Current Issues

in Second/Foreign
Language Teaching
and Teacher
Development
Current Issues
in Second/Foreign
Language Teaching
and Teacher
Development:

Research and Practice

Edited by

Christina Gitsaki and Thomaï Alexiou

Current Issues in Second/Foreign Language Teaching and Teacher
Development: Research and Practice

Edited by Christina Gitsaki and Thomaï Alexiou

This book first published 2015

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2015 by Christina Gitsaki, Thomaï Alexiou and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-8259-3

ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-8259-0
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables ............................................................................................ viii

List of Figures.............................................................................................. x

List of Appendices ..................................................................................... xii

List of Abbreviations ................................................................................ xiii

Preface ..................................................................................................... xvii

Christina Gitsaki and Thomaï Alexiou

Issues in Teacher Education and Professional Development

Chapter One ................................................................................................. 2

The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project: Strengthening Teacher Education
in the Amazon Region
Nilton Varela Hitotuzi, Luiz Percival Leme Britto,
and Maria Luiza Fernandes da Silva Pimentel

Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 20

A Contextualized Report on the Impact of Pre-Service Training
on Language Teachers in Taiwan
Diane Johnson

Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 35

Collaborative and Reflective Supervision for Professional Development
and ELT Innovation in a Japanese Upper Secondary School Context
Hideo Kojima

Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 53

A Study of Teacher Reflection in a Community of Practice
for Professional Development
Ping Wang, Christina Gitsaki, and Karen Moni
vi Table of Contents

Issues in Teacher Identity and Teacher Cognition

Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 72

Eliciting Language Teachers’ Narratives of Practice for Professional
Growth
Robyn Moloney and Lesley Harbon

Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 85

Professional Identity and English Language Teaching in a Discipline-
Specific Context
Mimi Nahariah Azwani Mohamed, Karen Moni, and Carmen Mills

Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 104

Non-native English Teachers’ Cognitions about Language Pedagogy
Shigeru Sasajima

Issues in Second Language Curriculum and Materials Development

Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 120

Exploring Discrepancies between Beliefs and Practices in ESL Curriculum
and Syllabus Design
Anthea Fester and Diane Johnson

Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 140

Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning:
Moving from Theory to Potential Practice
Elaine Ferreira do Vale Borges

Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 164

On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English in Rural
Schools in South Africa
Muchativugwa Liberty Hove

Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 190

Bridging the Gap between General English and English for Specific
Purposes at a Japanese Medical University
Minako Nakayasu
 Current Issues in Second/Foreign Language Teaching vii
and Teacher Development

Issues in the Second Language Classroom

Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 212

CLIL Classroom Interaction Challenges: Translanguaging and Genre
as Pedagogic Tools?
Ylva Sandberg

Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 228

Students’ Perception of (In)Civility toward Groupmates
Harumi Kimura

Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 246

Developing Foreign Language Identities through Autonomy-Oriented
Pedagogy
Tero Korhonen

Issues in Second Language Acquisition

Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 264

The Impact of Classroom Practices on Young Learners’ Acquisition
of Subject-Verb Agreement in Vietnam: A Pilot Study
Vi Thanh Son

Chapter Sixteen ....................................................................................... 285

Vocabulary Uptake from Peppa Pig: A Case Study of Preschool EFL
Learners in Greece
Thomaï Alexiou

Chapter Seventeen ................................................................................... 302

Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition
through Immersion in School
James Milton and Shadan Roghani

Chapter Eighteen ..................................................................................... 324

The Challenges in Achieving Globalization through English Language
Learning in Japan: A Focus on Elementary Schools
Rie Adachi

Contributors ............................................................................................. 345

Index ........................................................................................................ 352

 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1-1: TEFL-Pibidians’ activities in partner schools.

Table 1-2: TEFL-Pibidians’ outputs in 24 months.
Table 3-1: List of CRS sessions.
Table 3-2: CLILTA Instruction for Unit 1 Going into Space.
Table 4-1: Key codes, and examples of teacher reflection-on-action
in the CoP.
Table 4-2: Key codes and examples of teacher reflection-in-
anticipation in the CoP.
Table 7-1: Japanese NNS English teachers’ cognitions on teaching
and teacher education.
Table 7-2: Characteristics of LTC on good foreign language
teaching.
Table 7-3: The interview and observation data: Complex classroom
dynamics.
Table 8-1: I think it is very important to have a syllabus document
for each course that I teach.
Table 8-2: What participants would do if not provided with a
syllabus document for a course.
Table 8-3: Participants’ awareness of the content of parallel skills
courses.
Table 8-4: Percentage of participants who would include particular
genres at particular levels or who did not respond.
Table 10-1: Morphological and syntactic deviations at the onset of
the English language course.
Table 10-2: Distribution of resources in three impoverished rural
schools in selected provinces.
Table 10-3: Language syllabus unit developed to teach aspects of
speeches.
Table 10-4: Students’ questions that helped shape and refine the unit.
Table 10-5: A student’s response to the writing prompt.
Table 11-1: Activities students found beneficial.
Table 11-2: Skills students want to develop further in the future.
Table 11-3: List of articles and student preferences.
Table 11-4: Students’ feedback in the open-ended items.
Table 11-5: Students’ resolutions and expectations.
 Current Issues in Second/Foreign Language Teaching ix
and Teacher Development

Table 13-1: Summary of items, means, standard deviations, and

factor loadings for One-Factor Solution for the Pair-
/Group-work Incivility Scale.
Table 14-1: Types and amounts of data collected.
Table 15-1: English S-V agreement (Adapted from Pienemann,
1998, p. 124).
Table 15-2: Participant organization (total percentages of time spent
at the lesson).
Table 15-3: Content analysis using COLT.
Table 15-4: Learners’ stage of acquisition based on the stages of
ESL acquisition by Pienemann (1998).
Table 16-1: Vocabulary types and tokens in the Peppa Pig episodes.
Table 16-2: Mean scores and standard deviations for all episodes.
Table 17-1: X-Lex vocabulary scores divided by frequency band
among the 4 participants.
Table 17-2: X-Lex scores from the three test versions taken by
Participant A.
Table 17-3: X-Lex scores in immersion learners, a bilingual and a
monolingual child.
Table 18-1: The number of English classes in Grades 5 and 6.
Table 18-2: Cronbach alpha for each attitudinal dimension at the
beginning and at the end of the school year.
Table 18-3: Summary of fit statistics for the two models of
‘communicative attitudes with outsiders’.
Table 18-4: Relationships between ‘communicative attitudes with
outsiders’ and other attitudinal subscales using path
analysis for the two models.
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1-1: The Brazilian Amazon region.

Figure 1-2: Western Pará (WP).
Figure 1-3: The Municipality of Santarém in Western Pará.
Figure 1-4: PLIP’s team.
Figure 1-5: TEFL-Pibidians’ participation in academic events.
Figure 1-6: Comparison between hours of instruction received by
student teachers at UFOPA.
Figure 6-1: The process of translating the university objectives into
course learning outcomes.
Figure 7-1: A complex network model regarding the nature of NNS
English teachers’ cognitions (Source: Sasajima, 2012, p.
260).
Figure 8-1: Does the institution where you work have an overall
curriculum for the English courses it offers?
Figure 8-2: If you used a textbook from a particular series with a
group of first year students, would you select the next
highest level textbook from the same series for the same
students when they are in their second year?
Figure 8-3: Percentage of respondents who would include vocabulary
at different levels.
Figure 8-4: Percentage of respondents who would include language
structures at different levels.
Figure 8-5: Percentage of respondents who would include tasks at
different levels.
Figure 9-1: The Alive textbook series.
Figure 9-2: Grammar as a living component of language (Source:
Menezes et al., 2012b, p. 94).
Figure 9-3: Mistake as a characteristic of oral interaction (Source:
Menezes et al., 2012a, p. 130).
Figure 9-4: Using reading ESP technique and grammar-based
practice (Source: Menezes et al., 2012a, p. 94).
Figure 9-5: Using listening ESP technique and genre-based
instruction (Source: Menezes et al., 2012a, p. 84).
Figure 9-6: Using grammar-based practice and task-based instruction
(Source: Menezes et al., 2013, p. 151).
 Current Issues in Second/Foreign Language Teaching xi
and Teacher Development

Figure 9-7: Using genre-based instruction (Source: Menezes et al.,

2013, p. 111).
Figure 9-8: Giving dynamicity to the classroom (Source: Menezes et
al., 2012b, p. 23).
Figure 9-9: Promoting students’ autonomy (Source: Menezes et al.,
2012b, p. 37).
Figure 9-10: Providing language social practices (Source: (Menezes
et al., 2012a, p. 122).
Figure 9-11: Bringing out students’ multiple identities (Source:
Menezes et al., 2012a, p. 145).
Figure 10-1: Conceptualising effective syllabus development for
EFAL (Source: Hove, 2011, p. 210).
Figure 11-1: Curriculum coordination.
Figure 11-2: Mindmap.
Figure 11-3: Handout (Steve Jobs).
Figure 11-4: Handout (Kampo).
Figure 11-5: Students’ overall impression of the course.
Figure 15-1: Picture of people’s jobs (Source: Let’s go by Nakata et
al., 2000).
Figure 17-1: Frequency profile in English native and bilingual
speakers (Source: Milton & Treffers-Daller, 2013, p.
162).
Figure 17-2: Example of the X-Lex test (Source: English version
from Milton, 2009, p. 254).
Figure 17-3: X-Lex vocabulary scores divided by frequency band
among the four participants in graph format.
Figure 17-4: Mean X-Lex scores for Participant A between February
and July.
Figure 18-1: Growth in foreign residents and foreign students in
Japan. Based on the data from the Ministry of Justice
(2014) and Japan Student Services Organization (2014).
Figure 18-2: Structural equation modeling of Japanese young
learners' communicative attitudes at the start and the end
of the school year.
 LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 10-A: Reading text for comprehension-based language

assessment tasks.
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

3SG-s Third Person Singular -s

4Cs Content, Cognition, Communication, and
Culture/Community
A Activity
ALT Assistant Language Teacher
Aux Auxiliary
bio Biology
CALTL Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and
Learning
CAPES Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education
Personnel
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível
Superior
CAPS Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements
CAS Complex Adaptive System
CDS Complex Dynamic Systems
CELEPI Centre for Applied Linguistics Studies and EFL Teacher
Education
Centro de Estudos em Linguística Aplicada e Educação
de Professores de Inglês como Língua Estrangeira
cf. confer
civ Civics
CL Collaborative Learning
CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning
CLILTA CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)-Type
Approach
CLT Communicative Language Teaching
CNPq Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e
Tecnológico
COLT Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching
CoP Community of Practice
CRS Collaborative and Reflective Supervision
CT Complexity Theory
E Episode
EAL English as an Additional Language
xiv List of Abbreviations

EAP English for Academic Purposes

EFAL English as a First Additional Language
EFL English as a Foreign Language
EGP English for General Purposes
EL English Language
ELF English as a Lingua Franca
ELT English Language Teaching
EMP English for Medical Purposes
ESL English as a Second Language
ESP English for Specific Purposes
 Eco-‡‹‘–‹ ›ŽŽƒ„—•
FAPEMIG Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas
Gerais
FL Foreign Language
GE General English
GUSSA General Upper Secondary School for Adults
HOTS Higher-Order Thinking Skills
HRT Homeroom Teacher
ICC Intercultural Communicative Competence
IDEB Basic Education Development Index
Índice de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica
JTE Japanese Teacher of English
L1 First Language
L2 Second Language
LGY2011 “Läroplan, examensmål och gymnasiegemensamma
ämnen för gymnasieskola 2011” /Curriculum for the
Swedish Upper Secondary School
LOTS Lower-Order Thinking Skills
LTC Language Teacher Cognition
LTCI Language Teacher Cognition Inventory
MA Master of Arts
ma Mathematics
MANOVA Multivariate Analysis Of Variance
Max Maximum
MEC Ministry of Education (Brazil)
MEXT Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology (Japan)
Min Minimum
NCS National Curriculum Statements
Neg Negation
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
 Current Issues in Second/Foreign Language Teaching xv
and Teacher Development

NNS Non-Native Speaker

NP Noun Phrase
NPCSC National People’s Congress Standing Committee
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development
PCK Pedagogical Content Knowledge
PD Professional Development
PDE Education Development Plan
Plano de Desenvolvimento da Educação
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
PIBID Institutional Grant Programme for Teaching Initiation
Programa Institucional de Bolsa de Iniciação à
Docência
PIBID/Letras- The PIBID Project involving student teachers of the
Inglês Project TEFL undergraduate course of the Federal University of
Western Pará
PISA Programme for International Student Assessment
PLIP PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project
PLO Programme Learning Outcome
PMI Plus-Minus-Interesting
PNLD Textbook National Program (Brazil)
PQP Praise-Question-Polish
PSET Primary School English Teacher
PT Processability Theory
RQM Retrodictive Qualitative Modelling
Sch School
SEM Structural Equation Modelling
SGHS Super Global High School
SL Second Language
SLA Second Language Acquisition
SVO Subject Verb Object
TA Teaching Assistants
TALIS Teaching and Learning International Survey
TC Teacher Cognition
TEE TEST Teaching English in English Test
TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language
TEFL- The undergraduate TEFL student teachers that are
Pibidians engaged in the PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project
TESL Teaching English as a Second Language
TEYL Teaching English to Young Learners
TIFF The Toronto International Film Festival
xvi List of Abbreviations

TL Target Language
Topi Topicalisation
UFOPA Federal University of Western Pará
Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará
UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organisation
UO University Objective
VLT Vocabulary Levels Test
WP Western Pará
WTC Willingness to Communicate
Y/N Yes/No
 PREFACE

It is our distinct pleasure to present this volume on Current Issues in

Second/Foreign Language Teaching and Teacher Education: Research
and Practice. The volume is a collection of selected papers, the majority
of which were presented at the 17th World Congress of the International
Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), which was held on August 10-
15, 2014 in Brisbane, Australia.
The volume is divided into five sections. The first section comprises
four chapters addressing Issues in Teacher Education and Professional
Development. Chapter One by Nilton Varela Hitotuzi, Luiz Percival Leme
Britto and Maria Luiza Fernandes da Silva Pimentel describes the
achievements and challenges of a collaborative project between pre-
service English teachers, school teachers and coordinators in an effort to
improve the quality of teacher education in the Amazon region in the north
of Brazil. In Chapter Two, Diane Johnson brings to light the challenges
and shortcomings of a teacher training program in Taiwan. In Chapter
Three, Hideo Kojima discusses the implementation of collaborative
reflective supervision in order to assist a secondary school teacher to
become a reflective practitioner in a Content and Language Integrated
Learning (CLIL) context in Japan. Critical reflection is also the subject of
Chapter Four where Ping Wang, Christina Gitsaki and Karen Moni
provide evidence from an in-service professional development program in
China based on a Community of Practice (CoP) model.
The next section in the volume deals with Issues in Teacher Identity
and Cognition. In Chapter Five, Robyn Moloney and Lesley Harbon
discuss the use of narratives with foreign language teachers in Australia as
a tool for exploring language teacher knowledge, practice and identity. In
Chapter Six, Mimi Nahariah Aswani Mohamed, Karen Moni and Carmen
Mills highlight the professional identity construction process of a
Malaysian university teacher of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). In
the last chapter of this section, Chapter Seven, Shigeru Sasajima explores
non-native English teachers’ cognitions and thoughts about their
pedagogy.
The third section in the volume, Issues in Second Language Curriculum
and Materials Development, consists of four papers. In Chapter Eight,
Anthea Fester and Diane Johnson highlight the challenges and shortcomings
xviii Preface

of English as a second language (ESL) curricula in five different countries.

In Chapter Nine, Elaine Ferreira do Vale Borges provides an example of
how a series of teaching materials used in primary and secondary schools
in Brazil can support the implementation of the complexity approach to
language teaching and learning. In Chapter Ten, Muchativugwa Liberty
Hove reports on a cooperative syllabus design project for the teaching of
English in under-resourced secondary schools in South Africa. Chapter
Eleven by Minako Nakayasu presents the development of course materials
for teaching English to Medical students in Japan.
The next section presents Issues in the Second Language Classroom
from teachers’ and students’ perspectives. In Chapter Twelve, Ylva
Sandberg focuses on teachers’ interaction challenges in the CLIL
classrooms in Sweden. In Chapter Thirteen, Harumi Kimura explores how
Japanese learners of English perceive and deal with their peers’ uncivil
behaviors and attitudes when working in pairs or groups in the second
language classroom. In Chapter Fourteen, Tero Korhonen examines how
Finnish adult second language learners construct their foreign language
identity in an autonomy-oriented foreign language context.
The final section of this volume presents Issues in Second Language
Acquisition. In Chapter Fifteen, Vi Thanh Son examines young Vietnamese
learners’ acquisition of English subject-verb agreement as a result of
classroom language instruction. In Chapter Sixteen, Thomaï Alexiou
presents evidence of the significant contribution of comic series in
preschool English learners’ receptive vocabulary development in Greece.
Vocabulary acquisition is also the subject of investigation in Chapter
Seventeen, where James Milton and Shadan Roghani measured the
vocabulary growth in a young Persian learner of English after one year in
an immersion program in Britain. The final chapter, Chapter Eighteen by
Rie Adachi is an investigation of the development of Japanese elementary
learners’ communicative attitudes and intercultural skills as a result of
English language instruction.
All the papers included in this volume underwent a rigorous selection
process through a double-blind peer review process that involved a
number of notable academics. Through this process the 18 papers
presented here were selected. These papers underwent further review and
editing before being published in this book. Below is the list of academics
(in alphabetical order) who were involved in the double blind review
process:

Aggeliki Deligianni Hellenic Open University, Greece
Helene Demirci Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE
 Current Issues in Second/Foreign Language Teaching xix
and Teacher Development

Alexia Giannakopoulou Hellenic Open University, Greece

Melanie Gobert Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE
Elena Griva University of Western Macedonia, Greece
Marina Mattheoudakis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
James Milton Swansea University, Wales, UK
Josephine O’Brien Zayed University, UAE
Angeliki Psaltou-Joycey Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Nicos Sifakis Hellenic Open University, Greece
Areti Sougari Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Evangelia Soulioti University of Edinburgh, UK
Kosmas Vlachos Hellenic Open University, Greece
Keti Zouganeli National & Kapodistrian University of Athens,
Greece

The volume covers research projects, issues and contexts from around
the world and it is hoped that it will be of use to both new and seasoned
researchers in the field of Applied Linguistics. Teacher educators,
language teachers and language policy makers will find this volume
equally useful as the papers address current issues in language education.

Christina Gitsaki and Thomaï Alexiou


 ISSUES IN TEACHER EDUCATION
AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
 CHAPTER ONE

THE PIBID/LETRAS-INGLÊS PROJECT:

STRENGTHENING TEACHER EDUCATION
IN THE AMAZON REGION

NILTON VARELA HITOTUZI,

LUIZ PERCIVAL LEME BRITTO,
AND MARIA LUIZA FERNANDES
DA SILVA PIMENTEL

Abstract
Teacher education in Brazil is a complex issue for many reasons, some
of which include the challenges of the school teaching profession in the
country, ranging from low salaries, crowded classrooms and lack of
adequate technology to overload of work and little or no opportunity for
continuing professional development. As a result, many bright-minded
students refuse to embrace the teaching career, and in-service teachers
tend to become demotivated. This has caught the attention of education
authorities who, in recent years, have been implementing a number of
programmes to attract young people to the profession, and strengthen
teacher education throughout the country. One example of such initiatives
is the Institutional Grant Programme for Teaching Initiation (PIBID).
Currently, PIBID can be implemented on demand in universities that offer
teacher education undergraduate courses. At the Federal University of
Western Pará (UFOPA), for instance, the PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project
involved, from 2012-2014, twenty-four undergraduates in a Teaching
English as a Foreign Language course (TEFL-Pibidians), six school
teachers and two coordinators. This paper presents a summary of the
achievements and challenges of this project in an attempt to enhance the
quality of teacher education in the Amazon region. Ultimately, we expect
 The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project 3

that this partnership results in teachers who are better prepared to cope
with the singularities of the state school arena in the north of Brazil.

Introduction
The Brazilian Amazon is a complex region that poses many challenges
for local, national and international leaders both for its importance in the
global sphere and for the inevitability of the effects of any strategic action
on its inhabitants, who reject the idea of being left behind in the
developmental process of the country. On the one hand, there is the
necessity to preserve and to implement sustainable projects so that the
local people can have a dignified way of living. On the other hand,
because these people feel they lag behind in terms of infrastructure,
education, healthcare, communication and other benefits that are second
nature to many citizens of developed countries, there is an urge towards
economic progress even if it means the depletion of natural resources and
green areas. To cope with these issues, the Brazilian government must
invest in education and international cooperation. Knowledge of foreign
languages plays a pivotal role for communication with the world. This
seems to be a major reason why, in recent years, the Brazilian government
has been investing more substantially in the teaching of English as a
foreign language throughout the country. English is the current language
of international expression, despite Ostler’s (2010) prediction of its
inexorable decline from this status.
Despite the Brazilian government efforts, the investments in the area
of additional language teacher education are still insufficient as are those
in teacher education in general throughout the country. According to a
report of a survey carried out in 2013 by a non-government organization
called Todos pela Educação (All for Education), on the situation of
education in Brazil, the scenario is very bleak in the north of the country.
In this region, which is known as the Amazon region (see Figure 1-1),
there are about 81.9% lower secondary-school (Year 6 through to Year 9)
in-service teachers delivering lessons on subjects to which they have
received no qualification whatsoever. For Amazonian lower secondary-
school students, this means four years of schooling with less than 20% of
qualified teachers in their classrooms.
This scenario does not change much when upper secondary school is
considered in the report, which indicates that about 55% of upper
secondary school teachers in the north are not qualified to teach the
subjects they do. This is yet another reminder that Brazil has not been able
to cope with the demands in the area of teacher education in general,
4 Chapterr One

especially inn the Amazoon region, wh hich is considdered one of the most
important reegions in thee world for itsi biodiversitty, water and d mineral
resources. W
When it comess to additionall-language teaacher educatioon, things
untry. For insttance, in Western Pará
are even woorse in this paart of the cou
(Figure 1-2), which is inhabited
i by 1,227,695 peeople (IBGE– –Instituto
Brasileiro dde Geografia e Estatística,, 2010), the Federal Univ versity of
Western Parrá (UFOPA) iss one of the on nly two goverrnment institu
utions that
offer a camppus-based Teaaching of Eng glish as a Foreeign Languagee (TEFL)
undergraduaate course for the entire region.

Figure 1-1: The Brazilian Am

mazon region.

Figure 1-2: W
Western Pará (W
WP).
 The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project 5

To cope with this and many other problems in the area of education in
the country, the Brazilian government created a comprehensive and rather
ambitious project, the Education Development Plan, also known as PDE.
This document states that by 2020 all teachers from government-funded
schools will be offered free continuing education in the subjects they teach
(Brasil, 2011). As previously shown, the report presented by the Non-
Governmental Organisation (NGO) Todos pela Educação makes this
target appear nothing more than wishful thinking. Nevertheless, one has to
admit that, against all odds, the Brazilian government has taken some
initiatives geared towards pre- and in-service teacher education in a
national scale, the Institutional Grant Programme for Teaching Initiation
(PIBID), being one of them.

The Institutional Grant Programme for Teaching

Initiation - PIBID
PIBID was launched by the Brazilian government in 2007 through the
Regulatory Ordinance No. 38 (Brasil, 2007), and was implemented by the
Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel
(CAPES). The attachment to the Ordinance No. 260 (Brasil, 2010, p. 6)
lays out the objectives of this programme (translated by the author):

1. to support undergraduate initial teacher education courses to supply

teachers for basic education (at primary and secondary school levels);
2. to contribute to the enhancement of the teaching profession;
3. to improve the quality of teacher education at undergraduate level by
promoting the integration of higher education with basic education;
4. to provide opportunities for participants of undergraduate initial
teacher education courses to be familiarised with the environment of
government-funded schools, develop their creativity and take part in
methodological, technological and teaching practices that are both
innovative and interdisciplinary, aiming to overcome problems found
in the teaching-learning process in partner schools;
5. to support basic education government-funded schools, involving their
teachers in the education of future teachers, making them protagonists
in the process of initial teacher education; and,
6. to contribute to the articulation between theory and practice, which are
necessary for initial teacher education, increasing the quality of
academic actions in undergraduate initial teacher education courses.

There is no doubt that these objectives project the desire of a process

of preparation of future basic education teachers that is well grounded in
theory and practice, providing undergraduates with plenty of opportunities
6 Chapter One

for reflection first and foremost about whether or not they should pursue a
teaching career. If they do choose to embrace the profession, the reflective
process continues, focusing on how to cope with classroom and other
problems related to their profession. It is expected that awareness of what
is actually happening in the school environment and initial attempts to
deal with student learning difficulties and some other classroom related
problems, informed by theory, will ultimately help them to become better
qualified teachers, thus able to contribute to the provision of high quality
schooling for basic (primary and secondary) education students.
Currently, all federal and state universities as well as some private
higher education institutions can apply for the PIBID programme. Each
candidate institution has to submit a master project that can incorporate
several sub-projects from different undergraduate initial teacher education
courses. Participants of these courses joining PIBID receive a monthly
grant which is equivalent to approximately US$200, which is not much,
but can help keep them focused on their academic tasks for at least eight
hours a week apart from their classroom and other undergraduate duties.

The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project

The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project (Henceforth PLIP) is part of
UFOPA’s PIBID master project, entitled ‘Education for the Integration of
the Amazon’. This project incorporates 10 sub-projects, which comprise
all undergraduate initial teacher education courses offered by the
university. The sub-projects are developed in government-funded basic-
education partner schools in Santarém (see Figure 1-3), a municipality
located in Western Pará, which is part of the state of Pará. In these partner
schools, the teachers involved in the sub-projects act as mentors of the
TEFL-Pibidians (i.e., the TEFL undergraduate students who are engaged
in the PIBID programme) and help them to become familiarised with the
daily routine of the teaching profession.
More specifically, each mentor is responsible for a group of three to
five student teachers. The mentor meets the group on a regular basis to
help them: (a) prepare micro lessons; (b) share his or her own lesson plan
with them; (c) develop teaching materials; (d) discuss matters related to
the group’s participation in extracurricular activities that are part of the
school calendar; or (e) plan their participations in open houses either held
by the school where the mentor works, by UFOPA, or by other
institutions.
 The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project 7

Figure 1-3: The Municipality of Santarém in Western Pará.

PLIP is coordinated by the Centre for Applied Linguistics Studies and

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Teacher Education (CELEPI),
which is linked to the Language Arts Programme of the Institute of
Education Sciences of UFOPA. As a whole, this sub-project aims to
contribute to the continuing education of the mentors involved in it and
the proper qualification of new generations of English teachers.
Ultimately, the objective is to make them partners of UFOPA in its basilar
mission of promoting scientific, economic and social development in
Western Pará and, consequently, key players in the integration of the
Amazon to the axis of the development process of Brazil from a
sustainable perspective. Specifically, PLIP aims (Hitotuzi, 2012), on the
one hand:

1. to create opportunities for undergraduates so as to experience the

school environment from the perspective of the educator in order to
help them become familiar with the complexity of teaching practice;
2. to encourage them to engage in reflective practice through the exercise
of articulating theories that are appropriate in the university with the
reality of the Foreign Language classroom in the partner schools;
3. to provide them with opportunities to gain teaching experience through
the development of activities and teaching strategies under the
guidance of their mentors in the partner schools;
8 Chapter One

4. to enable them to contribute to the development of the students and

consequently to the improvement of the quality of learning of English
in the partner schools;
5. to encourage them to propose solutions to difficulties encountered in
the context of the classroom or in the school environment in general to
galvanise their interest in scientific research; and,
6. to offer them a range of possible lines of investigation leading to their
end-of-course papers.

On the other hand, the project aims to encourage school teachers who act
as mentors of TEFL-Pibidians (Hitotuzi, 2012):

1. to reflect on their practice as educators;

2. to develop innovative language teaching and learning strategies;
3. to develop teaching materials in cooperation with TEFL-Pibidians;
4. to link theory and practice through teaching and the search for
solutions to the difficulties identified in the school environment;
5. to contribute to improving the quality of education of new basic-
education EFL teachers;
6. to stimulate their students to learn English;
7. to collaborate to increase the Basic Education Development Index
(IDEB) in their school (IDEB is used to gauge educational quality by
combining the performance of students in standardized exams at the
end of educational stages (Year 5 of primary school, Year 9 of lower
secondary school and Year 3 of upper secondary school) with
information on the productivity of individual schools. Each school is
provided with a set of targets for improvement by IDEB, but it is the
school, with the help of the state or municipality authorities, which has
to develop its own strategic improvement plan–a plan to optimize the
quality of learning in the school. The federal government of Brazil,
through the Ministry of Education, gives more autonomy to those
schools which are rated as high performers, and grants more aid to the
ones which are considered low performers. The scale levels of IDEB
are aligned with those of PISA (Programme for International Student
Assessment), which means to say that the statistics are restricted to
student performance in reading, mathematics and science
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
2010); and,
8. to actively participate in the affirmation of government-funded schools
as cultural arenas. In these educative environments, through a
dialectical process, the students are able to acquire power and
transform themselves, or acquiesce to the legitimacy of market
interests. Alternatively, they can choose to adhere to the synthesis of
these phenomena and become participants in the production and
circulation of knowledge.
 The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project 9

In addition, students, school teachers and faculty involved in this sub-

project are encouraged (Hitotuzi, 2012):

1. to discuss issues related to the process of foreign language teaching

and learning, such as teaching conditions, technological resources and
pedagogic materials;
2. to describe the situation of English teaching and learning in the partner
schools;
3. to diagnose possible causes of difficulties in learning the target
language presented by basic education students; and,
4. to produce reports on experiences and share PLIP results through talks,
posters and papers at academic events either held by UFOPA or by
other higher education institutions.

It is believed that the achievement of these goals is not only feasible, but
also necessary so that the quality of English teaching and learning in
government-funded schools is improved in the region.

Impact Analysis of the PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project

The PLIP metrics presented here covers data collected during a period
of 24 months, since the implementation of the sub-project in August 2012.
The data are divided into six macro-categories, namely, 1) PLIP’s team; 2)
Students reached by the project in partner schools; 3) TEFL-Pibidians’
activities in partner schools; 4) TEFL-Pibidians’ outputs; 5) TEFL-
Pibidians’ participation in academic events; and 6) Impact on TEFL
undergraduates.

PLIP’s Team and Students Reached by the Project

in Partner Schools
The organisation of PLIP is conducive to responsibility sharing among
the participants. The team constitute a network that works in tandem,
including two coordinators, six mentors, 1,165 students from seven
partner schools, and 24 TEFL undergraduate grantees from UFOPA
(Figure 1-4).
10 Chapter One

Partner school 1:
1 team leader
- 1 mentor 2 TEFL-Pibidians
(TEFL-Pibidian)
- 195 students
Partner school 2:
1 team leader
- 1 mentor 4 TEFL-Pibidians
(TEFL-Pibidian)
- 436 students
Partner schools 3:
1 team leader
- 1 mentor 2 TEFL-Pibidians
(TEFL-Pibidian)
CELEPI - 278 students
2 coordinators Partner school 4
1 team leader
- 1 mentor 4 TEFL-Pibidians
(TEFL-Pibidian)
- 56 students
Partner schools 5 & 6
1 team leader
1 mentor 3 TEFL-Pibidians
(TEFL-Pibidian)
- 150 students

Partner school 7:
1 team leader
- 1 mentor 3 TEFL-Pibidians
(TEFL-Pibidian)
- 50 students

Figure 1-4: PLIP’s team.

In relation to the large number of school students reached by the sub-

project, as demonstrated in Figure 1-4, the workload of the six mentors is
somehow alleviated by the fact that these 1,165 students are spread across
seven partner schools. Nevertheless, it is worth pointing out that, in the
north and in other regions of Brazil, a school teacher may deliver lessons
to 20 different classes in a week. Considering that, on average, 40 students
are placed in a single class, at the end of an ordinary week, the teacher
may have taught 800 students. Thus, ultimately, having PIBID
undergraduates to assist them in their classrooms can also be an incidental
way of decreasing their overall workload.
The TEFL undergraduate grantees are divided into six small groups;
each team has a leader reporting directly to the mentor of the group and to
the CELEPI coordinators. As part of the assessment process of the sub-
project as a whole, the coordinators collect individual reports of the PLIP
activities carried out by both the mentors and TEFL-Pibidians every six
months. Informed by the objectives of the sub-projects, these activities are
planned by each group of TEFL-Pibidians and their respective mentors.
 The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project 11

TEFL-Pibidians’ Activities in Partner Schools

TEFL-Pibidians are undergraduates in a four-year TEFL course
offered by UFOPA. They normally join the sub-project and thus begin
engaging in the activities in the partner schools after their first year at
university. The activities in which they are involved in the schools are
selected to maximise exposure to the routines of school teachers, and they
include: delivering micro lessons under the supervision of their mentor;
assisting the mentor in the classroom; helping students with learning
difficulties; collaborating in the organisation of and participating in open
houses promoted by partner schools; and organising and delivering
workshops and mini-courses together with the mentor. Although TEFL-
Pibidians have to dedicate at least 16 hours per week to PLIP, they spend
only one-third of these hours in the partner schools–the other two-thirds
are used in activities such as meetings with coordinators and mentors,
group discussions, report writing, reading, and academic events at UFOPA
and at other institutions.
Overall, from August 2012 to July 2014, TEFL-Pibidians had 266
meetings with lower and upper secondary school students from the partner
schools–these meetings include micro teaching, teaching assistance and
other activities in which they have direct contact with the students from
the partner schools. They implemented 10 small projects aiming at helping
students from the partner schools develop cultural awareness, thinking,
and the four macro skills in the target language, namely, listening,
speaking, reading and writing. Additionally, they had 195 meetings with
their leaders (a TEFL-Pibidian in charge of the other TEFL-Pibidians in a
partner school) and 107 meetings with their mentors. In total, TEFL-
Pibidians carried out 578 activities in the partner schools in 24 months
(see Table 1-1).
TEFL-Pibidians’ participation in their mentors’ classrooms as teaching
assistants (TA) provides an opportunity for them to experience the school
environment from an angle that is different from the one they are used to
as students. It also helps them to understand the network of complexities
of their future career, and perceive it not as a farfetched achievement, but
as an on-going process which has already started. This early experience of
their profession is further reinforced by the fact that, as TA, they are
allowed by their mentor to implement small projects, which are written in
partnership with and advised by the CELEPI coordinators, and supervised
by their mentors.
12 Chapter One

Table 1-1: TEFL-Pibidians’ activities in partner schools.

TEFL Pibidians'
Sch Sch Sch Sch Sch Sch
activities in partner Total
1 2 3 4 5/6 7
schools:
Number of meetings with
students 53 58 38 53 50 14 266
Number of projects
implemented 3 2 1 2 1 1 10
Number of planning
meetings (grantees alone) 20 72 24 63 2 14 195
Number of planning
meetings with mentor 22 21 23 25 2 14 107
Total activities in the
partner schools 43 96 34 106 37 42 578
Note. Sch = School

Project implementation is another opportunity for them to exercise

reflection and for them to articulate the theoretical knowledge they are
acquiring at university with classroom practice. These small projects
consist of pedagogical interventions meant to test teaching strategies and
materials for effectiveness. The interventions are informed by the
literature in two different ways. Dewey’s (1963) advocacy of learning
grounded in experience and the mediating role of the teacher and Freire’s
(2007a) critical pedagogy provide a more theoretical rationale for the
projects, whereas Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), an
approach that integrates content and language learning (Coyle, Hood, &
Marsh, 2010), offers a more procedural contribution to their development
in the classroom. Implementing them seems to galvanise TEFL-Pibidians’
interest in research and provide them with the kind of teaching experience
they need to become mature professionals.
As a preparation for their pedagogical interventions, TEFL-Pibidians
meet regularly both with and without mentorship. The mentors and the
CELEPI coordinators have strategically allowed them to have some
planning meetings on their own. On such occasions, the group leaders are
in charge of conducting the meetings. This strategy is yet another opening
for TEFL-Pibidians to develop autonomy, independent thinking and
professional maturity. Far from being a novelty, it resonates with the
principles of the progressive schools already existing in the first quarter of
the twentieth century:
 The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project 13

“To imposition from above is opposed expression and cultivation of

individuality; to external discipline is opposed free activity; to learning
from texts and teachers, learning through experience; to acquisition of
isolated skills and techniques by drill, is opposed acquisition of them as
means of attaining ends which make direct vital appeal; to preparation for
a more or less remote future is opposed making the most of the
opportunities of present life; to static aims and materials is opposed
acquaintance with a changing world.” (Dewey, 1963, p. 19-20)

These activities are representative of the effort of those involved in the

implementation of PLIP to encourage TEFL-Pibidians to help their
mentors confront the problems identified in their classrooms, and
stimulate them to use research as a tool for teaching and professional
development. Meanwhile, they can capitalise on the experience obtained
in the partner schools to generate academic works. Ultimately, the PLIP
team have played an important role in the attempt to enhance the quality
of English teaching and learning in the municipality of Santarém.

TEFL-Pibidians’ Outputs and Participation

at Academic Events
One important dimension of the Institutional Grant Programme for
Teaching Initiation is the incentive it gives for undergraduate grantees to
disseminate the results of their small projects and impart their partner-
school experiences at academic events throughout the country and
sometimes even abroad. Thus, grantees who have papers or posters
accepted to be presented at congresses, seminars and the like, receive
financial support from the programme for that. It has been noticed that this
benefit galvanises TEFL-Pibidians into adopting a more professional
approach to their academic tasks and the activities in which they are
engaged in the partner schools. But, to better appreciate the value of this
incentive, it is necessary to have at least a panoramic understanding of the
geography of the region where these grantees live and operate.
Encompassing seven of the 26 states of the federation, the north of
Brazil is a region of continental dimensions. The fact that it could contain
15 United Kingdoms or 29 countries the size of England gives an idea of
the geographical immensity of this region. One peculiarity about it is the
existence of many rivers, brooks and lakes, which makes it difficult for
people to travel by land. So, they are left with two options in terms of
means of transportation: they either travel by water or by air. Even so,
their choice is constrained by their financial situation. If, on the one hand,
they choose a navio recreio (the riverboat people take to go from one
14 Chapter One

place to another) because it is cheaper, they can take days to get to their
destinations. On the other hand, in case they can afford to pay for an air
ticket, the flight to some destinations lasts less than an hour. But, the
problem with this fast track is that the cheapest return air ticket is
sometimes more expensive than their monthly salary.
As all TEFL-Pibidians are based in the municipality of Santarém, for
them to attend an academic event even in the nearest capital city (either
Belém or Manaus), they need much more money than the value of their
monthly grant to cover expenditure on participation fees, accommodation
and transport. So, the PIBID financial support is more than welcome
because sometimes it is enough for them to pay at least for their return air
tickets and the events’ fees.
In the period under analysis, TEFL-Pibidians participated in a number
of local and national academic events, at some of which they had the
opportunity to share the results of the projects they implemented in the
partner schools. As demonstrated in Table 2-2, they managed to publish
15 abstracts and 4 papers; they also presented 12 academic posters, and
gave 33 talks. Additionally, they produced 17 unpublished academic
reports and developed 58 unpublished pedagogic activities.

Table 1-2: TEFL-Pibidians’ outputs in 24 months.

Sch Sch Sch Sch Sch Sch

PLIP grantees' outputs: Total
1 2 3 4 5/6 7
Number of published
abstracts 2 4 3 6 0 0 15
Number of published
papers 0 3 0 1 0 0 4
Number of poster
presentations 2 3 3 4 0 0 12
Number of talks 5 10 10 4 3 1 33
Number of academic
reports 4 3 6 4 0 0 17
Number of pedagogic
activities developed 7 22 13 5 10 1 58
Total outputs 20 45 35 24 13 2 139
Note. Sch = School

Promoting the showcase of TEFL-Pibidians’ works is an important

contribution to the fulfilment of a number of specific objectives of the
PIBID/Letras-Inglês project, since they involve discussions about issues,
 The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project 15

which are related to EFL teaching and learning, the description of the
teaching/learning context they experience, and reflections on possible
solutions to problems their mentors face in the classroom. Moreover, the
grantees’ presentations of their research outputs in themselves constitute a
fulfilment of some of these specific objectives.
Apart from the opening for TEFL-Pibidians to showcase the results of
their pedagogical interventions, academic events also provide them with
opportunities to enhance their teaching education through a number of
workshops, mini-courses, lectures, seminars, colloquia, conferences, and
even English language immersion programmes. Under the category
‘academic event’ we have also included the funded research project in
which they take part and the meetings with their coordinators (see Figure
1-5).
In these events they are also encouraged to present their thoughts on
assigned readings, in order to help them acquire theoretical knowledge
which is considered essential for their education as future teachers and
researchers. The fusion of these two roles, as implied here, is also
advocated by Freire (2007b, p. 29) (translated by the author):

“[…] being a researcher is not a quality or a way of being or acting that

adds to the teaching profession. A culture of inquiry is ingrained in the
nature of teaching practice. What is needed is that the teacher recognises
and assumes himself as a researcher in his continuing education.”

In the 24 months following the start of the sub-project in 2012, TEFL-

Pibidians’ research outputs amounted to 139 academic works distributed
among the categories listed in Table 1-2. Additionally, in the same period,
they had 82 participations at academic events (see Figure 1-5). These
figures indicate a reasonable level of commitment to preparation for their
future career.
This is also observed in the comparison between the average hours of
instruction per year a TEFL-Pibidian receives with those received by a
TEFL undergraduate who is not part of the project (Figure 1-6).
A TEFL-Pibidian receives more hours of instruction per year than a
non-Pibidian TEFL undergraduate. That is a considerable number of hours
of incremental training which can make a substantial difference in terms
of qualification for their teaching career, since most of these extra hours of
instruction consist of theoretical and practical work directly related to their
future role in the education system.
16 Chapterr One

Number of funded researchh projects 1

Nuumber of meetinngs with

34
CELLEPI/PLIP coordinators

Numbber of English im
mmersion
1
programmess

Number of miinicourses 13

Number of w
workshops 7

Number oof seminars, conngresses,

26
colloquia, rround tables andd lectures

Figure 1-5: TEFL-Pibidians’’ participation in

i academic eveents.

Increm
mental training a TEFL-Pibidian
received per year
960
Averagge hours of instru
uction for non-
Pibidiann TEFL undergraduates per year 844
Averagee hours of instrucction for TEFL-
Pibidians per year
1804
1

Figure 1-6: C
Comparison betw
ween hours of instruction receeived by studen
nt teachers
at UFOPA.

For somme, the numbers displayed d in the figurres and tablees in this
section abouut UFOPA’s TEFL-Pibidia
T ans’ activities in the partneer schools
under the m
mentorship of six
s English laanguage schoool teachers miight seem
modest, connsidering the 24-month
2 timee span of impllementation off the sub-
project undder analysis. Neverthelesss, any rigoroous analysis of these
metrics has to include praactical limitattions and the ccontext in whhich these
student teachers find them
mselves, nameely the Amazzon region, paarticularly
 The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project 17

in respect to mobility, infrastructure, access to information and the

region’s unique sociocultural and geographical features.

Conclusion
The argument sustained throughout this chapter is that, despite the
existence of formidable problems concerning teacher education in the
country, the Brazilian government has been trying to improve the quality
of education. Amongst other initiatives, the Ministry of Education has
invested in initial and continuing teacher education, PIBID being one of
the programmes at the forefront of these investments. We have also
maintained that the ultimate goal of UFOPA’s PIBID master project is to
contribute to the sustainable development of the Amazon, a critical region
for the preservation of life on the entire planet.
As embryonic as it appears to be, the positive impact of PLIP in the
education of EFL teachers, as demonstrated by the figures and tables in
this chapter, is a realistic addition to the desired development of this
region. However, when we focus on the specific contribution that PLIP
can provide to the region, which involves creating a community of
English-speaking Amazonians who are able to use this language, not
simply as a mode of expression, but also as an instrument for trade and
exchange of technological and scientific knowledge with people from
different parts of the globe, we notice that more attention has to be paid to
EFL teacher education and teaching conditions in government-funded
schools in this part of the country.
Raising the quality of EFL teaching in state schools in the Amazon is
not an impossible task. It will nevertheless require more political will on
the part of the Brazilian government, and a great deal of effort and
commitment to change from school teachers themselves. At any rate,
some basic measures will have to be taken if the quality of EFL teaching
is to be enhanced in the region. One such measure is valuing the teaching
profession, which includes ample opportunities for professional
development; substantial reduction in the number of classes and students
per class a teacher can take; more time for lesson preparation and
assignment marking; higher salaries; and better working conditions in
terms of infrastructure (e.g., proper classroom acoustics and air-
conditioning systems, adequate technology for foreign language teaching
in the classrooms, well-equipped libraries, and high-speed Internet
access).
18 Chapter One

We recognise, however, that these measures represent only a partial

contribution towards improving the quality of education in this region.
The problems that we have in our education system appear to be ingrained
in the fabric of our society. Moreover, they are of different natures and
dimensions. They constitute an intricate structure that seemingly needs to
be addressed as a whole if real qualitative change is to occur in the
education of northern Brazilians.

Acknowledgement
Funding for the PIBID/Letras-Inglês project that led to the production
of this chapter was provided by the Coordination for the Improvement of
Higher Education Personnel (CAPES).

References
Brasil. (2007). Portaria normativa nº 38, de 12 de dezembro de 2007.
Diário Oficial [da] República Federativa do Brasil, Poder Executivo,
Brasília, DF, 13 dez. 2007. Seção 1, 39.
—. (2010). Portaria nº 260, de 30 de dezembro de 2010. Diário Oficial
[da] República Federativa do Brasil, Poder Executivo, Brasília, DF, 3
jan. 2011. Seção 1, 6.
—. (2011). Projeto de lei do plano nacional de educação (PNE–
2011/2020). Comissão de Educação e Cultura. Brasília: Edições
Câmara.
Coyle, D., Hood, P., & Marsh, D. (2010). CLIL: Content and language
integrated learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dewey, J. (1963). Experience and education. New York: Collier Books.
Freire, P. (2007a). Educação como prática da liberdade (30th edition).
São Paulo: Paz e Terra.
—. (2007b). Pedagogia da autonomia: Saberes necessários à prática
educativa. (36th. ed.) São Paulo: Paz e Terra.
Hitotuzi, N. (2012). Contribuições para a Formação de Novos
Professores de Inglês na Região do Oeste do Pará. Projeto para o
Edital PIBID n° 011/2012/CAPES. Programa de Letras do Instituto de
Ciências da Educação/Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará.
Unpublished Document.
IBGE–Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. (2010). Censo 2010.
Retrieved from: http://censo2010.ibge.gov.br/
 The PIBID/Letras-Inglês Project 19

OECD. (2010). PISA 2009 Results: What students know and can do–
Student performance in reading, mathematics and science (Volume I).
Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264091450-en
Ostler, N. (2010). The last lingua franca: English until the return of
Babel. London: Penguin.
 CHAPTER TWO

A CONTEXTUALIZED REPORT ON THE IMPACT

OF PRE-SERVICE TRAINING ON LANGUAGE
TEACHERS IN TAIWAN

DIANE JOHNSON

Abstract
The beliefs and practices of contemporary language teachers who have
undergone professional training are expected to reflect some of the major
changes and developments that have been reported in the literature on
language teaching and learning. To determine whether this is actually the
case, a large-scale research project was initiated at the University of
Waikato in New Zealand a decade ago. Twelve PhD students have
conducted research involving over 1,200 teachers of five different
languages in a number of different countries. Each of the research students
has used a mixed method approach that combines questionnaire-based
surveys with semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. Their
findings overall suggest that language teacher training has little impact on
teacher beliefs and practices. This is clearly demonstrated in a study
involving teachers of English in primary schools in Taiwan. Of the 166
teachers who took part in a widely-focused survey, 20 submitted videos of
sample lessons for analysis and 10 participated in semi-structured
interviews and completed a questionnaire focusing on language teacher
training. None of these 10 teachers believed that their trainers understood
the needs of young learners in Taiwan or that their training had any
practical use in the classroom. The lessons submitted were strongly
teacher-focused and translation-dominated, showing little impact of the
main changes and developments that have taken place in the literature on
language teaching and learning since the 1970s. This indicates a need for
research that focuses directly on the nature and content of language teacher
training programmes.
 Impact of Pre-Service Training on Language Teachers in Taiwan 21

Introduction
The research in focus constitutes one small part of a larger research
project (see further details below) involving teachers of a number of
different languages. Its particular focus was on a sample of teachers of
English in primary schools in Taiwan. The aim was to determine the extent
to which the beliefs and practices of these teachers, all of whom had
participated in pre-service training programmes, reflected some of the
major changes and developments in the teaching of additional languages
that have taken place since the mid-20th century and, conversely, the
extent to which they reflected attitudes and practices that were widespread
during the heyday of grammar translation and/or of audio-lingual theory.
Any tendency towards the latter would suggest either that the training
itself reflected attitudes and practices that have been largely discredited
and are, in addition, out of line with the relevant national curriculum
(which recommends a communicative orientation) or that the training
programme had failed to have any substantial impact on the existing
predispositions of trainees. Either way, it would suggest that there is a
need for research that focuses directly on training programmes and those
who provide them; this is of particular importance in view of the fact that,
as Chu (2006) has argued, the quality of teacher training determines the
quality of teaching and the quality of teaching is critical to successful
learning.

Background
There have been a number of major changes and developments in the
teaching of additional languages since the heyday of grammar translation,
an approach to language teaching which emerged at the end of the 18th
century. The two fundamental characteristics of grammar translation were
a focus on grammar as the organizing principle of learning programmes
and on translation as evidence of mastery of the target language (Neuner &
Hunfeld, 2003). Grammar translation, often in modified form, is still used
in many parts of the world (see, for example, Decke-Cornell & Küster,
2010; NeSmith 2012). This is possibly due, in part, to the minimal
demands it places on teachers (Richards & Rogers, 2001). However,
grammar translation had already been challenged in the late 19th century
when advocates of what came to be referred to as the ‘Reform Movement’
began to develop an approach, referred to as the ‘Direct Method’, that
prioritized oral interaction (Howatt, 1984). Some advocates of this
approach recommended that the target language should be the primary
22 Chapter Two

medium of instruction; others did not (Howatt & Widdowson, 2004). The
reformists failed initially to make a significant impact on language
teaching, partly because language teachers had little access to training
(Decke-Cornill & Küster, 2010) and partly because of the inherent
conservatism of public schools (Howatt, 2009). However, the development
of behaviourism within psychology and of structuralism within linguistics
later in time, provided the new approach with a theoretical rationale and,
in the development of substitution drilling (Neuner & Hunfeld, 2003), with
a specific teaching method. Even so, the major advances in language
learning that had been expected did not materialize and enthusiasm began
to wane (Decke-Cornill & Küster, 2010). At around the same time, both
behaviourism and linguistic structuralism themselves were severely
criticised and the notion of ‘communicative competence/competencies’
began to emerge and develop in a way that took account of the socially-
embedded nature of linguistic communication and drew upon
developments in pragmatics and discourse analysis. In association with
this, the idea of developing an approach to language teaching that involved
learners in meaningful and authentic communication began to emerge.
‘Communicative Language Teaching’ (CLT) was initially largely
associated with an avoidance of any structural focus. Now, however, a
weaker version in which structures are taught inductively is more common
(Howatt, 1984).
Although the concept of CLT emerged in the West and has been
promoted by the Council of Europe (2001), many educational authorities
in other parts of the world, including the Taiwanese Ministry of Education,
have developed national curricula that promote CLT in some form (Her,
2007). Even so, there is a growing body of evidence that indicates that
many language teachers are wholly unfamiliar with it (NeSmith, 2012),
misunderstand it (Karavas-Doukas, 1996), understand it in a general sense
but are unable to put it into practice (Feryok, 2010), or simply reject it
sometimes expressing the belief that it is impractical in real classrooms
(Chia, 2003; Wilbur, 2007). There are many different possible reasons for
this widespread lack of fit between national curriculum recommendations
and teachers’ beliefs and practices. These include lack of preparation time
(O’Donnell, 2005), the expectations of students and their parents and
guardians (Borg, 2003; O’Donnell, 2005), the backwash effect of
University entrance examinations (Brown & Wada, 1998; Butler & Iino,
2005; Nishino & Watanabe, 2008; O’Donnell, 2005; Rapley, 2009; Sato &
Kleinsasser, 2004), and, in some cases, the tension between traditional
cultural norms and approaches to education and the pressure to conform to
Western models (Canagarajah, 1999 & 2005; Harumi, 2011; Ramirez &
 Impact of Pre-Service Training on Language Teachers in Taiwan 23

Boli, 1987). While all of these things impact heavily on the methodological
decisions made by language teachers, something that may be equally
important, perhaps even more so in some cases, is the nature of the
language teacher training that they have experienced.
There is widespread agreement among trainees that there is often no
relationship, or a very weak one, between the theoretical instruction they
receive in pre-service training programmes and the practical realities of
teaching (Spada & Massey,1992). Even so, some research does appear to
indicate that pre-service training programmes can have a significant
positive impact on teaching (Adams & Krockover, 1997), particularly in
relation to the practicum component of such programmes (Smagorinsky,
Cook & Johnson, 2003; Urmston, 2003). Where it does not, there is a
range of possible reasons, including, for example, the fact that trainees’
beliefs and practices may be strongly rooted in folk psychology
(Lightbown & Spada, 1993) and/or may reflect their own experiences as
language learners (Crandall, 2000; Holt Reynolds, 1992). In fact, some
training programmes may actually reinforce beliefs and practices that have
been largely discredited (NeSmith, 2012).
In 2005, English language became a compulsory subject from Grade 3
(age 9) across Taiwan. However, even before that date many elementary
schools had already introduced English classes for children from Grade 3
and training institutions had already begun to prepare the teachers for the
new teaching task ahead of them. In connection with this, a number of
research projects were conducted in order to evaluate the efficacy of pre-
service teacher training programmes in the lead-in period to full
implementation of the new curriculum development. They did not present
a highly positive picture. Thus, for example, Shih, Yeh and Chang (2000),
who surveyed 756 trainees in the Primary School English Teacher (PSET)
training programme at 17 institutions across Taiwan, found that although
many of the participants expressed general satisfaction with overall course
content, many also expressed concern about the lack of authentic teaching
practice (that is, teaching practice that took place in real classrooms and
involved real students). Furthermore, they believed that some trainers
lacked relevant experience and understanding of the professional context
in which they (the trainees) would be operating.
In a later project, Shih (2001) conducted a questionnaire-based survey
of a further 234 trainees, conducting follow-up interviews with 28 of them.
Overall, the trainees felt that they were not given appropriate guidance on
aspects of English language teaching (ELT) and, like the trainees in the
earlier project, believed that some trainers lacked relevant experience and
understanding of what is involved in teaching English to young learners
24 Chapter Two

(TEYL). Other research projects (for example, Chen & Liaw, 2001; Chu,
2006; Lou, 2003) report similar misgivings among trainees who have
taken part in PSET training programmes.
The research reported here was conducted after the full implementation
of the plan to introduce English to Taiwanese students in Grade 3. As in
the case of the studies previously referred, it was underpinned by a focus
on language teacher cognition, that is, on the interaction between the
mental and the observable components of teacher behaviour (Clark &
Peterson, 1986), or, more specifically, on “what language teachers think,
know and believe – and . . . its relationship to teachers’ classroom
practices” (Borg, 2006, p. 1). In particular, the focus was on the extent to
which the training a sample of Taiwanese teachers have experienced has
encouraged and helped them to accommodate to the national curriculum
requirement for communicatively focused language teaching.

The Study
The present research represents one part of a larger long-term research
project involving applied linguistics PhD students enrolled at the
University of Waikato in New Zealand. In that research project, now in its
10th year, the focus has been on the teaching and learning of five different
languages – English, French, German, MƗori (the indigenous language of
New Zealand) and Hawaiian (the indigenous language of Hawaii) - in a
range of different educational settings in ten different countries/areas - the
UK, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hawaii, France, Japan,
Korea, and Syria. To date, twelve PhD students have been involved, as
have over 1,200 teacher participants. Each of the PhD students has used
the same mixed methods approach in focusing on the teaching and
learning of one particular language in one particular context. Each has
sought to determine (a) the impact of language teacher training on
language teachers, and (b) the extent to which the beliefs and classroom
practices of the language teachers involved reflect changes and
developments that have taken place in the teaching of additional languages
since the heyday of grammar translation and, in particular, since the 1970s
(see, for example, Fester, 2014; Her, 2007; Lin, 2010; NeSmith, 2012;
Nock, 2014; Parchwitz, 2015; Umeda, 2014; Valax, 2011; Wang, 2008;
Yu-Chang, 2007).
 Impact of Pre-Service Training on Language Teachers in Taiwan 25

Research Methods
The research in focus here was conducted two years after the
requirement to teach English from Grade 3 was introduced in Taiwan. The
researcher used a mixed method approach, in which, questionnaire-based
surveys were combined with semi-structured interviews and classroom
observation (Wang, 2008). A sample of Taiwanese teachers who taught
English to primary school students was surveyed using a questionnaire
designed to elicit data about their professional background, training,
beliefs about the teaching of English, preferences in relation to overall
approach to teaching and teaching methods, and the types of teaching
materials (including textbooks) used (Wang, 2008). Of the 166 teachers
who took part in an initial survey, 20 (self-selected) submitted videos of
sample lessons taught by them for analysis and 10 (self-selected)
completed a second questionnaire that focused specifically on their
language teacher training experiences and then participated in semi-
structured interviews.
The decision to use semi-structured interviews as a data gathering tool
was prompted by Spada and Massey’s (1992) discussion of the problems
associated with questionnaire responses and teacher recall, particularly
their observation that initial questionnaire responses could be misleading.
Although the teacher training-focused questionnaires contained memory
enhancement lists to support and prompt teacher recall, the possibility of
probing beyond the initial questionnaire data was considered important,
allowing for the addition of a great deal of detail; hence, the development
of a much more nuanced overall picture than would have been possible
within the context of the limitations of a questionnaire.
Each of the ten teachers in the group, who completed the second
questionnaire and took part in interviews, had between two and eight years
of experience teaching English in Taiwan, all of them were females and
they were officially recognized as being qualified in TEYL. Four of the
group had completed the PSET training programme, each in a different
location; three had completed a 4-year degree that included primary
teacher training (with a TEYL specialization); two had a Primary Teaching
Certificate (with a TEYL specialization), and one had completed a Local
Government Training Program, which lasted one week. As part of the
training-focused questionnaire, the teachers were asked to give responses
to questions on issues such as:

• their qualifications and teaching experience;

• the training programmes in which they had participated;
26 Chapter Two

• the content of their training programmes (including, for example,

whether they had included text book selection, evaluation and use,
analysis of the relevant national curriculum document, teaching
observation, and a teaching practicum); and
• their perception of the impact and usefulness of their training.

In the interviews, further details about the nature of the training

programmes experienced by the teachers were sought. If, for example, a
research participant had indicated that the training programme she had
undertaken contained a practicum, she was asked questions about exactly
how the practicum was conducted and assessed.
The twenty teaching videos were reviewed in relation to a number of
focus points, including the nature of the achievement objectives (if
detectable), the extent of teacher talking time, the ways in which the target
language and the students’ native language (including translation) were
used by both teachers and students, and types of tasks and activities in
which the students were engaged. Six of the twenty lessons were
transcribed and subjected to in-depth detailed analysis.
The lesson data were then reviewed in light of the data collected from
questionnaires and interviews in order to determine the extent to which
participants’ stated beliefs appeared to be consistent with their actual
classroom practices. The findings of the Taiwan-based research project in
focus here are discussed in their own right below before being related to
the findings of other studies that have constituted part of the larger
research project.

Results and Discussion

Five of the interviewees reported that their pre-service training
programmes had involved no teaching observation component and three of
the remaining five noted that although they had observed other trainees
teaching, they had not observed practicing teachers in a real classroom. So
far as the teaching practicum is concerned, two of the interviewees
indicated that no teaching practicum was included as part of their pre-
service training. Of the remainder, three had been involved in teaching
practice on only one occasion. In each of these cases, the interviewees
reported that the teacher trainer was not present during their teaching
practice sessions. Where there were follow-up reports on teaching practice,
these were normally in oral form and the information provided, rather than
being individualized, took the form of a series of general comments to the
 Impact of Pre-Service Training on Language Teachers in Taiwan 27

class as a whole. An illustrative extract from one of the interviews is

included below:

“I taught a real whole class only once during my pre-service training. That
was at the end of the course: Teaching Observation and Teaching Practice.
The whole course lasted only 36 hours and most of it was made up of
lectures – talking about teaching practice, not doing it, so how could we
have more time to practice teaching? I decided what to teach. There are no
specific criteria. I taught and the feedback was just a mark without any
other written comments.”

One explanation for this state of affairs may be, as one of the
interviewees observed:

“Some of the trainers are university professors. They probably know

something about theory, but they did not provide what we need to teach
real classes.”

Whatever the reason, the fact that not all of the pre-service training
courses attended by the participants included teaching observation and a
practicum and the fact that both of these, where they were included, were
not necessarily considered by the participants to have been of any real
value is disturbing.
It was not only in the area of teaching observation and practice that the
pre-service training programmes that the interviewees had participated in
appear to have been less than satisfactory. When asked what they had
learned about ways of introducing new concepts, none of the interviewees
could provide examples beyond the translation of new terms and concepts
into Chinese and/or the use of pictures and realia for new and generally
concrete words. When asked what they had learned about grading the
target language they used in class, six of the ten reported that they had
been given no advice at all about this. The other four said that they had
simply been given a handout that was intended to cover the area. As
indicated by the following illustrative extract from one of the interviews,
most of the interviewees, all of whom thought of themselves as highly
proficient users of the target language, appeared to believe that it is not
necessary for language teachers to grade their own use of the target
language in class unless their own level of proficiency in the language is
poor:

“I don’t think that language teachers need to be trained in classroom

language if the teacher is good at English.”
28 Chapter Two

Even if this were the case, the sample lessons provided were not such
as to suggest that the teachers need have no concerns about their
proficiency level as the following extracts from one of the lesson
transcripts indicates:

Teacher: “You have to talking the sentence; Next turn will girls; Teacher
will show you how teacher and student look like; I give each the
number; Sky are blue.”

Whatever language teachers believe about their own target language

proficiency, they are likely to agree that learners in the same class may
sometimes vary widely in terms of their overall proficiency and specific
competencies. Even so, all of the interviewees indicated that the only
advice they had been given in their pre-service training programmes on the
subject of dealing with this was that they should consider dividing their
students into ‘co-operative learning groups’. Furthermore, while all of the
interviewees had been made aware during their training that their learners
may have different learning style preferences, none of them had been
given advice about how to manage this within the classroom.
Only four of the interviewees claimed to have been taught anything
about designing teaching materials during their pre-service training. When
questioned further, none could give a single example of what they had
been taught. In addition, although all ten of the interviewees indicated that
they used textbooks, only two of them said that their pre-service training
programmes had included advice on textbook selection and evaluation and
none of them had been given any guidance on using and adapting textbook
materials.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the interviewees was the
interviewees’ responses to questions about teaching approach and
methodology. While all ten of them claimed that there was a methodology
component in their pre-service training programmes, it was clear that the
substance of this part of their training had varied widely from programme
to programme. However, whatever the actual content, none of them
believed that this component had proved useful for their subsequent
classroom practice. In addition, although the Taiwanese national
curriculum documentation recommends CLT, only three of the
interviewees reported having been introduced to CLT as part of their
training programme and most of them thought that CLT simply meant
using English as the medium of instruction in the classroom. Furthermore,
although there are at least eleven references to the teaching of reading and
writing in the relevant section of the national curriculum document, only
three of the interviewees indicated that they had been taught anything
 Impact of Pre-Service Training on Language Teachers in Taiwan 29

about the teaching of reading and writing in their training programmes and
the majority’s opinion was that learning about the teaching of reading and
writing was unnecessary.
What emerged, overall, from the training-focused questionnaires and
the semi-structured interviews was that none of the teachers involved
believed that i) their pre-service training had any practical use, ii) their
trainers understood the needs of young learners at primary level in Taiwan,
and iii) there was a satisfactory balance between theory and practice in the
training course they had undertaken. In view of this, it was not surprising
to find that the sample lessons supplied for analysis were found to be
problematic in many ways. They were largely teacher-dominated, with
teacher talking time making up between 70% and 95% of class time and
with translation, often accompanied by repetitive drilling, playing a central
role. Instructions and explanations were generally lengthy and sometimes
confusing. In all of the lessons, there was heavy reliance on translation and
in the very few cases where students were asked to complete a task (tasks
which almost never involved the communication of authentic information
for a genuine purpose), there was generally insufficient time for them to
engage properly with the work. In this context, the students often appeared
to be confused and off-task (or in some cases actually asleep). In the words
of one of the research participants:

“Communicative language teaching is very hard to implement because

some of the teachers are not well trained and their language ability is
questionable. I invited three other teachers in my school to join this
interview. They refused because they think they are not well trained and
their English is not good enough. They don’t know how to teach English
communicatively.”

Conclusion
The Taiwan-based study reported here was the first in a number of
studies, each of which has used similar research methods to investigate the
same or similar issues but with reference to the teaching of a range of
languages (English, French, German, MƗori and Hawaiian) in a range of
different types of institution (pre-schools, primary and secondary schools
and tertiary level institutions) in ten different countries/areas (the UK,
Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hawaii, France, Japan,
Korea, and Syria). In all cases, the majority of those research participants
who had had training in language teaching regarded that training as being
unsatisfactory in a number of important respects, noting, in particular, a
lack of appropriate balance between theory and practice. Irrespective of
30 Chapter Two

whether the teachers involved in the research had qualifications and

training in the area of language teaching, and irrespective of the nature of
the teaching resources available to them, the majority were found to teach
in a way that involved some combination of aspects of grammar
translation and audio-lingualism that focused on explanation of
grammatical phenomena.
Neither language teacher training nor the huge amount of research on
language teaching and learning that has taken place since the middle of the
last century appear to be having more than a very marginal impact on the
practices of language teachers. In fact, even in cases where, for example,
teachers involved in the studies attempted to put into practice what they
understood to be the principles underlying communicative language
teaching, the result was often lessons that were both confused and
confusing. What all of this suggests, is that there is an urgent need to re-
conceptualize and re-focus language teacher training and to think carefully
about the qualifications and expertise required of teacher trainers. While
McDonough (2002, p. 134) has noted that “[just] as teachers have to learn
to teach, so do supervisors have to learn their role”, Waters (2002, p. 225)
has noted that “[there] appears to be strikingly little empirical research
concerning the expertise of the teacher educator, both outside as well as
within the language teaching field”. No attempts to make changes to
teacher training programmes are, however, likely to have much positive
impact on teaching in the absence of a much closer liaison among
academic researchers, teacher trainers and language teaching professionals
than has typically been the case in the past. Unfortunately, this is likely to
prove difficult to achieve at a time when academic staff world-wide are
evaluated largely on the basis of research outputs rather than research
outcomes (in the form of, for example, demonstrable positive changes to
professional practice).

