Shona Whyte

Learning Theory and Technology in University Foreign Language Education: The Case of French Universities.

Second language study in French universities includes both modern language (literary) and foreign language (communicative) approaches, although teaching is dominated by the literary strand. Traditional educational models based on the transmission of knowledge are unable to accommodate recent progress in our understanding of learning theory, which offers cognitivist and constructivist approaches to learning and teaching. Similar advances specific to second language learning and teaching cannot be reconciled with the standard grammar-translation method, but instead call for communicative, task-oriented classrooms. This article traces the development of learning theory and second language teaching with respect to the roles of teacher and learner, conceptions of language as process or product, and individual versus group learning. It recommends an activity-oriented, project-based approach to second language teaching, learning and evaluation as an appropriate foundation for foreign (non-literary) language learners, including future school teachers, and calls for greater academic recognition of second language research.

Open educational resources for CALL teacher education: the iTILT interactive whiteboard project

This paper discusses challenges and opportunities arising during the development of open educational resources (OERs) to support communicative language teaching (CLT) with interactive whiteboards (IWBs). iTILT1 (interactive Technologies in Language Teaching), a European Lifelong Learning Project, has two main aims: (a) to promote “best practice” or effective CLT teaching with IWBs, and (b) to support continuing professional development among language teachers both in formal training contexts and through informal independent study. Some 40 teachers in seven European countries, working with learners of six foreign languages at various educational and proficiency levels, were trained and followed over one school year in order to collect over 200 video examples of classroom practice. These short (3-minute) class videos were selected collaboratively by teachers and researchers, and supported by learner and teacher commentaries. The main outcome of the project is an open-access website (http://itilt.eu), a searchable repository of training materials (manual, sample materials) and classroom illustrations (video clips, participant comments). This study explores the action research dimension of successive phases of the project from the development of appropriate training materials, data collection in language classrooms, selection of illustrative teaching episodes, and preparation for online presentation for future teacher education. It investigates the influence of research-based training on teacher development and the inclusion of participant perspectives, and explores how this kind of OER can support open practices. The paper also raises issues with respect to “best practice” and user requirements. The paper concludes with “lessons learned” throughout the project, showing both the advantages and drawbacks to this kind of collaboration between teachers and researchers, as well as furnishing suggestions for future OER development.

Vocabulary Acquisition via Drama: Welsh as a second language in the primary school setting

ABSTRACT This paper tests a new method of teaching vocabulary to young second language learners through the medium of drama, specifically the effect of drama teaching techniques on vocabulary acquisition among primary school learners of Welsh. Vocabulary Acquisition via Drama (VAD) is based on principles derived from both process drama and communicative and task-based approaches to language teaching, and involves three phases: pre-drama, drama and post-drama activities. The research design involves two experimental and one control group, and a pre-post-retention test format on three measures of vocabulary acquisition: picture naming, sentence formulation and improvisation tasks. Results show a beneficial effect for VAD. The discussion section of the paper addresses the potential contribution of this approach to teaching second/foreign language vocabulary.

Implementing and researching technological innovation in language teaching

Introduction PART I: RESEARCHING INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING 1. Innovation in Language Teaching: Pedagogical and Technological Dimensions 2. Collaborative Action Research and Communities of Practice PART II: TEACHER BELIEFS: RESEARCHING VIEWS AND SUPPORTING CHANGE 3. Techno-pedagogical Choices in IWB-mediated Teaching Activities 4. Explaining Innovative Experimentation: Teacher Beliefs, Goals and Competences PART III: LEARNING TO IMPLEMENT INNOVATION: STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT 5. Starting Out - Early Stages of Technology Integration 6. Gaining Confidence - Developing a Technical Repertoire 7. Moving Forward - Towards Innovative Practice 8. Developmental Dimensions of Innovation Conclusion

New developments in ESP teaching and learning research

In this collective volume, we seek to bridge gaps between research and practice in the teaching and learning of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) with a set of strong research-based contributions drawing on a wide range of ESP contexts. It offers new theoretical and pedagogical insights for ESP practitioners and researchers alike, going beyond descriptions of ESP situations and programmes to bring in sound research design and data analysis which are firmly anchored in previous ESP research. The nine papers in this collection cover a variety of ESP domains, from medicine, technical science, and engineering to social sciences and the humanities, in order to encapsulate current trends and new developments in ESP teaching and learning research in Europe.

