Following are the lecturers and topics of past seminars of the Distinguished Lecturer Series.
Dr. Naoko Taguchi, (Carnegie Mellon University, U.S.A.)
Second Language Pragmatics: Theory, Research, and Pedagogy
Pragmatics, an area within linguistics, is concerned with how people use language in a social context and why they use it in particular ways. The aim of this course is to develop awareness of pragmatics phenomena in our everyday communication, as well as to understand opportunities and challenges that second language (L2) learners face when learning pragmatics in L2. The course is divided into three units. The first unit, theory, surveys theories of pragmatics and pragmatic competence drawing on two distinct yet complementary fields, linguistics and second language acquisition (SLA). The second unit, research, examines the application of pragmatics theories to SLA research through critical discussions of recent empirical findings. The third unit, pedagogy, introduces issues related to teaching and assessment of pragmatic competence. We will examine pragmatics-related materials in a textbook and curriculum, major findings from instructional studies, and common assessment methods and their implications. Through critical examinations of the literature in these three areas, the course will help develop an understanding of the role of pragmatics in L2 research and teaching.
A collection of articles and book chapters will be provided as required readings.
Recommended Textbook:
- Taguchi, N., & Roever, C. (2018). Second language pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press. (Buy on Amazon.co.jp / Buy on Amazon.com )
Dr. Timothy Fukawa-Connelly (Temple University, U.S.A.)
Issues of (mis)communication in Science and Mathematics Classrooms--the Surprising Importance of Language
This course will synthesize the results of various classroom-based (content-based) studies of language and communicative practices in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) classrooms. At least in the US, science and mathematics classes are often sites where ELL students are mainstreamed early due to some educators’ belief that there are relatively few language demand in such courses. We will justify the claim that there is a mathematics and science register, exploring features of the register(s), including issues of polysemy in which the common communicative meaning might interfere with communication. During the seminar we will discuss a range of descriptive, quasi-experimental, and quantitative studies, which explore ways in which the language use and communicative practices of teachers and learners might support or inhibit the acquisition of science or mathematics content. We will explore lecturing practices in traditional mathematics and science classes, both based on published reports and by watching and analyzing videos from different countries. We will consider the relationship between instructor learning goals (including hypothesized goals based on content-expertise), how that content is communicated, and affordances and constraints of those practices for student learning. We will consider the importance of note-taking practices on memory and learning, and, when possible, differences between ELL and L1 proficiencies. Finally, if time allows, we will consider the roles and types of feedback practices and analyze the language implications of those practices, including the symbolically dense aspects.
Required Textbook:
- Mary J Schleppegrell (2007) The linguistic challenges of mathematics teaching and learning: A research review, Reading & Writing Quarterly, 23:2, 139-159. DOI: 10.1080/10573560601158461
Dr. Nick Ellis (University of Michigan, U.S.A.)
Usage-Based Second Language Acquisition: Implicit and Explicit Learning and Their Interface
We learn language through our experiences of using language. Usage-based approaches to language investigate how this happens. Various disciplines collaborate in these inquiries. Corpus Linguistics explores the latent structure of the problem-space – the usage evidence from which we learn. Cognitive Linguistics details our language representations – the inventory of linguistic constructions as pairings of form and meaning or communicative function. Constructions range from simple morphemes like –ing, through lexis, to complex and abstract syntactic frames such as the Subject–Verb–Object–Object verb-argument construction. Psycholinguistics is the experimental study of language processing. Psycholinguistic demonstrations of effects of frequency upon language processing provide evidence of the implicit learning over usage of this variety of symbolic associations. Cognitive Psychology explores our complementary learning systems. Implicit learning occurs without conscious awareness; it involves simple learning mechanisms in the distributional analyses of the exemplars of a given form–meaning pair that take various characteristics of the exemplar into consideration, including how frequent it is and what kind of words and phrases and larger contexts it occurs with. Explicit learning involves more conscious, attentionally-focused, processing. It allows our learning of novel representations. Emergentism concerns how language learning is a gradual process in which the language system emerges as a complex and adaptive (continuously fine–tuned) system from the interaction of these cognitive learning mechanisms during language interactions with other speakers in various social settings and media. Applied Linguistics and cognitive psychology share a concern with the ways in which explicit learning impacts upon implicit learning. Answers to this issue of “interface” affect the ways we approach language acquisition, the ways we interact with learners, and whether and how we plan instruction. This course will illustrate the contributions of these approaches to our understanding of first and second language learning of morphology, lexis, and verb-argument constructions.