References
Adams, P. E., & Krockover, G. H. (1997). Beginning science teacher
cognition and its origins in the preservice secondary science teacher
program. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 34(6), 633-53.
Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of
research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do.
Language Teaching, 36(2), 81-109.
—. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education: Research and
practice. UK: Bloomsbury Academic.
 Impact of Pre-Service Training on Language Teachers in Taiwan 31

Brown, C. M., & Wada, M. (1998). Current issues in high school English
teaching in Japan: An exploratory survey. Language, Culture and
Curriculum,11(1), 97-116.
Butler, Y. G., & Iino, M. (2005). Current Japanese reforms in English
language education: The 2003 “Action Plan”. Language Policy, 4(1),
25-45.
Canagarajah, A. S. (1999). Resisting linguistic imperialism in English
teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Canagarajah, A. S. (2005). (Ed.). Reclaiming the local in language policy
and practice. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Chen, C. L., & Liaw, M. L. (2001). The effects of elementary school
English teacher education program on pre-service teachers. The
Proceedings of Tenth International Symposium on English Teaching
(pp. 27-39). Taipei, Taiwan: English Teachers’ Association.
Chia, S. C. C. (2003). Singapore primary school teachers' beliefs in
grammar teaching and learning. In D. Deterding, A. Brown & E. L.
Low (Eds.), English in Singapore: Research on Grammar (pp. 117-
127). Singapore: McGraw Hill.
Chu, S. C. (2006). English teacher preparation programs: Teacher college
vs. private college. Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference
on English Teaching and Learning in the Republic of China (pp. 243-
258). Taipei: Kuan Tang International Private.
Clark, C. M., & Peterson P. L. (1986). Teachers’ taught processes. In M.C.
Wittrock (Ed). Handbook of Research on Teaching (3rd ed.) (pp. 255-
296). New York: Macmillan.
Council of Europe. (2001). Common European framework of reference:
Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Crandall, J. (2000). Language teacher education. Annual Review of
Applied Linguistics, 20, 34–55.
Decke-Cornill, H., & Küster, L. (2010). Fremdsprachendidaktik. Eine
Einführung. Tübingen: Narr.
Feryok, A. (2010). Language teacher cognitions: Complex dynamic
systems? System, 38(2), 272-279.
Fester, A. M. (2014). Changing perspectives on syllabus design in ELT:
Textbook trends and tertiary teacher decision-making. Doctoral thesis,
University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from:
http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/2241
Harumi, S. (2011). Classroom silence: Voices from Japanese EFL learners.
ELT Journal, 65(3), 260-269.
32 Chapter Two

Her, J. (2007). The globalization of English: Its impact on English

language education in the tertiary education sector in Taiwan.
Doctoral thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Holt-Reynolds, D. (1992). Personal history-based beliefs as relevant prior
knowledge in course work. American Educational Research Journal,
29(2), 325-349.
Howatt, A. P. R. (1984). A history of English language teaching. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
—. (2009). Principles of approach. In K. Knapp, B. Seidlhofer & H.
Widdowson (Eds.), Handbook of foreign language communication and
learning, Vol. 6 (pp. 467-490). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Howatt, A. P. R., & Widdowson, H. G. (2004). A history of English
Language Teaching (2nd Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Karavas-Doukas, E. (1996). Using attitude scales to investigate teachers'
attitudes to the communicative approach. ELT Journal, 50(3), 187-198.
Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. (1993). How languages are learned. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Lin, H. (2010). Genre, academic writing and e-learning: An integrated
tertiary level Taiwan based study. Doctoral thesis, University of
Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Lou, W. H. (2003). A study of one EFL pre-service program in Taiwan.
Doctoral thesis, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
McDonough, J. (2002). The teacher as language learner: Worlds of
difference. ELT Journal, 56(4), 404-411.
Neuner, G., & Hunfeld, H. (2003). Methoden des fremdsprachlichen
Deutschunterrichts. Eine Einführung (9 ed.). Berlin: Langenscheidt.
Nishino, T., & Watanabe, M. (2008). Communication-oriented policies
versus classroom realities in Japan. TESOL Quarterly, 42(1), 133-138.
NeSmith, R. K. (2012). The teaching and learning of Hawaiian in
mainstream educational contexts in Hawai’i: Time for change?
Doctoral thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Nock, S. J. (2014). Te whakaako i te reo MƗori i te kura auraki tuarua i
Aotearoa nei: Kei tua o te awe mƗpere. The teaching of te reo MƗori in
English-medium secondary schools in New Zealand: Beyond the mask.
Doctoral thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
O’Donnell, K. (2005). Japanese secondary English teachers: Negotiation
of educational roles in the face of curricular reform. Language, Culture
and Curriculum, 18(3), 300-316.
Parchwitz, J.A. 2015. The teaching of German as an additional language
in tertiary institutions in Taiwan. Doctoral thesis, University of
Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
 Impact of Pre-Service Training on Language Teachers in Taiwan 33

Ramirez, F. O., & Boli, J. (1987). The political construction of mass

schooling: European origins and worldwide institutionalization.
Sociology of Education, 60(2), 2-18.
Rapley, D. (2009). Japanese public junior high school policy and reality.
In A. M. Stoke (Ed.), JALT 2008 conference proceedings (pp. 1-13).
Tokyo, Japan: JALT.
Richards, J. C., & Rogers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and methods in
language teaching. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Sato, K., & Kleinsasser, R. C. (2004). Beliefs, practices, and interactions
of teachers in a Japanese high school English department. Teaching
and Teacher Education, 20(8), 797-816.
Shih, Y. H. (2001). Evaluation of the MOE primary school English teacher
training program. English Teaching and Learning, 26(1), 86-107.
Shih, Y. H., Yeh, H. N., & Chang, V. W. (2000). ഻ሿ㤡䃎ᑛ䋷ษ䁃䃢〻
䂅ՠ⓷ ধ䃯ḕ. [An evaluation survey of the primary school English
teacher training Program]. A research project report, Ministry of
Education, R. O. C.
Smagorinsky, R., Cook, L., & Johnson, T. (2003). The twisting path of
concept development in learning to teach. Teachers College Record,
105(8), 1399-1437.
Spada, N., & Massey, M. (1992). The role of prior knowledge in
determining the practice of novice ESL teachers. In J. Flowerdew, M.
Brock & S. Hsia (Eds.), Perspectives on Second Language Teacher
Education (pp. 23-37). Hong Kong: City Polytechnic.
Umeda, K. (2014). The teaching of English in secondary schools in Japan:
From curriculum to the classroom. Doctoral thesis, University of
Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Urmston, A. (2003). Learning to teach English in Hong Kong: The
opinions of teachers in training. Language and Education, 17(2), 112-
137.
Valax, P. (2011). The Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages: A critical analysis of its impact on a sample of teachers
and curricula within and beyond Europe. Doctoral thesis, University of
Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Wang, W. (2008). Teaching English to young learners in Taiwan: Issues
relating to teaching, teacher education, teaching materials and teacher
perspectives. Doctoral thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New
Zealand.
Waters, A. (2002). Expertise in teacher education: Helping teachers to
learn. In K. Johnson (Ed.), Expertise in second language learning &
teaching (pp. 211-228). New York: Cambridge University Press.
34 Chapter Two

Wilbur, M. L. (2007). How foreign language teachers get taught: Methods

of teaching the methods course. Foreign Language Annals, 40(1), 79-
101.
Yu-Chang, J. (2007). The role of children's literature in the teaching of
English to young learners in Taiwan. Doctoral thesis, University of
Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
 CHAPTER THREE

COLLABORATIVE AND REFLECTIVE

SUPERVISION FOR PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT AND ELT INNOVATION
IN A JAPANESE UPPER SECONDARY
SCHOOL CONTEXT

HIDEO KOJIMA

Abstract
The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and
Technology (MEXT) is currently working to promote an English
education reform plan from the elementary to lower/upper secondary
education stage as a response to globalization (MEXT, 2013). The study
reported in this chapter aimed to examine to what extent collaborative
and reflective supervision (CRS) could assist a graduate student and
upper secondary school teacher of English as a foreign language (EFL)
in introducing Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) into
her school and enhancing her professional development. In order to
promote individual and institutional improvement of English language
teaching (ELT), as well as to develop students’ critical thinking skills and
interpersonal communication skills, the graduate student implemented a
CLIL-type approach (CLILTA) to ELT in her daily classes through the
integration of ‘4Cs’ as a core principle: content, cognition,
communication, and culture/community. A variety of qualitative and
quantitative data were collected and analyzed in relation to her CLILTA
instruction. In spite of various constraints on CLILTA practice, she
managed to play her role as a reflective practitioner and researcher with
the support of CRS and through collaboration with her students and
36 Chapter Three

fellow teachers. A critical factor for a successful innovation in ELT is to

enhance cohesive and professional relationships among colleagues who
are part of a community of practice.

Introduction
Attempting to establish an educational environment that corresponds
to globalization, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science, and Technology (MEXT) is currently working to incrementally
promote educational reform. In particular, MEXT would like to introduce
English language teaching (ELT) as a new subject in elementary schools
and further advance English education in lower/upper secondary schools
(MEXT, 2013). Moreover, MEXT has designated over fifty schools as
Super Global High Schools (SGHSs). These schools are expected to
nurture well-grounded students who will create changes or new values
and lead in each field of the globalized society.
In constructing the necessary frameworks for a new English
education, MEXT also puts stress on fostering English as a foreign
language (EFL) teachers’ pedagogical and interpersonal skills so that
they can develop students’ communicative competence and autonomy
more effectively. Thus, EFL teachers are required to make efforts to
develop their professional competence collaboratively and autonomously
in their different communities of practice. The teachers in this study are
also involved in this reform because their school was selected as a SGHS
by MEXT for a period of five years since 2014. It should be noted that
their professional development needs to be “directed toward both the
institution’s goals and the teacher’s own personal goals” (Richards &
Farrell, 2005, p. 9).
In the present study, the author (supervisor) implemented
collaborative and reflective supervision (CRS) and examined to what
extent CRS could assist a graduate student and upper secondary school
EFL teacher, ‘Ruriko’ (pseudonym), in promoting her professional
development and in implementing a CLIL-type approach (CLILTA) for
innovation in ELT in her school context.

Background
Social constructivism has been studied by many educational
psychologists who are concerned with its implications for teaching and
learning. In social constructivism, knowledge is constructed proactively
 Collaborative and Reflective Supervision for Professional Development 37

and creatively through various types of interaction (Gergen, 1999). The

idea that learning is a deep process that involves participants in a
community of practice has also gained a significant ground in recent
years (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). The Japanese Central
Council for Education (2012) proposes that students’ social competencies
should be fostered through collaborative learning activities inside and
outside the classroom, and that school teachers should collaborate with
their colleagues to deal with difficult educational issues.
In a variety of communities of teaching practice in Japan, MEXT
(2013) expects that teachers with a common interest in a subject or area
can collaborate over an extended period of time, share ideas and strategies,
determine solutions, and build innovations. Teachers are expected to
improve their EFL instruction through positive interdependence and
promote continuing professional development. Taking into account this
situation, the author has introduced to in-service teachers a variety of
approaches to ELT in Japan, such as collaborative learning/teaching,
reflective learning/teaching, task-based teaching, active learning, content
and language integrated learning (CLIL).
CLIL is defined as “a dual-focused educational approach in which an
additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content
and language” (Mehisto, Marsh, & Frigols, 2008, p. 9). CLIL is an
umbrella term covering various educational approaches (immersion,
content-based language learning, etc.), but the most fundamental
difference is the planned pedagogic integration of contextualized content,
cognition, communication, and culture/community (‘the 4Cs’) into the
teaching and learning practice. As long as the 4Cs are followed,
variations on CLIL may be possible, depending on the specific
conditions in the schools (Ikeda, 2011).
EFL education as a response to globalization stands at a critical
juncture in Japan. EFL teachers start paying more attention to CLIL as a
new approach and innovation in ELT in Japan. They want their students
to develop “the ability to understand abstract contents for a wide range of
topics and the ability to fluently communicate with English speaking
persons”, and to conduct classes “in English with high-level linguistic
activities (presentations, debates, negotiations)” (MEXT website,
www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/1343591.htm).
Collaborative learning (CL) in CLIL practice is a process of peer
interaction which is mediated and structured by the teacher, taking into
account a set of key elements: positive interdependence, individual
accountability, face-to-face interaction, social skills, and group
38 Chapter Three

processing (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 1991). CL seems to be effective

in developing students’ critical thinking skills, communicative competence,
and learner autonomy through positive interdependence.
Regarding collaboration and reflection among teachers, the author
has researched and written about its effectiveness in teacher development
in primary, secondary, and tertiary EFL education (see Kojima, 2013,
2014). From a social constructivist perspective on supervision for
graduate students, collaborative and reflective supervision (CRS) has
been in use for over ten years. In CRS, supervisors are no longer seen as
the dominant source of expertise. They act more as consultants or
facilitators to encourage teacher self-development. The fundamental
features of CRS are helping teachers to identify problems and goals in
their teaching practice, to promote their professional consciousness-raising,
to improve their instruction through reflective teaching cycles, to play
various roles in developing learner autonomy, and to develop
professionally as reflective practitioners and researchers.
As a new perspective for teacher development, MEXT encourages
Japanese teachers to learn how to teach as life-long learners (Central
Council of Education, 2012). The development of teacher autonomy
should be more emphasized in teacher education. Little (1995) refers to
genuinely successful language teachers as those who have always been
autonomous in the sense of having a strong sense of personal
responsibility for their teaching and exploiting the freedom that this
confers. In line with Little, the dimensions of teacher autonomy
identified by McGrath (2000) are: teacher autonomy as self-directed
professionals and teacher autonomy as freedom from control by others.
With regard to teachers’ freedom, many Japanese teachers seem to
worry about various constraints in their teaching contexts. Constraints on
teacher autonomy can be broadly categorized under the macro (decisions
taken outside the institution) and the micro (institution-internal
decisions) (McGrath, 2000). Teachers must follow the new Course of
Study (MEXT, 2008, 2009) and the English Education Reform Plan
(MEXT, 2013), and negotiate various constraints on collegiality in their
schools. Navigating and sustaining a sense of professional expertise
might be critical to how teachers will ultimately position themselves and
their work in the different sociocultural teaching contexts that the
Ministry envisions for Japan.
 Collaborative and Reflective Supervision for Professional Development 39

The Study
This chapter presents the professional development journey of a
graduate student and upper secondary school EFL teacher, ‘Ruriko’.
During the first year (2012) of the MA course at the author’s university, as
a full-time student, Ruriko studied various subjects with other MA students
and laid the groundwork for her research. In her thirties, Ruriko seemed to
lack confidence in her pedagogical and research skills that are essential in
research-based teacher education. In weekly CRS sessions in the office,
she learned a variety of key concepts in ELT such as learner and teacher
autonomy, collaborative and reflective practice, and CLIL. In particular,
she took interest in CLIL as a new approach to innovation in ELT.
In the second year (2013) of her graduate course, Ruriko was required
to complete her MA dissertation, while working on research-based
teaching practice at her school, one of the prestigious upper secondary
schools in the prefecture. Once a month she returned to the university for
extra CRS sessions with the author (her supervisor).
The present study aimed to examine to what extent CRS could help
Ruriko develop her professional competence and autonomy as an EFL
teacher through reflective teaching cycles in the CLILTA practice and
contribute to ELT innovation in her school context.

Participants
The following people were involved in the study: Ruriko, first-year
MA student and upper secondary school teacher, two fellow EFL
teachers, an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT), and Ruriko’s supervisor
(the author). Ruriko taught a new subject English Communication I to 80
first-year upper secondary students in Classes A (40) and B (40), with
post-beginner level of English, while working on the research study with
the support of CRS. Two fellow EFL teachers taught the same subject in
Classes C to G. All the teachers taught a 50-minute English
Communication 1 lesson four times a week and team-taught with the
ALT once every two weeks. The ALT played an important role in helping
students develop communication skills in English.

Materials
The present study is based on the analysis of the narratives between
Ruriko and the supervisor during the CRS sessions. The supervisor
40 Chapter Three

connected with Ruriko and helped uncovered her “expectations,

motivational factors, prior beliefs, and experiences” through “mediational
dialogue sessions as a psychological tool in sociocultural theory”
(Mynard, 2012, p. 34). The supervisor helped Ruriko plan, practice,
reflect, and analyze various qualitative and quantitative data during her
CLILTA practice. Ruriko was advised to implement multiple data
collection methods, such as student surveys on EFL learning and
CLILTA instruction, student journals for reflective learning, and teacher
observation notes for effective feedback. For teaching materials, Ruriko
and the fellow teachers used an authorized textbook CROWN English
Communication 1 (Sanseido) for first-year upper secondary students. In
CLILTA instruction, Ruriko made teaching plans for Units 1 to 6 of the
textbook by integrating the 4Cs.

Procedure
With the support of CRS, Ruriko’s CLILTA instruction was carried
out from April through October in 2013. The CRS sessions are listed
below (see Table 3-1) in chronological order along with the specific set
of actions taken in each session in light of Ruriko’s CLILTA practice
and her professional development.

Table 3-1: List of CRS sessions.

CRS Action
Session
1 Reviewing Ruriko’s research and arranging a preliminary
survey.
2 Starting to implement CLILTA in Ruriko’s classes.
3 Analyzing the results of the preliminary investigation.
4 Considering various problems in Ruriko’s CLILTA instruction.
5 Reflecting on the CLILTA practice in Ruriko’s classes.
6 Considering collaboration among the other EFL teachers.
7 Carrying out CLILTA in all first year Classes A to G.
8 Discussing future directions in the school context.

The dialogues between Ruriko and the supervisor during the CRS
sessions were recorded and all the narratives in Japanese were translated
into English by the author.
 Collaborative and Reflective Supervision for Professional Development 41

Results and Discussion

In this section, the CRS sessions are analysed and discussed, taking
the research question into account. The students’ or the fellow teachers’
voices were introduced by Ruriko and interpreted through collaboration
with the supervisor.

CRS Session 1
The first session was held in March before Ruriko started working at
school in the new academic year. Ruriko and the supervisor reviewed her
teaching practice and research. Ruriko expressed her wish to research the
process of her students’ collaborative, reflective, and autonomous
learning. In order to gather information about her students before
implementing the CLILTA in her teaching practice, Ruriko discussed
with her supervisor conducting a preliminary survey on students’
perceptions of EFL learning. Ruriko claimed:

“Before carrying out CLILTA in my classes during the first term, I need
to know my students’ perceptions of EFL learning. As an information
gatherer, I’d like to ask them some questions: ‘Did you like English in
your lower secondary school days?’ ‘Why do you learn English?’ ‘What
do you want to learn in your English class in the upper secondary
school?’” (CRS, Session 1)

EFL teachers play various roles in the learner-centered EFL

classroom, such as information-gatherers, decision-makers, motivators,
promoters of group dynamics, and counselors. Ruriko’s students are
expected to fully understand the content of each lesson through tasks,
which engage their intellect, and to develop their ability to solve
problems or challenge themselves cognitively through collaboration with
their peers. As a promoter of group dynamics, Ruriko was encouraged to
help her students activate the key elements of collaborative learning (CL).
The supervisor advised Ruriko to ask all first-year students’ perceptions
of learning English in groups.

CRS Session 2
In April, Ruriko started to employ CLILTA in her classes. However,
she was worried about how to put together an effective teaching plan for
implementing CLILTA. CLILTA is very different from traditional,
42 Chapter Three

teacher-centered instruction which is very popular in Japan (Kojima,

2013, 2014). Ruriko wanted to shift her teaching style from being
‘teaching-centered’ to being ‘learning-centered’. In order to achieve the
benefits of the integration of content and language learning and use, she
was advised to follow the idea of three interrelated perspectives:
language of learning, language for learning, and language through
learning (Coyle & Marsh, 2010). Ruriko decided to encourage the
students to interact with their peers and teachers through pair work,
group work, and whole-class work as members of a learning community.
Ruriko and the supervisor discussed how to integrate the 4Cs in her
daily classes. Table 3-2 provides an example of a CLILTA lesson outline
written by Ruriko in light of the integration of the 4Cs (Tobinai, 2014).
For effective CLILTA instruction, Ruriko felt it necessary to further
develop her professional knowledge and skills. For instance, it was not
easy for her to generate the most appropriate key questions to ask the
students during the lesson (e.g., ‘What is impressive or sympathetic
about Mr. Wakata?’). Such questions were essential to foster the students’
higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) in CLILTA. She also needed to
consider the educational implications of each Unit for the students’ life.

Table 3-2: CLILTA Instruction for Unit 1 Going into Space.

Content ࣭the earth seen from the space

࣭working with people from various nations
࣭the life & experiments on the International Space
Station (ISS)
࣭the reason why Mr. Wakata goes into space
Cognition LOTS ࣭summarize the life &
(lower-order experiments on the ISS
thinking skills) ࣭understand what is important to
work with people from various
nations
࣭explain why Mr. Wakata goes
into space
HOTS ࣭think about what is impressive or
(higher-order sympathetic about Mr. Wakata
thinking skills)
 Collaborative and Reflective Supervision for Professional Development 43

Communication Language of ࣭takes ~ to…, dream of~ing, a

learning variety of, worry about~ing,
experiment, humanity
Language for ࣭the way to ask and answer the
learning questions
Language through ࣭questions & answers
learning ࣭new vocabulary & expressions
Community/ ࣭understand peers’ different ideas
Collaboration ࣭play one’s role in group work
࣭raise one’s consciousness as a global citizen
࣭understand different values

CRS Session 3
In the May session, Ruriko and the supervisor talked about the results
of the student survey. Administering the student survey provided an
important opportunity for Ruriko to assist her students in reflecting on
their EFL learning experience and enhancing their self-awareness
necessary to work toward successful language learning as upper
secondary school students. At the beginning of the CRS session, Ruriko
briefly explained the survey results to the supervisor:

“I hear Japanese lower secondary students who dislike English are

increasing in number. However, the survey shows 81% of our first-year
students liked English in their lower secondary school days. I understand
almost all of them would like to continue to higher education after
graduation. However, I’m surprised and pleased to know they’d rather
learn English for communication in their future lives and jobs than just
for examinations. As for learning in groups, most of them want to try
group work so that they can help each other and enjoy communicating
with others.” (CRS, Session 3)

Ruriko’s comments indicate that her students might have higher level
of language consciousness than it is generally expected of Japanese
first-year students in general. She looked happy to know that her students
tended to have positive attitudes towards learning English to survive in
the future society, and that they would like to learn English through
collaboration in groups. Ruriko recognized that she should constantly
collect information about the students, analyze their language behavior,
and observe ongoing interactions in order to better serve their needs as
44 Chapter Three

students of English. While providing the necessary linguistic and

emotional support, she wanted to encourage students to make use of their
abilities to the utmost in the CLILTA classroom. At the end of the
session, Ruriko was advised to talk about the survey results with her
students and to explain her principles of CLILTA instruction to the
whole classroom.

CRS Session 4
In the June session, Ruriko complained that she had difficulty in
keeping up with the pace of the other teachers because CLILTA was
carried out only in her classes. She was worried about some students:

“CLILTA instruction might have placed more burden on my students

than I had intended. Certainly they had more homework than those in the
other classes. Some of my students didn’t do their homework regularly,
and this made group work less effective. I have to think of some
strategies to solve this problem.” (CRS, Session 4)

In the practice of CLILTA, Ruriko needed to make decisions on a

moment-to-moment basis and maintain her students’ interest by
constantly assessing their needs and goals and tailoring her instruction
accordingly. She was advised to reconsider the balance between
individual work at home and group work in the classroom, and to raise
her students’ awareness of their own learning styles and strategies.
Moreover, the supervisor suggested to her that she should pay more
attention to teaching effective learning strategies for the students to use
inside and outside the classroom.
In the social constructivist classroom, teachers are expected to have
strong skills in group dynamics in order to establish efficient classroom
routines and smooth transitions in a community of learning. Ruriko
needed to arrange different types of student groupings and encourage
specific types of learning. However, she sometimes looked worried
about CL practice. As is often the case with Japanese teachers, Ruriko
had little experience of CL in her school days. In addition, her students
were used to learning subjects in a teacher-centered classroom. In order
to assist the students in understanding why they must be active
participants in CLILTA, Ruriko decided to develop her own skills to
organize CL tasks more effectively. Through implementing CLILTA
instruction in Units 1 to 5 of the course, Ruriko developed her inner
 Collaborative and Reflective Supervision for Professional Development 45

strength and saw the value in using CL when helping her students engage
with content matter other than the target language itself.
Ruriko and the supervisor discussed how to promote the students’
reflections on CLILTA instruction. They planned to conduct another
survey with the students in Classes A and B. Ruriko wanted to ask
students specific questions about their impressions of CLILTA
instruction: e.g., ‘What do you think of your English classes?’, ‘What
skills do you think you have developed?’, ‘What do you think of group
work?’. Answering these questions would enhance the students’
reflective learning, and ultimately lead to the improvement of her
teaching practice.

CRS Session 5
In the CRS session after the survey was administered to Classes A
and B in July, Ruriko and the supervisor analyzed the results and
discussed her CLILTA instruction. The students seemed to understand
the advantages of the new approach based on collaborative learning.
Ruriko commented on the survey results:

“About 80% of the students claimed to like English and appreciate

CLILTA instruction. This might be because they thought they could
obtain more knowledge (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, phrases), express
themselves more effectively, have more chances to communicate with
others, and enjoy critical thinking and the content of the textbook. In
contrast, 20% of them showed negative responses. They might need my
emotional support. Moreover, through the CLILTA experience, the
students claimed to have developed vocabulary (64%), reading skills
(53%), writing skills (39%), and thinking ability (33%).” (CRS, Session
5.1)

Ruriko pointed out that in the English proficiency test Classes A and
B were the top two of all Classes (A to G) with regard to the ability to
express ideas or opinions in English. She was pleased that the ALT
evaluated her students’ improvement of their productive skills and
critical thinking. She encouraged the students to do vocabulary quizzes,
to read the textbook over and over again, to understand the content
critically through discussion, and to write their ideas or opinions using an
essay format. These teaching strategies could be useful for developing
the students’ language knowledge and skills.
As for working in groups, Ruriko was relieved to know that the
46 Chapter Three

students showed more positive attitudes towards group work than she
had expected. She commented on their perceptions of CL:

“This approach tended to assist the students in deepening their ideas by

listening to others (64%), understanding the content of the textbook
deeply (61%), and having more opportunities to express their opinions
(49%). Fortunately, 79% of them hoped to continue group work. In order
to make group work more effective, most of them proposed working hard,
preparing for the next class autonomously, and improving their
communication skills in English as well as in Japanese.” (CRS, Session
5.2)

Learning has traditionally been considered the product of students’

efforts, in tandem with the teacher’s guidance. Ruriko’s comments above
seem to indicate that CLILTA provides opportunities for student-centered
learning and innovation in the EFL classroom in Japan. She learned how
to promote CL in the classroom through teacher-student collaboration.
For the students who showed negative attitudes towards CLILTA
instruction, Ruriko was advised to serve as a counselor and have
interview sessions with them. She needed to recognize psychological
problems that might hinder students’ progress in acquiring English. In
order to help her students to overcome these difficulties, she needed to
provide emotional support and help them feel secure and confident about
EFL learning.

CRS Session 6
It seemed to be difficult for a young teacher like Ruriko to share her
understanding of the principles of CLILTA with the other experienced
teachers at her school. The majority of them preferred teacher-centered
and knowledge-oriented instruction, which is the norm in Japan (Kojima,
2013, 2014). However, in the CRS session in August, the supervisor
advised her to take the opportunity to demonstrate her CLILTA
instruction to them. This would enhance their awareness of the effects of
CLILTA on the development of students’ communicative competence
and autonomy. In addition, the supervisor encouraged Ruriko to share
the information about the students’ progress with her colleagues as often
as possible. Familiarizing them with her research findings on learner
development would further support ELT innovation at her school as a
whole.
 Collaborative and Reflective Supervision for Professional Development 47

When Ruriko talked with the fellow teachers about the results of the
questionnaire survey, they agreed to do CLILTA for all first-year
students in Unit 6 (Roots and Shoots) just after the summer holidays.
Ruriko wondered how she could collaborate with them:

“Not knowing how to implement CLILTA effectively, the two teachers

asked me to create a plan for team-teaching with the ALT. I’m under
pressure to exercise leadership in implementing CLILTA in all Classes A
to G. I’ve never observed EFL learning and teaching in their daily
classes.” (CRS, Session 6)

The supervisor encouraged Ruriko to collaborate with the ALT

whose role was to assist both teachers and students in different
classroom contexts. The ALT helped Ruriko with the teaching plan and
materials, which enabled Ruriko to make instructional objectives clear in
light of the 4Cs.

CRS Session 7
After implementing CLILTA in Classes A to G in September, Ruriko,
who observed CLILTA instruction in all classes, looked quite excited.
She told the supervisor that CLILTA was more successful than she had
expected.

“Answering the question for higher-order thinking skills (HOTS): ‘If you
were a member of Roots & Shoots, what would you do?’, the students
discussed in each group and wrote an English report for a poster
presentation. They managed to answer the ALT’s questions about the
content of their posters. They were also encouraged to evaluate each
group’s performance in terms of some viewpoints: content, delivery,
preparedness, teamwork, etc. The fellow teachers’ students experienced
this peer-evaluation activity for the first time. However, most of them
seemed to enjoy playing their own roles in group work and collaborating
with each other to achieve their goals.” (CRS, Session 7.1)

Taking into consideration the students’ reflective comments in their

journals, their essays submitted after each CLILTA instruction, and her
class observations, Ruriko found that the students became committed to
the content of the textbook and sympathized with the people in the
textbook in relation to their daily lives. Since they did not have enough
English skills to express ideas or opinions appropriately, Ruriko and the
48 Chapter Three

fellow teachers allowed them to use Japanese where feasible. Ruriko

continued to comment:

“Many students eventually managed to use new vocabulary and express

themselves in spoken and written English. We, the teachers, reflected on
our instruction and hoped to help students think about the content more
deeply and express themselves more fluently as they move on to the next
grade.” (CRS, Session 7.2)

Regarding her collaboration with the other teachers, Ruriko had to

deal with various problems and show flexibility in solving them. For
instance, it took Ruriko a lot of time to create the lesson plan and the
teaching materials so that the other teachers could understand how to
organize the CLILTA lesson in their own classes. Next, even if the same
materials were used, the class activities were somewhat different mainly
because her colleagues were experienced teachers with different teaching
styles. The supervisor suggested to Ruriko that she should ask the ALT
to assist the other EFL teachers to teach the students some effective
communication strategies in English. Ruriko highly evaluated the ALTs’
contribution to the success of CLILTA practice in Classes A to G.

CRS Session 8
In the final CRS session in October, Ruriko and the supervisor talked
about future directions in her school context. Ruriko critically reflected
on her CLILTA practice.

“My CLILTA research could have had more validity and reliability as a
new approach to ELT if qualitative and quantitative data had been
obtained from much more students at the school. When employing
CLILTA in the whole school, all the teachers concerned should take their
share of making lesson plans and teaching materials, and spend more
time to discuss how to organize the lesson in advance. In light of
innovation in ELT, all the teachers need to understand the core features
of CLIL methodology: multiple foci, safe and enriching learning
environment, authenticity, active learning, scaffolding, and collaboration.
In addition, we have to discuss the advantages of CLILTA as a response
to globalization.” (CRS, Session 8)

From the individual and institutional perspectives, Ruriko and the

supervisor discussed her CLILTA instruction in light of innovation in
 Collaborative and Reflective Supervision for Professional Development 49

ELT and continuing professional development in her institution. MEXT

expects Japanese students to foster global competence which is the
capacity and disposition to understand and act on issues of global
significance. Ruriko claimed that her school must improve its
performance as a whole and achieve better learning outcomes, through
the development of effective communities of learning and teaching
practice. Ruriko and the supervisor agreed that in order for her school to
be a successful SGHS, it would be important to familiarize all teachers
of different subjects with research findings on school improvement or
teaching effectiveness. Collaborative action research for school or
organizational change could “become a powerful way of facilitating
school curriculum renewal” (Burns, 1999, p. 209).

Conclusion
From a social constructivist perspective on teacher education, the
author has supported Ruriko’s professional growth through collaboration
and reflection. The research question was: to what extent CRS would be
able to assist Ruriko in developing professionally through the reflective
teaching cycles in the CLILTA practice. In order to promote innovation
in ELT, Ruriko wanted to shift her own teaching style from
‘teaching-centered’ to ‘learning-centered’ through CLILTA instruction
and to foster her technical knowledge, pedagogical skills, interpersonal
skills, and personal qualities.
When Ruriko became an MA student, she was likely to think of her
supervisor as a figure of authority and dominant partner in the
professional relationship. It was not easy for the supervisor to step back
and let Ruriko discover what she needed to do as independently as
possible. Through CRS, Ruriko learned new approaches to innovation in
ELT and recognized the importance of teacher autonomy. In spite of
various constraints on the CLILTA practice, Ruriko’s reflective
comments during the CRS sessions demonstrate that CRS has assisted
her in understanding her students’ feelings and attitudes towards
language learning, the importance of gathering information about their
progress, developing their metacognitive abilities for learner autonomy,
identifying advantages and disadvantages of CLILTA instruction,
promoting autonomous learning and teaching reciprocally, collaborating
with the fellow teachers, and improving her way of teaching through
reflective teaching cycles. Overall, CRS seemed to be effective in
supporting Ruriko’s individual professional growth in her own
50 Chapter Three

educational context.
However, from both the individual and institutional perspective, there
are some issues to consider. Even though Ruriko’s students showed
positive attitudes towards the CLILTA activities, it would be essential
for her to continue her professional development so that she can more
effectively take into account the knowledge and experiences that her
students bring to class, design more authentic tasks to contextualize
learning through real-world case-based learning environments, provide
more scaffolding at the right time and at the right level, and promote
more positive attitudes towards collaboration with her colleagues.
Regarding the potential of CRS in in-service teacher education, as
CRS in this study helped Ruriko to play various roles in the community
of CLILTA practice, teacher educators should assist EFL teachers in
enhancing their professional competence and autonomy and promoting
cohesive and professional relationships with their colleagues in
communities of practice. In designing and organizing in-service teacher
education programs, it is necessary for teacher educators to consider the
relationships among teachers working within the same school context. It
was not easy for Ruriko to collaborate with the other EFL teachers who
had different teaching styles. The school culture also has a profound
effect on teachers and their perceptions of teacher roles particularly in
implementing change that will enhance students’ learning experiences. It
is hoped that Ruriko will be able to contribute to the exploration of new
ways of collaboration with students and colleagues, and that CLILTA
will be carefully designed and successfully practiced within the
community of practice.

References
Bailey, K. M. (2006). Language teacher supervision: A case-based
approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burns, A. (1999). Collaborative action research for English language
teachers. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Central Council of Education. (2012). Report on comprehensive
measures for improving teachers’ abilities throughout their teaching
lives. Tokyo: MEXT.
Coyle, D. P., & Marsh, D. (2010). CLIL: Content and language
integrated learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gergen, K. J. (1999). An introduction to social construction. London:
Sage Publications Ltd.
 Collaborative and Reflective Supervision for Professional Development 51

Ikeda, M. (2011). Basic principles of CLIL. In R. Watanabe, M. Ikeda, &

S. Izumi (Eds.), CLIL: New challenges in foreign language education
at Sophia University Vol. 1 (pp. 1-13). Tokyo: Sophia University
Press.
Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Smith, K. A. (1991). Active learning:
Cooperation in the college classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book
Company.
Kojima, H. (2013). Developing autonomy in EFL learning and teaching:
A portfolio program under collaborative and reflective supervision. In
M. Menegale (Ed.), Autonomy in language learning: Getting learners
actively involved (pp. 60-70). Canterbury: IATEFL.
Kojima, H. (2014). Collaborative learning and professional development
for teachers in an elementary school context. In T. Ashwell, S.
Paydon, M. Miyahara, & A. Stewart (Eds.), Collaborative learning in
learner development (pp. 203-216). Tokyo: JALT.
Little, D. (1995). Learning as dialogue: The dependence of learner
autonomy on teacher autonomy. System, 23(2), 175-182.
McGrath, I. (2000). Teacher autonomy. In B. Sinclair, I. McGrath, & T.
Lamb (Eds.), Learner autonomy, teacher autonomy: Future
directions (pp. 100-110). London: Longman.
Mehisto, P., Frigols, M-J., & Marsh, D. (2008). Uncovering CLIL.
Oxford: McMillan.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
(MEXT). (2008). The guidelines for study in the junior high school:
Foreign language. Kyoto: Higashiyamashobo.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
(MEXT). (2009). The guidelines for study in the senior high school:
Foreign language. Kyoto: Higashiyamashobo.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
(MEXT). (2013). English education reform plan corresponding to
globalization. Retrieved from:
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/1343591.htm
Mynard, J. (2012). A suggested model for advising in language learning.
In J. Mynard & L. Carson (Eds.), Advising in language learning:
Dialogue, tools and context (pp. 26-40). Edinburgh: Pearson
Education Limited.
Richards, J. C., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2005). Professional development for
language teachers: Strategies for teacher learning. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Tobinai, R. (2014). Integrating content and language in the Japanese
52 Chapter Three

senior high school EFL classroom. Unpublished Master’s Thesis,

Hirosaki University, Japan.
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. M. (2002). Cultivating
communities of practice. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Williams, M., & Burden, R. L. (1997). Psychology for language
teachers: A social constructivist approach. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
 CHAPTER FOUR

A STUDY OF TEACHER REFLECTION

IN A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

PING WANG, CHRISTINA GITSAKI,

AND KAREN MONI

Abstract
This paper reports on how a group of teachers of English as a foreign
language (EFL) practised reflection through participating in a professional
development (PD) program. The study utilised a transformative PD model
within a Community of Practice (CoP) framework. Multiple sources of
data informed the study: interviews with the teachers who participated in
the PD program; transcriptions of the PD meetings; and follow-up
electronic interviews after the teachers had completed the PD program.
The analysis of the data showed that a range of stimuli were needed to
facilitate teacher reflection in this CoP. These stimuli included sharing
readings and watching video-recordings of teaching practice. It was found
that the teacher participants’ reflective practices were mainly
reflection-on-action and reflection-in-anticipation. Reflection-on-action
enabled them to identify and seek solutions for problems in their teaching,
while reflection-in-anticipation gave them the confidence to try out new
activities. This study contributes to the understanding of how teachers
learn through reflection in China because although the innate sense of
learning from critical reflection is present in the tenet of Chinese
philosophy, reflection is not typically practiced in traditional PD activities.
54 Chapter Four

Introduction
Over the past three decades, a number of educational reforms have
been implemented in China. One focus of the reforms was improving the
quality of English language teaching at the tertiary level. According to the
Teacher Law in China (NPCSC, 1993), in order to teach in tertiary
education, one needs a Master’s degree. However, Dai (2008) reported that
in one top Chinese university, 75.70% of the teachers in the School of
Foreign Languages held a Master’s degree, 8.70% had a Bachelor’s degree,
13% held a Doctoral degree, and 2.60% of teachers did not have a degree.
In a local university, 54.2% of the teachers held a Master’s degree, and
10.8% of them had a Doctoral degree. Although there are no official
figures of teacher educational background nationwide, Dai (2008)
comments that the quality of Chinese teachers of English as a foreign
language (EFL) teaching at the university level still needs to be improved.
In China, EFL teacher PD activities at the primary and secondary level
are mainly conducted during school holidays, while fewer activities are
organized for teacher PD at tertiary level (Guo, 2005). Furthermore, some
of the PD activities available were found to be inadequate and not meeting
teachers’ needs (Dai, 2008). Under these circumstances, an appropriate PD
model needs to be adopted for Chinese EFL teachers at the tertiary level
and other contexts with similar challenges.

Background
Teacher professional development is the process of assisting teachers
to enhance their knowledge and develop their teaching practice as they
undertake a variety of learning activities (Abadiano & Turner, 2004;
Hoban, 1997). It is a necessary process to support teacher learning that has
a significant impact on teachers’ beliefs, and their teaching practice (Borko,
2004; Fullan & Hargreaves, 1992; Guskey & Huberman, 1995;
Villegas-Reimers, 2003). Therefore, investigations of teacher learning
through PD activities have become prominent in the field of education
(Ball & Cohen, 1999; Hoban, 2002). A model of teacher professional
development that has been associated with transformative learning is the
Community of Practice (CoP) model (Wenger, 1998), which views
everyone in a particular professional community as a learner. A CoP
involves a group of teachers working together to share knowledge and
practice in order to improve their practice. The characteristics of teacher
learning in CoPs include an understanding of members’ learning through
 Reflection in a Community of Practice for Professional Development 55

exchanging ideas, stories, and reflection, as well as the development of

professional relationships within the context of their community (e.g.,
DuFour, 2004; Handley, Sturdy, Fincham, & Timothy, 2006).
As the central activity of transformative learning, critical reflection
refers to the process of adults being critically aware of how and why their
previous beliefs or assumptions have come to be obstacles to the way they
understand their practice (Mezirow, 1981). In the education field, the
importance of engaging professionals in reflection has been widely
recognized (e.g., Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Dewey, 1933; Schön,
1983).
Dewey (1933) argued for the importance of linking reflection to
teacher education when he stated that “reflection emancipates us from
merely impulsive and merely routine activity” and thus helps teachers to
change their routine practices (p. 17). He argued that when teachers
encounter difficulties in teaching practice, reflection may bring about a
solution in the form of renewed practice. Dewey argued that teachers
should constantly reflect on what happened in their classes in order to
identify and solve problems, and his ideas on reflection provide a
historical and conceptual foundation for the understanding of teacher
reflection as necessary for professional learning (Zeichner & Liston,
1996).
Building on the work of Dewey, Schön (1983) proposed two forms of
teacher reflection: reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action.
Reflection-in-action activities often take place while teachers are teaching
in the classroom. They sense that something different from their routine
teaching has occurred, and change their teaching plans according to the
actual situation in the classroom. Reflection-on-action usually takes place
when teachers recall what happened in their classes and attempt to
question and evaluate their teaching for the purpose of improve their
future practice (Schön, 1983). PD programs usually focus on facilitating
reflection-on-action through encouraging teachers to reflect on what they
have done in the classroom (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1996).
Further features of teacher reflection have been added by more recent
educational researchers. Killon and Todmen (1991), for example,
distinguished reflection as reflection-in-practice, reflection-on-practice,
and reflection-for-practice. These researchers defined reflection-in-practice as
occurring in the present, and the analysis of teaching experiences and its
results post-hoc as reflection-on-practice. These two terms are similar to
Schön’s concepts of reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, while
reflection-for-practice is defined as the reflection prior to taking an action.
56 Chapter Four

This concept adds one more dimension to Schön’s definition of reflection

and foreshadows Boud’s (2001) idea of reflection in anticipation of events,
and Wilson’s (2008) idea of reflecting-on-the-future, both of which
emphasise the importance of reflection before taking action, that is, prior
to teaching and learning events. In this chapter, the term
‘reflection-in-anticipation’ is adopted because this term captures how
teachers make plans for future practice and anticipate possible problems
they may encounter when they try out new practice.
Research on teacher learning through reflection in tertiary education
has addressed the importance of critical reflection (O’Connell & Dyment,
2006), identified the impact of reflection on teacher transformation and
practice (Meskill & Anthony, 2007; Yeo, 2006), and studied teacher
reflective activities (Robson & Turner, 2007). The findings indicate that
teachers need to be provided with opportunities to reflect on their teaching
by sharing teaching experiences with their colleagues. Meanwhile, a
supportive environment is needed for teacher learning in groups through
reflection.

The Study
The study described in this chapter was conducted in a Chinese
University located in the east of the country. There were three female and
one male volunteer participants in the PD program. All participants were
EFL teachers in the English department of the university. The three female
teachers held a Master’s degree, while the male teacher held a Bachelor
degree. They are identified in this chapter by their pseudonyms: Yang,
Chelsea, SJ, and Josh. The researcher, ‘Ping’ was also a participant/observer
in the CoP.
The PD program designed for this study was to facilitate teacher
reflection and the sharing of experiences and ideas within the CoP. Ten
weekly meetings on how to organise oral communication activities in the
classroom were conducted. During the meetings, teachers watched video
recordings of their own classroom activities, and their reading of journal
articles on different topics, and shared their experiences and practice.
Data reported in this chapter were collected through Pre-PD interviews,
transcripts of ten weekly meetings among the participants, and post-PD
electronic interviews. These data were translated (from Chinese into
English), coded (e.g., ‘M9L323’ refers to line 323 of the transcripts of
Meeting 9; ‘Chelsea: PrePD’ refers to the transcripts of Chelsea’s pre-PD
interview; ‘Josh: ePostPD’ refers to the transcripts of Josh’s post-PD
 Reflection in a Community of Practice for Professional Development 57

electronic interview) and analysed thematically.

Results and Discussion

The PD program designed for this study aimed to involve the
teacher-participants in critical reflection through interactions with the
other members in the CoP. The stimuli for teacher reflection included
discussions of readings and video clips of the participants’ teaching
practice. The reflective activities were mainly concerned with
reflection-on-action and reflection-in-anticipation.

Strategies for Stimulating Reflection and Exchange of Ideas

In this study, the researcher adopted two main activities to facilitate
teacher reflection: watching video recordings of teaching practice and
sharing readings of journal articles which were distributed to the teachers
before the meeting sessions.
Before the PD program was conducted, video recordings were made of
the participants’ teaching practice in their English classrooms. Each
teacher was recorded once for one class hour. During the PD program,
participants were again video recorded when they tried new activities in
class. Each teacher was recorded for one class hour except for Josh, who
invited the researcher to his class to video-tape an extra class hour. In
Meetings 3, 4, 5, and 10, the teachers watched these recordings and
reflected on their teaching practices, prompted by strategies such as
Plus-Minus-Interesting (PMI) (De Bono, 1994) and Praise-Question-Polish
(PQP) (Neubert & McNelis, 1986) to help them reflect. Specifically, at
Meeting 4, Yang used the PMI strategy to identify problems in her
teaching practice while watching the video recording of her class:

Yang: First, as for the students’ pronunciation modelling, we prepared

material in advance, and then I gave them feedback. These were all
what I had learned from you people. And then I asked the students to
teach the text. It was not as good as what I had expected. They were
not capable to control the class. For example, when asking students
to make sentences, the chairperson didn’t give clear directions, or
correct the mistakes her classmates made. Some students were very
cooperative. There was one guy who did very well. However, there
were also some problems. He couldn’t answer questions raised by
the class. (M4L118)
58 Chapter Four

In this excerpt, Yang explained how and why she organised pronunciation
modelling. She acknowledged that she put into practice what she learned
from the other participants during the PD meetings. Her comments
revealed that she had high expectations for the activity which were not
fully realized in the classroom. Her response to the limited success was to
blame the students rather than to question her own teaching. However,
following this, her colleagues in the group assisted her to focus on how her
teaching affected students, specifically during feedback sessions:

Ping: This girl is really brave. She had been standing there for long. It is
a bit embarrassing for students to receive feedback and be
criticised while standing in front of the class.
Yang: I have been doing it in this way for a long time. I correct their
mistakes while they are standing in the front.
Josh: I agree with Ping. I noticed that you only gave feedback to that
student instead of the whole class. You spent too much time on the
student herself. And you turned your back to the whole class and
faced that girl for at least one and a half minutes. (M4L15/17)

Initially Yang resisted her peers’ comments, falling back on her experience
as a reason for her practices. “I have been doing it this way for a long
time,” she said. It was only after she was encouraged to reflect more
deeply on the excerpt using the PMI strategy (De Bono, 1994) that she
was able to move beyond this position to consider why this practice might
not be appropriate:

Yang: Let me do it first. The Plus: I tried the peer-evaluation in my class

to give students feedback. Minus has been raised by you people. I
asked the student to stand in the front while giving her feedback. It
was really embarrassing (Italicized and emphasized by the
researcher).
Ping: Fortunately the student did not feel much embarrassed.
Yang: It would be better if I asked the student to go back to her seat and I
faced the whole class to give feedback. One more thing is that my
voice is too low. When I watched the video, I noticed the students’
voice was loud enough. However, mine was very low. It is
interesting to let students practise teaching in class. However there
were still many problems. (M4137/139)

Watching the video, then engaging in structured reflection and

responding to feedback from the other teachers led Yang to realise that it
 Reflection in a Community of Practice for Professional Development 59

was ‘embarrassing’ for students to receive feedback while standing in the

front of the classroom. In the excerpt, Yang also became aware that her
voice was too low in volume and that it was hard for the students who sat
at the back of the classroom to hear her. This indicated that while
reflecting on the video recording of her teaching, Yang managed to
identify a problem she had not been aware of in class and felt comfortable
sharing this with colleagues. As she watched video recordings and
obtained comments from the other participants, Yang was able to identify
the problems in her teaching, which implied that she would be changing
her practice in future.
The second stimulus for teacher reflection was the reading and
discussion of selected journal articles. In each PD session, the teachers
shared their reading of one of the journal articles which had been
distributed to them one week prior to each meeting by the researcher. The
teachers shared their responses to these in all of the meetings except
Meetings 2 and 10. The teachers talked about their classroom context
when they found the shared journal articles interesting or some new
strategies that could be easily adapted into their teaching.
At Meeting 1, they realised that the peer-evaluation strategy
represented a practical tool for use in their classes, so they actively sought
possible ways for carrying out that activity in class. At Meeting 2, the
teachers changed the topic of the meeting session because one teacher,
Josh, wanted to share his practice of adopting the peer-evaluation strategy,
which turned out to be successful in his classroom. This indicated that
teachers were willing to learn from others after they learned that some new
strategies were implemented successfully. This development supports the
teachers’ comments made in their pre-PD interviews about their needs for
PD. The teachers expected to learn teaching strategies which would help
them organize students’ oral communication activities more effectively.
The change of meeting schedule is also evidence of one of the key tenets
of CoPs: through sharing experiences of implementing new practice, they
related to their own classroom context and attempted to solve problems
(Wenger, 1998).
Meeting 10 signaled another important development in the teachers’
independent learning. During this meeting, the teachers showed autonomy
as they took responsibility for organizing their own session. At the end of
Meeting 9, they had decided that their discussion in Meeting 10 would
focus on summarizing all the strategies or methods that they had learned
through reflection on the PD activities.
60 Chapter Four

Josh: … I suggest every one of you go back to have a review. Next time
we can go through all the activities. We’d better have 18 activities.
Ping: OK. Let’s go back to think about it and next time we will share.
Josh: We’d better review some activities that we can adapt directly to our
classroom. It would be better.
Yang: Right. We only need to brush it up in the next meeting.
(M9L323/326)

Josh initiated the suggestion that they should all review the nine meetings,
specifically the activities that they could adapt in their classroom. He
wanted to learn about 18 activities because there were 18 weeks in a
semester in the research context, and intended to organise a new activity
for each week of the semester, which differed from their previous learning
through training programs, where they had to learn whatever the course
dictated. Through sharing readings and video recordings of their classes in
the PD meetings, these teachers not only learned strategies and ideas, but
also began to take more responsibility for their learning, and develop
confidence in their ability to transform their practice. This was an
indication that reflection was a necessary part of the PD program as it
helped these teachers transform their attitudes and practices.

Reflective Activities
In this study the participants reflected on their classroom practices both
during and after the weekly meetings—discussing video recordings of
their teaching, writing reflective journals and blogging online. Whenever
these teachers reflected on their pedagogy, they tried to identify problems,
find solutions, and make plans to improve future practice. Two major
types of teacher reflective practices were observed during the PD meetings:
refection-on-action and reflection-in-anticipation.

Teacher Reflection-on-Action

Table 4-1 shows key codes and examples of teacher reflection-on-action

practices. It indicates that teacher reflection-on-action activities comprise
four main categories. This is not surprising given that several activities in
the PD programme were designed to promote this form of reflection across
the whole programme. It is also evident that reflection-on-action took
place in all ten of the PD sessions providing further evidence that this was
a key strategy adopted by the participants. There were statements of
 Reflection in a Community of Practice for Professional Development 61

problem or situation (102 instances), explanations of why decisions were

made (62 instances), overall appraisals about activities (45 instances), and
evaluations of decisions (37 instances).
From Table 4-1 it is apparent that most of the reflective practice in the
program was about reflection-on-action. The participants introduced the
situation and the problems in class, explained why decisions were made,
and shared overall self-appraisals about activities across all of the ten
meetings. These findings align with Schön’s (1987) explanation of the
elements of reflection-on-action.
Throughout the ten meetings, on each occasion that the teachers
reflected on their practice, they explained why they organised specific
activities in a certain way. For instance, when Yang reflected on her
teaching in Meeting 4, she explained that her students were more used to
greeting the class in English because she required them to do so
(M4L142/143). In Meeting 7 Chelsea reported her strategy of asking
students to practise the rhythm of English syllables, and explained that she
did not ask students to practise in pairs because she ran out of time
(M7L86).
Teachers also made positive comments about some of the activities
they had tried in class. For example, in Meeting 5 Chelsea complimented
her students on delivering good presentations (M5L78) and in Meeting 9
SJ confirmed that her students did well when they were asked to practice
teaching a text (M9L112).
The participants were also concerned with evaluating the decisions
they made when they organized activities. For instance, Josh admitted in
Meeting 3 that the reason for his students presenting well was because he
had provided them with sample expressions. He had shared these
expressions with the other teachers (M3L41) because he perceived the
value of providing some sample expressions for presentation as a
confidence building strategy.
In the electronic interview which was conducted after the PD program,
Josh not only confirmed reflection was necessary but that, thanks to the
PD program, he now reflected regularly, confirming his belief in the value
of reflection through his plan to ask his students to write reflective
journals. Josh had already benefited from using the reflective practice in
the CoP and he was prepared to adopt it as a tool in his own teaching
practice. However, in doing so Josh was also using a strategy with his
students that was used as a technique for teacher PD. While this outcome
was not intended by the PD program, Josh was willing to try out effective
new ideas in his classroom. He had used reflective journals and experienced
62 Chapter Four

Table 4-1: Key codes, and examples of teacher reflection-on-action in

the CoP.

Codes Source F Examples

RSP 1,2,3,4, 102 Chelsea: One more thing. For example,
Statement of 5,6,7,8, the student did well at yesterday’s
problem or 9,10 class, however, all the comments were
situation questions. There was no praise…
(M3L175).
Yang: …Some students were very
cooperative. There was one guy doing
very well. However there were also some
problems. He couldn’t answer
questions raised by the class (M4L118).
REXD 1,2,3,4, 62 SJ: That’s why sometimes we had long
Explanation 5,6,7,8, presentations (M3L108).
of why 9,10 Yang: When they first did it, they didn’t
decisions greet the class. Later on I suggested they
were made do that first. That’s how they started to
do it with an opening statement
(M4L145).
ROS 1,2,3,4, 45 Josh: Yes. I think they did very well in
Overall 5,6,7,8, terms of presentation. Sometimes they
appraisal 9,10 gave very good examples (M5L75).
about SJ: The second activity was to ask
activities students to teach. They did very well
(M9L112).
REVD 2,3,4,5, 37 Josh: Oh. It is not because of me. I
Evaluating 6,7,8,9, prepared the useful expressions for
of decisions 10 making presentation for them. I asked
them to pick expressions from them and
use them (M3L41).
Chelsea: However, I suggested her to
prepare for some plots. If she only asked
them to relay the story by using the
phrases, she would not be able to control
the class (M9L306)
Note. F = Frequency of codes; Source = Meeting; Key words in data are stressed
by the researcher.
 Reflection in a Community of Practice for Professional Development 63

their benefits, so Josh believed that this strategy might also help his
students with their learning. This was evidence of sustained transformative
learning. Josh not only adopted the use of reflective journals to support his
own learning, but also adopted this strategy in his teaching practice to help
his students learn. The goal of this PD program, which was to help
teachers learn new strategies to improve their teaching practices, was
achieved.
The other participants also used reflection-in-action during the
meetings. At Meeting 4, Yang reflected on her practice after watching the
video recording of her classroom teaching. Chelsea too reflected in
Meeting 7 on why her student activity was not as effective as she expected;
while SJ reflected on her organization of the silent discussion activity in
Meeting 9. These reflections exemplified the idea that when these teachers
took the opportunity to reflect on their practice, reflection-on-action
enabled them to identify and seek for solutions for problems in their
teaching.

Teacher Reflection-in-Anticipation

The other category of reflective practice evident in the meetings was

reflection-in-anticipation demonstrated when the teachers anticipated
possible problems in future practice; when they explained future strategies;
and when they made recommendations for potential solutions to problems
in teaching. Table 4-2 below presents key codes and examples of
reflection-in-anticipation practices.
Instances of reflection-in-anticipation were coded into three principal
categories: statement of possible problems in future practice (18 instances),
explanation of future strategies (14 instances), and recommendations for
potential solutions (8 instances). While there were instances of
reflection-in-anticipation in some form across all the meetings except for
Meeting 9, overall, instances of reflection-in-anticipation were much less
frequent than reflection-on-action.
As quoted in Table 4-2, in Meeting 3, when talking about the criteria
for the peer-evaluation activity, SJ raised the question about how they
would give feedback to students who, despite their poor English
pronunciation, they had made progress in their oral communication. SJ
reflected on potential solutions to a problem she anticipated she would
encounter when organizing new oral activities.
64 Chapter Four

Table 4-2: Key codes and examples of teacher reflection-in-anticipation

in the CoP.

Codes Source F Examples

ISPFP 3,4,5,7,8, 18 SJ: If they have made some

Statement of 9 progress, for example the sound
possible problems “r”, they are trying to correct it,
in future practice do we need to put it under the
column weak points? Or
improvement? (M3L166)
Chelsea: If you ask them to
prepare all the questions, how
can they practise their thinking?
(M9L86)
REXF 1,2,3,4,7, 14 Josh: I would like to include it
Explanation of 9 in presentation to see whether
future strategies the structure of their presentation
is logical or not. For example
whether this part should be here
or not... (M7L16)
RPS 1,3,4,5,6, 8 Chelsea: Oh, yes, I think this is
Recommendations 9 very good. If we divide them into
for potential many groups, we cannot easily
solutions find out how well they are doing.
If we ask one group to discuss
while the rest of the groups are
doing peer-evaluation, it can be
much more effective (M5L114).
Note. F = Frequency of codes; Source = Meeting; Key words are stressed by the
researcher.

When the teachers discussed the journal articles, their discussions also
involved reflection-in-anticipation. The reading materials facilitated
discussions, during which the participants considered the possibility of
adapting new oral activities to their classrooms. These teachers explained
their planned future strategies over Meetings 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9. For
instance, in Meeting 4, Yang planned to show the video recording of her
teaching practice to her students. In Meeting 7, Josh planned to add one
more criteria for peer-evaluation, while Chelsea suggested in Meeting 5
 Reflection in a Community of Practice for Professional Development 65

that asking one group of students to have discussions while the other
groups were doing peer-evaluation would be more time-effective for
judging how well the students engaged in the activity.

The Effects of Reflection

The effects of reflection in the PD programme were evident in
instances where the teachers were motivated to organise new activities,
they were positive about the progress of their students, and they were
confident in their teaching. In the post-PD interview, Chelsea reported that
she valued the opportunities for reflection and the habit of reflection
continued after she completed this PD programme.
Yang also wrote in the electronic interview that her teaching had
improved and she had also learned much from the other participants:

…I think my teaching is more active, more efficient and much richer since
I adopted other teacher’s class activities and accepted their advice on my
teaching after they watched the video of my class.
(Later)

… I did learn a lot of things from my colleagues. For example, some

activities such as story-inventing, news report, altering the ending of the
story in the textbook and so on and also some very useful information. (Yang:
ePostPD) (Key words are italicised and emphasized by the researcher)

Yang was pleased with the improvements in her teaching that had
developed from sharing practice and learning with the other participants.
Similar to the words she used to evaluate good teaching in the pre-PD
interview, she viewed her teaching as more active, efficient, and richer as a
result of attending the CoP, which to her were great improvements in her
teaching practices.
The reflective activities also helped the teachers to recognize students’
progress. For instance, in Meeting 6 Josh reported that his students had
made “great progress. Their critical thinking has been promoted” (M6L37).
In Meeting 8, Yang confirmed that after practising, her students could
peer-evaluate more effectively. In Meeting 9, SJ also gave detailed positive
comments on her students’ progress commenting that her students
performed well in their group work:

“The second activity was to ask students to teach. They did very well.
There were four groups of students doing that. The first group was OK.
66 Chapter Four

They chose one representative to present in front of the class. From the
second group… each group had its own characteristics. The second group
chose one student to ask questions, while another answered them. The third
group was more or less like our discussion. They played different roles
such as explaining words, explaining sentences, and explaining the
structure of the text. The fourth group played a mini-class. They also
answered questions raised by the rest of the class.” (M9L112)

As they undertook new activities, the teachers were not only confident
about sharing their experience with others, but also developed more
positive attitudes towards their students’ performance, and they also felt
comfortable allowing students to make some decisions about activities in
class. This represented a major transformation from the traditional
practices they brought to the CoP when they first joined the PD
programme.
SJ’s contribution in Meeting 9 is even more noteworthy, considering
that she was not an active proponent of reflection-on-action during the first
seven meetings. SJ was busy with her extra workload brought about by the
evaluation from the Ministry of Education that the department was
undergoing at the time of the study. It was only after the evaluation was
over that SJ managed to put into practice the techniques they had
discussed at the meetings. The new activities renewed her excitement
about teaching, and this illustrated how the PD programme contributed to
the development of a positive attitude towards teaching. This reinvigoration
was unexpected, and is a very positive outcome of the PD. It is also
indicative of the potential of the CoP model of PD to motivate teachers
intrinsically.

Conclusion
The study which this chapter draws on revealed that a range of stimuli
were needed to facilitate teacher reflection in this CoP. Teachers not only
shared their resources and practice but also utilised input from shared
readings which provided further stimuli for interaction. Watching video
recordings of teaching practice was found to be another effective tool in
fostering teacher reflection. This study contributes to the understanding of
how teachers learn through reflection in China because although the innate
sense of learning from critical reflection is present in the tenet of Chinese
philosophy, reflection is not typically practiced in traditional PD activities.
 Reflection in a Community of Practice for Professional Development 67

It was also found that during the processes of reflection, critical

feedback from group members and extended discussions assisted teachers
to reflect on their classroom teaching. Their reflective practices were
mainly concerned with reflection-on-action and reflection-in-anticipation.
Reflection-on-action enabled the teacher participants to identify and seek
solutions to problems in their teaching, and reflection-in-anticipation
helped them to be more prepared to try out new activities.
While the broad study, which this chapter draws on, contributed to a
better understanding of EFL teacher reflection through attending a PD
programme using a CoP framework, it was not without its limitations. This
study was conducted in an EFL context in one Chinese university. A small
sample of four participants was used in the case study to understand the
complexities of implementing the CoP model of transformative learning.
Increasing the sample size or implementing PD using this framework in
various EFL contexts may provide a more detailed picture of second
language teacher reflection and learning in CoPs.
Albeit its limitations and small scale outcomes, this study contributed
significantly to a wider educational knowledge and understanding of
designing effective second language teacher PD programs.

Acknowledgements
This project was sponsored by the Scientific Research Foundation for
the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry, China.

References
Abadiano, H. R., & Turner, J. (2004). Professional staff development:
What works? New England Reading Association Journal, 40(2), 87.
Ball, D. L., & Cohen, D. K. (1999). Developing practice, developing
practitioners: Toward a practice-based theory of professional education.
In L. Darling-Hammond & G. Sykes (Eds.), Teaching as the learning
profession (pp. 3-32). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning:
Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33(8), 3-15.
Boud, D. (2001). Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice. New
Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 90, 9-17.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1999). The teacher research movement:
A decade later. Educational Researcher, 28(7), 15-25.
Dai, W. (2008). The report of foreign languages education development in
68 Chapter Four

tertiary education (1978-2008). Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Languagues

Education Press.
Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M. W. (1996). Policies that
support professional development in an era of reform. In M. W.
McLaughlin & I. Oberman (Eds.), Teacher learning: New policies,
new practices (pp. 202-218). New York: Teachers College Press.
De Bono, E. (1994). De Bono’s thinking course (Rev. ed.). New York:
Facts on File.
Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective
thinking to the educative process. Boston: Heath.
DuFour, R. (2004). What is a “professional learning community”?
Education Leadership, 61(8), 6-11.
Fullan, M., & Hargreaves, A. (1992). Understanding teacher development.
New York: Teachers College Press.
Guo, S. (2005). Exploring current issues in teacher education in China.
The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 51(1), 69-84.
Guskey, T.R., & Huberman, M. (1995). Professional development in
education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Handley, K., Sturdy, A., Fincham, R., & Timothy, C. (2006). Within and
beyond Communities of Practice: Making sense of learning through
participation, identity and practice. Journal of Management Studies,
43(3), 641-653.
Hoban, G. F. (2002). Teacher learning for educational change: A systems
thinking approach. Buckingham, England: Open University Press.
Killion, J. P., & Todnem, G. R. (1991). A process for personal theory
building. Educational Leadership, 48(6), 14-16.
Meskill, C., & Anthony, N. (2007). Learning to orchestrate online
instructional conversations: A case of faculty development for foreign
language educators. Computer Assisted language Learning, 20(1),
5-19.
Mezirow, J. (1981). An critical theory of adult learning and education.
Adult Education, 32(1), 3-24.
Neubert, G. A., & McNelis, S. J. (1986). Improving writing in the
disciplines. Educational Leadership, 43(7), 54-58.
NPPSC (1993). Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Jiaoshi Fa [Teacher Law
of People's Republic of China]. Beijing: China Legal Publishing
House.
O’Connell, T., & Dyment, J. (2006). Reflections on using journals in
higher education: A focus group discussion with faculty. Assessment &
Evaluation in Higher Education, 31(6), 671-691.
 Reflection in a Community of Practice for Professional Development 69

Robson, S., & Turner, Y. (2007). ‘Teaching is a co-learning experience’:

Academics reflecting on learning and teaching in an ‘internationalized’
faculty. Teaching in Higher Education, 12(1), 41-54.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think
in action. London: Temple Smith.
—. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for
teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Villegas-Reimers, E. (2003). Teacher professional development: an
international review of the literature. UNESCO: International Institute
for Educational Planning.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and
identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, J. P. (2008). Reflection-on-the-future: A chronological consideration
of reflective practice. Reflective Practice, 9(2), 177-184.
Yeo, R. K. (2006). Learning institution to learning organization. Journal of
European Industrial Training, 30(5), 396.
Zeichner, K. M., & Liston, D. P. (1996). Reflective teaching: An
introduction. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates.
ISSUES IN TEACHER IDENTITY
AND TEACHER COGNITION
 CHAPTER FIVE

ELICITING LANGUAGE TEACHERS’

NARRATIVES OF PRACTICE
FOR PROFESSIONAL GROWTH

ROBYN MOLONEY AND LESLEY HARBON

Abstract
This chapter reports the process of a project in which Australian
language teacher narratives were elicited and subsequently published. It
reports how the authors worked with twenty-one Australian language
teachers, to guide them in writing personal and professional narratives of
practice. The chapter explores the design, methodology and outcomes of
the project. It contributes to the emerging research literature which
captures the inner worlds of language teachers and the nature of language
teaching and learning as a social and educational activity. The project is
informed by both the academic literature on narrative enquiry and
knowledge of current issues in language teaching and learning. The
chapter tracks the authors’ engagement with the teachers in a process of
scaffolded reflection and intercultural enquiry involved in the writing and
editing of the narratives. The project identifies three types of challenge in
the narrative writing and contributes to research in language teacher
education.

Introduction
The use of narrative enquiry has become an important tool in exploring
language teacher knowledge, practice and identity (Barkhuizen, Benson, &
Chik, 2013; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Farrell, 2007; Golombek &
Johnson, 2004). Narrative reveals relationships fundamental to teacher
learning in language education, and how the movement between languages
and cultures forms an understanding of oneself as a communicator and
 Language Teachers’ Narratives of Practice for Professional Growth 73

learner. A deeper understanding of teachers’ life-worlds aligns with deeper

understanding of their learners’ development in the classroom.
This chapter reports how the authors worked with twenty-one
Australian language teachers, to guide them in writing their own personal
and professional narratives of practice (Harbon & Moloney, 2013). Unlike
other studies where reflective narrative writing has been produced for
pedagogic purposes within teacher professional development, especially
in-service (Farrell, 2011) and pre-service teachers (Moloney & Oguro,
2015), in this current project the teachers were working in geographical
isolation and were not linked to any kind of narrative writer community.
The purpose of the narrative writing and reflection project was twofold.
First, as researchers, we wished to design and explore a methodology for
gathering teachers’ stories, often silent in the scholarly literature, allowing
these stories to represent a deconstruction and analysis of language
teaching practice at the individual/personal level. Secondly, as language
teacher educators, we believed that such a collection would, for the first
time, offer both role-model exemplars, important in the shaping of
beginner teachers’ professional identities (Dimova & Loughran, 2009),
and a portrait of the diversity of languages and of teaching contexts within
the Australian landscape.
This chapter first considers the literature which informed our
understanding of the place and role of narrative enquiry in language
teacher research. It then presents an analysis of our methodology in
eliciting the stories, through the initial conceptualisation, the development
of framing questions, the writing support and editing processes. The
chapter tracks the authors’ engagement with the teachers in a process of
scaffolded reflection and intercultural enquiry involved in the writing and
editing of their narratives. Three types of challenge are identified based on
feedback received from the teachers. Finally, the applications and use of
the collection of teacher narratives, in both undergraduate and
postgraduate language teacher education, are discussed.

