ABSTRACTS

Van Schools tot Scriptie III, 2 december 2016

Third language acquisition and its consequences for foreign language didactics

Irene Cenni, Julie De Smet, Giuliano Izzo Faculty of Translation, Interpreting and Communication, Ghent University

This presentation aims at discussing the relatively new field of Third Language Acquisition and its possible consequences for foreign language didactics. First, we would like to present various definitions and main insights from previous works in this research area. Moreover, we will discuss in more detail the specific case of Italian as an L3, since Italian is mostly studied after former education in other foreign languages. We would also like to present some interesting findings resulting from a recent project involving university students at the faculty of Applied Linguistics of Ghent University who enrolled in an optional course of L3 Italian. Because of their rich linguistic background, various factors seemed to play a role in their L3 development. To conclude, we will also try to discuss some repercussions that the learning process of an L3 could have on a didactic level.

Short and sweet: Peer reviewing in mini-tutorials

Lettie Dorst, Tony Foster Leiden University, LUCL, English Department

A survey of online prospectuses shows that almost all English departments in the Netherlands have incorporated peer-review into their academic writing courses. Leiden University is no exception. We have come to see peer review not only as instrumental for the acquisition of writing and editing skills, but also as beneficial to students' argumentation competence, and – most importantly – to their willingness to take responsibility for their writing through critical interaction with readers other than teachers. These are also the benefits described in the literature, which, we hasten to add, always conditions these benefits on other factors, such as the quantity and quality of the revisions (e.g. Berg 1999), the perceived expertise of the student peer reviewer as opposed to the instructor reviewer (e.g. Zhang 1995), or the tone of the peer review as perceived by the student authors (Ho 1976; Nelson 2009). In our final academic writing course (year 3 of the BA) at Leiden, we used to organise peer review presentations in plenary forty-five-minute "work groups" of twenty to thirty students. There would be two presentations by student pairs reviewing another pair's work. The peer reviewers were provided with linguistic and argumentative criteria to focus on, and they were instructed to be "diplomatic" in their presentation. The other students in the work group were instructed to read the papers for review. Unfortunately, this set-up, motivated by high student numbers in the work groups, did not result in final papers that showed signs of having been reviewed. Furthermore, the peer reviewers often found it difficult to review their fellow students' work without the latter losing face. Finally, most of the other students not reviewing did not read the essays in advance and expressed dissatisfaction at being uninterested as well as disinterested onlookers. In revising the course, we tried to incorporate two factors that contribute to the beneficial use of peer review that we had so far ignored. The first is the creation of a hospitable learning space (Chism 2006). The second is building what O'Donovan, Price and Rust (2008) call "pedagogical intelligence". Our presentation is on what this means for the content and structure of our writing course and on our students' and our own experience with our writing tutorials new-style.  Berg, E.C. (1999). The effect of trained peer response on ESL students' revision types      and writing quality. Journal of Second Language Writing, 8(3), 215-241. Chism, N.V.M. (2006). Challenging traditional assumptions and rethinking learning spaces. In D.G. Oblinger (Ed.), Learning Spaces (2.1-2.12), Washington: Educause. Ho, D.Y-F. (1976). On the concept of face. American Journal of Sociology, 81, 867-884. Nelson, M.M., & Schunn, C.D. (2009). The nature of feedback: how different types of peer feedback affect writing performance. Instructional Science, 37, 375-401. O'Donnovan, B., Price, M., & Rust, C. (2008). Developing student understanding of assessment standards: A nested hierarchy of approaches. Teaching in Higher Education, 13(2), 205-217. Zhang, S. (1995). Reexamining the affective advantage of peer feedback in the ESL writing class. Journal of Second Language Writing, 4, 209-222.

The World Teachers Programme: Integrating content and language in teacher education

Janneke Geursen, Tessa Mearns, and Errol Ertugruloglu Leiden University, ICLON

With the spread of bilingual education (TTO), there is growing demand for teachers with an international outlook who possess the skills and knowledge required to support learners following a curriculum in a language other than their mother tongue. The World Teachers Programme is a master ‘plus-programme’ offered by Leiden University’s Graduate School of Teaching (ICLON), focusing in particular on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and specific features of the multilingual and multicultural classroom. Central to the role of the teacher educators on the programme is the modelling of CLIL practices. Through engaging student teachers in CLIL activities relevant to their own learning, we offer them practical examples of issues surrounding the integration of language and content, while also encouraging them to develop their own use of language. This presentation will provide practical examples of how this has been achieved, while also describing the goals, workings and outcomes of the programme as it enters its 10 th academic year.

