1. Theories of Language Acquisition
Lecture VIII

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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, 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

7. 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

8. 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?

9. 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)

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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