A restricted curriculum for second language learners – a self-fulfilling teacher strategy? (original) (raw)

Whole class interaction in the adult L2-classroom: The case of Swedish for immigrants

Apples – Journal of Applied Language Studies

This article focuses on verbal interaction in whole class teaching in second language education for adults in Sweden. The article draws on theories treating language as multiple resources that are situated and embedded in material life, and including complex and diverse linguistic, semiotic, physical material and social resources. The material for the article was created in a project based in linguistic ethnography in the form of an action research project, including two municipal Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) schools. The interaction patterns that occurred challenged students’ language proficiency in ways that stimulated meaning negotiation through what we call extended interactions. This stresses the social aspect of interaction, which in these cases included the whole, or nearly the whole, class, students and the teacher. However, in whole class teaching, the space for each interlocutor is limited, and as our experience from other classrooms suggests that group tasks are not frequ...

Developing interactional awareness in the second language classroom through teacher self-evaluation

Language Awareness, 2003

This paper proposes a process model of reflective practice for second language teachers, designed to facilitate a closer understanding of language use and interactive decision-making. The L2 classroom is portrayed as a dynamic and complex series of inter-related contexts, in which interaction is central to teaching and learning. An understanding of the interactional organisation of the L2 classroom is achieved through the use of SETT (Self-Evaluation of Teacher Talk) procedures, supported by reflection and dialogue. Naturalistic research methods are used to gain insights into the emerging understanding and interactional competence of a small group of university EFL teachers. These methods are derived, in the first instance, from an institutional discourse conversational analysis methodology; secondly, from action research; thirdly from a sociocultural research perspective. Through a process of guided self-discovery involving dialogue and inquiry teachers are given an opportunity to see their classroom worlds differently, by studying the relationship between institutional goals, as teaching objectives, and the language used to realise those goals. In short, this process of consciousness-raising is designed to redirect teachers' attention away from materialsor methodology-based decisions towards decisions based on interactional choice.

Escobar Urmeneta, C. & Evnitskaya, N. (2013). Affording Students Opportunities for the Integrated Learning of Content and Language. A Contrastive Study on Classroom Interactional Strategies Deployed by Two CLIL Teachers

Reviving Catalan at School: Challenges and Instructional Approaches, 2013

This paper is concerned with CLIL in English as a foreign language in secondary education in Catalonia. Through the use of tools from Conversation Analysis and Sociocultural Discourse Analysis, the study contrasts the way two different CLIL teachers organise and manage respectively an academic conversation. Its goal is to empirically identify components of Classroom Interactional Competence (Walsh, 2006), present in the particular conditions of CLIL settings, by showing how the teachers’ instructional choices in the form of conversational adjustments afford students more or fewer opportunities for the integrated learning of language and content. The study concludes that the different sets of conversational strategies deployed by each teacher determine the quality of each conversation and its outcomes in terms of affordances for the integrated learning of content and language.

8. Affording Students Opportunities for the Integrated Learning of Content and Language: A Contrastive Study on Classroom Interactional Strategies Deployed by Two CLIL Teachers

2013

This paper is concerned with CLIL in English as a f oreign language in secondary education in Catalonia. Through the use of tools fr om Conversation Analysis and Sociocultural Discourse Analysis, the study contras t the way two different CLIL teachers organise and manage respectively an academ ic conversation. Its goal is to empirically identify components of Classroom Interactional Competence (Walsh, 2006), present in the particular conditions of CLIL settings, by showing how the teachers’ instructional choices in the form of conv ersational adjustments afford students more or fewer opportunities for the integr ated learning of language and content. The study concludes that the different set s of conversational strategies deployed by each teacher determine the quality of e ach conversation and its outcomes in terms of affordances for the integrated learning of content and language.

Review of Kim McDonough & Alison Mackey (eds). 2013. Second language Interaction in Diverse Educational Contexts: A Review. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 332.

Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos, 20 (2014)

divided into three main sections: "Interactions in L2 classrooms", "Interactions involving technology" and "Interactions in other educational settings". In the preface the editors explain that the book collect empirical research studies that analyze the topic of interaction in a wide range of educational settings. All these settings are of an authentic educational nature (classroom, conversation group, etc.) and not only established for research purposes. By doing that, the editors wanted to include contributions where at least one aspect of the research (context, design, etc.) was not typical of the interaction scene what made them, somehow, unique in the interaction field to date.