The Role of Narrative Enquiry

According to Josselson (2013) “human life is composed of stories.
Narratives construct memory, organise time, and create identity” (p. 3).
Stories allow us to find and create ‘order’, in what otherwise might be a
chaotic series of events, facts and feelings. Narrative inquiry has been
found to be a methodology by which teachers can learn from questioning
and investigating their own and others’ narratives. Narrative inquiry
entails “a significant measure of reflection on either an event or an
74 Chapter Five

experience, a significant portion of a life, or the whole of it” (Freeman,

2006, p. 131). The inquiry investigation involves examining what the story
was about, determining and targeting what was told, and then examining
the ‘why’, ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘by whom’ about past events and lived
experiences. A set of suitable questions can frame a narrative, so that the
writer is encouraged to include the ‘why’, ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘by whom’
elements. When teachers inquire into their own or others’ narratives,
according to Johnson and Golombek, (2002) they “individually and
collectively question their own assumptions as they uncover who they are,
where they have come from, what they know and believe, and why they
teach as they do” (p. 5).
Narrative enquiry represents both methodology and process
(Barkhuizen et al., 2013) in the investigation of language teachers’
development. The collection of language teacher narratives to which this
chapter refers (see Harbon & Moloney, 2013), sits alongside a number of
recent publications which have focused on the use of reflective narrative as
an important tool in teacher education (Blake, 2012; Johnston & Golombek,
2002; Kiernan, 2010; Mattos, 2009; Ritchie & Wilson, 2000; Trahar,
2011).
Underpinning the project is the understanding of reflection in Dewey’s
writing. In Dewey’s (1933) analysis, reflection is an attempt to bring
coherence to unclear or obscure experience, made up of the interplay
between two operations, observation and inference. While observation is
concerned with concrete events, inference goes further and makes a
supposition or forms a hypothesis to interpret or explain phenomena.
Schön (1987, 1991) also proposed that reflection can be seen as a form of
‘conversation’ with the self about an incident. Goodson’s (2013, p. 123)
notion of reflection as a capacity to “re-self in new social settings and
geographical locations” is pertinent to this current project, observing the
many adaptations which teachers must make to re-self, both through
interactions with languages and cultures, and through teaching in remote
locations.
Scarino (2013) has noted that language teachers as storytellers are
“interpreters” (p. iv), that is, the writer will have in mind his/her own
meaning, but readers will also take their own interpretations from those
stories. Our concern, similarly, is that the reader audience of the collection,
which is largely other language teachers, will make meaning from the
narratives which, in turn, casts light on their own development, in their
own professional context.
Sercu (2006) has asserted that language teachers need skills in
reflection, to be able to facilitate enquiry into language and culture, as part
 Language Teachers’ Narratives of Practice for Professional Growth 75

of language learning. This is best developed in teachers “taking part

themselves in learning experiences which involve risk and reflection”
(Byram, Gribkova, & Starkey, 2002, p. 30). If our narratives are “central
to what we see and how we interpret it” (Gipps, 1999, p. 370), then the use
of narrative to unlock this learning in language teachers is a powerful tool
in the development of a critical perspective on pedagogy and practice.
Coffey (2014) has noted that the collection of narratives, which ensued
from this project, offers diverse exemplars of the effectiveness of narrative
enquiry as a methodological research field. The narratives give readers
opportunity to access lived practice and pedagogy, and, as noted, to
examine their discipline through the narrative lens.

The Study
Both authors of this chapter have been involved in the teaching of
languages and cultures in Australia for more than 30 years apiece, and
both have many years’ knowledge of the Australian language teaching
community, through our own teaching experience, our tertiary roles in
language teacher education, and within teacher professional networks. The
steps we followed to elicit and guide language teachers to produce these
narratives broke new ground in that university academics worked
alongside school language teachers to value and publish teachers’ writing.
While this project was not empirical research in the traditional sense, we
approached the project as though it were structured research.

Methodology
Narrative enquiry may be considered an “alternative paradigm for
social research” (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998). Barkhuisen
et al. (2013) assert that there is no single way of carrying out a narrative
enquiry study, and that each new study may bring with it a new approach.
Our design of the project constituted five stages of process. The design
was informed by both the academic literature focused on the current issues
in languages teaching and learning today, and our own contextual
knowledge of practice and networks in schools. We acknowledge that our
design, construction and interpretation of the project may have been
shaped by our own experience and beliefs (Glesne & Peshkin, 1992).
First, we recruited our teacher writers using our knowledge of the
language teacher community in Australia. Using a convenience sampling
technique (Marshall, 1996), we contacted teachers whose work we already
knew to be accomplished or who were active in their language teaching
76 Chapter Five

professional networks. We devised a sample of possible participants,

whom we considered to be interested and willing to write a reflective
narrative of their personal and professional practice. The sampling was
also shaped by the desire to have different languages, different
(Australian) geographical contexts, and different pedagogical issues
represented. Cognizant of the intensity of school teaching schedules, we
structured the timeline of the project to optimize teacher free time during
school holidays.
Second, as scaffolding to the narrative, we devised a list of generic
enquiry questions. The questions, intended as a guide only, asked teachers
to consider, for example, where languages began in their life story, why
they became a language teacher, what they are seeking to achieve in their
teaching. Further, teachers were asked, in regard to the particular issue
with which they had some affiliation, why and how the issue has
challenged them, what pedagogy and strategies bring about effective
learning, and how they may extend their work further in this focus area.
The questions were designed to provide the teachers with freedom, yet
supporting a consistent structure for the depth of reflection and
investigation we intended. The focus issues included the teaching of
Aboriginal languages, heritage or community languages; teaching
language in rural schools; teaching gifted and talented students; boys and
language learning; immersion/content and language integrated learning
(CLIL) programs; teaching classical languages; and teaching with a focus
on intercultural enquiry. We asked the teachers first for a one- to two-
paragraph outline. After providing some feedback to each, the teachers
then submitted a final draft outline. They were then encouraged to write up
their narrative. Third, following submission of a narrative draft, we
critically observed the individual teacher’s engagement with reflection,
that is, to what extent teachers had moved beyond observation to inference
(Dewey, 1933). We devised a second set of individualized personal
questions to interrogate aspects of their draft.
Fourth, we engaged in collaborative communication with teachers in
which we encouraged further investigation of some aspects of their story.
Finally we completed very limited processes of final editing, mindful of
the importance of the authenticity of teacher voices.

Participants
The project involved 21 teachers in total. Four of them were male,
which reflects the gender imbalance in language education (Sunderland,
2000). All but two had more than five years’ teaching experience. Eleven
 Language Teachers’ Narratives of Practice for Professional Growth 77

of the 21 language teachers had learned their teaching language(s) through

formal school and university study-that is, although the term is contested
(Samimy & Kurihara, 2006), these teachers may be referred to as non-
native speakers (NNS) of their teaching language. For eight teachers, their
language(s) represented an important part of their personal family identity
and immigration history. Of those eight, two were born in Australia, and,
in their early development they would have been characterized as ‘heritage
speakers’ of their teaching language (Carriera, 2004; Valdes, 2001). Seven
contributors had engaged with, or were currently involved with,
postgraduate education. The languages taught by the contributing language
teachers include Noongar and Gamilaraay (two Aboriginal languages),
Japanese, German, Indonesian, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Latin, Hindi,
and Arabic. Our own narratives of practice, written to share in the
complexity of the task asked of the teachers and also to identify and
critique our own educational perspectives and motivations, included our
languages of Indonesian, German, Japanese, and French. All teachers have
been de-identified and ascribed a number (T1, T2, T3, etc.) in the
reporting of the results below.

Results
We worked with the language teachers over a period of 14 months. The
teachers unanimously reported a sense of enjoyment, even honour, that
two academics were taking an interest in their professional work and the
personal stories embedded in that work.
Yet the teachers variously reported to us, in personal communications
via telephone or emails, that they faced a number of challenges in writing
their narratives. We classified these challenges into three areas: (i) teacher
courage to write despite little experience; (ii) teachers’ own professional
learning as a result of reflective writing; and (iii) teachers’ difficulty in
labelling their core rationale for their narratives. Each of these notions is
outlined in the sections below.

Courage to Write Despite Little Experience with Academic

Writing
The teachers, while courageous in taking the challenge, nevertheless
reported to us that they were daunted as first-time narrative writers, both
through the task lying outside their regular activities, and the unfamiliarity
of the literacy genre. The narrative-writing represented a first academic
writing task and publication for all but four of the language teachers. Also,
78 Chapter Five

as noted, above, eight teachers were writing in English as a second or third

language. While all were fully qualified to teach in schools, they had a
variety of educational backgrounds, and a variety of pathways of
acquisition of the language(s) they were teaching in their schools. For
example, T1 and T2 had to both engage with journeys of discovery and re-
connection with their Aboriginal heritage communities, and then with
learning their family language, before being able to teach it.
Choosing where to pitch their writing, and finding the desired ‘tone’ of
their narrative, was a challenge for many. There is an inherent
contradiction and difficulty in writing personally in the first person, for a
publication which will essentially sit in the academic arena. For some,
there was the challenge to move from the hyperbole of spoken language to
written language, while others struggled to avoid over-formal ‘essay’
writing language, as can be seen in these comments:

“I’m not sure exactly what text type I am writing to. I remember when I
first finished writing it the first time and thought it over, I felt that it came
out like an essay, and I wanted to change it to be less like an argument and
more like my personal experience. However, having that said to me...
should I write more/less formally?” (T17, personal communication, 19
April, 2012)

Teacher 3 begins his narrative being self-aware of his limitations:

“How can I write the ephemeral? How, despite the assurances of Paul
Riceour (1976) can I capture moments that are always already gone? ..I
habitually barge through life, blinkers on, eyes fixed ahead? I have never
kept a journal. My repertoire consists of dusty academic prose, brisk
business-speak, and paint-peeling polemic.” (T3, Harbon & Moloney,
2013, p. 38)

Some teachers reported they experienced a challenge because of the

need to go beyond observation, to inference (Dewey, 1933). This difficulty
of getting beyond description, to achieve critical reflection in narratives,
has been observed in many other studies of reflective narratives (Bagnall,
2005; Moloney & Oguro, 2015). Our strategy was to draft individualized
enquiry questions (the third stage in our methodological process), and to
engage in phone and email dialogue with a number of them after the
completion of their first draft, to encourage them to dig deeper into critical
incidents in their narratives, often involving an exploration of the deeper
meaning of their teaching. We wrote to one contributor by email:
 Language Teachers’ Narratives of Practice for Professional Growth 79

“We especially love the personal stuff, in your first person voice, like
paragraph 4 (wonderful). It’s nice how you are moving in and out of that
voice. But keep as much of it personal as possible, your experiences
(examples of what it means to kids, kids’ responses, community input) and
what it meant to you to have both learnt and taught the language, and
helped kids learn it, and now supporting more teachers.” (Researchers,
6/2/12)

Difficulty in Labelling the Core Rationale for their Narratives

The teachers needed to be encouraged to speak their mind, and add the
very core of their rationale or argument to their stories. All contributors
indicated that they wanted to write a meaningful message for other
language teachers, but needed critical guidance on their writing, to finally
produce a set of narratives that achieve their desire to inspire and impact
other teachers’ understandings, resilience and practice.
Knowing we were encouraging the expression of a community of
practice in these narratives (Lave & Wenger, 1999), we allowed and
encouraged the frequent use of the first person pronouns ‘we/our’. T10
wrote:

“We should all be encouraged to be the best teachers we can be… if we

demonstrate this passion, enthusiasm and zeal for teaching and learning
languages, our boys will perceive it and respond to it.” (T10, Harbon &
Moloney, 2013, p. 97)

T11’s final words were strong: “Our classrooms must provide challenge
matched with requisite support for students to succeed…” (T11, Harbon &
Moloney, 2013, p, 109). T17’s words embed him alongside his teacher
peers, advocating a joining together to acknowledge what is achieved in
language teaching:

“To be a language teacher is to be an advocate of language learning and the

culture of your chosen language. How can we truly do that without having
experienced some of that culture ourselves.” (T17, Harbon & Moloney,
2013, p. 165)

T2’s final inclusive call turns political. She writes:

“I have developed personally and professionally through trying to examine

my language teaching. Personally it has enabled me to find out about my
familial and my cultural heritage…I believe that individual teachers like
me, can create ripples in the language pond. We need to lobby
80 Chapter Five

however…to turn these ripples into large waves.” (T2, Harbon & Moloney,
2013, pp. 32-33)

We encouraged teachers to consider their narratives as a professional

contribution to their own communities. For example, T13’s final words
were: “I hope that this narrative proves a useful role model framework of
professional development, to offer to my peers in Chinese language
education” (T13, Harbon & Moloney, 2013, p. 127). Similarly T14 sets
out her particular self-aware mission to her Australian Latin teacher
community. She writes:

“I sit at my writing table surrounded by recent books on the teaching of

Latin and Classical Greek….In none of these books is there any mention of
Australia. It is my belief, however, that the current Australian scene shows
a level of energy, creativity and originality found in few places elsewhere. I
take great pleasure, therefore, in telling this story…” (T13, Harbon &
Moloney, 2013, p. 128)

Professional Learning as a Result of the Reflective Writing

Teachers may come to new understandings of their practice and of
languages education as a result of reflection and writing. A number of
contributors provided us with feedback that the act of written reflection
attached value, for the first time, to their development, their story as a
language teacher. As one contributor put it: “Looking back, I can see how
the varied experiences in my life have shaped the type of language teacher
I am today” (T15, Harbon & Moloney, 2013, p. 142).
Another teacher wrote: “Writing this chapter has helped me to reflect
on my past experience and gain a deeper understanding of my values and
their connections with my own teaching practice…” (T13, Harbon &
Moloney, 2013, p. 126). This validation of personal story has also been
found in studies of the use of reflective narrative in pre-service language
teachers (Moloney & Oguro, 2015). It has particular significance in
teachers’ understanding of their own personal role, and their stories, in
sharing with students an intercultural approach to language teaching and
learning.
Coffey’s (2014) review of the published volume of teachers’ narratives
lists the many suitable audiences for the narratives, possible uses, and
asserts that readers “will find resonance with their own experience” (p.
348). In our work as teacher educators, we have used the narratives in
workshops with our own pre-service language teachers, to discuss teacher
development, pedagogies, the variety of issues impacting languages
 Language Teachers’ Narratives of Practice for Professional Growth 81

education in Australia, and the value of reflective practice itself. We have

developed a set of enquiry questions for each chapter, which can be shared
with interested educators. We have liaised with international colleagues, to
facilitate the use of the narratives also in postgraduate teacher education
study. An online video resource is also available on Youtube.

Conclusion
This chapter has investigated a project in which Australian language
teacher narratives were elicited and published in a book. It contributes to
the research literature which recognizes the value of narrative enquiry in
capturing the inner worlds of language teachers and the nature of language
teaching and learning as a social and educational activity. The project was
informed by both the academic literature of narrative enquiry, and
knowledge of current issues on language teaching and learning. The
chapter has outlined the methodology developed for this particular context
and tracked the authors’ engagement with the teachers in a process of
scaffolded reflection and intercultural enquiry involved in the writing and
editing processes. Finally, three types of challenge in the narrative writing
were identified and discussed.
The project was limited in a number of ways. Firstly, while the purpose
of the project was to capture narrative snapshots of teachers at specific
points in their career, the project would have benefited from being
longitudinal, enabling follow-up activity to be undertaken with the
teachers. Secondly, we also note that teachers may have benefited from
being placed in a community with each other, and generated their
narratives in more diverse community social interaction, rather than just
communication with the researchers. This can be easily enabled in the
future through online social media, and will be a feature of intended
further work in this area. Similarly, while the intent was to allow the
teachers to write uninterrupted and largely unsupervised, data collection
mid-task would enable analysis of the teachers’ reflection process.
The project contributes to research in language teacher education and
development. There are a number of emerging applications and uses for
the collection of narratives, in both undergraduate and postgraduate
language teacher education.
82 Chapter Five

References
Bagnall, N. (2005). Teacher cultural reflection and cultural action
learning: Researching a cultural dimension in teacher education.
Ethnography and Education European Review, 4, 101-116.
Barkhuizen, G., Benson, P., & Chik, A. (2013). Narrative inquiry in
language teaching and learning research. London: Routledge.
Blake, P. W. (2012). Becoming a teacher: Using narrative as reflective
practice. A cross-disciplinary approach (Counterpoints: Studies in the
Postmodern Theory of Education). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Byram, M., Gribkova, B., & Starkey, H. (2002). Developing the
intercultural dimension in language teaching: A practical introduction
for teachers. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
Carreira, M. (2004). Seeking explanatory adequacy: A dual approach to
understanding the term “Heritage Language Learner”. Heritage
Language Journal, 2(1), 1-25.
Cameron, T. (2013). Ripples in the pond. In L. Harbon & R. Moloney
(Eds.), Language teachers’ narratives of practice (pp. 22-36).
Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience
and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Coffey, S. (2014). Language teachers’ narratives of practice: Book review.
The Language Learning Journal, 42(3), 346-349.
doi: 10.1080/09571736.2014.950012
Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective
thinking to the educational process. Lexington, MA: Heath.
Dimova, Y., & Loughran, J. J. (2009). Developing a big picture
understanding of reflection in pedagogical practice. Reflective
Practice, 10(2), 205-217.
Farrell, T. S. C. (2007). Reflective language teaching: From research to
practice. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Freeman, M. (2006). Life ‘on holiday’? In defence of big stories.
Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), 131-138.
Gibb, B. (2013). Eyes Wide Opened. In L. Harbon & R. Moloney (Eds.),
Language teachers’ narratives of practice (pp. 158-166). Newcastle
Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Gipps, C. B. (1999). Sociocultural aspects of assessment. Review of
Research in Education, 24(1), 355-392.
Glesne, C., & Peshkin, A. (1992). Becoming qualitative researchers: An
introduction. White Plains, NY: Longman.
 Language Teachers’ Narratives of Practice for Professional Growth 83

Goldstein, M. (2013). “They bombed us” - Teaching Japanese in country

New South Wales: Privelege and parochialism. In L. Harbon & R.
Moloney (Eds.), Language teachers’ narratives of practice (pp. 37-47).
Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Golombek, P. R., & Johnson, K. E. (2004). Narrative inquiry as a mediational
space: Examining emotional and cognitive dissonance in second language
teachers’ development. Teachers and Teaching, 10(3), 307-327.
Goodson, I. (2003). Professional knowledge, professional lives.
Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Harbon, L., & Moloney, R. (2013). Language teachers’ narratives of
practice. Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Hwang, C. (2013). Boys and language education. In L. Harbon & R.
Moloney (Eds.), Language teachers’ narratives of practice (pp. 90-99).
Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Johnson, K. E., & Golombek, P. R. (2002). Teachers’ narrative inquiry as
professional development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Josselson, R. (2013). Interviewing for qualitative inquiry: A relational
approach. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Kiernan, P. (2010). Narrative identity in English language teaching:
Exploring teacher interviews in Japanese and English. Melbourne,
Vic: Palgrave MacMillan
Kleinsasser, R. C. (2013). Language teachers: Research and studies in
language(s) education, teaching, and learning. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 29, 86-96.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1999). Learning and pedagogy in communities of
practice. In J. Leach & B. Moon (Eds.), Learners and pedagogy (pp.
21-33). London: The Open University.
Liang, J. (2013). One teacher’s exploration of the personal and the
professional. In L. Harbon & R. Moloney (Eds.), Language teachers’
narratives of practice (pp. 120-127). Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research:
Reading, analysis, and interpretation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Marshall, M. N. (1996). Sampling for qualitative research. Family
Practice, 13(6), 522-526.
Matters, E. (2013). Audio, video, disco: Listening, watching and learning
as a classics teacher in Australia. In L. Harbon & R. Moloney (Eds.),
Language teachers’ narratives of practice (pp. 128-139). Newcastle
Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Mattos, A. M. A. (2009). Narratives on teaching and teacher education:
an international perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
84 Chapter Five

Mehta, M., & Mahoney, C. (2013). Collaboration calling: My crusade to

make community languages mainstream. In L. Harbon & R. Moloney
(Eds.), Language teachers’ narratives of practice (pp. 140-147).
Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Mizoshiri, S. (2013). Teaching Japanese to gifted and talented girls. In L.
Harbon & R. Moloney (Eds.), Language teachers’ narratives of
practice (pp. 100-110). Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing.
Moloney, R., & Oguro, S. (2015). The effect of intercultural narrative
reflection in shaping pre-service teachers’ future practice. Reflective
Practice, 16(1), 96-108.
Richards, J. C., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2011). Practice teaching: A reflective
approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ritchie, J. S., & Wilson, D. E. (2000). Teacher narrative as critical
inquiry: Rewriting the script (Practitioner Inquiry Series). New York:
Columbia University Teachers College Press.
Samimy, K. K., & Kurihara, Y. (2006). Nonnative speaker teachers. In K.
Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (2nd Ed.) (pp.
679-686). New York: Elsevier.
Scarino, A. (2013). Foreword. In L. Harbon & R. Moloney (Eds.),
Language teachers’ narratives of practice (pp. viii-xii). Newcastle
Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
—. (1991). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action.
Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
Sherratt, C. (2013). Learning and teaching an Australian Aboriginal
language in Western Australia. In L. Harbon & R. Moloney (Eds.),
Language teachers’ narratives of practice (pp. 16-21). Newcastle
Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Sercu, L. (2006). The foreign language and intercultural competence
teacher: The acquisition of a new professional identity. Intercultural
Education, 17(1), 55-72.
Sunderland, J. (2000). Issues of language and gender in second and
foreign language education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Trahar, S. (2011). (Ed.) Learning and teaching narrative enquiry:
travelling in the borderlands. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Valdés, G. (2001). Heritage language students: Profiles and possibilities.
In J. K. Peyton, D. A. Ranard, & S. McGinnis (Eds.), Heritage
languages in America: Preserving a national resource (pp. 37-80).
Washington: Center for Applied Linguistics.
 CHAPTER SIX

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AND ENGLISH

LANGUAGE TEACHING IN A DISCIPLINE-
SPECIFIC CONTEXT

MIMI NAHARIAH AZWANI MOHAMED,

KAREN MONI, AND CARMEN MILLS

Abstract
English for specific purposes (ESP) courses in higher education play a
crucial role in developing English language abilities in a workplace. Many
studies on ESP have surveyed the language needs of a discipline,
examined the implementation of ESP courses and evaluated the
effectiveness of ESP courses or programmes. In Malaysia, ESP
practitioners are generally of English as a second language (ESL) teachers
and have been trained to teach in schools. This suggests that these ESP
practitioners experience transitions in their conceptualisation of English
language teaching when they move to a university. These transitions
require them to reconstruct their professional identities. This study
investigated how one English language (EL) educator, who had moved
from a school to a university setting, conceptualised English language
teaching, identified himself within his institutional context, and managed
his teaching. A semi-structured interview was conducted to gather
knowledge about the EL educator’s beliefs about ESP, his institutional
context and his instructional practices. This chapter reports that the
interactions between the EL educator’s beliefs and the way he perceived
ESP and interpreted his institutional context created tensions in the
reconstruction of his professional identity, and in making decisions about
his instructional practices. The study highlights that the professional
identity construction process is a complex stage in teaching and learning,
particularly in teaching ESP.
86 Chapter Six

Introduction
In this globalised world, it is inevitable for professionals to be involved
in global interaction through various types of communication and English
is the most common language preferred for this purpose. In addition,
professionals need to communicate clearly and accurately, and work as a
team effectively in a workplace. Having strong communication skills is
important to build trust among team members and it is a great advantage in
securing employment (Zaugg & Davies, 2013). In engineering, there is a
great demand for engineering graduates to demonstrate communication
skills to secure employment in engineering fields (Talbot, Alley, Marshall,
Haas, Zappe, & Garner, 2013; Varwandkar & Deshmukh, 2013; Yusoff,
Omar, Zaharim, Mohamed, & Muhamad, 2012). Thus, English language
teaching in higher education contexts needs to provide a language learning
environment which reflects language use in workplace contexts. This calls
for English language teaching to change its focus from teaching
grammatical and linguistic aspects to teaching English for specific
purposes (ESP) for specific disciplines.
The main aim of ESP courses is to develop learners’ communicative
competence in English within a specific discipline or professional area
(Alexander, 2012; Hyland, 2003, 2007). With the need for a future
workforce to be able to communicate within a specific discipline, ESP
courses are expected to provide specialised English language discourses,
specifically for that discipline. Thus, English language teaching within
such a discipline-based context includes teaching the language,
communication skills and contents of a discipline as well as the language
itself. This requires English language educators to have knowledge of a
discipline, such as engineering so that they can appropriately address
students’ English language abilities and communication skills in an
engineering context (Mackiewicz, 2004). In addition, they need to be
informed about the demands in engineering industries so that they are able
to design an English language course which can support the development
of students’ English language abilities and communication skills for the
engineering field. The design of such a course should be domain-specific
in order to motivate students to participate actively in the learning process,
and see the relevance of the course to their engineering courses or fields
(Baik & Greig, 2009; Kirkgöz, 2009). However, English language
educators may not come from engineering backgrounds and thus, language
needs for engineering may not be effectively addressed in ESP courses.
In Malaysia, the educators who teach ESP are generally of an English
as a second language (ESL) background (Mustapha & Yahya, 2013).
 Professional Identity and English Language Teaching 87

These educators are well-equipped with linguistic knowledge and the

pedagogy of teaching the language. However, they may lack
understanding about language in a workplace or a discipline, such as
engineering. With limited understanding of the nature of ESP, as well as
knowledge about the demands in engineering, English language educators
may perceive their role only as ESL educators (Tan, 2011). As a result, the
ability to interact effectively in English within a particular discipline or in
a workplace such as in engineering industries may not be achieved. When
learning ESP, students need to have good command of English so that they
can focus on learning specialised language (Evans & Morrison, 2011).
However, studies have found that Malaysian undergraduates of science
and technical fields have a low proficiency level in English, making it
challenging for English language teaching to be contextualised into
engineering fields (Musa, 2002; Rafee, Mustafa, Shahabuddin, Razali, &
Hassan, 2012; Sidhu & Kaur, 2011). These issues about the qualification
of those teaching ESP and the language performance of the students in
higher education in Malaysia create challenging roles for English language
educators to equip future workforce with good English language abilities
and communication skills, particularly in engineering.

Background
The increasing need for teaching English for communicative competence
has led to the growth of ESP teaching in the 1980’s (Bhatia, 2007; Cheng,
2007; Hayati, 2008; Hyland, 2003, 2007). Within this time, ESP further
evolved and English for Academic Purposes (EAP)-English language
teaching for an academic context-emerged (Dudley-Evans & St John,
1998; Hyland & Hamp-Lyons, 2002; Jordan, 2002). Although there are
undeniable distinctions between ESP and EAP, the term ESP is more
relevant for this study. In Malaysia, the trend for teaching ESP grew in the
1990s (Abdullah, 2001).
When designing English language courses for a particular field, the
appropriateness of content to students’ disciplinary background is vital.
Evans (2013), for example, raised the need to develop materials based on
actual communicative activities and English language discourse in the
workplace environment in Hong Kong. He collected data from 1,478
business professionals in Hong Kong to inform the development of a
Business English course which provided an authentic workplace
environment. The study identified the commonly used language discourses
and communicative events in business. In another study, Flowerdew and
Wan (2010) investigated the language used by professional auditors in
88 Chapter Six

producing audit reports in Hong Kong. The authors reported that the
principles of accounting and auditing, management skills in the workplace
and knowledge about social situations, which determine appropriate
writing, were required to address English language needs in auditing and
accounting.
In addition to the relevance of the content, English language educators
also need to consider the specialised language discourse for a specific
context or discipline. Gabrielli, Gabrielli and Pahlm (2012) conducted an
investigation on contextualised English language teaching and learning
into maritime engineering at a university in Sweden. The researchers
reported that there was a disconnect between the language discourse learnt
in classrooms and the language discourse used in the workplace. This
disconnect may be due to educators’ limited understanding about the
workplace environment. In teaching ESP, English language educators need
to move from teaching general English to teaching specific English
(Basturkmen, 2012). While Gabrielli et al. (2012) suggested an appropriate
course design and teaching strategies to integrate language and content in
maritime engineering, questions arise about how English language
educators develop clear understandings of ESP, as well as ESP knowledge
and skills for a workplace and translate this into their teaching (Grosse &
Vought, 2012).
All the studies above highlighted the need for English language
educators to develop accurate knowledge of the communicative events and
language discourse of a particular discipline. This means that when
teaching English for engineering, English language educators should have
specialised knowledge and skills, which may be beyond their expertise in
English language teaching, and the rhetorical and linguistic conventions
involved in engineering industries. These key issues raise questions about
how English language educators could teach ESP effectively when they
are not equipped with expertise for teaching ESP.
Translating ESP into effective teaching and learning may also be
challenging. Evans and Green (2007), for example, investigated the
implementation of EAP courses at an English-medium university in Hong
Kong. They reported that these EAP courses paid limited attention to
grammatical aspects. In Malaysia, Muhamad, Ahmad, Engku, Sarudin,
Abdul and Abdul (2013) found similar findings about lack of attention to
addressing grammatical aspects in EAP courses. The findings in both
studies highlighted that the need to teach the content of the course may
outshine the linguistics or grammatical aspect of the language in the
educators’ instructional practices. In order to develop students’ English
language, ESP should ensure students’ mastery of English, content and
 Professional Identity and English Language Teaching 89

communicative abilities (Danilova & Pudlowski, 2007; Ngah, Radzuan,

Fauzi, & Abidin, 2011; Riemer, 2007; Spence & Liu, 2013). This raises
concerns over balancing between content, language and communications
skills in teaching ESP as balancing these three elements can be
problematic (see Dannels, Anson, Bullard, & Peretti, 2003).
Issues around students’ limited proficiency in English and motivation
may also cause challenges to teach ESP (Gupta, 2013). Several studies
have reported issues associated with Malaysian undergraduates’ limited
English language proficiency and motivations towards learning the
language (Ahmad & Jusoff, 2009; Gill & Williams, 2013; Musa, Koo, &
Azman, 2012a, 2012b; Radzuan & Kaur, 2011; Shah, Hashim, Yusof, Din,
Karim, & Abd-Rahman, 2013).
With limited proficiency in understanding and using English, students
struggle in learning English for a specific field. Evans and Morrison
(2011), for example, investigated the experiences of 28 first year students
of business, applied sciences, textile and health and social sciences in
overcoming language-related challenges in Hong Kong. The authors
reported that students had difficulties in understanding discipline-specific
technical terms during lectures and the extent to which these difficulties
were resolved depended on the students’ education background and their
existing language abilities. This suggests that when students have limited
proficiency in English, using materials which are discipline-specific, for
example materials from the engineering discipline, could impede their
learning process and specific learning outcomes may not be achieved.
Evaluating an ESP course is crucial in determining the effectiveness of
a course. Song (2006), for example, investigated the effectiveness of
content-based ESL instruction on students’ English language performance.
Although the study showed positive results in improving and enhancing
students’ English language performance, the process of developing
instructional practices to link language to content, or to a particular
discipline, needs to be examined, particularly in the area of ESL
educators’ and students’ identities in the classroom (Archer, 2008; Hyland,
2011; Zareva, 2013). Hyland (2011), for example, investigated how
academics constructed their identity in the context of the university as a
workplace. By examining the texts written in English, visual design and
hyperlinks of 100 homepages of academics from the field of philosophy
and physics, the researcher found that academics encountered tensions and
negotiations in constructing their online identity through their homepage.
This online identity is constructed based on what the academics perceived
relevant for their position in the context of their institution and on their
culturally valued attributes. This suggests that these academics do not have
90 Chapter Six

control over their online identity, raising questions about how the process
of constructing identities creates tensions and how these tensions are
negotiated.
English language educators are commonly equipped with teaching
pedagogies and knowledge about English language to teach in school
contexts (Bolitho, 2002; Kabilan & Izzaham, 2008; Ong, Ros, Amisha,
Azlian, Sharnti, & Ho, 2004; Zeichner, 2005). They are generally taught
about the principles, theories and practices that prepare them to teach
English for general purposes (Bolitho, 2002; Evans & Esch, 2013; Ong et
al., 2004; Tercanlioglu, 2004). Several studies have found that ESL
educators face challenges in transferring these pedagogies and teaching
skills to university contexts (Cross, 2010; Deng, 2004; Viczeko & Wright,
2010). For example, Alexander (2012) investigated ESL educators’ beliefs
about teaching EAP and reported that the two ESL educators who taught
EAP experienced conflicts between teaching language structure and
grammar and teaching functional language for academic contexts. The
findings emphasised the importance of developing knowledge and
understanding of teaching English for a particular context or discipline so
that they could position themselves within their educational contexts and
identify their roles.
In the case of moving from a school to the adult learning context of a
university, the transition may interfere with ESL educators’ professional
identities and affect their pedagogies and teaching approaches (Viczeko &
Wright, 2010). Kanno and Stuart (2011) investigated how novice ESL
teachers in the USA learned to teach. Their participants were two second-
year Master in TESOL students who had limited teaching experience.
They found that their participants who taught for the first time were not
able to position themselves as ESL educators and, therefore, were not able
to take control of teaching and learning. The participants were unclear of
their professional identity and thus faced challenges in framing their
teaching. This study showed that English language educators still
struggled with their professional identity even within the educational
setting that they were trained to work in. This raises potential challenges
for English language educators who move to teaching at higher education
institutions which place different demands on their knowledge with
expectations of higher levels of content knowledge and teaching skills
suitable for adult learning environments.
 Professional Identity and English Language Teaching 91

The Study
This study aimed to explore how an English language educator
conceptualised English language teaching and constructed his professional
identity within his institutional context. The primary site for the data
collection was a public technical university in Malaysia. The university
was located in a suburb where the use of English language was limited
outside of the English language classroom, and rare outside the university
community. This university specialised in technical education, focusing
primarily on engineering education.
An instrumental case study design was adopted in order to investigate
a phenomenon in its real life context and to capture the complex nature of
English language teaching, and the issue of English language teaching for
a specific discipline faced by an ESL educator who has moved from
teaching in a school to a university (Cousin, 2005; Johnson & Christensen,
2004; Neuman, 2011; Silverman & Marvasti, 2008; Stake, 2005; Yin,
2014). A single case study was employed to capture the ways in which the
English language educator conceptualised English language teaching in
one technical university. The insights obtained from this study may be
extended to other disciplines or contexts.
The study obtained data from two sources, i.e., documents and an
English language educator from a technical university in Malaysia, to gain
insights from two different perspectives (Flick, 2006; Hesse-Biber, 2010;
Lichtman, 2010). Documents were collected as they were stable and
outside the researcher’s influence (Marshall & Rossman, 2006; Swanborn,
2010). These documents provided information related to engineering
accreditation, engineering education, the university objectives and
graduate attributes, and English language curriculum documents which
provided data on the structure and the design of English language courses,
the content of these courses and the learning outcomes that needed to be
achieved. The information provided an understanding of the expectations
within engineering contexts, which created a connection with what was
being understood by ESL educators in developing and teaching the
English language courses.
The ESL educator, Jamal, had a qualification to teach English as a
second language in the school context. He had taught in a school for 13
years before being recruited by the university. At the time of the data
collection he had been teaching at this university for 4 years. For the
purpose of this study, he was interviewed to obtain data on his beliefs,
knowledge and teaching practices in teaching English within the
engineering education setting. Examples of the interview questions used in
92 Chapter Six

the data collection are: ‘What do you think about teaching English in a
university?’, ‘What are some of the strategies that you use to teach
engineering students?’, and ‘Are there any differences between teaching
English in a school and in a university?’ Using an interview provides a
way to access the participant’s points of view to understand an issue, in
this case, how the ESL educator conceptualised English language teaching
and how he constructed his professional identities (Kvale, 2007; Silverman
& Marvasti, 2008).
The data collected were analysed in order to explore the positioning of
English language courses and the ways in which English language
educators positioned themselves in the context of one technical university
in Malaysia. In addition, this study examined the ways ESL educators
managed the complexities of teaching English in engineering.

Results and Discussion

The Analysis of the Documents

The analysis of the programme description document revealed that the

university had developed 10 objectives. These objectives, which combined
the need for graduates to acquire engineering fundamentals and develop
technical as well as soft skills, were filtered before they were translated
into the learning outcomes of the English language courses. The Academic
Department, which manages issues related to programme quality
assurance and accreditation, was responsible for disseminating the
university objectives to all faculties to be translated into their courses.
Figure 6-1 below shows the translation process from the university
objectives to the course learning outcomes of the English language
courses. The analysis of course learning outcomes of the English language
courses revealed that only three out of 10 objectives were addressed. This
suggested that the objectives were filtered before they were translated into
the course learning outcomes of the English language courses. Further
investigation revealed that a decision was made at university level,
through the Academic Department that each course within a curriculum is
only required to address 3 outcomes. The department acknowledged that
by addressing no more than three objectives, each course could be
designed to focus on these selected objectives comprehensively. At the
end of an engineering programme, each course would play a role in
contributing to the achievement of all the university objectives.
 Professional Identity and English Language Teaching 93

Academic Department (University)

x Objectives

English Language Department

x Relevant university objectives selected

English Language Courses

x Course Learning Outcomes

Figure 6-1: The process of translating the university objectives into course learning
outcomes.

At the English Language Department, the objectives selected for the

English language courses were considered salient and relevant to English
language teaching. These university objectives (UO) were: ‘an ability to
communicate effectively’ (UO3), ‘recognition of the need for, and an
ability to engage in life-long learning’ (UO7) and ‘an ability to function
effectively in groups in ways that contribute to effective working
relationships’ (UO8). These university objectives were developed into the
learning outcomes of each English language course. However, there were
differences between the ways these learning outcomes were written at the
English Language Department and the learning outcomes found in the
documents obtained from all engineering departments regarding the
outcomes that English language courses need to achieve. For example, the
Mechanical Engineering faculty recorded in their curriculum document
that the English language courses should address the first programme
learning outcome (PLO) which required students to ‘acquire and apply
knowledge of science and engineering fundamentals’ (PLO1) and ‘to
communicate effectively both in written and spoken forms with engineers,
other professionals and community’ (PLO3). This suggested that English
language educators should provide opportunities for students to learn
engineering fundamentals and develop English language skills relevant for
the engineering field. In addition, the design of English language courses
needs to support the development of English language for communication
in engineering contexts. However, none of the learning outcomes of the
English language courses produced at the English language Department
level reflected PLO1 or PLO3. The process which led to the occurrence of
94 Chapter Six

these differences was not evident because the development of the learning
outcomes at the English Language Department and the expected learning
outcomes indicated in the documents of engineering faculties were compiled
separately. These differences raise the potential for misalignments between
the expectations of engineering faculties and the design of the English
language courses.

The English Language Educator

Jamal had 17 years of teaching experience with 13 years of teaching at
a secondary school. Having trained as an ESL educator, he positioned
English language teaching in the same way as he did in school, believing
that his pedagogical knowledge was appropriate for both contexts and
thus, his approaches to teaching students were carried over to the
university context:

“Our degree was specifically in TESL [Teaching English as a Second

Language]. I think it is zooming towards becoming an English
teacher...you focus on teaching language.” (JamalIntT6L41-44)

Jamal reported that he focused on teaching language using a transmission

approach because “you have to make sure that everything is delivered to
them” (JamalIntT6L66-67). This finding showed that Jamal brought his
beliefs about English language teaching from his previous school setting
into his current adult learning environment. This finding raised potential
challenges in transforming his pedagogy to meet the needs of adult
learners and developing his professional identity in the context of higher
education.
When teaching students with limited proficiency, developing
communicative abilities was Jamal’s main focus.

“I focus more [on] communication. As long as they are able to deliver

something, speak something, sometimes we just have to ignore [language
errors]. Because [there’s] so little time to correct them.” (JamalIntT6L184-
187)

Jamal perceived achieving accuracy was important in teaching language.

However, he argued that the limited time available caused him to be
flexible with language errors and thus focused only on communication.
Jamal expressed frustration about being unable to address language
accuracy and grammatical knowledge which he believed were important in
language learning.
 Professional Identity and English Language Teaching 95

“It’s a bit too late to teach English at this university. They [have] limited
time. There’s not enough time [to correct their language]. Sometimes I got
frustrated because what I had done at boarding school I cannot apply here.”
(JamalIntT6L170-175)

He reported that due to limited time, he was not able to teach according to
what he believed in, which was teaching about the language and
addressing students’ language errors. This finding indicates that educators’
classroom practices may not necessarily be the outcome of their beliefs. In
Jamal’s case, he perceived that he needed to emphasise language rules in
his teaching but was forced to instead focus on communicative abilities
due to constraints such as time. His inability to teach according to his
beliefs revealed a sense of job dissatisfaction for not being able to replicate
beliefs and pedagogies he had developed previously (when he taught in a
school) into his current workplace. His accounts raised conflicts about his
professional identity whereby he was not able to maintain his identity as
an ESL educator.
In his effort to emphasise communicative competence in his teaching,
Jamal encountered another challenge, which is how to encourage student
language production.

“Sometimes you really have to force students to speak [in English]. I find it
a constraint. You can’t really force them to speak. No time for that.”
(JamalIntT6L196-198)

Jamal reported that his students were generally motivated in learning but
lacked motivation to use the language.

“The students are motivated but they are just not capable. They don’t have
the skills in English language. Some of them could not participate in class.
There are those who speak more than others. And there are those whom
you really have to force to speak.” (JamalIntT6L192-194)

The limited time factor restricted Jamal from concentrating on

students’ language production, particularly in speaking skills. This further
developed Jamal’s frustration in his professional identity. Similar findings
that indicated tensions between teacher beliefs and instructional practices
were also found in previous studies (see Khonamri & Salimi, 2010; Li &
Walsh, 2011; Phipps & Borg, 2009; Underwood, 2012). Among the
factors that caused teachers’ instructional practices to diverge from their
beliefs raised in these studies were time constraints, students’ attitudes and
motivation, workloads and understandings about teaching and learning.
96 Chapter Six

In their study, Boyd and Harris (2010) found that teachers who became
university lecturers maintained their professional identities as teachers
rather than as academics and fell back on their existing pedagogical
knowledge as teachers when they encountered uncertainty in their new
workplace contexts. In Jamal’s case, the uncertainty created through these
tensions was exacerbated by challenges in managing the limited time
allocated to address students’ language needs, his perceived need to
address language accuracy, and teaching English for communicative
purposes. In addition, uncertainty about his institutional identity also
created confusion in establishing the focus of the English language courses
in this context. He pointed out that the aim of the course required him to
use communicative tasks to develop students’ communicative abilities.
However, the limited proficiency of the students and their resistance to
using the language interfered in achieving the aim of this course, causing
frustration.
With regard to English language teaching for engineering, Jamal
reported that he understood the need to contextualise the content and his
teaching to engineering.

“I think we do need that [contextualising English language courses for

engineering]. Our syllabus is general. I think that the English that we teach
is general English. We need to be a bit more specific. We need to cater for
different engineering faculties.” (JamalIntT6L255-260)

He advocated above that the syllabus was general and did not
specifically cater for engineering fields. He recommended that English
language courses, which were more specific for various engineering fields,
should be developed. However, he could not see himself as an ESP
educator and therefore, was reluctant to include engineering content or
issues in his teaching and classroom activities.

“I may not understand what they want to do. If they did something
technical I don’t know if they [are] lie [lying to me by making up
something technical].” (JamalIntT6L246-247)

There was a sense of resistance to including knowledge that was not

within his area of expertise because he was not able to control the teaching
and learning. Jamal wanted to maintain his sense of being in control of the
teaching and learning and felt this was not possible if he integrated
engineering content and English language teaching. In addition, Jamal also
reported that his students were not keen themselves to use engineering
knowledge or issues in their tasks.
 Professional Identity and English Language Teaching 97

“I don’t emphasise [to] them [students] to carry out tasks that [are]
engineering related. None of my students chose to do that.”
(JamalIntT6L237-239)

Students’ resistance to using English when learning engineering content

could also be linked to limited proficiency in English.
The analysis of the documents (the Engineering Accreditation Manual,
the programme description booklet, and the English Language syllabus)
indicated that there were misalignments between engineering accreditation
requirements and the learning outcomes of the English language courses.
As a result, the requirements of the engineering accreditation in terms of
engineering graduates’ English language skills may not be achieved.
The participant, who was trained to become an ESL teacher for school
contexts experienced challenges in positioning English language teaching
in this university. He recognised the need for ESP contextualised into
engineering but his limited expertise in this field made it challenging for
him to see himself as an ESP instructor. In addition, limitations in terms of
time and students’ low proficiency levels made it even more challenging
for the participant to position himself as an ESP instructor. This finding
suggests that shifting professional identity, in this case from an ESL
educator to an ESP instructor, is a complex process which may not occur
successfully.

Conclusion
This chapter is a case study reporting how an ESL educator managed
English language teaching for engineering at a technical university in
Malaysia. The findings have provided insights about the ways an English
language educator positioned English language teaching in a discipline-
specific curriculum and the challenges he faced in developing his
professional identity. The findings highlighted that teaching in a
discipline-specific institutional context not only involved understanding
what needs to be taught and how to go about teaching it, but also about the
ways in which the educator identified himself and his position within his
workplace. In doing so, he had to negotiate and shift his beliefs about
teaching English, pedagogical practices, and the context he was in. This
study also contributes to the body of literature on formation and
transformation of professional identities by elucidating the tensions and
struggles experienced by ESL educators in negotiating their beliefs and in
developing their professional identities.
98 Chapter Six

References
Abdullah, K. I. (2001). English for specific purposes in Malaysia:
International influence, local flavour. Journal of Southeast Asian
Education, 2(2), 345-361.
Ahmad, B. H., & Jusoff, K. (2009). Teachers' code-switching in classroom
instructions for low English proficient learners. English Language
Teaching, 2(2), 49-55.
Alexander, O. (2012). Exploring teacher beliefs in teaching EAP at low
proficiency level. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 11(2),
99-11.
Archer, A. (2008). ‘The place is suffering’: Enabling dialogue between
students’ discourses and academic literacy conventions in engineering.
English for Specific Purposes, 27(3), 255-266.
Baik, C., & Greig, J. (2009). Improving the academic outcomes of
undergraduate ESL students: The case for discipline-based academic
skills programs. Higher Education Research & Development, 28(4),
401-416.
Basturkmen, H. (2012). Languages for specific purposes curriculum
creation and implementation in Australasia and Europe. The Modern
Language Journal, 96(s1), 59-79.
Bhatia, V. K. (2007). Genre analysis, ESP and professional practice.
English for Specific Purposes, 27(2), 161-174.
Bolitho, R. (2002). Reconceptualising language teacher education for the
21st century. Paper presented at the International Conference on
English Language and Development for Equity in the 21st Century,
September 24-26, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Boyd, P., & Harris, K. (2010). Becoming a university lecturer in teacher
education: Expert school teachers reconstructing their pedagogy and
identity. Professional Development in Education, 36(1-2), 9-24.
Cheng, A. (2007). Transferring generic features and recontextualizing
genre awareness: Understanding writing performance in the ESP
genre-based literacy framework. English for Specific Purposes, 26(3),
287-307.
Cousin, G. (2005). Case study research. Journal of Geography in Higher
Education, 29(3), 421-427.
Cross, R. (2010). Language teaching as sociocultural activity: Rethinking
language teacher practice. The Modern Language Journal, 94(3), 434-
452.
 Professional Identity and English Language Teaching 99

Danilova, E., & Pudlowski, Z. (2007). Important cosiderations in

improving the acquisition of communication skills by engineers.
Global Journal of Engineering Education, 11(2), 153-162.
Dannels, D. P., Anson, C. M., Bullard, L., & Peretti, S. (2003). Challenges
in learning communication skills in chemical engineering. Communication
Education, 52(1), 50-56.
Deng, Z. (2004). The role of theory in teacher preparation: Analysis of the
concept of theory application. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher
Education, 32(2), 144-157.
Dudley-Evans, T., & St John, M. J. (1998). Developments in English for
Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Evans, M., & Esch, E. (2013). The elusive boundaries of second language
teacher professional development. The Language Learning Journal,
41(2), 137-141.
Evans, S. (2013). Designing tasks for the Business English classroom.
ELT Journal, 67(3), 281-293.
Evans, S., & Green, C. (2007). Why EAP is necessary: A survey of Hong
Kong tertiary students. Journal of English for Academic Purposes,
6(1), 3-17.
Evans, S., & Morrison, B. (2011). Meeting the challenges of English-
medium higher education: The first-year experience in Hong Kong.
English for Specific Purposes, 30(3), 198-208.
Flick, U. (2006). An introduction to qualitative research (3 ed.). London:
Sage Publication.
Flowerdew, J., & Wan, A. (2010). The linguistic and the contextual in
applied genre analysis: The case of the company audit report. English
for Specific Purposes, 29(2), 78-93.
Gabrielli, A., Gabrielli, C., & Pahlm, H. (2012). Engineering maritime
English: A symbiosis between language, communication and an
alligator spanner wrench? Paper presented at the International
Maritime English Conference IMEC 24, October 1-4, Yangon,
Myanmar.
Gill, K. K., & Williams, A. N. (2013). Correlation between low-
proficiency in English and negative perceptions of what it means to be
an English speaker. Paper presented at the International Conference on
English Language Teaching (ICELT), November 18-20, Melaka,
Malaysia.
Grosse, C. U., & Vought, G. M. (2012). The continuing evolution of
languages for specific purposes. The Modern Language Journal,
96(s1), 190-202.
100 Chapter Six

Gupta, D. (2013). Teaching English to engineering students in India.

Journal of Education and Practice, 4(11), 131-138.
Hayati, A. M. (2008). Teaching English for specific purposes in Iran. Arts
& Humanities in Higher Education, 7(2), 149-164.
Hesse-Biber, S. N. (2010). Mixed methods research. New York: Guilford
Press.
Hyland, K. (2003). Genre-based pedagogies : A social response to process.
Journal of Second Language Writing, 12(1), 17-29.
—. (2007). English for specific purposes. In J. Cummins & C. Davidson
(Eds.), International handbook of English language teaching Vol. 15
(pp. 391-402). New York: Springer.
—. (2011). The presentation of self in scholarly life: Identification and
marginalisation in academic homepages. English for Specific
Purposes, 30(4), 286-297.
Hyland, K., & Hamp-Lyons, L. (2002). EAP: Issues and directions.
Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 1(1), 1-12.
Johnson, B., & Christensen, L. (2004). Educational research:
Quantitative, qualitative and mixed approaches (2nd ed.). Boston:
Pearson Education.
Jordan, R. R. (2002). The growth of EAP in Britain. Journal of English for
Academic Purposes, 1(1), 69-78.
Kabilan, M. K., & Izzaham, R. I. R. (2008). Challenges faced and the
strategies adopted by a Malaysian English language teacher during
teaching practice. English Language Teaching, 1(1), 87-95.
Kanno, Y., & Stuart, C. (2011). Learning to become a second language
teacher: Identities-in-practice. The Modern Language Journal, 95(2),
236-252.
Khonamri, F., & Salimi, M. (2010). The interplay between EFL high
school teachers' beliefs and their instructional practices regarding
reading strategies. Novitas-ROYAL (Research on Youth and
Language), 4(1), 97-107.
Kirkgöz, Y. (2009). Students’ and lecturers’ perceptions of the
effectiveness of foreign language instruction in an English-medium
university in Turkey. Teaching in Higher Education, 14(1), 81-93.
Kvale, S. (2007). Doing interviews. Los Angeles: Sage.
Li, L., & Walsh, S. (2011). ‘Seeing is believing’: Looking at EFL
teachers’ beliefs through classroom interaction. Classroom Discourse,
2(1), 39-57.
Lichtman, M. (2010). Qualitative research in education: A user's guide
(2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage.
 Professional Identity and English Language Teaching 101

Mackiewicz, J. (2004). The effects of tutor expertise in engineering

writing: A linguistic analysis of writing tutor’s comments. IEEE
Transactions on Professional Communication, 47(4), 316-328.
Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (2006). Designing qualitative research
(4th ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Muhamad, A. J., Ahmad, M. I. S., Engku, E. H. I., Sarudin, I., Abdul, F.
M., & Abdul, R. G. (2013). Oral presentation errors of Malaysian
students in an English for academic purposes (EAP) course. World
Applied Sciences Journal, 21, 19-27.
Musa, M. B. (2002). Malaysia in the Era of Globalization. Lincoln, NE:
iUniverse.
Musa, N. C., Koo, Y. L., & Azman, H. (2012a). Exploring English
language learning and teaching in Malaysia. GEMA Online Journal of
Language Studies, 12(1), 35-51.
Musa, N. C., Koo, Y. L., & Azman, H. (2012b). Investigating academic
literacy practices in English language: The case of Malaysia. Paper
presented at the International Conference: Innovative Research in a
Changing and Challenging World, May 16-18, Phuket, Thailand.
Mustapha, S. M., & Yahya, R. A. (2013). Communicative language
taching (CLT) in Malaysian context: Its implementation in selected
community colleges. Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences, 90,
788-794.
Neuman, W. L. (2011). Social research methods. Boston: Pearson.
Ngah, E., Radzuan, N. R. M., Fauzi, W. J., & Abidin, N. A. A. (2011).
The need for competent work ready English language learners.
Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences, 29, 1490-1499.
Ong, S. K., Ros, A., S., Azlian, A. A., Sharnti, K., & Ho, L. C. (2004).
Trainee teachers’ perceptions of the school practicum. In Proceedings
of the National Seminar on English Language Teaching (pp. 84-89).
Bangi: UKM.
Phipps, S., & Borg, S. (2009). Exploring tensions between teachers’
grammar teaching beliefs and practices. System, 37(3), 380-390.
Radzuan, N. R. M., & Kaur, S. (2011). Technical oral presentations in
English: Qualitative analysis of Malaysian engineering
undergraduates’ sources of anxiety. Procedia Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 29, 1436-1445.
Rafee, N., Mustafa, Z., Shahabuddin, F. A., Razali, A. M., & Hassan, N.
(2012). Level of English proficiency among science students of UKM.
Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences, 59, 663-669.
Riemer, M. J. (2007). Communication skills for the 21st century engineer.
Global Journal of Engineering Education, 11(1), 1-12.
102 Chapter Six

Shah, P. M., Hashim, N. H., Yusof, A., Din, R., A. Karim, A., & Abd-
Rahman, G. (2013). L2 learning challenges and needs of university
students: A preliminary study. Procedia - Social and Behavioural
Sciences, 106, 1669-1676.
Sidhu, G. K., & Kaur, S. (2011). Enhancing global competence in higher
education: Malaysia’s strategic initiatives. In S. Marginson, S. Kaur &
E. Sawir (Eds.), Higher education in the Asia-Pacific: Strategic
responses in globalization (pp. 219-236). Netherland: Springer.
Silverman, D., & Marvasti, A. (2008). Doing qualitative research: A
comprehensive guide. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Song, B. (2006). Content-based ESL instruction: Long-term effects and
outcomes. English for Specific Purposes, 25(4), 420-437.
Spence, P., & Liu, G.-Z. (2013). Engineering English and the high-tech
industry: A case study of an English needs analysis of process
integration engineers at a semiconductor manufacturing company in
Taiwan. English for Specific Purposes, 32(2), 97-109.
Stake, R. E. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S.
Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 443-
466). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Swanborn, P. G. (2010). Case study research: Why, what and how. Los
Angeles: Sage.
Talbot, C., Alley, M., Marshall, M., Haas, C., Zappe, S. E., & Garner, J.
K. (2013). Engineering ambassador network: Professional
development of the engineering ambassadors. Paper presented at the
120th ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, June 23-26, Atlanta,
USA.
Tan, M. (2011). Mathematics and science teachers’ beliefs and practices
regarding the teaching of language in content learning. Language
Teaching Research, 15(3), 325-342. doi: 10.1177/1362168811401153
Tercanlioglu, L. (2004). Perceptions on school-based English teacher
education: A qualitative study. The Qualitative Report, 9(4), 673-705.
Underwood, P. R. (2012). Teacher beliefs and intentions regarding the
instruction of English grammar under national curriculum reforms: A
theory of planned behaviour perspective. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 28(6), 911-925. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2012.04.004
Varwandkar, A., & Deshmukh, P. B. (2013). Factors impacting
employability skills of engineers. International Journal of Science and
Research, 2(4), 30-32.
Viczeko, M., & Wright, L. L. (2010). Negotiating identities in the
transition from graduate student to teacher education. Australian
Journal of Teacher Education, 35(1), 14-26.
 Professional Identity and English Language Teaching 103

Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.).
Los Angeles: Sage.
Yusoff, Y. M., Omar, M. Z., Zaharim, A., Mohamed, A., & Muhamad, N.
(2012). Employability skills performance score for fresh engineering
graduates in Malaysian industry. Asian Social Sciences, 8(16), 140-
145.
Zareva, A. (2013). Self-mention and the projection of multiple identity.
English for Specific Purposes, 32(2), 72-83.
doi: 10.1016/j.esp.2012.11.001
Zaugg, H., & Davies, R. S. (2013). Communication skills to develop
trusting relationships on global virtual engineering capstone teams.
European Journal of Engineering Education, 38(2), 228-233.
Zeichner, K. (2005). Becoming a teacher educator: A personal perspective.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(2), 117-124.
 CHAPTER SEVEN

NON-NATIVE ENGLISH TEACHERS’

COGNITIONS ABOUT LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY

SHIGERU SASAJIMA

Abstract

This chapter explores non-native speaker (NNS) English teachers’

cognitions and thoughts about their pedagogy in their own educational
contexts. In order to understand teachers’ cognitions, we need to consider
.

their contextualized situations and how these developed through complex

educational structures or patterns called ‘attractors’ and their fixed or
preferred points or behaviors called ‘attractor states’ in complex adaptive
systems (CAS). The present research addressed how language classroom
dynamics are shaped by the teacher as an agent of change. A
mixed-methods approach that included a questionnaire, an interview, and
observations was used with Finnish and Japanese teachers of English. The
results suggest that Japanese teachers think more negatively than their
Finnish counterparts and their cognitions appear to be linked to complex
or unspecific school systems, insufficient teacher knowledge, and unclear
educational goals. It is, therefore, necessary to view these complex
systems in a holistic and systemic manner and to realize the interrelated
nature of NNS English teachers’ cognitions in specific contexts.

Introduction
Although English is just one of over 6,000 languages spoken around
the world, it is regarded as a lingua franca (ELF) by an increasing number
of people in non-English speaking countries who use it regularly for
communication or business. In these countries, English is primarily taught
 Non-native English Teachers’ Cognitions about Language Pedagogy 105

by teachers who are non-native speakers (NNS) of English. NNS English

teachers are still learners of English themselves, even though they teach
English, and, compared to native speaker (NS) English teachers, they have
learning needs which are different from NS English teachers (Roberts,
1998). While ‘native-speakerism’ (Holliday, 2006) has been used to
highlight the issues between ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ teachers of English,
it has not been sufficiently discussed how NNS English teachers work in
different educational contexts. This chapter focuses on NNS English
teachers in Japan and Finland and discusses their perceptions about their
teaching and teacher education in their own educational contexts. As
Tudor (2001, p. 1) argues “language teaching is a complex, dynamic
activity”, and it is necessary to understand NNS English teachers’
cognitions in different educational contexts.

Background
In order to understand NNS English teachers’ cognitions, it would be
significant to specifically explore their complex contexts by focusing on
how their cognitions have been developed through complex educational
structures or patterns called ‘attractors’ and their fixed or preferred points
or behaviors called ‘attractor states’ in complex adaptive systems (CAS) or
complex dynamic systems (CDS) (see Dörnyei, 2014; Ellis &
Larsen-Freeman, 2009; Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008). By
employing the theory of CAS to identify the nature of NNS English
teachers’ cognitions, this chapter aims to address how the teacher as an
agent of change shapes language classroom dynamics.

NNS English Teachers in Japan

In Japan, English is taught as a school subject primarily by NNS
English teachers. Students’ English learning goals do not serve everyday
communication needs, but rather they are linked to academic or scholastic
achievement, such as passing an exam or entering a prestigious university.
NS English teachers, most of whom work as teaching assistants at public
or state schools, or teachers of conversational English at English language
schools (e.g., Glasgow, 2014), still seem to be situated in somewhat
different contexts from the NNS English teachers. Many NNS English
teachers in Japan are deeply affected by “native-speakerism”, which is
“characterized by the belief that ‘native-speaker’ teachers represent a
‘Western culture’ from which spring the ideals both of the English
106 Chapter Seven

language and of English language teaching methodology” (Holliday, 2006,

p. 385). For instance, in public or state primary and secondary schools, NS
English teachers, called Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs), teach
English with NNS English teachers in the classroom, and they are often
English-speaking role models to Japanese students as well as their
teachers. In many cases, there are distinct roles between NS and NNS
English teachers in terms of English education in each school context. For
example, ALTs focus on speaking and listening skills, while NNS English
teachers engage in teaching grammar and translation to help students learn
English mainly for the high-stake exams.

SLA, Complex Teaching Contexts and NNS English Teachers’

Cognitions
As it has been pointed out in second language acquisition (SLA)
research, language learning and language classrooms are complex (e.g.,
Larsen-Freeman, 1997; Lightbown, 2000). Knowledge of SLA is essential
for language teachers in order to develop their professional knowledge and
skills. Almost all NNS English teachers in Japan have studied SLA in their
teacher education programs, but it is not clear to what extent they make
use of the knowledge of SLA when teaching English in the classroom (see
JACET SIG on SLA, 2013). According to the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) survey reports in 2013
(see www.mext.go.jp), the traditional grammar translation method (not
focusing on language use but on language usage) is still predominant in
the classroom, which means that SLA knowledge is not adequately
utilized by teachers in the actual classrooms. That is partly because
Japanese teachers of English have to cope with an age-long traditional and
complex school system and culture (see Imura, 2003), which appear less
affected or informed by SLA research.
Ellis (2010, pp. 4-5) argues for the need “to see the importance of
examining the roles of the various actors involved–SLA researchers,
classroom researchers, teacher educators and teachers”, and proposes that
classroom researchers and teacher educators should mediate between SLA
researchers and teachers. In language pedagogy, the relationship between
teachers and students is crucial and teachers are usually the primary
decision-makers or agents, although there are a variety of other factors
involved in shaping the classroom dynamics. Language classrooms,
therefore, are considered as CAS, which have been studied in SLA
research (see Burns & Knox, 2011; Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008),
 Non-native English Teachers’ Cognitions about Language Pedagogy 107

but there have been few studies of how teachers make use of SLA in their
classrooms and how SLA is impacting on the development of complex
teachers’ cognitions on teaching and teacher education (see Borg, 2006;
Sasajima, 2012).
Compared to other developed countries, the secondary school system
in Japan has some unique aspects in the hidden curriculum, which refers to
the implicit norms, values, and expectations in the curriculum (cf. Jackson,
1968). The 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)
results (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD), 2014) show that Japanese teachers work the longest hours (54
hours weekly) among the participant countries and economies. Most NNS
English teachers have to be in charge of club activities, including sports
teams and cultural activities such as brass bands and chorus groups, in
addition to their classroom teaching and other school work (e.g., Ishida,
Midorikawa, Hisamura, Sakai, & Sasajima, 2003). They even manage
some other extracurricular activities, such as tutoring for university
entrance exams and pastoral care after school, even at night and on
holidays. The fact is that their workload is not limited to teaching their
subjects but expanded to other complex situations.
In the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
report (OECD, 2013), the learning environment in Japan received good
evaluations. The report states that: 1) the learning environment is
conductive to learning for all; 2) most students enjoy orderly classrooms;
and, 3) students never, or only in some classes, do not listen to what the
teacher says. However, when it comes to the specific realities and
experiences of NNS English teachers in Japan, more complex situations
can be identified: for example, English teachers provide class activities
that are less practical to actual communication focusing exclusively on
repetitive grammar drills and translation exercises; they also do extra work
outside the curriculum to help students cope with entrance exams. Their
voluntary work, such as engaging in extra-curricular activities for long
hours, has become systematically compulsory within the traditional school
culture. These complex background contexts should be considered in order
to better understand what NNS English teachers think, know, believe and
do when teaching in the classroom.
Lightbown (2000, p. 452) argues that SLA research “can help shape
teachers’ expectations for themselves and their students, and provide
valuable clues to effective pedagogical practice.” However, she is
concerned that classroom-based SLA research still does not see the teacher
as an agent of change or an important ‘attractor’ in the complex language
108 Chapter Seven

classroom. As she also points out, future SLA research needs to focus
more on teachers since it has not sufficiently considered language teachers’
cognitions before, in, and after the classroom. Moreover, NNS and NS
English teachers can have distinct cognitions about language learning and
teaching as well as language and culture, the concepts of which can be
dynamic, non-linear and hard to identify, but systematic and
self-organized. In order to complement the current SLA research, this
study focuses on teachers’ cognitions, particularly by highlighting NNS
English teachers in Japan and Finland, and discusses appropriate language
pedagogy in relation to SLA.

NNS English Teachers’ Cognitions

NNS English teachers’ cognitions about language and culture could be
rather complex, simply because they are still learning English while
teaching English to their students and have to develop their own
intercultural communicative competence (ICC) (Byram, 1997) as well as
teach English and culture in their classrooms. However, there has been
less research on NNS teachers’ cognitions since teacher cognition (TC)
began to be researched in applied linguistics in 1990s (Borg, 2003;
Freeman & Johnson, 1998). According to Borg (2003, p. 81), TC is simply
defined as “the unobservable cognitive dimension of teaching what
teachers know, believe, and think.” It has been used as an umbrella term to
show teacher thought processes, teacher conceptions, teacher beliefs,
teacher assumptions, teacher knowledge and teacher learning, in relation
to teachers’ professional development or decision-making.
As Borg (2006) pointed out, the research field of TC on language
teaching has been established in 2000s. The present study focuses on
language teacher cognition (LTC) defined as follows:

“Language teacher cognition (LTC) is a complex set of mental, social,

cognitive and emotional processes (e.g., believing, thinking, learning, and
knowing) in which language teachers engage in relation to their teaching
activities. It is also the outcome of these processes (e.g., their beliefs,
learning, assumptions, and knowledge).” (Sasajima, 2012, p. 23)
 Non-native English Teachers’ Cognitions about Language Pedagogy 109

LTC can be somewhat a different concept from TC because it refers

exclusively to language teachers. Due to the spread of ELF and
globalization, NNS English teachers are increasing and they can influence
what to teach and how to teach English to their students, and thus it is
important to understand the nature of NNS English teachers’ cognitions. In
addition, many NNS English teachers work in a variety of complex school
contexts (see Ishida et al., 2004; Sasajima, 2002). It is, therefore, worth to
see how language teachers actually work in each school context and
understand their complex LTC on teaching and teacher education. This
study primarily explores the complex nature of NNS English teachers’
cognitions in a qualitative manner.

The Nature of NNS English Teachers’ Cognitions

The current study is a follow up of a previous study that utilized a
mixed methods approach, comprising a questionnaire called the Language
Teacher Cognition Inventory (LTCI), interviews and observations, in order
to identify the nature of NNS English teachers’ cognitions on teaching and
teacher education (see Sasajima, 2012 for more details regarding this
study). As a result, 16 aspects of Japanese NNS English teachers’
cognitions were identified through the Kawakita Jiro (KJ) method, which
is a collaborative problem-solving technique in anthropological research
(see Kawakita, 1967), and the application of Retrodictive Qualitative
Modelling (RQM), which originally comprises the three-step research
process for the language classroom as a CAS: 1) identifying salient
student types in the classroom; 2) identifying students who are typical of
the established prototypes and conducting interviews with them; and, 3)
identifying the most salient system components and the signature
dynamics of each system (see Dörnyei, 2011, p.1). Instead of students,
RQM was applied to teachers in this research study, and it identified the
following 16 characteristics of Japanese NNS English teachers’ cognitions
(Table 7-1), which are set as the anchor of the present study.
110 Chapter Seven

Table 7-1: Japanese NNS English teachers’ cognitions on teaching and

teacher education.

NNS English Teacher Cognitions

1. *Teachers feel obliged to have ideal classrooms in their mind.
2. Teachers think that cultural knowledge motivates students.
3. Teachers like vocabulary learning and think students should too.
4. Teachers take easy ways to teach grammar.
5. Teachers view translation as necessary for students to cope with
exams.
6. Teachers still wonder what the goal is.
7. Teachers are really worried about their teaching.
8. Teachers are expected to have better relationships with students.
9. Teachers are worried about dual burdens.
10. Linguistic knowledge is one of (Japanese) English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) teachers’ tools.
11. Teachers suffer from the teacher education system.
12. Teachers seek good collegiality.
13. Teachers want to have practical classroom observation.
14. Teachers need textbooks.
15. Teachers are required to have multiple burdens.
16. Teachers value emotional relationships with students.
Note. *This is the focus of this study.

Sasajima (2012) also shows a model of how the 16 characteristics are

interacting with each other. It is based on the model that Borg (2006)
depicted as the elements and processes in LTC and shows how Japanese
NNS English teachers’ cognitions as attractors and how attractor states are
influenced by each other (see Figure 7-1). Figure 7-1 shows how two
strong attractor states, ‘the Course of Study (national curriculum)’ and
‘Kyoiku (education)’, yield the greatest impacts on forming Japanese EFL
teachers’ cognitions. Each attractor or attractor state in the diagram is not
static but dynamic. In other words, an attractor can emerge and change
into an attractor state, and then the attractor state may turn into another
attractor state. All such attractors and attractor states are always moving,
emerging, and self-organized as in the theory of CAS, and should actually
be depicted in animations using three dimensional (3D) representations.
 Non-nnative English Teachers’
T Cognitions about Lan
anguage Pedago
ogy 111

Figure 7-1: A complex neetwork model regarding the nature of NNS English
teachers’ cognnitions (Source: Sasajima, 201
12, p. 260).

