New Perspectives on Material Mediation in Language Learner Pedagogy


Book Description

This volume distinguishes itself from existing research on materials design, development, and evaluation, and focuses on material mediation in actual processes of teaching and learning, a subject that has been under-researched in the field of applied linguistics and second language education. This edited volume includes diverse perspectives on the roles that materials play in language learner pedagogy. Moving beyond the field of English language teaching, readers will find novel contributions offering a diversity of language teaching contexts, learner populations, and topics in the theory and/or practice of second and foreign language teaching. Chapters explore the ways in which affordances and constraints of classroom materials impact teachers and learners, while at the same time they bring their own (evolving) resources, identities, beliefs, and expertise to modify and adapt the materials to better suit their local language teaching and learning environments. As such, this text is ideal for use as supplemental reading in a wide variety of applied linguistics, second/foreign language education, TESOL, and instructional course design courses.




Performative Language Learning with Refugees and Migrants


Book Description

This book investigates the use of performative language pedagogy in working with refugees and migrants, exploring performative language teaching as the application of drama, music, dance and storytelling to second language acquisition. Documenting a community-based project – funded by the Irish Research Council and conducted with three groups of refugees and migrants in Ireland and Italy – the book explores the methodological, pedagogical and ethical elements of performative language learning in the context of migration. Written by a team of arts-based researchers and practitioners, chapters discuss findings from the project that relate to factors such as embodied research methods, a motivation to belong and the ethical imagination, while exhibiting how performative language pedagogy can be effective in supporting children and adults in a range of challenging contexts. Offering a poetic and pictorial representation of the Sorgente Project, this book will be of interest to postgraduate students, researchers and academics in the fields of English language arts and literacy education, drama in education, the sociology of education and second language acquisition more broadly. Those working in refugee and migrant studies, and teacher education studies will also find the volume of use.




Developing Intercultural Language Materials


Book Description

Developing Intercultural Language Materials puts intercultural competence at the forefront of the learning agenda. It unpicks its underlying theory and provides a framework and practical methodologies for practitioners, providing a toolkit for them to create their own learning materials and design their own classroom activities to nurture intercultural competence. This innovative book showcases some of the new ways language teachers in practice successfully integrate this essential skill into their curricula. Directions for further research, pulling out recurring threads in this book, such as critical pedagogy and cultural sensibility, offer opportunities for professional development. This research‐grounded and action‐oriented text is essential reading for language and cultural studies practitioners who want to help their students thrive in today’s multicultural world.




Mediation as Negotiation of Meanings, Plurilingualism and Language Education


Book Description

Bringing together the voices of a diverse group of scholars and language professionals, this edited collection, concerned with the cultivation of plurilingualism in multilingual educational settings, builds on the theory and practice of linguistic and cultural mediation both as curricular content and social practice. The chapters view mediation as an important aspect of communication which involves dynamic, purposeful interactivity, implicating social agents in the negotiation and construction of socially situated meanings across different languages and within the same language. Theoretically informed chapters present views on mediation as well as contributors’ research and project outcomes in educational interventions. They also describe how mediation has been incorporated in educational practices and how it materialises in social contexts. Ultimately, this book makes the case for why mediation constitutes a key competence to be developed for active global and local citizenry in today’s societies where there is an increased rate of knowledge acquisition and exchange. Presenting research from classrooms and other multilingual environments, this book offers concrete suggestions for the development of language users/learners’ ability to mediate within and across languages. It will appeal to scholars, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of language and education, education policy and politics, bilingualism and plurilingualism more generally. Curriculum designers may also find the volume of use.




Teacher Development for Content-Based Language Education


Book Description

This book fills a large gap in our understanding of how to prepare teachers for the challenging but increasingly popular task of integrating content and language instruction. It brings together findings on content-based teacher education from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America in order to inform researchers and teacher educators and enable them to play a critical role in the continued success of such programs. It offers a solid grounding in theories and applications of content-based approaches with empirical studies investigating teacher identity, materials design, use of cognitive discourse functions and best practices for teacher education. Responding to the growing popularity of content-based programs and the shortage of qualified teachers for these contexts, this book promotes teacher-researcher collaboration and provides support for trainee teachers, in-service teachers and course leaders.







