Le tournant chinois dans l’ enseignement des langues modernes
The article highlights several methods of promoting the Chinese language at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
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The article highlights several methods of promoting the Chinese language at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
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This article aims to highlight some of the ways in which innovative concepts and instruments in language learning (blended learning, autonomous language learning, online learning platform) are used to enhance the quality of less widely used less widely taught (LWULT) language learning packages created under the auspices of Lingua projects.
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Research activity, part and parcel of modern academic training, results in writing research papers. Success cannot be attained in this activity without knowledge and possession of specific reference skills, such as documentation, library/ dictionary use, etc. Their acquisition by the students represents the task of the academic educational scheme, and specific training units including specific activities should be part of the modern languages department curriculum.
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Since we live in a multilingual and multicultural world, people having diverse cultural backgrounds are beginning to interact with each other more than ever. Therefore, in the study, the notions of cultural diversity, cultural awareness, intercultural competence and cultural dimension have been introduced. According to these concepts, people see and interpret things around themselves in different ways. What may be considered an appropriate act in a culture may not be considered so in another because when two or more people from diverse cultures try to communicate with each other, problems may arise due to their differing personal and social lives, customs and traditions, world views and so on. This is mostly because of the different foreign languages and cultures the interlocutors possess. Hence, learning and teaching a language requires having knowledge about another culture. In order to be a competent language learner, it is crucial to know the cultural context of which the language is a component. To do so, culture has to be incorporated into foreign language teaching. This can be achieved by helping the students overcome barriers that would hinder the growth of intercultural competence. Also, the teachers should help their students to gain an insight into different cultures. The learners should be aware of the fact that there are various cultures to be accepted, recognized, tolerated and respected other than theirs.
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Participation in interactive games, especially those in immersive environments, is often employed in learning contexts to stochastically develop L2 learners’ language ability. However, typical measures of language ability often do not reflect pragmatic competencies. This study juxtaposes two elementary school ESL learners’ language ability, and facility with the media, with their politeness measures. Data was collected from out-of-school gameplay chat in a virtual environment designed for elementary school learners. Results suggest learners can express pragmatic miscues to interlocutors in the lean media of synchronous chat.
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Upper-secondary school students must prepare for adult life, which – among others – entails acquiring relevant skills and discovering their own potential. Efforts at European and national levels have been made to ensure that students gain the competences, the so-called key competences, which facilitate functioning in the modern world. However, in Polish upper-secondary schools their overall development may be problematic as schoolwork is heavily exam-oriented. In order to address this challenge, a study was undertaken, the aim of which was to investigate the usefulness and feasibility of applying gamification to an extracurricular CLIL project intended to develop key competences in an upper-secondary school. The paper reports on one part of this study, i.e. on how a biology challenge (two tasks) was designed, implemented and evaluated. The results show educational and emotional gains, suggesting the motivational effect of gamification in learning.
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In this paper, we discuss the problem of articulation between levels in the educationalsystem, as the transition from a rather more communicative, content basedand holistic approach to English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching atprimary level to more formal and explicit ways of foreign language (FL) teachingat secondary is often experienced as problematic by students and teachers alike(see, e.g., Muñoz, Tragant, & Camuñas, 2015). The results of a mixed methodsanalysis are presented, in which we analyzed, through a questionnaire and language experience essays, perceived continuity between input received in primary school and secondary school, as well as learners’ beliefs, attitudes andself-efficacy before and after they transitioned to secondary school. Twelve primary schools and six secondary schools in Switzerland participated in the study, with a total of 280 early learners of EFL (biological age 12-13 years, age of onset8 years). We will argue that one of the main reasons why early FL instruction seems not to bear fruit later in secondary school is that, on the one hand, coherence in curriculum design and practice vary in a few—but crucial—aspects within and between primary schools. On the other hand, the fact that secondary education becomes a meeting point for mixed ability classes also seems to mitigate the potential advantages of an earlier start.