The evaluation of Dutch-accented and German-accented English speech in higher education by native speakers of Dutch and German

Berna Hendriks, Frank van Meurs, Nanette Hogervorst Ann-Katrin Reimer Radboud University Nijmegen, Communication and Information Studies

In view of the increasing use of English in higher education in non-English-speaking countries, this study investigated how non-native English students perceive moderately and slightly foreign-accented English lecturers. Four Dutch and German speakers recorded two fragments of a marketing lecture with two levels of accentedness (moderate and slight), and two native speakers of English recorded native English versions. In an online questionnaire, around 500 Dutch and German participants evaluated the samples on attitudinal variables, intelligibility, and comprehensibility. Findings show that speakers with a slight or a native accent were evaluated more positively on attitudinal ratings than speakers with a moderate accent. Participants did not evaluate their domestic accent differently than the foreign-accented samples. Speakers with a native and a slight accent were rated as equally intelligible, but speakers with moderate accents were evaluated as less intelligible. Degree of accentedness did not have an effect on perceived comprehensibility. One conclusion is that lecturers should avoid having a moderate foreign accent.

The development of coherence and cohesion in advanced Chinese L2 writers of English

Junping Hou, Hanneke Loerts, Marjolijn Verspoor University of Groningen

In the last few years, L2 developmental writing studies have mainly focused on the development of linguistic complexity or sophistication measures. Writing development may, however, also be investigated by focusing on improved text quality in terms of coherence and cohesion. 18 advanced Chinese L2 learners of English were traced over the course of 18 months. This study concerns the first and last texts, which were scored holistically on proficiency. Subsequently, these texts were analyzed by means of a topic-based analysis (Todd, Thienpermpool and Keyuravong 2004) and 60 cohesion measures generated by Coh-Metrix tool (cf. Crossley, Kyle and McNamara 2016). Both correlations with proficiency scores and prepost statistical analyses with all measures were conducted. The main finding is that these advanced students did improve in text quality: the average number of moves per 10 T-units, the standard deviation of LSA and the number of causal connectives.   Crossley, S. A., Kyle, K., & McNamara, D. S. (2016). The development and use of cohesive devices in L2 writing and their relations to judgments of essay quality. Journal of Second Language Writing, 32, 1-16. Todd, R. W., Thienpermpool, P., & Keyuravong, S. (2004). Measuring the coherence of writing using topic-based analysis. Assessing writing, 9(2), 85-104.

Liven up Chinese teaching with flipped Dictogloss and scripted reconstruction

Ya Ping (Amy) Hsiao Language Center and Teacher Development, Academic Services, Tilburg University

Dictogloss is an established peer learning activity, integrating listening, speaking, grammar and vocabulary in foreign language classrooms. This study first explores its application in Chinese language teaching and the specific considerations necessary for beginners (HSK1) for each of the five steps of Dictogloss. I also show how to use flipped classroom strategies to facilitate the steps preparation, dictation and feedback. Next, this study focuses on the reconstruction step: students use each other's notes to write a text that captures the essence of the originally dictated text. Students find it very difficult to coordinate information to form a group text. Therefore, we apply collaboration scripts to facilitate the reconstruction step. The scripts consist of role tasks, procedures, and sentence patterns for coordinating in both target and first language, and a checklist for the text, grammar, and vocabulary. The effectiveness of the scripts is evaluated by the students and the potential for using the scripts to model the discussion in the target language, Chinese, is discussed.

