Theories of Language Acquisition Lecture VIII

Observing Learning and Teaching in the Second Language Classroom Natural and instructional settings Natural acquisition settings Structure-based instructional settings Communicative instructional settings Observation schemes Teacher-student interactions Student-student interactions Corrective feedback in the classroom Questions in the classroom Ethnography

Learning settings Naturally, from contacts with native speakers, or A L2 or a FL can be learned in one of two ways: Naturally, from contacts with native speakers, or Formally in a classroom setting

Natural and instructional settings The best type of learning The settings where the language is learned without instruction (at work or in social interactions) Language is not presented step by step but the learner is exposed to a variety of vocabulary and structures Learner’s errors are rarely corrected, the aim is understanding one another Learner surrounded by the language for many hours, language is addressed to and overheard by the learner Other learners may use the language perfectly Many different types of language events

Structure-based instructional settings Language is taught to a group of L2 learners The focus is on the language itself Teacher’s goal is to see students learn the vocabulary and the grammatical rules of the target language Approaches: reading, writing, listening, translation, repetition and habit formation Linguistic items presented in sequence based on the textbook/teacher Errors frequently corrected, priority given to accuracy Learning to a few hours a week The teacher the only native/proficient speaker Limited range of discourse topics Pressure to produce correct spoken and written language Learners native language used to give instructions

Communicative instructional settings Emphasis on the communication of meaning, both between teacher & student and among students Clarifying meaning of grammatical rules as a focus Focusing on the meaning, learners acquire the language similar to natural acquisition Input is simplified and made comprehensible Limited amount of error correction by the teacher Limited time for learning for learners, 25-30 students Variety of discourse types introduced: stories, newspapers, TV broadcasts, magazines Little pressure to perform at high levels of accuracy Modified input is a defining feature of this approach to instruction – teacher is comprehended by students

Observation schemes Many observations schemes developed and used in L2 classrooms Qualitative and quantitative observation schemes Entire lesson or selected parts of the classroom interaction During the classroom or analyzing video recordings Communicative Orientation of language Teaching (COLT) Observation schemes by Spada and Frohlich (1995) Two parts of COLT scheme: Part A: teacher-centred or learner-centred activities, is the focus on language form or meaning, choosing topics by st. Part B: aspects of language produced by teachers, TTT vs STT, teacher responding to learners’ errors Observation schemes used to train new teachers

Teacher–student vs student-student interaction The key categories used during classroom observation: Errors: are there errors in the language of the teacher or the student? Feedback on errors: do students receive feedback when they make errors? From whom? Genuine questions: do teachers and students ask questions to which they don’t know the answer in advance Display questions: do teachers ask questions that they know the answers to so that learners can display their knowledge of language Negotiation for meaning: do teachers and students work to understand what the other speakers are saying? What efforts are made by them? Metalinguistic awareness: Do teachers and students talk about language?

Corrective feedback in the classroom Lyster and Ranta developed six corrective feedback types: Explicit feedback: explicit provision of the correct form by the teacher Ex: You should say ‘you are right’ not, ‘you have right’ Recasts: teacher’s reformulations of the student’s utterance, minus the error Ex: St: why you can’t come?, T: Why can’t you come? Clarification requests: student’s utterance may have been misunderstood or it is incorrect and a repetition or a reformulation is required Ex: T: What did you do last night? S: I play. T: Played what? (clarification request)

Corrective feedback in the classroom Metalinguistic feedback: contains comments, information, or questions related to the correctness of student’s utterance, without providing the correct form Ex. S: I meeted him. T: Can you find the error? T: Is meet a regular or an irregular verb? Elicitation: refers to techniques teachers use to directly elicit the correct form from the student Ex. S: my mother is a policeman. T: Excuse me, your mother is a ….? T: Policewoman? Repetition: refers to teacher’s repetition of the student’s erroneous utterance by highlighting the error Ex. S: He’s a teacher math's. T: He’s a math teacher.

Questions in the classroom Questions are fundamental in engaging students in interaction and in exploring how much the understand Two types of questions extensively examined are: Display questions (when the teacher knows the answer), Genuine or referential questions (when the teacher may not know the answer) Another distinction is between open and closed questions Closed questions have only one possible answer and usually lead to simple one word response Open questions have more than one possible answer and invite elaboration leading to complex answers

Ethnography Observing teaching and learning in L2 or FL classrooms by taking notes of activities, practices and interactions Details of a single group recorded over a lengthy period of time Observer focused on the qualitative teacher approach dynamics Do not focus solely on teaching and learning but also on social, cultural and political realities that impact cognitive, linguistic and social development Ex. Silent children behaviour not to be misinterpreted as a refusal