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In the context of the cognitive-constructivist approach to education, the portfolio is used as a way of monitoring and evaluating the learner’s progress. European language learning and teaching pedagogy is based on the European language portfolio and thus promotes the use of the ELP. The implementation of the ELP in Croatian primary school practice within the project Developing Pupils’ Independence by Means of the European Language Portfolio has had good results, and this motivated us to consider the possibility of introducing the ELP in preschool education. Therefore, in the 2012/2013 school year, we started the project of using the Language portfolio (LP), defined and modelled after the ELP, with a group of children in the Rin Tin Tin Kindergarten in Pula. One of the key goals of the project was to monitor the development of learners’ self-assessment as the core element of the (E)LP. In line with that, the main aim of this paper is to examine the objectivity of self-assessment of vocabulary knowledge in preschool learners. The data was collected from the sample of children aged 5–7 at several points of assessment and self-assessment of vocabulary knowledge, after the activities aimed at developing self-assessment. Based on the data, we can establish that the participants of this age are not objective in the assessment of their vocabulary knowledge, regardless of their preparation. We discuss possible reasons for the lack of objectivity in self-assessment, among which we highlight the ways of implementing activities aimed at developing self-assessment. The results indicate that the development and implementation of self-assessment in preschool children is a challenging task that requires an interdisciplinary approach. Furthermore, the implementation of self-assessment is not possible without adequate professional training. Finally, since the ELP is a rather novel way of monitoring progress in second language acquisition in the Croatian education system, its implementation should be approached with careful consideration and with theoreticians and practitioners working together.
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This work reflects on the problems of teaching foreign languages for academic purposes, including teaching Polish as a foreign language. In the first part of the article, the terminology presented in English and Polish glottodidactic literature was discussed and compared. Also, the chosen teaching practices regarding courses addressed to foreign students who are planning to study at the Polish universities, were described. The author proposes a thesis that foreign candidates for university studies in Poland should possess a certain amount of knowledge, and to develop certain competences and skills that will be useful in their future academic life, regardless of their study profile. Those „common contents” became the basis of Polish for Academic Purposes course programme presented in the second part of this article. W niniejszym artykule zostały podjęte refleksje na temat problemów nauczania języków obcych, w tym języka polskiego jako obcego (jpjo), w odmianie akademickiej. W części wstępnej porównano terminologię obecną w naukowej anglojęzycznej i polskiej literaturze glottodydaktycznej, jak też omówiono wybrane praktyki w zakresie przygotowywania językowego studentów zagranicznych do podjęcia studiów w Polsce. Autorka stawia tezę, że kandydaci na studia w Polsce, niezależnie od wybranego kierunku, powinni posiąść określoną wiedzę socjokulturową, rozwinąć kompetencje i umiejętności przydatne w studiowaniu i komunikowaniu się z przedstawicielami środowiska uczelnianego. Owe uniwersalne „wspólne treści” stanowią podstawę, przedstawionego w części drugiej pracy, programu kursu przygotowującego cudzoziemców do studiów w Polsce.
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his article presents some of the problems in translation of company documentation and the methods in teaching Bulgarian and Polish as a foreign language. The author analyses the language transfer, the difficulties that the students have in translating company documentation from Polish to Bulgarian and from Bulgarian to Polish and the mistakes they make. / Tematem artykułu jest problematyka tłumaczenia dokumentacji firmowej w nauczaniu języka bułgarskiego i polskiego jako obcego. Analizowane są trudności związane z tłumaczeniem dokumentacji z polskiego na bułgarski i z bułgarskiego na polski, interferencja międzyjęzykowa oraz błędy, które popełniają studenci podczas zajęć z tłumaczenia.
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The paper touches upon the issues of acquiring cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) by children as opposed to developing the basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS). It emphasise the role of reading skills and reading comprehension proficiency in acquiring CALP and healthy bilingual development of children. Also, there are presented some samples of the textbooks for bilingual children learning to read Polish as a second or a foreign language. Autorka artykułu omawia zagadnienia związane ze specjalistyczną odmianą języka edukacyjnego i nabywaniem przez dzieci kompetencji w zakresie przetwarzania treści za pomocą języka (tzw. kompetencje akademickie CALP) w odróżnieniu od kształtowania podstawowych kompetencji komunikacyjnych, wykorzystywanych przez uczniów w codziennych kontaktach społecznych (BICS). Podkreśla wagę wczesnej nauki czytania w języku mniejszościowym i nabywania biegłości w pracy z tekstami tak dla wspierania rozwoju kompetencji akademickich, jak i dla zrównoważonego, ogólnego rozwoju dwujęzycznego dziecka. W artykule zostały uwzględnione również praktyczne przykłady realizacji omawianych tez, zaczerpnięte z podręczników i innych materiałów dydaktycznych dla dzieci dwujęzycznych (bilingwizm polsko-angielski).