Online (peer) feedback. Demo Turnitin’s GradeMark & Pitch2Peer

Maarten Hijzelendoorn, Pascal Haazebroek Leiden University

In het eerste deel demonstreren we het programma GradeMark van Turnitin waarmee docenten online papers van studenten kunnen voorzien van gedetailleerde feedback. Dat kan niet alleen met markeringen en voorgedefinieerde labels, maar ook met

rubrics

. Rubrics zijn scorekaarten waarmee verschillende aspecten van een paper kunnen worden beoordeeld. In het tweede deel demonstreren we het programma Pitch2Peer waarmee studenten hun

pitches

in de vorm van filmpjes, afbeeldingen, posters, slide shows enz. over een bepaald onderwerp uploaden die door andere studenten (

peers

) worden beoordeeld a.d.h.v. criteria (vergelijkbaar met rubrics).

Teacher Language Awareness en Doeltaaldidactiek

Anna Kaal, Sebastiaan Dönszelmann Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, ULO-UCGB

Een boodschap overbrengen doen we met taal. Zo logisch als dat klinkt, zo weinig bewust zijn we vaak bezig met de taal die ons helpt ons verhaal te doen. Voor velen is taal even vanzelfsprekend als water voor een vis. Als we ons al bewust met taal bezig houden is dat vooral met de taal die de ander gebruikt in opvallende situaties zoals een ruzie, een debat, of in poëzie of in de media. Bij ons eigen dagelijkse taalgebruik staan we weinig stil. Ondertussen weten we echter uit onderzoek (bijv. discourse analysis) hoe langer hoe meer over de effecten van onze woordkeuze, taaltiming en non-verbale taal. Als er een plek is waar de effecten van onze talige boodschappen ertoe doen, dan is het in het onderwijs. Het doel van een leraar zal immers altijd zijn dat zijn instructie, opdrachten of teksten tot betrokkenheid en tot leren leiden. De leraar die zijn taal bewust en zorgvuldig uitkiest genereert meer leren dan de leraar die taal onbewust inzet. Deze workshop gaat over het fenomeen Teacher Language Awareness; over onderzoek naar de manier waarop docenten taal inzetten in het klaslokaal (VO). Tijdens de workshop zullen we vanuit een brede blik op taalbewustzijn inzoomen op een specifiek domein in de bewuste inzet van taal in de moderne vreemde-taalles: doeltaalgebruik. Het aanwenden van de doeltaal met als oogmerk leerlingen een taal sneller te laten leren klinkt vanzelfsprekend. Het is echter maar de vraag of leerlingen die taal sneller machtig worden door het simpelweg ‘spreken in de doeltaal’ door de leraar. Er is vermoedelijk meer nodig dan dat: een taalbewuste leraar die keuzes maakt in het taalgebruik binnen het klaslokaal waardoor taal niet slechts een gedachteloos communicatiemiddel blijft maar wordt tot een weloverwogen instrument dat leren faciliteert. Om een en ander te illustreren zullen we in de workshop een instrument laten zien dat taalgebruik van docenten in kaart brengt. Ook observeren we docenten in actie en staan we stil bij twee professionaliseringstrajecten op het gebied van docententaalbewustzijn.   Andrews, S. (2010). Teacher Language Awareness and the Professional Knowledge Base of the L2 Teacher. Language Awareness, 12:2, pp. 81-95. Dönszelmann, S., Kaal, A., Beishuizen, J., Graaff, R. de (2016). Doeltaal Leertaal, een didactiek en een professionaliseringstraject. Levende Talen Tijdschrift 2016-3, pp. 35 45.

Can we all speak the same CLIL? A comparison of practitioner and expert conceptions of ideal CLIL pedagogy

Evelyn van Kampen, Jacobiene Meirink, Wilfried Admiraal, Mandi Berry Leiden University, ICLON

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a dynamic pedagogical trend in language teaching that has seen a surging uptake in Europe over the past decade. Although one of the strengths of CLIL is its flexible nature, in local contexts, a common CLIL language is necessary to support the systematic development of CLIL and to support teachers in learning how to teach. This paper presents the findings of a comparative study about how experienced CLIL practitioners (teachers and coordinators) and CLIL experts (teacher-trainers, researchers and policy-makers) in the Netherlands conceptualize ideal CLIL pedagogy. To investigate this, 16 in depth interviews were held with practitioners and experts. Content analysis of these interviews allowed a detailed comparison of the nature and range of pedagogies described by the practitioners and experts. Issues arising from this analysis are discussed, with special focus on implications for CLIL teacher-education.

