The first part explains learning measurement techniques that are used in Italy for the evaluation of the system. The task is entrusted to the INVALSI (Istituto Nazionale per la VALutazione del ...Sistema educativo di Istruzione e di formazione – National Institute for the evaluation of the educational system of education and the training) and it is carried out each year by the census of detection of the entire school population through standardized tests by which we measure the skills acquired by students in the understanding of a text, in the reflection on language and mathematics. Questionnaires completed by students also include useful questions to rebuild some of the contextual variables that might influence the performance of students. In the second part used classic tools of correlational sociolinguistics to relate the values of social indicators considered with the scores obtained by students in different areas of grammatical competence and in various aspects of reading skills. This is done by different areas and aspects, and the social variables considered either individually or collectively. The discussion of the results obtained will be made case by case, at the presentation of the data, while in the conclusions we will discuss the use of the results to improve teaching.
The present article explores the perceived role of work and proficiency in a second or additional language(s) among a group of Chinese migrant women learning Spanish in Andalusia. The enrolment of ...Chinese adult learners in language upgrading programmes in immersion contexts is relatively low, as Chinese expatriates tend to establish close‐knit, socio‐culturally elusive communities whose interactions with local residents are often limited to work‐related purposes. The distinctiveness of this ethnographic work lies in its focus on women who, having resided in southern Spain for extended periods and aiming to emancipate themselves from male family referents, have only recently sought greater inclusion in Spanish society. Through in‐depth interviews, these women’s prospects for professional advancement and self‐employment are also identified, albeit subsidiarily, among the reasons for pursuing higher levels of linguistic competence. The results point to a desire to develop higher levels of competence in linguistic, civic, and socio‐cultural literacies to expand their social networks and engage more actively in the communities where they currently live. Avoiding vulnerability to potential deception in the workplace and administrative settings, coupled with the need to participate in better‐informed decision‐making at the personal level, is also highlighted as contributory factors to their willingness to pursue multiliteracies in linguistic, civic, and occupational areas. The conclusions point to a mismatch between the training aspirations of these women and the curricula of the courses available to them within a Chinese educational organisation, whose focus lies almost entirely on the development and reinforcement of linguistic skills.
The paper is based on the idea of the usefulness of contrastive linguistics and linguistic awareness for the development of competence and (meta)linguistic awareness in Spanish at university level, ...in the case of Serbian university students. The concept of linguistic awareness is briefly presented, based on the works of Schmidt 1990, Hawkins 1999, Rieder 2000, Bailini 2009, De Villa 2018 among others. The term is understood as a cognitive activity or a capacity for metalinguistic reflection, on the one hand, and, on the other, as an approach to foreign language learning (halfway between a structuralist and a communicative approach), which allows students to become “highly motivated self-taught” individuals who as such “enjoy a greater power of adaptation at the cultural level through the use of critical reflection” (De Villa 2018: 163, 172). Therefore, we advocate a cognitive approach to languages in contrastive linguistics classes to raise students’ awareness concerning the use of their own language as well as a foreign language (in this case Spanish). In order to test our hypothesis, we conducted an anonymous survey among students on the approach and usefulness of the course “Introduction to Spanish-Serbian Contrastive Analysis” taught at the University of Belgrade. The results show a very high satisfaction with the method used in class.
In recent decades, francophones in Québec have gone through a process of sociopolitical ascension while anglophones have gone through a process of minoritization. These processes were intertwined ...with the policies, legislation, and school experiences of young people attending English-language schools. This study enables us to examine the relationship between linguistic groups of young people attending a school board in the eastern part of Québec which includes two regions : Gaspésie-Île-de-la-Madeleine and Côte-Nord. We analyzed the identification of these young people and their relation to linguistic groups using a qualitative interpretive methodology, and a constructivist approach to linguistic boundaries. The results revealed discourses and a feeling of minoritization, fuelled by a sense of geographical and linguistic isolation, which characterized the region. Participants lamented a lack of recognition of their status as a linguistic minority by the francophone majority in Quebec. These young people identify more with Canada, the Maritimes, and the fisheries, than as Quebecers. They mostly identify as anglophones or “almost bilinguals.” They report experiencing a form of linguistic insecurity towards their competence in French, even if a number has French as their first language.
The article shows how to fill the gap consisting in the lack of research on the attitudes of academic lecturers (other than language instructors), native speakers of the Polish language, towards ...mistakes made by students for whom Polish is not their mother tongue. The theoretical background is: (1) research conducted in English-language literature within the paradigm of “English as a lingua franca” – in particular with regard to higher education and its internationalization – which problematize the legitimacy of recognizing language patterns used by native speakers as the only or the most important criterion of linguistic competence; (2) the semi-peripheral nature of the higher education system in Poland. Polish academics, as authors of scientific texts, can become beneficiaries of approaches that deviate from orthodoxy regarding the English language in the case of publications in international (usually Anglo-Saxon) journals. Working in a semi-peripheral system, attracting more and more students from abroad (mainly from Ukraine), however, puts them in a different role: an oracle of linguistic correctness in accordance with the standards of academic Polish. The article considers possible scenarios for negotiating these two identities.