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Exploring the ways to develop a comprehensive learner-friendly telecollaborative model of learning led to the introduction of nonlinear dynamic motivation-oriented model. To foster self-regulated learner autonomy, the model aims at recruiting the potential behind formulaic sequences for L2 comprehension-production in response to immediate processing demands as well as nonlinearity and dynamicity of motivational factors at individual level. Drawing on different theories and findings (e.g. complex dynamic systems, input processing model, motivational task processing model, etc.), the model presents a dynamic conceptualization of language learning to develop language skills in CALL context. To test the model and the validity of the suggested strategies, a mixed methods approach via questionnaire, interview and learner-self report was conducted in a term-long study among 47 EFL learners. The measures of performance taken before and after the intervention indicated improvement and confirmed the effectiveness of NDM-oriented telecollaborative model’s strategies at three levels of sociolinguistic, ethnolinguistic, and psycholinguistic. The interview data reflected participants’ positive attitude towards their perceived improvement over the duration of the intervention. The effectiveness of the model at recruiting formulaic sequences with respect to nonlinearity and dynamicity of motivational factors at individual level is the main implication of the study for CALL pedagogy.
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Teacher training and development have always been informed and motivated by research findings which affect the content of preservice teacher training and provide a major source of innovation and insights into learning and teaching processes. That is why teacher trainees are involved in learning activities closely linked with research. These activities promote an active approach to teaching and enhance its quality by bridging the gap between pre- and in-service teacher training. The article discusses and gives examples of two types of research-related activities carried out by teacher trainees. The first type of activities are concerned with implementing and testing the practical relevance of research-based ideas introduced in the pre-service training course; and the second - with doing small-scale trainee- initiated action research. The article summarises the main outcomes of trainees' research activities and draws conclusions about their effectiveness. These findings will help teacher trainers have a better idea of the potential of trainees as researchers and the assistance they need in their professional development.
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The article is an announcement of a PhD dissertation which will discuss the current genre pattern of a handbook for teaching Polish as a foreign language, a set of variants and paradoxes of this pattern and the direction of the latest changes / intraspecific tendencies including their causes. The article refers to Maria Wojtak’s concepts related to genre analysis and selected Joanna Nocoń’s views on the analysis of the school textbook as a didactic genre. The article primarily discusses four analytical aspects that were used during the analysis of textbooks for teaching Polish as a foreign language: stylo-linguistic, structural, pragmatic and cognitive.
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Introduction. The article explores the role of an academic lecture in gaining disciplinary knowledge and developing domain-specific language in a foreign language context. The current study aimed to investigate how students’ knowledge on a selected topic changed after they had participated in a lecture. Materials and methods. A small-scale qualitative-quantitative study was conducted in a natural context of a lecture delivered to the students of English philology. The students’ statements depicting their knowledge on Communicative Language Teaching provided before and after the lecture were compared in order to examine the information they gained from the lecture content. Results and conclusions. Having listened to the lecture, reviewed their notes and reflected on its contents, the students formulated longer and more precise statements, more frequently commented on the relevant concepts and assumptions, and verbalized them better. The procedure used activated the students’ processing of the content of the lecture and showed the lecturer what kind of information the students focused on.
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The main aim of this series of three articles is to explore the question of what it is that makes ‘good’ language learners, what individual factors can influence the learner’s success in second/foreign language learning, and what teachers and learners can learn from those who succeed in this complex task. In Part I., the author reviews a number of research studies on the ‘Good Language Learner’ issue conducted since the 1960s; she also attempts to summarize the main characteristics, strategies, and behaviours of successful and unsuccessful learners. Part II. presents an overview of studies focused on the role of selected individual differences and shows how the variables may influence the process and outcomes of language learning; it also indicates which strategies and behaviours of ‘good’ learners can be taught and learnt in the classroom. In Part III., the author explores the issue further and presents the results of her empirical studies aimed at identifying the features and strategies of both successful students of English as a foreign language and learners with lower achievements. The pedagogical implications for language teaching and learning discussed within the series are closely related to the ideas of strategies-based and styles-and-strategies-based instruction in language education, self-regulated or autonomous language learning, and continued lifelong learning.
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The main aim of this article is to explore the question of what assessment methods researchers and teachers can employ in order to identify second/foreign language learners’ strategies for language learning and use, bearing in mind a number of vital technical or methodological considerations voiced by other researchers so far. The information presented in the article may help researchers to plan and effectively conduct language learner strategy research, taking into consideration a number of essential, targeted questions related to research quality, its methodology, as well as tools selection and evaluation criteria. Subsequently, in language education it may constitute the starting point for the process of learner strategy training in the classroom and beyond it. This, in turn, may encourage learners to stretch their individual learning preferences, develop and enrich language learning strategy repertoires, and facilitate future autonomous or self-regulated language learning, and continued lifelong learning.
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