Transcript LG 637 WEEK 4 - University of Essex

LG 637 WEEK 4
PERSONALITY FACTORS
CLASSROOM INTERACTION 2
APTITUDE
 The problem for teachers may be how to respond to results
of aptitude tests, once given or known.
 Select students who are likely to succeed in the classroom
 Stream students into different classes for levels of aptitude
 Provide different types of teaching for different types of aptitude
 Excuse students with low aptitude from compulsory foreign language
requirements.
APTITUDE FOR L2 LEARNING.
 Most aptitude tests can predict success in L2 academic
classrooms, but what to do about it is a largely unsolved
question such as eliminating//streaming//exemption all
may have negative consequences. Different teaching for
different aptitude may be difficult to arrange.
 Aptitude may be broken down into different factors, such as
phonemic processing etc.
 Aptitude unrelated to level. A class all at the same level will
not progress at exactly the same pace, due to aptitude and
other factors. All the learners will have different aptitude in
one class. The strong help the weak?
Do you straighten crooked pictures?
 Field dependent thinkers: their thinking relates to their
surroundings.
 Field Independent think independently of their surroundings.
 The Embedded Figures test relies of distinguishing shapes in
pictures; Those who can pick out shapes despite confusing
backgrounds are field are field independent; those who cannot are
field dependent.
 In language learning field dependence/independence could be
related to the ability to analyse the linguistic material one is
exposed to, identify its components, and explore relationships
between the components.
PERSONALITY
 . Perhaps an outgoing, sociable person learns a second language






better than a reserved shy person? The connection is not usually so
straightforward.
Intelligence.
Intelligence does have some connection to school performance
Gender Differences.
Research found that English girls were better than boys in all
aspects of French except speaking
Level of First language.
Some studies support the common teachers view that that
children who are more advanced in their first language will better
at their second language.
CLASSROOM INTERACTION
 The term classroom interaction refers to the interaction
between the teacher and learners , or learners and learners
in the classroom., Recent studies in classroom interaction
have looked at what shapes interaction in the
classroom,>>Teacher and Learner beliefs; social and cultural
background of the teacher and the learners, psychological
aspects of second/foreign language learning
 L2 classroom interaction research began in 1960s with the
aim of evaluating the effect of different methods in foreign
language teaching in hopes that the findings would show the
‘best’ method and its characteristics
Classroom Talk
 Descriptions of classroom interaction focussed initially on
language use by the teacher, especially teacher questions and
learner responses elicited, teacher feedback, and turn
allocation behaviour (T>S, S<>S); These features were
examined in the light of how they affected interaction the
opportunities for learners to engage in language production.
Recent studies have paid more attention to learner talk,
examining not the language produced by learners in response
to the teacher.
 Comparisons were also made between talk at home and talk
at school, which showed that the latter was impoverished .
Participation
 The types of task in which learners engage and the number of
participants in a task also affect learners participation.
Studies have been conducted on learner participation in tasks
involving pair work, group work, and the whole class. It was
found that compared to teacher fronted interaction in whole
class work, both pair work and group work provide more
opportunities for learners to initiate and control the
interaction, to produce a much larger variety of speech acts
and to engage in negotiation of meaning
Current trends
 Some recent research has been investigating the more
unobservable aspects of classroom interaction. While some learn
better by actively participating , others may learn better by
listening and internalising the input. Another factor may be the
learners psychological state. Learning a new language can be
psychologically unsettling process, threatening learners self
esteem as a competent communicator. To cope with this anxiety
many learners adopt the avoidance strategy of being reticent.
Research has found a close relationship between learners oral
participation, their foreign language learning anxiety and their self
esteem as a competent speaker of English
REFERENCES
 Ehrman, M. 2003. A brief overview of individual differences in language
learning. System. 31 pp 313-330.
 Robinson, P. 2002. Individual Differences in Instructed Second Language
Learning. Amsterdam.
 Ellis, M. 2010. Race, Culture and Identities in Second Language
Education. English Language Teaching Journal. 64/3. Pp356-363.
 Benson, P. 2001. Teaching and Researching Autonomy in Language
Learning. Longman.
 Dörnyei, Z. (2005) The Psychology of the Language Learner: Individual
Differences in Second Language Acquisition, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
 Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1991) “Foreign Language
Classroom Anxiety”, in Horwitz, E. K. & Young, D. J. (eds.) Language
Anxiety, NJ: Prentice Hall.
REFERENCES 2






