Loftur Árni Björgvinsson | University of Iceland (original) (raw)

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Papers by Loftur Árni Björgvinsson

The following paper describes an action research project where the author combined his interest i... more The following paper describes an action research project where the author combined his interest in philosophy and efforts to promote improved oral language proficiency and academic discourse in his class of learners at an upper level secondary school English class.
The author conducted action research where he evaluated the effectiveness of the teaching methods and approaches as well as the improvements of the learners, and the learners attitudes regarding their own improvements in the target language, the methods the teacher employed, the approaches employed, and the material used in the course.
This paper reviews the teaching plan in which learners read and discussed philosophical texts. By using pre-reading activities, reading journals, and discussions the aim was for the learners to improve their ability to use the English language in writing, reading, understanding spoken and written language, and to be able to communicate better in the language.
The results of the research indicate that the methods and approaches were, in many ways, beneficial though the learners themselves noticed the greatest improvements in general comprehension, reading, listening, and writing – but are not noticing themselves the same levels of improvements in their productive oral proficiency. The learners did express more confidence in using English outside of classroom.

"This paper will cover what incidental and instructional vocabulary acquisition entails; how each... more "This paper will cover what incidental and instructional vocabulary acquisition entails; how each is thought to work, and how each affects the acquisition of language. To achieve any sort of acquisition first we have to know what a word is. After that incidentiality is examined and show to hinge on sufficient, and meaningful, exposure to lexical items. Thereafter we look at instructional vocabulary training and reminded that strategy training and rote learning has been shown to enhance and support vocabulary acquisition. Lastly we ponder upon how vocabulary could be taught by applying incidental exposure in conjunction with instructional teaching using meaningful feedback and extensive peer group-work.

Keywords: Incidental vocabulary acquisition, instructional vocabulary training, incidental exposure, exposure, receptive knowledge, productive knowledge, communication, group-work, feedback, input, learning strategy, facilitator of learning."

This paper will examine Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and how communication, and training... more This paper will examine Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and how communication, and training discourse skills, is paramount when acquiring a new language.
We will examine if training meta-language skills indirectly through communication is more conductive to language teaching than traditional methods where grammar, and other organizational aspects of language, are taught directly through rule memorization and rote learning.
We will cover what CLT is, how it works, and how, in this authors opinion, CLT can be implemented in a foreign language classroom.

This paper examines J.L. Austin's theory regarding speech acts, or how we do things with words. I... more This paper examines J.L. Austin's theory regarding speech acts, or how we do things with words. It starts by reviewing the birth and foundation of speech act theory as it appeared in the 1955 William James Lectures at Harvard before going into what Austin's theory is and how it can be applied to the real world.
The theory is explained and analysed both in regards to its faults and advantages. Proposals for the improvement of the theory are then developed, using the ideas of other scholars and theorists along with the ideas of the author.
The taxonomy in this essay is vast and various concepts and conditions are introduced and applied to the theory in order for it to work. Those conditions range from being conditions of appropriateness through to general principles of communication.
In this essay utterances are examined by their propositional content, the intention of the utterance, and its outcome. By studying how utterances are formed and issued, along with looking into utterance circumstances and sincerity, one can garner a clear glimpse into what constitutes a performative speech act and what does not.
By applying the ideas of multiple thinkers in unison it becomes clear that a) any one single theory does not satisfyingly explain all the intricacies of the theory and b) most utterances which are not in the past tense can be considered to be either performative or as having some performative force.

The following paper describes an action research project where the author combined his interest i... more The following paper describes an action research project where the author combined his interest in philosophy and efforts to promote improved oral language proficiency and academic discourse in his class of learners at an upper level secondary school English class.
The author conducted action research where he evaluated the effectiveness of the teaching methods and approaches as well as the improvements of the learners, and the learners attitudes regarding their own improvements in the target language, the methods the teacher employed, the approaches employed, and the material used in the course.
This paper reviews the teaching plan in which learners read and discussed philosophical texts. By using pre-reading activities, reading journals, and discussions the aim was for the learners to improve their ability to use the English language in writing, reading, understanding spoken and written language, and to be able to communicate better in the language.
The results of the research indicate that the methods and approaches were, in many ways, beneficial though the learners themselves noticed the greatest improvements in general comprehension, reading, listening, and writing – but are not noticing themselves the same levels of improvements in their productive oral proficiency. The learners did express more confidence in using English outside of classroom.

"This paper will cover what incidental and instructional vocabulary acquisition entails; how each... more "This paper will cover what incidental and instructional vocabulary acquisition entails; how each is thought to work, and how each affects the acquisition of language. To achieve any sort of acquisition first we have to know what a word is. After that incidentiality is examined and show to hinge on sufficient, and meaningful, exposure to lexical items. Thereafter we look at instructional vocabulary training and reminded that strategy training and rote learning has been shown to enhance and support vocabulary acquisition. Lastly we ponder upon how vocabulary could be taught by applying incidental exposure in conjunction with instructional teaching using meaningful feedback and extensive peer group-work.

Keywords: Incidental vocabulary acquisition, instructional vocabulary training, incidental exposure, exposure, receptive knowledge, productive knowledge, communication, group-work, feedback, input, learning strategy, facilitator of learning."

This paper will examine Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and how communication, and training... more This paper will examine Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and how communication, and training discourse skills, is paramount when acquiring a new language.
We will examine if training meta-language skills indirectly through communication is more conductive to language teaching than traditional methods where grammar, and other organizational aspects of language, are taught directly through rule memorization and rote learning.
We will cover what CLT is, how it works, and how, in this authors opinion, CLT can be implemented in a foreign language classroom.

This paper examines J.L. Austin's theory regarding speech acts, or how we do things with words. I... more This paper examines J.L. Austin's theory regarding speech acts, or how we do things with words. It starts by reviewing the birth and foundation of speech act theory as it appeared in the 1955 William James Lectures at Harvard before going into what Austin's theory is and how it can be applied to the real world.
The theory is explained and analysed both in regards to its faults and advantages. Proposals for the improvement of the theory are then developed, using the ideas of other scholars and theorists along with the ideas of the author.
The taxonomy in this essay is vast and various concepts and conditions are introduced and applied to the theory in order for it to work. Those conditions range from being conditions of appropriateness through to general principles of communication.
In this essay utterances are examined by their propositional content, the intention of the utterance, and its outcome. By studying how utterances are formed and issued, along with looking into utterance circumstances and sincerity, one can garner a clear glimpse into what constitutes a performative speech act and what does not.
By applying the ideas of multiple thinkers in unison it becomes clear that a) any one single theory does not satisfyingly explain all the intricacies of the theory and b) most utterances which are not in the past tense can be considered to be either performative or as having some performative force.