Language Teaching Research current issue

Editorial

Ellis, R. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT

Making the instructional curriculum as an interactive, contextualized process: case studies of seven ESOL teachers

Wette, R. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT

This article reports on data from interpretive case studies of seven well-qualified, experienced teachers of adult ESOL, collected through weekly interviews and analysis of documents and materials produced over the duration of a whole course for each teacher. Teachers’ knowledge and experience was apparent in their ability to conceptualize and plan globally in the pre-course phase, to establish rapport and diagnose learners’ developmental priorities as soon as teaching began, and to weave a coherent instructional curriculum¹ from a variety of components and dimensions of conceptual content according to the developmental needs, wishes and responses of learners, syllabus pre-specifications, constraints of the teaching context and their own personal theories of best practice.

The study draws attention to a number of differences between the curriculum making practices of experienced teachers and the content of language teacher education texts with regard to pre-course planning procedures and the separation of syllabus and methodology. Dissonances were also apparent between conventional descriptions of process—product orientations and strong—weak versions of communicative language teaching on the one hand, and the blended, non-standard approaches apparent in the courses in this study. The article identifies curriculum making principles and practices that were common to a number of teachers as a contribution to practice-based disciplinary knowledge and second language teacher education literature.

Does pictorial elucidation foster recollection of idioms?

Boers, F., Piquer Piriz, A. M., Stengers, H., Eyckmans, J. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT

Experimental evidence suggests that pictorial elucidation helps learners comprehend and remember the meaning of second language (L2) idioms. In this article we address the question whether it also helps retention of the form of idioms, i.e. their precise lexical composition. In a small-scale experiment, the meaning of English idioms was clarified to students with reference to the original, literal use of the expressions. This was done with a view to stimulating dual coding, i.e. the association of the figurative phrases with images of concrete scenes. For half of the idioms, photographs or drawings depicting those concrete scenes were added to the verbal explanations. The learners’ recollection of the content words of the expressions was subsequently gauged in a gap-fill test. Overall, the results suggest that the addition of pictorial elucidation contributes little to learners’ retention of linguistic form. Distraction by pictures may even have a detrimental effect when it comes to retaining unfamiliar and difficult words, and this seems to apply especially to learners whose learning style shows a predisposition for processing vocabulary through imagery. Insofar as our findings are transferable to vocabulary learning in general, they may call into question the rather indiscriminate and abundant use of pictorials in modern textbooks and CALL packages.

Extensive reading in a challenging environment: a comparison of extensive and intensive reading approaches in Saudi Arabia

Al-Homoud, F., Schmitt, N. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT

Many studies have shown that reading can have a beneficial effect on second language learning, but relatively few of these have focused on extensive reading in classroom environments over a period of time. This study compares an extensive reading class against a more traditional class involving intensive reading and vocabulary exercises. The classes were part of a Saudi college presessional course, and this classroom setting posed several problems for the extensive reading approach, including relatively weak students, an environment where pleasure reading is atypical, and the course being of short duration. The result is that the reported extensive reading class was carried out in what could be considered challenging conditions. Nevertheless, gain scores in reading comprehension ability, reading speed, and vocabulary acquisition showed that the extensive reading approach was just as effective as the intensive approach, even though some of the measurement instruments for these variables should have favored the intensive approach. Moreover, the extensive reading participants reported much more positive attitudes toward reading, their class, and their learning than the participants in the intensive reading group. Overall, these results indicate that, for the variables studied, the extensive reading approach was as good as, or better than, the more focused intensive reading approach.

The effect of keeping vocabulary notebooks on vocabulary acquisition

Walters, J., Bozkurt, N. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT

Vocabulary notebooks are frequently advocated as a way for students to take control of their vocabulary learning (Fowle, 2002), with the added benefit of improvements in vocabulary learning (Schmitt and Schmitt, 1995; Laufer and Nation, 1999). The study described in this article attempts to lend empirical support to these claims, by investigating the effect of vocabulary notebooks on EFL students’ vocabulary acquisition. Students in three lower intermediate EFL classes participated in the study. A vocabulary notebook program was implemented in one class over a 4-week period, with the remaining two classes acting as control groups, following the same curriculum with the same materials but without keeping vocabulary notebooks. Receptive and controlled productive vocabulary tests revealed significantly greater learning of the target words in the treatment group. In addition, students in the treatment group demonstrated a greater tendency to use the target words in free writing compositions. However, a positive impact on learner autonomy — as has been reported in previous studies (McCarthy, 1990) — was not observed. These findings lead the authors to conclude that vocabulary notebooks can be an effective learning tool in EFL classrooms, but positive impacts on learner autonomy may not be seen in the absence of appropriate motivation for language learning.

Examining the effectiveness of explicit instruction of vocabulary learning strategies with Japanese EFL university students

Mizumoto, A., Takeuchi, O. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT

This study examined the effectiveness of explicit instruction of vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) over a 10-week semester with a group of 146 female EFL learners from two Japanese universities. A vocabulary test and questionnaires on VLSs and motivation were administered at the beginning of the course. The learners were divided into two groups based on the vocabulary test results: an experimental group and a control group. Only the experimental group received explicit instruction on VLSs in combination with their regular language lessons. The same instruments were re-administered at the end of the course to examine the changes in both the questionnaire responses and test scores. Qualitative analyses were also conducted to explore the findings in detail. The results show that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the vocabulary test. It was also found that (1) strategy training was effective for both changing the repertoire of strategies used and improving their frequency of use, (2) the training increased the use of certain strategies more than it did for other strategies, and (3) different types of learners exhibited different responses to the strategy instruction. This study’s findings contribute to a better understanding of strategy instruction in general and VLSs in particular.

Regional studies

Ellis, R. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT

Listening to our learners' voices: what demotivates Japanese high school students?

Kikuchi, K. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT

Interview guides and a questionnaire were developed in order to find what f actors demotivated students in Japanese high school English classrooms. Five college students who were attending two private universities and one public university shared their views about demotivation in the interviews. Forty-two students at a public university responded to a questionnaire consisting of mainly open-ended response questions. Through qualitative analysis five factors were found: (1) individual teacher behavior in classroom; (2) the grammar—translation method used in instruction; (3) tests and university entrance examinations; (4) the memorization nature of vocabulary learning; and (5) textbook/reference book-related issues. It is hoped that these learners’ stories will help Japanese and other teachers to realize what pitfalls to avoid in their instruction.

Book review: Christiane Dalton-Puffer, 2007: Discourse in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classrooms. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 330 pp. $54.00 (paperback). ISBN 978-9-02721-981-7

Hellermann, J. — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT

Notes on contributors

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT

Publications received, 2007--08

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT

Publications received, 2008--09

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:21:44 PDT