New Perspectives on Corpus Translation Studies


Book Description

The book features recent attempts to construct corpora for specific purposes – e.g. multifactorial Dutch (parallel), Geasy Easy Language Corpus (intralingual), HK LegCo interpreting corpus – and showcases sophisticated and innovative corpus analysis methods. It proposes new approaches to address classical themes – i.e. translation pedagogy, translation norms and equivalence, principles of translation – and brings interdisciplinary perspectives – e.g. contrastive linguistics, cognition and metaphor studies – to cast new light. It is a timely reference for the researchers as well as postgraduate students who are interested in the applications of corpus technology to solving translation and interpreting problems.




Pedagogies for Autonomy in Language Teacher Education


Book Description

This book aims to challenge established teaching cultures to promote teacher autonomy and autonomy-oriented pedagogies in language teacher education. Offering a set of inspiring case studies that illustrate language teacher education for autonomy as a space of multiple possibilities, the book fuses theory and practice and gives a holistic view of the changing landscape of language teacher education, accounting for the transformative power of educational practices that help teachers think and act in informed, context-specific, and learner-centred ways. It also demonstrates the importance of autonomy in language teacher education contexts, specifically to foster teachers’ professional learning, identity, and agency, as well as in assessing and reshaping teacher education programmes. This book will be particularly useful to researchers, scholars, and postgraduate students in the fields of teaching and teacher education, modern foreign languages, and teaching and learning language research more broadly. Curriculum designers and language teacher education programme directors may also find the volume of use.




Building the Self-Efficacy Beliefs of English Language Learners and Teachers


Book Description

Building the Self-Efficacy Beliefs of English Language Learners and Teachers explores, juxtaposes and bridges two fields of research that have developed separately: the self-efficacy beliefs of English language learners and the self-efficacy beliefs of English language teachers. The aim is to expand understanding in each field and highlight how the two areas can mutually inform each other. This should encourage fresh perspectives, providing direction for researchers, and improving learning, teaching, and teacher education. Empirical research suggests that English language learners and teachers who believe they can fulfil a task are more likely to succeed than those who believe they cannot. Based on a deep understanding of how self-efficacy beliefs are formed and developed, this book illustrates how such beliefs can be supported and researched amongst English language learners and teachers. Bringing together the work of educators and researchers working in contexts including Algeria, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Iran, Israel, Japan, Türkiye, the UK, the USA, and Vietnam, this volume includes meta-analyses largely focusing on quantitative data and empirical studies employing qualitative approaches and mixed methods. Studies included examine factors impacting the development of language teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and investigate domain-specific dimensions of the self-efficacy beliefs of English language learners and teachers. This rigorous and original volume will appeal to an international readership of scholars, teachers, teacher educators, and researchers with interests in language education, teacher education, TESOL, linguistics, and educational psychology.




The Routledge Handbook of Materials Development for Language Teaching


Book Description

The Routledge Handbook of Materials Development for Language Teaching is the definitive resource for all working in this area of language and English language teaching. With 34 chapters authored by leading figures from around the world, the Handbook provides an historical overview of the development of language teaching materials, critical discussion of core issues, and an assessment of future directions. The contributions represent a range of different international contexts, providing insightful, state-of-the-art coverage of the field. Structured in nine sections, the Handbook covers: changes and developments in language teaching materials controversial issues in materials development research and materials development materials for language learning and skills development materials evaluation and adaptation materials for specific contexts materials development and technology developing materials for publication professional development and materials writing Demonstrating throughout the dynamic relationship between theory and practice, this accessible Handbook is essential reading for researchers, scholars, and students on MA programmes in ELT, TESOL, and applied linguistics.