This coomplex netw work model pointed outt the importtance of

understandinng how NNS S English teaachers’ cognittions are forrmed and
changing annd of seeing thhe phenomenaa in a holisticc way, but it iss still not
evident whaat factors eachh characteristiic of their coggnitions as an
n attractor
state is com mposed of anda how it can c work to understand language
classroom ddynamics. Eaach characterristic such aas ‘PCK (ped dagogical
content knoowledge)’, ‘diffficult to teacch’, and ‘interraction with students’,
s
depicted as whirlpool-likke patterns in n the diagram m, need to beb further
explored.
The firstt of the 16 chharacteristics of Japanese N NNS English teachers’
cognitions, Teachers feel obliged to ha ave ideal classsrooms in their mind,
was furtherr explored in this research h study. It wwas assumed that this
characteristiic could probably be stron ngly related too teaching and d teacher
professionallism and itt could inffluence NNS S English teachers’
decision-maaking in the classroom, as many Jappanese NNS English
teachers tennd to think tooo much abou ut what to teaach and how to teach
English. Byy looking deepp into each characteristic
c of the naturee of NNS
112 Chapter Seven

English teachers’ cognitions as such, we could understand complex

aspects of language pedagogy more clearly. More exploration can help
understand language pedagogy in the classroom and suggest some better
approaches for classroom SLA research. Therefore, the follow-up research
on LTC is necessary. In this study, some aspects of NNS English teachers’
cognitions about language pedagogy are discussed especially with regards
to complex classroom dynamics.

The Study
The present research focuses on some specific attractors or attractor
states regarding ideal classrooms or classroom dynamics that NNS English
teachers envision as essential to their LTC, through further interviews and
observations of Japanese NNS English teachers and some Finnish NNS
English teachers. Finnish teachers are used as the contrasting case to help
better see the characteristics of NNS English teachers’ cognitions. The
Finnish case is used because of the following reasons: 1) the Finnish
education system is highly regarded; 2) Finnish teachers are autonomous;
and, 3) Finnish students’ English proficiency levels are high (see Finnish
National Board of Education at www.oph.fi/english).
A questionnaire was administered as part of a Japanese–Finnish
collaborative research initiative in foreign language education, which was
based on the Finnish KIELO project (Harjanne & Seppo, 2009). From a
total of 115 multiple-choice questions and 8 open-ended questions, one
open-ended question is reported on in this chapter: ‘In your opinion, what
factors are linked to good foreign language teaching?’ The answers to this
question were collected from 151 Finnish primary and secondary teachers
and 97 Japanese secondary and tertiary teachers. All the data were
gathered and analyzed in three phases: 1) notice things; 2) collect things;
and, 3) think about things (Seidel, 1998). All the descriptions were coded
and classified through this process. Each coded word or phrase was
counted and finally the featured keywords were compared between the
Finnish and Japanese data sets.
In addition, interview and observation data were collected from 10
Japanese and 5 Finnish teachers. All the interviews and classroom
observations were recorded and the summary reports were sent to all the
participant teachers for verification and confirmation. In order to maintain
trustworthiness, credibility, and transferability (see Lincoln & Guba, 1985),
a mixed-methods approach was conducted, reflexive procedures were
employed during the data collection and analysis, and also the following
 Non-native English Teachers’ Cognitions about Language Pedagogy 113

the research paradigm was engaged: 1) focusing on topics or contexts; 2)

comfortable collectiveness; 3) meaningful holistic understanding; and, 4)
important connectedness or unity (Sasajima, 2012).

Results and Discussion

The questionnaire data are summarized in Table 7-2 below. The
extracted characteristics are arranged in a descending order and the
common characteristics in Finland and Japan are connected through the
lines.

Table 7-2: Characteristics of LTC on good foreign language teaching.

Rank % Finland Japan % Rank

1 11% flexibility materials 7% 1
2 8% atmosphere motivation 7% 2
3 8% professionalism facility 6% 3
4 6% communication language skills 6% 4
5 6% materials relationships 6% 5
6 5% encouragement professionalism 4% 6
7 5% motivation enthusiasm 4% 7
8 4% culture language use 3% 8
9 4% language use communication 3% 9
10 3% support conformity 3% 10
11 3% authenticity culture 3% 11
12 3% enthusiasm practice 3% 12
13 2% clarity teacher study 3% 13

The parts highlighted in grey are the common characteristics of LTC in

teachers in both Finland and Japan: ‘professionalism’, ‘communication’,
‘materials’, ‘motivation’, ‘culture’, ‘language use’, and ‘enthusiasm.’
These are considered as attractor states for NNS English teachers’
cognitions common in Finland and Japan. In terms of the other
characteristics of LTC attractor states, Finnish teachers regarded
‘flexibility’, ‘atmosphere’, ‘encouragement’, ‘support’, ‘authenticity’, and
‘clarity’, as good characteristics for foreign language teaching. The
Japanese teachers valued ‘facility’, ‘language skills’, ‘relationships’,
‘conformity’, ‘practice’, and ‘teacher study.’ The results show that Finnish
teachers seem to think that flexibility and atmosphere are necessary for
students to learn a foreign language. The results also suggest that Finnish
114 Chapter Seven

teachers seem to think that flexibility and atmosphere are necessary for
students to learn a foreign language. The results also suggest that Finnish
teachers think that learners should be independent or autonomous and the
teacher role is to support their students. For Finnish teachers, classrooms
are not so complex and teaching can be viewed as positive. On the other
hand, Japanese teachers tend to value learning facilities and language
skills or skills training activities as important for learning a language. Also,
interpersonal relationships (relationships between teachers and students or
teacher conformity) were considered by Japanese teachers to be strong
attractor states for language learning in their teaching contexts. In terms of
Japanese NNS English teachers’ cognitions, some of their characteristics
are provisionally identified as attractor states in association with
classroom dynamics: 1) learning facilities (‘facility’); 2) language skills
(‘language skills’, ‘practice’ and ‘teacher study’); and, 3) interpersonal
relationships (‘relationships’ and ‘conformity’). Even though the
questionnaire research only shows some fragmented items or remarks,
which cannot always reveal any specific background or contextual
information, nonetheless, teachers’ conceptions about good foreign
language teaching factors are apparently different in the two countries
under investigation.
For the analysis of the interview and observation data, the researcher
noticed what teachers had said in the questionnaire and the interview and
what they had done in the classroom, collected and sorted the descriptive
or observed data, processed the data into usable forms in the computer,
and thought about what they would mean with the participant teachers.
The researcher finally reconsidered the complex but systematic
interactions in the classroom through NNS English teachers’ cognitions on
languages, learners, teachers, cultures, and the environment surrounding
them all. It is necessary to view these complex systems in a holistic and
systemic manner and to realize the interrelated nature of NNS English
teachers’ cognitions in some specific contexts.
The results of the interview and observation data show that Finnish
teachers’ views of teaching in the classroom or classroom dynamics are
almost all very positive and teachers do not feel any difficulties in
teaching English. The Japanese teachers’ views are more negative than the
Finnish teachers’ views, and they seem to be linked to complex or
unspecific school systems, insufficient teacher knowledge, and unclear
educational goals. Table 7-3 summarizes the results of the analysis, clearly
showing the difference between Finnish and Japanese teachers. The parts
highlighted in grey in Table 7-3 show a negative connotation.
 Non-native English Teachers’ Cognitions about Language Pedagogy 115

Table 7-3: The interview and observation data: Complex classroom

dynamics.

Finland Japan
difference student difference
diversity complex motivation
flexibility teacher centeredness
challenging teacher conformity
actual experiences ambivalent aims
independent teaching social vs. practical needs
supporting student learning knowledge vs. skills
good atmosphere theory vs. practice
reflection lack of time
confidence needs for ideas/materials
complex assessment

The present study aimed to particularly understand the background of

one characteristic of the nature of NNS English teachers’ cognition in
Japan. The study results suggest that Japanese NNS English teachers could
have more complex characteristics of LTC as attractor states in their
school contexts. While it may be hard to value the results, even through
this mixed-methods research, they do show some complex aspects of NNS
English teachers’ cognitions prompting the need to change the SLA
research paradigm, in order to see language pedagogy in its complex
context comprising learners, teachers and classroom environments.

Conclusion
This chapter focuses on NNS English teachers’ cognitions on complex
classroom dynamics and suggests that Japanese NNS English teachers
could have more complex LTC than Finnish NNS English teachers due to
their complex school contexts. It also suggests that NNS English teachers’
cognitions as CAS should comprise a number of attractors or attractor
states to help some complex aspects emerge as a new attractor state. Such
viewpoints of CAS can be helpful to understand complex LTC, especially
NNS English teachers’ cognitions.
This study discusses the nature of NNS English teachers’ cognitions,
which are developed in different educational contexts, by focusing on
Japanese NNS English teachers and comparing them to Finnish NNS
English teachers. The study investigates Japanese NNS English teachers’
116 Chapter Seven

cognitions on complex classroom dynamics, employing a mixed-methods

approach (questionnaire, interview and observation) in a qualitative way.
CAS, which are referred to in different terms including ‘complex’ or
‘dynamic’, “may be seen as the ‘dynamic turn’ in SLA, resonated with
many scholars because nonlinear system dynamics appeared to nicely
describe several puzzling language learning phenomena” (Dörnyei,
MacIntyre, & Henry, 2015, p. 1). If SLA research is primarily concerned
with individual learners, such as their motivations and behaviors, and their
classroom environments, such as materials and classroom activities, in a
cause-and-effect approach, it may be difficult to understand complex
classroom dynamics, especially taught by NNS English teachers in
different social and educational contexts.
In CAS, the systems are considered to act as a whole and be capable of
undergoing transformation in order to adapt to a new environment or a
new attractor state. The concept of CAS can be useful to understand NNS
English teachers’ cognitions on classroom dynamics. Dörnyei (2009, p.
106) explains that “the answer lies in the concept of attractors and the
subsequent attractor states. Attractor states are preferred–but not
necessarily predictable–states to which a system is attracted.” Also,
Larsen-Freeman (1997, p. 157) states that “studying the parts in isolation
one by one will tell us about each part, but not how they interact.” In order
to better see language classroom dynamics, it is important that SLA
researchers, classroom researchers, teacher educators and teachers
cooperate with each other. However, the most important agent should be
the teacher. In English language teaching, NNS English teachers should
take the initiative in language pedagogy as teacher researchers. That is
because, as shown in Figure 7-1, NNS English teachers’ cognitions could
be more complex than NS English teachers’ cognitions and should be
helpful to understand their students’ cognitions about language learning in
each complex context.

References
Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of
research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do.
Language Teaching, 36(2), 81-109.
—. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education: Research and
practice. London: Continuum.
Burns, A., & Knox, J. S. (2011). Classrooms as complex adaptive systems:
A relational model. TESL-EJ, 15(1). Retrieved from:
 Non-native English Teachers’ Cognitions about Language Pedagogy 117

http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ ej57/ a1.pdf

Dörnyei, Z. (2014). Researching complex dynamic systems: “Retrodictive
qualitative modeling” in the language classroom. Language Teaching,
47(1), 80-91.
Dörnyei. Z., MacIntyre, P., & Henry, A. (Eds.) (2015). Motivational
dynamics in language learning. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Ellis, N. C., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (2009). Constructing a second
language: Analyses and computational simulations of the emergence of
linguistic constructions from usage. Language Learning, 59(1),
93-128.
Ellis, R. (2010). A principled approach to incorporating second language
acquisition research into a teacher education programme. Reflections
on English Language Teaching, 9(1), 1-17.
Freeman, D., & Johnson, K. E. (1998). Reconceptualizing the
Knowledge-Base of Language Teacher Education. TESOL Quarterly,
32(3), 397-417.
Glasgow, G. P. (2014). Teaching English in English, ‘in principle’: The
national foreign language curriculum for Japanese senior high schools.
International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning, 9(2), 152-161.
Harjanne, P., & Tella, S. (2009). Investigating methodological reality in
Finnish foreign language classrooms: Revisiting the KIELO Project’s
rationale and research. In K. Ritva & P. Pirkko (Eds.), Joensuu
Language education and lifelong learning (pp. 135-153). Joensuu:
University of Joensuu.
Holliday, A. (2006). Native-speakerism. ELT Journal, 6(4), 385-387.
Ishida, M., Midorikawa, H., Hisamura, K., Sakai, S., & Sasajima, S.
(2004). Grants-in-Aid for scientific research report: A comprehensive
study of in-service English teacher education in Japan -from status quo
to renovations. Tokyo: Tanseisha.
JACET SIG on SLA. (2013). Dai 2 Gengo Shutoku to Eigo Kyoiku.
Tokyo: Kaitakusha.
Jackson, P. W. (1968). Life in Classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston.
Kawakita, J. (1967). Hasso ho – Sozosei kaihatsu no tameni. Tokyo:
Chukoshinsho.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1997). Chaos/complexity science and second
language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 18(2), 141–165.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Cameron, L. (2008). Complex systems and applied
linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
118 Chapter Seven

—. (2000). Anniversary article: Classroom SLA Research and Second

Language Teaching. Applied Linguistics, 21(4), 431-462.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills:
Sage Publications, Inc.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
(2013). PISA 2012 Results: What Students Know and Can Do. Student
Performance in Mathematics, Reading and Science (Volume I). Paris:
OECD Publishing.
—. (2014). TALIS 2013 Results: An international perspective on teaching
and learning. Paris: OECD Publishing.
doi: 10.1787/9789264196261-en.
Roberts, J. (1998). Language teacher education. London: Arnold.
Sasajima, S. (2002). Current Situation of Secondary EFL Teachers in
Japan. Pan-Korea English Teachers Association English Language
Teaching, 14(2), 219-237.
—. (2012). Language teacher cognition in the case of Japanese teachers
of English at secondary school in Japan: An exploratory study.
Doctoral thesis, School of Education, the University of Stirling,
Scotland, UK. Retrieved from:
https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/handle/1893/12359.
Seidel, J. (1998). Appendix E: Qualitative data analysis. The Ethnograph
V5 manual. Retrieved from: http://www.qualisresearch.com.
Tudor, I. (2001). The dynamics of the language classroom. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
ISSUES IN SECOND LANGUAGE CURRICULUM
AND MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
 CHAPTER EIGHT

EXPLORING DISCREPANCIES
BETWEEN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES IN ESL
CURRICULUM AND SYLLABUS DESIGN

ANTHEA FESTER AND DIANE JOHNSON

Abstract
In response to a questionnaire-based survey of teachers of English as a
second language (ESL) (involving a sample of teachers from five different
countries), more than one third indicated that the institution in which they
worked either did not have an overall curriculum for the English courses
offered or that they did not know whether it had one or not. Many
respondents added comments indicating that the curriculum documents
that were made available to them were inadequate, incomplete or
unhelpful. In follow-up in-depth interviews with a sample of language
programme managers, interviewees were asked a series of questions about
their institutional curricula. All but one claimed that their institutions had
curricula relating to their ESL programmes, that each of the courses
offered was described in terms of levels with associated proficiency-style
level descriptor statements, and that there were ‘can do’ learning outcome
statements associated with each course. However, a review of the
curriculum documents provided by the interviewees did not always
confirm their perceptions of them. This chapter presents and discusses
some of the findings of the research project as a whole, suggesting some
possible reasons why there appears to be so much confusion and
disagreement about the nature of the ESL curriculum.

Introduction
Over the past few decades, there have been numerous approaches
related to curriculum development and syllabus design for the teaching
 Discrepancies between Beliefs and Practices in ESL Curriculum 121

and learning of English as a second language (ESL). The focus of most of

the research conducted in the area has been on the structure and
implementation of the different approaches. In addition, as experienced
trainers of language teachers, we were concerned about the fact that
although there is considerable interest amongst teacher trainees in
developments in language teaching methodology, there is comparatively
little interest in language syllabus design and/or in the ways in which
textbooks draw upon these developments. As many ESL trainees (who
often teach at language centres) appear to rely heavily on textbooks, it
seems important to determine whether and, if so, to what extent widely
used commercially available textbooks reflect developments in the area of
language syllabus design.
The overarching purpose of the part of the research study reported on
in this chapter was to explore the extent to which different curriculum
design proposals have impacted on the beliefs and practices of language
teachers and language programme managers/co-ordinators working in the
tertiary context. The decision to focus on those operating in a tertiary
education context related largely to the fact that they, unlike teachers
operating in schools, are not generally inhibited by national curricula (and,
in some cases, also by the content of textbooks specifically approved by
Ministries of Education). They are, therefore, able to make decisions about
course and programme content, decisions that presuppose some awareness
of issues associated with second language (L2) syllabus design.
The study reported here is part of a larger research project that adopted
a multi-method approach in order to explore the various aspects of ESL
syllabus and curriculum design. The research discussed here includes a
questionnaire-based survey with a sample of ESL teachers from five
countries (Japan, Taiwan, Syria, Australia, and New Zealand), a series of
semi-structured interviews with ESL programme managers/co-ordinators,
and an analysis of a sample of curriculum documents.

Background
Various Uses of the Terms Syllabus and Curriculum

Research on ESL curriculum and syllabus design has been beset with
problems, not least of which relate to the wide range of different ways in
which the terms curriculum and syllabus have been used at different times
and in different locations. Some researchers use the term curriculum and
syllabus interchangeably, as is often the case in the North American
context. Other researchers use the term curriculum to refer to all aspects of
122 Chapter Eight

a language programme, including methodology, materials and assessment,

and the term syllabus, which is commonly considered to be part of the
curriculum, to refer to the content of learning. In distinguishing between
these two terms, Finney (2001) identifies both a wider and narrower
approach to the definition:

“The term curriculum is open to a wide variety of definitions; in its

narrowest sense it is synonymous with the term syllabus, as in the
specifications of the content and ordering of what is to be taught; in the
wider sense it refers to all aspects of the planning, implementation and
evaluation of an educational program, the why, how and how well together
with the what of the teaching-learning process.” (Finney, 2001, p. 70)

Breen (1987, p. 82) has defined the term syllabus in broad terms, as “a
plan of what is to be achieved through teaching and learning”. In this
context, a syllabus could encompass a range of organising principles
which could be language content driven, activity driven or a combination
of both. Interestingly, Breen goes on to question whether the syllabus
should be contained within the specification of objectives or whether it
should include the means by which the objectives/ goals are to be achieved
(ibid). It is not, therefore, surprising to find that some have observed that
“with the development of communicative language teaching, the
separation of syllabus design and methodology becomes increasingly
problematical” (Nunan, 1989, p. 10). Numerous issues were raised that
related to the definition of terminology such as syllabus, curriculum and
methodology. This indicates that there is considerable confusion in the
ESL industry about the use of key terms.

Various Approaches to Syllabus Specification

One of the reasons why there has been so much debate about
curriculum and syllabus boundaries relates to the fact that there have been
so many different proposals relating to syllabus design since the mid-20th
century. Earlier examples include the structural syllabus which grew out
of “a theory of language that assumes that the grammatical or structural
aspects of language form are the most basic or useful” (Krahnke, 1987, p.
15) and the situational or topic-based syllabus in which lexical and
grammatical aspects of the language are introduced in terms of their
probability of occurrence in the context of particular topics and situations
(Ur, 2000, p. 178). The 1970s saw the emergence of the notional-
functional syllabus which focuses on notional (ideational) and functional
(what language is intended to achieve) aspects of language (Wilkins, 1976).
 Discrepancies between Beliefs and Practices in ESL Curriculum 123

Among the proposals that emerged from the 1980s onward were the
relational syllabus in which relationships within and between propositions
provide the starting point for grammatical, lexical and discoursal
specifications (Crombie, 1985a, 1985b) and the corpus-based lexical
syllabus in which the emphasis is on the ways in which lexis impacts on
grammar and discourse (Sinclair & Renouf, 1988; Willis, 1990).
These were followed by the task-based syllabus in which various types
of task form the core. In addition to the above, are a number of syllabus
types that relate to specific aspects of language and language learning such
as skills-based syllabuses, including syllabuses that focus on various
aspects of reading skills (such as predicting and skimming and scanning)
and writing skills (such as genre and text-type related textual organisation
(see, for example, Su, 2008; Swales & Feak, 1994). There have also been a
number of proposals for integrating two or more of the other syllabus
types. One example of this is the core and spiral syllabus proposed by
Brumfit (1980) in which the grammatical system constitutes the core, with
notions, functions and situations spiralling around it. Another example is
the proportional syllabus proposed by Yalden (1983) in which an initial
‘structural phase’ is followed by a number of ‘communicative phases’ and
a final ‘specialized phase’.

Globalisation and Neo-Liberalism:

Impact on Language Curriculum Design
Definitions of ‘globalisation’ have varied considerably (see, for
example, Giddens, 1990; Waters, 1995) as have views about the
beginnings of globalisation. Some researchers such as Giddens (1990) and
Robertson (1992) have argued that globalisation is a pre-modern
phenomenon while others (e.g., Cox, 1996) have argued that its origins are
much more recent. Despite their differences, what most researchers do
agree on is the fact that globalisation includes processes of international
integration which are associated with economic as well as cultural
interdependence. They also agree that since the second half of the 20th
century, international integration has been facilitated by two key
phenomena: advances in transportation systems and telecommunications,
and post-WWII formation of certain international organisations, such as
the Council of Europe and the United Nations Educational Scientific and
Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Globalisation is generally now seen as
having been, since the 1970s, closely associated with neoliberalism, an
ideology which, whatever precise definition is highlighted, involves
policies that promote free trade, open markets and minimum state
124 Chapter Eight

intervention in business endeavours. In the case of language learning, the

increasing pace of globalisation has led to the massive expansion in the
use of a few languages internationally (most notably English). This
massive expansion has in turn resulted in a burgeoning of interest in the
teaching of these languages to learners of all ages in a wide variety of
contexts and settings along with a substantial challenge to the relevance of
traditional distinctions between ‘first language’ and ‘second language’ and
between ‘native speaker’ and ‘non-native speaker’ (Graddol, 2006). It has
also led to considerable tension between local educational needs and
interests (Canagarajah, 1999, 2004) and the type of centralisation that is
evidenced in the phenomenon of ‘mass curricula’ (Ramirez & Boli, 1987).
“Mass curricula” are “directly defined and prescribed through the
influence of international organizations [and]...through the models
provided by dominant nation-states” (Benavot, Cha, Kamens, Meyer, &
Wong, 1991, p. 97). The fact that English language proficiency is
increasingly seen as an essential educational requirement for everybody
rather than a coveted achievement for a few (Maurais & Morris, 2003) has
resulted in attempts to create language syllabuses that cope with the
immediate communicative needs of learners, particularly adult learners.
This need led to a focus on specific purposes courses (see, for example, the
establishment of a unit-credit system for adult language learning (Morrow,
2004)). The focus on immediate language needs rather than on longer term
language goals has been described by Widdowson (1983, pp. 17-18) as
involving language “training” rather than language “education”. When
combined with the impact of neo-liberalism, this can lead to a type of
commodification of language learning referred to by Heller (2002) in
which language learners tend to “equate expected outcomes with financial
input” and “teaching and learning are . . . ‘chunked’ into smaller and
smaller packages that are assessed independently of one another”
(Crombie, 2008, p. 58). This commodification and chunking of language
learning suggests a focus on immediate language needs and outcomes
rather than long term language development.

Language Teacher Cognition

Language teacher cognition (LTC), defined by Borg (2006, p. 1) as
focusing on “what language teachers think, know and believe–and of its
relationship to teachers’ classroom practice”, is the primary focus of the
research project of which the research reported here forms a part. Research
involving LTC often focuses on teaching methods (e.g., Karavas-Doukas,
1999; Nunan, 1987; Sato & Kleinsasser, 1999, 2004; Watzke, 2007)
 Discrepancies between Beliefs and Practices in ESL Curriculum 125

and/or the impact of language teacher education on teachers’ beliefs and

classroom practices (e.g., Da Silva, 2005; Johnson, 1996; Numrich, 1996;
Spada & Massey, 1992; Wang, 2008). In the case of the research reported
on here, the focus was rather different from previous studies conducted in
the area of LTC in that: (a) some of the research participants were
language programme managers/co-ordinators (not all of whom were
classroom teachers at the time the research was conducted); (b) it included
a focus not on language lessons themselves but on some of the things that
the research participants do that impacts on lessons, such as selecting
textbooks, determining achievement objectives, and, above all, designing
courses and programmes.

The Study
The research project reported here involved a combination of
quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, the primary
emphasis being on the latter. A mixed methods approach involving
triangulation was adopted. The same issue, namely the impact of research
on language programme design on the practices of language professionals,
was explored through a combination of a questionnaire-based survey,
semi-structured interviews, and focus point-based analysis of textbooks
and language curriculum and syllabus documentation.
Almost all of the research participants were employed in the tertiary
education sector, the primary focus on that sector being determined by the
fact that those involved in it are generally not constrained by national
curricula, as is often the case with those employed in the primary or
secondary education sectors.

The Participants and the Research Instruments

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted amongst a sample of a
total of 93 teachers of English as an additional language from five
different countries (Taiwan, Japan, Syria, Australia, and New Zealand),
most of whom were known to the researcher (a sample of convenience) or
known to those known by the researcher (snowball sampling). The main
aim of the survey was to determine how the participants planned and
organized the content of their courses and whether, and, if so, how they
specified course objectives. The questionnaire included 31 questions, of
which 27 were closed (but with many providing space for comments).
Reference was not made to any syllabus design types by name. The
relevant overarching research questions reported on in this chapter were:
126 Chapter Eight

1. How do a sample of teachers and programme managers/co-ordinators

working in the context of higher educational institutions decide on the
nature of the syllabuses underpinning the courses and programmes they
offer for learners of English?
2. To what extent, if at all, are any decisions they make about textbook
selection influenced by the nature of the syllabuses that underpin these
textbooks?

Among the detailed questions included in the questionnaire and

interviews (but set out differently from the way they are set out below)
were, for example:

1. Does the institution where you work have an overall curriculum for the
English courses it offers (showing, for example, the relationship
between each of these courses in terms of level and specific content,
and including reference to methodology and materials)?
2. If there are syllabus documents designed by your institution for the use
at the level you teach, how useful [essential, very useful, useful, not
very useful, not useful at all] do you find them?
3. Does your institution have documents that outline the content of each
of your courses? If so, how detailed are these documents? Do they
include specific language that is to be taught and, if so, how is it
described? Who is responsible for designing these documents? Do they
make reference to the nature of tests and examinations? Do they
include a list of objectives/ outcomes/ “can-do” statements and what
would an example of one be? What do you do to make sure that all of
your teaching staff have read these documents?

A selection of curriculum documents supplied by the interviewees was

analysed in relation to a number of focus points relating to the types of
questions included in the questionnaire and interviews (e.g., presence or
absence of explicit achievement objectives specification) and the findings
compared with the responses of the interviewees to questions relating to
their institutional curricula. It should be borne in mind, however, that
discrepancies between the interview data and the content of the
documentation might, in certain cases, be more apparent than real in so far
as (a) the documentation provided to the researcher may be intended
mainly to attract clients rather than to provide accurate curriculum
specification, and (b) the interviewees may not have been willing to reveal
particular documents due to their commercially sensitive nature.
 Discrepancies between Beliefs and Practices in ESL Curriculum 127

Results and Discussion

Curriculum and Syllabus: General Overview
More than one third of the ninety three questionnaire participants
indicated that the institution in which they worked either did not have an
overall curriculum for the English courses it offered or that they did not
know whether it had one or not (see Figure 8-1 below), with several (14)
adding comments indicating that the curriculum documents that were
made available to them were inadequate, incomplete or unhelpful. So far
as institutional syllabus documents are concerned, while the majority of
questionnaire participants considered those that were provided to be
essential, very useful or useful, approximately one third either did not
respond or indicated that they found them to be ‘not very useful’ or ‘not
useful at all’. Of the twenty-four additional comments provided after this
question, ten made reference to the lack of clarity of the syllabus
documentation made available to them. Even so, only just over half
indicated that they actually referred to syllabuses provided by their
institutions in determining the content of their courses. Notwithstanding
the availability (or otherwise) of institutional syllabus documents, or the
extent to which those that were available were actually consulted, the vast
majority of questionnaire participants (82-88%) reported that they believed
that it was important to have a syllabus for each of the courses they taught
(see Table 8-1 below). Where they were not provided with institutional
syllabuses, however, over one third (37%) indicated that they would either
allow the syllabus to emerge as the teaching proceeded or focus on
materials and methodology rather than the syllabus (see Table 8-2 below).
Almost one third indicated that the selection of an appropriate textbook,
generally motivated by the extent to which it included the language they
wanted to cover rather than by the activities it contained, was part of the
process involved in deciding what to teach, and approximately the same
number indicated that they would allow textbooks to determine syllabus
content.
128 Chapter Eight

Non-response
(2) 2%
Yes

No
I don't know
(13) 14% I don't know

Non-response

No (22) 24%
Yes (56) 60%

Figure 8-1: Does the institution where you work have an overall curriculum for the
English courses it offers?

Table 8-1: I think it is very important to have a syllabus document for

each course that I teach.

Answer No. %
Agree 82 88.2
Disagree 8 8.6
Not relevant in my situation 1 1.1
No Response 2 1

Overall, the views of the five language programme managers/co-

ordinators interviewed (representing four different institutions) on issues
relating to the importance of curricula generally, and syllabuses in
particular, were similar to those held by the majority of the teachers who
participated in the questionnaire-based survey. However, some of the
comments they made, combined with the institutional documentation they
provided, suggests that their intentions and aspirations are not always
realised in practice. Thus, for example, one of the interviewees noted that
planning was ‘very loose’ in the case of one of the programmes offered
and that there was no ‘actual curriculum’. In fact, the documentation
provided by only one of the interviewees was found to include a
reasonably clear indication of the language content of the courses offered.
 Discrepancies between Beliefs and Practices in ESL Curriculum 129

In the case of the documentation relating to another of the institutions,

there was found to be very little difference between the (very general)
statements relating to the content of different courses within the same
overall programme although these courses were described as being at
different levels. In the case of yet another institution’s documentation,
courses were said to be ‘based on published course books’. In connection
with all of this, it is relevant to note that although all of the programme
managers/co-ordinators had the expectation that teachers would be able to
interpret, contest, modify and/or create courses, the assumption,
presumably, being that decision-making in this area would be guided by
some coherent, theoretically-based and historically grounded rationale,
none of the institutions represented by the interviewees appeared to
provide staff development opportunities specific to this area.

Table 8-2: What participants would do if not provided with a syllabus

document for a course.

Choices Ticked Not ticked Non-

response
No. % No. % No.
Prepare one 28 30 63/ 68 2
yourself for your 22 78.5 25 40 2
own use.
Prepare one 36 38.7 55 59 2
yourself for your 10 28 37 67 2
own use and give
a copy to
students.
Allow the 21 23 70 75 2
syllabus to 14 67 33 47 2
emerge as the
teaching
proceeds.
Focus on 13 14 78 84 2
material and 9 69 38 49 2
methodology
rather than
syllabus.
Other 0 0 0 0
Note. The top numbers indicate participants in Japan, Taiwan & Syria. The
numbers in italics indicate participants in Australia & New Zealand.
130 Chapter Eight

Curriculum and Syllabus: Issues Relating to Course Integration

One of the functions of institutional curriculum documentation is
generally to indicate the links among the various courses that make up the
programme as a whole. A number of questions in both the questionnaire
and interviews, therefore, sought to determine whether participants
believed that the courses taken by students should be related in a way that
ensured that the overall programme provided to students was a coherent
and integrated one. Only approximately half of the questionnaire
respondents believed that all of the English courses a student took in any
particular year should be directly related to one another. Even so, almost
all of them indicated that they would try to take account, either in whole or
in part, in teaching a reading (or writing) course of the content of any
writing (or reading) course being taken by the same students at the same
stage in their programme. Respondents indicated that they favoured doing
this often by using reading texts as models for writing texts. Although
almost all of them said that they would take account, in some way, of the
content of courses being taken by the same students, only approximately
half of them claimed that they were actually aware of the content of other
courses being taken by their students in the same year as those they
themselves were teaching (see Table 8-3 below).
Furthermore, when asked whether, if they used a textbook from a
particular series with a group of first year students, they would select the
next highest level textbook from the same series for the same students
when they were in their second year, approximately 35% of questionnaire
respondents indicated that they would do so, with the remainder indicating
that they would not (9%), or that they did not know whether or not they
would do so (41%) (see Figure 8-2 below). While many of the comments
added in relation to this question referred to the desirability of variety,
none made reference to potential problems, in terms of discontinuity and
overall programme content, associated with switching from one series to
another, especially where textbooks are being used as a major source
rather than as an additional resource.
 Discrepancies between Beliefs and Practices in ESL Curriculum 131

Table 8-3: Participants’ awareness of the content of parallel skills

courses.

Question Answer No. %

Yes 41 44%
If you are responsible for a reading
course at your institution, would you No 13 14%
be aware in a detailed way of the
content of any writing course that In Part 13 14%
the same students were taking in the
same year? No Response 26 28%

Yes 39 42%
If you are responsible for a writing
course at your institution, would you No 11 12%
be aware in a detailed way of the
content of any reading course that In Part 17 18%
the same students were taking in the
same year? No Response 26 28%

Non- Yes (33)

responses 35%
(14) 15%

Yes
No
I don't know
Non-responses

I don't know
(38) 41%
No (8) 9%

Figure 8-2: If you used a textbook from a particular series with a group of first year
students, would you select the next highest level textbook from the same series for
the same students when they are in their second year?
132 Chapter Eight

The questions asked of interviewees that related to course integration

referred specifically to skills-based courses. In responding to a question
asking whether they believed that skills-based courses taught to the same
group of students in the same year should be closely linked, all but one of
the interviewees indicated that they believed that they should be. The
interviewees saw the linkage among courses in terms of themes in one
case, topics in another, and a combination of topics, vocabulary, concepts
and ideas in a third. Thus, so far at least as skills-based courses are
concerned, most of the managers/programme co-ordinators and
approximately half of the teachers involved in this research project appear,
in general, to be in favour of ensuring that there are links between courses.
However, in the programme documentation supplied by the interviewees
any such linkages are largely unsignalled/covert. Overall, it appears that
the issue of language programme integration is one about which views
differ and there is, in some cases, considerable uncertainty.

Curriculum and Syllabus: Course Content

In terms of the actual content of courses, the majority of questionnaire

participants indicated that they would include vocabulary, language
structures, and tasks and activities (see Figures 8-3, 8-4, and 8-5 below) in
core language development courses at all levels, with approximately two
thirds of those who responded to the relevant question indicating that they
preferred task-supported to task-based learning (and 24% indicating that
they would not include tasks at all at beginner level). Four of the five
interviewees indicated that it was equally important to include all of these
in their courses (with the other interviewee observing that the main focus
of General English courses taught in her institution was language skills).
All of the interviewees and most of the questionnaire respondents also
considered learning skills/strategies to be an important aspect of the content
of language courses. However, in the documentation provided by the
interviewees, references to learning skills were either absent altogether or
were very general in nature. Also, although one of the interviewees referred
on several occasions to the importance of tasks in her institution’s English
for Academic Purposes (EAP) programme, the documentation relating to
that programme makes very little reference to tasks.
 Discrepancies between Beliefs and Practices in ESL Curriculum 133

Advanced Beginner
(83) 23% (97) 26%
Beginner
Elementary
Intermed.
Advanced
Intermediate
(90) 25% Elementary
(95) 26%

Figure 8-3: Percentage of respondents who would include vocabulary at different

levels.

Advanced Beginner
(81) 23% (78) 23%
Beginner

Elementary

Intermed.

Intermediate Advanced
(91) 26% Elementary
95 28%

Figure 8-4: Percentage of respondents who would include language structures at

different levels.

Advanced Beginner
(93) 27% (76) 22%
Beginner
Elementary
Intermed.
Advanced

Intermediate Elementary
(93) 27% (84) 24%

Figure 8-5: Percentage of respondents who would include tasks at different levels.
134 Chapter Eight

An almost equal number of questionnaire participants indicated that

they preferred (40) or preferred not (39) to focus at beginner and
elementary level on words and sentences rather than on larger stretches of
language, and just over one fifth that they would not include language
structures at beginner level.
So far as writing courses are concerned, four of the interviewees made
a distinction between lower level and higher level writing courses, two of
them indicating that there should be a stronger focus on grammar in the
former. There seemed to be, in general terms, agreement about the types of
content appropriate for writing courses. However, wording used by at least
three of the interviewees suggests that their views may have been strongly
influenced by a particular textbook written by Oshima and Hogue (1991),
one that was actually referred to directly by one of the interviewees.
As far as textual cohesion is concerned, although the Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe,
2001) and many national language curricula clearly signal the inclusion of
some cohesive devices from the very early stages of language learning,
just under two thirds of respondents indicated that they would not include
cohesive devices at beginner level and just under one quarter that they
would not do so at elementary level. So far as genre is concerned, a
considerable number of respondents indicated that they would not include
description, recount or instruction at beginner (55%, 48%, and 59%
respectively) or elementary levels (32%, 36%, and 35.5% respectively) or
argument at intermediate (32%) or advanced levels (29%) (see Table 8-4
below for those who would include these genres at particular levels).

Table 8-4: Percentage of participants who would include particular

genres at particular levels or who did not respond.

Content Beginner Elementary Intermediate Advanced

Recount 52% 64% 48% 46%
Narrative 41% 64.5% 63% 43%
Instruction 41% 50% 57% 42%
Argument 1% 13% 58% 71%
Report 6.5% 20% 62% 73%
Explanation 4% 35.5% 74% 61%
Description 45% 68% 62% 48%

In this general area of discourse, there was evidence of some widely

differing views and considerable confusion. Thus, for example, an almost
equal number of questionnaire respondents indicated that they would or
 Discrepancies between Beliefs and Practices in ESL Curriculum 135

would not include description, recount and instruction at beginner level,

and ellipsis and substitution at intermediate level, and although only just
over half indicated that they would include types of linkage between
clauses at elementary level (55%), well over three quarters (86%)
indicated that they would include cohesive devices at that level. In
connection with this, it is relevant to note that none of the programme
documentation provided by the interviewees makes any reference to
ellipsis or substitution or, with the exception of one very general reference
in one institution’s documentation, to types of semantic links between
clauses. Also, in the case of one of the institutions, the programme
documentation supplied makes no reference at all to genre. In the case of
another, reference is made to genre in programme documentation in very
general terms (e.g., ‘various genres’) except on one occasion (when
reference is made to ‘simple narrative’ at pre-intermediate level). So far as
the documentation relating to the other two institutions is concerned, one
set refers to narrative at elementary level, and to narrative, recount, report
and instruction at intermediate level; the other includes a combination of
very general references to genre and some more specific references (e.g.,
‘narrative and argument’) at one of the higher levels.
In addition to signalling the types of content they considered
appropriate for the courses offered by their institutions, the interviewees
provided some information about the overall focus of courses at different
levels, their responses suggesting an orientation towards the type of
proportional approach recommended by Yalden (1983). Thus, for example,
all of the interviewees signalled a general move from a focus on clause,
sentence and paragraph construction in the earlier stages to a more discourse-
focused one later and, finally, a focus on skills specific to academic contexts.
One of the interviewees signalled that there was a greater focus on grammar
in the early stages of her institution’s programmes, another observed that at
the highest level, her institution’s EAP programme was combined with
mainstream study and included subject/discipline-related vocabulary and
topics.
While the vast majority of the questionnaire participants indicated that
they were currently more confident about what they should teach in core
language development courses (87.5%), and writing courses (86%) than
they were when they began teaching, it appears that this confidence may
not necessarily be matched by competence in the area of syllabus design.
Thus, for example, although most (78%) of the participants indicated that
they could provide a list of specific outcomes for each of their courses if
asked to do so, fewer (67%) actually provided an example and very few of
these examples were clearly indicative of what the students were expected
136 Chapter Eight

to be able to do using the target language on completion of the course, the

majority either lacking language indicators altogether or being too general
to be measurable. Interviewee responses to a number of questions suggest
that at least some of them may be equally uncertain about course outcome
specification. Asked whether their institutional curricula included a list of
objectives/outcomes/‘can-do’ statements and whether, if so, an example
could be provided, three of the interviewees indicated that such a list was
available but none of them provided an example. In fact, all but one of the
sets of documentation supplied do include achievement objectives in the
form of ‘can-do’ statements. However, these statements vary considerably
in terms of degree of specificity, often being open to a wide range of
possible interpretations.

Conclusion
In the area of curriculum and syllabus design, the findings of this
research project suggest that there is a considerable lack of fit between
belief and practice. While all of the interviewees and most of the
questionnaire respondents reported that they believed it was important to
have explicit curriculum and syllabus documentation for the programmes
and courses provided by their institutions, most of the curriculum
documents provided by the interviewees were found to be expressed in
very general terms (sometimes with overlapping descriptors for courses at
different levels) and almost half of the questionnaire respondents indicated
that they did not refer in planning their courses to such institutional
documentation as was available, with approximately one third reporting
heavy reliance on commercially produced textbooks. Furthermore, while
most of the research participants appeared to favour something along the
lines of the type of the proportional syllabus type proposed by Yalden
(1983), there was evidence of considerable uncertainty about how learning
objectives might be specified, what types of content might be appropriate
and what aspects of language and discourse should be included at different
levels. What all of this suggests is that while the many different proposals
relating to language syllabus design types that have been forwarded over
the past few decades may have alerted language teachers and language
programme managers to the fact that language syllabuses may include a
wide range of different types of content, they have done little to alert them
to the specific details of different types of proposal and the theoretical
rationales that underpin them. Overall, second language teaching appears
currently to be marked by confusion and uncertainty in the area of
curriculum and syllabus design.
 Discrepancies between Beliefs and Practices in ESL Curriculum 137

References
Benavot, A., Cha, Y-K., Kamens, D., Meyer, J., & Wong, S-Y. (1991).
Knowledge for the masses: World and national curricula, 1920-1986.
American Sociological Review, 56(1), 85-100.
Borg, S. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education: Research and
practice. London: Continuum.
Breen, M. P. (1987). Contemporary paradigms in syllabus design: Part 1.
Language Teaching, 20(2), 81-92.
Brumfit, C. J. (1980). From defining to designing: Communicative
specifications versus communicative methodology in foreign language
teaching. In A. Valdman, S. Grass & K. Geeslin (Eds.), The foreign
language syllabus and communicative approaches to teaching:
Proceedings of a European-American seminar. Special Issue of Studies
in Second Language Acquisition, 3(1), 1-9.
Canagarajah, A. S. (1999). Resisting linguistic imperialism in English
teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
—. (2004). Reclaiming the local in language policy and practice. London
& New York: Routledge.
Council of Europe. (2001). A common European framework of reference
for languages: Learning, teaching and assessment. Strasbourg, France:
Council of Europe, Language Policy division. Retrieved from:
http://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Linguistic/Source/Framework_EN.pdf.
Cox, R. (1996). A perspective on globalization. In J. M. Mittelman (Ed.),
Globalization: Critical reflections (pp. 21-30). London: Lynne Rienner.
Crombie, W. (1985a). Process and relation in discourse and language
teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
—. (1985b). Discourse and language learning: A relational approach to
syllabus design. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
—. (2008, April). Language teaching: Training for excellence. Excellence
in teaching and learning. Paper presented at the International
Symposium: Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Zishan Hall,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Da Silva, M. (2005). Constructing the teaching process from inside out:
How pre-service teachers make sense of their perceptions of the
teaching of the four skills. TESL-EJ, 9(2), 1-19.
Finney, D. (2001). The ELT Curriculum: A flexible model for a changing
world. In J. C. Richards & P. Renandya (Eds.), Methodology in
language teaching: An anthology of current practice. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
138 Chapter Eight

Giddens, A. (1990). The consequence of modernity. Cambridge: Polity

Press.
Graddol, D. (2006). English next: Why global English may mean the end
of “English as a foreign language”. London: British Council.
Heller, M. (2002). Globalization and commodification of bilingualism in
Canada. In D. Block & D. Cameron (Eds.), Globalization and
language teaching (pp. 47-64). London: Routledge.
Johnson, K. E. (1996). The vision versus the reality: The tensions of the
ESOL practicum. In D. Freeman & J. C. Richards (Eds.), Teacher
learning in language teaching (pp. 30-49). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Karavas-Doukas, E. (1996). Using attitude scales to investigate teachers’
attitudes to the communicative approach. ELT Journal, 50(3), 187-198.
Krahnke, K. (1987). Approaches to syllabus design for foreign language
teaching. Englewood, NJ: Prentice- Hall.
Maurais, J., & Morris, M. A. (2003). Languages in a globalising world.
Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.
Morrow, K. (2004). Background to the CEFR. In K. Morrow (Ed.),
Insights from the common European framework (pp. 3-11). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Numrich, C. (1996). On becoming a language teacher: Insights from diary
studies. TESOL Quarterly, 30(1), 131-153.
Nunan, D. (1987). Communicative language teaching: Making it work.
ELT Journal, 41(2), 136-145.
—. (1989). Hidden agendas: The role of the learner in programme
implementation. In R. K. Johnson (Ed.), The second language
curriculum. (pp. 176-186). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oshima, A., & Hogue, A. (1991). Writing academic English. New York:
Addison-Wesley.
Ramirez, F. O., & Boli, J. (1987). The political construction of mass
schooling: European origins and worldwide institutionalization.
Sociology of Education, 60(2), 2-17.
Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization: Social theory and global culture.
London: Sage.
Sato, K., & Kleinsasser, R. C. (1999). Communicative language teaching
(CLT): Practical understandings. Modern Language Journal, 83(4),
494-517.
Sato, K., & Kleinsasser, R. C. (2004). Beliefs, practices, and interactions
of teachers in a Japanese high school English department. Teaching
and Teacher Education, 20(8), 797-816.
 Discrepancies between Beliefs and Practices in ESL Curriculum 139

Sinclair, J., & Renouf, A. (1988). A lexical syllabus for language learning.
In R. Carter & M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary and language
teaching (pp. 140-158). London: Longman.
Spada, N., & Massey, M. (1992). The role of prior knowledge in
determining the practice of novice ESL teachers. In J. Flowerdew, M.
Brock, & S. Hsia (Eds.), Perspectives on second language teacher
education (pp. 23-37). Hong Kong: City Polytechnic.
Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate
students. Ann- Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Su, C. (2008). The teaching of reading in English in Taiwan: A case study
involving sustained silent reading. Journal of Maori and Pacific
Development, 9(1), 75-96.
Ur, P. (2000). A course in language teaching: Practice and theory. Beijing:
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Wang, W. (2008). Teaching English to young learners in Taiwan: Teacher
education, teaching materials and teacher perspectives. Doctoral thesis,
University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from:
http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/2547
Waters, M. (1995). Globalization. London: Routledge.
Watzke, J. L. (2007). Foreign language pedagogical knowledge: Toward a
developmental theory of beginning teacher practices. The Modern
Language Journal, 91(1), 63-82.
Widdowson, H. G. (1983). Learning purpose and language use. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Wilkins, D. A. (1976). Notional syllabuses: A taxonomy and its relevance
to foreign language curriculum development London: Oxford
University Press.
Willis, D. (1990). The lexical syllabus: A new approach to language
teaching. London and Glasgow: Collins ELT.
Yalden, J. (1983). The communicative syllabus: Evolution, design and
implementation. Oxford: Pergamon.
 CHAPTER NINE

COMPLEXITY APPROACH TO LANGUAGE

TEACHING AND LEARNING:
MOVING FROM THEORY
TO POTENTIAL PRACTICE

ELAINE FERREIRA DO VALE BORGES

Abstract
This work aims at advancing the discussion about the complexity
approach to language teaching and learning (CALTL) (Borges & Paiva
2011, 2014) by evaluating its potential use in teaching and learning
English as an additional language (EAL). This investigation is motivated
by the recently released textbook series Alive (grounded on the complexity
theory) for teaching and learning EAL in elementary and high schools in
Brazil. After a short review on the emergence of the CALTL in applied
linguistics, this chapter presents the Alive textbook series, its theoretical
foundation and teaching guideline propositions. It then describes the
CALTL nine elements followed by an analysis of selected activities from
the Alive textbooks for elementary school Grades 6 and 7, and high school
Grade 1. This analysis is expected to help pave the way to a successful
implementation of the CALTL in EAL classrooms.

Introduction
Larsen-Freeman (1997) and Larsen-Freeman and Cameron (2008),
among others, have introduced important underlying concepts into applied
linguistics from physical and biological sciences about complexity and
chaos. The major contribution of the complexity theory (CT) for social
sciences is its multidisciplinary approach to the study of complex adaptive
system (CAS) behavior and how it is influenced by internal and external
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 141

connections to the environment. The main properties of a CAS can be

listed as follows: dynamicity, openness, non-linearity, self-organization,
adaptation and emergence.
From a CT perspective, many of the phenomena of interest to applied
linguistics can be seen as a CAS: language and second language
acquisition (SLA) are good examples. However, thinking of a complexity
approach to language teaching and learning is challenging. This is true
given that an approach to language teaching provides a set of coherent
principles directly linked to practice (methods and techniques), and these
principles end up limiting the practice. The restriction to a certain type of
practice proposed by a method has been the central discussion in the post-
method era (Prabhu, 1987, 1990; Kumaravadivelu, 1994, 2001).
Recently, Borges and Paiva (2011, 2014) have proposed a complexity
approach to language teaching and learning (CALTL) adding nine new
components to the four ones (i.e., connectivity across all levels, dynamics
of language-using, co-adaptation, and dynamics of learning managing by
teaching) originally suggested by Larsen-Freeman and Cameron (2008)
namely: (1) language and SLA as a CAS; (2) reconstructive dynamic
dimension of teaching and learning as a multifaceted process; (3)
conceiving the teacher as one of the elements that gives dynamicity to the
teaching and learning process; (4) focusing on the learner’s performance to
promote competence; (5) centralizing language social practices in the
classroom; (6) receiving multiple identities or ‘fractalized identities’
(Sade, 2009) of individuals; (7) ‘eco-semiotic syllabus’ (ESS) (Borges,
2014a) co-construction; (8) affordances awareness; (9) individual’s
‘autopoietic organization’ (Maturana & Varela, 2001).
The CALTL, as proposed by Borges and Paiva (2011, 2014), is not
limited in practice as it only exists in action, managed by teaching and
supported by learning. Therefore, it is promptly qualified as a CAS in
itself. Even in a post-method era, an approach to language teaching is still
important to guide teachers (as long as it does not limit their practices)
particularly if complexity is taken into account, as occurs in the applied
linguistics field nowadays.
This chapter intends to move the discussion about the CALTL (Borges
& Paiva, 2011, 2014) one step forward by presenting its potential use/
usage in EAL classrooms in Brazil. To this end, in the following section it
describes the emergence of the CALTL in the context of applied
linguistics. Next, it presents a short historical perspective together with the
theoretical background of the Alive textbook series in Brazil. This
textbook series was released in 2012 (for elementary school Grades 6-9)
and in 2013 (for high school Grades 1-3). The theoretical foundation and
142 Chapter Nine

teaching guidelines of this series are based on the CT. Then, the nine
elements of the CALTL (Borges & Paiva, 2011, 2014) are discussed
followed by an analysis of selected activities in the Alive textbooks. The
final section of the chapter presents some concluding remarks.

Complexity Approach in Applied Linguistics

Since Anthony’s (1963) hierarchical arrangement and contemporary
definition of approach, method and technique, the term approach has
become more closely related to what one believes can be called a theory of
language teaching and learning, or simply a ‘metaparadigm’ (Masterman,
1979) in a language teaching context (Borges, 2009, 2014b). On the other
hand, as it is well known, method and technique are actually more
connected to the language teacher’s actions in the classroom. However,
those classroom actions (teachers) are supposed to be managed by a
selected approach that provides them with a set of coherent principles
(theorizers).
With the advent of the so-called post-method era (Prabhu, 1987, 1990;
Kumaravadivelu, 1994, 2001), the relationship between theorizers and
teachers has changed “by empowering teachers with knowledge, skill, and
autonomy” so they “could devise for themselves a systematic, coherent,
and relevant alternative to method, one informed by principled pragmatism”
(Kumaravadivelu, 1994, p. 27). This was also what Prabhu (1987) named
as ‘sense of plausibility’ or teacher’s intuition “of how classroom activity
leads to the desired outcome of learning” (p. 106), and Borges (2010)
refers to it as ‘teacher’s methodology’.
In the CT context, Larsen-Freeman (1997) took this discussion to a
different perspective. She pointed out the need of “a dynamic model of
performance [parole], which relates individual use [of a language] to
systemic change” (p. 149) instead of focusing only on a theory of
competence [langue]. In fact, Larsen-Freeman claims that langue
(competence) and parole (performance) “cannot be studied independently
of each other if we want to be faithful to the reality of language” (p. 149).
This makes very much sense, since theorizers’ main concern regarding
the development of approaches to language teaching has been competence.
The communicative approach or communicative language teaching (CLT),
whose core is communicative competence, is a good example. Even with
Hymes’s (1972) broad conception of competence as “dependent upon both
(tacit) knowledge and (ability for) use” (p. 282), the notion of an inductive
teaching of grammar as if it could be deliberately developed in learners
has privileged “situational appropriacy” over “grammatical conformity”
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 143

(Prabhu, 1987). The other way around, the communicational approach

(Prabhu, 1987) has developed itself having grammatical competence as its
core to avoid the CLT communicative competence pedagogy (Borges,
2009).
By focusing on the importance of a dynamic model of performance,
Larsen-Freeman (1997) aims at overcoming the classical Chomskyan
competence-performance and Saussurean langue-parole dichotomies in
applied linguistics studies. This is because competence and performance
are additional elements of language as a dynamic complex system or
CAS.
Also, as far as CT is concerned, second/additional language teaching
can be seen as managing the dynamics of learning (Larsen-Freeman &
Cameron, 2008). That means that we should consider adaptation in the
classroom and that “learning guides the teaching and not vice versa” (p.
200). In other words, “teaching does not cause learning; learners make
their own paths” (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008, p. 199). So, any
particular approach to language teaching must be “dynamically adaptable
in use” and “learning-centered” (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008, p.
198-200), as opposed to being curriculum-centered or learner-centered as
is the case of the approaches we currently have in the language teaching
context.
Although Larsen-Freeman and Cameron (2008) believe that any effort
in developing a complexity approach to language teaching and learning
would be futile since it “does not automatically translate into a complexity
method for teaching language” (p. 197), they have suggested four
components as a starting point for building one, namely: connectivity
across all levels; dynamics of language-using; co-adaptation; and
dynamics of learning managing by teaching.
Believing that approaches to language teaching are still important to
guide the teachers’ methodology (Borges, 2010) in the classroom (as long
as it does not limit their practices), Borges and Paiva (2011, 2014) have
moved towards a complexity approach to language teaching and learning
(CALTL), as described later on in this chapter.

The Alive Textbook Series in Brazil

The Alive textbook series for elementary (Alive!: inglês) and high
(Alive high: inglês) schools (Figure 9-1) was released in 2012 and 2013,
respectively, in Brazil. The authors are English teachers and Brazilian
applied linguistics researchers from Federal Universities in Brazil. Among
other series, Alive has been distributed in public schools by the Brazilian
144 Chapter Nine

Ministry off Education (M MEC) throug

gh the Textboook National Program
(PNLD). Thhe general goaal of the series, as one of thhe authors em
mphasizes,
is the teachiing and learniing of EAL by
y working “w with language in use by
means of authentic sam mples of lin
nguistic sociaal practices and [by]
encourage[inng] students to
t use English words” (Paiva, 2013, p.
h to act with w
8).

Figure 9-1: The Alive textboook series.

The elem mentary schoool series is divided into four textboo oks (from
Grade 6 to 9) while thee high school series is divvided into thrree (from
Grade 1 to 33). In general, each textbook k contains eigght units organnized into
four blocks. Each block hash two units plus
p extra secttions at the en nd such as
Glossary, L Language Reeference and Recommendded Bibliogra aphy for
Students. Inn the high schoool textbookss, there is alsoo a section callled Time
for literaturre. All units are
a written in n English. Hoowever, throug ghout the
teachers’ texxtbooks theree are some authors’ suggesstions such as teaching
guidelines (for some propposed activities) written inn Brazilian Po ortuguese.
In addition, each textboook comes with h a CD for liistening activiities. The
other linguistics abilities (reading, speeaking, and w writing) are included in
sections likee Let’s listen and read!, Leet’s listen, reaad and talk!, and Let’s
uistics analysiss are found in the Let’s
read and wrrite!. The activvities in lingu
focus on lannguage! sectioon present in each
e unit.
It is woorth mentioninng that the main
m innovatioon of the Aliive series
comes from m its theoreticaal foundation which is bassed on the CT T. This is
clearly stateed in the seection Manua al do Professsor (Teacher’’s guide)
(written in BBrazilian Porttuguese) at thee end of eachh teacher’s texxtbook. In
the teacher’ss guide the auuthors describbe the purposee of the series and how
it works. Also they provvide all pertin nent definitionns regarding language,
l
SLA and leaarning conceptions as a CAS.
For insttance, in thee Alive!: ing glês teacher’ss textbook (Menezes,
Tavares, Braaga, & Francoo, 2012a, 2012 2b) the authorrs say that, orriented by
complexity principles, thhe students should be “encoouraged to deevelop an
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 145

autonomous position as co-responsible for the teaching and learning

process” (p. 4, my translation). To accomplish this, throughout the units,
“students are asked to draw up hypotheses, to deduce rules from the
observation of different use of language contexts and to put them into
practice” (Menezes, et al., 2012a, 2012b, p. 4, my translation). On the
other hand, teachers should guide and encourage students to assume the
role of agents of their own learning. The section Let’s reflect on learning!
(at the end of each unit) is a good example of how this could be developed
(see Figure 9-9 later on in this chapter). Besides that, in the Alive high:
inglês teacher’s textbook (Menezes, Braga, Carneiro, Racilian, Gomes, &
Velloso, 2013) the authors say that the complexity approach to language
teaching proposed by the series “is not limited to language teaching for
communication but also for reflection and action in society” (p. 205, my
translation). This can be seen, as pointed out by the authors, for example,
in the orientations presented in the section Let’s act with words, which is
related to the school and students’ context (see Figure 9-7 below).

CALTL: Managing the Dynamics of Teaching

and Learning in the EAL Classroom
In this section, the nine components of the CALTL introduced to the
field of applied linguistics by Borges and Paiva (2011, 2014) are presented
and discussed. CALTL elements present in activities and/or teaching
guidelines taken from the Alive textbooks for the 6th (Menezes et al.,
2012a) and the 7th (Menezes et al., 2012b) grades of elementary schools,
and for the 1st (Menezes et al., 2013) grade of high schools are discussed.
These activities are actually assumed here as examples of how teaching
and learning EAL can be linked to CALTL practice. This task was
accomplished with the help of qualitative interpretative research (Pereira
& Borges, 2014) for the Alive series for elementary schools. It is
worthwhile mentioning at this point that there is no intention to present an
exhaustive account of all the activities and teaching guidelines in the Alive
textbooks series and that only a few examples taken from the textbooks
will be shown, mostly those which illustrate more than one point, for the
sake of space.

Language and SLA as CAS

As pointed out by Menezes (2013) language as CAS is a non-linear
dynamic system that emerged from the interrelation of its elements, such
as bio-cognitive, sociocultural, historical and political. In other words,
146 Chapter Nine

language is a complex system consisting of multiple agents and it is in

constant movement (Ellis & Larsen-Freeman, 2009; Larsen-Freeman,
1997; Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008). SLA as a CAS is also
characterized by dynamic processes (Larsen-Freeman, 1997; Larsen-
Freeman & Cameron, 2008), interacting individual and social factors
including, as noted by Menezes (2013), the creation of automatic linguistic
habits, cultural and personal affiliations with the second language, input,
interaction, output, neural and sociocultural connections.
As was mentioned before, throughout the teachers’ textbooks there are
some authors’ suggestions as teaching guidelines written in Brazilian
Portuguese. Many of those are aimed at encouraging teachers to explain
the complex features of a language as social practice to their students,
stressing that it is a living phenomenon and in constant movement.
In Figure 9-2 (Menezes et al., 2012b, p. 94), for instance, one can see
the following passage:

“We suggest speaking to the students about the study of grammar,

emphasizing that it is not enough to memorize rules, but it is essential to
understand their use in communication situations. We recommend
providing examples of linguistic variations that students already have
studied throughout the textbook that show how often the rules are
modified depending on the context of its use.” (my translation)

As can also be seen in Figure 9-2, grammar is taken as an alive

component of the language (Grammar is not dead) that changes and varies
from place to place. In other words, the textbook emphasizes that
“Grammar consists of aspects for word formation, grammar structures or
patterns, word sounds, sentence melody, and how we use language to
produce meaning in different contexts” (Menezes et al., 2012b, p. 94).
Following the concept of language and SLA as CAS, the textbook
offers different types of activities. For instance, in the section Learning
strategies (throughout the textbooks for elementary schools) activities can
be found that emphasize (a) the linguistic variation between US and UK
English (Menezes et al., 2012b, p. 94) (Figure 9-2); (b) the different
meanings of the same word as a way to make the students aware that
“Meaning depends on the context” (Menezes et al., 2012b, p. 62); (b) the
use of helpful tips regarding speech production stating that “Hesitation is
not a mistake, but a characteristic of oral interaction” (Menezes et al.,
2012a, p. 130) (Figure 9-3). Thus, there is no need for the students to “be
afraid of making mistakes” since “we learn from our mistakes” (Menezes
et al., 2012a, p. 130), and so on. In this last example, mistakes are seen as
part of the complex process of acquiring language.
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 147

Figure 9-2: Grammar as a living component of language (Source: Menezes et al.,

2012b, p. 94).

Figure 9-3: Mistake as a characteristic of oral interaction (Source: Menezes et al.,

2012a, p. 130).
148 Chapter Nine

Reconstructive Dynamic Dimension of Teaching and Learning

as a Multifaceted Process
The teaching and learning process in action is essentially a teacher and
learner(s) co-adaptation or “the interaction of two or more complex
systems, each changing in response to the other” (Larsen-Freeman &
Cameron, 2008, p. 67). Nested in this process there are other important
dimensions such as autonomy, self-organization, emergency, and
autopoietic organization (Demo, 2008). All together, these dimensions are
potentially responsible for phase shifts in the emergent behavior of CAS
(teacher and learners, for instance). Emergent behavior tells us that a CAS
is trying to obtain new stabilities from previous disorder and also that it is
in a state of maximum potential for learning. These CAS state diversities
end up in a stabilized behavior (attractor) that can be explained (in the
teaching and learning context) by different psychological theories
(multifaceted process) of learning and development, all at the same time,
such as behaviorism, cognitivism and socio-interactionism.
This means that, considering the immediate needs of the learning
context, the teacher, as the element that gives dynamism to the classroom,
is free to use the principles of different types of the language teaching
approach during a lesson, keeping in mind that the complexity approach in
itself is multifaceted in its conception of language teaching and learning.
The Alive series provides the teacher with that freedom as he/she can find
different activities throughout any given unit in the textbooks. For
example, in the textbook for elementary schools (Menezes et al., 2012a, p.
94) (Figure 9-4), there is a reading activity of a small text (activities 9 and
10), where the authors suggest activating the students’ prior knowledge
about it using the pre-reading technique. The authors say: “As a pre-
reading activity, we suggest to students how they help or could help with
household chores and thus activate their prior knowledge on the subject”
(my translation). This technique comes from the English for Specific
Purposes (ESP) approach with the focus on reading skills which, in turn, is
based on cognitivism (top-down processing).
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 149

Figure 9-4: Using reading ESP technique and grammar-based practice (Source:
Menezes et al., 2012a, p. 94).

ESP techniques are also used in the Alive series to work with other
language skills, such as oral production (see Figure 9-5, activity 2)–where
the teacher can find the following suggestion given by the authors:

“As a pre-oral comprehension activity, we suggest asking if students like

fruit salad and what ingredients they usually use to prepare the recipe.
Next, write the ingredients in English on the blackboard.” (Menezes et al.,
2012a, p. 84, my translation)
150 Chapter Nine

Figure 9-5: Using listening ESP technique and genre-based instruction (Source:
Menezes et al., 2012a, p. 84).

Still on page 94 (Figure 9-4), there are some traditional activities of the
contracted negative forms don’t and doesn’t (activity 11). These activities
are clearly based on grammar and linguistic habit formation, as those used
in the grammatical approach, which is grounded on behaviorism.
Similarly, one can see activities 1 and 2 on page 151 of the textbook for
high schools (Menezes et al., 2013) (Figure 9-6) that focus on the use of
the am/are/is + going to + verb structure. The next activity (activity 3), in
turn, is based on a schedule to watch films from the TIFF (The Toronto
International Film Festival)–discussed earlier in the unit. The latter activity
is potentially founded on the task-based approach or communicational
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 151

approach (Prabhu, 1997) grounded on cognitivism and socio-interactionism.

Figure 9-6: Using grammar-based practice and task-based instruction (Source:

Menezes et al., 2013, p. 151).

On page 84 (Menezes et al., 2012a) (Figure 9-5), on the other hand,

activity 2 is about how to write a fruit salad recipe with some explanations
(Did you know… ?) about the characteristics of the genre speech recipe.
This kind of activity can be linked to the approach to language teaching
based on speech genres associated with Bakhtin's theory and socio-
interactionism. Also, the section Let’s act with words! (Menezes et al.,
2013, p. 111) (Figure 9-7)–found in all the textbooks for high schools–is
entirely dedicated to the production of different speech genres, such as
presentation, graffiti, profile, flyer, propaganda, biography, greeting card,
152 Chapter Nine

website, etc. Another example of using an approach based on speech

genres (in the textbook for elementary schools, for instance) can be seen in
an activity involving cartoon production in Figure 9-8 (Menezes et al.,
2012b, p. 23).

Figure 9-7: Using genre-based instruction (Source: Menezes et al., 2013, p. 111).
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 153

The Teacher Gives Dynamicity to the Teaching

and Learning Process
A complexity approach to language teaching and learning must shelter
the teacher’s sense of plausibility (Prabhu, 1987) or teacher’s methodology
(Borges, 2010), serving not only as a guide for his/her actions in the
classroom, but essentially providing support for them. This is true since in
real school environments what the teacher encounters is a non-linear
dynamic web of interactions between many elements, such as (besides the
teacher and the students) curriculum, syllabus, approaches, methodology,
methods and techniques, textbook, school vision, educational policies, etc.,
which are the components of class as a CAS.
Pereira and Borges (2014) emphasize that the teacher must take a
proactive action to work with the Alive textbooks. In other words, the
teacher must “be able to expand, adapt and/or modify a proposed activity
so that it becomes more appropriate and/or more meaningful for students”
(Pereira & Borges, 2014, p. 13, my translation). This is what makes the
teacher the element that gives dynamicity to the teaching and learning
process.
A good example is a cartoon production activity about the environment
in the section Let’s act with words (Menezes et al., 2012b, p. 23) (Figure 9-
8) in which according to the authors’ suggestions in the teacher’s textbook
(“If you wish, propose to the students to write about the conservation of
school, neighborhood, etc.”–my translation) this activity can be directly
related to school issues on this transversal theme, whereas the teacher
expands the activity to the school context.
154 Chapter Nine

Figure 9-8: Giving dynamicity to the classroom (Source: Menezes et al., 2012b, p.
23).

Focus on Learner’s Performance to Promote Competence

Performance is an individual (and therefore a self-organized) phenomenon
“because it is the dynamic properties of the system that lead it to happen,
not some external organizing force” (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008,
p. 58). As a result, there can only be heterogeneity in the classroom. By
focusing on performance, the language teacher should lead learners to
achieve linguistic, semantic and pragmatic competences in the permanent
development of a language. This implies that the central core of an
approach to teaching and learning is no longer the competence to achieve
performance–as it has happened to approaches so far–but the other way
around.
At the end of each thematic unit of the Alive textbook series for
elementary schools there is a section called Let’s reflect on learning!,
which is actually a review of the content studied in that unit. Moreover,
there are subsections named I am autonomous, Now I Know and I need to
learn more (Menezes et al., 2012b, p. 37) (Figure 9-9) and Self-learning
report, My opinion and Now I Know (Menezes et al., 2012a, p. 131), for
instance, where students are encouraged to reflect on what they have
learned. The same can be found in the textbook series for high schools in
the section Learning journal (also at the end of each thematic unit) where
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 155

there are subsections entitled I learned, I liked, I need to review/learn more

and My experiences with English outside school were (Menezes et al.,
2013, p. 43) for the students to fill in. What draws someone’s attention in
this case is the way the review is organized in the book. As the titles of the
sections and subsections imply, its intention is for the students to reflect
both on their actions and on their learning in the classroom. With this self-
assessment, students can focus on their own performance.

Figure 9-9: Promoting students’ autonomy (Source: Menezes et al., 2012b, p. 37).

