Following are the lecturers and topics of past seminars of the Distinguished Lecturer Series.
Dr. Dwight Atkinson (University of Arizona, U.S.A.)
Who Put the “Qual” in Qualitative Research? A Brief Introduction to Qualitative Research
It is commonly assumed that there are two kinds of research in applied linguistics—quantitative and qualitative—based on the kinds of data collected and how those data are analyzed. This view is not wrong, but it is inadequate. This seminar examines the distinctive worldviews, epistemologies (theories of how knowledge is made), and histories of qualitative research generally, as well as two specific qualitative approaches widely used in educational research: 1) “situated,” ethnographically oriented research; and 2) the more recently developed multimodal analysis of video-recorded social interaction.
The situated approach seeks to embed researchers maximally in their participants’ lifeworlds in order to attain an “experience-near” perspective on them. Various conceptual and methodological research tools originating in this approach have been generalized to other qualitative approaches, making them to some extent detachable and usable for other research purposes.
The multimodal interaction approach relies on detailed analysis of the combined communicative use of language, gaze, gesture, and other embodied actions in sociomaterial settings and speech events like classrooms, Zoom meetings, and conversations. It has roots in sociological and anthropological theories of social structure as substantially “bottom-up”—i.e., as constructed moment to moment in human interaction.
A third qualitative research approach— “critical qualitative research”—will be briefly considered in comparative perspective with the above approaches. Activities and assignments for this seminar will include small-group discussions, readings, data analysis, and a final paper.
Dr. Frank Boers (Western University, Canada)
Pedagogical Approaches to L2 Grammar
The seminar first looks at approaches where learning is expected to happen as a by-product of activities where students are engaged mostly with communicative content (what is said) rather than the language code (how it is said). Such approaches include the modification of texts so that certain grammar patterns become more noticeable, and the use of interactive activities intended to raise students’ awareness of the relevance of grammar for meaning making. In the second part, the seminar turns to instructional approaches which put grammar center stage. These approaches include guided discovery learning, processing instruction (where students need to interpret sentences based on their grammatical features), and a re-appraisal of PPP (present-practice-produce). It will also examine how grammar is tackled in mainstream (EFL) textbooks and whether such materials are properly informed by the available research in applied linguistics and in cognitive psychology. At the end of the seminar, it is hoped that participants will have a solid understanding of what makes an approach to L2 grammar truly pedagogical.
Throughout the seminar, each of the approaches will be evaluated with reference to published intervention studies. Rather than taking them at face value, these publications will be reviewed critically, for example by asking whether the tried interventions would be realistic in actual language courses.
Dr. Thomas Farrell (Brock University, Canada)
Reflective Practice: Theory, Practice and Research
Reflective practice generally means conscious thinking about what they are doing and why they are doing it and is now used in many different professions such as the legal profession, nursing, and education. Within the field of education reflective practice has had a major impact on virtually all areas of a teacher’s life from teacher education programs for novice teachers to professional development programs for experienced teachers. Reflective practice has also impacted the field of second language education and especially the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages- (TESOL).
This seminar introduces the theory, practice and research related to the interesting, yet complex topic of reflective practice in language education. The public session will provide an overview of the concept of reflective practice, as well as practical ideas and principles for implementing reflection in second language education. Specifically, during the seminar participants will be taken through a framework for reflecting on practice. The framework outlines five-stage/level of reflections that start at level 1: Philosophy: level 2: Principles; level 3: Theory-of-practice; level 4: Practice; level 5: Beyond Practice. The framework for reflecting on practice can be used by all second language teachers from pre-service, novice teachers to the most experienced teachers. This seminar emphasizes that reflective practice is central to a language teacher’s development (both novice and experienced) because it helps them to analyze and evaluate what is happening both inside and outside their classes so that they can not only improve the quality of their teaching, but also provide better opportunities for their students to learn.
Dr. Jonathan Newton (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
Classroom Perspectives on Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT): ‘Nonissues and Real Issues’ Revisited
In recent decades, task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been adopted to various degrees in contexts where more traditional teaching methods have been or still are widely used. Reflecting the spread of TBLT (and resistance to it), a growing body of research has investigated the implementation of TBLT in diverse contexts, focusing especially on the cognition and experience of teachers. This seminar will draw on this research to critically evaluate TBLT as a researched pedagogy ‘from the bottom up’. This seminar’s focus will be on TBLT in Asian EFL classroom contexts from primary school to tertiary-level EFL. It will examine how teachers in these classroom studies have made sense of, adopted and/or adapted tasks, the contextual affordances and constraints that have informed their decision making, and the reported impact of TBLT on teaching (and teachers), engagement, and learning (and learners).
The title of this lecture series borrows in part from a 2016 article by Michael Long called, ‘In Defence of Tasks and TBLT: Nonissues and Real Issues’. In this piece, Long distinguished between what he saw as, on the one hand, ‘nonissues’ or misconceptions of TBLT (e.g., The role of the teacher is downgraded in TBLT, and TBLT neglects grammar) and, on the other hand, ‘real issues’ (e.g., how can they grade task complexity, and does performance on one task transfer to another). A selection of these issues will be re-examined in this seminar in the light of TBLT research and scholarship since 2016. In addition, This seminar will go beyond the issues raised by long, teasing out common themes from recent research but also drawing on the pressing questions and practical concerns (and accomplishments) of practitioners who will participating in this seminar.