Dr. Yuichi Suzuki (Kanagawa University, Japan)
Optimizing Second Language Practice in the Classroom: Applying Insights from Cognitive/Educational Psychology to Second Language Learning
Deliberate and systematic practice is essential to develop knowledge and skills for using a second language (L2) more accurately and fluently. It remains, however, largely unknown as to what constitutes optimal practice activities as well as when and how practice activities should be presented to L2 learners effectively. These complex, yet critical issues on L2 practice have been addressed in a growing body of literature, which aims to apply insights from cognitive and educational psychology research into L2 learning.
In this seminar, the lecturer will focus on the skill acquisition theory and present collection of empirical research to formulating a unified account of L2 practice. Three major areas of research on L2 practice are covered:
- cognitive foundations of practice (including skill acquisition theories, explicit-implicit knowledge and automatization, as well as their measurements),
- effectiveness of L2 practice (including definitions of practice, task repetition, distribution of practice, form-focused practice, and knowledge and skill transfer), and
- individual differences (including cognitive aptitude measurements, stability and trainability of cognitive aptitude, and aptitude-treatment interaction).
In the opening lecture, the lecturer will provide an overview of the major issues on L2 practice and highlight key empirical research findings. In the rest of the lecture, the lecturer will delve into relevant theories and empirical studies and critically evaluate them. Promising directions of future research will be then presented as well as pedagogical implications for L2 classrooms. Group discussions and activities are included in this seminar in order to deepen the understanding of the materials.
Dr. Jonathan Newton (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
Culture in the Language Classroom: Towards an Intercultural Pedagogy for Teaching English as a Foreign Language/World Language
An often overlooked truth about language teaching is that the language teacher is a teacher of culture whether they know it or not or whether they like it or not. Culture and language are intertwined; language constructs and sustains culture just as culture shapes the language choices available to us and the impact of our language choices on others. In simple terms, "Every time we speak we perform a cultural act" (Kramsch, 1993).
How then can language teachers do justice to culture-in-language? More to the point, how can teachers more effectively exploit the affordances for intercultural learning available through learning another language? How can they do so in ways that enhance rather than distract from core language learning objectives. And how can they manage the many challenges and constraints that often mitigate against doing justice to culture? Such questions are at the forefront of a large body of recent scholarship on intercultural teaching and learning. Drawing on this scholarship, this course critically examines theoretical models and practical proposals for engaging with culture in the language classroom. Core topics include:
- Culture and language
- Culture in the EFL classroom: affordances, constraints and challenges
- The conceptual foundations of intercultural language learning
- Principles for intercultural communicative language teaching (i CLT)
- Curricula, textbooks, and intercultural teaching
- Successful models of intercultural teaching in Asian EFL contexts (including Japan)
- Intercultural competence in the Common Framework of Reference (CFR)
- English as an International Language (EIL) – what culture?
Dr. Roy Lyster (McGill University, Canada)
Instructed Second Language Acquisition
The aim of this course is to synthesize the results of various classroom-based studies of second language learning. A range of descriptive and quasi-experimental classroom studies will be examined, all of which explore ways in which teachers and learners integrate a focus on language form while maintaining a central focus on meaning in communicatively oriented classrooms. Studies of interaction between teachers and learners as well as between peers will be examined to explore a range of interactional moves and tasks hypothesized to enhance second language learning (e.g., corrective feedback, prompting, recasting, negotiation, scaffolding, metatalk, learner uptake, collaborative dialogue). Proactive approaches to second language instruction in classroom studies will also be examined to develop awareness of various types of planned pedagogical intervention that include input processing, input enhancement, and form-focused practice activities. Based on classroom studies, the effects of ISLA on a range of linguistic domains will be examined (i.e., grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, pragmatics), while taking into account the mediating roles of instructional context and individual differences. Students will develop an awareness of why certain language features are more difficult than others for classroom learners, and will be expected to critically assess what types of pedagogical intervention appear to be more effective than others.
Students taking this seminar for credit will be required to prepare following book.