The emphasis on learner’s autonomy is something of utmost

importance to the Alive textbooks since in its approach to language and
teaching “students are not limited to passively receive content made ready
by the teacher, but rather they are encouraged to develop an autonomous
attitude, as responsible for the teaching-learning process” (Menezes et al.,
2012b, p. 4, my translation). As stressed by Paiva (2010), autonomy is
directly linked to the learner’s performance in the language acquisition
process, and through it the learner manages his/her own learning.
Autonomy can also be seen as an element of the CALTL once the student’s
156 Chapter Nine

responsibility for his/her own learning is a very important CT issue as it is

linked to the self-organization of a CAS.

Centralize Language Social Practices in the Classroom

In order to acquire an additional language, its usage (linguistic system)
and use (effective communication) must be as close as possible to the real
social language performance. This is a real challenge for teachers and
learners because they have to break the class barrier in search for real
opportunities and contextualized usage/use of these practices (Borges &
Paiva, 2011).
The Alive series go beyond the teaching and learning of English
grammar to work on the meaning it produces in real speech. To this aim,
the textbook series emphasizes the “language in use by means of authentic
samples of linguistic social practices and encourage[s] students to use
English to act with words” (Paiva, 2013, p. 8).
Activities 1 to 4 in the section Let’s focus on language! (Menezes et
al., 2012a) (Figure 9-10) (textbook for the Grade 6) is an example as it
contains samples of authentic texts. Also in this section there are
explanations for the teacher (as follows) on how the students should have
the perception of actually learning the language that circulates in language
social practices by using examples of the language that were taken from
real situations:

“Lead students to observe that the examples are taken from real situations.
It is important that they have the perception of learning the language
circulating in social practices of the language. The focus should be on
meaning and not form by form. Students need to recognize verbs, but
always thinking about their meanings. (…).” (Menezes et al., 2012a, p.
122, my translation)
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 157

Figure 9-10: Providing language social practices (Source: Menezes et al., 2012a, p.
122).

Reception of Multiple Identities of Individuals

As Norton (2000) pointed out “it is through language that a person
negotiates a sense of self within and across different sites at different
points in time” (p. 5) and “learning a second language is (…) a complex
social practice that engages the identities of language learners” (p. 132).
On the other hand, Sade (2009, p. 520) emphasized that the “‘self’ is
constructed via emergence of several other ‘selves’” in what she calls
“fractalized identity”.
The Alive textbook provides some activities that can potentially
158 Chapter Nine

contribute to bringing out the multiple identities of students (Pereira &

Borges, 2014). For instance, in the textbook for Grade 6 (Menezes et al.,
2012a, p. 10) there is a unit called Who am I? that presents suggestions for
teachers to encourage students to introduce themselves to each other,
talking about themselves (friends and family) and about what they like and
dislike to do and/or would like and dislike to be. Furthermore, this unit
offers photos of famous athletes from around the world, focusing on one
of the identities of these sports professionals. Another excellent example is
the section Let’s create an avatar! (Menezes et al., 2012a, p. 145) (Figure
9-11) where the students have the opportunity to create a digital identity
that may represent one of the student’s identity facet or an alternative
identity that might be in his/ her imagination.

Figure 9-11: Bringing out students’ multiple identities (Source: Menezes et al.,
2012a, p. 145).

The textbook also provides website links related to the avatar theme
and images from the 2009 science fiction movie that illustrates well the
identity fractalization of its main actor, Sam Worthington, as a paraplegic
marine (a human) and as Jake Sully (a Na’vi inhabitant of Pandora).

Eco-Semiotic Syllabus (ESS) Co-Construction

An ESS (Borges, 2014b) is a teacher and learner co-construction
syllabus that emerges from classroom interactions, an essential element of
the SLA as CAS. In order words, it is a CAS in itself. Moreover, it is an
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 159

analytic and process type of syllabus in which the “teacher’s role as a

manager of learning is to nudge the students’ developing system into a
trajectory through state space that is consonant with the students’ goals
and goals of instruction” (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008, p. 202).
The ESS, as pointed out by Borges (2014b), is based on van Lier’s
(1996, 2000) two dimensions: a) horizontal, “forging links between
different subjects, exploring cross-curricular themes, and dealing with
global linguistic problems and issues” (van Lier, 1996, p. 19), also
working with the “linguistic normativity (habit and structure)” (van Lier,
2000, p. 258) as a centripetal force of language; b) vertical, “providing
deep and rich language experiences throughout the child’s academic
career, and building usable and lasting language skills, both oral and
written” (van Lier, 1996, p. 19), as well as making the “linguistic
creativity (variety and invention)” operational (van Lier, 2000, p. 258) as a
centrifugal force of language.
Of course, teachers must have a starting point to begin with and that is
what one can call the ESS initial conditions, such as the students’ needs
and wants (previously verified), and contents and goals that are required
by the school curriculum, for instance. After that, teachers must have a
sense of plausibility (Prabhu, 1987) to bring out their methodology
(Borges, 2010) that will introduce the dynamics required in the interaction
of these two classroom forces in the SLA: linguistic normativity and
linguistic creativity.

Affordances Awareness
An affordance is a particular property of the environment “that is
relevant–for good or for ill–to an active, perceiving organism in that
environment. [It] affords further action (but does not cause or trigger it)”
(van Lier, 2000, p. 252). Even though teachers do not control the students’
learning (understood as a self-organized process), this does not mean that
the teaching does not influence it. As discussed in Larsen-Freeman and
Cameron (2008), “teaching and teacher-learner interaction construct and
constrain the learning affordances of the classroom” (p. 200). So, being
aware of the potential affordances in the school environment (and beyond
it) which can help or not students acquire a language is a good tool for
successful teaching.
In the first part of each Alive elementary and high school textbooks,
there is a suggestion for a Year project (scrapbook, tourist booklet,
magazine, blog, portfolio, etc.) whose objective is the production of a
continuous activity throughout the year to encourage “students’ perception
160 Chapter Nine

of the English language” around them (Menezes et al., 2012a, p. 11). The
textbook for Grade 6 (Menezes et al., 2012a), for example, suggests the
development of a personal scrapbook and explains that “It is a collection
of memories”, and that “We use photos, images, parts of texts from
magazines and notes” (p. 9). To accomplish this, the students may use any
material they want or already have, like recycled paper or an old agenda.
Also, to start his/her scrapbook, the textbook suggests that students make a
collection of words in English around them. The textbook’s suggestion for
the use of any material available to the students for the scrapbook
production (or any other year project) is a way to make them aware of the
tools around them that can facilitate the learning of English (Pereira &
Borges, 2014).

Individuals’ Autopoietic Organization

As pointed out by Maturana and Varela (2001), autopoietic organization
refers to a system capable of producing and maintaining itself in contact
with its environment, but the system changes are conditioned to its
particular structure. Thus, every living being follows a particular path,
selected in its history of interactions by a sequence of structural changes
that these interactions triggered in him/ her. As human beings, teachers and
students are characterized by an autopoietic organization that, in the CT
context, is related to one of the most important elements of a CAS: self-
organization.
Maturana and Varela (2001) stressed the importance of the quality of
interactions in the behavior of living beings for the development of human
understanding in the biological cognitive perspective. This can be
extended to Freire’s (1987) critical pedagogy as an autopoietic education
conception, for instance, when the author says that “no one educates
anyone, and nobody is self educated; all of us learn from each other,
mediated by the world we live in.” (p. 68, my translation).

Conclusion
In this work, the emergence of the CALTL in applied linguistic studies
was demonstrated. The nine components that describe the CALTL as
proposed by Borges and Paiva (2011, 2014) were also presented. The
CALTL aims at establishing itself as a key element that emerges in (and
gives dynamics to) real language teaching and learning environments in
action. In addition, potential ways of using CALTL in EAL classrooms
were summarized by giving some examples of activities and teacher
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 161

guideline suggestions taken from the Alive textbooks for elementary and
high schools in Brazil. The analysis showed that many activities proposed
in the textbooks highlight several components of the CALTL. In addition,
it clearly demonstrates the potential of this study to help pave the way to a
successful implementation of the CALTL in EAL classrooms.

Acknowledgement
This study received financial support from FAPEMIG (Fundação de
Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais) and CNPq (Conselho
Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico).

References
Anthony, E. M. (1963). Approach, method, and technique. English
Teaching Forum, 3(1), 7-10.
Borges, E. F. V., & Paiva, V. L. M. O. (2014). Towards a complexity
approach to language teaching and learning. Paper presented at the
17th World Congress of the International Association of Applied
Linguistics (AILA), August 10-15, Brisbane, Australia.
Borges, E. F. V., & Paiva, V. L. M. O. (2011). Por uma abordagem
complexa de ensino de línguas. Linguagem & Ensino, 14(2), 337-56.
Borges, E. F. V. (2014a). Planejamento semiótico-ecológico de ensino de
línguas. Revista Contexturas, 23, 39-61.
—. (2014b). Paradigm shift in language teaching and language teacher
education. The ESPecialist, 35(1), 42-59.
—. (2010). Metodologia, abordagem e pedagogias de ensino de língua(s).
Linguagem & Ensino, 13(2), 397-414.
—. (2009) Uma reflexão filosófica sobre abordagens e paradigmas na
constituição da subárea Ensino-Aprendizagem de LE/L2 na Linguística
Aplicada. Tese de Doutorado. Faculdade de Educação da Universidade
de São Paulo, Brazil.
Demo, P. (2008). Complexidade e aprendizagem: a dinâmica não linear
do conhecimento. São Paulo: Atlas.
Ellis, N. C., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (Eds.). (2009). Language as a complex
adaptive system. Michigan: Wiley-Blackwell.
Freire, P. (1987). Pedagogia do oprimido. 29. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e
Terra.
Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. In J. B. Pride & J.
Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics (pp. 269-293). Hardmondsworth:
Penguin.
162 Chapter Nine

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2001). Toward a postmethod pedagogy. TESOL

Quartely, 35(4), 537-560.
—. (1994). The postmethod condition: (E)merging strategies for
second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 28(1), 27-48.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1997). Chaos/Complexity Science and second
language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 18(2), 141-165.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Cameron, L. (2008). Complex systems and applied
linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Masterman, M. (1979). A natureza de um paradigma. In I. Lakatos & A.
Musgrave (Eds.), A crítica e o desenvolvimento do conhecimento:
quarto volume das atas do Colóquio Internacional sobre Filosofia da
Ciência, realizado em Londres em 1965 (pp. 72-108). São Paulo:
Cultrix.
Maturana, R. H., & Varela, F. J. (2001). A árvore do conhecimento: as
bases biológicas da compreensão humana. São Paulo: Palas Athenas.
Menezes, V., Braga, J., Carneiro, M., Racilian, M., Gomes, R., & Velloso,
M. (2013). Alive high: inglês, 1º ano (Ensino médio). São Paulo:
Edições SM.
Menezes, V., Tavares, K., Braga, J., & Franco, C. (2012a). Alive!: inglês,
6º ano (Ensino fundamental). 1ª ed., São Paulo: Editora Anzol.
Menezes, V., Tavares, K., Braga, J., & Franco, C. (2012b). Alive!: inglês,
7º ano (Ensino fundamental). 1ª ed., São Paulo: Editora Anzol.
Menezes, V. (2013). Second language acquisition: Reconciling theories.
Open Journal of Applied Sciences, 3(7), 404-412.
Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: gender, ethnicity and
educational change. Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited.
Paiva, V. L. M. O. (2013). Alive! Ensino de inglês vivo e vivido. In A. A.
Assis-Peterson, (Eds.), Anais Eletrônico do XVI Encontro de
Professores de Inglês, 23 e 24 de agosto de 2013. (pp. 08-15).
Departamento de Letras de Rondonópolis e Cuiabá; UFMT. Faculdade
de Letras. CD-ROM.
Pereira, L. S., & Borges, E. F. V. (2014). Potencialidades da abordagem
complexa de ensino de língua no uso da coleção “Alive!: inglês”.
D.E.L.T.A - Documentação e Estudos em Linguística Teórica Aplicada.
Prabhu, N. S. (1990). There is no best method – Why? TESOL Quarterly,
24(2), 161-76.
—. (1987). Second language pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sade, A. S. (2009). Complexity and identity reconstruction in second
language acquisition. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, 9(2),
515-537.
 Complexity Approach to Language Teaching and Learning 163

van Lier, L. (2000). From input to affordance: Social-interactive learning

from an ecological perspective. In J. P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural
theory and second language learning (pp. 245-259). Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
 CHAPTER TEN
ON THE CUSP OF QUALITY TEACHING
AND LEARNING OF ENGLISH IN RURAL
SCHOOLS IN SOUTH AFRICA

MUCHATIVUGWA LIBERTY HOVE

Abstract
Teaching English as a first additional Language (EFAL) and English as
a second language (ESL) in rural schools in South Africa has produced
appalling results, either due to teacher under-preparedness, lack of
motivation to learn the language on the part of the teachers and learners, or
because of the lack of appropriate resources emanating from the ecological
dimensions of the school. As a result of these mitigating factors, pass
marks for EFAL or ESL have been tampered with by the examining board
in South Africa, Umalusi, (Krugel & Fourie, 2014) in order to give a
semblance of success in the teaching of English (Gee, 1994; Jansen, 2010;
Johnson & Kress, 2003). In order to address the paucity in the quality of
both the English language teaching and the English learning and teaching
materials in South Africa, this study was framed by a three-year
longitudinal qualitative paradigm in order to examine three critical issues:
theoretical moorings of teacher preparedness, creativity and resourcefulness,
and the constructs that have to be taught towards improving quality
teaching and learning in rural and often impoverished schools in South
Africa (Dornyei, 1998; Mbelani, 2008; Schmuck, 2000). This chapter
presents evidence from a three-year longitudinal study and reports that co-
operative syllabus design at the secondary school stage is a productive
undertaking, that language learning strategies are developed in situ and
appropriated by the learners, especially when teachers demonstrate both
effective language proficiency and promote multiliteracies across the
curriculum (Balfour, 2014; Fakeye, 2014; Janks, 2010). The chapter also
recommends both content and methodological constructs perceived as
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 165

critical for quality teaching and learning of EFAL and ESL in a

multilingual context.

Introduction
A three year longitudinal and qualitative study was undertaken at a
secondary school research site to collaboratively design, implement and
evaluate a grade-appropriate English language syllabus that would
enhance reading and writing competencies in learners who had previously
attended disadvantaged rural schools. These learners were financially and
materially sponsored by a Telkom Foundation Bursary in South Africa
under a corporate social responsibility initiative. From an in-depth focus
group interview at the onset of this research, one of the research
participants stated the following:

“All I need is to go to a school where teachers are fun and supportive, to

[learn] and play with friends and come home to a safe place and a happy
mom. I will then become anything in life-anything I like.” (Babalwa, My
emphasis)

This chapter reports on the results of this three-year longitudinal study

of co-operative syllabus design at the secondary school stage; it also
reports on the language learning strategies that were developed and
appropriated by the learners, and the aspects that are considered critical for
quality teaching and learning of English as a First Additional Language
(EFAL) at the critical exit grade level, that is Grade 12, in South Africa. It
taps significantly on the contributions of three out of the fifty-one research
participants in this study, and one whose remarks are embedded in the
vignette at the start of this chapter. For the research participant called
Babalwa (not her real name), the school environment, particularly the
teachers, should be ‘fun and supportive,’ home should be a ‘safe’ place,
and then she could be ‘anything in life.’ In order to unpack nuances of
such expressions from three research participants, it is necessary to
reminisce over the three-year long journey that started with the enrolment
of learners from rural and disadvantaged schools at an institution that had
all the resources: trained and qualified teachers, contemporary electronic
and reading materials, and, most importantly, a supportive and encouraging
teaching team.
166 Chapter Ten

Aims and Objectives of the Study

At the onset of the research study, the aim was to establish and
describe reading and writing abilities of an initial 20 students, enrolled at a
private school in 2008 and then 31 other participants who enrolled at the
same school in 2009. After establishing their competencies, the second
aim was to develop, collaboratively, a syllabus for English that would
qualitatively enhance their reading and writing competencies so that they
could pass an internationally benchmarked examination, the Cambridge
International Examination in English. This aim was framed by an
understanding that students’ abilities to read, interpret, analyse and
evaluate issues are firmly rooted in the language classroom because we use
words to name the world and negotiate presence in the now-ness of the
language curriculum. In order to realise these aims, it was necessary to
identify, classify and describe the learners’ multi-languaging practices,
their errors, and from these offer directions to improve both reading and
writing competencies. These were learners weaned from a local South
African outcomes-based curriculum. They were multilingual, and while
performing challenging language tasks, they demonstrated reading
literacies that reflected multilingual backgrounds (in pitch, pace, tone,
comprehension, and lexical choices). Their language skills marked salient
features such as ethnicity, language (in)competence levels and social class
(Blommaert, 2010; Mesthrie, 2000). As a result, porous intersections
among a range of discursive features in the target language, English,
needed to be defined and harnessed for the development of multi-
literacies. The results reported in this chapter are part of a larger study that
investigated both sociolinguistic and affective variables that enhance
reading and writing success where English and some South African
languages interface recognisably through code-switching instances, and
more immediately in direct translation equivalence from one language to
another.

Theoretical Moorings of the Study

One of the challenges that this study faced related to the interdependence
between the learners’ language and that of the teacher (the latter’s language,
theoretically, is perceived as ‘standard’ and ‘legitimate’). In many ways,
learners and teachers are “engaged in the task of forming and reforming
their identities in the classroom encounters and conversations” as
Kumaravadivelu (2008, p. 12) observes. Closely linked to ‘standard’ and
‘legitimate’ are the sociolinguistic conceptual categories of ‘marked’ and
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 167

‘unmarked’ versions of language, be it in reading or in writing. There were

several critiques of the dominance of transmissive, teacher-centred, rote-
based teaching and learning practices that pointed to inadequacies in such
approaches (Delpit, 2006; Freire, 1976; Gee, 1990). There were also
several anecdotal suggestions that rural learners in South Africa failed
EFAL as a result of their teachers being under-qualified and therefore
using disempowering strategies such as rote-learning (Jansen, 2009;
Ramphele, 2012). It has been argued that teachers generally perceived
rural learners as ‘incapable’ and ‘disinterested.’ Such perceptions and
preconceptions invariably taint the teachers’ attitudes towards their
learners in a negative way.
Rural and poor schools in South Africa are, generally, unable to attract
and retain capable and experienced teachers because of their ecologies, the
remote locations, and the lack of grade-appropriate reading materials
(Alexander, 2003; Department of Education, 2008; Howie, Venter, van
Staaden, & Zimmerman, 2006; Permagiani, 2009). Preparing and
deploying teachers for the blistering reality and diversity of poor rural
schools calls on the education authorities to dispel the myths about the
‘rural outposts’ and instead, inculcate the positive worthiness of investing
teaching-learning time and developing effective teaching methodologies.
In a nutshell, as a teacher stands in front of the classroom, and looks at the
faces of students, each one of the faces represents a personality, a family, a
history, and cultural influences that have shaped that individual (Hove,
2011; Ramphele, 2012).
A framework for the development of cognitive academic language
skills was designed in situ in order to address the myriad challenges that a
language teacher experiences in impoverished schools. The framework
emerged from the conviction that multiple literacies become owned by the
learners through exposure to multiple relevant reading materials that
connect with other experiences. Through speech, writing, action, gesture,
image and space, there was a conviction that these could be deployed in
rural classrooms to create multi-layered communication ensembles. Taken
from Bourdieu (1991), there was an imperative to recognise that it is not
enough to learn a new language; we also have to learn new ways of
blending identities in a new habitus. The concepts considered crucial for
successful preparation and teaching, and later, the model as a framework
are presented in this chapter.
First, there is a need to identify and describe the specific challenges
learners face: is it structuring answers to specific questions, understanding
the gist of the question or is the problem at the level of basic decoding
skills? Having identified the nature of the problem, the teacher needs to
168 Chapter Ten

assess the impact of the problem(s) on the educational participation of the

learner, and more specifically, the impact of the problem(s) on “the
creative tensions that characterise” specific language production tasks
(Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 12).
Secondly, the teacher needs to analyse the school’s resources and
establish the capacity of these resources to address the needs of the
learner(s). For instance, slow reading could be scaffolded by dramatised
reading aloud and exposure to extensive reading materials such as short
stories and other literary genres. Vocabulary challenges could be
addressed through word lists and clauses on their meanings, including
antonyms and synonyms. Writing challenges could be addressed through
positive feedback, extensive practice and learning from peer models in the
same school (Hove, 2011; Krugel & Fourie, 2014).
Finally, when these preliminary facts have been established, the
language problem needs to be refined, and at times, broken into segments
that are ‘teachable’ and can be appropriated by the learner(s). In the
refinement of each specific language problem that inhibits learning and
concept acquisition and mastery, information about the learners increases,
the syllabus is examined for specific learning outcomes in more detail in
specific contexts and the exit summative assessment issues are explicitly
addressed. Consequently, the educator emerges more prepared to develop
and implement specific lesson outlines that address the needs of the
learner(s). In this task of problem identification and description, the
teacher engages with issues relating to how the learners, as participants in
the learning process, become “subjectivities that shape classroom climate”
(Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 13).

Critical Methodological Issues in the Research Process

If teachers’ under-qualification and ineffective instructional methods
were cited anecdotally as the major contributors to learner under-
achievement and failure in the rural areas in South Africa, then three
critical issues had to be re-examined in order to improve the quality of
teaching EFAL in those areas. These three are discussed in the following
sections.

Theoretical Grounding
This variable was considered relevant for the full preparation of the
teacher since it implied also high quality knowledge of content and
appropriate methodologies. Self-awareness and positioning relative to the
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 169

learners were perceived as essential for the teacher as a model.

Specifically for the rural schools, aspects such as multi-modal literacies,
the plurivocality of the learners themselves, the manifestation of code-
switching and code-mixing in the practical dynamics of the classroom
needed to be addressed from informed theoretical orientations and these
would then be carefully marshalled for the classroom realities in
impoverished schools. In order to ascertain this profiling, the teachers who
taught the learners in their previous schools were asked, in structured
interviews, to state what philosophical and discipline-specific foundations
they had in English language pedagogy, the approaches they used to teach
the language and the feedback that they provided to their learners.

English Teaching Pedagogies

Under this variable, the teacher would apply knowledge to each
distinctive classroom. Under the rubric of pedagogies of teaching English,
it is essential to dispel such ‘myths’ as ‘native-like competence’ and
‘native speaker target’ because they are, quintissentially, myths. In a time
of expanding globalisation and taking cognisance of the varieties of
English (Kachru, 1987) it is helpful to note that multilingualism has gained
credible currency. Kumaravadivelu (2008) argues that such targets in a
second language setting only help to propagate the westcentric view that
British or American English are normative and should be the ultimate
exemplars of competence in EFAL/ESL environments such as the South
African rural schools. Kumaravadivhelu (2008) further argues that cultural
awareness has become so much enmeshed with practices and processes of
EFAL/ESL teaching and learning to the extent that what gets learnt in a
context such as the South African classrooms is English that is ineluctably
tied to the South African experiences and realities, as opposed to English
or American culture per se.
A more problematic concern is the language expertise of the teachers,
where expertise is indicative of the level of command that the teacher is
able to marshal for the rural classroom encounters. Expertise, according to
Rampton (1990) and Phillipson (1996) is learned; it is relative and partial.
In order to achieve expertise, one goes through processes of certification in
which the teacher and the learner are judged against standards set by other
people. The ability of the teacher and the learner to exercise command
over the morphological, syntactic, phonetic and semantic features of
English is indispensable for certification; it also ensures mutual
intelligibility with other speakers from different locations as much as it
170 Chapter Ten

ensures accrual of the much needed linguistic capital that characterises a

hierarchized variety of English (Bourdieu, 1991; Siziba, 2013).

The Ecology of the Rural Schools

In each school and classroom, the teacher is not a finished ‘product’
but rather a self-directed, independent and life-long learner, always
striving to understand their individual learners and the specific challenges
that they face (Gee, 1990). This conceptualisation changes the terms of
conversation, and equally, the terms of the conduct of EFAL/ESL
knowledge production in the sense that it is premised on the multicultural
and multicompetence realities that permeate classroom input and
interactions. Of special significance in impoverished schools in South
Africa is the fact that the learners bring in their first languages as
resources. From a methodological perspective, an amenities checklist was
used to establish the resourcedness of each of the schools at which
students involved in this study had been previously enrolled before they
were sponsored to enrol at the private school. The data gathered is
presented in the following section.

Results
Morphological and Syntactic Peculiarities
Table 10-1 presents ten categories of ‘marked’ morpho-syntactical
peculiarities that were identified in the reading and writing patterns of the
first group of 20 students involved in this research study (the 2008 cohort).
The results confirm the findings of Gough (1996) and Mesthrie (2003).
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 171

Table 10-1: Morphological and syntactic deviations at the onset of

the English language course.

Observed and Example

recurrent
morphosyntactic
feature
Extensive use of My mathematics lessons, they are very
resumptive challenging.
pronouns My mother she is a very strict mom when it
comes to night time.
Gender conflation His husband is not together with her this
in pronouns days.
When his husband came home she was not
there any more.
Extension of the After the elections and the new government
progressive tense apartheid is still existing in the way
housing is being distributed.
Simplification of When I start to work I wish I will get
tense money to buy my mother a house.
New prepositional The preacher preached about Babel and
verb forms also explained about how we are now
having many languages.
Structures of Among the school children Babalwa is
comparison beautiful than them.
Generalisation of When Todani left he was being called by
the participle the father.
‘being’ Boipelo had come to the party and she left
being thirsty without a drink.
Retention of The teacher asked Lufuno why did he go to
question order in the corner store late.
indirect questions
‘Can be able to’ as If no one volunteers I can be able to go to
a modal verb phrase report this case.
Absence of 3rd The new school I am enrolled at offer more
singular ending education from my previous one.
Passing English is my motive and
everything depend on this.
The survival of my pet depend on the
money to buy it food.
172 Chapter Ten

The Material and Staffing Realities of the Rural Schools

Three schools in Limpopo province and another three in the Northern
Cape Province at which the study participants had been previously
enrolled were randomly selected and visited during the course of this study
in order to establish the schools’ teaching/learning material and staffing
resourcedness. Three other schools in the North-West Province were also
purposively sampled and observed in order to confirm the pervasiveness of
specific attributes in the ecology of rural schools so that even though this
study was a specifically longitudinal case study, some general
observations could be made about ubiquitous features discerned about
these particular rural schools. Table 10-2 below shows the inadequate
distribution of resources in the three provinces: many learners in shared
and cramped classrooms and often without adequate textbooks. The
typical classroom had fifty learners or more.

Table 10-2: Distribution of resources in impoverished rural schools

in three selected provinces.
Availability of
Degree Only

Classrooms
Degree and
Enrolment

Certificate
Certificate

Textbooks
Student

School
Limpopo 1 350 3 3 1 7 Fair
Limpopo 2 480 6 4 2 12* Inadequate
Limpopo 2 211 4 1 0 5 Inadequate
Northern Cape 1 615 7 3 2 12 Inadequate
Northern Cape 2 551 8 0 2 10 Fair
Northern Cape 3 180 4 2 0 6 Shared
North-West 1 373 6 2 1 9 Shared
North-West 2 397 6 2 0 8* Inadequate
North-West 3 618 7 2 1 10 Fair
Note. * = Mobile Classrooms; Certificate = a teaching certificate from a
teacher training college, without a degree; Degree and Certificate = a
postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE).

On average, the teacher-pupil ratio was 1:51. Classroom observations

revealed that these classrooms were overcrowded, and where chairs and
desks were available, these were partly broken or overused. At school 1 in
Limpopo for instance, there were seven teachers who were thinly spread
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 173

out to teach at least two subjects each (i.e., multi-subject teaching, which
is also multi-grade practice). A similar distribution was observed at North-
West Schools 2 and 3. In school 1 and 2 in Limpopo, the English language
teachers struggled with articulating instructions in grammatically correct
sentences, let alone reading texts at expected proficiency levels. Questioning
techniques were weak and asked students to recall basic content without
probing and asking for elaboration, evaluation and synthesis. Of the nine
selected schools, only three indicated they had a ‘fair’ number of
textbooks for their learners while four stated that their EFAL/ESL
textbooks were ‘inadequate.’ The six schools in Limpopo and Northern
Cape were also the feeder schools from which the fifty-one students were
sponsored to attend the well-resourced secondary school in this study and
all indicated that textbooks were either ‘inadequate’ or ‘shared.’ Often the
reading material was photocopied and not original, a factor which the
students described as dispiriting since such material was considered
“second rate” to “genuine, original texts” (Post-interview respondent’s
observation). The majority of the teachers indicated they had certificates in
education, a minority held subject-specific degrees and the small number
of certified graduate teachers were largely in administrative positions.
These observations tentatively suggest that the quality of the teachers in
the rural schools sampled for this study was poor and the teachers were
generally under-prepared for teaching English language tasks to the
learners under their charge.

English Language Teaching Pedagogies

The current curriculum statements in South African EFAL (including
other subjects) assess competence in reading and writing (National
Curriculum Statements (NCS), 2009; Curriculum and Assessment Policy
Statements (CAPS), 2012). One perceives a hiatus between the curriculum
materials and the curriculum assessment objectives: if the assessment
processes are in reading and writing, then an overload of communicative
approaches to the teaching and learning of English (CLT) presents an
intractable problem. Kumaravadivelu (2008) and Permagiani (2010) argue
that curriculum instructional materials need to relate to the assessment
objectives at the end of the teaching and learning period. Kumaravadivelu
(2008, p. 20) in particular, warns that “textbooks have a direct bearing on
teaching methods because it is through them that a particular method is
propagated and preserved.” He advises therefore, that “textbooks should
reflect the lived experiences learners and teachers bring to the classroom...
174 Chapter Ten

because their experiences are shaped by [the] social, cultural, economic

and political environment” (Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p. 20).
A preliminary analysis of the Higher Grade EFAL exam papers was
undertaken by the researcher in order to assess the type of questions set for
examinations at this grade level. Another reason for this preliminary
analysis was to establish the level of question difficulty (Hove, 2011),
hence the cognitive demands that a typical exam paper exerted on the
learners. Such an analysis facilitated a comparative level of engagement
with what the exam paper demanded and the strategic skills that the
learners had to develop in order to deal with typical examination questions
at the Matriculation exit examination level. Bowles and Gintis (1976, p.
283), in an American context, have argued that “examinations, rather than
the development of applicable, self-reliance knowledge, determine the
worth of knowledge.” They imply, in this observation, that examinations
exert an inexorable influence on what counts as knowledge and conclude
that examinations subsequently have a ‘negative wash back’ since they
determine what is taught in the classrooms. Rubin (2011, p. 4) echoes a
similar observation when he states that the “No Child Left Behind Act of
2001 has caused more harm than good…led to a narrowing of the
curriculum and teaching to the test.” Memorisation and rote knowledge for
such curricular foci as the exit examination in South Africa continue to be
the means by which both teachers and learners construe success, especially
in the rural schools.

Developing Teaching and Learning Materials

Over several language learning topics, the South African curriculum
expects learners to be able to quote correctly, paraphrase, extrapolate
evidence, explain the meanings of words as they are used in context,
describe and express the tone of a specific statement, to use inverted
commas correctly and ultimately to use quotations as evidence of support
for an opinion (NCS, 2009, p. 3; CAPS, 2012, p. 6). Based on these
anticipated skills, Red Indian Heritage (see Appendix 10-A) was selected
as the material for teaching these skills to the students in the study. The
reading text was extracted from Edwards (1981). This was reading
material that was endowed with apt vocabulary and a source from which
several graded comprehension questions could be developed by the
teacher. The text is a long and militant speech by a marginalised speaker,
‘a red man’, and the speech patterns of the Chief could be related to the
speech patterns in a rural set-up where subtle wit, rhetorical devices and
repetition are in abundance. Such a selection made the text relevant and
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 175

‘familiar’ to the learners in the rural schools in as much as it added to the

existing reading material already in school textbooks but that did not
specifically focus on the elements selected for the planned series of
lessons.
In thinking about the meanings of teaching while actually delivering
the lessons, the researcher “pursued actively the possibility that existing
practices and methodologies could effectively be challenged though other
self-generated alternatives” (Killen, 2007, p. 97). The goal in the learning
units in this study were designed to empower the learners to analyse
speeches, learn the elements that shape an effective speech and ultimately
develop critical language awareness through a deliberate reflection upon
their own successful learning strategies (Koshy, 2005, p. 114). Such a
pursuit approximated the “design of context-sensitive supplementary
material” as advocated by Kumaravadivelu (2008, p. 21). The unit below
was developed collaboratively with the learners, taking into cognisance
some of the ‘marked’ expressions they had used in reading and writing as
presented above in Table 10-1. It addressed specific instances where
literacy skills would be addressed in the language curriculum.

Teaching Syllabus Unit on Reading and Writing Skills

based on Red Indian Heritage
The syllabus unit presented here aims to promote the value of effective
language command and use for personal development. With regards to
developing reading abilities and skills, it is envisaged that such skills are
useful for everyday life such as reading and presenting speeches, including
appropriate techniques for intensive and extensive reading such as
skimming and scanning, and motivating pupils to develop a lifelong
reading habit for enjoyment and knowledge.
This syllabus unit, developed to teach the speech by Chief Seattle (see
Appendix 10-A), provided the opportunity for students to obtain sufficient
understanding and knowledge of the English language in order to become
effective users of English and to communicate effectively in both spoken
and written English in different situations and registers. There is a focus on
the value of effective language command, clarity, precision, accuracy and
stylistic sophistication. The syllabus unit is explicit on the requisite skills.
Writing and comprehension skills are also explicitly defined in the
same syllabus unit: writing skills that must ensure that candidates write a
continuous narrative, an argument and a piece of descriptive or
informative writing such as that of a process, a character, a scene or of an
event. The candidates were expected to write in a style and register
176 Chapter Ten

appropriate to the subject matter, displaying a range of vocabulary and

idiom appropriate to that subject matter; make general points and
exemplify them. In addition, candidates were expected to organize their
work satisfactorily into paragraphs and show a sense of cohesion and
coherence within paragraphs; show an awareness of discourse markers that
include ‘however’, ‘moreover’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘first’, ‘thus’.
Ultimately, such skills were expected to be evident in the students’
capacity to write with grammatical accuracy, spell accurately and
punctuate their work correctly. In particular, in punctuation, they were
expected to mark sentence boundaries and direct speech. This skills
approach to English comprehension and communication provided
comprehension materials where students read and responded appropriately
to an authentic text, i.e., Chief Seattle’s speech.
These comprehension skills are realised when students are able to
follow the sequence of events in a text and recognise how language is
used. This is assessed through how students follow the development of an
argument; recognise main propositions and exemplifying or qualifying
details; identify the writer’s attitude(s) towards a subject; understand
explicitly stated information; and infer information that is indirectly stated.
Candidates summarise aspects of the text relevant to answering specific
questions in their own words and work out meanings of words and phrases
as they are used in specific contexts rather than discrete vocabulary items.
Beyond the clarity of skills and competencies anticipated, the syllabus
created for this study explicitly states that communicative competence
does not excise rules of writing accurate sentences, spelling, maintaining
cohesion and coherence in texts. The elements to be taught in this unit are
shown in Table 10-3 below.
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 177

Table 10-3: Language syllabus unit developed to teach aspects of

speeches.

Vocabulary choice; punctuation range and variation; varied sentence

types and structures; embedded clauses; fronted clauses; abstract
nouns; adverbials; structural, linguistic and rhetorical features of texts;
presentational strategies of texts; analysis of text using detailed textual
evidence; issues of text, audience and purpose; shades of meaning,
especially focusing on the connotations of words; formality; character,
setting, themes, viewpoint; narrative tone and quality.

Repetition as delivery technique and stylistic features; the use of

transitional devices in speech; 1st person plural (inclusive ‘we’ versus
‘you’ – ‘Self’ and ‘Othering’ practices); sentence types (short,
complex, compound); loaded versus factual statements; elaboration and
purpose.

Imagery: Context of texts – Speeches in x Community

x School
x Motivational
x Propaganda
Tone and register x Conviction
x Persuasion
x Logic
x Coherence (of argument)

After reading, rehearsing, explaining and assessing Chief Seattle’s

speech (Appendix 10-A), the students engaged in constructive discussions
and sought clarification at various levels. The reading and writing skills
unit, in particular its constituent parts, emerged as this refined document
after a number of questions were posed by the various students over two
school terms in 2009. Their questions have been grouped together, for the
sake of brevity, in the order in which they were asked over the learning
period and are shown in Table 10-4.
178 Chapter Ten

Table 10-4: Students’ questions that helped shape and refine the unit.

After reading Chief Seattle’s speech, BB asked:

Excuse me Sir, is it possible for us to design a set of features that
characterise this speech, and any other speech for example?
After observing the short sentences, and especially the rhetorical
questions in Chief Seattle’s speech, CS asked:
Why are there a lot of short sentences in the Chief’s speech? Is it
because he is a savage as he calls himself?
After going through some of the embedded comparisons in the Chief’s
speech, HM asked:
I see many references to family – brother, children, father. I also see
references to the land features: river, stream, flowers, earth. Please tell
me why the Chief uses these.
In a discussion on characterisation and the importance of difference in
identity matrices, JM asked:
Is Chief Seattle really a savage? Why does he appear to be happy when
he uses this term to describe himself?

There appears to be a number of issues related to critical pedagogy that

is packaged in the students’ questions. In interrogating Chief Seattle’s
speech, the students sought clarity on the features of an articulate and
persuasive speech. These issues of ‘characteristic features of speeches’
extended to issues of understanding the genre of speech and delivery.
Equally, the question that sought reasons for the short sentences was laden
with astute observations in the Chief’s speech: the shorter the sentences,
the more evocative these were. The subject was immediate; the audience
was kept attentive through this construction. In a nutshell, the questions
asked by the research participants were not indicative of how much the
learners misunderstood or misread the text; rather, they suggest various
perspectives and understandings that resonate in their problematisation of
Chief Seattle’s speech. In 2009, by the end of the series of lessons on this
speech by Chief Seattle, the following response was provided by one of
the students, a participant in the case study. It was a response to a stimulus
question that asked the students to select words that communicated
specific effects (see Table 10-5).
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 179

Table 10-5: A student’s response to the writing prompt.

Writing Prompt: By selecting words and phrases from Chief Seattle’s

speech, examine how the writer creates specific effects throughout this
speech.

Student Response:
In this gutsy refusal of the Great Chief Washington’s offer to pay a
paltry $150,000 Chief Seattle employs cynicism and irony to express his
discontent at the idea of selling his land. The rhetorical question, ‘How
can you buy or sell the sky?’ sets the tone to his impassioned speech.
Later, in a terse statement, he reiterates that ‘the idea [of selling the land]
is strange to us.’ The plural referent, ‘us’, engages not only himself but
the ‘savage community’ on whose behalf he speaks. As natives, Seattle
and his people have established a familial bond with their land – even
the sky – to the extent that Seattle endlessly refers to them as ‘brothers’,
‘sisters’ and ‘ancestors.’ Such an umbilical connection to the land, the
rivers, the animals, the veldt and the sky cannot be broken by the
monetary offer of the great chief in Washington. Here again, sarcasm is
at the level of sharp invective.
Seattle uses simple language and a naturalistic idiom so that all he says
can never be misconstrued. His statements avoid ambiguity. This
apparent simplicity and directness shatters the pretentious offer of
Washington. Seattle’s metaphors and idioms are extracted from the
speech repertoire of his people – ‘our dead never forget this beautiful
earth, for it is the mother of the red man.’ In the same breath, Seattle
protects and guards this serene, interconnected peacefulness against the
‘ravenous appetite’ that characterises the white people.
Another feature of this speech is its circularity – a feature that harnesses
repetition for emphasis – as evident in ‘every’ (paragraph 3), ‘we’
(paragraph 7), and ‘I am’ (paragraph 13). Each paragraph ends in a
summative statement expressing the Red Indian’s perspective on the
universe, such as ‘All things are connected.’ Ultimately, rhetorical
questions and short, sarcastic explosions work together to heighten
Seattle’s ire at the preposterous and ridiculous offer to buy the
invaluable land of this ‘savage people.’
180 Chapter Ten

After the series of lessons developed around this speech, learners

participated in searching for similar texts, specifically speeches. They were
directed towards Martin Luther King’s speech, I Have a Dream and also
Thabo Mbeki’s canonised one, I am an African. Two curious students
went as far as retrieving Barack Obama’s inaugural speech while one other
one located Winston Churchill’s audacious mobilisation speech, If We
Must Die, including the memorable poem of Langston Hughes which is
the eponymous title. In all, both the researcher and the students were
actively collating resource materials for the development of reading and
writing skills that focused on a specific genre. For lack of space, this
collaborative design and selection of materials cannot be fully elaborated
here and suffice to say it was an enriching experience for both the
researcher and the students.

Recommendations
Figure 10-1 below (Hove, 2011, p. 210) sumarises the research stages
and tasks undertaken from 2008-2011. In sum, it is a proposed model for
the development of an efficient syllabus that responds to the identified
needs of the learners. It taps on the competencies that multilingual learners
bring into the classrooms. Further, through a comparative and contrastive
analysis of the languages in contact, especially in the South African
context where the study was undertaken, it allows both learners and
teachers to negotiate trajectories for enhanced reading skills at the
cognitive academic level, and writing skills, specifically at the level of
lexical choices and sentence construction skills that include co-ordination,
subordination and the generation of complex structures that convey ideas
with both clarity and fidelity to the content and subject.
 O
On the Cusp of Quality Teachiing and Learninng of English 181

Figure 10-1:: Conceptualissing effective syllabus deveelopment for EFAL

(Source: Hovve, 2011, p. 210).
182 Chapter Ten

Conclusion
This chapter presented a synopsis of the strategies that were used to
enhance the quality of teaching and learning of EFAL\ESL in South Africa
and offered an example of a teaching and learning unit that was developed
in situ. The critical energy in this research study lay in a pedagogical
choice that valued the multilingual repertoires of the learners. The other
energy was directed at generating contextually relevant material that the
students could experientially relate to and consequently enhance their
reading, comprehension and evaluative skills.
As already reported, the students who participated in this study were
initially pigeon-holed into ‘deficit outsiders.’ They were, however, through
their questioning, asserting their academic visibility and sharing their
thoughts that fed into conversations about syllabus design, syllabus
relevance, context and stylistic analyses. In documenting their questions
and responses, this chapter has demonstrated how learners from
impoverished South African schools could become actively engaged in
interrogating texts relevant and relative to their encounters and
experiences, and consequently ride on the cusp of quality learning.

References
Alexander, N. (2005). Linguistic rights, language planning and democracy
in post-apartheid South Africa. In S. Baker (Ed.), Language policy:
Lessons from global models (pp. 66-81). Monterey: Monterey Institute
of International Studies.
Balfour, R. (2014). English as a language of reconciliation: Price and
pride. Keynote Address to BEd English Education 4th year students,
North-West University, 17th October 2013. Retrieved from:
www.nwu.ac.za/webfm_send/87975
Blommaert, J. (2010). The sociolinguistics of globalisation. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America. New
York: Basic Books.
Delpit, L. (2000). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the
classroom. New York: New Press.
Department of Education. (2008). English home language assessment and
rubric for writing. December examinations, 2008. Retrieved from:
www.education.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?file
Doornyei, Z. (1996). On the teachability of communication strategies.
TESOL Quarterly, 29(1), 55-85.
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 183

Edwards, D. J. (1981). Comprehension skills in English. Juta: Grahamstown.

Fakeye, D. O. (2014). English language proficiency as a predictor of
academic achievement among EFL students. Journal of Education and
Practice, 5(9), 38-41.
Gee, J. P. (1990). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideologies in
discourse. London: Falmer Press.
Hove, M. L. (2011). Academic skills and linguistic power: Negotiating a
syllabus for the acquisition of multifaceted literacies in English.
Doctoral thesis, North-West University, South Africa.
Howie, S. J., Venter, E., van Staaden, S., & Zimmerman, L. (2006).
Progress in international reading literacy study (PIRLS). Centre for
evaluation and literacy. Pretoria: University of Pretoria.
Janks, H. 2010. Literacy and power. London: Routeledge
Jansen, J. (2010). We need to talk. Cape Town: Penguin.
Killen, R. (2007). Effective teaching strategies: Lessons from research and
practice. Brisbane: McMillan.
Koshy, V. (2005). Action research for improving practice. London: Paul
Chapman.
Krugel, R., & Fourie, E. (2014). Concerns for the language skills of South
African learners and their teachers. International Journal of
Educational Sciences, (7)1, 219-228.
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2008). Individual identity, cultural globalisation, and
teaching English as an international language: The case for an
epistemic break. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Critical language pedagogy: A postmethod
perspective on English language education. World Englishes, 22(4),
539-550.
Mesthrie, R., Swan, J, Deumert, A., & Leap, W. L. (2000). Introducing
sociolinguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Permagiani, A. (2009). The power of English and academic literacy:
Students’ perceptions and theoretical, political and pedagogic
implications. A case study at University of KwaZulu-Natal. Doctoral
thesis, City University of New York, USA.
Ramphele, M. (2012). Conversations with my sons and daughters. Cape
Town: Penguin.
Siziba, G. (2013). Language and identity negotiations: An analysis of the
experiences of Zimbabwean immigrants in Johannesburg, South
Africa. Journal of African Cultural Studies, (26)2, 173-188.
doi: 10.1080/13696815.2013.860517
184 Chapter Ten

Appendix 10-A: Reading text for comprehension-based

language assessment tasks.
Red Indian Heritage (Chief Seattle’s speech)
How can we buy or sell the sky? The idea is strange to us. If we do not
own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy
them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine
needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing
and humming insect is holy in the memory of my people. The sap which
courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.
The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to
walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is
the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The
perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle; these
are our brothers, the rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat
of the pony, and man – all belong to the same family.
So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to
buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief sends word he will
reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be
our father and we will be his children. So we will consider your offer to
buy our land. But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us.
The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water
but the blood of our ancestors.
If we sell you the land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you
must teach your children that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in
the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of the
people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father. The rivers
are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and
feed our children.
If we sell you our land, you must remember and teach your children
that the rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give
the rivers the kindness you would give any brother. We know that the
white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same
to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes
from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his
enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father’s
graves behind and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his
children, and he does not care. His father’s grave and his children’s
birthright are forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 185

sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His
appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.
I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways. The sight of
your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red
man is a savage and does not understand.
There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the
unfurling of leaves in spring, or the rustle of an insect’s wings. But
perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter only
seems to insult the ears.
And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the
whirlpool or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? I am a red
man and do not understand.
The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of
the pond and the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a mid-day rain, or
scented with the pinion pine. The air is precious to the red man, for all
things share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the
air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.
But if we sell you our land, you must remember the air is precious to
us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that
gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. And if we
sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where even
the white man can go and taste the wind that is sweetened by the
meadow’s flowers.
So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept, I
will make one condition: the white man must treat the beasts of the land as
his brothers. I am a savage and I do not understand the other way.
I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white
man who shot them from a passing train.
I am a savage and I do not understand how the smoking iron horse can
be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive.
What is a man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man
would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the
beasts soon happens to man. All things are connected. You must teach
your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our
grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the
earth is rich with the leaves of our kin. Teach your children what we have
taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth
befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon
themselves.
186 Chapter Ten

This we know: the earth does not belong to man: man belongs to the
earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood that unites
one family. All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not
weave the web of life: he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the
web, he does to himself.
Even the white man, whose God walks and talks to him as a friend to a
friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers
after all. We shall see. One thing we know which the white man may one
day discover – our God is the same God. You may think now you own him
as you wish to own the land; but you cannot. He is the God of man and his
compassion is equal for the red man and the white. The earth is precious to
him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator. The whites
too shall pass: perhaps sooner than all other tribes.
Contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own
waste. But in your perishing you will shine brightly fired by the strength of
the God who brought you to this land and for some special purpose gave
you dominion over this land and the red man.
That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand when the
buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of
the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills
blotted by talking wires. Where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle?
Gone. The end of living and the beginning of survival.
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 187

Read the passage carefully, listening as much as you can to the rise
and fall of the Chief’s voice, his tone and the devices he uses, and then
answer the following questions:

Question Mark
1 Quote the words which:
a) Indicate the Indians’ puzzlement over the ways of 2
the white man’
b) Show the Indians’ disapproval of the white man’s 2
treatment of the land’
c) Show the importance to the Indians of their 2
ancestors’ graves.

2 You may be asked the author’s ideas without using his

words. In your own words:
a) How does the Indian see the idea of selling and 3
buying land?
b) What condition does the Chief set upon selling his 3
land?
c) How does the Indian regard all living things? 3

Sometimes a writer is misquoted in the following ways:

a) It may be claimed that he said or meant more than
he actually did say or mean, or
b) His words, taken out of the context of the rest of the
passage, may be made to sound foolish or to take
on a different meaning from that which he
intended.

3 Explain how each of the following quotes or comments is

misleading:
a) The Indian is mainly interested in little things like 2
‘every shining pine needle’ and ‘humming insect.’
b) The Indian was silly enough to think a train was a 2
‘smoking iron horse.’
c) The Indian’s hearing was acute enough to hear 2
sounds such as ‘the unfurling of leaves in Spring.’

4 When choosing how much of a passage to quote, be sure

that you do not distort what the writer said.
Quote from the extract evidence for each of the following:
188 Chapter Ten

a) That a suggestion had been made in Washington to 2

create Indian reserves.
b) That the Indians do not understand the white man’s 2
killing of animals just for pleasure.
c) That the Indians believe God had a purpose in 2
sending the white man to take over their land.

5 Often, leaving out a word or two changes the meaning of a

sentence quite crucially. Which of the following is
misquoted?
a) ‘This shining water that moves in the streams 2
and rivers is not water but the blood of our
ancestors.’
b) ‘The wind that gave our grandfather his first 2
breath also receives his last breath.’
c) ‘The whites too shall pass: perhaps no sooner 2
than all the other tribes.’

6 Sometimes the tone of a sentence contains sarcasm or may

be suggesting subtly something quite different from the
words. Read each of the sentences below and comment on
what the Chief intended his listener to understand.
a) ‘He will be our father and we will be his 3
children.’
b) ‘But perhaps it is because the red man is a 3
savage and does not understand.’
c) ‘We may be brothers after all. We shall see.’ 3

Note: For a very long quotation, give the first few words,
then indicate the middle section by a row of three dots and
write the last few words to end the quotation. Use inverted
commas to mark the quotation. Ensure the quotation
communicates fully the essence of the speaker or writer.
Total Marks 40
 On the Cusp of Quality Teaching and Learning of English 189

Writing Tasks (Assess for: planning, content, delivery, flow,

conclusion, stylistic strategies)

Compose a speech using the style and delivery techniques observed

and discussed in ‘Chief Seattle’s Speech.’ Choose one of your own
from the following:
x This house believes that gay couples should be allowed to
adopt children.
x Rap and Kwaito are legitimate art forms.
x Affluent nations should accept more refugees.
x Past and future soccer legends.
x Democracy fails both the boy and girl child in South Africa.
x This house would cancel third world debt.
x South African men are ‘runaways’ and hardly ever there for
the child.
x Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter are the new, destructive
evils of our times.
 CHAPTER ELEVEN

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN GENERAL

ENGLISH AND ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC
PURPOSES AT A JAPANESE MEDICAL
UNIVERSITY

MINAKO NAKAYASU

Abstract
Although it is considered that English curricula engender a continuum
from general to specific purposes, there is, in fact, a large gap between
English for General Purposes (EGP) and English for Medical Purposes
(EMP) at medical universities in Japan. The aim of this chapter is to report
on the use of the scientific journal Nature in order to bridge the gap
between EGP and EMP at Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, and
to give pedagogical and curricular suggestions for the teaching of English
at universities of medicine. In this study, students at a first-year English
course were taught using selected articles from the journal Nature. The
general objective of the course was to enhance students’ ability to
communicate in English and foster interest in scientific topics. In pairs or
small groups, the students read the text, conducted research, and presented
their results in English using handouts and/or computer slides. The class
listened to the presentations, gave comments, and discussed with the
presenters in English. The students succeeded in enhancing their reading
skills, building their presentation skills, and broadening their scientific
knowledge. Pair/group work provided them an effective means for
cooperative learning. This chapter highlights and suggests that bridging
the gap between EGP and EMP using the journal Nature is beneficial to
medical students learning English in Japan.
 Bridging the Gap at a Japanese Medical University 191

Introduction
It is well known that English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which
includes English for Medical Purposes (EMP), is different from English
for General Purposes (EGP), in that ESP is designed to meet the needs of
specific learners and to deal with topics in a specific field (Hutchinson &
Waters, 1987). Since English curricula are considered to exhibit a
continuum from general to specific (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998), a
smooth transition from EGP to ESP is crucial, particularly in a setting
where both EGP and ESP are called for. Under the current educational
system in Japan, medical students take both liberal arts and medical
specialist courses in a single curriculum offered at medical universities.
The English courses they take cover both EGP and EMP, but they never
fill the large gap between the two. Need exists to address the following
research questions: What kind of gap is there between EGP and EMP at
Japanese medical universities? In what ways (pedagogical and curricular)
can this gap be filled in the English courses offered?
The purpose of this chapter is to report on the use of the scientific
journal Nature as a means to bridge the gap between EGP and EMP at
Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, in Japan, and to give
pedagogical and curricular suggestions for the teaching and learning of
English at universities of medicine in Japan and elsewhere.

Background
As pointed out in the introduction, there is a large gap between EGP
and EMP in the curriculum of medical universities in Japan, where English
courses by necessity cover both EGP and EMP. In fact, English educators
there have paid little attention to this gap (Nakayasu, Sugimura & Endo,
2009).
First of all, there do not appear to be methods and materials geared
specifically to fill this gap. EMP materials, by their nature, are aimed at
students who already have a certain amount of medical knowledge. In
addition to EMP methods and materials used worldwide, the Japan Society
for Medical English Education has been playing a central role in
developing EMP methods and publishing EMP textbooks exclusively for
Japanese students. As for EGP materials and methods, there is a wide
variety of choices. However, there are few methods or materials aiming at
a smooth transition from EGP to EMP for students who do not have a
systematic medical knowledge yet. Nakayasu, Sugimura and Endo (2009)
made one of the very few attempts to teach English to such students, using
192 Chapter Eleven

Molecular Biology of the Cell (Alberts, Johnson, Lewis, Raff, Roberts, &
Walter, 2008), which is a well-established textbook of basic medicine.
Though this attempt was relatively successful, it turned out that the
students’ ability of English did not improve as expected, due to the
frequent employment of their native language, Japanese, for carrying out
the textbook tasks.
Second, the English curriculum is not closely coordinated with the
structure of other courses in the overall curriculum at medical universities
in Japan, which may also be a cause of the large gap between EGP and
EMP. The students start from liberal art courses such as humanities, social
sciences and natural sciences (e.g., chemistry, biology, and physics). Next
come basic medicine courses such as anatomy, biochemistry and
molecular medicine. Then they proceed to clinical medicine courses such
as internal medicine and surgery and then to clinical clerkship. This means
that the 1st-year students do not take any specialist medical courses,
neither basic nor clinical medicine. Starting medical English, particularly
fully-fledged English for clinical medicine, from Year 1 will not facilitate
effective learning with sufficient understanding of the contents. It would,
therefore, be meaningful for English courses to coordinate well vertically
and horizontally with other liberal arts and medical courses. The 1st year
English course is an opportunity to elevate students’ general English
proficiency and get them prepared for EMP courses, to interest them in
medical topics and motivate them into studying specialist medical courses.
The following sections report the details of an attempt to bridge the large
gap between EGP and EMP using the scientific journal Nature.

The Study
Materials

Nature is a “weekly, international, interdisciplinary journal of science”

(see www.nature.com/nature/index.html) and no doubt one of the most
highly cited across the world. The main aim of the journal is to publish
original and important research, provide insightful and notable news, and
interpret local and current trends. The science topics covered vary widely
from medicine to environment and space. Articles from Editorials and
News in Focus sections of the journal were selected for the students in the
study. These articles are a good start for the 1st-year medical students
because they cover the latest news in various fields of science including
medicine, and the text is clearly written and easy to understand.
Furthermore, if the students familiarize with the journal, this will open up
 Bridging the Gap at a Japanese Medical University 193

the opportunity to study state-of-the-art research articles later on.

Fortunately, the library at Hamamatsu University School of Medicine
subscribes to this journal, so the students have free access to all the
articles.
The articles chosen for the course covered various scientific topics,
focusing on medical topics such as iPS cells, influenza, Japanese
traditional medicine, and other domestic and familiar topics such as the
earthquake that hit Eastern Japan in 2011. These topics were interesting to
the students and within their knowledge of science, and, therefore, they
were considered appropriate to activate students’ schemata (Carrell &
Eisterhold, 1983) and enable them to learn more effectively.

Outline of the Course

The use of Nature to bridge the gap between EGP and EMP was
carried out in the 1st-year English course, namely English IB, in the
academic years 2009-2012. This is a 1-year course aimed at scientific
English, and its general objective is to enhance students’ ability to
communicate in English and foster their interest in scientific topics. Each
year 115 1st-year students were divided into 4 groups (28-29 in each
group), and the researcher and one other instructor taught 2 groups each in
the 1st semester, and switched groups for the 2nd semester. While the
researcher taught her groups using the journal Nature, the other instructor
used different materials. This chapter reports on the researcher’s classes
only, laying focus on the 1st semester of the academic year 2012.
A regular class consisted of a warm-up activity, presentations of two
groups including a question and answer session, and a consolidation phase.
The students in each class were divided into small groups (pairs or groups
of three or four), which allowed them to make presentations twice in one
semester. Each small group was randomly assigned to an article chosen
from the website of Nature. Working together with their group members,
the students read the article, did some research on the topic, and made a
presentation in English followed by a question and answer (Q&A) session.
All the classes were conducted in English, while the use of the students’
native language, Japanese, was discouraged. The expected learning
outcomes from the course were: (1) to get students interested in scientific
topics including medicine; (2) to enhance students’ skills of reading
scientific articles in English; (3) to help students obtain useful and
necessary information in English using the Internet and other sources; (4)
to provide opportunities to students to cooperate with group members; and,
(5) to train students to make effective presentations in English.
194 Chapter Eleven

Curriculum Coordination
In order to achieve the goal of bridging the gap between EGP and EMP,
it was necessary to coordinate the English course with the rest of the
curriculum vertically and horizontally (see Figure 11-1).

EMP Medical courses Upper

(basic + clinical) classes
Vertical coordination

Other English English IB Science courses Lower

courses classes

EGP Science courses High

school

Horizontal coordination

Figure 11-1: Curriculum coordination.

First, this first year scientific English course needed to coordinate

vertically with senior high school science courses students have already
taken and medical courses they are to take in upper-level classes in the
future. According to a survey conducted in 2008 to investigate student
readiness for studying scientific English, almost all of the students had
studied chemistry (97.2%) at senior high schools, whereas only about half
of them had taken biology (43.7%) (Nakayasu, Sugimura, & Endo, 2009).
Because the national curriculum guidelines for senior high schools and the
subjects of the university entrance examination remained unchanged since
then, it is reasonable to assume that student readiness to study English and
science courses remained much the same in the following years
(2009-2012) when the course discussed in this chapter was piloted.
1st-year students are required to take ‘Introduction to Natural Sciences’ in
the 1st semester, which aims at bridging the gap between science courses
offered at high schools and the medical program at the university, and in
 Bridging the Gap at a Japanese Medical University 195

this course, students can choose to study either biology or physics

depending on which field they did not study at their senior high school.
Therefore, it can be assumed that the students have a basic knowledge of
science and they are ready to study more advanced science by the end of
the 1st semester. Consequently, by activating students’ existing
background knowledge in science (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983), instructors
can help them learn scientific English more effectively. In upper-level
courses during the 2nd- and 3rd-year, the students will study basic
medicine such as molecular medicine, anatomy, biochemistry, pathology
and social medicine. Since 1st-year students already have an interest in
some of these areas, it is meaningful to encourage them to study selected
topics from these fields using articles written in easy-to-understand
English as a warm-up.
Second, the EMP course needs to coordinate horizontally with other
1st-year courses offered in the same year. In addition to the introductory
natural science courses already mentioned, the students take chemistry,
biology and physics courses which are more advanced than high school
equivalents, and those classes are conducted in the form of lectures and
laboratory work. There is also a seminar course where students learn study
skills in small groups, some of which focus on scientific topics. Since the
researcher, who was also the English instructor for this course, was not a
specialist of science, she coordinated with other science instructors and
sometimes referred to their classes and the textbooks they used (e.g., Hart,
Craine, & Hart, 2002).
Turning now to English courses, the 1st-year students take English IA
(EGP) and English Conversation I (EMP-oriented EGP). The upper-class
students take English II (EGP) and English Conversation II (EMP) in the
2nd year, and some of them take 2 more advanced elective courses (EMP)
in the 3rd- and 4th-year, respectively. As expected, the current English
curriculum moves from more general (EGP) to more specific (EMP) in the
continuum. To describe each of these English courses in detail is beyond
the scope of this short chapter, but one can see Kuramoto and Nakayasu
(2014) for a description of the current English courses. With regards to
English courses at senior high schools in Japan, although the national
curriculum guidelines aim at increasing students’ communication skills,
many teachers in fact conduct their English classes in Japanese
(Matsumoto, 2011; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology (MEXT), n.d.). This tendency becomes stronger when it
comes to preparation courses for university entrance examinations, which
deal with advanced contents. The 1st-year medical students can, therefore,
generally be considered not quite ready to study EMP. This is exactly the
196 Chapter Eleven

reason why it is important to raise the 1st-year students’ proficiency level.

Teaching Techniques
This section explains what kind of teaching techniques were used to
achieve the desired effects in the EMP course.

Group Work

It is well known that working in groups facilitates learning (Davidson,

Major, & Michaelsen, 2014; Slavin, 1996). As part of this course, students
had to work with their group members to read and understand an article,
do some research on the topic, create a handout (and slides if possible) and
make a presentation in English followed by a Q&A session. There were
two cycles of this approach. Students were randomly assigned into groups
for the first cycle, while for the second cycle, they were instructed to make
groups with their favorite classmates and create their group names. At the
end of each cycle of presentations, students held a review session with
their group members.

Words

The students selected important and useful words from each article and
listed them with definitions in their handouts. During their presentation,
they explained word meanings and pronounced each word. The instructor
selected words from the students’ lists and made exam questions based on
these words. The words selected for the exam included keywords of each
article and words typically used in scientific articles.

Follow-Up

After each presentation, the students had a Q&A session, where the
audience was encouraged to ask questions, give comments to the
presenters, and state their opinions about the topic. Japanese students tend
to be reluctant to state their opinions in class, even in their native language
(Shimizu, 2006; Cutrone, 2009). Considering this, the instructor
encouraged them to ask questions and give comments, promising them
extra score points if they did so. The students also wrote comments on
small pieces of paper, and read these comments when they held their
review sessions.
 Bridging the Gap at a Japanese Medical University 197

Mindmap

Mindmaps are used to organize information, for example, to take notes

and brainstorm ideas. This technique was only employed when the
students read the first article ‘Giant Shock Rattles Ideas about Quake
Behaviour’ in order to activate their schemata, to motivate them to study
scientific topics in English, and to facilitate learning. Figure 11-2 is a
mindmap drawn by one of the groups:

Figure 11-2: Mindmap.

With the keyword “earthquake” in the middle, the students added many
ideas to the diagram and connected them. The earthquake was a perfect
topic for them because a massive earthquake had hit Japan in the previous
year and all the students were familiar with the nature of the earthquake
and the disaster it caused.

Visual Aids

Every group of students was advised to create and distribute handouts

to their classmates during their presentation so that they could refer to
them and also use them later on to prepare for the term exam. Students
198 Chapter Eleven
E

were also eencouraged too create digiital slides in order to perrform an

effective preesentation. Thhese handouts and slides weere supposed to
t include
a summary oof the article, a list of impo
ortant words, tthe additionall research
mation. Figuree 11-3 shows a part of
on the topicc, and the souurces of inform
the handoutt on ‘Obituarry: Steve Jobss’, where thee information obtained
from the artticle and fromm other sourcees are successsfully coordinated with
each other innto a group off pictures.

Figure 11-3: H
Handout (Stevee Jobs).

Figure 11-4 is part off the handout a group of sstudents createed on the
article ‘Japaan: Will the Sun Set on Kampo?’
K wheere main ideaas of the
article are syystematically organized.
 Bridging thee Gap at a Japan
nese Medical U niversity 199

Figure 11-4: H
Handout (Kamppo).
200 Chapter Eleven

Games and Events

Icebreakers such as games and events were used in class in order to

lower the affective filter (Krashen & Terrell, 1983) and promote learning.
For example, the students played ‘Yes, bingo!’ in the first class. In this
game, they collected classmates’ names by asking questions to find a
person who, for instance, had already joined a club, liked English, and was
interested in a particular field or topic of science and medicine such as iPS
cells. This activity helped students to get to know each other and
motivated them to study English for science and medicine.

Achievement Evaluation
The students’ achievement was evaluated based on the scores of oral
presentations in pairs/small groups, written term exam, attendance, and
individual performance in class. Students were awarded extra points when
they would voluntarily ask questions and give comments in class. For the
term exam, two types of tasks were used: fill in the blanks and reading
comprehension. Important and useful words selected from the students’
handouts were used for the ‘fill in the blank’ portion of the exam. Students
were advised to review their classmates’ handouts for the exam. For the
reading comprehension task, excerpts from the articles were used and
students were encouraged to answer the questions using their own words
and not directly copy from the texts.

Course Evaluation
At the end of the semester, students were asked to complete a
questionnaire. In the first semester of the academic year of 2012, all 57
students who attended the instructor’s classes completed the questionnaire.
Four closed and two open-ended questions were included in an effort to
explore students’ perceptions about the course and their performance in the
course.

Results and Discussion

This section reports on the results of the students’ evaluation at the end
of the semester, laying focus on the first semester of 2012.
Students were asked to report on their overall impression of the course
using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly
disagree). Figure 11-5 below shows the results for this question.
 Bridging thee Gap at a Japan
nese Medical U
University 201

Studied hard 21 29 6 1
Was easy 1 7 20 24 5
Unnderstood well 7 17
7 25 8
English skkills developed 5 26 22 31
Got interested 17 29 3 2
Knowlledge acquired 24 24 8
Relevant too other courses 5 12 28 8 2

00% 20% 40% 600% 80% 100%

5 (sttrongly agree) 4 (agree) 3 ((uncertain)

2 (ddisagree) 1 (strongly
y disagree)

Figure 11-5: S
Students’ overaall impression of the course.

Each num mber in the stacked

s bar grraph above inndicates the number of
students whho chose thatt item. Note the clear coontrast in the items ‘I
studied hardd’ and ‘The cllass was easy’’: a small num mber of studen
nts (8 out
of 57) reporrted that the course
c was eassy, whereas thhe majority off students
(50 out of 557) reported that they stud died hard in tthis course. For
F many
students, thee class was chhallenging an nd for this reaason they stud
died hard.
Although thhe course aim med at bridgin ng the gap beetween EGP and a EMP,
there was still a gap bettween the maaterials used iin this coursee and the
materials stuudents studiedd at their hig m Nature
gh school. Thee articles from
included teechnical term ms, words an nd expressionns typically used in
scientific arrticles, makinng them diffficult for reaading and ev ven more
difficult for presenting abbout them.
Next, thee questionnairre asked studeents to report which Englissh skill(s)
they had devveloped most.. Twenty of th he students ansswered they developed
d
reading skillls, followed by speaking skills (9 stuudents). This is not a
surprising reesult, becausee this class fo ocused on reaading and pressentation.
There were also some studentss who reported that at they were uncertain
about the deevelopment of o their Englissh skills (22 students or 38.6%)
3 or
that they hadd not improveed their Englissh (4 students or 7%).
The majjority of studdents agreed or strongly aagreed that th hey were
interested inn the course contents and d reading toppics (80%), and they
acquired new w knowledge from the courrse materials ((84%). This sh hows that
the articles sselected for innclusion in thee course were beneficial forr learning.
On the conttrary, the num mber of studen nts who felt thhe course wass relevant
202 Chapter Eleven

to their other courses was small (17 students or 30%). This result signified
that the course coordination with the rest of the curriculum did not work as
well as expected.
The questionnaire also asked students to indicate which class activities
were beneficial to them. Table 11-1 shows how many students felt which
activity was beneficial/informative/worthwhile:

Table 11-1: Activities students found beneficial.

