Margaret Nicolson

Online peer observation: its value in teacher professional development, support and well-being

This article discusses an online peer observation project conceived to enhance language-teacher positivity and creativity in synchronous virtual classrooms. Participants worked part-time at the UK’s Open University (OU) in a blended context and came from two different groups distant from each other and geographically dispersed within their own group. As a result of the project, participants perceived an increase in their confidence and greater willingness to experiment. They appreciated better how they fitted into the wider OU teaching community, built new professional friendships and flexible communities of practice, and developed a better understanding of how to progress their own self-development.

The languages classroom: place of comfort or obstacle course?

This article problematises certain aspects of methodology used for speaking practice and commonly applied in contemporary language teaching classrooms. It examines these particularly with relevance to diversity in adult learning groups. The aspects under scrutiny include the use of personal information in tasks, pair and group work, target language as classroom language, physical movement, communication of task expectation and rationale, and student opportunity to opt out of or adapt tasks. It discusses how student reaction to these methodological aspects can affect their integration into the interactive group situation, their engagement in and management of tasks set by the teacher, and, as a consequence, their success in the development of speaking skills. Results from a survey of beginner language learners at the Open University give an insight into student reaction to these areas of methodology and help the authors to reach conclusions about facilitative and inhibiting factors which make the classroom either a place of comfort or an obstacle course. As a result of survey data and comments, the authors exhort teachers to be sensitive and flexible when designing tasks and to be alert to how they manage them. They also need to be attentive to how students respond when carrying them out in the classroom context so that successful integration is guaranteed for as many students as possible.

Travelling in Space and Encounters of the Third Kind: Distance Language Learner Negotiation of Speaking Activities

Abstract Debates on language learner identity, sociocultural aspects of language learning and, as Homi Bhaba says in J. Rutherfords Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, the ‘third space, the domain created as a result of interaction between people or between a person and a new experience’ have become increasingly relevant in research in teaching and learning, often in the search for better student integration and success. Most of the focus has been on students in conventional institutional settings or students living in a different culture or country to the one from which they originate. This paper aims to add to the debate by critically examining the interplay between learner identity and methods used in the management of speaking activities in the language classroom, specifically with regard to the adult distance context. It offers discussion on the challenges that confront teachers who have to undertake occasional face-to-face teaching with distance students. It focuses on how to create a positive third space for students in this setting by critically examining commonly held views on task types, task content, group management and classroom language use.

The New Lanark Highlanders: migration, community, and language 1785-c.1850

Abstract This article discusses an example of Highland-Lowland migration in the early stages of industrialization. It addresses the origins, timing and quantity of Highland migration to New Lanark and in doing so highlights some migratory mechanisms, including temporary, step-wise, kin and chain migration. Moreover, it explores how Gaelic language and culture, together with religion, were sustained over a considerable period after this migration. In doing this, it notes how David Dale and Robert Owen adopted different attitudes to language. While lack of concrete evidence means that some of the conclusions must remain speculative, this example of interdisciplinary enquiry raises new questions about the migration of communities and their maintenance at their points of destination.

Biting the bullet: getting the best out of speaking practice in languages tutorials

This article discusses socio‐cultural and psycholinguistic issues regarding adult student integration in language tutorials in open and blended contexts when practising the skill of speaking and adds to previous research published by the authors. It examines issues linked to diversity, anxiety, critical moments and integration in regard to pedagogic approaches and argues that the latter should not be enforced at the expense of individual need. It takes account of Vygotsky’s notion of the zone of proximal development, Van Lier’s work on agency and Kumaravadivelu’s post‐method condition. Bhaba’s third space remains a key concept in terms of understanding successful processes. Whilst accepting that a classroom utopia is not achievable, the authors nonetheless argue that more attention be paid to particularity within situated learning groups and that teacher development needs to take account of this.

Feeling the Difference in the Languages Classroom: Explorations of Teacher Understanding of Diversity.

In this article, the authors examine the fourth stage of their research into diversity in the languages classroom, focusing specifically on the teacher perspective in planning for and managing diversity in adult student groups. The article discusses findings from a day with experienced Open University language teachers working together on lesson planning. It examines differentials in teacher approaches to diverse student needs. Some participants demonstrated this as instinctive to their practice, whilst others focused more on issues of language, the classroom mirroring real life and methodological expectations. To achieve greater and more dynamic understanding of different needs in groups of adult students in current society, the authors advocate more discussion and reflection around how we interpret and engage with diversity in situated learning contexts and its impact on planning, implementation and feedback on classroom tasks, management and teacher and student focus.