To Translate or not to Translate: The Value of Re-introducing Translation Exercises in the Secondary School Curriculum for Second Language Acquisition

Sjoerd Lindenburg

Leiden University, LUCL, English Department

In my MA thesis, I am investigating the ongoing debate about the role of translation in second language learning. In the past, scholars and teachers alike assumed that translation caused interference and therefore halted a learner’s progress in learning a second or foreign language. More recent research, however, has attempted to counter common conceptions regarding translation’s ineffectiveness as a language-learning and language-teaching tool. My thesis provides an overview of past and current language acquisition theories and teaching methods, and explains why most theories and methods are considered to be flawed. The recently developed task-based teaching method aims to address these flaws, and calls for task-based language exercises, including task-based translation exercises. I am currently conducting a pilot study to investigate the value of task-based translation exercises when Dutch secondary school students are learning grammatical aspect (i.e. the present perfect) in English. In my talk, I will demonstrate the translation tasks I developed and discuss my hypotheses and initial findings.

Eine Präsentation halten: eenvoudig en effectief (vak)woorden leren

Kasper Maes Radboud University Nijmegen, Radboud in’to languages

Iedere taalleerder wil woorden leren. Het liefst zo veel mogelijk in zo kort mogelijke tijd en met zo min mogelijk inspanning. Als docent kun je woordenlijsten aanbieden, maar de vraag is hoe zinvol dit is. En wat doe je met taalleerders die om vakbegrippen vragen die ze in een beroepscontext moeten kunnen gebruiken? Een relatief eenvoudige en effectieve manier om (vak)woorden te leren, is door gebruik te maken van relevante en aansprekende teksten of luisterfragmenten. In deze workshop wordt getoond hoe je in lijn met de lexical approach (Lewis 1993) in iedere willekeurige tekst of luisterfragment woorden kunt vinden, noteren en er zinnen mee kunt formuleren. Woordparen vormen daarbij de lexicale kapstok waar de zinnen aan worden opgehangen. Tevens komt het leerplatform Quizlet aan bod, een handige online tool waarmee de nieuwe woorden op een interactieve manier kunnen worden geleerd.  Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach: The state of ELT and the way forward. Hove, England: Language Teaching Publications.

Translanguaging as a tool to preserve L1 languages and promote multilingualism

Mindy McCracken International School of The Hague, Leiden University

Linguists have become increasingly more aware and active in the field of Language Revitalisation since Michael Krauss’ call to action in 1992. In his article ‘The World’s Languages in Crisis’ Krauss estimated a ninety percent extinction rate for the world’s languages by the year 2100. Changing global and regional economies, as well as increased language contact, have created both external and internal pressures for many minority and indigenous populations to shift to dominant languages (Bradley, 2010). Bradley (2010) argues that “…the modern situation of globalisation does not lend itself to supporting monolingual situations, but multilingualism doesn’t have to mean indigenous languages are lost.” He believes instead that “indigenous languages can still be maintained alongside of additional languages in a bilingual or multilingual model, where the indigenous language can still be used in the ways the people choose to use it.” With Bradley’s thesis in mind, this paper will explore a ‘translanguaging’ case study trialled at the International School of the Hague from 2011. This multilingual teaching approach will be examined through both theoretical and practical perspectives, demonstrating how domains of L1 language use (minority, indigenous or additional) can be strengthened and preserved within the context of English language instruction.

Feedback without words

Elvira Muñoz Moreno Leiden University, LUCL, Latin American Studies

The Interaction Hypothesis (Long, 1996) suggests that second language acquisition (SLA) takes place during conversational interaction among native and non-native speakers partly due to the feedback that the latter receive from the former. From a pedagogical perspective, feedback has become a field of research in order to describe teacher’s talk and understand whether it facilitates learner’s uptake and acquisition (Lyster and Ranta, 1997). However, non-verbal language has been under-researched. The traditional data collection in this field consisted of audio-recorded samples: therefore most research has been based exclusively on verbal utterances (Wang and Loewen, 2015). However, if we consider non-verbal behaviour as a crucial component of communication (Gullberg, 2014), it is important to describe its effects on second language (L2) learning. I will report on ongoing research that looks at the effect of non verbal behaviour in one teacher’s corrective feedback during interaction activities in one classroom of Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL). Pedagogical implications of my results will be discussed.

