Today at the ALAK conference Rod Ellis spoke on Controversies in Grammar Teaching: An SLA Perspective. Ellis is not only a brilliant researcher/writer he is also an excellent presenter. If you ever get the chance to see him present, I highly recommend that you go and see him. I didn’t take notes during his presentation, but the have a two page summary of his presentation.
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Via Kerim and Language Hat an interesting story about the creolization and emergence of a new for of sign language. I have no commentary other than to say it is very fascinating and that you should visit Language Hat for links.

The final essay for this semester is officially completed. I just posted it a couple of minutes ago. I am now free for a couple of weeks and am looking forward to some leisure time, mostly reading books.

Transcription complete, well at least the rough draft is done. I still need to go through it and double check to see that I didn’t miss any words or interjections and then add symbols for overlapping speech but the difficult work of actually typing out what was said is done. The total word count is 3210 and 305 lines over 7 single spaced pages.

The transcription was much easier than I thought, but it was just as tedious and boring as expected. Next on the agenda is reviewing what I read and anaylysing the data.

Today I interviewed the student I chose for my SLA essay. The interview went realy well and I think there is a lot of data that I will be able to use. Before the interview I was a little worried about not having enough questions or that my questions were not constructed properly. This was not the case. I only needed ten to fifteen minutes but I ended up with 26 minutes of very good answers. Additionally the digital voice recorder I bought worked perfectly and the recording quality is very good and easy to transcribe.

I have started the transcription already. I’m just doing a very quick one initially and then will fix it up to show overlapping speach and other irregularities. Having not ever done this before, I am asking for advice from readers. What have you found to be the best way to transcribe recordings? Any and all ideas are appreciated.

Recently I borrowed Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know by Rebecca Oxford from the university library. This is a book that I have wanted to buy for some time but at us$47 it’s a little out of my price range.

This book changed thinking about language learning strategies and everything I have read always refers to it. On top of being an excellent resource there is a copy of the Strategies Inventory for Language Learners which I have wanted to take for some time. Taking the SILL was very enlightening for myself both as a language learner and as a teacher.

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I need to buy a recording device of some kind in order to record a 15+ minute interview a learner and transcribe the interview for my second essay in SLA.  I do not have a cassette recorder nor does my school or anyone I personally knw. This means I need to invest in something. I am not interested in purchasing anything so archaic as a tape recorder or even a mini-cassette recorder.

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The second assignment for my SLA course is interesting, difficult, and at the same time easier than the first one. It is easier because the assignment is very explicit: you can read all four pages (doc) if you wish. Below is an excerpt.

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The final installment has finally arrived. Here are the links to parts I, II, III, and IV. In the near future there will be a link on one of the sidebars to the entire discussion here and also other discussions that I think are important or interesting.

What is the likelyhood that early L2/FL instruction is harmful to L1 development?

Spada started this part by stating that there is a common belief that one should wait to establish L1 before introducing a second language. But the key point is when is this achieved? How do you determine that the first language is established? at 4 years, 10 years, puberty? She went on to state that there is no agreement on when a language is established. Personally I find the idea of delaying the introduction of a second language foolish. By this I mean bi-lingual parents choosing to speak only one langauge so as to not “confuse” their child. I remember reading about 10 years back (sorry no source) that it is true that children may seem confused at first but by the time they reach 4-5 years old the languages will have sorted themselves out.

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Now it is time to talk about the second hour or Nina Spada’s presentation: The first hour is in three parts - I, II, and III. Spada chose three questions to talk about, though my notes only show two questions: When will L2/FL learning be most effective? and What is the likelyhood that early L2/FL instruction will be harmful to L1 development? I suspect that she ran out of time to get to the third question.

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Part III is here and will discuss the one additional myth and misconception of CLT that Nina Spada talked about in her presentation in Seoul: CLT means avoidance of L1. You can read part I, II, IV and V

CLT means avoidance of L1

I am not so sure that I support this idea in a EFL situation. Spada proposes that a principled use of L1 in the classroom is necessary as it aides proficiency. What she suggests is using L1 but as the class progresses to scaffold the use of L1 away related to vygotsky. Spada does go on to say that teachers should maximise L2 in an EFL environment but the opposite is true in the converse situation.

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In this installment I continue reviewing Nina Spada’s presentation about “Myths and Misconceptions with CLT” The remaining four myths are

1. CLT means Listening & Speaking only
2. CLT means Learner Centred Learning
3. CLT means Listening and Speaking ony
4. CLT means Avoidance of L1

In part III I will review numbers 3 & 4.
In part IV I will review Age and SLA or FLA.

