| A Workshop on Promoting Learner Agency in Language Education

Workshop

Featured Presentation

Due to the influence of Contrastive Analysis (CA), there has been ample research on how L1 may interfere with L2 learning. Such research has produced many useful findings and led to new views or theories about the role of L1, including the weak- or posteriori-view of CA and Error Analysis (which focuses on identifying systematic learner errors and determining the sources of the errors afterwards when possible, rather than on L1 and L2 differences). However, CAinspired research has also resulted in what I consider to be an excessive emphasis on interlanguage differences along with an under-appreciation of the underlying L1 and L2 similarities that can and should be explored to help L2 learning. Using Chinese speakers learning English as a case in point, I try to argue in this article that there are actually important overlooked similarities underlying some of the most well-known lexico-grammatical differences between Chinese and English that have been thought to be the major sources of difficulties for Chinese EFL/ESL learners. For example, although morphological inflections and phrasal verbs have long been considered two prominent English structural features lacking in Chinese, a close look at the Chinese language will reveal that it actually makes use of both lexico-grammatical features, though to a lesser degree and in different manners/formats. In other words, these two important English lexico-grammatical concepts do also exist in Chinese. Then, using concrete examples, I will further contend that making learners understand the similarities that underly well-known surface inter-language differences may help learners more effectively grasp the lexicogrammatical structures they are learning.

| Understanding near-synonyms that Chinese EFL/ESL

Featured Workshop

Learners often misuse in academic writing Synonyms are lexical items that express the same or nearly the same meaning in some or all senses and contexts. In a strict sense, most synonyms are near-synonyms. While near-synonyms are ubiquitous in language, they are very difficult to grasp even for native speakers, but particularly so for L2 learners because often near-synonyms in one language may not be the same in another language. In this workshop, we will examine some near-synonyms which, based on the speaker’s published and ongoing research findings, Chinese EFL/ESL writers often misuse, including “demand/request/require,” “discrepancy/disparity/divergence,” and “important/significant/vital.” Effective ways for learning to differentiate near-synonyms and to use them correctly and effectively in academic writing will be explored via hands-on activities.

Featured Presentation

This paper is a study on the enactment of the national English language (EL) curriculum, through the national literacy programme, across a sample of nine primary schools that are spread across the socioeconomic spectrum. The intent of the national EL curriculum, and its accompanying national literacy programme, is to ensure that there is equal opportunity for all students to reach a high level of competency in the English language. However, due to the fact that it is a national EL curriculum /programme, it is logically pitched to the average learner. As a result of that, there are wide variations in its enactment and accompanying practices. This study aimed to gain insights into the variations of the enactment through a systematic study of the teachers’ extent of use of the programme (Hall & Hord, 2015) and the degree of curriculum material appropriation (Brown, 2009). The findings suggest that there are differences in the ways schools from the three different SES groups enact the national curriculum/programme, as well as similarities in enactment by schools with similar cultures despite the differences in SES. Curricular adaptations to meet the different learning needs of students may be a hallmark of the effective teacher; however, rampant adaptations, without understanding the programmatic rationale and the programme’s core components, can lead to programme drift, and, hence, negate the programme’s intent. This has implications for national curriculum reform efforts, because to date, the vast curriculum implementation literature tends to focus on the implementers; it is just as important, if not more, to uncover and address the learning needs of the diverse student profiles when constructing a curricular reform.

| Ascertaining Curriculum Enactment: An Introductory Workshop

Featured Workshop

Fullan (1983) posited that implementation is “critical for both the planning and the evaluation of new models and programs” (p.224). With an explicit understanding of implementation process, it will help the curriculum developers “be more precise about the operational components of their programmes”, gather “clearer, more useful information about what is happening in practice, and consequently about how to improve it”, and “draw a direct causal link between the model, its quality of implementation, and its outcomes” (pp.224-225). Only by looking at the implementation are curriculum developers able to confirm (or disconfirm) that the reforms have been successful or otherwise. With this knowledge of the implementation process, the developers are then able to pinpoint the specific aspects of the implementation that needs to be improved or addressed. This information is especially pertinent when academic outcomes are not achieved, even though a reform has taken place. The implementation evidence can then be drawn upon to explain such a scenario – whether the reform was inadequate to meet the needs of the teachers and learners or the reform was not implemented properly (Fullan, 1983). Such specific implementation data can aid curriculum developers to communicate the value and progress of the reform to the schools and the larger educational community. Such implementation data can also help developers explain differences in outcomes across schools, even though all schools are enacting the same reform programme.

Decades ago, Fullan (1983) posited that implementation is “critical for both the planning and the evaluation of new models and programs” (p.224). The importance of ascertaining implementation must not be underestimated when evaluating programmes; improved or poor academic outcomes cannot be attributed to the reform, if the reform were not implemented properly. It is the implementation data, rather than the academic outcomes, that can help curriculum developers confirm that the reforms have been successful or not. There are eight aspects of implementation that are attended to in implementation assessment (Durlak & Dupre, 2008); of the eight, Dusenbury, Brannigan, Falco, and Hansen (2003) have branded fidelity as the aspect of implementation which informs researchers of the reason(s) behind an innovation’s success or failure. Fidelity is defined as the extent to which an innovation corresponds with the programme as intended by its developers (Durlak & Dupre, 2008). While research has found that high levels of fidelity lead to positive programme outcomes (Berkel, Mauricio, Schoenfelder, & Sandler, 2011), it has also been discovered that practitioners tend to adapt an innovative programme to suit their local needs (Elliott & Mihalic, 2004). Because fidelity is considered so significant in the study of implementation, this will be the workshop’s primary focus, specifically in three areas: 1) teachers’ concerns and how such concerns may affect the fidelity of their implementation; 2) teachers’ enactment of practices; and 3) teachers’ use of curriculum materials. This workshop will introduce to the participants some tools with which to ascertain these three areas.

