Category: PDFs

PDF #116 – Roumyana Slabakova, Tania Leal, Amber Dudley & Micah Stack – Generative second language acquisition

The scholarly field of second language acquisition (SLA) aims to explain the process through which people who already speak their mother tongue learn a second, third, and additional languages. SLA focuses mainly on adult learners – people who start learning the additional language after puberty. Related but separate fields of inquiry, such as bilingualism, child SLA, third language acquisition, heritage language acquisition, and instructed second and foreign language learning and teaching ask slightly different research questions. For the past sixty years, SLA has aimed to reveal and describe different facets of the SLA process.

PDF #115 – An Introduction to Applied Linguistics Schmitt and Rodgers, 2020

The book An Introduction to Applied Linguistics Schmitt provides a complete, authoritative and up-to-date overview of the field. Divided into three sections covering: a description of language and language use; essential areas of enquiry; and the four skills and testing, the third edition of this highly successful textbook provides.

Norbert Schmitt

Norbert Schmitt is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Nottingham, UK. He has taught in the areas of vocabulary studies, applied linguistics, SLA and TESOL methodology. He has published extensively. Professor Schmitt is a regular presenter at applied linguistics conferences. He also travels widely consulting and teaching on vocabulary issues.

Michael P.H. Rodgers

Michael P.H. Rodgers is Assistant Professor in the School of Linguistics and Language Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, where he teaches TESOL methodology and SLA theory. His research interests include vocabulary acquisition and language learning through television.

One of the main articles in An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

It brings the article Second language acquisition Nina Spada and Patsy M. Lightbown on page 111 that focuses on second language acquisition research focuses on the developing knowledge and use of a language by children and adults who already know at least one other language. This field of research has both theoretical and practical importance.

The theoretical importance is related to our understanding of how language is represented in the mind and whether there is a difference between the way language is acquired and processed and the way other kinds of information are acquired and processed. The practical importance arises from the assumption that an understanding of how languages are learned will lead to more effective teaching practices. In a broader context, a knowledge of second language acquisition may help educational policy makers set more realistic goals for programs for both foreign language courses and the learning of the majority language by minority language children and adults.

After reading “An Introduction to Applied Linguistics Schmitt”, you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs. And visit my channel by YouTube.

PDF #114 – Michael Mohler & David Bracewell & David Hinote & Marc Tomlinson – Semantic Signatures for Example-Based Linguistic Metaphor Detection, 2013, USA

Metaphor is a pervasive feature of human language that enable us to conceptualize and communicate abstract concepts using more concrete terminology. 

After reading “Learning an L2 in a troubled world” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.

PDF #113 – Marjorie Perlman Lorch – A Late 19th Century British Perspective on Modern Foreign Language Learning Teaching, and Reform

The second half of the 19th century saw a great shift in approaches to modern foreign language learning and teaching in Britain. During this period, there was a rise in private foreign language learning due to sociocultural changes arising from the British Industrial Revolution with the rising middle class and increasing travel to the Continent and Middle East.

After reading “Learning an L2 in a troubled world” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.

PDF #112 – Frank G Königs – Teaching and Learning Foreign Language in Germany a personal overview of developments in research, Philipps-Universität Marburg

There is an unavoidable dilemma in any attempt to put together an overview of the research results for one subject within a discipline.

After reading “Learning an L2 in a troubled world” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.

PDF #111 – Orlando Chaves and Fanny Hernandez – EFL Teaching Methodological Practices in Cali

In this article we aim at showing partial results of a study about the profiles of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in both public and private primary and secondary strata 1-4 schools in Cali, Colombia.

PDF #110 – Jeremy Harmer – The Practice of English Language Teaching, 4th

The highly acclaimed Practice of English Language Teaching is the essential guide for teachers of English in a wide range of contexts. The fifth edition has been revised to reflect new developments in language teaching. It explains current pedagogy to teachers who want to access the most relevant ELT practices and incorporate them into their lessons.

The Practice of English Language Teaching is the essential guide for teachers of English. It explains current pedagogy to teachers who want to access the more relevant ELT practices and incorporate them into their lessons. The fifth edition has been revised to reflect the latest development in language teaching.

English language classrooms have changed greatly since the first edition of this book was published, more than thirty years ago. Advances in the technology available to teachers and students, both inside and outside the classroom, have brought about some of the most noticeable of these changes.
However, the fundamental questions of how best to teach and learn a language remain the same. This book is informed by past theory and practice and by books and articles written by teachers and researchers in recent years. It examines current issues such as the lingua franca core, teaching unplugged and the rise of digital testing and marking, amongst many others and provides a snapshot of the state of English language teaching today.

The Practice of English Language Teaching includes:
• English as a world language
• Theories of language and language learning
• Learner characteristics which influence teacher decisions
• Guidance on managing learning
• Teaching language systems (grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation)
• Teaching language skills (speaking , writing, listening and reading)
• Practical teaching ideas
• The role of technology (old and new) in the classroom
• Assessment for language learning in the digital age

After reading this article, you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.

PDF #109 – Charles F Kroeh – Methods of Teaching Modern Languages

One of the most interesting subjects of study to the concientious teacher is that of methods of instruction. It is indispensable to his success that he should be familiar with all existing methods, so that he may intelligently choose that one, or that combination, which is best suited to his peculiar conditions.

PDF #108 – William Littlewood – Developing a Context-Sensitive Pedagogy for Communication-Oriented Language Teaching, 2013

Context-Sensitive Pedagogy – When communicative language teaching (CLT) was first developed in the 1970s. It was widely seen as the definitive response to the shortcomings of previous approaches and the communication needs of a globalized world. As such, it was exported enthusiastically over the world as a ready-to-use package of ideas and techniques.

After reading “Developing a Context-Sensitive Pedagogy for Communication-Oriented Language Teaching”, you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my channel on YouTube.

From the outset, however, there was no clear consensus about its nature and teachers experienced difficulty in defining and implementing it. There is now a widespread view that teachers need to adapt CLT to suit specific contexts. CLT cannot now be defined in terms of precise characteristics. But serves rather as an umbrella term for approaches that aim to develop communicative competence through personally meaningful learning experiences. In this spirit we should aim to develop principles which help each teacher to develop a form of communication-oriented language teaching (COLT) suited to his or her own specific context.

Introduction to Context-Sensitive Pedagogy

For some 40 years now, discussions of foreign language teaching have been dominated by the concept of ‘communication’. And its various derivatives such as ‘communicative language teaching’ (CLT) and ‘communicative competence’. Hunter and Smith (2012) analyzed the keywords in articles published in one leading UK-based journal (ELT Journal). It showed how communicative ideas and terminology gradually climbed to a dominant status in ELT professional discourse in the years up to 1986.

Since 1986 this trend has continued. Even if much discussion now refers to ‘task-based language teaching’ (TBLT) rather than CLT. This is not so much a shift of direction as a continuation within the same direction. As many writers have noted (e.g. Nunan, 2004, p. 10; Richards, 2005, p. 29). TBLT is best understood not as a new departure but as a development within CLT. In which communicative tasks ‘serve not only as major components of the methodology. But also as units around which a course may be organized (Littlewood, 2004, p. 324).

PDF #107 – Joseph Payne – A Compedious Exposition of the Principles and Practice of Professor Jacotots celebrated System of Education, London, 1830

Learn something throughly, and refer every thing else to it. 

The above sentence comprises the entire method of the Universal Instruction. Whenever this precept is neglected, the constitutional character of the system is disregarded, and the success of the teacher’s endeavours is no longer guaranteed by M. Jacotot.

After reading “Learning an L2 in a troubled world” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.