Canadian Modern Language Review/ La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes
Volume 69, Number 1, February 2013
http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/xrpv3335063l/
This issue contains:
How Much Exposure to English Do International Graduate Students Really Get? Measuring Language Use in a Naturalistic Setting
Leila Ranta, Amy Meckelborg
Many believe that the best way to learn a language is to study it in a country where that language is widely spoken. Underlying this belief is the
assumption that study in a naturalistic setting will provide learners with ample opportunities for exposure to the target language and interaction with native-speakers of that language. This article reports the findings from a longitudinal study of the quantity
and quality of exposure experienced by 17 Chinese graduate students at a Canadian university. Exposure was measured using a computerized log that participants completed once a month for one week, over a six-month period. Our findings show a general trend toward
receptive rather than interactive use of English, and considerable variation among individuals in terms of the amount and type of language use. The discussion explores possible reasons for participants’ relatively low amount of oral interaction in English
in this naturalistic setting.
http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/t2454446k7pm1230/?p=f869e4ea8b7c45cdb594e476cdf6e568&pi=0
DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.987
L’assouplissement du schéma IRF en classe de langue comme principe d’un agir professoral: une initiative individuelle, un accomplissement collectif
Jose I. Aguilar Río
Cet article comporte, d’une part, l’analyse des interactions entre un enseignant de langue et un groupe d’apprenants et, d’autre part, l’étude collaborative
entre l’enseignant et le chercheur de l’agir professoral du premier. Notre démarche puise dans l’analyse conversationnelle et dans les études sur la cognition enseignante. Nos observations confirment que les échanges entre l’enseignant et les apprenants se
construisent autour du schéma dit IRF – initiation, réponse, feed-back – grâce auquel l’enseignant accomplit des fonctions pédagogiques telles que la correction ou l’encouragement. Nous constatons aussi des échanges éloignés d’une focalisation sur des aspects
langagiers et du schéma IRF, au cours desquels certains participants ont revendiqué, face à leurs interlocuteurs, des traits personnels. Nous concluons que l’agenda de la rencontre en classe reste ouvert, d’autant plus que sa gestion relève parfois de l’enseignant,
mais aussi du reste des participants. L’interaction didactique demeure un contexte d’échange complexe et dynamique, dont les interactants renégocient les règles et les contenus. Enfin, l’exploration de cette complexité se révèle bénéfique dans le cadre de
la formation, initiale et continue, des enseignants de langue.
First, this article analyses a classroom interaction between a language teacher and a group of learners. Secondly, it accounts for the teacher and
the researcher’s joint analysis of the former’s classroom actions. The article draws both on conversation analysis and research on teachers’ cognition. It is confirmed that the exchanges between the teacher and the learners are constructed according to the
so-called IRF pattern – initiation, response, feedback – which allows the teacher to accomplish pedagogical functions such as correction or praising. The observation suggests that, at times, the classroom interaction neither focused on language correction
nor structure around the IRF pattern, but on personal traits as expressed by specific classroom participants. This suggests that the classroom agenda remains open to negotiation by all the classroom participants. Classroom interaction is ultimately characterised
as a complex and dynamic discursive context, whose rules and contents are redefined by the interactants. Analysing such complexity and dynamism can be beneficial as regards the language teachers’ training.
http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/t93hr5w70u075p26/?p=f869e4ea8b7c45cdb594e476cdf6e568&pi=1
DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.1386
Target-Language Community Involvement: Second-Language Linguistic Self-Confidence and Other Perceived Benefits
Kirsten M. Hummel
French native-speaking students (N = 20) enrolled in a university TESL program were asked to participate in a community service-learning project in
an English-speaking minority community in Québec. Results from this qualitative study indicated that active community involvement led to strong perceptions of positive effects. The principal effects reported by participants included greater linguistic self-confidence
along with the perception of having improved their second language (L2) skills, increased knowledge about their field of study (L2 teaching), and confirmation of their professional goals, personal satisfaction from helping young children and other community
members, and to some extent, greater knowledge about the local English-speaking community. The results suggest that community service learning may have been an effective way to enhance L2 learning for the participants in this study, with particular effects
on linguistic self-confidence, and might be appropriate in similar contexts in which opportunities for intergroup contact are not readily available.
http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/x75868l208p0g282/?p=f869e4ea8b7c45cdb594e476cdf6e568&pi=2
DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.1152
Task Motivation in Process: A Complex Systems Perspective
Glen Poupore
While many studies into task-based interaction have been conducted within a cognitive-linguistic perspective, few have been conducted with the aim
of investigating learners’ task motivation. Framed within a complex systems approach, the principle objectives of this classroom-based study were to provide a complexity description of task motivation and to identify how various socio-affective and task condition-related
elements interact together to influence learner motivation during different types of tasks. The elements include task enjoyment, effort, success expectancy, relevance, emotional state, perceived difficulty, perceived group work dynamic, and specific aspects
related to the structure and content of tasks. Participants for the study consisted of 38 Korean intermediate learners of English in a conversation course as part of a TESOL certificate program. Data were collected through questionnaires during the course,
at pre- and post-task, and as well, through post-task interviews. Supporting the notion that task motivation functions as a complex system, learners’ motivation decreased as a result of different combinations of socio-affective variables acting together rather
than in isolation. Task conditions related to cognitive complexity and topic, furthermore, were shown to function as important control parameters in the shaping of the motivational patterns.
http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/g1621300gt87x0w5/?p=f869e4ea8b7c45cdb594e476cdf6e568&pi=3
DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.1139
Book and Software Reviews / Critiques de livres et de logiciels
T. Muller, S. Herder, J. Adamson, and B.S. Shigeo,
Innovating EFL Teaching in Asia, reviewed by Cynthia Xie, Heesoon Bai
F. Cicurel,
Les interactions dans l’enseignement des langues. Agir professoral et pratiques de classe, reviewed by Cécile Sabatier
P. Gruba and D. Hinkelman,
Blending Technologies in Second Language Classrooms, reviewed by David Kaufman
http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/j20016332419k172/?p=f869e4ea8b7c45cdb594e476cdf6e568&pi=4
DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.69.1.117
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