 26 (1997), 24-32.

This paper asks how far common ground can be estab-lished between a general educational goal of LanguageAwareness, and the specific issue of the role of explicitawareness of grammatical structure inside SecondLanguage Acquisition (SLA). While there is a commondomain of application—the language classroom—thatapplies to both concepts of awareness, it is not easy tolink the two. In exploring differences between them,the paper traces some of the major relevant concepts inSLA studies, including 'consciousness-raising' and'input-enhancement'. On balance, the role of explicitawareness in language acquisition is likely to be strictlylimited; regarding general Language Awareness in edu-cation and everyday life, however, it would seem thatthe more we have of this, the better.

98-217 Skowronek, Steffen and Kind, Carol(U. of Potsdam). Sprachenlernen undinterkulturelles Lernen via Videokonferenz undInternet. [Learning languages and interculturallearning via video conferencing and the Internet.]Fremdsprachenunterricht (Berlin), 4, 4 (1997),273-7.

The authors report on a joint project between theUniversity of Potsdam and the Monterey Institute ofInternational Studies in which video conferencing sys-tems were used to hold a transatlantic seminar forGerman students of English and Politics and Americanpostgraduate students of the social sciences. The pilotseminar took place during the Winter Semester 96/97'.The article discusses the organisation of the seminarfrom both a technical (hardware, software, etc.) and acourse content point of view, and includes a brief dis-cussion of each of the interactive sessions. The projectwas evaluated by the students involved and some of theresults are presented; further evaluation is provided bythe authors of the benefit of the programme to the lan-guage skills of the participants. They also discuss someof the problems encountered during the seminar andmake suggestions as to how these are to be remedied, aswell as providing more general suggestions as to howthe programme as a whole could be improved.

86

98-218 Slade, Diana (U. of Technology, Sydney).Stories and gossip in English: the macro-structureof casual talk. Prospect (Macquarie, U., Sydney),12, 2(1997),43-71.

The paper describes two text-types that commonlyoccur in casual conversation: stories and gossip. It isargued that casual conversation consists of two types oftalk — the 'chat' and the 'chunks'. The focus of the paperis on an analysis of the 'chunks', first detailing the dif-ferent genres that occurred in three and a half hours ofconversational data and then describing in detail thefour different kinds of stories told in casual talk. Themacro-structure of gossip is then described, demon-strating that gossip is a culturally determined processwith a distinctive structure that can be described. Thepaper concludes with implications of the study for theteaching of English as a second or foreign language.

98-219 Thesen, Lucia (U. of Cape Town). Voices,discourse, and transition: in search of newcategories in EAP. TESOL Quarterly (Alexandria,VA), 31, 3 (1997), 487-511.

This article argues that educators need to expand therepertoire of identity categories by which they describeand explain the complex and often contradictorystances that students take in the acquisition of academicliteracy. This position is based on an analys

Language teaching - Cambridge University Press · 98-152 Andrews, Stephen (U. of Hong Kong)....

Documents

Transcript of Language teaching - Cambridge University Press · 98-152 Andrews, Stephen (U. of Hong Kong)....