From: UTP Journals <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: May issue of Canadian Modern Language Review is now available online...
Date: April 24, 2014 1:11:31 PM CDT
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Just released Canadian Modern Language Review/ La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes
Volume 70, Number 2, May 2014
This issue contains:
Acteurs et dynamiques de médiation dans une plateforme de formation à l’intercompréhension
Maria Helena Araújo e Sá, Maddalena de Carlo, Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer
Après une révision du concept de médiation, tel qu’il circule dans les espaces sociaux et en Didactique des Langues, nous analysons dans ce texte les forums de discussion plurilingues d’une session de formation de formateurs à l’intercompréhension en Langues Romanes (Galapro), pour y dégager les spécificités des dynamiques de médiation (en ce qui concerne le soutien relationnel et socio-affectif, la co-médiation et le rôle de l’artefact technologique). Cette analyse nous permettra de discuter le rapport entre les dynamiques de médiation décrites et les rares manifestations de désaccord dans la situation de formation observée. DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.2022
Attention to Form in Collaborative Writing Tasks: Comparing Pair and Small Group Interaction
Ana Fernández Dobao
This study examines the opportunities that a collaborative writing task completed in pairs and in small groups offers for attention to form. Previous research suggests that collaborative writing activities encourage learners to focus their attention on language and to collaborate in the resolution of their language-related problems in ways that facilitate learning. While that research focused almost exclusively on dyads, the present study compares the performance of the same writing task by learners working in pairs (n = 64) and in groups of four (n = 80). It investigates the role played by the number of participants on the frequency, resolution, and length of language-related episodes (LREs) focused on Spanish past tense morphology. It also examines the learners’ level of engagement in these LREs. Findings indicate that both groups and pairs focused their attention on form relatively often, but groups produced a significantly higher number of past tense LREs and were also more successful at solving them. As a result, their texts were more accurate. The LREs produced by the groups were also longer and showed more evidence of elaborate engagement with past tense morphology, therefore providing enhanced opportunities for second language learning. The pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed. DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.1768
Multimedia Instruction in Foreign Language Classrooms: Effects on the Acquisition of the French Perfective and Imperfective Distinction
Jesús Izquierdo
This study examined multimedia instruction (MI) effects on the development of the French prototypical and non-prototypical past forms among Hispanophone learners. During 4 weeks of classroom instruction, participants were exposed to MI in one of 4 conditions: learners at early stages of past-tense development received MI including prototypical (n = 12) or non-prototypical past-tense (n = 12) forms, and learners at late developmental stages were exposed to MI including non-prototypical (n = 17) or prototypical forms (n = 13). Before, immediately after, and 3 weeks after the experiment, participants completed 1 paper-and-pencil and 2 computerized tests. ANOVAs revealed past-tense growth among learners at early developmental stages only. Neither prototypical nor non-prototypical growth was documented among learners at late developmental stages. These findings highlight the need to consider MI design variations as learners’ L2 grammar evolves. DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.1697
Accessing English and Networks at an English-Medium Multicultural Church in East Canada: An Ethnography
Huamei Han
Drawing from a larger ethnography of skilled Chinese immigrants’ language learning during settlement in Toronto, this article explores the role of informal interactions in facilitating immigrants learning English as a second language and settlement. Examining various activities and networks available at an English-medium multicultural church, this article focuses on one immigrant couple’s access to participation and to various linguistic practices therein. Building on the theory of communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and the notion of forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1986, 1997), I illustrate how extensive opportunities to interact informally with three types of members enabled this couple to use and learn English and to construct positive identities and build networks, which were essential for their settlement. Implications for immigrant language training are discussed. DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.1871
Les pronoms objets directs de la 3e personne et leur apport aux indices du genre grammatical dans le discours oral des enseignants en immersion
James Poirier, Roy Lyster
La présente étude examine la fréquence et la répartition des pronoms objets directs de la 3e personne (le, la, les, l’) ainsi que leur propension à indiquer le genre grammatical dans deux corpus oraux, l’un de 37,7 heures et l’autre de 33 heures. Le corpus principal provient du discours de six enseignants de six classes d’immersion différentes dans la région de Montréal alors que le corpus secondaire utilisé de façon complémentaire a été tiré de dialogues familiaux. Dans les deux contextes, la répartition des pronoms se lit comme suit en ordre décroissant : le > l’ > les > la. Par rapport à tous les pronoms clitiques objets directs à la 3e personne, 71 % de ceux utilisés par les enseignants et 54 % de ceux utilisés par les parents ne portent aucun indice du genre grammatical. Les résultats laissent entendre un lien possible entre le discours des enseignants et les difficultés qu’éprouvent les élèves en immersion à utiliser correctement le genre grammatical. En guise de conclusion, nous proposons des techniques pédagogiques centrées sur la forme qui mettraient l’accent sur le lien entre le genre grammatical et certaines terminaisons nominales. DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.1431
Book and Software Reviews / Critiques de livres et de logiciels
Erwin Tschirner (ed.), Aligning Frameworks of Reference in Language Testing: The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, reviewed by Enrica Piccardo
Mariella Causa (dir.), Formation initiale et profils d’enseignants de langues : enjeux et questionnements, reviewed by Ghizlane Laghzaoui
Eva Alcón Soler & Maria-Pilar Safont-Jordà (eds.), Discourse and language learning across L2 instructional settings, reviewed by Jérémie Séror
DOI: 10.3138/cmlr.70.2.268
The Canadian Modern Language Review ONLINE
Hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, insightful book and software reviews, calendars of forthcoming events and research-based articles, in all areas of second language teaching and acquisition, from 1997 to the present await you at this comprehensive resource.
CMLR Online features a comprehensive archive of past and current issues and includes features that address the research needs of today’s second language teachers, administrators and researchers, worldwide. Subscribers to CMLR Online enjoy:
• Enhanced features not available in the print version
• Early access to the latest issues
• CMLR anytime, anywhere, on any device!
• Everything you need at your fingertips
Canadian Modern Language Review is also available at Project MUSE - http://bit.ly/cmlr_pm
For more information about CMLR/ RCLV (in print or online) or for submissions information, please contact
University of Toronto Press — Journals Division
5201 Dufferin St., Toronto, ON,
Canada M3H 5T8
tel: (416) 667-7810 fax: (416) 667-7881
Fax Toll Free in North America 1-800-221-9985
email: [log in to unmask]
Posted by T Hawkins, UTP Journals
**************************************************************************
LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for
Language Learning Technologies (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for
Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/).
Join IALLT at http://iallt.org<http://iallt.org/>.
Subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives at
http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A0=LLTI
Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)
**************************************************************************