Experiences with integrated language teaching in HBO Leisure Management

Maaike van de Sande NHTV Breda, Leisure Management

A revision of the Year 1 curriculum at Leisure Management at Academy for Leisure at NHTV lead to the initiation of an integrated language teaching approach. The goal was to teach English as a recognizable subject, while simultaneously providing an intrinsic link to overarching topics of Leisure Management. Didactical principles such as flipping the classroom, autonomous language learning and e-didactics are applied to achieve this goal. Each semester provides students with an oral and written task, either individually or in groups, to develop their language skills within a professional leisure context. The approach was piloted previously in the Attractions and Theme Parks Management specialization. This paper will present the rationale and experiences so far with this integrated teaching approach. It will focus on the practical implementation of professional content into language classes, as well as utilizing authentic language materials while making language learner output the focal point of the lessons.

Pronunciation teaching: trouble-shooting or remodelling?

Dick Smakman Leiden University, LUCL, English Department

At English departments in the Netherlands, ideas about pronunciation teaching are changing. The roles of pronunciation models like British English and American English are slowly losing ground and instead other criteria are increasingly applied. This paper will discuss the practical and principled choices that departments face when deciding whether to teach pronunciation or not and whether to use an explicit native-speaker pronunciation model.

Less Is Not More: A small-scale study of corrective feedback

Rian van Spaandonk Leiden University

This study deals with one specific aspect of classroom interaction through an additional language: corrective feedback. By drawing on research and theories from bilingual, immersion and international contexts the study attempts to chart the grey area between corrective feedback and scaffolding, and to distill results that might be relevant across contexts. As such, it examines how subject teachers in an international setting correct language mistakes when interacting with students in the classroom, which types of corrective feedback are used in response to different types of errors, and which language goals can be deduced from the types of corrective feedback used. In order to find the answers to these questions, several lessons by two international school teachers were observed, transcribed and analysed. The results show that the subject teachers focused mainly on meaning and mostly used recasts, but also used two as yet uncharted types of corrective feedback (‘confirmative’ feedback and corrective feedback in response to non-verbal language) in order to negotiate both meaning and form.

Profielkeuze



Studiekeuze; Een beetje alfa, een beetje beta

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade Leiden University, LUCL, English Department

Ben je een alfa of een beta, of misschien iets er tussenin? Leerlingen in het voortgezet onderwijs moeten een profiel kiezen, maar op wat voor gronden doen ze dat, en hoe komen ze vanuit dat profiel tot een studiekeuze? Voor deze presentatie heb ik gekeken naar de motivatie van de meest recente lichting studenten Engels in Leiden voor hun studiekeuze en naar het soort profielwerkstukken dat ze hebben geschreven. Daarnaast heb ik ouderejaars studenten gevraagd op welke gronden zij destijds tot hun profielkeuze waren gekomen. Allerlei factoren bleken daarbij een rol te hebben gespeeld, eigenlijke en oneigenlijke, waaronder het negatieve imago van het profiel Cultuur en Maatschappij. Niet alleen is dat imago in de ogen van studenten onterecht, ook blijkt in de praktijk dat het kiezen van een profiel veel lastiger is dan het bestaande systeem zou doen vermoeden.

Spoken Academic English by Dutch University lecturers

Klazien Tilstra Leiden University, LUCL, English Department

This paper reports on a study into the L2 spoken English proficiency of Dutch university lecturers. The context of the study are the high ambitions of Dutch universities, the internationalisation of higher education, and the emergence of the English language as the common academic spoken language. While English is used more and more at Dutch universities, it is subject to criticism, specifically regarding the lack of expressiveness. The study described the differences in linguistic expressiveness between the L1 spoken Dutch and L2 spoken English of nine Dutch university lecturers, by comparing their adjective and verb use mainly: variation of words used, frequencies, sophistication of word choice, and accuracy. It also looked at the views of the lecturers themselves on the richness of their language.