Dornyei, Z. (Ed.) 2003. Attitudes, Orientations and Motivation in Language Learning. Oxford.
Johnstone, R. 2001. Research on Language Teaching and Learning: 2000. Language Teaching: 34:pp143-165.
Noels, K.A. 2003. Learning Spanish as a Second Language: Learners’ Orientations and Perceptions of Teachers’
Communicative Style. Language Learning 53: pp 97-136.
Deci, E. and Ryan, R. 1985. Intrinsic Motivation and Self-determination in Human Behaviour. New York.
Deci, E. and Ryan, M. 2002. Handbook of Self-Determination research. Rochester.
Ellis, R. 2008. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. 2nd. Ed. Oxford.







Benson, P. (2001) Teaching and Researching Autonomy in Language learning, London: Longman.
Clément, R. and Kruidenier, B. G. (1983) “Orientations on Second Language Acquisition: 1. The Effects of
Ethnicity, Milieu, and their Target Language on their Emergence”, Language Learning 33: 273-291.
Crookes, G. & Schmidt, R. W. (1991) “Motivation: Reopening the Research Agenda”, Language Learning 41 (4):
469-512.
Csizér, K. & Dörnyei, Z. (2005) “Language Learners’ Motivational Profiles and Their Motivated Learning
Behavior”, Language Learning 55 (4): 613-659.
Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R. M. (2002) “Self-Determination Research: Reflections and Future Directions”, in Deci, E.
L. & Ryan, R. M. (eds.) Handbook of Self-Determination Research, Rochester, NY: the University of Rochester Press.
REFERENCES 3








Dickinson, L. (1995) “Autonomy and Motivation: A Literature Review”, System 23: 165-174.
Dörnyei, Z. (2001) Teaching and Researching Motivation, London : Longman.
Dörnyei, Z. (2005) The Psychology of the Language Learner: Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition,
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gardner, R. C. & Lambert, W. E. (1972) Attitudes and Motivation in Second-Language Learning, Massachusetts:
Newbury House Publishers.
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1991) “Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety”, in Horwitz, E. K. &
Young, D. J. (eds.) Language Anxiety, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Spratt, M., Humphreys, G., & Chan, V. (2002) “Autonomy and Motivation: Which Comes First?”, Language Teaching
Research 6: 245-266.
Ushioda, E. (2003) “Motivation as a Socially Mediated Process”, in Little, D., Ridley, J., & Ushioda, E. (eds.)
Learner Autonomy in the Foreign Language Classroom:Teacher, Learner, Curriculum and Assessment, Dublin: Authentik
Language Learning Resources.
Vandergrift, L. (2005) “Relationships among Motivation Orientations, Metacognitive


Cook, V. 1986. Experimental Approaches to Second Language Learning. Oxford,



Genesee 1976. The role of intelligence in 2nd language learning. Language Learning. 26 . 267-80.
References 3

Skehan, P. 1989. Individual Differences in second Language Learning. London.


Van Lier, L. 1996. Interaction in the Language Curriculum. London.


Tsui, A. 1995. Introducing Classroom Interaction. London.



Horwitz, E. 1991. Language Anxiety: from theory and research to Classroom implications.






Skehan, P. 1986. Cluster Analysis and the Identification of Learner Types. In Cook, V. Experimental
Approaches to Second Language Learning.