Activity N %
Study articles by themselves 40 70.2
Conduct research by themselves 25 43.9
Conduct research in groups 39 68.4
Make a presentation in groups 47 82.5
Listen to other groups’ presentations 37 64.9
Ask questions and have discussions 19 33.3
Write comments on other groups’ presentations 24 42.1
Read classmates’ comments 28 49.1
Listen to the teacher’s explanation 11 19.3
Games and events 14 24.6
Other 2 3.5

Results show that 82.5% of the students considered presenting in groups

as beneficial to them. Other items related to group work, such as ‘Conduct
research in groups’ and ‘Listen to other groups’ presentations,’ also showed
high percentages of agreement (68.4% and 64.9%, respectively). The
students took an active role not only in making presentations in groups, but
also in participating in other groups’ presentations as the audience, and in
learning from other groups’ presentations. In fact, students whose
presentations took place later in the semester obviously learned something
from the presentations given before theirs: for example, they improved their
handouts and the structure of their presentations. It should also be noted that
70.2% of the students chose ‘Study articles by themselves.’ Given that the
general goal of this course was to enhance students’ ability to communicate in
English and foster their interest in scientific topics, it may be safely assumed
from these results that the goal was accomplished to a significant extent.
In terms of what English skills students wanted to improve in the
future after completing this course, the results show that EMP received the
highest preference (66.7%), followed by items which are related to
communication skills (see Table 11-2). Studying in this course motivated
the students to want to learn EMP and to improve their communication skills,
 Bridging the Gap at a Japanese Medical University 203

generally and in specific ways. This particular question also served to make
the students aware of the coordination of the courses in the curriculum.

Table 11-2: Skills students want to develop further in the future.

Skill N %
Listening skills 36 63.2
Speaking skills 34 59.6
Reading skills 32 57.9
Writing skills 22 38.6
Communication skills in general 34 59.6
English for studying science 15 26.3
English for medical purposes 38 66.7
English for studying culture 16 28.1

The students were also asked to indicate which article from Nature
they got interested in the most. Table 11-3 below shows the list of articles
from the 1st and the 2nd cycles and the number of students who got
interested in each article. As can be seen, there is a tendency toward
domestic topics, particularly the topics related to the earthquake that hit
Japan the previous year and the disaster it caused. Students also enjoyed
learning such topics as Japanese traditional medicine, a flower from a
distant past, Steve Jobs, and clinical and basic medicine. The instructor
made use of this result for selecting articles in the next semester.
In the open-ended items of the questionnaire students described freely
how they felt about this course. Some students used this opportunity to
elaborate on their choices in the Likert-scale items, while others raised
points which were not covered by those questions. Some students provided
more than one feedback reports. Table 11-4 below is the itemized list of
students’ positive and negative feedback points and the number of students
who mentioned these points. Comments were sorted according to the
content they referred to as the titles with numbers indicate.
204 Chapter Eleven

Table 11-3: List of articles and student preferences.

Cycle Article N
Giant shock rattles about quake behaviour 4
Lessons of a triple disaster 3
Earthquake hazards: Putting seismic research to most 9
effective use
Asteroid visit finds familiar dust 2
Blockbuster drug vows out 2
1
Wild flower blooms again after 30,000 years on ice 12
Japan: Will the sun set on Kampo? 12
Kepler discovers first Earth-sized exoplanets 2
Whales on sale 4
Informed consent on trial 4
Facing up to flu 5
Obituary: Steve Jobs (1955-2011) 11
Genomics ace quits Japan 4
Fission power back on NASA’s agenda 3
Messages from the early universe 3
Gas and air 3
Cut hamper bid to tackle AIDS 3
Egg-making stem cells found in adult ovaries 7
2 DNA donor rights affirmed 4
Mass appeal 1
Tsunami simulations scare Japan 6
Mutant-flu researcher plans to publish even without 2
permission
Mutant-flu paper published 1
Pre-term births on the rise 8
War of words over tribal tongue 5
 Bridging the Gap at a Japanese Medical University 205

Table 11-4: Students’ feedback in the open-ended items.

Positive feedback N Negative feedback N

1. Beneficial 49 1. Not beneficial 0
Enjoyed 5
Interested 14
Obtained knowledge 9
Beneficial 9
Skills improved 12
2. Method – effective 13 2. Method – not effective 5
Good – overall 2 Quiz needed 1
Group work 6 Practice needed 2
Presentation 2 Wanted to choose topics 1
Relevance to other courses 2 Advice needed 1
Teacher’s talk 1
3. Level – appropriate 1 3. Level – not appropriate 11
Appropriate 1 Too difficult 11
4. Material – appropriate 21 4. Material – not 5
appropriate
Good journal 18 Too technical 3
Good topics 3 Should focus on medicine 1
Very good or very bad 1

First, as many as 49 students stated the class was beneficial, while

there were no comments evaluating it as not beneficial. One student
remarked that the class was interesting and that it was important to
increase his/her knowledge irrespective of whether he/she liked it or not.
Another student reported that his/her English proficiency improved, saying
that at first he/she thought the class was difficult, but that eventually
communicating in English became a routine. A further 13 students noted
that the methodology of this class was effective in that, for example,
listening to their classmates’ presentations acted as a good incentive for
study, and that this class was relevant to other courses like biology and
seminars. There were also 5 suggestions on how to improve the
methodology, e.g., to take regular quizzes to test student understanding
and to take part in interactive activities, such as discussions, to improve
skills for presentation. Some students (11) mentioned that the level of this
course was too high. This is also clear from the results of the Likert-type
questions. One student felt frustrated because he/she could not ask
questions to the presenters though he/she wanted to because his/her
English ability was too limited. It is always a challenge on the instructor’s
206 Chapter Eleven

part to make sure that the class is beneficial to all the students regardless
of their level of ability. With regard to the use of the journal articles, 21
students considered using Nature as appropriate because it is an excellent
journal and offers topics appropriate for scientific and medical students.
One student remarked that he/she also became interested in other scientific
journals. However, 5 students considered Nature as inappropriate because,
for example, the articles in Nature were too technical for them.
Finally, students were asked to report on their expectations for their
studies the next academic year after attending this class. These were sorted
into positive and negative points (see Table 11-5).

Table 11-5: Students’ resolutions and expectations.

Positive feedback N Negative feedback N

Improve English skills 28 Feel anxiety 1
Study hard 21
Study science 3
Study medicine 3
Study various fields 5
Study hard in general 10
Teacher’s talk 1 (Nothing particular) (3)
Self-learning 7
Work in group 2
Get more interest 4
Future career 3
High expectation in general 1
Advance to the next year 1

There were 68 positive feedback reports, particularly on improving

English skills (28) and on studying hard (21). For the former, the students
mentioned improving their communication skills such as presentation
skills, listening, speaking and vocabulary, and other goals such as
obtaining high scores in English proficiency tests. For the latter, 21
students expressed their determination to study hard, including some who
stated their anticipation to study medicine and felt the necessity to study
various fields extensively. Taking this feedback into consideration, this
class seems to have provided a stimulus for further study of English and
science, particularly medicine, and for self-learning. Asking the students to
describe their resolutions and expectations seems to have made them
aware of the vertical coordination of the curriculum. It is also noteworthy
that there was one negative feedback report where the student stated
 Bridging the Gap at a Japanese Medical University 207

feeling anxiety about taking English classes in the next academic year.

Conclusion
This chapter has reported on the use of the scientific journal Nature in
a 1st-year English course at Hamamatsu University School of Medicine in
the academic year 2012 in order to bridge the gap between English for
General Purposes (EGP) and English for Medical Purposes (EMP).
The course coordinated vertically and horizontally with senior high
school courses and other courses offered at the university. The aim of the
course was to enhance students’ ability to communicate in English and
foster their interest in scientific topics. In pairs/small groups, the students
conducted research on articles from Nature and gave presentations in
English. The class attended the presentations as the audience asking
questions, giving comments, and discussing with the presenters.
The results of the course evaluation questionnaire showed that many of
the students considered this course as beneficial to them. They claimed
that it enhanced their English communication skills and reading skills in
particular. Students also reported that working in groups was most
beneficial to them, and that the journal Nature was an appropriate source
for the course materials. The questionnaire results also showed that this
course fostered student interest in scientific and medical topics, and
motivated them to study EMP and work hard in the future.
Attending this course, the students obtained skills and knowledge that
serve as a basis for studying EMP. It can be concluded that the attempt to
bridge the gap between EGP and EMP using the journal Nature appears to
have been relatively successful for this group of medical students learning
English in Japan. Nevertheless, it should also be noted that this project left
room for improvement. While the vertical curriculum coordination was
largely achieved, the horizontal coordination did not work as well as
expected. In addition, some students’ responses indicated that this course
was too demanding for a number of students, that they felt some anxiety
for future English courses, and that they did not think that their English
skills had made any improvement. In order to overcome these weaknesses,
the researcher would consider conducting regular classroom quizzes to test
students’ understanding, and including more learner-friendly methods of
instruction and learning such as doing online projects in collaboration with
other medical students in Japan or in other countries. In addition, it would
be beneficial to design a curriculum where English and medicine are more
closely related to each other, for example, to introduce Content and
Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) (see Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010;
208 Chapter Eleven

Dalton-Puffer, 2007) into the semesters that follow this course. CLIL is a
dual-focused educational approach where attention is given both to the
language and content. Some of the key factors of this approach, i.e.,
motivation, authenticity and relevance, would further facilitate learning in
this context where a smooth transition is needed in the EGP-EMP
continuum, and the students are expected to develop specific skills and
knowledge required as medical specialists.

References
Alberts, B., Johnson, A., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K., & Walter, P.
(2008). Molecular biology of the cell (5th ed.). New York & Milton
Park: Garland Science.
Carrell, P. L., & Eisterhold, J. C. (1983). Schema theory and ESL reading
pedagogy. TESOL Quarterly, 17(4), 553-573.
Coyle, D., Hood, P., & Marsh, D. (2010). CLIL: Content and language
integrated learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cutrone, P. (2009). Overcoming Japanese EFL learner’s fear of speaking.
University of Reading Language Studies Working Papers, 1, 55-63.
Dalton-Puffer, C. (2007). Discourse in content and language integrated
learning (CLIL) classrooms. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John
Benjamins Publishing Company.
Davidson, N., Major, C. H., & Michaelsen, L. K. (2014). Small-group
learning in higher education–Cooperative, collaborative, problem-based,
and team-based learning: An introduction by the guest editors. Journal
on Excellence in College Teaching, 25(3 & 4), 1-6.
Dudley-Evans, T., & St John, M. J. (1998). Developments in English for
specific purposes: A multi-disciplinary approach. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Hart, H., Craine, L. E., & Hart, D. J. (2002). Hart kiso yuki kagaku (3rd
ed.). Tokyo: Baifukan. [Hart, H., Craine, L. E., & Hart, D. J. (1999).
Organic chemistry: A short course (10th ed.). Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company].
Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for specific purposes: A
learning-centered approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. (1983). The Natural Approach: Language
acquisition in the classroom. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Kuramoto, C., & Nakayasu, M. (2014). EMP at work: Hamamatsu
University School of Medicine. Journal of Medical English Education,
13(3), 80-83.
Matsumoto, S. (2011). Nihon no eigokyoiku no kadai to hosaku [English
 Bridging the Gap at a Japanese Medical University 209

education in Japan: Problems and solutions]. Journal of Medical

English Education, 10(1), 35-43.
MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
in Japan). (n.d.) Heisei 25nendo eigokyoiku jisshijokyochosa no kekka
ni tsuite [On the survey results of English education in the academic
year 2013]. Retrieved from:
http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/kokusai/gaikokugo/1351631.htm
Nakayasu, M., Sugimura, H., & Endo, Y. (2009). Molecular biology of the
cell o riyo shita ikadaigaku ni okeru kokoromi [Teaching English with
the aid of Molecular biology of the cell at a medical university].
Journal of Medical English Education, 8(2), 95-103.
Nature. (n.d.) Retrieved from:
http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html
Shimizu, J. (2006). Why are Japanese students reluctant to express their
opinions in the classroom? The Hiyoshi Review of English Studies, 48,
33-45.
Slavin, R. E. (1996). Research on cooperative learning and achievement:
What we know, what we need to know. Contemporary Educational
Psychology, 21(1), 43-69.
ISSUES IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE
CLASSROOM
 CHAPTER TWELVE

CLIL CLASSROOM
INTERACTION CHALLENGES:
TRANSLANGUAGING AND GENRE
AS PEDAGOGIC TOOLS?

YLVA SANDBERG

Abstract
This chapter focuses on teachers’ interaction challenges in the Content
and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classroom, an area which has
not been extensively researched. Six content teachers from three subject
areas (mathematics, biology and civics) were interviewed about their
experiences of teaching their subject through a foreign/second language.
The study was two-pronged: first, it aimed to investigate the challenges
perceived by the teachers, and, second, outline the strategies developed by
the teachers to meet perceived challenges. Informed by second language
acquisition, CLIL and teacher cognition research, an interview guide was
created, and interviews were undertaken over a two-year period. The
material was coded and analysed in several stages by means of qualitative
content analysis. In the analysis, two themes related to teachers’
experiences of CLIL classroom interaction dilemmas emerged: linguistic
unpredictability and socio-affective barrier. In the analysis of the strategies
that teachers developed to meet the CLIL classroom challenges, two
themes emerged: translanguaging and genre. The findings resonate with
results from studies of a similar kind. The results of the analyses of the
interviews, and how they could inform CLIL teacher education, are
presented and discussed in the final sections of the chapter.
 CLIL Classroom Interaction Challenges 213

Introduction
Traditionally, subject content teachers have not studied the linguistic
dimension of the school subjects they teach. Interestingly, as a result of a
new curriculum for the Swedish upper secondary school (LGY2011),
school subjects, e.g., mathematics, biology and civics, include course core
content and intended learning outcomes more explicitly involving the
language dimension of the subject. The new curriculum is genre-based,
and there is a requirement for teachers and learners to view learning of
content and language as an integrated process (Skolverket, 2011).
For Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) teachers in
Sweden, teaching their subject through a second/foreign (L2) language (in
this case, English) rather than in their first (L1) language (in this case
Swedish), this new conceptualization of syllabi could prove to be extra
challenging, as more classroom interaction on the part of the students is
required in the new content syllabi. With requirements for students to
‘learn by doing’ (e.g., involve themselves in tasks where they have to
‘explain’, ‘discuss’, ‘analyse’ and ‘reflect’), there is pressure on subject
content teachers to design learning environments that make possible, and,
indeed, enhance the use of activities whereby students take active part in
classroom interaction.
What are the challenges L1 upper secondary CLIL teachers face in the
L2 genre-oriented content classroom? What practices and strategies have
they developed to meet the perceived challenges? These two research
questions have guided the procedures of the project described in this
chapter. By applying an ethnography-inspired approach, this study aims to
bring forward the voices of upper secondary teachers’ reflections on how
to best use L2 as a resource in the interactive CLIL classroom. The
outcomes of the study can be useful to other CLIL teachers and
researchers, as well as in CLIL teacher education.

Background
Classroom interaction in CLIL contexts has long been identified as a
challenge (Lightbown & Spada, 2006; Ortega, 2009). Research studies in
second language acquisition (SLA) areas such as immersion education,
content-based instruction, content-based language education, CLIL, and
bilingual education, have reported on challenges in interaction and offered
various models for meeting these challenges (Burns, 2013; Coyle, Hood,
& Marsh, 2010; García, 2009; Lindberg, 2011; Swain, 1985; Swain &
Lapkin, 1998). In terms of interaction design (Selander & Kress, 2010) in
214 Chapter Twelve

CLIL and in other forms of content-based L2 contexts, there is much to be

gained from pooling resources and bringing together long-term research
and experience acquired in educational contexts across the globe (Cenosz,
Genese, & Gorter, 2014).
CLIL researchers in Spain showed how teachers’ awareness of
language as part of different registers can facilitate the teaching of content
in L2 (Llinares, Morton, & Whitaker, 2012). In the analysis of the
challenges of interaction in the L2 content classroom, the researchers
found that “studying subject matter in L2 requires handling of both
horizontal (everyday talk) and vertical (scientific, technical) types of
concepts” and it is being acknowledged that “opening up the classroom to
more dialogic communication will place a heavier linguistic load on all
concerned” (Llinares, et al., 2012, p. 64).
According to researchers the way to respond to these challenges is for
teachers not to resort to a lecture mode. Instead, the researchers claim,
content teachers’ meta-linguistic awareness of different registers and
genres can be developed, for example in collaboration with language
teachers or as part of teacher education courses. Modelling explanations of
content both in scientific and everyday language is one example of
linguistic content that can be prepared beforehand and applied. With
multidimensional linguistic knowledge and appropriate meta-linguistic
knowledge in their toolbox, content teachers can design classroom
interaction strategically, preparing students for typical moves and
expressions in the disciplinary communication and so enhancing their
participation in the classroom.
In a similar vein, researchers in Swedish as a second language have
defined language in three registers: colloquial language, academic
language and subject-specific language (Lindberg, 2011). Approaching
language learning and language use in this multidimensional way seems to
provide a structure for vocabulary use in the L2 content classroom. To
support learners of L2 content, teachers’ capability of seeing the language
as an integrated part of their subject is crucial, as claimed by Axelsson and
colleagues (Axelsson, Olofsson, Philipsson, Rosander, & Sellgren, 2006).
Potentially, these results from the research on Swedish as a second
language could inform CLIL teaching and learning.
Moreover, genre-oriented approaches originating in the Australian
educational context provide models for teaching spoken interaction
(Burns, 2013). Similar to the genres of written language, which have been
thoroughly studied over the years since the 1980s (Halliday, 1985) and
widely acknowledged in research and practice (Hyland, 2007), researchers
in education today argue that spoken language can also be studied
 CLIL Classroom Interaction Challenges 215

systematically and taught as genres (Lindberg, 2011). Examples of such

genres are: personal recount, explanation and discussion. These spoken
genres involve language use in a dialogic mode. Research on spoken
interaction shows that turn-taking, use of typical phrases and language
registers can be identified and successfully taught (Lindberg, 2011).
Models built on the curriculum cycle (Knapp & Watkins, 2005),
traditionally used in writing instruction, can be used for the development
of spoken interaction instruction (Burns, 2013).
Previous research in CLIL in the Swedish upper secondary school
context has identified classroom interaction in the L2 content classroom as
a problematic area: for example, studies reported that few questions were
posed by students, and interaction in general in these classrooms was
limited (Lim Falk, 2008). More recent research undertaken in similar
contexts has identified less problematic classroom interaction environments,
especially when the ideology of the teacher has allowed for a bilingual
mode to be used in the classroom (Yoxsimer Paulsrud, 2014). In these
classrooms, bilingual language use has been acknowledged and put to use
in various ways, depending on the actual situation. These practices have
been conceptualised as pedagogic translanguaging (Yoxsimer Paulsrud,
2014).
With a bilingual or multilingual lens at hand, classroom interaction can
be viewed in a new light (García, 2011, 2009). Instead of finding faults
with the use of L1 in the CLIL classroom, the use of both the L1 and L2
can be experienced as positive and as a potential tool to encourage and
enhance deep learning of the curriculum areas. However, although the use
of two or more languages in the content classroom is increasingly
encouraged in some educational contexts, there are also researchers who
take a skeptical stand, claiming that extensive use of the L1 in L2
classrooms could instead be detrimental to successful learning (Swain &
Lapkin, 2000).
As claimed in subject-content didactics and in teacher cognition
research, reflection is essential in teachers’ daily practice (Tornberg, 2009,
Schüllerqvist, 2012). Indeed, the teacher as a reflective practitioner
(Tornberg, 2009) reflects on what is going to be taught, how this could be
taught and why, taking into consideration, among other resources, the
linguistic resources, and making decisions on the lesson design prior to the
lesson, or adjusting the on-going lesson design on the basis of spontaneous
issues arising in-practice. In teacher cognition research, this pedagogic
reflection has been described as an on-going process of analytic reflection
and normative reflection (Apelgren, 2001) and such reflective practices are
216 Chapter Twelve

considered to be not only typical of a teacher’s practice, but integral to

teaching (Borg, 2012).
Based on the available research about CLIL and the current changes in
the Swedish school curriculum, the study described in this chapter
attempted to investigate CLIL teacher perspectives. From a language
education point of view, questions like ‘Is language awareness something
CLIL teachers as practitioners develop over time?’, ‘What do CLIL
teachers find challenging in the L2 content classroom?’ and ‘What do they
do to meet perceived challenges?’ seemed worthwhile investigating.
Indeed, practicing teachers are seldom being heard in research contexts.
As teachers are known to be “drawing on context-sensitive networks of
knowledge, thoughts and beliefs” (Borg, 2003, p. 81), they might have
important pedagogic knowledge to share in a CLIL research context.
Indeed, as research in higher education focusing on teachers has been
shown to contribute to the development of L2 content teaching in higher
education (Airey, 2011; Westbrook & Henriksen, 2011), similar research
approaches seemed relevant also in the secondary education context. As
more knowledge of study contexts using a bilingual approach have long
been asked for (Leung, 2005), a focus on secondary teachers’ accounts of
challenges, practices and strategies developed on the basis of reflection,
appeared to be highly relevant for this investigation.
In the present study, teachers from three school subject disciplines
(mathematics, biology and civics) were involved. They all reflected on
interaction challenges in the CLIL classroom and the strategies they
developed to cope with the challenges. The following sections report on
the study and the results of the analyses undertaken.

The Study
The study involved six content teachers working in CLIL study
programmes in the Swedish upper secondary schools. Two teachers taught
mathematics (ma1 and ma2), two teachers taught biology (bio1 and bio2)
and two teachers taught civics (civ1 and civ2). For reasons of anonymity
and identity protection, the gender of the teachers is not being accounted
for in the reporting of the results. The mathematics teachers had taught
mathematics in upper secondary schools for fifteen years or more and they
were experienced both in terms of teaching in general and in terms of
CLIL. The biology and civics teachers were relatively new in the
profession with about three years of CLIL teaching experience.
The teachers worked at three different schools, in upper secondary
CLIL study programmes founded in the mid- or late-1990s. All six
 CLIL Classroom Interaction Challenges 217

teachers were native speakers of Swedish. None of the teachers was

enrolled in training or professional development courses on how to teach
their subject in a L2 context.
The teachers were interviewed over a two-year period using a semi-
structured interview format (Bryman, 2013). The total amount of data for
the present study amounts to approximately 70 minutes with each teacher
(a total of 6.5 hours for all six teachers). The interviews were transcribed
shortly after each interview session. The transcription format allowed for
access to the spoken material at the word level with pauses (…), emphasis
(bold type) and other emphatic sounds (e.g., ‘sigh’ or ‘laughter’) made
visible in the transcript.
As is typical of qualitative content analysis, the interview material was
constructed and analysed in several stages over a period of time (Bryman,
2013; Dörniey, 2007). The purpose of the analyses in different
constellations has been to arrive at ‘data saturation’ and to find the ‘inner
consistency’ of the material (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). The interview
material presented in this chapter is part of a larger on-going study that
included lesson observations, further teacher interviews and focus group
interviews with students (Sandberg, forthcoming), which due to limitations
of space, are not discussed in this chapter.

Results
In the analysis of the interview data, two themes emerged as classroom
interaction challenges: linguistic unpredictability and socio-affective barrier. In
the study of teachers’ response to perceived challenges, translanguaging and
genre orientation were identified as teacher strategies. The following
sections present and discuss each of these challenges and strategies.

Linguistic Unpredictability
The first theme that emerged from the interviews with the teachers was
linguistic unpredictability. This theme refers to the content teachers’
feelings of uncertainty in dialogic classroom situations whereby while they
are teaching content in the L2 classroom, all of a sudden, for example
triggered by a student question, they are getting into a discussion of
subject content area involving specific vocabulary that they had not
prepared before the lesson. In Barab and Roth’s (2006) terminology, a
situation of this kind could be referred to as a transactional conversation
dilemma (Barab & Roth, 2006). However, as the content teachers
emphasize the linguistic dimension of the content area as being the
218 Chapter Twelve

challenge, the term linguistic unpredictability is used in the context of this

study.
One example of teachers’ perception of linguistic unpredictability in
the CLIL classroom is described here: one of the biology teachers was
concerned about allowing for a dialogic mode to be used during lessons.
Although the lesson format was often organized around a power point
presentation, the teacher made efforts of various kinds to encourage
students to ask questions. As the topics studied often interested or
provoked students, on-going discussion in the classroom was common.
According to the teacher, there were repeated occurrences where there was
an instant need for subject-specific vocabulary. As these occurrences were
the result of spontaneous dialogue in the classroom, it was not always easy
for the teacher to be fully prepared. In these cases, as reported by the
teacher, the lengthy search for words often made the tempo of the lesson
slow down, and, according to the teacher, the flow of the discussion as
well as the pace of the lesson were affected in a negative way:

“This is where a vast amount of time is spent. The pace of the lesson can
be so slow, having to search for these words, you know.” (bio1)

Although the biology teacher prepared meticulously prior to the lessons by

looking up words in advance, there was always an instant need for
additional vocabulary as part of the discussion occurring in the biology
classroom:

“I have to check these [words] in advance… And then there might come up
new [concepts and terms] that we start to talk about in the lesson, you
know…” (bio1)

The biology teacher found these situations challenging as the linguistic

repertoire was not always available in the immediate moment. It took time
and effort to try to remember all the words in the L2 or having to quickly
look up these words, on the spot, while the students were waiting
impatiently.
The biology teacher’s response to the perceived language use dilemma
in the CLIL interactive classroom was to acknowledge the dialogic nature
of the discussion mode, and invite students to take active part in finding
the subject-specific vocabulary needed to continue the activity:

“As long as you dare to confess that you do not know all the words …
there is always a student who is quick to look up the word … they have
smartphones these days.” (bio1)
 CLIL Classroom Interaction Challenges 219

In inviting the students to participate in the spontaneous search for

adequate vocabulary, the biology teacher opened up for shared knowledge-
building, i.e., the students were invited to take an active role in facilitating
and enhancing the CLIL classroom dialogue.
The second example comes from the civics classroom. The civics
teacher, who was new in the profession and new to teaching in a CLIL
environment, commented on the students’ limited spoken interaction in the
civics L2 classroom, and tried to interpret the students’ actions:

“They are afraid of making mistakes and losing face in the classroom.”
(civ1)

Speaking of the interaction challenge as a matter of linguistic

unpredictability, the civics teacher explained that the dilemma could be
solved by better preparing the students for the classroom interaction in
advance. Consequently, after collaboration with language teachers in the
work team, the teacher started to design the lessons somewhat differently:

“Before I did not give them [the students] so many tools, because I thought
they would create the tools themselves. Now I give them more tools
because I can see that they are doing better this way. It’s difficult enough
anyway.” (civ1)

The tools mentioned by the teacher included for example the teaching of
linguistic and meta-linguistic knowledge, such as study of content area
vocabulary in formal and informal contexts. The tools also included tasks
designed for student output in different genres and languages in a
sequenced way, e.g. student presentations in L2, preceded by written
manuscripts in L2 and group preparation in L2 or L1, i.e., genre-
orientation and translanguaging practices. The teacher could see that the
students were doing better this way.
The third example of linguistic unpredictability came from the second
civics teacher. This teacher did not speak so much about the challenge, but
more about the practices and strategies that, according to the teacher, have
been developed to meet challenges of linguistic unpredictability:

“First of all it’s about vocabulary. Of course, you have to work with this; I
mean translations…. Then I try to imagine … this is likely to come up [in
the discussion]” (civ2)

In the above extract, the teacher accounted for an attempt to visualize the
unfolding of the lesson, what is going to be presented, what the students
220 Chapter Twelve

might have questions about, what might be the topics of discussion. If the
content area is perceived to be complex, the teacher would usually
rehearse the lecture beforehand. Although the teacher reported on putting
much effort into preparing for the presentation and discussion of a new
content area, or in-depth study of a well-known topic, the teacher would
know by experience that it is not possible to prepare for every situation. In
reality, the sequence of the lesson would unfold in a way different to how
it had been rehearsed:

“In reality, what you have prepared will turn out differently.” (civ2)

With genres of analysis and discussion being emphasized in the new

syllabus for civics, students would often be required to contribute with
questions, with their own views, or with examples from areas previously
studied, or be asked to bring in news or relate to current issues being
debated in the media. Therefore, trying to prepare a civics lesson in L2 can
be a challenging task, both for the teacher and the students, as accounted
for by the teacher.
As a strategy to enhance participation in these situations, the teacher
mentioned the use of two languages in the classroom:

“So the students might ask in Swedish, although I may have put forward a
question in English.” (civ2)

These practices might change over time, the teacher reflected, claiming
that teaching practices were not static. On the contrary, as reflective
practitioners, teachers would reflect on their teaching and adjust their
practices and strategies on a continuous basis:

“I have not done this before. If there is a follow-up on this research in five
years or so, I might have other dimensions to bring, view things differently.
I might do this better, simply more skillfully… teaching in English.” (civ2)

Looking ahead, in a few years in time, the teacher acknowledged the

benefit of experience. With experience, the teaching situations will be
better known to the teacher. The teacher will have taught the course
content of the new syllabus a few times, and will know what kind of issues
the students might find difficult to conceptualise.
In the present study, the teachers reported using the two languages (L1
and L2) in a dynamic way as a strategy to remedy linguistic
unpredictability and to maintain the flow of the lesson. It would be
interesting to see whether tailor-made courses for CLIL biology and civics
 CLIL Classroom Interaction Challenges 221

teachers could make a difference for the better. In addition to a new

syllabus and their own socio-cognitive ability, perhaps teachers could
benefit from access to research results from their field of education.
The fourth example of linguistic unpredictability came from the
mathematics classroom. The mathematics teacher did not talk about
linguistic unpredictability as being a dilemma or a challenge. Instead, the
teacher spoke of the psychological side of the learning and teaching of
mathematics, and that “subject content is no. 1” (ma1). The teacher
mentioned the strategy of not requiring students to explain mathematical
problem solving in the L2, and how mathematical explanation was
considered something that the students were initially allowed to do in
Swedish:

“From my point of view, it is never a requirement that students have to

carry out long explanations in English.” (ma1)

According to the mathematics teacher, this strategy facilitated student

learning. In the teacher’s opinion, it was the learning of mathematics that
was of paramount importance. Initially asking students to provide
explanations in the L2, was not considered high priority, as this ability
could be developed in the CLIL classroom over time. With meta-linguistic
knowledge on the genre explanation in mathematics, its purpose, structure
and typical language, perhaps CLIL teachers could enhance student
participation in the L2 content classroom dialogue.

Socio-Affective Barrier
The second theme that emerged from the teacher interviews was socio-
affective barrier. The teachers mentioned feelings of not getting across to
the students in the L2 and not being able to communicate adequately in the
CLIL content classroom. Two civics teachers, working at different
schools, mentioned the feeling of a linguistic ‘barrier’ between them and
the students.
Barab and Roth (2006) refer to situations where the main content of the
communication has to do with the building of a social relation, as
dilemmas in relational communication. Westbrook and Henriksen (2011)
use the term affective gap. In the present study I use the term socio-
affective barrier, as part of the term has been formulated by one of the
teachers in the study, and as it is suitable to the context of this study.
222 Chapter Twelve

The first example of socio-affective barrier comes from the biology

teacher who was relatively new to the CLIL teaching situation. The
teacher’s concern was that students do not dare to ask questions in the L2:

“If you are standing there, giving your lecture/…/You are not going to
notice who is understanding and who is not understanding what you are
talking about. Unfortunately, students are not always prone to asking
questions. Actually, I think they find it embarrassing to ask.” (bio1)

The teacher’s strategies involved allowing time for individual students

to ask for explanations of content at the end of the lesson on a 1:1 basis.
Even if this teacher worked at a school where L2 was being taught to a
great extent, explanations were sometimes provided in Swedish by the
teacher:

“If there is a student coming to ask… and the student would prefer the
explanation to be in Swedish, I do not refuse to explain in Swedish.” (bio1)

Applying this strategy, the teacher is prioritizing students’ learning of

content over their exposure to the L2, i.e., the communication of content is
in focus, however with the aspect of social relation taken into
consideration. The strategy is genre-oriented, sensitive to the transactional
and the relational communication.
With regard to explanation, the second biology teacher applied a
similar strategy of bilingual teaching:

“There are many words in biology they have not come into contact with
before…In these cases, you sort of have to be explicit from the start.
There’s no need for the students sitting there not knowing what I am
talking about.” (bio2)

By ‘explicit’ the biology teacher referred to the use of corresponding

terminology and expression in L1 Swedish. The biology teacher reported
on the blended use of the two languages in the CLIL classroom as a
common strategy, as this would facilitate students’ understanding, and in
this way, cater for more in-depth discussion of content area. Similar to the
other teachers participating in this study, this biology teacher regarded
students’ development of content knowledge as paramount. To further
encourage student output in this context, it is possible that a bilingual
genre-based approach in biology could be applied. By these means, the
students would possibly not only understand the content area better, but
they would also be able to produce structured output in two languages.
 CLIL Classroom Interaction Challenges 223

Both civics teachers in this study, teaching at different schools in

different parts of the country, reflected on the L2 as causing an affective
barrier in the classroom interaction. In the interviews, the civics teachers,
both new to the profession and to teaching CLIL, kept coming back to
reflecting on the problematic effect the use of L2 had on the classroom
interaction in the civics classroom. The first teacher reported:

“When I started here, I was very strict with using 100% English in the
classroom. To begin with I only spoke English with them [the students],
and I always felt there was like a barrier between us… the students were
very tense.” (civ1)

The civics teacher was encouraged to plan for more use of Swedish in
the classroom. This choice was made in collaboration with colleagues and
with regard to the viewpoint that the students’ opportunities to study and
learn civics is first priority, and the additional school language, English,
should not interfere with this priority.
The mathematics teachers expressed their view of, and concern for, a
safe learning environment, where the students feel that they can ask for
advice and explanation when there is something about a mathematical
problem they do not understand. The mathematics teachers, teachers at
different schools, spoke of the importance of confidence in the learning
process:

“Something I have come to understand over the years is that confidence

precedes learning.” (ma1)

“Of course… the more they get to know you, that it is okay to ask… It
takes some time to build [this relation]. Some throw a question right away.
They dare to expose themselves, because that is what you do when you
ask. Even on a 1:1 basis, some students find it difficult.” (ma2)

The strategies that the teachers developed involved translanguaging in the

way that students were given the opportunity to ask questions through their
L1, Swedish:

“If they prefer to ask me in Swedish they can do this. I never want to force
them to speak English with me [even though] I always speak English.”
(ma2).

The view of the mathematics teachers was that English may not hinder
students’ learning of mathematical content. Therefore, the teacher speaks
English, but the students can feel free to ask questions in Swedish.
224 Chapter Twelve

Gradually, the students can be encouraged to make use of English in whole

class discussions, also in situations involving new or more complex
mathematical content.
In the mathematics teachers’ view, if the students can be brave enough
to ask questions, their chances of learning mathematics increase. Thus,
according to the CLIL mathematics teachers interviewed in this study, the
task for mathematics teachers is to build a social learning climate, in which
the students feel free to ask questions. Seemingly, the experienced
mathematics teachers appear aware of the classroom interaction challenge in
the L2 mathematics classroom. They spoke of the relational communication
as a pre-requisite for successful transactional communication.

Conclusion
The focus of this study has been CLIL content teachers’ perceived
classroom interaction challenges in three school subjects (mathematics,
biology and civics) and the strategies developed by the teachers to meet
these challenges. The six teachers managed well, according to their own
reports. As has been indicated in this study, there is much to be learned
from a synthesis of research on content-based L2 instruction and practices
and strategies developed by the teachers in these classrooms.
Indeed, CLIL teacher education courses could benefit from being
informed by both strategies developed by practicing teachers and research
on CLIL. As suggested in this chapter, raising teachers’ awareness of
different genres of spoken interaction could form an important part of such
courses. Meta-knowledge of the structure and typical linguistic
expressions of spoken interaction genres could function as scaffolding,
providing a safe pedagogical tool to rely on bridging the gap of linguistic
unpredictability.
Since discussion and analysis in both formal and informal contexts are
required in the new curriculum for upper secondary schools in Sweden,
content study in the L2 can be a highly challenging task. In an effort to
develop their own and their students’ language proficiency in both
informal and formal registers, CLIL teachers can use translanguaging as a
pedagogical tool. Translanguaging can lower the socio-affective barrier,
allowing for dynamic language use, with a focus on the quality of the
content and the aim of the communicative situation.
With pedagogic tools and strategies of translanguaging and genre at
their disposal, CLIL teachers and learners could more easily and
thoroughly engage in spoken discourse about subject-specific topics, as
has been shown in this study. Further meta-linguistic knowledge of
 CLIL Classroom Interaction Challenges 225

language as part of different registers could assist CLIL teachers in lesson

design and reflection. In-service courses could be helpful in this respect.
Balancing the flexibility of translanguaging with the structure of spoken
genres, CLIL teachers together with their students could enhance the
development of successful classroom interaction.

Acknowledgement
This study is part of a large-scale research project, Content and
Language Integrated Learning (CLISS), and it has been partly financed by
the Swedish Research Council (Project number 721-2010-5376).

References
Airey, J. (2011). Talking about teaching in English: Swedish university
lecturers’ experiences of changing teaching language. Ibérica, 22, 35-
54.
Apelgren, B-M. (2001). Foreign language teachers’ voices. Personal
theories and experiences of change in teaching English as a foreign
language in Sweden. Göteborg: University of Reading/Gothenburg
University.
Axelsson, M., Olofsson, M., Philipsson, A., Rosander, C., & Sellgren, M.
(2006). Ämne och språk–språkliga dimensioner i ämnesundervisningen.
Stockholm: Utbildningsförvaltningen.
Barab, S., & Roth, W. (2006). Curriculum-based ecosystems: Supporting
knowing from an ecological perspective. Educational Researcher,
35(3), 3-13.
Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of
research on what language teachers think, know, believe and do.
Language Teaching, 36(2), 81-109.
—. (2012). Current approaches to language teacher cognition research: A
methodological analysis. In R. Barnard, & A. Burns (Eds.),
Researching language teacher cognition and practice. International
case studies (pp. 81-109). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Burns, A. (2013). A holistic approach to teaching speaking in the language
classroom. In M. Olofsson (Ed.), Symposium 2012. Lärarrollen i
svenska som andraspråk (pp. 165-178). Stockholm: Stockholms
universitets förlag.
Bryman, A. (2013). Samhällsvetenskapliga metoder. Malmö: Gleerups.
Coyle, D., Hood, P., & Marsh, D. (2010). Content and language
integrated learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
226 Chapter Twelve

Cenosz, J., Genese, F., & Gorter, D. (2014). Critical analysis of CLIL:
Taking stock and looking forward. Applied Linguistics, 35(3), 243-262.
Dörniey, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st Century. A global
perspective. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
—. (2011). Pedagogies and practices in multilingual classrooms:
Singularities in pluralities. The Modern Language Journal, 95(3), 385-
400.
Gibbons, P. (2009). English learners, academic literacy and thinking.
Learning in the challenge zone. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Halliday, M. (1985). Spoken and written language. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Hyland, K. (2007). Genre pedagogy: Language, literacy and L2 writing
instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing, 16(3), 148-164.
Knapp, P., & Watkins, M. (2005). Genre, text, grammar: Technologies for
teaching and assessing writing. Sydney: UNSW Press.
Leung, C. (2005). Language and content in bilingual education. Linguistics
and Education, 16(2), 238-252.
Lim Falk, M. (2008). Svenska i engelskspråkig miljö. Ämnesrelaterat
språkbruk i två gymnasieklasser. Stockholm: Stockholms universitet.
Lindberg, I. (2011). Språka samman. Stockholm: Natur och kultur.
Llinares, A., Morton, T., & Whitaker, R. (2012). The roles of languages in
CLIL. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding second language acquisition. New
York: Routledge.
Selander, S., & Kress, G. (2010). Design för lärande: Ett multimodalt
perspektiv. Stockholm: Norstedts.
Schüllerqvist, B. (2012). De samhällsvetenskapliga ämnenas didaktik. En
skandinavisk översikt. I: Ämnesdidaktisk komparation. Länder, ämnen,
teorier, metoder, frågor och resultat (pp. 25-43). Karlstad:
Universitetstryckeriet.
Skolverket (2011). Lgy 2011. Läroplan, examensmål och
gymnasiegemensamma ämnen för gymnasieskola 2011. Retrieved
from: www.skolverket.se
Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of
comprehensible input and comprehensible output in interlanguage
development. In S. Gass (Ed.), Input in second language acquisition
(pp. 235-253). Rowley: Mass. Newbury House.
 CLIL Classroom Interaction Challenges 227

Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (1998). Interaction and language learning. Two
adolescent French immersion students working together. Modern
Language Journal, 82(3), 320-337.
Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (2000). Task-based second language learning:
The uses of the first language. Language Teaching Research, 4(3),
251-274.
Tornberg, U. (2009). Språkdidaktik. Malmö: Gleerups.
Westbrook, P. N., & Henriksen, B. (2011). Bridging the linguistic and
affective gaps: The Impact of a short, tailor-made course on a Danish
university lecturer’s ability to lecture with confidence in English. In R.
Cancino, L. Dam, & K. Jaeger (Eds.), Policies, principles, practices:
New directions in foreign language education in the era of educational
globalization (pp. 189-211). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge
Scholars Press.
Yoxsimer Paulsrud, B. (2014). English-medium instruction in Sweden.
Perspectives and practices in two upper secondary schools.
Stockholm: Stockholm University.
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF (IN)CIVILITY

TOWARD GROUPMATES

HARUMI KIMURA

Abstract
This study explores how second language (L2) learners perceive and
deal with peers’ uncivil behaviors and attitudes when working in pairs or
groups. The Pair-/Group-work Incivility Scale was created and
administered to 347 university students in Japan. The results demonstrated
that perception of incivility toward groupmates was a unidimensional
psychological construct, and that students perceived different degrees of
incivility toward different behaviors and attitudes in pair-/group-work.
Written essays on the same issue by 156 students were also collected.
Content analysis revealed that students experienced a variety of negative
emotions, from sadness to irritation, in the face of peers’ incivility.
However, students also reported that they took a variety of measures to
cope with incivility. Students who actively dealt with incivility made use
of interpersonal, collaborative skills to engage reluctant peers. Mindful of
their peers’ needs—and limitations in some cases—the students adjusted
their strategies.

Introduction
Pair-work and group-work constitute an important component in
second language (L2) learning classrooms. What and how much students
learn partly depends on what goes on between or among them—i.e., the
quality and quantity of peer interaction (Jacob & Kimura, 2013a). Students
are supposed to actively interact with and support each other, and although
it would be a rewarding experience to work with cooperative
 Students’ Perception of (In)Civility Toward Groupmates 229

partners/groupmates, that scenario may not always be the case. Students

may find some behaviors and attitudes exhibited by their peers
unfavorable and think that their learning environment is not optimal
because of these behaviors and attitudes. However, they are likely to have
some strategies to change or survive the situation. Investigation is needed
to determine how students perceive peers’ unsupportive behaviors and
attitudes, what emotional reactions they experience, and how they cope
with unsupportive partners/groupmates. Such research will lead to a better
understanding of a positively vs. a negatively interdependent classroom
culture.
The present study employed a mixed-methods approach and utilized
both quantitative and qualitative data (Brown, 2014; Creswell, 2003). A
questionnaire with 17 Likert-scale items, the Pair-/Group-work Incivility
Scale, was administered to 347 university students who were studying
English as a foreign language (EFL) in Japan. The quantitative data
provided information on how students evaluate peers’ inconsiderate
behaviors and attitudes in pair-/group-work. Among the survey
participants, 156 students later provided written essays on the same issue.
The qualitative data provided information on how students felt about those
behaviors and attitudes and how they coped with them. These two types of
data were integrated (Brown, 2014) to explore the reasons for the students’
emotional and behavioral reactions toward incivility.

Background
Language classrooms are social contexts filled with learning
opportunities. Learners are able to develop their language knowledge and
skills, if they are fully engaged in interactions with cooperative peers.
However, can we simply assume that students are always working
cooperatively and productively when put into pairs or in groups? Does
pair-/group-work guarantee meaningful interaction?
Pedagogical reasons for making use of small group interaction and
cooperation for language development abound. In the traditional
input-interaction model of language learning, learners need opportunities
to interact with other speakers for mutual comprehension through
negotiation of meaning (Long, 1996). From a sociocultural perspective,
learning first occurs socially (Vygotsky, 1978) and L2 learners acquire
language when they interactively work with other speakers (Lantolf, 2000).
Emphasis is placed on verbal face-to-face interaction and language use.
Lightbown and Spada (2013) contend that “pair and group work provides
230 Chapter Thirteen

far more practice in speaking and participating in conversations than a

teacher-centered class ever could” (p. 209). Likewise, Farrell and Jacobs
(2010) claim that pair and group activities constitute an essential
component of contemporary language teaching. Active use of pairs and
small groups has gained considerable momentum in task-based language
teaching, where meaning-focused language use in interaction among peers
is required to perform tasks (Long, 2014).
In a cooperative learning framework (Jacobs, Power, & Loh, 2002),
students in pairs and in groups are positively interdependent. The actions
of one member should benefit others and the actions of others should
benefit each member. All members actively participate in the work and it is
essential to interact face to face to accomplish the given tasks. While
working together, members build and nurture a positive and supportive
relationship (Dörnyei & Murphy, 2003; Senior, 1997). To make this
happen, students need to develop interpersonal skills such as showing
respect and understanding for the needs of others.
However, educators who promote student-centered approaches to
learning in general, and cooperative learning in particular, have pointed
out that these cooperative skills have been overlooked, if not neglected, in
traditional classrooms where knowledge transmission and individualistic
learning take priority (Jacobs, et al. 2002; McCafferty, Jacobs, & Iddings,
2006). Some other important cooperative skills include listening
attentively, asking for help, disagreeing politely, taking turns, praising
others, thanking others, and waiting patiently. These skills help to create a
good learning environment, where learners support each other.
What if learners do not interact in a mutually supportive environment?
What if their interaction is not good enough in quantity and quality
because learners lack the abovementioned and other interpersonal skills?
To answer these questions, L2 teachers need to know how students
perceive and deal with impolite, unproductive, and unfavorable learning
behaviors and attitudes in pair-/group-work. To date, research has focused
on good learning behaviors and what ideal classmates do (Murphey, Falout,
Fukuda, & Fukuda, 2014), while classroom environment, most notably
peers’ supportive or problematic behaviors, have been demonstrated in a
recent empirical study to mediate motivational changes for better or worse
(Kozaki & Ross, 2013).
The term ‘incivility’ is used to describe problematic classroom
behaviors and attitudes. In the available literature, incivility is defined as
“speech or action that is disrespectful or rude” (Boice, 1996, p. 3) and it
occurs when learners are “characteristically rude and discourteous,
 Students’ Perception of (In)Civility Toward Groupmates 231

displaying a lack of regard for others” (Andersson & Pearson, 1999, p.

457). The former describes what people do and the latter describes who
they are. In both, ‘others’ are part of the picture, and in classrooms they are
peers. Problematic behaviors can also be inappropriate, troublesome,
bothersome, disruptive, and can interfere with learning. Investigating the
uncivil behaviors and coping strategies that learners employ will lead to a
better understanding of productive interactions among peers.
Bjorklund and Rehling (2010) conducted an extensive study in this
area. They administered a 23-item incivility questionnaire to 3,616 college
students in the United States and examined the behaviors the students
found uncivil and how frequently they experienced those behaviors. The
researchers thought that previous studies had been mostly anecdotal and
that a large-scale quantitative study was necessary. They demonstrated that
(1) students are experiencing an array of uncivil behaviors and (2) most of
the troublesome behaviors are moderately uncivil.
In the present study, Bjorklund and Rehling’s (2010) scope of study
was narrowed to the Japanese EFL context. Moderately uncivil behaviors
and attitudes in pair-/group-work in L2 classrooms were examined. The
focus was on how Japanese college students evaluated inconsiderate
behaviors and attitudes in English classrooms, how they felt about them,
and how they coped with them.

The Study
The current study is composed of two phases. In Phase 1, a list of
moderately uncivil behaviors and attitudes in pair-/group-work in English
classes at Japanese universities were examined quantitatively and
rank-ordered. Moderately uncivil behaviors and attitudes indicate a lack of
empathy for the emotions and needs of others; thus, they may disrupt L2
learning in pairs or in small groups. For example, uncivil students might
ignore the given task and start side conversations. They might make their
partners/groupmates do all the work on an assignment. Students may feel
more or less offended in the face of these unfavorable behaviors.
In Phase 2, how students felt about and coped with these moderately
uncivil behaviors and attitudes was examined qualitatively for content
analysis. The assumption was that students experienced an array of
emotions and had some coping strategies that they thought were effective
as well as reasons to use particular strategies. It should be noted that there
was no particular focus on L2 use in this study but the aim was to examine
overall behaviors and attitudes of members in pairs and groups in L2
232 Chapter Thirteen

classrooms. The quality and quantity of L2 use in pair-/group-work is a

related but distinct issue, and first language (L1) use in L2 classrooms has
been demonstrated to have its own value (Jacobs & Kimura, 2013b).
The data collected in Phases 1 & 2 were combined to explore why
some behaviors were recognized as more uncivil than others. This question
was a mixed-methods question because both the abovementioned
quantitative and qualitative data were needed to explore reasons for the
intensity of incivility perception (Brown, 2014).
The research questions of this study included:

1. What behaviors and attitudes in pair-/group-work do L2 learners in

Japanese universities find problematic?
2. How do they feel when their partner/groupmates are uncivil?
3. How do they handle classroom incivility?
4. What are the reasons for their emotional and behavioral reactions?

Phase 1
Three hundred and forty-seven university students in three universities
in the central and eastern parts of Japan participated in Phase 1 (School A:
156 students, School B: 126 students, & School C: 65 students). In total
there were 195 female students, 148 male students, and 4 students who did
not declare their gender. The age range was between 18 and 22 years and
the mean age was 18.6 years. The students’ majors varied and included (in
alphabetical order) architecture, biology, child education, cultural studies,
English literature, environmental studies, food science, information
technology, music, nursing, policy studies, psychology, and rehabilitation
medicine.
The Pair-/Group-work Incivility Scale was created for this study. A list
of 17 items, which describe uncivil student behaviors in pair-/group-work,
was derived from a review of the existing research (Bjorklund & Rehling,
2010; Boice, 1996), a 45-minute focus group interview with three
university students in one of the schools, and teacher observation. One
item was identical to an item in Bjorklund and Rehling’s (2010) study:
‘doing homework for other classes’. Three items were similar: ‘conversing
with others (neither their partner nor groupmates)’, ‘being disrespectful to
others’, and ‘arriving late’. Two items about making complaints were
combined into one: ‘complaining about the task’. Likewise, three items
concerning electronic devices were combined into one: ‘using a cell/smart
phone’. The other 11 items were original, and some focused on
 Students’ Perception of (In)Civility Toward Groupmates 233

pair-/group-work (e.g., ‘making their partner/groupmates do all the work’

and ‘not listening attentively’). Other items focused on tasks (e.g., ‘not
doing the task as instructed’ and ‘going off task’). Bjorklund and Rehling
(2010) included two items in their scale that described favorable behaviors,
but those were not included in this study. Participants were asked, ‘To
what degree do you consider the following behaviors and attitudes to be
uncivil?’ and they used a 6-point Likert scale to evaluate each
behavior/attitude (1 = not uncivil at all to 6 = extremely uncivil). The
survey was given in Japanese.

Phase 2
One hundred and fifty-six university students in two universities
participated in Phase 2 (School A: 97 students & School B: 59 students).
There were in total 124 female students and 32 male students. Their age
range was between 18 and 19 years and their mean age was 18.7.
Participants were asked to write an anonymous short essay to the
following prompts in Japanese, ‘How do you feel when your
partner/groupmates are not serious about working on the given task that
requires cooperation? What did you do about it?’ Participants used
classroom time, free time, or both to complete their writing. Participants
wrote an average of 53.4 Chinese characters in response in total (Min =
21; Max = 132). Their answers to the two questions were translated into
English and written on index cards for identification and categorization of
themes for content analyses (Miles & Huberman, 1994). A colleague read
the translations for verification and assisted in identifying and categorizing
the themes through discussion. My colleague and I met twice; each session
was 90 minutes long. In reporting participants’ responses in the next
section, pseudonyms were used.

Results and Discussion

Preliminary Analysis of the Scale
The following analyses were carried out to determine the
dimensionality of the 17 items from the Pair-/Group-work Incivility Scale.
It was necessary to ensure that all the items targeted the same underlying
psychological concept, that is, perception of pair-/group-work incivility.
An exploratory factor analysis using a principal component analysis was
conducted to investigate the factor loadings of the items (see Table 13-1).
234 Chapter Thirteen

Table 13-1: Summary of items, means, standard deviations, and factor

loadings for One-Factor Solution for the Pair-/Group-work Incivility
Scale.

Item M SD Factor
loading
16. Being disrespectful 4.8 1.5 .73
3. Making their partner/groupmates do all 4.7 1.4 .73
the work
6. Not cooperating with their 4.7 1.3 .78
partner/groupmates
7. Not doing the task as instructed 4.5 1.4 .81
4. Using a cell/smart phone 4.3 1.4 .78
15. Not listening attentively to 4.3 1.3 .77
partner/groupmates
17. Doing homework for other classes 4.3 1.5 .83
13. Being distracted from learning 4.3 1.3 .81
5. Going off task 4.2 1.4 .80
12. Not bringing learning materials 4.2 1.4 .80
11. Displaying inattentive posture 4.1 1.3 .84
2. Looking and acting bored 4.0 1.4 .69
10. Arriving late 4.0 1.4 .76
1. Coming to class without doing 3.9 1.4 .69
homework
14. Having side conversations 3.7 1.3 .77
8. Complaining about the task 3.5 1.4 .76
9. Conversing with others 3.2 1.3 .63
Note. N = 347; M = Mean; SD = Standard Deviation; Item mean scores reflect the
following response choices: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = moderately disagree, 3 =
slightly disagree, 4 = slightly agree, 5 = moderately agree, 6 = strongly agree.

Prior to performing the analysis, the suitability of data for a factor

analysis was assessed. Inspection of the correlation matrix revealed the
 Students’ Perception of (In)Civility Toward Groupmates 235

presence of many coefficients of .3 and above. The Kaider-Meyer-Oklin

value was .95, exceeding the recommended value of .6 and the Barlett’s
Test of Sphericity reached statistical significance (p = .00), supporting the
factorability of the correlation matrix. The principle component analysis
revealed one component with an eigenvalue exceeding 1, which explained
60.88% of variance. The scree plot demonstrated a clear break after the
first component. All items demonstrated a strong loading from .65 to .84.
The reliability was .96 (Cronbach’s alpha). The results demonstrated that
all of the items tapped into one and the same psychological
construct—perception of pair-/group-work incivility.

Research Question 1: Problematic Behaviours and Attitudes

Research Question 1 asked about behaviours and attitudes in
pair-/group-work that L2 learners in Japanese universities find problematic.
Table 13-1 displays the ranking order of the raw score means of the
descriptors on the Pair-/Group-work Incivility Scale. Three items with
means over 4.6 are in regards to whether peers are responsible and
contributing to pair-/group-work. Item 3 (making partner/groupmates do
all the work) and Item 6 (not cooperating with partner/groupmates)
concern responsibility. Pairs and groupmates should work together to
complete the given task. Students are considered uncivil, or disrespectful
(Item 16), when they take advantage of their more hardworking
partner/groupmates and do not share the workload equally. Students ask
for equal participation in the given task and the partner/groupmates need to
share their ideas and energy for the completion of the task—i.e., each
individual should be accountable.
Other items above 4.0 concern mainly participation. When
partner/groupmates are using their cell/smart phone (Item 4) or doing
homework for other classes (Item 17), or when they are apparently off task
(Item 5) and distracted (Item 13), they are most likely not listening
attentively to their partner/groupmates (Item 15). Students may display
inattentive posture (Item 11) and act bored (Item 02) when they are not
engaged with the task at hand, that is, not participating. When students do
not have their learning materials with them (Item 12), their
partner/groupmates must share, thus sacrificing their own optimal learning
conditions. In all of these cases, students in pairs or in groups cannot make
the best use of opportunities to interact and learn.
Participants did not seem to care as much about their partner/groupmates
236 Chapter Thirteen

coming to class late (Item 10) or coming to class without doing homework
(Item 1). These behaviors are unfavorable in terms of optimal learning, but
they do not seem to disrupt interpersonal relations. Students cared even
less about having side conversations with their partner/groupmates (Item
14), complaining about the task (Item 8), and conversing with others (Item
9). In these cases, students are at least interacting or sharing their concerns
and interests, even if they are off task.
To sum up, items concerning violation of individual accountability
(Jacobs, et al., 2002) ranked highest and items concerning lack of
participation came next. The participants did not care as much if the
behaviors did not impede their interpersonal relations or if peers engaged
in unproductive interactions.

Research Question 2: Emotional Reactions to Incivility

Research Question 2 asked about students’ emotional reactions to peers’
uncivil behaviors and attitudes. Students reported that they experienced a
variety of emotions in the face of classroom incivility and employed a
variety of coping/non-coping strategies. In most cases, students experienced
negative emotions such as discouragement, dissatisfaction, uneasiness,
loneliness, sorrow, irritation, frustration, and upset. Others described the
situation as unpleasant, disappointing, unfortunate, troublesome, stressful,
and regrettable. These negative reactions are not surprising: the students
expect proper learning behaviors, but their partner/groupmates do not live
up to their expectations. Students also reported harmful affective outcomes.
For example, Haruka, one of the students, reported that she was
discouraged by their peers’ uncivil behaviors and lost interest in
pair/groupwork, while Shiori, another student, wrote that uncivil attitudes
made her feel sad and suspected her partner might not like her.
Considering that studies in cooperative learning have demonstrated not
only cognitive gains but also positive affective outcomes (Johnson &
Johnson, 2009), it is understandable that students in non-functioning pairs
or groups suffer a variety of negative emotive reactions. Akiko, who
responded that she did not care much about her partner’s/groupmates’
uncivil behaviors, added that she would rather work with supportive peers.
Rina thought that unsupportive peers should recognize that they were
actually spoiling the learning environment. The collection of expressions of
negative emotions from unhappy students and these additional comments by
seemingly carefree students both indicate that uncivil behaviors and attitudes
could affect the social and emotional climate of the classroom.
 Students’ Perception of (In)Civility Toward Groupmates 237

Research Question 3: Coping with Incivility

Research Question 3 asked about students’ coping behaviors in dealing
with peers’ uncivil behaviors and attitudes. Students reported that they
reacted to incivility in different ways and deployed a variety of strategies.
It turned out that in many cases, students actively sought ways to
encourage their partner/groupmates to participate. In other cases, they
chose to do the work by themselves for different reasons.
In the following subsection, active approaches are discussed: talking to
reluctant partner/groupmates, maintaining a cooperative climate, showing
sympathy, and becoming role models.

Active Approaches

Most students tried to maintain a cooperative climate by talking to the

uncivil partner/groupmates. They asked questions about the given task,
asked for confirmation, or told them to share ideas in order to involve their
reluctant partner/groupmates. Mitsuki responded that she dared to ask a
very easy question to push her partner/groupmates into saying something
in return and joining their cooperative work. Nozomi “talked and talked”
until her partner/groupmates responded. These students persistently
appealed to their partner/groupmates for participation.
Creating a good climate for learning together was another common
strategy. “Okay, let’s …” and “We work together on …” were often quoted
in students’ responses. Quite a few students wrote, honestly, that they
started with a side conversation—off-task talk and small talk helped to
create or support social harmony. Reina wrote:

“Side conversation may sound bad, but it helps us set up a context for
working together, and we are not just off task for the sake of having a good
time or we ignore the task and instructions. We are chatting about other
things to be able to get ready for the pair-/group-work.”

Mayuko also wrote that socializing comes before interaction for learning.
Showing understanding and sympathy regarding uncivil behaviors and
attitudes was another way to get peers involved, and students reported that
it helped improve their situation. Erika wrote:

“When my partner looks sleepy and is reluctant to work, I try to put myself
in her shoes and say things like, ‘You must be tired. How late did you work
238 Chapter Thirteen

last night?’ Then, my partner says things like, ‘We have too much
homework. We are very busy, aren’t we?’ and she got geared and started
working, sometimes apparently unwillingly. However, at other times I
succeeded in changing my peers’ attitudes, and we started working as good
groupmates. I was very happy to be able to work together.”

Some students chose to be good role models, take the initiative, and
demonstrate proper learning behaviors in order to motivate their
partner/groupmates or to pressure them into collaborating or contributing.
Akari pretended she did not care about her inattentive partner/groupmates
and tried to look like she was working enthusiastically on the task. Her
tactics worked, and her partner joined her later. Mei usually took the lead
in starting the work, and she was careful not to keep silent. Talking helped
Mei in two ways: she kept herself motivated and continued to send signals
that her partner should be working with her.

Passive Attitudes

Some students were more hesitant in having their partner/groupmates

participate in full collaboration. Kanae did all the work alone, and asked
her partner only when she was not able to find solutions or she was in
trouble. Nami and other students made an arrangement and shared the
workload instead of asking non-participating partners to work together.
She wrote that it was not always possible to work together because
students often were not in the mood or they did not know each other well.
These students had more lenient attitudes toward classroom incivility.
Other students chose to work alone when they thought their
partner/groupmates were unwilling to work with them, and their reasons
varied. Ken wrote that the work was for himself anyway. Eriko wrote that
she could not change others’ behaviors or attitudes. Ryoko said she did all
the work because there was no other choice. Yuma thought that he could
not get ideal partner/groupmates all the time and he must accept the
situation. He added, “Tomorrow is another day.” Aika was not happy about
doing the work alone, but she did so because she did not know how to talk
to her uncivil partner. She wrote that she could not do anything when her
partner was not interested in her or in the task. Hitomi thought that she
should work twice as much to cover for her reluctant partner. These
students adjusted to and seemingly accepted their peers’ uncivil behaviors
and attitudes, regulating their own emotional reactions, but their mindsets
differed.
 Students’ Perception of (In)Civility Toward Groupmates 239

Situational Factors

A few situational factors influenced the ways students dealt with

incivility. First, it sometimes depended on whether the given work was for
pairs or for groups. Karin thought that she cared less about reluctant peers
in a group than in a pairwork. She could work with the other, more
cooperative members in a group. Shinya felt that it was easier to tell
uncooperative members to join the work or discussion in a group than in a
pair. Suggestions like “You may not feel like doing it but you have to” and
“It’s time to work” had worked for him. He could say these statements in a
pleasing way or with a fun tone. He wrote that it was easier to be in a
playful mood in a group than in a pair.
Second, it made a difference whether their partner/groupmates were
close friends. Maki reported that with close friends, cooperation started in
a natural way and she did not experience incivility or have difficulty in
getting started. However, with peers who she did not know well, she did
not take active measures when she found them unwilling to participate.
Ryo told his reluctant partner, who happened to be his good friend, to start
working on the task with a good sense of humor. Saki also wrote that she
cheerfully said to her unenthusiastic partner, “What’s wrong? Come on!
Let’s work together. It doesn’t seem to be that much work.” These students
reported that it was easier with close friends than with mere classmates to
deal with unfavorable classroom behaviors, but they tried not to be
evaluative and gave encouragement when necessary. They did not sacrifice
their friendship to accomplish their pair-/group-work.

Other Issues

Some students were more resistant to peers’ incivility and did not give
up quickly in inviting reluctant partner/groupmates. Ryo reported that he
talked to his reluctant partner/groupmates, but when they did not respond
properly, he made suggestions as to how they could contribute to the work:
he assigned small roles to his uncooperative peers and proposed work
sharing. He made the point that their responsibility on the task was not
heavy and the work would be “a piece of cake.” “Let’s finish quickly,” he
said to his partner.
Negative outcomes of classroom incivility were reported from some
students. Shiho wrote that she was easily influenced by her peers’
unsupportive behaviors, refrained from working hard, and looked for an
easy way out. Sae wrote that she took it easy and decided not to work hard
240 Chapter Thirteen

when she found her partner/groupmates were unwilling to work. Incivility

was sometimes infectious, and some students were not resilient against
peers’ incivility.
Ayana mentioned emotional scaffolding among peers. She wrote that,
honestly, she was sometimes not motivated. In many cases, her
partner/groupmates were supportive even when she was “not into the task.”
There were times when she was matched with other unmotivated
partner/groupmates. She thought that she could manage better with others,
even with unmotivated ones, than by herself. She experienced that two or
more is stronger than one and she liked pair-/group-work because she
became more motivated than in individual work.
To sum up, students coped with incivility in different ways. They took
priority in creating or maintaining good relationships with their
partner/groupmates. They thought that talking to reluctant partners was
useful to get them involved, and quite often used side conversations to get
going. Some students were more persistent in taking the time and effort to
engage their peers, but other students gave up easily. Uncivil behaviors
and attitudes were mostly discouraging and created negative affective
outcomes.

Research Question 4: Why Uncivil?

Research Question 4 asked why some behaviors were recognized as
more uncivil than others. Items regarding rudeness and a lack of equal
participation were rated highest in the survey as demonstrated in Table
13-1 and discussed earlier (Research Question 2). The item about being
disrespectful to the partner/groupmates (Item 16) was ranked the highest,
“free-riding” (Item 3) came second, and not cooperating (Item 6) came
third with only small differences between them. In pair-/group-work,
students expected that they both/all contribute to learning together; i.e.,
they should jointly work on the task (Johnson & Johnson, 1998). When
their partner/groupmates did not live up to this expectation, students
thought that their peers were disrespectful and irresponsible because they
were not contributing to achieving the supposedly common goals. In
cooperative pairs/groups, the actions students take benefit peers and the
actions peers take benefit each student (Jacobs et al., 2002). They are
positively interdependent when they see cooperation as a necessary
investment and feel rewarded when they work together to achieve
common goals. When they are positively interdependent, they enjoy their
learning experience. Kaori wrote that it was not fun when her partner did
 Students’ Perception of (In)Civility Toward Groupmates 241

not want to work together. It was a bad day when she was randomly
assigned to a reluctant partner or was put into a non-cooperative group.
This is suggestive of Jacobs et al. (2002), who wrote that positive
interdependence exists “primarily in the minds of students” (p. 33).
Teachers may be able to structure tasks so that students should be
interdependent on the tasks and encourage them to do so, but what
determines students’ satisfaction of pair-/group-work is how well they
cooperate.
Other scale items regarding discipline problems (Bjorklund & Rehling,
2010) were also ranked rather high because they caused peers to feel
neglected. For example, using a cell/smart phone (Item 4) was ranked 5th.
Minako wrote that she did not like it when her partner started to use her
smartphone because she felt ignored and sad. Ruka reported that she felt
isolated when her partner was doing homework for other classes (Item 17).
She wrote that she was envious of other pairs, who looked like they were
enjoying learning together. Students who work on something else when
they are supposed to work with their partner/groupmates are not just
behaving irresponsibly and taking advantage of their partners’ hard work,
but they are also rude or uncivil and not providing their partners with
support, encouragement, enjoyment of learning, or satisfaction of
cooperation.
It is worth mentioning that not listening attentively to partner/groupmates
(Item 15) ranked higher than displaying inattentive posture (Item 11): 6th
and 11th, respectively. Students hoped that their partner/groupmates would
stay more mindful to what they have to say than to the task itself.
Masayoshi wrote:

“What’s the point in trying to work together when my partner/groupmates

look absent-minded or when they are thinking of something else and not
listening to me?”

Mamiko also wrote, “I felt like I was shut off.” Their comments
demonstrated dissatisfaction, alienation, and irritation in the face of
inattentiveness. Pair-/group-work is inherently social and requires
“face-to-face, mind-to-mind, and heart-to-heart” (Cozolino, 2013, p. 17)
interaction with caring others.
Other items about improper attention, being distracted (Item 13), and
looking or acting bored (Item 2), ranked 8th and 12th, respectively. Students
do not feel they are connected to, and therefore valued by, their uncivil
partner/groupmates. Kei chose to join another pair when his partner
242 Chapter Thirteen

seemed distracted or “off in another world”. He went on to say that he

usually started with monitoring or assessing the readiness or willingness of
his partner/groupmates. Atsumi responded that she did not like it that her
partner/groupmates looked bored even when they were doing the task
together. Interpersonal communication is automatic and unconscious to a
large extent (Cozolino, 2013). It is likely that negative attitudes easily
show and students are good at detecting them.
On the other hand, going off task was more permissible when students
were interacting with their partner/groupmates in some way. For example,
when complaining about the task (Item 8), students were active in talking
to each other about the task and exchanging ideas. The group or partners
may be building consensus, which is a solid outcome of the interaction. As
discussed earlier, students often made use of side conversations (Item 14)
to build a cooperative climate and facilitate successful peer interaction.
Low rankings of these items demonstrate that some off-task behaviors do
not bother students as much because they help foster bonding in some
cases and produce actual outcomes in others.
It is worth mentioning that coping strategies comprise interpersonal,
collaborative skills. The list in Jacobs et al. (2002), for example, includes
“encouraging others to participate”, “persuading others, offering
suggestions”, “using humor to help group functioning”, “getting a group
back on task”, “waiting patiently”, and “asking for help, clarification,
examples, explanation, and repetition” (p. 80), which are behaviors that
the students in this study reported and used in coping with incivility. The
skills students most expected from their partner/groupmates included
“listening attentively” (Jacobs et al., 2002, p. 80) and showing genuine
interest in others, both of which are indispensable in teamwork, and they
“form the basic nexus among individuals” to make cooperative work
possible (Johnson & Johnson, 2009, p. 369). It is not a coincidence that
coping strategies display an array of interpersonal skills as these skills are
essential for positive human connection in every community, and
classrooms are no exception.
To sum up, students do not accept incivility in the classroom because it
spoils trust, group cohesion, and learning satisfaction. Students feel they
are not valued in their relationships with uncivil partner/groupmates. In
cooperative pairs/groups, on the other hand, members are positively
interdependent and share responsibility and outcomes of learning (Jacobs,
et al., 2002). Students appreciate it when they can join together to work on
a task. Cooperative behaviors and attitudes support caring relationships
among students and create a healthy social milieu for learning in pairs or
 Students’ Perception of (In)Civility Toward Groupmates 243

in groups. Peers are an essential part of the learning environment and

unsupportive peers can have detrimental effects on the wellbeing of their
partner/groupmates.