De academische taalvaardigheid van instromende meertalige studenten: een verkennend onderzoek

Lieve De Wachter, Kirsten Fivez en Jordi Heeren KU Leuven, Instituut voor Levende Talen

Sinds 2010 nemen verschillende faculteiten en hogescholen van de KU Leuven deel aan een grootschalige test academisch Nederlands bij het begin van het eerste jaar (De Wachter & Heeren 2013; De Wachter et al. 2013). De test, afgelegd door 3574 hogeschool- en 6268 universiteitsstudenten tussen 2011 en 2014, wil mogelijke risicostudenten in een vroeg stadium detecteren. Deze presentatie analyseert de interactie tussen ‘thuistaal’ en de ‘taal van de vooropleiding’ in relatie tot de scores op de taalvaardigheidstoets. Studenten die thuis enkel Nederlands spraken, maar in een andere taal naar school gingen, scoorden lager op de toets. Meertalige studenten die aangaven dat ze als schooltaal het Nederlands hadden, maar als thuistaal meestal, zelden of nooit het Nederlands, scoorden daarentegen hoger. De resultaten van de moedertaalsprekers bevestigen de linguistic interdependence hypothesis van Cummins (1979). De meertaligen lijken op het eerste gezicht een omgekeerd patroon te vertonen en niet aan te sluiten bij het model, maar de verklaring daarvoor ligt in de diversiteit binnen de onderzochte groep.

The role of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension

Vicky van der Zee Oxford University

Reading comprehension is regarded to be one of the main ways to enhance linguistic development (Krashen, 1993; Nation, 1997). Vocabulary knowledge has been argued to be one of the most important predictors of reading comprehension (Prichard & Matsumoto, 2011) and many studies find strong correlations between the two (e.g., Jeon & Yamashita, 2014). Most studies have used monolexical items as their measure of vocabulary knowledge and have not considered knowledge of idiomatic language, despite the fact that these multiword expressions may take up 55% of a written text (Erman & Warren, 2000) and are composed of highly frequent words. Adult learners of English have much more difficulty comprehending a text that contains many multiword expressions as opposed to a text that contains fewer multiword expressions, even though both texts contain the same words, just rearranged (Martinez & Murphy, 2011). As these multiword expressions are common in authentic written texts, Dutch students enrolled in a bilingual stream might have an advantage over students enrolled in a regular stream when they encounter idiomatic language, as the former will have been exposed to more authentic English reading texts as part of their education. The current study tested this hypothesis with 46 students from the bilingual stream and 44 students enrolled in regular education and found that there were significant differences between the two groups in terms of their understanding of multiword expressions. The two-part test conducted consisted of a formulaic and a non-formulaic test, and each test was composed only of the top 3,000 words in English. The non-formulaic test consisted of four texts without idiomatic language, whereas the formulaic test combined various monolexical items to form multiword expressions. As hypothesised, the students overall performed better on the non-formulaic test. Moreover, on the formulaic test, the students were found to overestimate their comprehension and spent more time reading it. Results showed significant differences between the groups: the bilingual students outperformed the regular-stream students on the measure for monolexical vocabulary knowledge, the formulaic reading test, and the non-formulaic reading test. The findings of the current study are important for educational purposes and future research in this field. My presentation will outline the findings of the thesis I wrote for the degree of MSc in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition at the University of Oxford.  Erman, B., & Warren, B. (2000). The idiom principle and the open choice principle. Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Discourse, 20(1), 29-62.      Jeon, E.H., & Yamashita, J. (2014). L2 Reading Comprehension and Its Correlates: A Meta Analysis. Language Learning, 64(1), 160-212. Krashen, S. (1993). The power of reading: Insights from research (3rd edition). Englewood: Libraries Unlimited. Martinez, R., & Murphy, V. (2011). Effect of Frequency and Idiomaticity on Second Language Reading Comprehension. TESOL Quarterly, 45(2), 267-290. Nation, I.S.P. (1997). The language learning benefits of extensive reading. Language Teacher, 21, 13-16. Prichard, C., & Matsumoto, Y. (2011). The Effect of Lexical Coverage and Dictionary Use on L2 Reading Comprehension. The Reading Matrix, 11(3), 207-225.