Second-language acquisition classroom research

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Second language mastery research is a field of research in second language acquisitions relating to how people learn language in educational settings. There is significant overlap between classroom research and language education. Class research is empirical, basing its findings on data and statistics wherever possible. It is also more concerned with what the learners do in the classroom than with what the teacher does. Where language teaching methods can only concentrate on the teacher's planned activities for the classroom, classroom research concentrates on the effects of what the teacher does on students.

Video Second-language acquisition classroom research

Evaluating teaching practices

Efforts have been made to quantify or systematically evaluate the effectiveness of language teaching practices in promoting second language acquisitions. Such studies have been conducted for every level of language, from phonetics to pragmatics, and to almost all current teaching methodologies. It is therefore not possible to summarize their findings here. However, some of the more common problems have been discussed.

Research has shown that many traditional language teaching techniques are very inefficient. One problem is the effectiveness of explicit teaching: can language teaching have an outside constructive effect that provides participants with enhanced feedback? Research on these at different levels of language has produced very different results. Explicit areas of traditional teaching, such as phonology, grammar and vocabulary, have clearly mixed up results. It is generally agreed that pedagogy that is restricted to teach grammar rules and vocabulary lists does not give students the ability to use L2 with accuracy and fluency. Conversely, to become proficient in L2, the learner should be given the opportunity to use L2 for communicative purposes, learning (eg, through a teacher's corrective feedback) to pay attention to formal meaning and accuracy.

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Corrective feedback

There is considerable research in class on the impact of corrective feedback on L2 learner use and target language acquisition. The effectiveness of corrective feedback has proven to vary depending on the techniques used to make corrections, and the overall focus of the class, whether on formal accuracy or on meaningful content communication. However, it appears that the learner's ability to focus on corrective feedback on grammatical features that do not affect meaning is profoundly altered when the learner has low alphabet reading skills.

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Action research

There is considerable interest in complementing published research with approaches involving language teachers in action research on the language of learners in their own classroom. When teachers become aware of the language features of students generated by their students, they can refine their pedagogical interventions to maximize language development.

Horwitz summarizes the findings of the SLA research, and applies to L2 which teaches some of the principles of L2 acquisition that are honed from the relevant literature collection. Like Asher, Horwitz highlights the importance of naturalistic experience in L2, promotes listening and reading practice and emphasizes engagement in lively conversation. He explicitly suggests teaching practices based on these principles; '[m] uch class time should be devoted to the development of listening and reading skills', and' [t] each must assess student interests and provide appropriate '... material'. The 'audio-lingual' teaching practice used in this study is based on the principles described by Asher and Horwitz; listening very much, followed by reading and speaking practice. The taught vocabulary items are considered relevant to all learners, regardless of age, and, according to Pfeffer, they are one of the most commonly used nouns in ordinary German.

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Pedagogical content knowledge

Knowledge of pedagogical content is understood as "mixing content and pedagogy" that guides the organization, representation and adaptation of the material to all learners through instruction. This concept goes beyond the consideration of content knowledge as isolated from teachers pedagogical knowledge must have to effectively meet their students' needs. To illustrate how pedagogical content knowledge operates in reference to certain knowledge domains, we can switch to a second language teaching field. In this field, pedagogical content knowledge can be considered as "developmental constructs" initiated in pre-service teacher education programs and continued through in-room classroom experiences or "knowledge in action". From this perspective, it is useful to look at the various components. Pedagogical knowledge refers to the various instructional approaches and techniques used to teach the language as well as considerations of how linguistic knowledge develops and grows in complexity along the curriculum continuum (ie, Schulman's lateral curricular knowledge). This pedagogical knowledge also involves a growing understanding of the choice of content and pedagogy that views language learning as communication, performance in tasks, student-centered instruction, attention to accuracy and message. On the other hand, if we characterize the content knowledge in language teaching, we will talk about the target language. What is needed for the second language teacher is not only the mastery of the target language but also "the derived understanding of applied language science, the SLA, the psychology and curriculum development, among other areas, in the deeper examination of the subject matter - the language-as it becomes the class content ". However, if we want to improve the definition of pedagogical content knowledge in second language teaching, we need to include aspects related to language knowledge to teach by following Schulman's "knowledge of teaching subject matter". These aspects include the use of the teacher's language from an effective way of representing the different types of knowledge involved in language learning including but not limited to syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and phonology. In addition it will require teachers to have a broad understanding of the characteristics of their language learners to be able to identify and explore conceptions and misconceptions and, more importantly, the "potential misunderstandings of the subject areas" brought and/or developed by these learners. learning situation. It also includes ways to help students overcome these difficulties. For example, Spanish speakers tend to ignore subjects while learning languages ​​with weak nominal features such as English, due to the fact that Spanish is dominated by invalid subject languages. Therefore, this can turn into a source of excessive generalization while these learners learn the target language. The two main aspects of pedagogical content knowledge presented here correspond to the two domains defined by Ball, Thames and Phelps as knowledge of the content and teaching as well as knowledge of the content and their respective students. The consideration of all these components is the pedagogical language teacher that needs to be possessed to be an effective practitioner.

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Required time

A 1999 study of 50 years of second language education at the US State Department's Foreign Service Institute found that native English adult speakers require 24 weeks or 600 hours of classes to achieve general proficiency ("3" on DLPT, or "Superior" Ranking on scale ACTFL) in "Category I" is a very similar language, such as French, Spanish, and Swedish. The "Category II" languages ​​such as Finnish, Russian and Vietnamese require 44 weeks or 1,100 hours. Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean "Category III" languages ​​require 88 weeks with a second year in the language state, or 2,200 hours.

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E-Learning 2.0

The term E-Learning 2.0 is a neologism for the Computer-Driven Collaboration Learning system (CSCL) that emerged during the emergence of Web 2.0. From the perspective of E-Learning 2.0, the conventional e-learning system is based on an instructional package, which is sent to students using assignments, and then evaluated by the teacher. In contrast, new e-learning places are increasing emphasis on social learning and the use of social software such as blogs, wikis and podcasts. This phenomenon has also been referred to as Long Tail Learning See also (Seely Brown & Adler 2008)

E-Learning 2.0, in contrast to an e-learning system that is not based on CSCL, assumes that knowledge (as meaning and understanding) is socially constructed. Learning takes place through conversations about content and grounded interactions about issues and actions. Proponents of social learning claims that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to others.

In addition to the virtual classroom environment, social networking has become an important part of E-learning 2.0. Social networks have been used to encourage online learning communities around language education. Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) is the use of a handheld computer or mobile phone to aid in language learning. However, some felt that the school did not succeed in following the trend of social networking. Some traditional educators promote social networking unless they communicate with their own colleagues.

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Use of technology to practice speaking

Historically, language learning in the classroom is more focused on reading and writing than speaking. The use of modern technology has made it more practical for the second language learner to actually practice speaking. One approach is to use video-call technology such as Skype to pair two students who want to learn their own native language. One obvious advantage of using such technology is that there is no need for both students to be geographically close. Even if they are in different time zones, finding the right time can be a challenge Another approach is to use voice recognition software. In the past the cost of hardware itself was so high that this was not a viable option in public schools. However, in recent years as technology and price increases, schools around the world are introducing tablet computers to the classroom. So the computing power needed is already in the hands of increasing the number of children. One of the main advantages of using speech recognition software is that it can provide feedback so it can be used to help improve pronunciation.

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Note

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References

Source of the article : Wikipedia