My article discusses ideas in sociolinguistics presented in the module on Language and Society taught to 11 and 12-grade students enrolled in a profiled Bulgarian language learning curriculum. I look ...into some important objectives of sociolinguistics related to language and society, in particular ones that are included in this module’s syllabus. In addition, I focus on how the concept of a language situation is defined and which of its most typological and sociolinguistically significant characteristics are reflected in the module. These characteristics refer to the current language situation in Bulgaria. Bilingualism and polylingualism are thus viewed not only in a sociolinguistic perspective but also in connection with the idea of multiculturalism in the contemporary world. Emphasis is also placed on the sociolinguistic idea that language competence is generally conditioned by several socio-demographic and situational factors. When reviewing the ideas of sociolinguistics included in the module on Language and Society, I aim at providing guidelines for teachers, especially with regard to motivating students and encouraging their interest in this subject.
In the context of developing digital applications for teaching and learning purposes, we present a research-development project in language didactics involving an interactive edutainment digital book ...for the discovery of English for 4-7-year-olds. The aim of this article is to report on our research protocol during the evaluation phase of the first chapters of the game. Our research question at this stage deals with the data needed to inform the development of a digital English learning tool for playschool pupils in an iterative improvement process. From a theoretical perspective, we approach this problem through the lens of digital literacy, at the interconnection of three dimensions, namely technological literacy, meaning-making literacy, and interaction literacy. Basing ourselves on a literature review, we define the interactive edutainment digital book around elements such as the sensory-motor dimension, the association of the immersive environment and interactivity making this device a potential vector towards constructivist learning. In the case of our digital book, the progression through the action adapts to each individual since it allows the children to listen to the dialogues as many times as they want, and replay a scene on demand; the successive scenes each correspond to a learning objective, and feedback is provided in the form of a reaction from the character involved in the action; the game memorises the player's achievements and their progress in the narrative, which are then presented to them within their dedicated space. We present the data collection tools, adapted to a young audience. More particularly, on top of the video collection and the grid-based observation, the emotions chart is used to collect the answers to the questionnaire, and the software harvesting used to collect the information concerning the actions and their timing. We give some preliminary results as examples, as a way of putting this protocol into discussion. Empathic identification is the primary intention in the digital book discussed here. The hypotheses to be explored in more detail in future are therefore the identification with the main character, who is also confronted with learning English. Additionally, the effects of this identification in terms of self-efficacy, in relation with the foreign language and digital literacy is taken into account. In other words, does the young pupil's use of the game allow them to gain confidence in their ability to enter language and digital literacy learning? Our research question leads us to propose a definition of the interactive edutainment digital book as a device for exemplification and pedagogical and didactic exploration in action research.
Within the wider academic framework of English language teaching, the conceptual term 'ESP' is generally considered to mean "English for Specific Purposes" (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998). ESP is ...primarily an umbrella term which covers domain specific English literacy skills. For meaningful communication in academic and professional contexts, students of medicine and engineering are required to have context specific English language skills (Niazi, 2012; Venkatraman & Prema, 2007; Sidek et al., 2006; Pendergrass et al., 2001; Tan, 1999). This study attempts to explore the role of English Language Teachers (ELTs) in teaching ESP. A phenomenological research design was used to study the ESP teaching practices of ELTs. The target population of this study constituted one public and two private sector universities of Karachi. The sample size taken for this study constituted10 ELTs sampled through snowball sampling technique and 100 ESP learners with further bifurcation of 50 each from the field of medicine and engineering chosen through purposive sampling. Open ended questionnaire and interview protocols were used in data collection. The collected data were thematically analyzed. The analysis of data suggested English language competence, pedagogic competence and understanding of the ESP learners' target communicative needs. The analyses of ESP learners' data suggested the preferred role of ELTs in ESP teaching.
This article examines international English-medium students' language aspirations in relation to social mobility as they are studying in a (Mandarin) Chinese-dominant context. It focuses specifically ...on Vietnamese students in Taiwan and their perspectives on how English and Chinese are related to their present and future life opportunities. Data were obtained from interviews with students from five different Taiwanese universities. Findings suggest that for these students, English and Chinese were highly mobile languages, which could provide them with the possibility to mobilise across imagined geographical, cultural, educational, work and peer communities of lower and higher scales. Both languages were, as a result, seen by them as a vehicle for their trans-contextual Anglo-Sino social mobility. Their imagination about mobility opportunities associated with the languages, however, may not always be achieved. Implications for supporting international students to enhance their multilingual skills and to contextualise the question of language competence in relation to mobility are then suggested.
Abstract
This study discusses the pragmatic functions of four Chinese equivalents of the English ‘sort of’ based on a
Chinese TV forum corpus:
youdian
(
有点
),
yidian
(
一点
),
youyidian
(
有一点
),
...keyishuo
(
可以说
). It finds that the
Chinese ‘sort of’ tends to cluster with verbs or adjectives rather than nouns. ‘Sort of’ is infrequent in the formal setting of
this study and serves three pragmatic functions: mitigation, approximation and evasion, with the first two functions being much
more frequent than the last one. ‘Sort of’ performs more of an interpersonal than an informational function. This study highlights
the elasticity of ‘sort of’ in Mandarin Chinese in the form of fluidity, stretchability and strategy, contributing a fresh account
of pragmatic markers. This study implies that elastic language use is a natural part of linguistic competence (particularly
pragmatic competence) and forms a strong bond with effective linguistic communication.