Pedagogical Implications
University students were shown to develop some important
interpersonal, collaborative skills, so it is probably better for instructors to
wait patiently for pairs and groups to manage interpersonally difficult
situations themselves instead of rushing to help. Students are developing
some of these skills, or emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995), when
paired with or grouped into both cooperative and uncooperative
partner/groupmates. Side conversations are often used for partners/groupmates
to get started, and simply banning side conversations might not be a good
strategy. A student might be intentionally using a side conversation for a
good purpose. Implementing icebreakers or group-forming activities for
building rapport among new partners or group members would be
preferable so that each pair/group can get down to business once they are
given a task, thus nurturing a pleasant and inspiring learning environment.

Conclusion
This study investigated L2 learners’ perception of their peers’ incivility
and their strategies to deal with it. The results demonstrated that students
faced uncivil behaviors and attitudes in pair-/group-work while trying to
get their reluctant partner/groupmates to start working cooperatively with
them. Students made use of a variety of collaborative skills to connect with
uncivil peers and invite them to work, while uncivil peers were likely to
lack those skills. More importantly, the uncivil peers did not show respect
and concern for others. Students valued positive interdependence and
equal participation when working with partner/groupmates. When they
found their partner/groupmates to be uncivil, they experienced a variety of
negative emotions. Examining uncivil behaviors and students’ coping
measures highlighted the importance of developing and maintaining
interpersonal, collaborative skills. These skills form the basis of fostering
bonding among peers as well as nurturing a pleasant and inspiring learning
environment.
244 Chapter Thirteen

References
Andersson, L. M., & Pearson, C. M. (1999). Tit for tat? The spiraling
effect of incivility in the workplace. Academy of Management Review,
24(3), 452–471.
Boice, B. (1996). Classroom incivilities. Research in Higher Education,
37(4), 453–485.
Bjorklund, W. L., & Rehling, D. L. (2010). Student perceptions of
classroom incivility. College Teaching, 58(1), 15-18.
doi: 10.1080/87567550903252801
Brown, J. D. (2014). Mixed methods research for TESOL. Edinburgh, UK:
Edinburgh University Press.
Cozolino, L. (2013). The social neuroscience of education. New York,
NY: W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and
mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Dörnyei, Z., & Murphey, T. (2003). Group dynamics in the language
classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Farrell, T. S. C., & Jacobs, G. M. (2010). Essentials for successful English
language teaching. New York: Continuum International Publishing
Group.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam
Dell.
Jacobs, G. M., & Kimura, H. (2013a). Cooperative learning and teaching.
Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
Jacobs, G. M., & Kimura, H. (2013b). Encouraging second language use
in cooperative learning groups. Beyond Words, 1(1), 24–37.
Jacobs, G. M., Power, M. A., & Loh, W. I. (2002). The teacher’s
sourcebook for cooperative learning: Practical techniques, basic
principles, and frequently asked questions. Thousand Oaks: Corwin
Press.
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1998). Learning together and alone:
Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning (5th ed.).
Boston, MA: Ally & Bacon.
Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2009). An educational psychology
success story: Social independent theory and cooperative learning.
Educational Researcher, 38(5), 365–379.
doi: 10.3102/0013189X09339057
Kozaki, Y., & Ross, S. J. (2011). Contextual dynamics in foreign language
learning motivation. Language Learning, 61(4), 1328-1354.
 Students’ Perception of (In)Civility Toward Groupmates 245

doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00638.x
Lantolf, J. P. (2000). Sociocultural theory and second language learning.
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2013). How languages are learned (4th
ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Long, M. (1996). The role of linguistic environment in second language
acquisition. In W. Ritchie & T. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of second
language acquisition (pp. 413–468). New York: Academic Press.
—. (2014). Second language acquisition and task-based language
teaching. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
McCafferty, S. G., Jacobs, G. M., & DaSilva Iddings, A. C. (Eds.). (2006).
Cooperative learning and second language teaching. New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press.
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An
expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Murphey, T., Falout, J., Fukuda, T., & Fukada, Y. (2014). Socio-dynamic
motivating through idealizing classmates. System, 45(4), 242–253.
doi: 10.1016/j.system.2014.06.004
Senior, R. M. (1997). Transforming language classes into bonded groups.
ELT Journal, 51(1), 3–11. doi: 10.1093/elt/51.1.3
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN

DEVELOPING FOREIGN LANGUAGE IDENTITIES

THROUGH AUTONOMY-ORIENTED PEDAGOGY

TERO KORHONEN

Abstract
Language learning is increasingly viewed as a holistic process
impinging on the learner’s identity. Still, the extent to which this
development can be induced within the formal institutional foreign
language (FL) context has been contested. Situated within Finnish adult
upper secondary education, this study examines whether and how
language learning in an autonomy-oriented FL context can promote the
development of FL identity-a multifaceted construct referring to any
aspect of personal identity related to one’s knowledge and use of the target
language (TL) in question. The researcher collected longitudinal, narrative
data from his English as a foreign language (EFL) students. On analysing
the data narratively, the researcher’s interest lay in the students’ language
narratives as sites for identity construction, with the term language
narrative referring to the students’ storied, TL-related experiences
acquired in different spheres of life over time. Despite the uniqueness of
the students’ experiences, the findings suggested that language learning in
the FL context provided the students with critical experiences triggering or
fuelling the development of their FL identities. This identity work had a
positive impact on the students’ capacities to function as persons in
desired ways using the TL, their sense of themselves as TL learners, users
and participants, and a variety of TL-mediated aspects of their life skills.
This implies that the pedagogy for autonomy adopted in this FL context is
a plausible way to promote FL identity development and raises
speculations about the interrelatedness between autonomy and identity.
 Developing Foreign Language Identities 247

Introduction
Language learning is not only about acquiring new linguistic structures
for communication; instead, it refers to a holistic process involving
reconstructions and transformations of identity (Benson & Cooker, 2013;
Norton, 2013; van Lier, 2004). On the other hand, it has been widely
contested whether foreign language (FL) learning in the FL context can
bring about such profound developments (Block, 2007; Lantolf, 2013;
Pavlenko, 2005). According to Block (2007, p. 113), for example, “the FL
context provides few opportunities for the emergence of significant new
subject positions mediated by the TL [target language]”, with identity
work only confined to the language learner community and the abundant
first language (L1)-mediated interference as the two primary reasons for
this.
This case study makes claims for the opposite while pinpointing some
of the peculiarities involved in identity work in the FL context and
indicating parallels with the identity development discovered in study
abroad contexts. By analysing English as a foreign language (EFL)
students’ language learning processes in a general upper secondary school
for adults (GUSSA) in Finland with the help of narrative data, this study
also contributes to the narrow empirical knowledge base about identity
work in the FL context.

Background
Whereas plenty of research has been conducted on identity in second
language (SL) situations such as immigration (see Norton, 2013), there are
relatively few studies to date on identity in the FL context (see Huang &
Benson, 2013). According to Gao, Li and Li (2002), this condition may be
due to the fact that FL students are often claimed to lack exposure to the
target culture. Thus, the critical experiences necessary for identity
development are also assumed to be in short supply, which has been seen
to imply that issues about identity are irrelevant in the FL context (see
Block, 2007). For anyone working and researching within FL education,
such assumptions and claims should be a source of concern since identity
is nevertheless one of the key constructs in the field (Kaikkonen, 2012;
Kohonen, 2001). On the other hand, the little research that is situated in
the FL context has suggested that identity development, although
somewhat different to the SL context, may be an integral part of formal
institutional language learning. Here, brief references will only be made to
two pieces of research that are of interest for this study.
248 Chapter Fourteen

First, Huhtala and Lehti-Eklund (2012) investigated emerging

identities in an FL context. By thematically comparing the narratives
written in the TL by first and third semester Finnish university students of
Swedish, the researchers demonstrate how the university context and the
community of fellow students, teachers and TL users promote the
language learners’ identity development. Second, Huang (2011) has
studied identity development in a Chinese FL context, gathering data that
consisted of autobiographical learning accounts, semi-structured
interviews and field notes. In addition to pointing out identity development
among the EFL students in his analysis, Huang suggests complex and
dynamic interconnections between identity, agency and autonomy,
conceptualising the constructs as interrelated but distinct concepts in the
process of FL learning.
The theoretical framework for this case study is informed by a
poststructuralist, narrative understanding of FL identity. In a similar
fashion, Benson, Barkhuizen, Bodycott, and Brown (2013, p. 28) have
suggested a working definition for SL identity to capture the diverse
processes and outcomes involved in SL learning, viewing the notion as
“any aspect of a person’s identity that is related to their knowledge or use
of a second language”. Drawing and elaborating on this notion, the
construct of FL identity has been adopted here to refer to the potential
reconstructions and transformations of personal identity that language
learning in the FL context may accompany. As any aspect of personal and
social identity that is related to one’s knowledge and use of the TL to be
learnt, FL identity encompasses the person’s dynamic and evolving
relationships to the foreign languages that s/he knows and the relationships
among them. Like its SL counterpart, FL identity is both socially
conditioned and individually constructed over time. It is a multifaceted
notion referring to the identities of people who know one or more foreign
languages. This view implies the existence of multiple FL identities which
together combine into a more or less coherent and meaningful whole and
contribute to the on-going, dynamic development of personal identity.
Furthermore, this study examines FL identity as a narrative identity.
This understanding derives from what Ricœur (1991) and scholars
drawing on him have argued about the relationship between narrative and
identity. The core of this view lies in that people interpret themselves and
the world by telling and retelling autobiographical stories within the limits
set by the language and culture that they inhabit. In this on-going process
of positioning and re-positioning, self-narratives do not simply represent a
person’s life but produce the person’s identity (Bruner, 1991). Identity
consists of situated, temporal and storied experiences about who the
 Developing Foreign Language Identities 249

speaker is, where s/he comes from and where s/he is going (Mishler,
2006). This study approaches FL identity from this perspective as a
linguistic phenomenon inseparable from its narration and made manifest
both in and through narrative.

The Study
The present study derives from the writer’s forthcoming narrative PhD
research, the main objective of which was to investigate FL students’
growth to autonomy longitudinally through the lens of FL identity in adult
upper secondary education. In this research, autonomy as a goal of FL
education was examined as a complex construct including but also
extending beyond self-control over language learning (for related
theoretical views, see Benson, 2013; Pennycook, 1997; Raya, Lamb, &
Vieira, 2007). One of the specific aims was to look for evidence of
reconstructing FL identities, which constitutes the part of the PhD research
that this study draws on. In particular, this study focuses on the following
research questions:

1. Did the adult students show development of FL identity during

their EFL studies in the GUSSA?
2. What kind of identity work was manifest in this FL context?

The research participants included 34 Finnish-speaking FL students

who attended the writer’s EFL courses in the local GUSSA between spring
2009 and autumn 2012, with GUSSA here referring to a Finnish adult
education institute that provides formal upper secondary education for
adults of all ages (see Siivonen, 2010). On the basis of the data, some of
the participating students were selected for a detailed narrative analysis in
the PhD research. Although similar findings are revealed from among the
other research participants, the data extracts presented in support of the
knowledge claims in this case study were generated by four of these
students during their EFL studies.
Due to ethical, epistemological and practical reasons, exploratory
practice was adopted as the method to gather narrative data (Allwright,
2003; Allwright & Hanks, 2009). This meant that data collection was
integrated into the practices and routines of FL teaching without additional
research machinery and the analysis relied on the material generated
naturally in the daily processes of FL learning and teaching. As indicated
in Table 14-1, the data, most of which were collected in electronic form,
consisted of the participating students’ language learning journals kept as
250 Chapter Fourteen

required course work, their reflective essay tasks and self-assessments that
were also compulsory course assignments, audio-recorded material from
the annual counselling sessions between the student and the teacher, and
the teacher’s teaching journal written during the three and a half-year
research period. Whereas some of the extracts quoted in this study were
originally in English, others were produced in the participants’ first
language (Finnish) and were translated into English after the analysis.

Table 14-1: Types and amounts of data collected.

language reflective
Type of counselling teaching
learning tasks & self-
data sessions journal
journal assessments
Amount
319 pages 128 pages 70 pages 352 pages
of data

These data included what the writer termed language narratives. With
this notion, the writer refers to individually constructed but culturally and
socially rooted, storied experiences of language learning, language use and
participation in different TL-related domains of life. Following Bruner
(1991), Polkinghorne (1996), Ricœur (1991) and Squire (2008), the
researcher examines language narratives as contextually anchored spaces
for identity construction, in which the learners give personal meaning to
their TL-related experiences, make sense of themselves in relation to the
TL, and position and perform themselves as language learners, users and
participants in different contexts over time.
A three-part analysis drawing on Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, and
Zilber’s (1998) four-dimensional matrix of analysing narratives and
Polkinghorne’s (1995) distinction between analysis of narratives and
narrative analysis was conducted on the data from the selected students. In
the first part, the holistic analysis of narrative form, each student’s
language learning process was depicted by graphing the overall
development of their English-related subject positions over time. This
analysis also involved an identification of key episodes and turning points
occurring as part of the student’s language learning process. The second
part of the analysis, the holistic analysis of narrative content, consisted of
identifying the constituent thematic elements, powerful storylines, during
these learning processes and following the progression of these storylines
throughout the student’s EFL studies. On the basis of these two analyses,
the key events, actions and experiences discovered were crafted into
storied, developmental accounts in the third part of the analysis. These
 Developing Foreign Language Identities 251

‘emplotments’ depicted each student’s individual language learning

process in the form of a multi-voiced narrative.

Results and Discussion

Although the analysis revealed the uniqueness of each student’s
learning process, it also indicated similarities in the students’
development, as the following findings will illustrate. In the extracts, the
pseudonyms Noora, Susanna, Suvi and Leena have been used to refer to
the four female students.

Noora
In her mid-twenties, Noora enrolled in the GUSSA to find a
meaningful way to spend her evenings. Having done office work after
graduating for a vocational occupation, she felt that her life did not
provide her with sufficient intellectual challenges. As for her English
skills, she felt that they were already good. She was also motivated to
study, and portrayed herself as a self-directed FL student with a
perfectionist attitude. Noora was accustomed to using English while
surfing the net, having chats with her foreign friend and receiving phone
calls from foreign customers at work. In extract 1 from her second school
year, Noora describes what had become one of her key experiences in the
EFL courses.

1. “I’m also starting to understand that learning a foreign language is a

lifelong process and during these three years […] I won’t be ‘totally
complete’. […] I’m not ready and I’ve learned that I’ll never be ready.
This has taken a certain weight off my shoulders and there again, on the
other hand, it keeps up my interest because there’s always something new
to study.” (2nd year, holistic-form analysis)

This evolving understanding made Noora position herself differently as

a language learner, as she began searching for her own voice instead of
perfection. Extract 2 captures her relation to the TL at the end of her
studies, also showing evidence of her developing personal voice in
English.

2. “[L]anguage is something you can work with, a kind of tool you can
play and experiment with. […] I’ve learned to make [the language] suit my
style, so it sounds like me. And my courage is at a point where I dare to
252 Chapter Fourteen

begin a conversation on genetically-manipulated food or something like

that.” (3rd year, holistic-content analysis)

In addition to outcomes that directly relate to the TL, Noora also

attributed a substantial part of her personal growth during her GUSSA
years to her EFL studies. In extract 3, she describes this development
triggered by the personally engaging course topics.

3. “When I’m studying the language, I often think about things and express
myself. Perhaps I can’t express these things as perfectly as in my mother
tongue, but I feel that I’ve grown as a person now that I’ve thought about
my relationship to society and culture, for example.” (3rd year, holistic-
content analysis)

Susanna
Susanna, 19, enrolled in the GUSSA, having first studied in a regular
upper secondary school for younger pupils and then quit school after her
au pair months in France. Claiming to have only had negative experiences
of studying English and considering herself a ‘loser’, Susanna came across
as a talented but extremely demotivated English learner. Despite this
negative conception of herself in the classroom, she nonetheless claimed
to have managed well using English elsewhere, which had made her
question the usefulness of language learning at school. Since the beginning
of her GUSSA studies, however, these attitudes had transformed. In
extract 4, deriving from a counselling session between her and the EFL
teacher, Susanna remembers what triggered this change.

4. “Earlier I never did a thing in school to learn English, I was really bad.
Here I began to want to learn. It was when you said, after I’d written that
essay, that I could produce something better. I’d never thought I could
produce something better. After that I’ve started to think more about the
structure [of the text]. I don’t just write down whatever comes into my
head. I’ve given more thought to what I put in the paragraph, what are the
points I want to make in my writing.” (2nd year, holistic-form analysis)

This turning point marked a considerable shift in the subject positions

that Susanna adopted as a FL learner. Towards the end of her EFL studies
(extracts 5 and 6), she had already begun to contemplate the
meaningfulness of studying English from a different angle.

5. “My language skills and my attitudes to studying have changed

radically. I’ve finally realized what teachers and parents have been going
 Developing Foreign Language Identities 253

on about since primary school – we don’t learn for school but for life. I
need the things I’ve learned here. I realized that English is linked to many
of my dreams (travelling, living and working abroad), and I came to the
conclusion that studying English then wouldn’t do me any harm.
Gradually I began to like English…” (3rd year, holistic-content analysis)

6. “Studying languages has affected my picture of the world and of my

own place in it. It’s increased healthy criticism of my own culture and
helped me understand that the world isn’t as black-and-white as you
might imagine at first glance. There are innumerable ways of living and
acting on this planet...” (3rd year, holistic-form analysis)

Encompassing changes in attitude, perceptions of the self and

awareness of the world, these learning outcomes go beyond developments
in the FL learner’s linguistic proficiency.

Suvi
Suvi enrolled in the EFL courses in her mid-twenties to revise her
English, which had become a source of anxiety for her over the years.
Suvi’s past negative experiences of English had developed into a concrete
fear and avoidance of the language and its speakers. Feeling that her
negative emotions restricted her life substantially, she reported on feelings
of being an outsider whenever using English was required. In extract 7,
Suvi describes her negative positioning in relation to the TL.

7. “Communicating [in English] has become a huge psychological

threshold for me. I decided to study English [here] in order to get rid of my
feeling of anxiety brought about by communication-related situations. My
aim was to get over my trauma so that I could feel I was coping with life.”
(1st year, holistic-form analysis)

In the EFL courses, Suvi adopted the self-reflective, narrative tasks as

a meaningful means to work on her anxieties, attitudes, emotions and
fears. These learning tasks gave Suvi’s language learning a more positive
direction, as demonstrated by extracts 8 and 9.

8. “It annoys me when I go on about my bad old experiences. I’ve blown

them up into bigger nightmare scenarios than they are. […] I shall try to
replace my negative thinking with something more positive. Studying
English isn’t a deadly serious thing for me anymore, even though it is
significant.” (3rd year, holistic-form analysis)
254 Chapter Fourteen

9. “Developing as a user of English has boosted my confidence in myself,

it has reduced my feeling of being an outsider in situations where I used to
be at a loss when I understood hardly anything and was too shy to find out.
Apart from a language skill, I’ve learned a lot of things about myself, I’ve
learned to move outside my comfort zone and begun to value myself more
as the person I am. […] Studying has contributed to giving me a greater
range of opportunities for seeking experiences and knowledge. Apart from
entertaining myself and satisfying my hunger for knowledge, I can make
my contribution by making more responsible choices.” (3rd year, holistic-
form analysis)

The extracts show how English gradually became an empowering

language for Suvi. Indeed, comparing the subject positions in extracts 8
and 9 with those in extract 7 reveals that a considerable change had taken
place.

Leena
At the beginning of her EFL studies, Leena was a 60-year-old mother
of three who worked as the head of an accounting firm. In her youth, she
had studied advanced Swedish and German but only taken a few English
courses at commercial college. Now she needed English when socializing
with her grown-up daughters’ English-speaking ‘prospective sons-in-law’.
In her first journal entries, Leena often viewed herself as a deficient
English user, as can be noticed from extract 10.

10. My weakness as a language student [is] laziness to study grammar […].

Even though I know how important grammar is, I haven’t ever been good
[at] it. It’s the same problem in all languages, even in Finnish. I’m [a]
hopeless case!” (1st year, holistic-content analysis)

Leena frequently described the uncomfortable feeling of not being able

to express herself properly when chatting with her daughters’ boyfriends,
her daughters constantly having to ‘keep an eye on her’. The steady
development of her English proficiency nonetheless triggered a slow
reconstructive process that resulted in Leena gaining more self-confidence
about her English skills and re-defining herself as an English user (extracts
11–13).

11. “My [English] has got a sort of effortlessness. I can start speaking off
the cuff just like that as naturally as in Swedish. I’ve got some nice
feedback from our daughters’ boyfriends. When I ring them up and one of
them answers the phone, I’ve been told they say to the girls that it’s nice to
 Developing Foreign Language Identities 255

talk with your mum, that she can hold a real conversation and not just
separate sentences. […] It feels incredibly nice…” (2nd year, holistic-
content analysis)

12. “Last time I went to visit [my daughters], they didn’t watch over me so
precisely, checking how mum would manage to get from the airport,
whether they should fetch me, and should they come down to the station,
and can she get a taxi to take her where she wants to go. They too can see
already that I can manage in English.” (3rd year, holistic-content analysis)

13. “Nowadays I can always open my mouth and not stop to think what
I’m supposed to say. I find a way to reply or ask or say something.” (3rd
year, holistic-form analysis)

Studying English gave Leena an empowering feeling that she can

control her life in English without other people’s aid. By the end of her
studies, she felt that she could finally be herself and function as herself
also when using and participating through English.

Interpretation of the Findings

The data extracts capture developments of FL identity, showing
consistency with both Huang’s (2011) and Huhtala and Lehti-Eklund’s
(2012) findings. This development was triggered by formal institutional
FL teaching, or initiated within, or extended to involve the language
learner community in the local GUSSA. Thus, these findings contradict
Block’s (2007) claims about identity work being minimal to non-existent
in the FL context, positioning this researcher’s understanding of FL
learning closer to the views and hypotheses proposed by scholars like Gao,
Li, and Li (2002), Kramsch (2009), Lamb (2013), and Yashima (2013),
according to whom identity work is also possible in the FL context.
According to Block (2007), the L1-mediated interference in classrooms
leaves little room for the emergence of critical experiences that are
considered necessary triggers for identity work (cf. Layder, 2004; Webster
& Mertova, 2007). Many participants in this study, Noora, Susanna and
Suvi among them, reported on what had clearly turned out to become
critical experiences for them in the FL context. These critical experiences
contributed to or triggered FL identity development but were not always
mediated by the TL directly, although Block (2007) considers this
mediation essential for critical experiences. The critical experiences in the
data involved the TL in one way or another, but some were loosely related
to it while others were even mediated by the person’s L1. A case in point
256 Chapter Fourteen

was Suvi’s narrative self-reflection that took place in Finnish. Yet, the data
showed how this process, in which she worked on her relation to the TL,
became a key experience leading to the development of her FL identity.
With this in mind, it might be justified to broaden the conception of
critical experience in the FL context in a similar vein to Benson et al.
(2013) to encompass any personally meaningful, TL-related experiences
that change one’s sense of self in relation to the TL, be they mediated by
that language or not.
Underlying Block’s (2007) argumentation is also a claim that identity
work in the FL context is more about the communities of practice inside
the classroom than about the TL communities beyond it. The data include
ample evidence that developments of FL identity rarely confine
themselves to one context only. In Suvi’s and Leena’s case, for example,
the identity work in the language learner community (i.e., growing into a
self-aware and self-confident FL learner and participant in the classroom)
expanded to cover those TL-related communities that they were engaged
with beyond school and language learning contexts. Alternatively, as in
Susanna’s case, the FL context was integrated into the student’s FL
identity process during her EFL studies as an important site for identity
construction alongside the other TL-related settings of her life. The data
indicate that reconstructions of FL identity can flexibly expand from one
context to another. Similar claims have been made by Norton (2001), for
example. Drawing on the notion of imagined community, she has
attempted to demonstrate how language learners envision their imagined
communities beyond the school context while learning the TL in the
classroom.
In sum, although the FL identity work in the classroom may be about
demonstrating personal growth and developing affiliations to collectives
inside this language learner community, as Block (2007) claims, it may
still represent an aspect of the same identity process that will likely spread
across other TL communities that will fuel and shape this process further.
Even though the FL identity development inside the classroom walls is
different in nature, being more systematic among other things (also, Huang
& Benson, 2013), this study shows that it may be an essential reinforcing
part of the FL identity process as a whole.
Gathering the benefits of study abroad under the term ‘SL identity’,
Benson et al. (2013) have proposed a continuum of potential identity-
related processes and outcomes ranging between identity-related L2-
proficiency, linguistic self-concept, and various L2-related personal
competences. Among these outcomes, linguistic development is intimately
linked to broader personal development. These findings on the impact of
 Developing Foreign Language Identities 257

study abroad provide an interesting parallel with the findings on FL

identity in this case study, as traces of similar influences can be discovered
in the GUSSA students’ language learning processes.
First, the GUSSA students developed their capacities to function and
participate as persons in desired ways using English. For example, Leena
adopted more empowered subject positions alongside her developing
socio-pragmatic competence. Second, the students worked on their sense
of themselves as English learners and users. For example, the ways
Susanna and Suvi viewed themselves as language learners changed
dramatically during their EFL studies. Finally, the students developed the
English-mediated aspects of their life skills and personal competences. For
example, Noora depicted how she grew as a person when having to use
English to respond to the course topics at a personal level, and Suvi
reported on her increased self-confidence, which she attributed to her
English studies. Thus, it appears to be that FL learning has the potential to
involve and contribute to dimensions of identity development similar to
those which Benson et al. (2013) have discovered exist in study abroad
contexts.

Implications of the Findings

This case study contributes to a situated understanding of FL learning.
The validity of its findings beyond the local FL context is to be determined
by further research. Furthermore, there is no implication that the FL
teaching in the local GUSSA will always trigger identity work in every FL
student. Indeed, the data also included less encouraging cases of language
learning which were unfortunately beyond the scope of this chapter. With
these limitations in mind, the two research questions on the data can now
be revisited on the basis of the findings.
In answer to research question 1, i.e., whether adult students show
development of FL identity during their EFL study at GUSSA, the data
indicated that the adult students, indeed, demonstrated empowering
reconstructions and transformations of FL identity in formal institutional
language learning in the local GUSSA. As to research question 2, i.e., the
kind of identity work that was manifest in such a context, the following
claims can be made. First, the critical experiences involved in FL identity
work were not necessarily mediated by the TL directly. Although
intimately related to it, some experiences were even mediated by the
person’s L1. Second, FL identity development was not context-specific. It
had the potential to expand from the FL context to other TL-related
ecologies that the person was engaged with, or vice versa. Third, similar
258 Chapter Fourteen

dimensions of identity development were discovered among the outcomes

of study abroad and FL learning in the GUSSA. These dimensions ranged
between the capacity to function as a person in desired ways using the TL
(identity-related L2 proficiency), sense of oneself as a language learner
and user (linguistic self-concept), and TL-mediated aspects of one’s life
skills (L2-related personal competence).
As for the pedagogical meaning of these findings, the FL teaching in
the local GUSSA appears to provide students with a potential domain for
identity development, which is often linked to successful language
learning in language education theory (see Benson & Cooker, 2013;
Kaikkonen, 2012; Riley, 2010). As the writer’s forthcoming dissertation
will indicate, the ideology underlying this FL teaching can be conceptualised
as a pedagogy for autonomy with an emphasis on affordance (Menezes,
2011; van Lier, 2004), authenticity (Benson, 2013; Kaikkonen, 2012), and
co-direction (Holec, 2009).
This pedagogy encompasses more than the promotion of the capacity
to control one’s language learning, which refers to an influential and
widely-accepted definition of autonomy in the FL context (Huang &
Benson, 2013). Instead of confining itself to language learning only, this
pedagogy aims at fostering the person’s capacity to exercise flexible and
authentic control over the different TL-related aspects of the ecologies that
s/he inhabits (for connections to autonomy theory, see Aviram & Yonah,
2004; Benson, 2013; Huang, 2011; Huang & Benson, 2013; Hunter &
Cooke, 2007; Kohonen, 2009; Littlewood, 1996; Raya, Lamb, & Vieira,
2007; van Lier, 2004). Essentially, this pedagogy is about developing
personal agency and voice in those sociolinguistic and sociocultural
landscapes that involve language learning, use and/or participation through
the TL. The findings of this study thus raise questions about the
interrelatedness of autonomy and identity development in FL learning (for
selected discussions, see Huang, 2011; Huang & Benson, 2013; Korhonen,
2014).

Conclusion
Deriving from the writer’s forthcoming narrative research, this case
study investigated the impact of language learning on FL students in adult
upper secondary education. It pointed out that the construct of FL identity
can be adopted as a broad framework to conceptualize the GUSSA
students’ language learning. Contrary to some previous arguments, it was
suggested that FL identity development is possible in the formal
institutional FL context as one of the many domains where FL identities
 Developing Foreign Language Identities 259

can develop, and that this identity process involves similar outcomes to the
identity work in study abroad contexts. Knowing that the identity work
investigated took place within the autonomy-oriented pedagogy of the FL
classroom, it can also be speculated whether identity development is, in
fact, intimately linked to the development of personal autonomy. With the
need of more research on identity in the FL context in mind, this will
undoubtedly provide an interesting hypothesis for studies to come.

References
Allwright, D. (2003). Exploratory practice: Rethinking practitioner
research in language teaching. Language Teaching Research, 7(2),
113-141.
Allwright, D., & Hanks, J. (2009). The developing language learner. An
introduction to exploratory practice. Basingstoke & New York:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Aviram, R., & Yonah, Y. (2004). Flexible control: Towards a conception
of personal autonomy for postmodern education. Educational
Philosophy and Theory, 36(1), 3-17.
Benson, P. (2013). Drifting in and out of view: Autonomy and the social
individual. In P. Benson & L. Cooker (Eds.), The applied linguistic
individual. Sociocultural approaches to identity, agency and autonomy
(pp. 75-89). Sheffield: Equinox.
Benson, P., Barkhuizen, G., Bodycott, P., & Brown, J. (2013). Second
language identity and narratives of study abroad. Basingstoke & New
York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Benson, P., & Cooker, L. (2013). The applied linguistic individual:
Gaining perspective. In P. Benson & L. Cooker (Eds.), The applied
linguistic individual. Sociocultural approaches to identity, agency and
autonomy (pp. 178-186). Sheffield: Equinox.
Block, D. (2007). Second language identities. London, New York:
Continuum.
Bruner, J. (1991). Self-making and world-making. Journal of Aesthetic
Education, 25(1), 67-78.
Gao, Y. H., Li, Y. X., & Li, W. N. (2002). EFL learning and self-identity
construction: Three cases of Chinese college English majors. Asian
Journal of English Language Teaching, 12, 95-119.
Holec, H. (2009). Autonomy in language learning: A single pedagogical
paradigm or two? In F. Kjisik, P. Voller, N. Aoki, & Y. Nakata (Eds.),
Mapping the terrain of learner autonomy. Learning environments,
260 Chapter Fourteen

learning communities and identities (pp. 21-47). Tampere: Tampere

University Press.
Huang, J. (2011). A dynamic account of autonomy, agency and identity in
(T)EFL learning. In G. Murray, X. Gao, & T. Lamb (Eds.), Identity,
motivation and autonomy in language learning (pp. 229-246). Bristol:
Multilingual Matters.
Huang, J., & Benson, P. (2013). Autonomy, agency and identity in foreign
and second language education. Chinese Journal of Applied
Linguistics, 36(1), 7-28.
Huhtala, A., & Lehti-Eklund, H. (2012). Language students and emerging
identities. Apples – Journal of Applied Language Studies, 6(2), 5-17.
Hunter, J., & Cooke, D. (2007). Through autonomy to agency: giving
power to language learners. Prospect, 22(2), 72-88.
Kaikkonen, P. (2012). Language, culture and identity as key concepts of
intercultural learning. In M. Bendtsen, M. Björklund, L. Forsman, &
K. Sjöholm (Eds.), Global trends meet local needs (pp. 17-33). Vaasa:
Faculty of Education, Åbo Akademi Universitet.
Kohonen, V. (2001). Towards experiential foreign language education. In
V. Kohonen, R. Jaatinen, P. Kaikkonen, & J. Lehtovaara (Eds.),
Experiential learning in foreign language education (pp. 8-60).
London: Pearson Education.
—. (2009). Autonomy, authenticity and agency in language education: The
European language portfolio as a pedagogical resource. In R.
Kantelinen & P. Pollari (Eds.), Language education and lifelong
learning (pp. 9-44). Joensuu: University of Eastern Finland.
Korhonen, T. (2014). Language narratives from adult upper secondary
education: Interrelating agency, autonomy and identity in foreign
language learning. Apples – Journal of Applied Language Studies,
8(1), 65-87.
Kramsch, C. (2009). The multilingual subject. What foreign language
learners say about their experience and why it matters. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Lamb, M. (2013). The struggle to belong: Individual language learners in
situated learning theory. In P. Benson & L. Cooker (Eds.), The applied
linguistic individual. Sociocultural approaches to identity, agency and
autonomy (pp. 32-45). Sheffield: Equinox.
Lantolf, J. (2013). Sociocultural theory and the dialectics of L2 learner
autonomy/agency. In P. Benson & L. Cooker (Eds.), The applied
linguistic individual. Sociocultural approaches to identity, agency and
autonomy (pp. 17-31). Sheffield: Equinox.
 Developing Foreign Language Identities 261

Layder, D. (2004). Social and personal identity: Understanding your self.

London: Sage.
Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research.
Reading, analysis, and interpretation. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Littlewood, W. (1996). Autonomy: An anatomy and a framework. System,
24(4), 427-435.
Menezes, V. (2011). Affordances for language learning beyond the
classroom. In P. Benson & H. Reinders (Eds.), Beyond the language
classroom (pp. 59-71). Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mishler, E. G. (2006). Narrative and identity: The double arrow of time. In
A. de Fina, D. Schiffrin, & M. Bamberg (Eds.), Discourse and identity
(pp. 30-47). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Norton, B. (2001). Non-participation, the imagined communities and the
language classroom. In M. P. Breen (Ed.), Learner contributions to
language learning: New directions in research (pp. 159-171). Harlow:
Longman.
—. (2013). Identity and language learning. Extending the conversation.
(2nd ed). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Pavlenko, A. (2005). Emotions and multilingualism. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Pennycook, A. (1997). Cultural alternatives and autonomy. In P. Benson
& P. Voller (Eds.), Autonomy and independence in language learning
(pp. 35-53). London: Longman.
Polkinghorne, D. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis. In
A. J. Hatch (Ed.), Life history and narrative (pp. 5-23). London:
Routledge Falmer.
Polkinghorne, D. (1996). Explorations of narrative identity. Psychological
Inquiry, 7(4), 363-367.
Raya, M. J., Lamb, T., & Vieira, F. (2007). Pedagogy for autonomy in
language education in Europe. Towards a framework for learner and
teacher development. Dublin: Authentik.
Ricœur, P. (1991). Narrative identity. Philosophy Today, 35(1), 73-81.
Riley, P. (2010). Reflections on identity, modernity and the European
language portfolio. In B. O’Rourke & L. Carson (Eds.), Language
learner autonomy. Policy, curriculum, classroom (pp. 373-385).
Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Siivonen, P. (2010). From a “student” to a lifelong “consumer” of
education? Constructions of educability in adult students’ narrative
life histories. Jyväskylä: Finnish Educational Research Association.
262 Chapter Fourteen

Squire, C. (2008). Experience-centred and culturally-oriented approaches

to narrative. In M. Andrews, C. Squire, & M. Tamboukou (Eds.),
Doing narrative research (pp. 41-63). Los Angeles: Sage.
van Lier, L. (2004). The ecology and semiotics of language learning. A
sociocultural perspective. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Webster, L., & Mertova, P. (2007). Using narrative inquiry as a research
method. An introduction to using critical event narrative analysis in
research on learning and teaching. London: Routledge.
Yashima, T. (2013). Individuality, imagination and community in a
globalizing world: An Asian EFL perspective. In P. Benson & L.
Cooker (Eds.), The applied linguistic individual. Sociocultural
approaches to identity, agency and autonomy (pp. 46-58). Sheffield:
Equinox.
ISSUES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THE IMPACT OF CLASSROOM PRACTICES

ON YOUNG LEARNERS’ ACQUISITION
OF SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT IN VIETNAM:
A PILOT STUDY

VI THANH SON

Abstract
Researchers have long emphasized the importance of classroom
interaction for enhancing foreign language learning (Carroll 1967; Chihara
& Oller, 1987; Krashen, Butler, Birkbaum, & Robertson 1978; Krashen &
Seliger, 1976). This pilot study attempts to see how English teaching and
learning methods in Vietnamese classrooms affect young learners’
acquisition of English subject-verb agreement in their speech production.
To do this, classroom observation using the communicative orientation of
language teaching (COLT) and recordings of four Vietnamese children
were made after a lesson were conducted. Using COLT for classroom
observations helps to see clearly if the classroom activities follow teacher-
centered or learner-centered approaches which support the development of
communicative skills in second language learning and highlight the roles
of the teacher and the pupils in the classroom. The analysis of the
children’s speech was based on the Processability Theory (PT)
(Pienemann, 1998). The results showed that, to some extent, there is
evidence for the prediction of PT of the developmental stages of the
acquisition of English as a second language. It also showed learner
variation and pointed out that rote-repeat instruction of subject-verb
agreement is not effective for long term understanding, but only for
temporary learning. The study recommends that there should be a more
interactive method for learning grammar in the classroom in which
conversational purposes are targeted.
 Young Learners’ Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Vietnam 265

Introduction
English, as a “leading international language” (Janson, 2002, p. 260) is
taught, learned and used in Vietnam. Vietnam’s linguistic history is
affected by its political history (Denham, 1992). Under the Chinese rule of
the feudal times, the system used Chinese characters named ‘Hán’.
Approximately 80% of Vietnamese people could read the Chinese
ideographs (Karnow, 1983). From 1954-1975, there was the resistance war
against French colonialism with the political system resulting in two
divided regimes: (i) In the North, which was heavily influenced by the
Soviets, Russian and Chinese were used as a compulsory subject in the
first two years of university at that time; (ii) In the South, where French
and US education models were adopted in 1954, English was the
prominent foreign language to be studied at schools because it was the
language of the allies (Dang, 1986). After independence in 1975, Vietnam
became a national union, and there were two big shifts in foreign language
instruction at schools: the shift to Russian (1975-1986) (Do, 2000) and
then to English (1986 - present) (Trinh, 2005). The open-door policy of
Vietnam to other countries in the late 1980’s led the country to adopt a
market-oriented economy in which English is recognized as important for
the development of the country (Nguyen & Crabbed, 2000; Trinh, 2005).
Since then, the education system in Vietnamese schools has required
students to start learning English at an early stage-from primary schools
onwards (Denham, 1992; Nguyen & Nguyen, 2007). Foreign language
learning (Russian, French and English) are indeed compulsory subjects at
schools with English being the most popular foreign language (Bui 2005;
Denham, 1992; Nguyen, 2011).
This study explored how the teaching methods used in the classrooms
in Vietnam affect learners’ acquisition of English as a second language
(ESL). In particular, the focus of this study is on the acquisition of subject-
verb (S-V) agreement of third person singular (3SG-s) and English
language teaching and learning in classroom settings. Typically, the rote
learning and recall methods used in traditional Vietnamese classrooms
(Duong & Nguyen 2006; Le, 2000; Lewis & McCook, 2002; Nguyen
2014; Trinh, 2005) may influence the learners’ level of comprehension and
fluency in the English language, including S-V agreement.
The chapter is divided into three main sections. In the first section, the
Processability Theory (PT) with regards to subject-verb agreement is
discussed. The second section describes English instruction in a Grade 5
classroom at a Vietnamese primary school, and then presents the analysis
of learners’ language output in order to see if classroom instruction had
266 Chapter Fifteen

any effect on their English acquisition. The third and final section of the
chapter presents some conclusions and recommendations based on the
evidence collected in this study.

Background
Processability Theory and Subject-Verb Agreement in ESL
Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann, 1998) conceptualizes the
process of language development as a set of stages. PT describes the
language structures and grammatical forms present at each stage of
language development. Thus, interlanguage variation and age-related
differences in language acquisition are described and formalized within
Lexical-Functional Grammar.
Pienemann (1998) wanted to connect the learning to teaching, so he
developed his “teachability hypothesis” (see Pienemann, 1984, 1987,
1988), which predicts that “stages of acquisition cannot be skipped
through formal instruction” and that “instruction will be beneficial if it
focuses on structures from the next stage” (p. 250). In other words,
teachers should adapt their teaching to the learners’ grammatical levels.
This means that one must first determine the learners’ level of grammar
before proceeding to teach grammar.
A number of studies applying PT in the acquisition of different
languages have been conducted: Pienemann (1998) in English, Swedish,
German, and Japanese; Håkansson, Pienemann, and Sayehli (2002) in
German; Glahn, Håkansson, Hammarberg, Holmen, Hvenekilde, and Lund
(2001) in the Scandinavian languages, etc.
PT encompasses six universal developmental stages in morphology and
syntax in the development of ESL (Dyson 2009; Pienemann, 1998, 2005).
In the first stage, learners produce bare words and formulae (How are
you?; Hello; Five). In the second stage, learners acquire strings of words,
and ‘lexical’ morphemes exhibiting either rule application or non-
application rule, such as: word order like subject-verb-object (SVO) (Me
live here; You live here); the negation before SVO (No me live here);
plural-s (Cats); Past-ed (She played, he goed); Possessive-s (Pat’s cat). At
stage three, learners acquire phrasal morphemes, in which there is an
exchange of information between the head of the noun phrase (NP) and
other NP constituents, such as in plural agreement (Two cats). The learners
can also vary the syntax by placing adjuncts in initial clausal position, such
as do-fronting (Does he live here?). At stage four, learners acquire the first
forms of subject–verb inversion (Is he at home?) and the auxiliary in the
 Young Learners’ Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Vietnam 267

initial position in inverted yes/no questions (Has he seen him?). At the

fifth stage, learners acquire inter-phrasal morphemes, such as third person
singular –s (3SG-s) (He eats), and the inverted syntax of the auxiliary in
second position (Why did he eat that?). Finally, at the sixth stage, learners
acquire the cancel inversion (I wonder where he is).
Linking to the stages of acquisition in PT, learner variation is
prominent. PT shows the way the learners manage to handle language
problems by attempting or taking a risk to produce certain grammatical
structures in their speech before they have acquired such structures.
According to PT, subject-verb (S-V) agreement (i.e., the agreement
between number and person in the subject and the verb) uses a number of
processing procedures: lemma access, category procedures, phrasal
procedures, appointment rules, and the Sentence-procedure. Additionally
the morphemes are acquired in three sequences: (1) Lexical; (2) Phrasal;
and (3) Inter-phrasal morphemes. There are complications and variations
with S-V agreement patterns according to Biber, Johansson, Leech,
Conrad and Finegan (1999). The marking of person agreement in the verb
in English S-V agreement is shown in Table 15-1.

Table 15-1: English S-V agreement (Adapted from Pienemann, 1998,

p. 124).

Copula Lexical verb

The first person I am IV
The second person You are You V
The third singular person he, she , it he, she, it
Singular-NP Singular-NP V-s
is
Note. V = Verb stem; NP = Noun Phrase

English Instruction in Vietnamese Primary Education

English is an elective subject at the primary education level (Nguyen &
Nguyen, 2007). Since the 1990s in big cities (e.g., Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh),
English has been taught as a pilot program at some primary schools
following a directive from the Ministry of Education and Training in 1996,
which provided guidance on foreign language teaching in primary schools.
At some private language schools, English is already taught at children
aged five or six (Nguyen, 2011; Nunan, 2003). Children in Grades 3-5 are
given two thirty-five minute English lessons a week. The Let’s go series
268 Chapter Fifteen

by Nakata, Frazier, Hoskins, & Wilkinson (2000) is currently used in

Vietnamese primary schools.

The Study
The study aimed to explore whether classroom instruction and
practices have any impact on Vietnamese learners’ acquisition of S-V
agreement. To do this, a case study examining classroom teaching and
learning activities and learner language output was used. This chapter
provides (1) an analysis of the English instruction at a Grade 5 classroom
in a Vietnamese primary school, and (2) the analysis of recordings from
four Grade 5 Vietnamese learners of English.

Context and Participants

An English lesson in the 5th Grade at a Vietnamese primary school was
attended and observed. There were 35 pupils in the class, and they were all
11 years old. The pupils in the class started learning English when they
were in Grade 3, so at the time of the study they had already 2 years of
English instruction at school. Four Vietnamese learners from the Grade 5
class were recorded for the pilot study. The learners volunteered to do the
tasks.

Procedure
For the classroom observation, the COLT framework was used (see
Spada & Fröhlich, 1995). COLT uses seven categories (i.e., time, activities
and episodes, participant organization, content category, content control,
student modality, materials) to help analyse the classroom activities.
‘Time’ is used to indicate the starting time of each episode/activity so that
the percentages of time spent on different COLT features can be
calculated. ‘Activities and episodes’ are different units in a classroom, and
they serve as the basic units for COLT analysis. ‘Participant organization’
describes three basic patterns of organization: class, group, and individual.
These subcategories describe how the students are organized as
participants in classroom interaction in which group work is considered to
be a crucial factor in the development of communicative competence. This
category also aims to differentiate between teacher-centred and group
work interactions in second language (L2) classrooms. ‘Content category’
describes the subject matter/theme of the activities, such as what the
teacher and the students are talking, reading, or writing about, or what they
 Young Learners’ Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Vietnam 269

are listening to. The rationale arises from discussions about whether the
primary focus of instruction should be on meaning or form and to which
extent a focus on meaning and/or form may lead to differences in L2
development. ‘Content control’ refers to which person selects and decides
the topic or task that is being talked about as the focus of instruction. This
feature aims to measure how the classrooms may vary along this
dimension. ‘Student modality’ identifies different skills (listening,
speaking, reading, and writing) which can be involved in a classroom
activity. Finally, ‘Materials’ refer to the materials used in the classroom
including text type and source of materials.
Coding for COLT analysis of the lesson was done in ‘real time’ by the
researcher. Timing was necessary to calculate how much time the teacher
spent on each category of the total allotted lesson time. All activities and
episodes were timed and checked as being: the ‘exclusive focus’ (e.g., the
teacher focused on one aspect of language such as form or function);
‘combinations’ (e.g., the teacher focused equally on both language form
and function); or, the ‘primary focus’ (e.g., the teacher made a quick
reference to language function but focused primarily on language form)
(Fröhlich, Spada & Allen, 1985).
The four learners were recorded one at a time in a separate room. The
learners were asked to do the same task: describe what they could see in a
picture (see Figure 15-1 below).

Figure 15-1: Picture of people’s jobs (Source: Let’s go by Nakata et al., 2000).

This picture was used because it is a collection of smaller pictures with

different people doing different jobs. It gave the learners flexibility in
choosing any of the smaller pictures and allowed them to show their
mastery of English by describing what the person or the people were doing
and what job or jobs were illustrated.
270 Chapter Fifteen

Results
English Lesson Observation Using COLT
The results of the COLT analysis of the English lesson in the Grade 5
classroom in the Vietnamese primary school showed that the teaching and
learning processes in the lesson consisted of four activities (A) and six
episodes (E):

AI. Settling the class with the greeting and singing.

AII. E1. Introduction to the new lesson: teaching new vocabulary.
AII. E2. Listening comprehension using the textbook.
AII. E3. Practice.
AIII. E4. Teaching another grammatical structure.
AIII. E5. Students’ practice.
AIII. E6. Closings: the teacher’s feedback and homework.
AIV. Ending the class.

Table 15-2 below shows the ‘participant organization’ in which the teacher
spent 40% of the lesson time in whole class interaction. Meanwhile 20%
of the time was spent in a combination of teacher to class and vice versa
(<->), and student to student/class interactions. A further 25.72% of the
time was spent on a combination of teacher to students and choral work by
the children in the class. The children all working as a group on the same
task took 14.28% of the lesson time. These results show that the teacher
primarily led the activities in the class. The response from the children was
mostly choral work in repeating the words, structures or sentences
provided by the teacher. There was little time devoted for group work,
only in the practice tasks when the teacher asked the children to practise
with each other, introducing their house to a classmate by using the
structure ‘This is…’.
 Young Learners’ Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Vietnam 271

Table 15-2: Participant organization (total percentages of time spent

at the lesson).

Class Group Indivi

Exclusive/ Combination dual
primary
focus
Teacher Teacher <-> Teacher Same
<-> Student/Class <-> task
Student/ and Student Student/Class
Class <-> Student/Class and Choral
40% 20% 25.72% 14.28 % 0%
Note: <->: Interaction from teacher to students and vice versa.

Then the teacher asked some volunteers to go to the blackboard and

point to the picture and speak. There were three volunteers and they spoke
almost the same sentences (without producing the ‘s’ in the word ‘is’):

“This i my house. This i the bedroom. This i the kitchen. This i the dining
room. This i the living room. This i the bathroom.”

It seems that the pupils already knew the structure from before and they
had learned these sentences by rote.
Then in Episode 5 of practicing with another structure, the teacher
asked the pupils to practice with each other. A short, 5-minute period was
used for the group work. After that, he asked two pupils to stand up and
speak. Table 15-3 shows the results of the analysis of the lesson content
using the COLT categories.

Table 15-3: Content analysis using COLT.

Exclusive/Primary focus Combinations

Management Language Procedure/ Form/ Form/
Discipline Function/ Narrow
Narrow topic
topic
Procedure Form Function
8.58% 20% 14.28% 5.72% 37.14% 14.28%

Procedure took 8.58% of the lesson time. The Language focused on Form
(20%) and Function (14.28%). A further 5.72% was spent on a
combination of Discipline and Procedure. 37.14% was spent on a
272 Chapter Fifteen

combination of Form/Function/Narrow topics. Finally, 14.28% was spent

on Form together with Narrow topic. Narrow topic is a narrow range of
reference in which topics refer to the classroom and the students’
immediate environment and experiences (Spada & Fröhlich, 1995), and in
this lesson, the topic was about furniture in a house.
These results show that in terms of content, Management and
Procedural directives were the focus of the lesson since the teacher mainly
gave directions and commands to the children. Only within the last 2
minutes of the lesson, the teacher gave the class feedback on their progress
and participation. Discipline directives are a typical form of cultural
learning in the Vietnamese classroom. Vietnamese teachers and educators
do not only teach the school curriculum, but they also seek to encourage
acceptable Vietnamese social behavior and morals (Le, 2000; Trinh,
2005).
The primary focus of instruction in this lesson was on Form with the
introduction of grammatical structures, such as ‘there is, there are’, and
vocabulary, such as pronunciation and meaning for new words. Activities
related to Function only took place when the teacher introduced to the
class another grammatical structure, such as ‘there is… there are.’ He
spoke the structures in English and explained them in Vietnamese in order
to make the pupils understand that ‘there is’ should be used together with a
singular noun and ‘there are’ should be used with plural nouns. The
teacher stressed that adding ‘s’ to the plural nouns is necessary. Most of
the lesson time was spent on Narrow topics which referred mainly to the
name of some furniture in classroom and in the house.
In terms of Content control, the teacher was the only one that decided
on the topic and tasks for the children in the class. According to Spada and
Fröhlich (1995), more involvement on the part of learners in the content of
the lessons would have a greater positive impact on the children’s
learning. However, in this case, the children are young and it seems that
they did not exert any control over the learning tasks, materials or content
of instruction, so all the tasks and materials were decided by the teacher.
In terms of Student modality, students spent 37.12% of the lesson time
on listening, 22.85% on speaking, 20% on a combination of listening and
speaking, and finally 20% on a combination of listening, speaking and
writing. This indicates that listening was the language skill that was used
the most by the children. They listened to the teacher and the audiotape,
before practicing speaking some sentences. One thing to point out is that
they did not really speak as in a communicative process, but most of the
time they repeated what the teacher said. Then, they wrote down, or mainly
 Young Learners’ Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Vietnam 273

copied, what the teacher wrote on the blackboard. This shows passive
learning.
Finally, in terms of Materials, 62.86% of the lesson time was spent on
minimal materials which were specifically designed for L2 teaching, 20%
of the time was spent using a combination of minimal text, visuals
designed for L2 teaching (namely the textbook), and teacher-prepared
pictures. Finally, 17.14% of the lesson was spent using a combination of
minimal text and audio for L2 teaching.
The results of the classroom observation taken together reflect and
highlight the roles of the teacher and learners in the following ways.
Instruction began as soon as the teacher walked into the classroom.
Students were expected to stand and greet the teacher, singing the greeting
to the teacher in English. This allowed the class to have a bit of fun, while
focusing their minds on the upcoming lesson. It also helped to reinforce
learning of basic conversational language structures. The pupils could use
the structure ‘this is’ with some new words fluently. This shows that they
could learn these sentences by rote in the classroom. Additionally, they
spoke quickly and using the structure ‘this is’ in all of their utterances, but
they skipped the ‘s’ in the word ‘is’. I believe this is due to the Vietnamese
pronunciation in which we do not pronounce the last vowel or consonant
in a word.
There were more activities using visual inputs, such as pictures from
the teacher and the textbook, rather than songs and games to introduce new
words and make the pupils practise their English. However, the songs and
games the teacher used in the class were mostly to help the children
memorize the words, but not to use them for communication. It has been
argued by Moon (2009) that such activities do not “develop children’s
ability to communicate and to produce novel utterances rather than just
reproducing memorized chunks” (p. 316).
Additionally, translating new words and structures from English to
Vietnamese is commonly used in Vietnamese classrooms in order to help
the pupils learn the new terms faster. This reflects the way of learning the
foreign language, i.e., through translating and using a combination of
Vietnamese and the target language. Like Kieu (2010), I found that the
teacher in my study did not use the target language as the language of
instruction. Instead, the students’ mother tongue (L1) was used more often
in the lesson since it is easier to make the children understand the new
words. However, according to Kieu (2010), overuse of the L1 in the
classroom robs students from opportunities to learn the target language in
the classroom context.
274 Chapter Fifteen

Error correction, including recitations and repetition by the entire class

after the teacher and the teacher’s questions were common. Pupils asked
no questions, there was little to no game play or comprehensive
conversations between the teacher and the pupils and among the pupils in
the lesson. The teacher ‘disciplined’ some students during the feedback
portion of the lesson, telling the non-participants and the lower achievers
they must try harder. The rest of the time he ‘directed’ the students to
complete the exercises and activities. This shows a teacher-centered
approach to teaching.
During the lesson, it was hard for the teacher to control the pupils’
activities in the classroom and correct their mistakes while they were
practising in pairs or in groups because of the large number of pupils in the
class and the short of time of the English lesson.
Pupils mostly listened to the teacher, repeated and copied the structures
and words from the teacher. At the end of the lesson, the teacher asked
them to learn by heart the new words and structures, showing an emphasis
on rote learning. Moreover, the practice of pupils standing up to greet the
teacher and waiting for the teacher to allow them to sit down and the
feedback session, i.e., questions mostly from the teacher to the students but
not from the pupils to the teacher, illustrate the cultural aspect of
Vietnamese classrooms in which the teacher gets high respect from the
pupils. As a result, there were no interruptions or asking for explanations
or clarifications from the pupils during the lesson. Generally, these results
also confirm that the teacher is the knowledge provider, while pupils are
expected to be good listeners and repeaters.
I also found that the teacher in the study was still at a low level of
English proficiency. In general, there is a shortage of Vietnamese teachers
of English with appropriate English skills (Cameron, 2003) and most
primary teachers in Vietnam graduate from the College of Foreign
languages in which they are trained to teach students in secondary schools.
There should be more English teacher training programs specializing in
teaching primary school children, and in-service teachers should have
opportunities to participate in regular language training (Nguyen &
Nguyen, 2007; Nguyen 2011).

Analysis of the Student Recordings

Four students were recorded after the lesson in order to see if they had
acquired S-V agreement marking (3SG-s) and if the instruction had any
effect on their learning.
 Young Learners’ Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Vietnam 275

All four of the learners had acquired Stage 1: the single word question
and single word formulae. The students were able to use ‘Who is he? Who
are they?’ with the inverted subject and verb, the copular verb ‘be’ placed
in the second position and the correct agreement marking on the copular
verb. Students could also use plural agreement when using nouns such as
‘teachers’ and ‘farmers’. Since the picture used for the language task was
from their textbook and they had already learnt how to ask and answer
questions about people’s jobs, all four students could easily form such
questions and answers. Nevertheless, as observed during the lesson,
students did not produce the ‘s’ in the word ‘is’:

“Who i he?/ He i a student/ Who i he?/ He i a police officer/ Who i she?/

She i a cook/ Who i she?/ She i a taxi-driver/ Who i she?/ She i a shop-
keeper/ Who are they?/ They are nurses/ Who are they?/ They are farmers/
Who are they?/ They are teachers.”

Each individual learner had acquired some syntactical and morphological

points but in some instances they failed to produce a correct structure and
each of them handled the problem using different strategies, mainly
simplifying the target language and keeping their own interlanguage. The
following paragraphs provide a more detailed profile of each learner’s
language performance.

Learner 1

The first learner performed the best by producing many correct

utterances such as: ‘He reads/ He writes/ They drive/ They talk/ They
cook/’. She knew SV agreement in the form of putting the ‘s’ at the end of
the singular verb, but not to the plural verb. She produced inflected verbs,
both with and without 3SG-s, which indicates that she knew 3SG-s is a
third-person singular agreement marker. Moreover, she could express the
progressive aspect by using the lexical V-ing morpheme on the lexical verb
‘teach’ as in ‘She is teaching’. She had acquired Stage 1, Stage 2 with V-
ing and plural agreement, and Stage 4 with copula inversion. Therefore,
she could soon acquire Stage 5.

Learner 2

The second learner did not have as large a vocabulary as the first
learner, so she needed to ask the researcher for translation help in order to
produce some sentences. Observing her utterances, I could see that she
succeeded in forming a correct sentence with inflected lexical verbs
276 Chapter Fifteen

followed by the auxiliary in the progressive aspect as in ‘he is writing’.

However, she did not know how to answer the Yes/No questions. Instead,
she repeated the same sentence, ‘does he read books?’, when the
researcher asked her. The learner heard the sound ‘s’ in the question, so
she could have recognized that there should be an ‘s’ for a verb to go with
a singular subject. However, she seemed unsure as to where it needed to
go, so she placed a ‘s’ in the main verb in the question ‘does he reads
books?’. This is an example of ‘overextension’. Additionally, she did not
fill the morphology gaps by acquiring 3SG-s in her utterance ‘He write
books’.
Moreover, since she was familiar with the structure ‘he/she is’, ‘they
are’, she also included the regular verb together with the verb ‘be’ in a
simple tense. This overextension can be seen in these sentences she
produced: They are read book/ They are drive a taxi/ They are write
books/ She is write taxi. At this point in the lesson, pupils have learned a
lot about the structure ‘he is…, she is…, they are…’, so it seems that she is
more familiar with S+be rather than S+VerbStem present. Therefore, she
kept using the auxiliary ‘be’ while adding other uninflected lexical verbs
‘drive’, ‘read’, ‘write’ to form the S+main regular verb for the simple
tense, e.g., ‘he is read books’, ‘they are drive taxi.’ Additionally, in these
sentences, she appeared to acquire the morphology of S-V agreement in
the marking of the auxiliary ‘be’, but there are uninflected lexical verbs
followed by the auxiliary in the progressive aspect instead of the V-ing
morpheme on these lexical verbs, such as ‘he is drive a car’, ‘they are
read books’.
At the end of the task, the student attempted to correct herself from
‘she is drive taxi’ to ‘she drive taxi’. This shows her attempt to leave out
the verb ‘be’ in order to have a regular main verb in a simple sentence.
However, she could not form the SV-agreement in putting a ‘s’ to the
singular verb ‘drive’. Even though the interviewer sometimes produced ‘s’
with the main verb for single subject in some statements, the learner still
dropped the ‘s’ in the singular lexical verb in her own sentences. This also
shows that the learner did not imitate the language produced by the
researcher or turn the input into intake; instead she simply kept her
interlanguage. This is in accordance with the view that L2 learners
(especially children) have an “innate language ability” based on “universal
rules of language” (Saville-Troike, 2006, p. 23).
Based on her task performance, the student could be placed at Stage 2
since she has acquired V-ing and SVO patterns, but she has not yet reached
Stage 3 (yes/no inversion) and Stage 5 (3SG-s).
 Young Learners’ Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Vietnam 277

Learner 3

This learner managed to acquire S-V agreement on the copular ‘be’,

but he did make the same mistakes as learner 2 by having both ‘be’ and the
bare lexical verb in a sentence such as ‘He is write a book’. It seems that
he knew that there should be a ‘s’ for a main verb to go with a singular
subject. He was trying to think and at the same time correct himself. In this
way, he took a risk by adding a ‘s’ to the pronoun ‘he’ instead of putting a
‘s’ to the singular verb ‘write’ and produced the sentence ‘hes write a
book’.
‘Hes reads a book’ is also another attempt to form S-V agreement on a
singular verb by adding a ‘s’ to a singular lexical verb, ‘read’, while also
keeping a ‘s’ at the end of the pronoun ‘he’, resulting in overextension.
Nevertheless, he did express a simple aspect lexical ‘s’ morpheme on the
lexical singular verb. Repeatedly, he attempted to correct himself from ‘he
is write a book’ to ‘hes write a book’. Continuously, he also formed the
wrong sentence when adding a ‘s’ to a plural verb and combining it with
the verb ‘be’ as in ‘they are reads a book’.
Due to lack of vocabulary needed to describe the picture, he was
confused in choosing which lexical verb to use and the result was often
more than one main verb, as in the example ‘she is drive cook’. However,
he could produce the progressive form for V-ing, ‘cooking’, as in ‘she is
cooking’ after some minutes of silence and thinking. This shows that he
could reproduce the correct form temporarily, but afterwards he went back
to the same mistake with the utterance ‘he is write a book’. It appears that
the learner is familiar with the ‘Subject-is’ pattern sentence, and uses it
extensively but tends to combine it with the bare lexical verb in the simple
present tense. This shows that he probably confused the structure
Subject+be when attempting to produce Subject+verb in the present tense.
After that, he corrected himself by again adding a ‘s’ to the pronoun
instead of the lexical verb for a singular subject, as in ‘hes write a book’.
Based on his language output, the student could only be placed at Stage 1
since V-ing was not used in his speech. Therefore, he has not acquired any
further stages.

Learner 4

Similar to the others, this learner had acquired SV agreement for the
copula ‘be’ and Plural-agreement in which the plural number is marked on
several constituents, as in: ‘They are a cook. He is a cook. They are
farmers’.
278 Chapter Fifteen

The learner was familiar with the structure ‘he is… they are..’, but he
could not acquire the main verb either in simple form or in progressive
form Stage 2, so he could not acquire further stages. As a result, instead of
using a verb to describe what the person was doing, he kept using nouns,
as in ‘He is a cook’, ‘They are taxi-drivers’. Additionally, he could not
produce any instances of inflected verbs with 3SG-s. The morphological
marking for the third person in verbs was never used in the recording. This
indicates that he may not know that 3SG-s is a third-person singular
agreement marker, as is evident in these sentences: ‘She study’, ‘She drive
a taxi’. This also illustrated the underuse of inflectional morphemes in S-V
agreement.

Summary of Student Results

In summary, with regards to morphology, most learners had acquired

S-V agreement on the copular ‘be’ and the auxiliary ‘be’ but they failed in
S-V agreement on singular verbs by adding a ‘s’ to lexical verbs for
singular subjects, except for the first learner who had reached Stage 5.
Table 15-4 is an ‘implicational scaling’ table in which grammatical
structures are displayed on the left-hand side, and the symbols on the right-
hand side mark the structures in the sample student utterances.
In short, the three learners who had not reached Stage 2 (learners 3 and
4) or Stage 3 (learner 2) did not produce any utterances correctly in Stages
3 and 5. There was no evidence for Stage 4. Since according to PT the
stages are implicational, the acquisition of the lower Stages 1, 2 and 3 is an
essential prerequisite for reaching higher stages, such as Stage 5 agreement
(3SG-s). Learner 1 who had acquired Stage 5 had also acquired Stages 1 to
4, but the children who had not acquired Stage 5, they had not acquired
Stages 2, 3, and 4 either. This supports Pienemann’s language development
hypothesis.
 Young Learners’ Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Vietnam 279

Table 15-4: Learners’ stage of acquisition based on the stages of ESL

acquisition by Pienemann (1998).

Stage Learner
1 2 3 4
6 Cancel Inversion / / / /
5 Aux2nd/ Do2nd/ 3SG-s + - - -
4 Copula Inversion
Y/N Inversion
Particle verbs
3 Neg+V / / / /
Do Front
Topi
ADV
2 SVO + + + +
V-ing + + + +
Plural + + - -
possessive pronoun
1 single words + + + +
Note. + = acquired; - = not acquired; / = no evidence; Aux2nd = Inversion of
Auxilary in WH-questions; Do2nd = Inversion of Do/does/did in WH-questions;
3SG-s = Third person singular-s; Y/N inversion = Yes-No Inversion; Neg+V =
Negation + Verb; Do Front = Do-Fronting; Topi = Topicalisation; SVO =
Subject+Verb+Object; V-ing = Verb + ing

Conclusion
This study attempted to investigate the classroom activities at an
English lesson at Grade 5 in a Vietnamese school and whether the
classroom practices had any impact on the young learners’ acquisition of
S-V agreement, typically the use of 3SG-s in their speech.
The results from the lesson observation completely match Moon’s
(2005) findings with regards to teaching methodology: (i) a focus on form
and accuracy rather than fluency; (ii) heavy use of repetition drills and
whole class chorus in order to make the children memorise the new words;
(iii) lack of opportunities for the children to produce the target language
freely for communicative purposes.
Admittedly, English lessons in different classes or different primary
schools in Vietnam may not be the same. However, they are not all that
different either because the general steps and procedures followed in the
English classrooms in Vietnamese primary education conform to a
280 Chapter Fifteen

nationalized and unified lesson plan which was dictated by a centralized

department when the national curriculum was issued by the Ministry of
Education and Training in 2003. This is also confirmed by Nguyen and
Nguyen (2007).
Among the four learners examined in this study, there was only one
(Learner 1) who had acquired Stage 5 3SG-s. It seems that the learners
knew that there should be a ‘s’ for a verb to go with a singular subject, but
they seemed unsure where it needed to go. That may be the reason why
Learners 2, 3 and 4 added a ‘s’ to the pronouns. This supports the idea that
learners follow universal stages of development. However, this does not
mean that for a given stage of acquisition all learners use identical
grammatical systems. Instead, there is a degree of variability in the use of
“interlanguage systems” (Pienemann, 2011, p. 22). The variability among
the learners in this study was evidenced in the addition of a ‘s’ in different
words in a sentence.
The reason that the learners were not familiar with S-V agreement on a
lexical verb could be because they came across more examples of S-V
agreement on the copular and auxiliary ‘be’ in their lessons. As a result,
they combined ‘be’ with another lexical verb in a simple aspect. That
caused overextension. This supports the idea from Pienemann (2005),
about the variational dimension which states that the learners avoid the
advanced structures that they have not yet acquired by making the
language simpler and standardized through using “a specific range of
structural options” (pp. 46-47) available in their processing resources.
However, this also shows how the learners manipulated morphological
structures indicating what they were working to acquire. The learners
experienced difficulties in adding a ‘s’ in the context of the third person
singular NP subject. They failed to supply a morphology ‘s’ for the
singular verb in obligatory contexts, and tended to overuse the copula ‘be’
in different positions as in simple present verbs and pronouns.
The results also showed that someone starting to learn English may be
hearing ‘s’ as a random sound, and, therefore, he does repeat what he
thinks is a random sound, so he keeps on missing ‘s’ in singular regular
verbs. While conventions of the Vietnamese language such as not
pronouncing the last vowel or consonant in a word, and not marking 3rd
person singular and plural in verbs does play a part in the errors learners
made most often, the format of the lessons (listen and repeat) did not lend
itself to self-correction. Therefore, we can see that the rote-repeat
instruction in Vietnamese classrooms, while designed to help the learners
acquire the grammatical aspect of S-V agreement, did not have a
permanent effect, only a temporary one. This grammatical point can be
 Young Learners’ Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Vietnam 281

learned better if there is a more interactive method of learning grammar in

the classroom in which conversational purposes are targeted.
The small investigation described in this chapter only touches the tip of
the iceberg and cannot cover all phenomena of English language acquisition
in Vietnamese children. It mainly shows a preliminary study on S-V
agreement phenomena found in an ESL classroom and a general view of
classroom second language teaching and learning in a Vietnamese primary
school. Nevertheless, deeper investigations on a larger scale are needed.
There should be more lesson observations of different classes of English in
different schools and more participants to do several tasks in order to see
how English teaching and learning methods in the language classroom
affect language output.

