Form Function Mapping In Content Based Language Teaching

This book presents a form-function mapping (FFM) model for balancing language and content gains within content-based language teaching (CBLT). It includes a theoretical part, which outlines the FFM model and, drawing on the analysis of eclectic teaching methods and interlanguage restructuring, proposes pedagogical tools for its implementation. These tools, which encourage mapping of language forms onto content knowledge, are hypothesized to facilitate interlanguage restructuring, thus helping CBLT learners in their struggle with L2 morpho-syntax. The empirical section presents the results of a quantitative–qualitative study conducted among adult L1 Polish learners of English in a CBLT context. It then goes on to translate the findings, which reveal that the FFM model has a positive and significant influence on interlanguage restructuring as well as a favorable reception among CBLT learners, into a set of pedagogical guidelines for practitioners.

This book argues for computer-aided collaborative country research based on the science of complex and dynamic systems. It provides an in-depth discussion of systems and computer science, concluding that proper understanding of a country is only possible if a genuinely interdisciplinary and truly international approach is taken; one that is based on complexity science and supported by computer science. Country studies should be carefully designed and collaboratively carried out, and a new generation of country students should pay more attention to the fast growing potential of digitized and electronically connected libraries. In this frenzied age of globalization, foreign policy makers may – to the benefit of a better world – profit from the radically new country studies pleaded for in the book. Its author emphasizes that reductionism and holism are not antagonistic but complementary, arguing that parts are always parts of a whole and a whole has always parts.

The status of LSP (Languages for Specialised Purposes) in the contemporary socio-cultural context is an ongoing central issue of scholarly debate. Specialised Languages in the Global Village examines the impact of globalisation on intercultural communication within specialised communities of practice. The contributions to the volume provide linguistically and pedagogically-informed discussion on modes of communication practice in professional and institutional domains, frames of social action and the construction of professional identities. The contributors also address issues of languages and social entrepreneurship, and the acquisition and development of linguistic/cultural competence in foreign languages for specialised purposes. The edition is a valuable resource for researchers in LSP, specialists in the fields of discourse analysis, sociolinguistics and scholars in the area of rhetoric and composition. It will also be of interest to professional translators, language editors and language advisors in the fields of specialised academic/professional communication. LSP instructors and foreign language teachers will also find informed guidelines and useful pedagogical proposals for classroom implementation.

This book provides an overview of current trends and practices in English Language Teaching (ELT) across the European Union. It offers insights into key ELT issues which are at the forefront of twenty-first-century classrooms. It discusses theoretical and empirical work based on topics such as linguistic imperialism, English as a Medium of Instruction, contrastive language analysis, and the interplay between English and the use of countries’ respective native languages. It also explores the challenges of English Language Teaching under different circumstances such as, while using different technological platforms, working with different learner groups (those with Special Educational Needs) and revising traditional practices in grammar and vocabulary teaching. Throughout the book, the link between policy, theory and practice is explicitly highlighted and exemplified. The book is of interest to ELT instructors, course designers, language teachers and teacher trainers, and students enrolled in pre-service English training courses.

A comprehensive account of the research and practice of task-based language teaching.

This module explores the content-driven approach to language teaching, or the teaching of nonlinguistic content such as geography, history, or science using the target language. It lays out effective techniques that help facilitate students’ comprehension of curricular content and also discusses how teacher collaboration and students’ L1s affect this approach to language teaching. With an instructional sequence comprising noticing, awareness, and practice activities as well as examples of content-and-language integrated units, the Content-Based Language Teaching module is the ideal main textbook for instructors seeking a clear and practical treatment of the topic for their courses, which can also be taught in conjunction with other modules in the series.

Methods in current instructed second language acquisition research range from laboratory experiments to ethnography using non-obtrusive participant observation, from cross-sectional designs to longitudinal case studies. Many different types of data serve as the basis for analysis, including reaction times measurements, global test scores, paper and pencil measures, introspective comments, grammaticality judgements, as well as textual data (elicited or naturalistic, oral or written, relating to comprehension or production). Some studies rely on extensive quantification of data, while others may favour a more qualitative and hermeneutic analytic approach. Many of these issues and methods are exemplified by the contributions to this volume. Data-based studies included here deal with the acquisition of specific linguistic phenomena (e.g. verb and noun morphology, lexicon, clause structures) in a range of target languages (e.g. English, French, German, Russian) from a variety of settings involving different instructional approaches (e.g. traditional foreign language classes, immersion classes, intensive ESL classes, content and language integrated language classes). Collectively, the chapters in this book illustrate the productivity and diversity of current research on instructed second language acquisition. As such they serve as a valuable resource for researchers in SLA, psycholinguistics, linguistics, and language education.

Based on a synthesis of classroom SLA research that has helped to shape evolving perspectives of content-based instruction since the introduction of immersion programs in Montreal more than 40 years ago, this book presents an updated perspective on integrating language and content in ways that engage second language learners with language across the curriculum. A range of instructional practices observed in immersion and content-based classrooms is highlighted to set the stage for justifying a counterbalanced approach that integrates both content-based and form-focused instructional options as complementary ways of intervening to develop a learner’s interlanguage system. A counterbalanced approach is outlined as an array of opportunities for learners to process language through content by means of comprehension, awareness, and production mechanisms, and to negotiate language through content by means of interactional strategies involving teacher scaffolding and feedback.