Plenary Speech

Internationalization in higher education is a buzz word around the globe, but its interpretation, framework, as well as its implementation vary from continent to continent, region to region, and country to country.   Internationalization in Asia, for instance, is different from that in North America.   Having worked in both continents for many years, Liu is going to explore the complexities of campus internationalization with regard to the contexts, geopolitical and socio-economic situations, models of global university collaborations, student exchanges, study abroad, faculty exchanges as well as global research institutes.  Liu will focus on the role of English in internationalization and how language educators can contribute to glocalizing higher education, and help students succeed as future global citizens.

Featured Presentation

Although writing has become an important part of language instruction, language teacher education courses and materials still do not provide much information about classroom writing assessment. In this plenary talk, a world-renowned second language writing specialist will provide an overview of writing assessment literacy for the language classroom. He will begin by discussing writing assessment literacy and its relevance to classroom teaching. He will then discuss some of the key concepts in writing assessment and different types of writing assessment rubrics, pointing out the differences between standardized writing tests and classroom writing assessment. He will conclude with a brief discussion of how teachers can use assessment to promote student writing development.

| Classroom Writing Assessment: Tips and Tricks Featured

Featured Workshop

Building on the plenary talk, “Writing Assessment Literacy for Language Teachers,” this workshop will provide practical ideas for practicing effective writing assessment in the language classroom. Some of the key topics to be discussed include: How to develop writing assessment rubrics; how to use rubrics to facilitate learning; how to simplify writing assessment while maximizing learning; how to advocate for better writing assessment practices (and other innovative ideas) within the institution. Participants are encouraged to bring other questions about writing assessment and writing instruction.

Featured Presentation

The usual recommendations for developing academic language focus on direct teaching of vocabulary, grammar, and the study of nonfiction texts. There is research supporting the view that there may be an easier and more effective way: Self-selected fiction.  The evidence includes studies showing that fiction contains a considerable amount of academic language.  Reading fiction can also result an increase in academic knowledge: Those who read more fiction know more about history, literature, and science.  An interesting and important hypothesis is that self-selected reading is more potent than assigned reading in developing literacy as well as knowledge.

It may be the case that we can best prepare our ESL students for academic success not with painful exercises and demanding (and sometimes boring) informational texts but by providing them with access to reading material that they find comprehensible and extremely interesting.

The path of pleasure may be more effective than the path of pain.

Featured Presentation

As the Principal Investigator, the speaker has been working on the development of the CEFR-J, a localized version of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) for English language teaching in Japan. For the last 15 years, he has led the project team to develop various educational resources (the wordlist, the grammar profile, the text profile, inventories of exponents, and can-do-based performance test batteries) to enhance the effective use of the framework for ELT from primary to tertiary levels. After a brief description of the project, he will discuss the possibility of creating a language-independent workbench for designing and preparing syllabuses and teaching materials using the CEFR-J resources and corpus data in the target languages. As an example, a program of pedagogical reforms on 28 foreign language majors at TUFS using the CEFR-J will be reported.

| Useful Text Analysis Tools for Teachers

Featured Workshop

In this workshop, I will share some of the useful text analysis tools for language teachers. The workshop is designed for those who are not familiar with text analysis tools such as Text Inspector, Coh-Metrix, Lexical Complexity Analyzer, Kristopher Kyle’s suits of tools, among others. Concordancers such as AntConc will not be covered in this workshop. I will demonstrate how to use the tools and explain how to interpret the output. Especially the workshop will be useful for those who want to know how those tools behave differently in terms of tokenization or lemmatization, which will affect the results of your analysis. Also practical tips for using those tools for teaching will be discussed.

Featured Presentation

Both students and teachers recognize the need for vocabulary to use English well. Despite this, many learners do not develop the vocabulary necessary to be confident in English. This presentation looks at how we can develop more systematic approaches to teaching vocabulary. First, it discusses why we should study English in the first place, showing how knowledge of English opens up many communication opportunities. Next, it will explore how much vocabulary is required to read and listen in English. Finally, it will outline a number of principles which underly effective vocabulary teaching opportunities.

Featured Presentation

Proficiency in English is a central consideration in English-medium instruction (EMI). One one hand, a satisfactory level of proficiency is needed in order to insure that students have good preconditions for success in their studies. On the other hand, increased skills in English are among the intended outcomes which lead universities to implement EMI (though not, of course, the only one). Perhaps surprisingly, relatively little is known about the relationship between EMI and English proficiency. This talk will marshall the available evidence in order to answer three questions: 1) what level of English proficiency do students around the world have when they enter the university-level EMI classroom? 2) what level of English proficiency gives good preconditions for success in EMI? and 3) to what extent does EMI raise proficiency levels?

Featured Presentation

In this presentation, I will outline what I consider to be a crisis in Second Language Studies (SLS) regarding the relationship between the so-called cognitive orientation and the role of social factors in understanding the process of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The core of the crisis, as I see it, is that researchers are struggling with the problem of how to interrelate what they perceive to be dichotomous components that play a role in the acquisition process. Those supporting a cognitive orientation believe that the key to understanding SLA resides in the mind/brain of individuals, while those supporting a social orientation argue for integrating, in some way, the influence of social activity into the process. Various proposals have been suggested by researchers for how to overcome the dichotomy. I will review some of these in the presentation before offering what I consider to be a potential solution to the problem—one grounded in Vygotsky’s theory of general psychology. As a general theory designed to account for human psychological development and functioning, it must be able to explain a process such as second language development and functioning within its overall framework.