CLT Means Listening & Speaking
In this section I didn’t take many notes as I ran out of paper and had to borrow from someone, so I am writing this primarily from memory. This is a very common belief but not true at all. How can any theory of language acquisition or teaching method be considered complete if it does not include all four skills as well as other factors such as pragmatics, socio-affective factors among many. Two of the areas that Spada chose to discuss were the use of extensive reading and vocabulary learning.

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Here are the links to parts II, III, IV and V

As readers may recall I wrote that Nina Spada would be giving a presentation today at Ewha Womens University. There were no free books at this oxford day, but the presentation was excellent. Professor Spada spoke at length on Myths and misconceptions of CLT as well as Age and second foreign language learning. I went to the presentation a little unprepared, no pen and no paper for notes. Fortunately several of my ex-colleagues were present and I was able to borrow a pen and several sheets of paper in order to take notes.

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I saw several articles in the past linked from other sites that discussed the pedagogical value of using blogs for ESL/EFL teaching.  If some readers could provide links I would be very grateful.

I just had a minor epiphany on the essay I am writing and need to provide backup for my thoughts on using blogs, webquests 1 and 2, & moodles in the language classroom.

Oxford University Press is having a teacher development day in Korea in four different cities: Choonbuk 충� April 14 at the Korea National University of Education, Busan 부산 April 16 at Dong A University (Bumin campus), Daegu 대구 April 17 at Kyungpook National University, and Seoul 서울 April 18 at Ewha Womens University.

Nina Spada will be talking about:

• Myths and Misconeptions of Communicative Language Teaching
• Age and Second/Foreign Language learning: Not a Simple matter
• Integrated or Isolated Form-Focused Instruction: Do we have to Choose?
• Corrective Feedback: It’s use and effectiveness

You can get more details here as well as pre-register to recieve a 30% discount off of books on sale. The presentation should be free (it was last time) and usually they give away books related to the presentation, though I’m not sure this time as the books I’ve gotten in the past were textbooks to use for classes and not books on theory. It doesn’t matter to me, I have this book already and have found it very useful as well as easy to read.

While reading Ellis Ch5 I came across a short but immediately striking point.

Lower-proficiency learners often translated expressions from their L1. For example, in thanking someone for a loan they might say ‘May God increase your bounty’. More advanced leanres avoided this kind of pragmalinguistic error, but instead displayed considerabel hesitation and awkwardness.

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In the middle of reading Rod Ellis Ch 4There is a discussion of learner variability and sociolinguistic models of this including The Labovian paradigm, the dynamic paradigm, and Giles Speech Accomodation Theory (pg 121-130). The first two paradigms are interesting but are very dry and have little appeal to me. There is an interesting chart comparing the the three theories here.

Speech Accomodation Theory on the other hand feels intuitively correct to me as well as being much easier to grasp initially. The three types of accomodation are: convergence, divergence, and extravergence.

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I just read an interesting piece on CBC news about baby signing. There is also a video in real one format, which I haven’t watched yet as my daughter is sleeping and her room is next to the computer room.

Does this picture look like the baby is communicating or just flapping its arms? It seems unlikely at first glance, but after reading it seems like these babies are communicating.

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Consider some of the facts about developmental sequences which are outlined in the chapter. What would you think might be the implications of such sequences for pedagogic practice?

This question is one of the post reading activities after reading Rod Ellis ch 3

It is quite clear to me that developmental sequences will help instructors better plan their classes as well as improving textbooks for improved sequencing of grammar. Teachers will have a better understanding of why learners are making the errors they are making. Additionally it will ease the frustration felt when students have been repeatedly taught the same language feature but continue to make the same errors over and over and over. Instead of looking for new methods to implant the knowledge into the students instructors will instead teach features that follow each other sequentially.

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For the first essay I have 6 choices but I will probably do this one:

The past decade has given rise to a re-conceptualisation of ‘motivation’ in SLA. A number of models and frameworks have been proposed, some of which are discussed in Dornyei (1998), - see the reading package for this this Unit. Select the motivation framework or model which you believe is the most useful starting point for language teachers aiming to maximise motivation in thier learners, and justify your choice. Are there any modifications or additions that could be made to this framework? Use your chosen framework to suggest and diescuss strategies for improving/maximising motivation in a particular group of language learners with whom you are familiar. Refer to the relevant research literature throughout your paper.

Due April 21st - 3500 words +/- 10%.
In my classes I spend a lot of time working on motivation both in class and motivating students to see opportunities outside of the class, so this is a natural choice for me and of intrinsic interest.

Still waiting for the materials for my other class.