Required Textbook:
- Loewen, S. (2015). Introduction to instructed second language acquisition. New York, NY: Routledge. (Buy on Amazon.co.jp / Buy on Amazon.com )
Dr. David Wood (Carleton University, Canada)
Formulaic Language in Applied Linguistics and TESOL
A considerable amount of research of various types has been conducted around formulaic language (FL)—multiword units with unitary meanings or functions that appear to be prefabricated, mentally stored, and processed as if single words. As the nature of FL and its use and acquisition have been studied for many years, it is remarkable that there have been so few investigations into how to actually teach this essential element of language to second language (L2) learners. We know that only very advanced learners reach a near-native ability to process and produce FL rapidly and appropriately (e.g., Forsberg 2010; Laufer & Waldman, 2011). L2 learners are very challenged by FL and develop facility with it very slowly. This course is an introduction to the phenomenon of FL and its relevance to applied linguistics, specifically language production, language acquisition and teaching, and discourse. We will survey the state of knowledge about FL in L2 acquisition and production, and its role in constructing discourse, with reference to some actual language data. We will explore the ways that FL can be integrated into language teaching methods and materials. By the end of the course participants should have a strong understanding of FL and its importance, and a sense of how to employ this understanding in the language classroom.
Seminar Outline
Day 1 (Saturday)
- First Session (3 hrs)
- Introduction to formulaic language (FL) and research on FL
Reading: Wood, 2015 Ch. 1 - Identification and Categories of FL
Reading: Wood, 2015 Ch. 2 and 3
- Introduction to formulaic language (FL) and research on FL
- Second Session (3 hrs)
- Mental processing of FL
Reading: Wood, 2015 Ch. 4 - Acquisition of FL
- Wrap-up and reflection
Reading: Wood, 2015, Ch. 5
- Mental processing of FL
Day 2 (Sunday)
- Third Session (3 hrs)
- FL and spoken language
Reading: Wood, 2015, Ch. 6 - Lexical bundles
Reading: Wood, 2015, Ch. 8
- FL and spoken language
- Fourth Session (3 hrs)
- Teaching FL
Reading: Wood, 2015, Ch. 9 - Teaching FL
- Wrap-up and assignment plans
- Teaching FL
Required Textbook:
- Wood, D. (2015). Fundamentals of formulaic language: An introduction. New York, NY: Bloomsbury. (Buy on Amazon.co.jp / Buy on Amazon.com )
Dr. David Crabbe (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
Understanding Language Course Design as a Problem-solving Process
Course design at its most basic is specifying learning goals, together with effective learning opportunities to achieve those goals. But it is more exciting than that. Course design in practice and in context is not static. It requires systematic and on-going problem-solving that starts with understanding the people concerned and the resources available. The understanding entails elements such as the potential roles of learners and teachers, their motivation and beliefs, the opportunities available in and out of the classroom for communicative performance, ways of enhancing that performance, ways of describing it for better metacognitive understanding, and any obstacles in taking up the opportunities.
This course will provide a framework for course design as informed problem-solving, drawing on what are seen as universals of human language learning and focussing on how those universals might be activated in context. The framework will raise questions about, for example: the role of the learners in the problem-solving; how their autonomy and motivation as members of a learning community might be fostered; how the impact of examinations could be managed productively; and how a bridge might be built between the classroom and the private domain of learning. Attention will be paid throughout to continually evaluating the impact of actions taken.
Dr. David Singleton (University of Pannonia, Hungary)
Age-related Factors in Second Language Learning
For most people the answer to the question of when it is best to begin learning a second language is self-evident. The cliché “the younger the better” would sum up the opinion delivered by the majority of respondents to such a question! We shall see in this course, however, that the facts of the matter are not so simple.
The maturational perspective or Critical Period Hypothesis has had its original theoretical postulates swept away by more recent research. While it is true that in naturalistic contexts younger second language beginners tend in the long run to do better than older beginners, there are plenty of examples of people who start their second language experience in adolescence or adulthood and who end up native-like in the second language in question. It turns out that the key to success at any age relates to the quality of interaction and the affective dimensions of interaction with the second language and its users.
With regard to the instructional context, the clear and consistent finding of more than forty years of research is that early schooling in a second language confers no lasting linguistic advantage over those whose second language exposure at school begins later. Recent findings suggest that in instructional settings too, quality of interaction, attitude and motivation are more important than starting age. These findings have unfortunately been ignored by governments and ministries of education around the world.
The course will explore all of these issues, and it will maintain a focus throughout on the educational implications of the research findings discussed. In particular, it will deliver the message that:
- whatever the age of the learners, it is very important to provide a lively and engaging experience of input and interaction in the target language, because;
- it is vital to maintain interest and motivation in regard to coming to grips with the target language, and;
- this seems to be more of a challenge with learners who begin L2 learning young and whose language-learning experience lasts longer.