Monika Chavez

Teacher and student gender and peer group gender composition in German foreign language classroom discourse: An exploratory study☆

Abstract In recent years, issues of gender have gained greater prominence in second language research. However, gender has received little or no attention in the study of classroom discourse, despite the fact that communication in the L2 often is both the means and the goal of language instruction. This exploratory study draws on gender-released research in first and second language, as well as on student self-reported data, to outline specific points for further, observational investigations on the effects of student, peer group, and teacher gender.

The orientation of learner language use in peer work: teacher role, learner role and individual identity

This study investigates the orientation of language-use practices during in-class peer work of second-year college learners of German in three different sections (classes) of a multi-section course, taught by three different teachers at a public American Midwestern research university. Qualitative analyses of recordings made over the course of an academic semester focused on differences among the three sections in terms of (1) the use of slang and profanity; (2) student dis/engagement with the task and each other; and (3) the use of the first language (English). Results show that the learners in the three course sections oriented themselves between norms established during teacher-led instruction, their institutional learner role and their individual identity. In sociocultural theoretical terms, the teacher proved a shadow participant in peer interaction and the notion of situated learning, as applied in Activity Theory, was expanded to account for the specific language-use conventions, situated in the respective classroom language speech community.

The First Language in the Foreign Language Classroom: Teacher Model and Student Language Use--An Exploratory Study.

This study investigates how three teachers differed in the amount of first language (L1; here, English) they used during teacher-led instruction in a foreign language (FL; here, German) class and w...

Students’ accounts of grammatical forms of German that are difficult, unattainable, and irrelevant for self-expression

ABSTRACT This study examined the responses of 39 first-year, 63 second-year, 20 third-year, and 19 fourth-year US college learners of German when they were asked what forms of L2 grammar they, respectively, find particularly difficult; do not expect to ever acquire fully; and believe are not necessary for self-expression. Nominal morphology – particularly case markings – figured prominently responses as a whole. Forms that were considered unattainable were also found to be difficult but the reverse was not true, which suggests that for learners in this study difficulty did not automatically connote impossible acquisition. Furthermore, Year 1 learners were on the whole the most optimistic group with regard to their expected final attainment; Year 2 learners the most pessimistic. This study raises questions about (1) whether researchers and learners adhere to different definitions of ‘acquisition’ even as they both concern themselves especially with nominal morphology/case and verb placement; (2) whether especially beginners’ assessments of a forms difficulty, attainability, and communicative relevance work together to direct their allocation of attention, i.e. whether there are attitudinal components to noticing; and (3) what learning and attitudinal trajectories are suggested by unexpected differences between learner populations (e.g. between Year 1 and Year 2) as well as unexpected similarities (e.g. between Year 1 and Year 4 learners).