Developmental Dimensions of Innovation

We have now reached the point in the study where the findings from the first three chapters of Part III can be brought together, allowing us to synthesise our analyses of the different teacher profiles which were identified and draw conclusions about the patterns of professional development observed in the study. In this way we can make claims about the different dimensions of teachers’ IWB-mediated classroom practice and their reflections on their teaching, showing how differential progress in each can lead perhaps to different outcomes in the language classroom, and certainly to a variety of attitudes to technology-driven innovation which can influence teaching practice. These dimensions of teacher development can then be combined to produce a developmental framework for IWB-mediated language teaching which fits the different patterns of teaching practice and reflection observed among the nine teachers in the present study and offers a model for teacher education and for further research, as well as a starting point for similar work with other technologies.

Starting Out: Early Stages of Technology Integration

Three of the project teachers can be described as peripheral participants in the project CoP: they contributed less in quantitative and qualitative terms in both online and face-to-face discussion, and this for a variety of reasons. In this chapter, we discuss Gilles, a very experienced teacher and teacher educator, and fairly experienced IWB user; Clothilde, a newly qualified primary school teacher and novice IWB user; and Ivan, an upper secondary teacher, experienced IWB user and teacher. Each teacher profile is examined in turn, including a short profile of the teacher and the teaching context, a techno-pedagogical overview of the teacher’s use of the IWB in classroom teaching, and an analysis of their views of their own efficacy with the IWB and engagement in terms of participation in Google+. Thus anchored by the results of these quantitative analyses, commentary is analysed from individual VSR interviews, video feedback questionnaires, focus group discussions and Google+ contributions. Comments are presented using the rubrics identified in teachers’ discussion of the potential advantages and drawbacks of IWB-mediated language teaching in the final focus group discussion (Table 4.4). Although the three teachers display quite different profiles, as a group they can be positioned toward the left side of the developmental frameworks outlined in Figure 1.1, and thus in the earlier stages of technology integration, though as we shall see this suggests a potential for development which may be misleading.

Techno-Pedagogical Choices in IWB-Mediated Teaching Activities

This chapter provides a detailed analysis of the participating teachers’ use of the IWB over the course of the reflective cycle described in Chapter 2. The main data are video recordings of short classroom activities, which participants selected for inclusion on the iTILT project website as examples of effective IWB-supported teaching activities. These examples of actual classroom practice are supplemented by participant commentary elicited via interview, questionnaire and focus group discussions as described in Chapter 2.

Explaining Innovative Experimentation: Teacher Beliefs, Goals and Competences

The next chapter draws on additional data to interpret the findings reported in Chapter 3. It begins by tracing the group’s views of IWB-mediated teaching practice over the course of the project using individual questionnaire data and collective reflection in focus group discussion. Next is an overview of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs with respect both to specific tools and features of the IWB, and more generally to different aspects of their overall ICT use. The teachers’ participation in our community of practice is then discussed with a general summary of participants’ contributions to the online support space for the project in the form of video diaries, as well as other posts and comments. In this way, teachers’ reflections and activity over the course of the project can be compared both with one another and with their classroom integration of the new technology documented in Chapter 3.

Moving Forward: Towards Innovative Practice

The last group teachers can be described as core members of the project community of practice, making frequent contributions in a variety of ways to both online and face-to-face discussions, and addressing a wide range of pedagogical issues. These two primary and one lower secondary teacher were all experienced IWB users who began the project with relatively high perceived self-efficacy in IWB use and maintained these perceptions throughout. These teachers engaged more fully in reflective practice than the rest of the group, using the opportunities provided by the project to exchange on topics of technical and pedagogical concern as well as taking further initiatives. This was the only group where some teachers showed evidence of innovative practice with respect to the kinds of teaching materials they prepared and the type of interactional opportunities offered to learners over the course of the project. As in the preceding two chapters, Chapter 7 provides a brief portrait of each teacher including an overview of IWB use, together with representative commentary.