References
Biber, D., Stig J., Geoffrey L., Susan C., & Edward F. (1999). The
Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman.
Bui, H. (2005). Cҫn Dҥy Hӑc Nhӳng Ngoҥi Ngӳ Nào Trong Tr!ӡng Phә
Thông ViӋt Nam. Tҥp Chí Khoa Hӑc H"QGHN, Ngoҥi Ngӳ. [What
foreign languages should be taught at secondary schools? Vietnam
National University Journal of Science and Foreign Languages], 9(3),
1–6.
Dang, T. N. (1986). Teaching oral communication skills to trainee
interpreters at the University of Hanoi. Unpublished MA (TESOL)
Field Study Report, Faculty of Education, University of Canberra,
Australia.
Denham, P. A. (1992). English in Vietnam. World Englishes, 11(1), 61-69.
Do, H. T. (2000). Foreign language education policy in Vietnam: The
emergence of English and its impact on higher education. In J. Shaw,
D. Lubelsak & M. Noullet (Eds.), Partnership and Interaction:
Proceedings of the fourth international conference on language and
development (pp. 29-42). Bangkok: Asian Institute of Technology.
Duong, T. H. O., & Nguyen, T. H. (2006). Memorization and EFL
students’ strategies at university level in Vietnam. TESL-EJ, 10(2), 1-
21.
Dyson, B. (2009). Processability theory and the role of morphology in
ESL development. A longitudinal study. Second Language Research
25(3), 255-376.
Fröhlich, M., Spada, N., & Allen, P. (1985). Differences in the
communicative orientation of L2 classrooms. TESOL Quarterly, 19(1),
27-57.
282 Chapter Fifteen

Glahn, E., Håkansson, G., Hammarberg, B., Holmen, A., Hvenekilde, A.,
& Lund, K. (2001). Processability in Scandinavian second language
acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23(3), 389-416.
Håkansson, G., Pienemann, M., & Sayehli, S. (2002). Transfer and
typological proximity in the context of L2 processing. Second
Language Research, 18(3), 250-273.
Karnow, S. (1983). Vietnam: A history. New York: Viking Press.
Kessler, J. (Ed.). (2008). Processability approaches to second language
development and second language learning. Newcastle: Cambridge
Scholars Press.
Kieu, H. K. A. (2010). Use of Vietnamese in English language teaching in
Vietnam: Attitudes of Vietnamese university teachers. English
Language Teaching, 3(2), 119-128.
Krashen, S., & Seliger, H. (1976). The role of formal and informal
linguistic environments in adult second language learning.
International Journal of Psycholinguistics, 3, 15-21.
Krashen, S. D., Butler, J., Birkbaum, R., & Robertson, J. (1978). Two
studies in language acquisition and language learning. ITL: Review of
Applied Linguistics, 39/40, 73–92.
Lewis, M., & McCook, F. (2002). Cultures of teaching: Voices from
Vietnam. ELT Journal, 56(2), 146-153.
Le, V. C. (2000). Language and Vietnamese pedagogical contexts. In J.
Shaw, D. Lubeska & M. Noullet (Eds.), Proceedings of the fourth
international conference on language and development (pp. 73-80).
Bangkok: Asian Institute of Technology.
Meisel, J., Clahsen, H., & Pienemann, M. (1981). On determining
developmental stages in natural second language acquisition. Studies in
Second Language Acquisition, 3(2), 109-135.
Ministry of Education and Training. (1991). Tieng Anh, 11 and 12. Hanoi:
Education Publishing House.
—. (2003). Chuong Trinh Tu chon Mon Tieng Anh o Bac Tieu Hoc
[English Curriculum as an Optional Subject at Primary Level]. Hanoi:
Ministry of Education and Training.
Mitchell, R., & Myles, F. (2004). Second language learning theories.
London: Arnold.
Moon, J. (2005). Investigating the teaching of English at primary level in
Vietnam: A summary report. Paper presented at the Teaching English
Language at Primary Level Conference, June 2-3, Ha Noi, Vietnam.
—. (2009). The teacher factor in early foreign language learning
programmes: The case of Vietnam. In M. Nikolov (Ed.), The age
 Young Learners’ Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Vietnam 283

factor and early language learning (pp. 311-336). Berlin: Mouton de

Gruyter.
Nakata, R., Frazier, K., Hoskins, B., & Wilkinson, S. (2000). Let’s go (2nd
ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press
Nguyen, B., & Crabbe, D. (1999). The design and use of English language
textbooks in Vietnamese secondary schools. Paper presented at the
Fourth International Conference on Language and Development,
October 13-15, Ha Noi, Vietnam.
Nguyen, H. T. M. (2011). Primary English language education policy in
Vietnam: Insights from implementation. Current Issues in Language
Planning, 12(2), 225-249.
Nguyen, T. M. H., & Nguyen, Q. T. (2007). Teaching English in primary
schools in Vietnam: An overview. Current Issues in Language
Planning, 8(1), 162-173.
Nguyen, X. H. (1998, June 30). University system must adapt, not adopt,
foreign models. Vietnam News.
Nguyen, N. T. (2014). Learner autonomy in language learning: Teachers’
beliefs. Doctoral thesis, Queensland University of Technology,
Australia.
Nunan, D. 2003. The impact of English as a global language on
educational policies and practices in the Asia-Pacific region. TESOL
Quarterly, 37(4), 589-613.
Ohta, A. S. (2001). Second language acquisition processes in the
classroom: Learning Japanese. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Pienemann, M. (1998). Language processing and second language
development: Processability theory. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
—. (2005). Cross-linguistic aspects of processability theory. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins.
Pienemann, M., & Keßler, J-U. (2011). Studying porcessability theory: An
introductory textbook. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Sakai, H. (2008). An analysis of Japanese university students’ oral
performance in English using processability theory. System, 36(4),
534-549.
Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing second language acquisition.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Spada, N., & Fröhlich, M. (1995) The communicative orientation of
language teaching (COLT) observation scheme: Coding conventions
and applications. Sydney, Australia: Macquarie University.
284 Chapter Fifteen

Tode, T. (2008). Effects of frequency in classroom second language

learning: Quasi-experiment and stimulated-recall analysis. Bern: Peter
Lang.
Trinh, Q. L. (2005). Stimulating learner autonomy in English language
education: A curriculum innovation study in a Vietnamese context.
Doctoral thesis, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN

VOCABULARY UPTAKE FROM PEPPA PIG:

A CASE STUDY OF PRESCHOOL EFL
LEARNERS IN GREECE

THOMAÏ ALEXIOU

Abstract
This chapter presents a small-scale case study that investigated the
influence of comic series in English as a foreign language (EFL)
vocabulary acquisition. To that aim, Greek preschoolers watched a set of
episodes of the Peppa Pig comic series in English and then they discussed
the plot and the heroes with their teacher in Greek. No explicit teaching of
the English language or vocabulary included in the comic series took
place. Following that, the children were tested in a child-friendly way in
order to measure the receptive English vocabulary they were exposed to in
the specific episodes of the comic series. Results indicate the significant
contribution of comic series in EFL students’ receptive vocabulary but
also in vocabulary development in general.

Introduction
McDonough (1981) suggests that children are the best examples of
language learners because of their spontaneous nature of language
acquisition. They learn by using their senses, by experiencing and
exploring. They are very perceptive, they appear to ‘absorb’ knowledge
like sponges and although they are impressively good memorisers they
tend to retain in memory whatever makes sense. So they retain the essence
of a story or fairy tale, for example, even if details are lacking or may be
wrong. They may not be able to explain or rationalise a grammatical rule
but they learn short phrases, and not just individual words, which they can
use to communicate giving them some grammaticality. When learning
286 Chapter Sixteen

second or foreign languages, priority and emphasis is given to oral skills at

the early stages as children have not yet developed literacy skills in their
first language (L1) (Alexiou, 2015).
Teaching young learners is a complex and genuinely difficult job
although immensely rewarding. Because young children are restless and
they easily lose interest, their teachers need to be very efficient,
imaginative, and armed with a large and varied repertoire of activities and
methods. Since teaching at that sensitive early stage is primarily a
pedagogical task, teachers of young learners need to be familiar with a
variety of pedagogic principles in order to find the best ways to ‘talk’ to
the children’s minds and ‘touch’ their hearts (Alexiou, 2015).
One major problem with preschoolers learning a second or foreign
language (L2) is that they have limited attention span and they are not very
disciplined. Consequently, playful, alternative and unconventional teaching
techniques are encouraged at this early stage. Children’s television (TV)
programmes, primarily intended for native speaking children, are one type
of exposure to the L2 that is frequently used with very young foreign
language learners and this type of language input, specifically the Peppa
Pig children’s series, is investigated in this chapter.

Child Language Learning and the TV Factor

The onset age of starting a foreign language has been widely discussed.
Some researchers claim that the earlier children begin to learn a second
language the better (e.g., Ellis, 2008; Krashen, Long, & Scarcella, 1979;
Larsen-Freeman, 2008; Mayberry & Lock, 2003; Singleton, 1989), but
others argue that older learners are better than younger learners (Dekeyser,
2000; Snow & Hoefnagel-Hohle, 1982; Stern, Burstall, & Harley, 1975).
The general consensus, however, is that children, when exposed to a
foreign language from an early age, seem to benefit in listening (Munõz,
Pérez, Celaya, Navés, Torras, Tragant, & Victori, 2002) and they are able
to achieve native-like pronunciation (Oyama, 1976). Tahta, Wood and
Loewenthal (1981a, cited in Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991) suggest that,

“…the children’s ability to replicate intonation in longer phrases remained

steady in the five- to eight-year range, and then dropped rapidly between
ages eight and eleven, plateauing again in the eleven to fifteen range.” (p.
156)

It is generally accepted that there is a ‘window of opportunity’ at the

age of 5 to 8 and that teachers should use this period for foreign language
teaching to the learners’ benefit. Researchers who assert the superiority of
 Vocabulary Uptake from Peppa Pig 287

younger foreign language learners claim that children’s brains are more
flexible (e.g., Lenneberg, 1967). Children are considered to be like
‘sponges’ and can absorb language presented to them almost effortlessly
but with continuous exposure of the right kind.
Teaching at these early stages is usually rather informal and takes
place in a playful manner that includes a variety of songs and rhymes,
short stories, colouring and drawing. Children enjoy silly rhymes, riddles,
jokes and hands-on activities (Oesterreich, 1995). Total physical response
activities, arts and crafts, drama, projects and games are all appropriate
since they make children use language authentically and for meaningful
purposes (Halliwell, 1992). Yet, when learning the L2, the importance of
linking a word to an object they can see and touch is highlighted and this
is the reason that any kind of visual stimuli is important in early classroom
settings. Therefore, TV and any form of computer technology are essential
instruments as they provide ample visual stimuli.
Comic series shown on TV, but also available on the internet (via
YouTube), are based on short stories. Stories are appropriate for children:
they are familiar to them from their mother tongue and they allow children
to focus on meaning, not on structure. As Cross (1992) states,

“…an additional benefit is that the learner’s attention is on the message not
on the language. They acquire language unconsciously with their whole
attention engaged by the activity, in much the same way as they acquired
their mother tongue.” (p. 153)

Furthermore, children are expected to infer meaning based on visual

stimuli, on body language and gestures used by the people they meet and
see (in the present study, Peppa Pig and her family). According to most
recent constructivist theories, learners are seen as active agents who
“engage in their own knowledge construction by integrating new
information into their schema, and by associating and representing it into a
meaningful way” (Hsiao, 2005, p. 2). Negotiating meaning and modifying
output are vital processes to second language acquisition (Long, 1996).
But how effective is this kind of learning? As Gathercole, Willis, Emslie
and Baddeley (1992) state,

“Although studies of word learning in children have documented the

remarkable facility of preschool children to acquire new vocabulary … the
factors underpinning the large individual differences in young children’s
abilities to learn new words are as yet little understood.” (p. 887)
288 Chapter Sixteen

In order to understand vocabulary uptake in L2 we need to review

research in this age group in L1. From these studies, implications can be
made about L2 as well. There is a common belief that native speakers
learn their native vocabulary so quickly, perhaps as many as 15 words per
day from the ages two to seven, that direct instruction of vocabulary
cannot possibly account for the vast growth of students’ knowledge of
vocabulary (Coady & Huckin, 1997). Hart and Risley (1975) researching
implicit teaching of mother-tongue language to preschool children
concluded that it “appears to be an effective means of increasing
children’s language skills” (p. 419). More recent research is much more
conservative and Milton and Treffers-Daller (2013) suggest vocabulary
uptake in first language by young learners is probably more like two
words a day on average, a rate of learning which can be explained by
explicit learning and without the need for complex theories of implicit
uptake.
More studies (e.g., Linebarger & Walker, 2005) have shown that
“well-designed programs with a coherent narrative structure that combine
correct language use with engaging content may contribute to positive
language outcomes for infants and toddlers” (Krcmar, 2011, p. 780). It has
also been suggested that “children as young as two can learn the meaning
of words by viewing their referents on videos that were designed non-
commercially as experimental stimulus material” (Naigles & Mayeux,
2001, cited in Krcmar, 2011, p. 782) and children 22 months and older are
able “to learn novel words, even from single exposures to commercially
produced (albeit edited) video” (Krcmar, Grela, & Lin, 2007 cited in
Krcmar, 2011, p. 784).
TV or YouTube videos are extremely popular with children (Rhodes &
Puhfahl, 2003) and toddlers can easily spend two hours per day in front of
the TV (Rideout, Vandewate, & Wartella, 2003). A range of vocabulary
can be acquired and stored through watching these programs
notwithstanding that children at this age do not pay attention to form and
they are not interested in realising grammatical structures (Rhodes &
Puhfahl, 2003). These programmes are thought to have a positive affective
benefit as multimedia’s “emotional interest illustrations were found to
have a positive impact on promoting learners’ motivation” (Park & Lim,
2007, p. 159).
Either in L1 or L2, children, as active learners, try to establish the
meaning of people’s utterances based on their limited previous knowledge
(Cameron, 2001; Moon, 2000). Children easily comprehend the general
meaning of what others tell them before understanding the individual
words (Halliwell, 1992). This is due to the fact that they dwell on
 Vocabulary Uptake from Peppa Pig 289

imagination but also because they are able to decipher external clues like
“intonation, gesture, facial expressions, actions and circumstances”
(Halliwell, 1992, p. 3). Moon (2000) argues that this emphasis on meaning
rather than form helps children realize the gist and plot of a story or a
video and enables them to match the meaning with the unknown words in
an effortless way.

Peppa Pig
Computers and all forms of multimedia play a major role in
preschoolers’ lives today, and offer huge potential for L2 language
learning (Milton & Garbi, 2000). Despite recommendations by the
American Academy of Pediatrics, in a typical day, 68% of all children
under two use screen media (59% watch TV, 42% watch a video, 5% use a
computer, and 3% play video games), and these youngsters spend an
average of two hours and five minutes in front of a screen (Kokla, 2013).
Very early on, Bullock (1975) had suggested that TV exposure can also
have an educational value. For example, TV can be beneficial as “it
exposes children to a variety of accents, idioms, register, which they
would not hear otherwise. Infants engage in a space travel game show and
know words like rocket, countdown, capsule, etc.” (Bullock, 1975, pp. 61-
62). TV programmes intended for young learners contain many of the
characteristics required for good foreign language teaching. Thus, in
programmes such as Peppa Pig English words are presented in “clear,
artificially slow speech” (Huntly, 2006, p. 61) and are continuously
repeated throughout each episode. Where the programmes the children
watch include foreign language material, the potential for learning is high.
By contrast, the classroom environment at an early age is alleged to be
lexically poor (Meara, Lightbown, & Halter, 1997; Tang & Nesi, 2003).
The vocabulary of the classroom can be so restricted that learners may
learn as few as one or two words in the foreign language per classroom
hour (Milton, 2006; Laufer, 2010, cited in Milton, Jonsen, Hirst, &
Lindenburn, 2012). Native English speaking 5-year olds may typically
have a vocabulary of 4,000 to 5,000 word families (Schmitt 2000, p. 3),
and they may add 500 words (Milton & Treffers-Daller, 2013) or 1,000
words (Schmitt, 2000) each year thereafter, but we have very limited
information about the volumes of vocabulary uptake which very young
foreign language learners can achieve. Laufer (2010) mentions uptake
rates of approximately two to three words per hour of L2 instruction, while
Milton and Meara (1998) report three to four words per hour of L2
instruction. This may be due to the fact that teachers can resort to L1
290 Chapter Sixteen

where they fear that children’s limited knowledge of L2 may cause them
problems in confidence and can therefore lose interest but it may equally
be a product of time factors since vocabulary cannot be the only focus of
every L2 class.
It seems inevitable that exposure to the language in the L1 is much
larger than the exposure that learners will typically get in their L2. Not
surprisingly, therefore, there is interest in the uptake of words through
informal methods such as extensive reading, listening to songs and
watching TV and videos. Horst and Meara (1999) studied the lexical
learning of Dutch in a learner from reading a Lucky Luke comic book, and
concluded that more than 30 words per contact hour were acquired by the
single subject in their investigation. Studies of Greek vocabulary learning
from listening to songs and watching videos with sub-titles (Milton, 2008)
also concluded that considerable amounts of vocabulary gains can occur
from these informal activities.
Peppa Pig is a British animated television series for pre-schoolers
which originally aired in 2004. It is shown in 180 countries and has been
dubbed in many languages. Each episode is approximately 5 minutes long
and the animation is eye catching while the episodes are humorous and
joyful. The show revolves around Peppa, a pig with anthropomorphic
features, and her family and friends. The episodes relate to “everyday
activities such as attending playgroup, going swimming, visiting their
grandparents, going to the playground or riding bikes” (http://en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppa_Pig).

The Study
This chapter investigates the uptake of English as a foreign language
(EFL) vocabulary shown in 4 episodes of the English version of Peppa
Pig. The aim of the study was to investigate whether this type of exposure
facilitates vocabulary gains in a foreign language. There were three main
research questions examined in this study:

x Are children aged 4-6 successful in acquiring EFL vocabulary only

through TV exposure?
x What kind of EFL words are easier to recall at that age?
x Are there any gender or age differences in the acquisition of EFL
vocabulary through TV exposure?
 Vocabulary Uptake from Peppa Pig 291

Methodology
Thirty preschoolers aged between 4 and 6 took part in the study (8 four
year olds, 12 five year olds, 10 six year olds) at a state nursery school in
Thessaloniki, Greece. The children spoke only Greek. Preschoolers
watched four episodes (5 minutes each) four times, a total of 80 minutes
exposure over a period of one month. The episodes were viewed only in
English and they watched each episode twice each time they had a class,
which was twice in the week. There was no pre-teaching or any formal
teaching of the English words included in the episodes, and no explanation
of any of the words was given. Thematic areas of the episodes included
colours of the rainbow, winter and snow, lunch and pancakes. The four
episodes used in the study can be accessed from the links below:

x The rainbow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tmfgACyhZU

x Snow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F44ohP5YS4o
x Lunch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYZw5n2bs9Y
x Pancakes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Ng1Mqbrf4

The preschoolers’ receptive vocabulary uptake of the English words

contained in these episodes was then measured through a 5-minute word
recognition test, which was done in a playful manner on a one to one
basis. The researcher asked the child whether s/he could help Peppa
recognize some English items; the researcher then pronounced the words
(which were only nouns) and the child pointed to the relative pictures. At
this age, we could not measure more than five words/per episode and we
had to select words that were concrete and were presented both in sound
and picture during the episodes. A corpus of the four episodes was created
and then 21 concrete words were tested receptively after watching all
episodes so as to see whether the EFL vocabulary children were exposed
to had been retained or not. Researchers in this area make a distinction
between words as base forms or lemmatised word types. Namely, ‘pig’
and ‘pigs’ are highly regular and inflected forms and are treated in the
corpus as one word whereas ‘pig’ and ‘piggy’ are considered two different
words as they involve morphological derivation and are less regular and
frequent (Milton, 2009).

Results and Discussion

The results of the study are presented in order of the research questions
in the following sections.
292 Chapter Sixteen

Are Children Successful in Acquiring EFL Vocabulary

Through TV Exposure?
Vocabulary size or vocabulary learning is usually measured in the
learning of lemmatised types (Nation, 2001, pp. 6-8). This means that for
example, the episode ‘colours’ contains 535 words in total (tokens) and
172 different words (types). Henceforth, we refer both to types or words to
mean the same thing. This method of measurement may not be appropriate
in this case study since the subjects had no experience of formal learning
of English and had no opportunity to form any idea of how lemmas might
be formed in the new language. Following the example of Milton and
Vassiliu (2000), uptake in this study was counted in types. The vocabulary
types and tokens for each episode and in total are shown in Table 16-1.

Table 16-1: Vocabulary types and tokens in the Peppa Pig episodes.

Episode Types Tokens

colours 172 535
clothes 129 373
lunch 136 431
pancake 166 438
Total 603 1,777

Overwhelmingly the vocabulary comprised high frequency words with

86% from the first 1,000 most frequent words in English and a further 6%
from the second 1,000 most frequent words. The vocabulary contained in
the four episodes appeared to be highly concrete and imageable as defined
by Milton (2009).
The results of the uptake of the target words is shown in Table 16-2
below. Preschoolers could remember about half of the target vocabulary in
each episode and about one third of the total 21 target words without
explicit instruction but merely by watching the episodes. If this were to be
true of all the words in the corpus compiled for this study, then it suggests
that these learners may have acquired some 200 different English words
within a period of a little less than an hour and a half. Nothing in the
literature suggests uptake as impressive as this among older L2 learners or
even among L1 learners. This, in turn, can imply that if these words were
then formally instructed, contextualized and practised through activities,
the results could be even more impressive.
 Vocabulary Uptake from Peppa Pig 293

Table 16-2: Mean scores and standard deviations for all episodes.

Episodes (target words) Mean Score SD

colours (6 words) 2.48 1.39
snow (5 words) 1.80 0.98
lunch (5 words) 2.57 1.13
pancake (5 words) 2.00 1.14
Total (21 words) 7.66 3.12

What Kind of Words are Easier to Recall at that Age?

The figures above demonstrate how many of the target words from
each episode children recalled receptively. Further analysis can offer
assumptions of the kind of words that are easily recalled. The vast
majority of children recalled the words blue (73%) and pizza (87%).
Chocolate cake, albeit a multi-syllable word, was recalled by two thirds of
the children (67%), and snowman (40%) and egg (47%) were words that
were retained by almost half of the children. It appears that children were
more likely to recall words that have some relation to Greek (chocolate
cake, blue, pizza, etc.). The impact of cognates on learning vocabulary has
been well attested in the literature (e.g., Milton, 2009). These words are
also concrete and imageable and tend to be nouns and adjectives. The
results from Horst and Meara’s (1999) study of uptake from reading Lucky
Luke also showed that the subject demonstrated better learning of nouns
and adjectives which could be easily seen within the illustrations and
linked to a new lexical item, while there was less learning among, for
example, adverbs, where meanings are much harder to pick up.
The fact that the lexical content of the episodes comprised so many
high frequency items also suggests that learning is expedited by the
learners’ pre-existing conceptual framework. Learners in this study are not
searching to create wholly new concepts for blue and chocolate cake; they
are applying new labels to ideas they already have and where they can
easily find translation equivalents. This tendency is also noted in the
literature (Masrai & Milton, 2015). Words, which lie outside their
framework of knowledge, are not added to the lexicon so easily. For
example, children were better able to acquire the words egg or flour than
the word pancake although it occurred in the episode 15 times. This can be
because in the Greek context, eggs and flour are much more common than
pancake which would be more common within British or American
culture.
294 Chapter Sixteen

Moreover, the young learners in this study appeared to recognise

words that made an impression of colour or music and they could recall
exclamations like hurray! As previously suggested some children may be
‘referential’ and their early vocabulary includes mainly object names,
some verbs, proper names and adjectives, while other children are
‘expressive’ and they retain also social routines or formulae such as thank
you and stop it (Foster-Cohen, 1999; Nelson, 1981). The implication here
is that even at the early stages of acquisition whole phrases, lexical chunks
and formulae (Schmitt, 2000) should also be part of teaching and
exposure.
These considerations suggest that the rapid uptake seen in this study
may not be sustained into further episodes and onwards through the course
of learning a foreign language. The availability of frequent, imageable,
short and cognate words with readily available translation equivalents in
Greek, is likely to diminish over the course of L2 study and the speed of
progress is likely to slow down. Even within this study the target words
focused on words, which have qualities likely to make them easy to learn
thus over-estimating the rate of uptake.
Although the words used in the Peppa Pig series are generally highly
frequent in normal language, the frequency of occurrence within the
episodes does not seem to play a clear role in uptake. Thus, rainbow was
heard 18 times while snowball only once; yet both words were recognized
by 37% of the children. Snowman was repeated 14 times and was
recognized by 40% while both pancake (repeated 15 times) and lettuce
(repeated 10 times) only by 27%. The correlation between frequency of
occurrence and rate of learning was not found to be statistically significant
(r = .217, p = .344).
However, all children were able to recall family words, which were
introduced after each episode (mummy, daddy, brother) and could do it
after the second episode. Therefore, “lexical acquisition requires multiple
exposures to a word” (Schmitt, 2000, p. 137) and “recycling previously
met words in varied contexts and activities is essential to keep learnt
words active” (Cameron, 2001, p. 95), while there is only a 5%-14%
chance of retaining a word from one exposure (Nagy, 1997). What is also
remarkable is that all children remembered the plot of all episodes and
children who were older than five could recall some verbs as well.

Are there Gender Differences in the Uptake Scores?

Dale (1976) claims that in preschool and early school years there are
few differences or no differences at all between boys and girls. Previous
 Vocabulary Uptake from Peppa Pig 295

studies conducted mainly with older groups have demonstrated superiority

of girls in all language aspects (Asher & Garcia, 1969; Powell, 1979)
although the opposite was found by other researchers (Gomes da Costaǡ
mith, & Whiteley, 1975; Snow & Hoefnagel-Hoehle, 1977). In this study
boys outperformed girls and in total the difference was statistically
significant (r = -443, p = .014) and especially in the ‘lunch’ episode (r = -
444, p = .018). According to recent studies, boys appear to be better in
visuo-spatial abilities whereas girls outperform boys in verbal memory
skills (Vecchi, Phillips, & Cornoldi, 2001). The nature of this intervention
(watching cartoons using visual rather than verbal skills) may relate to
these findings.

Does Age Influence Uptake Scores?

When the difference between the age groups was examined, it was
found that there were statistically significant differences. When examining
4- and 5-year olds, 4-year olds scored higher in all but one episode, but the
differences were not statistically significant. However, in the ‘rainbow’
episode where 5-year olds outperformed 4-year olds the difference was
statistically significant (t (9000) = -4,392, p = .002).
Between the 5- and 6-year olds, 6-year olds scored higher in all
episodes and the difference was statistically significant (t (25,993) = -
3,657, p = .001). Statistically significant differences emerged also in the
‘snow’ episode (t (16,208) = -2,375, p = .030) and the ‘pancake’ episode (t
(20,451) = -2,670, p = .015) where again the 6-year olds outperformed the
5-year olds. Finally, very subtle differences were found in the scores of 4-
and 6-year olds and only in the ‘rainbow’ episode a statistically significant
result occurred (t (14,000) = -4,063, p = 0.001) where once again the 6-
year olds scored higher than the 4-year olds. The particular results are in
agreement with previous studies on language learning from TV
programmes (Kokla 2013; Linebarger & Kosanic, 2001; Rice &
Woodsmall, 1988; Rush, 2011) which found that older children learnt
more words than younger ones.
The results presented here are interesting and confirm previous studies
in the field. For example, Rice, Huston, Truglio and Wright (1990) argued
that Sesame Street contributes to young children’s vocabulary
development, especially to children between 3 and 5 years of age where a
rapid oral language development was noted. Linebarger and Kosanic
(2001 cited in Kokla, 2013) assessed 3-year olds and 4-year olds on their
knowledge of Spanish before and after watching Dora the Explorer. The
children’s Spanish vocabulary had significantly increased and this was
296 Chapter Sixteen

more evident in 4-year olds. Kokla (2013) conducting a similar study with
Dora The Explorer in Greece found both receptive and productive
vocabulary gains in English as a foreign language, with statistically
significant higher scores in the receptive vocabulary.

Conclusion
This study was an attempt to examine the vocabulary that is retained in
preschoolers’ short-term memory through watching Peppa Pig. To this
end, four episodes were shown to children without any instruction or
explanation and then their receptive learning of a set of words was
assessed. The results showed that children were able to recognize many of
the words they were exposed to and sometimes even if they had heard
them only once. While the method of testing employed may have led to
some over-estimation, the results are still remarkable. It seems that these
young learners with no instruction were able to learn as much as a third of
all the vocabulary they were exposed to. Uptake could well be over 100
words per hour although there are reasons for thinking that this rate of
uptake is likely not to continue further in their study of EFL. Nonetheless,
it is impressive learning compared to the 3 or 4 words per classroom hour
reported in Milton and Meara (1998) or the 1 to 2 words per day noted by
Milton and Treffers-Daller (2013) among native speaking learners
(although the L1 learners will be simultaneously building the conceptual
elements of the lexicon and not simply adding new labels to existing
concepts).
It might be suggested too that while these learners were identified as
speaking only Greek, they would have had considerable exposure to
English available through TV and songs and the other media which may
have primed them with some of the vocabulary items they were tested on.
This study also showed some interesting results regarding the kind of
words preschoolers were able to learn. Like many other L2 learners they
appeared to make use of cognates and there were plenty of these to draw
on. They also favoured short, concrete words with easily available
translation equivalents in Greek. Long term and follow up studies should
be conducted so as to reach firmer conclusions regarding the effectiveness
of this medium of vocabulary exposure. Can the rate of progress seen in
this study continue with further access to TV series like Peppa Pig, for
example? How do the various word difficulty factors inter-relate in the
process of acquisition? Nonetheless, the results of this study suggest this
issue appears to be a promising area for research.
What can be concluded confidently is that comic series and Peppa Pig
 Vocabulary Uptake from Peppa Pig 297

in particular can be a successful EFL tool, which can be utilised by all

stakeholders (teachers, curriculum designers and parents). It appears to
involve natural, implicit and subconscious exposure to relatively authentic
language and in a format that the preschoolers can access for vocabulary
learning. It includes words which are international and which learners are
already familiar with (e.g., taxi, ball, computer) as this can only boost self-
confidence (Alexiou & Konstantakis, 2009) and further promote success
in learning the target language. While the rate of progress in learning
noted in this study seems unlikely to continue, it appears, nonetheless, an
effective start to the process of foreign language learning.

References
Alexiou, T. (2015). Comic series and ‘Peppa Pig’: A hidden treasure in
language learning. In M. Tzakosta (Ed.), Language learning and
teaching in multi-cultural environments (pp. 187-206). Athens, Greece:
Gutenberg.
Alexiou, T., & Konstantakis, N. (2009). Lexis for young learners: Are we
heading for frequency or just common sense? In A. Tsangalidis (Ed.),
Selection of papers for the 18th symposium of theoretical and applied
linguistics (pp. 59-66). Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki.
Asher, J., & García, R. (1969). The optimal age to learn a foreign
language. Modern Language Journal, 53(5), 334-341.
Bullock, A. (1975). The Bullock report: A language for life. Department of
Education and Science (DES). London: HMSO.
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Coady, J., & Huckin, T. (1997). Second language vocabulary acquisition.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cross, D. (1992). A practical handbook of language teaching. Hemel
Hempstead: Prentice Hall.
Dale, P. (1976). Language development: Structure and function. New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
DeKeyser, R. M. (2000). The robustness of critical period effects in
second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition,
22(4), 499–533.
Ellis, R. (2008). SLA research and language teaching. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Foster-Cohen, S. H. (1999). An introduction to child language
development. Essex: Longman.
298 Chapter Sixteen

Gathercole, S. E., Willis, C. S., Emslie, H., & Baddeley A. D. (1992).

Phonological memory and vocabulary development during the early
school years: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 28(5),
887-898.
Gomes da Costa, B., Smith, T. M. F., & Whiteley, D. (1975). German
language attainment: A sample survey of universities and colleges in
the UK. Heidelberg: Julius Groos, Verlag.
Halliwell, S. (1992). Teaching English in the primary classroom. UK:
Pearson Educational Ltd.
Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1975). Incidental teaching of language in the
preschool. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 8(4), 411–420.
Horst, M., & Meara, P. M. (1999). Test of a model for predicting second
language lexical growth through reading. The Canadian Modern
Language Review/La Revue canadiennne des langues vivantes, 56(2),
308-328.
Hsiao, D. (2005) CSCL theories. Retrieved from:
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/csclstudent/Dhsiao/theories.html#construct
Huntly, A. (2006). Art interrupting advertising: A critique of the
educational paradigms of Linny the Guinea Pig and Dora the Explorer.
Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 4(1), 59-
72.
Kokla, A. (2013). Dora the Explorer: A TV character or a preschoolers’
foreign language teacher? Master's dissertation, Aristotle University,
Thessaloniki, Greece.
Krashen, S. D., Long, M., & Scarcella, R. (1979). Age, rate and eventual
attainment in second language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly, 13(4),
573-582.
Krcmar, M. (2011). Word learning in very young children from infant-
directed DVDs. Journal of Communication, 61(4), 780-794.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2008). Techniques and principles in teaching. New
York: OUP.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Long, M. H. (1991). An introduction to second
language acquisition research. Essex: Longman.
Laufer, B. 2010. Form focused instruction in second language vocabulary
learning. In R. Chacón-Beltrán, C. Abello-Contesse, M. M.
Torreblanca-López & M. D. López-Jiménez (Eds.), Further insights
into non-native vocabulary teaching and learning (pp. 15-27). Bristol,
Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual Matters.
Lenneberg, E. H. (1967). Biological foundations of language. New York:
Wiley and Sons.
 Vocabulary Uptake from Peppa Pig 299

Linebarger, D. L., & Walker, D. (2005). Infants’ and toddlers’ television

viewing and language outcomes. American Behavioral Scientist, 48(5),
624-645.
Long, M. H. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second
language acquisition. In W. C. Ritchie & T. K. Bahtia (Eds.),
Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 413–468). New York:
Academic Press.
Mayberry, R., & Lock, E. (2003). Age constraints on first versus second
language acquisition: Evidence for linguistic plasticity and epigenesist.
Brain and Language, 87(1), 369-384.
McDonough, S. (1981). Psychology in foreign language teaching.
London: Routledge.
Masrai, A., & Milton, J. (2015). An investigation of the relationship
between L1 lexical translation equivalence and L2 vocabulary
acquisition. International Journal of English Linguistics, 5(2), 1-7.
Meara, P., Lightbown, P., & Halter, R.H. (1997). Classrooms as lexical
environments. Language Teaching Research, 1(1), 28-47.
Milton, J. (2008). Vocabulary uptake from informal learning tasks. The
Language Learning Journal 36(2), 227–238.
—. (2009). Measuring second language vocabulary acquisition. Bristol:
Multilingual Matters.
Milton, J., & Garbi, A. (2000). Collaborative foreign language learning on
the internet for primary age children: Problems and a solution.
Educational Technology and Society, 3(3), 286-292.
Milton, J., Jonsen, S., Hirst, S., & Lindenburn, S. (2012). Foreign
language vocabulary development through activities in an online 3D
environment. The Language Learning Journal, 40(1), 99-112.
Milton, J., & Meara, P. (1998). Are the British really bad at learning
foreign languages? The Language Learning Journal, 18(1), 68-76.
Milton, J., & Treffers-Daller, J. (2013). Vocabulary size revisited: Native
speakers’ vocabularies and the link with academic achievement.
Applied Linguistics Review, 4(1), 151-172.
Milton, J., & Vassiliu, P. (2000). Frequency and the lexis of low-level
EFL texts. In K. Nicolaidis & M. Mattheoudakis (Eds.), Proceedings
of the 13th Symposium in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (pp.
444-455). Thessaloniki, Greece: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Moon, J. (2000). Children learning English. Oxford: Macmillan
Heinemann.
Muñoz, C., Pérez-Vidal, C., Celaya, M. L., Navés, T., Torras, M. R.,
Tragant, E., & Victori, M. (2002). En torno a los efectos de la edad en
el aprendizaje escolar de una lengua extranjera. Eduling. Revista-
300 Chapter Sixteen

fòrum sobre plurilingüisme i educació. Publicació electrònica

semestral de l'ICE de la Universitat de Barcelona 1, 14 March 2006.
Retrieved from:
http://www.ub.es/ice/portaling/eduling/eng/n_1/munoz-art.htm.
Nagy, W. E. (1997). On the role of context in first-and-second language
vocabulary learning. In N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy (Eds.),
Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp. 64-83).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Naigles, L. R., & Mayeux, L. (2001). Television as incidental language
teacher. In D. G. Singer & J. L. Singer (Eds.), Handbook of children
and the media (pp. 135-152). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language.
Cambridge: CUP.
Nelson, K. (1981). Individual differences in language development:
Implications for development and language. Developmental
Psychology, 17(2), 170-187.
Oesterreich, L. M. S. (1995). Ages & stages-five-year-olds. Lowa State
University: National Network for Child Care (NNCC). Retrieved from:
http://www.nncc.org/Child.Dev/ages.stages.5y.html
Oyama, S. (1976). A sensitive period for the acquisition of non-native
phonological system. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 5(3), 261-
284.
Park, S., & Lim, J. (2007). Promoting positive emotion in multimedia
learning using visual illustrations. Journal of Educational Multimedia
and Hypermedia, 16(2), 141-162.
Powell, R. C. (1969). Sex differences in language learning: A review of
the evidence. Audio-Visual Language Journal, 17(1), 19-24.
Rhodes, N., & Puhfahl, I. (2003). Teaching foreign languages to children
through videos. ERIC Digest, EDO-FL-03-10. Washington DC: ERIC
Clearinghouse on languages and linguistics.
Rice, M. L., & Woodsmall, L. (1988). Lessons from television: Children’s
word learning when viewing. Child Development, 59(2), 420-429.
Rice, M. L., Huston, A. C., Truglio, R., & Wright, J. (1990). Words from
‘Sesame Street’: Learning vocabulary while viewing. Developmental
Psychology, 26(3), 421-428.
Rideout, V. J., Vandewater, E. A., & Wartella, E. A. (2003). Zero to six:
Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation.
Rush, A. (2011). Can toddlers learn novel words from educational videos?
A study using repeat exposure to assess infant’s use and understanding
of television. Master's dissertation, Wakeforest University, USA.
 Vocabulary Uptake from Peppa Pig 301

Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge: CUP.

Singleton, D. (1989). Language acquisition: The age factor. Clevedon,
Multilingual Matters.
Snow, C., & Hoefnagel-Hohle, M. (1982). The critical period for language
acquisition: Evidence from second language learning. In S. Krashen,
R. Scarcella, & M. Long (Eds.), Issues in second language research
(pp. 93-113). London: Newbury House.
Snow, C., & Hoefnagel-Hoehle, M. (1977). Age differences in the
pronunciation of foreign sounds. Language and Speech, 20(4), 357-
365.
Stern, H. H., Burstall, C., & Harley, B. (1975). French from age eight or
eleven? Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
Tang, E., & Nesi, H. (2003). Teaching vocabulary in two Chinese
classrooms: Intensive and extensive exposure in Hong Kong and
Guangzhou. Language Teaching Research, 7(1), 65-97.
Vecchi, T., Phillips, L. H., & Cornoldi, C. (2001). Individual differences
in visuo-spatial working memory. In M. Denis, R. H. Logie, C.
Cornoldi, M. De Vega, & J. Engelkamp (Eds), Imagery, language and
visuo-spatial thinking (pp. 29-51). Sussex: Psychology Press.
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

MEASURING CHILD SECOND LANGUAGE

VOCABULARY ACQUISITION
THROUGH IMMERSION IN SCHOOL

JAMES MILTON AND SHADAN ROGHANI

Abstract
Vocabulary uptake among young learners in classroom settings is well
documented. However, research that explains the uptake of vocabulary
from young learners in immersion settings appears non-existent. This
study examines the vocabulary growth of an ab initio English as a foreign
language (EFL) learner from Persia, acquiring English solely from
immersion in a British school. It emerges that the learner makes very rapid
initial progress, with learning focussed on the most frequent vocabulary
ranges, but the rate of acquisition tails off rapidly. A frequency-based test
appears able to capture this kind of knowledge, as it does among
second/foreign language learners. After an academic year the learner
probably knows enough vocabulary to be orally proficient. However, when
compared with an English native speaker of the same age, and other
Persian speakers in the same school, it is clear there are significant
differences with native speaker knowledge both in the quantity and quality
of the words learned, and that these differences will persist over many
years. The assumption made by his teachers, that after a year such learners
are effectively native-like, appears quite wrong. This deficiency has the
potential to compromise the learners’ ultimate educational attainment.

Introduction
It is common for children who move country to find themselves in a
classroom where they know none of the language of education and they
may receive very little, sometimes no, formal instruction in the language
 Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 303

they are immersed in. Such young learners in British schools can appear to
learn English very rapidly indeed and are often assumed to function like
their native speaking colleagues once communicability has been achieved
and they can survive without obvious difficulty in the classroom.
Appearances can be deceptive, of course, and as Paradis (2007) points out
these young learners are comparatively little researched in terms of second
language acquisition issues when compared with more adult foreign
language learners in classrooms. We have little to tell us how these
learners acquire their language so quickly, how varied the learners are, and
whether they really are strictly comparable to natives in every aspect of
language knowledge and performance. Child second language learners are
more widely researched in the USA, it seems, and here it appears that
these child second language learners are often found to be significantly
different from native speakers of the same age particularly in their
vocabulary knowledge (e.g., Kohnert & Windsor, 2004). Deficits in the
learners’ lexis, and consequently their reading ability in the language of
education, are thought to impact significantly on subsequent educational
attainment (e.g., Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997). In the British context,
however, there is little comparable research to tell us whether similar
difficulties occur here. The challenge presented by learners working
through the British education system in English as a foreign language is a
growing one. The number of children who fall into this category have
increased by a third since 2003 and about one in six British school children
now falls into this category (Geay, McNally, & Telhaj, 2012).
Investigating language development from the perspective of the
lexicon ought to be a useful starting point for research among these
learners. It allows direct comparison with existing studies in this area, of
course, which often have lexical concerns tied into them. Vocabulary
knowledge in a second language is linked closely with performance in the
four skills (e.g., Stæhr, 2008; Milton, Wade, & Hopkins, 2010) and this
allows judgements about the development of learners’ language
knowledge and performance generally to be made. But vocabulary
measurement has other very useful characteristics. One is the way it can be
investigated from the point of view of size. The measurement of
vocabulary size ought to allow direct and meaningful comparison between
learners, and a quantification of learner progress, in a way that is not
possible for other aspects of language knowledge and performance. This is
a very useful characteristic if the intention is to make a comparison of
second language learner knowledge with native speakers to evaluate how
similar they are. The second is that vocabulary measurements can be
linked to a theory of acquisition. Tests of vocabulary knowledge are often
304 Chapter Seventeen

based on frequency data (for example, Nation’s (2001) Vocabulary Levels

Test (VLT) and Meara & Milton’s (2003) X-Lex). These tests produce
believable and reliable results not least because vocabulary learning, at
least among foreign language learners, can be demonstrated to associate
strongly with word frequency (Milton, 2007; Edwards & Collins, 2013).
While vocabulary size testing is widely researched in English as a
foreign language (EFL) acquisition in adults, this research, and the models
and techniques it has created, appears not to have crossed over into
research in monolingual or bilingual young learners in schools. For
example the Peabody picture test (Dunn & Dunn, 1997), which is in use
with young children, links the test items it contains to a cline of observed
difficulty, but not to a comprehensive model of the developing lexicon or
to an estimate of size. Vocabulary size testing methods in the EFL are now
sufficiently robust, however, for estimates of knowledge to be made even
among low level learners and among learners where progress by any other
method would be hard to determine convincingly.
The intention in this chapter, therefore, is to examine English language
vocabulary growth among child subjects immersed in a British Junior
School and learning the language from zero knowledge, and to test
whether the frequency based methods, so widely used in second language
(L2) testing, might be applicable to young learners from varying language
backgrounds in schools.

Background
Vocabulary Size and Growth in Native Speakers

If the lexicons of learners are to be compared with the lexicons of

native speakers, then it is essential to have details of the vocabulary size of
native speakers and there is over a century of research, which has tried to
make these measurements. A feature of this research is that often the
estimates are very large; early estimates could be in the hundreds of
thousands (e.g., Seashore & Eckerson, 1940). Such figures were made on
the basis of dictionary counts where the estimate could be inflated by
counting commonly derived forms of a single word as separate words.
More recent estimates are in the region of about 60,000 lemmatised words
(e.g., Nagy & Herman, 1987; White, Graves, & Slater, 1990; Aitchison,
2003) and these assume that words, at least in English, are learned and
stored as a base form to which regular rules for inflection or derivation can
be applied. Knowledge of the base form implies at least receptive
knowledge of these other regularly created forms. This figure, in turn,
 Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 305

gives rise to the assumption that learners in childhood will add about 3,000
base words per year to their lexicons (e.g., Graves, 2006; Nagy, 1988;
Marzano, 2004). This implies that vocabulary growth is regular and free
from the surges and plateaus, which often characterise the reports of
vocabulary learning in L2 (e.g., Laufer, 1988).
Estimates of this size have a significant influence on our assumptions
about how these words are learned. With learning on this scale, something
like ten base words per day, it is unclear how so many words can be
encountered, explicitly noticed and learned. It is assumed, therefore, that
learning is implicit, that the learning of words is not necessarily deliberate
and intentional, and that much of this learning comes from reading since
volumes of infrequent vocabulary are more available in writing than they
are in speech (Nagy, 1988). Beck and McKeown (cited in Duke &
Carlisle, 2011, pp. 206-207) suggest that only about 10% of the 3,000
words which schoolchildren are believed to learn annually can be
explained by explicit learning in school. Herein lies the potential for
inequality which writers in the USA fear. Learners who arrive at school
with large vocabularies can access more reading material, and encounter
and learn more words, than learners with small vocabularies. They,
therefore, grow even larger vocabularies enabling them to succeed at
school, while the learners with small vocabularies will read more slowly,
will read less and grow consequently smaller vocabularies, and so are
locked into a cycle of failure. This is known as the Matthew effect
(Stanovich, 1986), although it is not at all clear that this effect can be
observed empirically (Shaywitz, Holford, Holahan, Fletcher, Stuebing,
Francis, & Shaywitz, 1995).
There are studies, however, which challenge these assumptions of very
large native vocabulary sizes and implicit learning through reading.
D’Anna, Zechmeister and Hall’s (1991) study of US undergraduates
suggests that educated native speakers have a defining vocabulary of about
14,000 lemmatised words and the authors suggest that this may actually be
an over-estimate. Milton and Treffers-Daller’s (2013) study of UK
undergraduates suggests a defining knowledge of about 10,000 lemmatised
words on entry to university and 11,000 on leaving. These studies suggest
an uptake of vocabulary of only about 500 or 600 words per year or about
2 words per day, a figure which is entirely explainable through explicit
learning. Milton and Treffers-Daller’s study, like Shaywitz et al. (1995),
finds no evidence of a link with reading habits to suggest that vocabulary
size is gained through extensive reading.
Studies of child learners, when the lexicon is still growing, are
comparatively rare. Anglin (1993) suggests learners in school Grade 1, age
306 Chapter Seventeen

6 or 7, knew an average of about 3,100 base words. By Grade 5, learners

aged 10 or 11, the average vocabulary size had risen to about 7,500 base
words, and these figures suggest a rate of uptake of about 3 words per day,
or maybe 1,000 words per year. Biemiller and Slonim’s (2001) careful
study bears out many of Anglin’s general conclusions. Their normative
group in Grade 1, age 6 to 7, knew on average just under 3,000 base words
rising to just under 8,500 by Grade 5. While there is variation, uptake
appears to be 2 to 3 words per day, or 600 to 700 words per year during
the early stages of formal school instruction. Both these studies suggest a
vocabulary size in adulthood, which would be much closer to the smaller
estimates, between 10,000 and 15,000, reported above, than the larger ones
of 60,000 or more.

Vocabulary in Bilingual Children and L2 Learners

The vocabulary of bilingual children is generally thought to be smaller
in each language than that of monolinguals (for overviews see Bialystok,
2001; Bialystok, Luk, Peets, & Yang, 2010; Oller & Eilers, 2002).
Bilinguals use their languages for different purposes, one language in the
home and another at school, for example, and they do not need translation
equivalents for all the words in their two languages. Most bilinguals are
also dominant in one or the other language. Treffers-Daller (2011)
observes that vocabulary differences can be seen in both oral or written
production; and bilinguals produce text, which is richer in one language
than the other. Additionally, since bilinguals are growing two vocabularies
simultaneously where the combined vocabulary total is considerably
greater than that of monolingual learners, there may be a delay in the
acquisition of each individual lexicon (Pearson & Fernandez, 1994).
Among young learners who begin the acquisition of the second
language sometime after the first is underway, differences will often be a
product of the time spent learning the second language since children who
transfer to a second language environment may never have encountered
the language at all, while their monolingual counterparts will already have
spent years in acquisition. These learners are thought to catch up but, as
Paradis (2007) observes, vocabulary acquisition is a gradual process and
this process may take years. Hakuta, Goto-Butler and Witt (2000) suggest
that it took 5 years of schooling before the English L2 learners they
observed began to score in the native speaker range in standardised
measures of oral proficiency.
Among L2 learners the lexicon is often considered the biggest task in
learning they have to undertake and, where the L2 lexicon is small, the
 Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 307

biggest obstacle to communication and comprehension. As Meara (1980)

has pointed out, “most learners identify the acquisition of vocabulary as
their greatest single source of problems” (p. 221). There is a strand of
research in L2 acquisition that attempts to quantify what constitutes a
sufficient number of words for different types of performance, in EFL in
particular. For participating in an everyday conversation it is assumed a
learner needs 2,000-3,000 of the most frequent English words (Adolphs &
Schmitt, 2003), and 5,000 words to begin to read authentic texts (Schmitt,
2007). In Dutch it is suggested that around 10,000 words are needed for
starting an academic degree course (Hazenberg & Hulstijn, 1996). Nation
(2006) also investigated the vocabulary size of a group of highly educated
L2-users of English who were studying advanced degrees through the
medium of English and found that they knew around 8,000 to 9,000 word-
families.
Studies in L2 acquisition provide a model, albeit primitive, of the how
the growing lexicon is constructed. It appears that learners are heavily
influenced by frequency and there is a strong tendency for learners to
acquire the most frequently occurring vocabulary before less frequent
words. This means that, in English, learners acquire the highly frequent
structural vocabulary early in the learning process and extend their
knowledge of lexical vocabulary over a much longer period of time.
Milton and Treffers-Daller’s (2013) study of English native speakers and
bilinguals observes the same tendency in native speakers. This produces
what is called a frequency profile where the quantity of word knowledge is
plotted in frequency bands as in Figure 17-1 and known words are
concentrated in the most frequent bands.

5000
words known

4000
(max 5000)

3000
2000
1000
0
5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 low freq
frequency bands

Figure 17-1: Frequency profile in English native and bilingual speakers (Source:
Milton & Treffers-Daller, 2013, p. 162).

Frequency profiles may provide information on individual differences

in the nature of learning and Meara, Milton and Lorenzo-Dus (2001)
308 Chapter Seventeen

report learners whose vocabulary knowledge appears to defy the impact of

frequency in the most frequent bands and whose profiles have unexplained
dips in the profile. The relationship between frequency of occurrence and
acquisition does not seem to have been explicitly investigated in studies of
young first language (L1) learners. However, Dale and O’Rourke (1981)
(as reported in Biemiller & Slonim, 2001) observed some ordering of word
learning. Biemiller and Slonim (2001) investigated the possibility that
word frequency may explain variation in this common sequence, but no
connection was observed.

Issues of Methodology in Testing Vocabulary Size

The influence of frequency on learning is an important issue since it
can, and often does in measurements of L2 learning provide a rationale for
the construction of vocabulary size tests, which justify their selection of
vocabulary for testing in terms of a principled sample across frequency
bands. Nation’s VLT (2001) and Meara and Milton’s X-Lex (2003) are
examples of this. In estimates of L1 vocabulary size, Goulden, Nation and
Read (1990) use Thorndike and Lorge’s (1944) frequency count as the
basis of their vocabulary size tests although they also apply the criterion
that the words in their test must also be in Webster’s Third New
International Dictionary (1961). They suggest that the overwhelming
majority of vocabulary known by English speakers falls within the first
25,000 words and that testing beyond this level of frequency may not
usefully improve the estimate of size, which emerges from the test.
There are some obvious reasons for wanting to base a test of size on
frequency information. One reason is that it avoids many of the potential
difficulties associated with dictionary counts. Using a dictionary may well
mean that the estimate arrived at is dependent on the size of the dictionary
used (Lorge & Chall, 1963) and may also be prone to over-estimation. A
second reason is that large dictionaries, which can contain quantities of
historic and highly specialist words, may not be suitable for a vocabulary
size test intended for young learners. Biemiller and Slonim use Dale and
O’Rourke’s (1981) Living Word Vocabulary list of some 44,000 word
meanings for their research. This list is sequenced to reflect the grade level
at which each of the meanings is known by 60-80% of children in their
sample and appears very suitable for estimating vocabulary size among
school learners. Of course, much of Dale and O’Rourke’s list must be
highly frequent as language users cannot communicate without knowledge
of this highly frequent vocabulary, but this raises the question whether a
test based on a good frequency-based list might be more suitable for a
 Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 309

wider range of learners, avoiding the idiosyncrasies that a list drawn from
a single educational system might introduce.
A third reason is that dictionaries are not lemmatised although it is
considered that since word knowledge is based on root or base words then
a count of lemmatised base words or word families is most appropriate
(Vermeer, 2004). Dale and O’Rourke’s list, it should be noted, includes
base words and derivations so that without editing it cannot provide an
estimate of base word knowledge comparable with most of the more recent
estimates of first and second language vocabulary size. Frequency lists,
especially in English, are available in lemmatised form (e.g., Kilgariff,
2006) and scores on tests, based on lists of this kind, have been shown to
correlate well with educational performance in the four skills (e.g., Staehr,
2008; Milton et al., 2010), and with educational attainment more generally
such as degree class (Milton & Treffers-Daller, 2013).
There are also reasons, however, for questioning whether most
generally used frequency lists are suitable for testing young learners.
Frequency lists tend to be heavily based on written language sources
which is likely to be qualitatively as well as quantitatively different from
the oral language from which young learners will gain their language
(Milton, 2009). The oral language, which young learners learn from,
makes much greater use of the most frequently occurring lexis in English
than written language (Adolphs & Schmitt, 2003). Consequently, it can be
assumed that learners can become fluent in oral language with a smaller
vocabulary size than is required for fluency in many written forms of the
language. Child language too contains many items that are simply not
relevant beyond the realm of childhood and therefore feature much less in
written language and occur low down in frequency lists. Most English
speaking children learn the names for the young of animals, for example a
tadpole is a young frog, but until they have children of their own native
speakers may have no reason for using or encountering the word tadpole
thereafter. Nonetheless, it would seem preferable to base a test on a
principled sample of vocabulary linked to a demonstrable model of
acquisition, as with frequency, rather than an adventitiously arrived at
collection of words.

The Study
The broad aims of this paper are to examine English language
vocabulary growth among child subjects learning from scratch immersed
in a British Junior School, and to examine whether the frequency based
methods, so widely used in L2 testing, are relevant and applicable to these
310 Chapter Seventeen

learners. Within these broad aims are a number of more specific

objectives:

1. To test the effect of frequency in the uptake of young monolingual,

bilingual and immersion learners of EFL and provide, therefore, a
justification of frequency-based testing in this population.
2. To track vocabulary growth in an unaided young learner in the first
academic year of immersion using a frequency-based test.
3. To compare the vocabulary knowledge of an EFL learner after a
single year of school immersion with monolingual and bilingual
counterparts in the same class.

The Participants
The principal subject of this investigation was a 7-year-old boy
(Participant A) who moved to Britain from Iran at the end of September
2011. He started school classes in Year 4 in October 2011. He was a first
language speaker of Persian who spoke no other language before moving
to the UK and at the time of entering school had mastered only greetings
formulae in English. His EFL knowledge was, therefore, assumed to be at
or around zero at the start of school. The school provided 15 minutes per
week of one-to-one teacher support to help him with his English
development.
Additionally, three further schoolboys were tested all of them in the
same school Year as Participant A, and 8 years old at the start of the
period of investigation:

x A monolingual native speaker of English (Participant B).

x A more advanced EFL learner than Participant A (Participant C).
This participant was from Canada and he spoke French at home and
began his immersion in English school in September 2010.
x A bilingual Persian/English speaker born in the UK to Iranian
parents (Participant D). This participant spoke Persian at home but
all other activities outside the home from playgroups to nursery
school to formal state school were carried out through the medium
of English.
 Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 311

The Tests
To provide an estimate of vocabulary size, and to gain information on
the frequency of the lexis learned, the participants were tested using three
English versions of Meara and Milton’s (2003) X-Lex vocabulary size test.
The X-Lex test draws a sample of words from the most frequent 5,000
lemmatised words in English and estimates a testee’s overall knowledge of
this vocabulary. It is a Yes/No test that presents learners with 100 test
words and learners have to indicate whether they know each word. The
test also includes 20 false words which are designed to look and sound like
words in the target language which allow the scores which emerge to be
adjusted for guessing and overestimation of knowledge. The tests give an
overall score of words known out of the most frequent 5,000 words. The
test is simple in format and comparatively large numbers of items can be
tested in a short space of time. Results on these tests are usually very
reliable (David, 2008). An illustration of the format of this type of test is
given in Figure 17-2.

Please look at these words. Some of these words are real English words
and some are invented but are made to look like real words. Please tick
the words that you know or can use. Here is an example.

;dog
Thank you for your help.

before cup normal impress antique kennard

Figure 17-2: Example of the X-Lex test (Source: English version from Milton,
2009, p. 254).

Qualitative assessment of A’s vocabulary knowledge and that of the

other participants is provided by an analysis of the frequency profiles
which are obtainable from the X-Lex test.

Procedure
Participant A was tested each month between February and July.
Testing was not attempted earlier in the learning process to avoid the
difficulties and negative impact of subjecting the learner, at a very difficult
time, to an intervention where he would not know the overwhelming
312 Chapter Seventeen

majority of what he was being tested on. After four months in class,
however, it was felt he was becoming sufficiently confident and
communicative for the results of the test to become meaningful without
being intimidating. His mother, who was also the assessor, tested him
monthly at home. Firstly, the assessor read each word and asked the
subject to give the meaning of that word. The assessor accepted answers
such as synonyms, explanations in English or Persian and illustrations of
correct use as correct answers. The participant was told that the number of
correct answers was not important and it was just research to measure the
words he did know. The participant was not tested on the false words in
the X-Lex test since this was considered unnecessary. Participants B, C
and D were tested using the same tests and procedure in July.

Results
Vocabulary Knowledge and Frequency

The mean scores from the four participants tested in July, on each of
the five frequency bands in the X-Lex test are given in Table 17-1.

Table 17-1: X-Lex vocabulary scores divided by frequency band

among the 4 participants.

Frequency bands
Participant 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
A EFL learner (first year) 917 500 483 300 165
B Monolingual English 967 833 800 580 617
native speaker
C EFL learner (second 950 583 700 385 300
year)
D Bilingual 983 867 800 550 365

The relationship between a word’s frequency and the likelihood of it

being learned becomes clearer if this information is presented as a graph
so the vocabulary profiles of the learners can be viewed and this is done in
Figure 17-3.
 Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 313

1000

800
A
600
B
400
C
200 D
0
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000

Figure 17-3: X-Lex vocabulary scores divided by frequency band among the four
participants in graph format.

The Development of X-Lex Scores in Participant A

The growth of scores in Participant A on the three X-Lex tests, and
therefore an estimate of vocabulary size, over the period of testing is
shown in Table 17-2.

Table 17-2: X-Lex scores from the three test versions taken by
Participant A.

X-Lex February March April May June July

Version 1 950 1400 1900 2300 2500 2550
Version 2 850 1400 1600 2200 2450 2450
Version 3 900 1350 1600 2000 2150 2250
Mean 900 1383 1700 2166 2366 2416

It will be seen that the 3 different tests give consistently similar

estimates suggesting the tests are working well and reliably. The scores
also reveal a pattern of growth in vocabulary size over the testing period,
however, growth is not straight-line and as learning progresses the scale of
monthly growth diminishes and appears to be plateauing at around 2,500
lemmatised words. This is clearly visible in Figure 17-4 where the mean
scores are charted as a histogram.
314 Chapter Seventeen

5000
The mean number of known

4000
3000
2000
1000
words

Months

Figure 17-4: Mean X-Lex scores for Participant A between February and July.

X-Lex Scores in Other Bilingual and Native Speaking Children

The total mean scores on the X-Lex test by the other participants in the
study, taken in July, are recorded in Table 17-3.

Table 17-3: X-Lex scores in immersion learners, a bilingual and a

monolingual child.

Participant A B C D
EFL learner Monolingual EFL learner Bilingual
(first year) English (second year)
X-Lex
Version 1 2550 3700 2700 3500
Version 2 2450 3650 2950 3500
Version 3 2250 4050 3100 3700
Mean 2416 3800 2916 3566

Again, it will be seen that the 3 different tests give consistently similar
estimates suggesting the tests are working well and are providing
believable estimates of vocabulary size, at least within the 5,000 word-
range covered by the test.
 Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 315

Discussion
The Effect of Frequency in Learning
The vocabulary profiles of all learners (Table 17-3 and Figure 17-4) in
this study show a downward left to right trend. There is a strong frequency
effect therefore, a tendency to learn the most frequent words before the
less frequent. This is a trend, of course, and less frequent words are
learned alongside the highly frequent words for the frequency lists. Three
versions of the X-Lex frequency-based tests were used and with all four
participants and the tests produced consistently similar scores, which
suggests that this test, within its own parameters, is working consistently
and reliably. The presence of the frequency profile and the reliability of
the tests replicates the results among adolescents and adults reported in
David (2008) and Milton (2009). A general conclusion from these
observations is that they support the argument for the validity of
frequency-based tests as a generally applicable measure of vocabulary
knowledge in children. It would appear from Participant A, the immersion
learner of English, that even a 5,000-word test can capture most of his
English word knowledge in his first year of learning. A 5,000-word test
appears less suitable for the monolingual and other participants. It would
appear that, to accurately characterise these learners’ vocabulary sizes a
test that goes beyond the most frequent 5,000 words would be needed.

English Vocabulary Growth in an Unaided Young Learner

The results shown in Table 17-3 and Figure 17-4 suggest that
Participant A learned some 2,500 lemmatised words during the course of
the academic year, that is in nine or ten months. This figure appears
comparable to the estimates of about 3,000 words per year attributed to
children learning their native language that abound in the literature (e.g.,
Gleason, 2005). By any standard this appears to be good progress and
suggests considerable learning, more than is usually possible in the foreign
language classroom where figures of about 500 words appear (Cameron,
2001). The vocabulary uptake of Participant A in this study is also
comparable to adult uptake in foreign language immersion settings (Milton
& Meara, 1995). For comparison with the learners in the Anglin (1993)
and the Biemiller and Slonim (2001) studies, Participant A demonstrates
an uptake rate of about 8 words per day in the initial stages of learning,
much faster than observed in these studies. The figure of 2,500 may even
be a slight underestimate since it is likely that some knowledge of words
316 Chapter Seventeen

exists beyond the 5,000 words of the test. The angle of the profile
suggests, however, that this knowledge may be slight. The X-Lex tool has,
as with adult EFL learners, proved an efficient way of capturing and
quantifying this learner’s uptake of vocabulary and suggests that
immersion learners really can make very fast progress in learning the new
language of their environment through attendance in school.
The learning that occurs is not uniform and tails off as it reaches the
2,500-word mark so uptake at the end of this period is not as fast as it was
at the beginning. The 300 words or so learned each month between
February and April is reduced to 50 words between June and July (Table
17-3 and Figure 17-4). There may be two reasons for this to occur. One is
that at about 2,500 words the learner is approaching the levels of
knowledge needed for oral communication (Adophs & Schmitt, 2003) and
can probably handle the language needs of the classroom. The urgent
pressure to learn more, simply to understand what is going on around him,
will not be so great once this level of knowledge is attained. Even among
adult EFL learners knowing 2,500 out of the most frequent words in
English suggests a learner would be at or approaching an intermediate
level (Milton & Alexiou, 2009; Milton, 2010) and could begin to function
independently in the new language. The second reason why the speed of
vocabulary acquisition may tail off is that the learners in this study are
only 8 and 9 years old and will not, presumably, access the volumes of
language material in writing necessary to encounter greater numbers of
infrequent words. The opportunity to encounter words beyond the 3,000-
word range is more restricted in speech than in writing (e.g., Adolphs &
Schmitt, 2003) and so it is easier to encounter and learn these frequent
words than the infrequent ones. The significance of this plateau effect in
vocabulary learning, where the speed of learning is tailing off, is unclear
without understanding the vocabulary knowledge of other learners and of
the monolingual native speakers this learner will study alongside in school.

Comparison with Monolingual and Bilingual Counterparts

The monolingual native speaker of English (Participant B) had a score
of 3,800 on this test, some 50% higher than Participant A. This suggests
that although progress was good and Participant A must have been
functioning, at least in speech, he was some way short of native speaker
levels. The difference was very likely even greater since the X-Lex test
used in this study tests only the first 5,000 words, and that there is very
likely a ceiling effect in Participant B’s score as suggested by the angle of
the profile (Figure 17-3). Even allowing for a ceiling effect, Participant
 Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 317

B’s progress suggests an adult vocabulary size of 10,000 to 15,000

lemmatised words, as suggested in D’Anna et al. (1991), rather than the
60,000 suggested elsewhere in the literature.
Our immersion learner, Participant A, also had a smaller vocabulary in
English than the more extended learner and the bilingual speaker in this
study. Participant C, who had been in English immersion at school one
year longer than Participant A, had an estimated vocabulary size of 2,900,
that is 500 words more than A. It seems quite believable that even with the
slowing rate of lexical growth shown by A, this kind of progress might
materialise with a further year in a British school. Even after two years of
immersion in an English speaking school, however, there is still a clear
difference in the vocabulary knowledge between the native speakers and
the EFL learners of the order of about 25%. The difference may be even
greater since the angle of these two learners’ profiles suggests Participant
C was developing more knowledge of words in the less frequent ranges
beyond 5,000 words. The observations made, for example, by Paradis
(2007) and Hakuta et al. (2000) that it may take years to attain native like
levels of knowledge appear borne out.
Participant D, who is likely to be a more balanced bilingual having
been brought up in UK, scored nearly 3,600, still 10% less than the
monolingual. This is in keeping with other research suggesting that
bilinguals may develop their two lexicons slightly more slowly than
monolinguals, and may also reflect the absence of a need for all
vocabulary to exist in both languages. However, the difference is not
uniform across the frequency ranges. Monolingual and bilingual
knowledge of vocabulary appears identical in the first 3,000 to 4,000-word
frequency ranges and the bulk of the difference is located in the less
frequent 5,000-word range. It may be tentatively suggested therefore, that
these bilingual and second language EFL learners have the lexical
resources to perform comparably with monolingual natives in oral
performance. However, the comparative deficiency in the vocabulary
levels at and beyond the 5,000 words level has the potential to impact on
writing and academic performance where these words become more
frequent and more important to successful communication. It is not clear,
from this study or the existing literature, at what point this difference in
knowledge becomes large enough to impact on academic performance.
What emerges from this comparison is that while learners who gain
their language through immersion in school make terrific progress and
rapidly reach the level of knowledge to be able to function, they are still,
even after several years, short of monolingual native speaker levels of
vocabulary knowledge and this may have the potential to impact on
318 Chapter Seventeen

subsequent scholastic attainment, as observed in the US literature

(Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997).

Conclusion
The results of this study suggest that all learners, monolingual,
bilingual and second language, acquire vocabulary in a sequence that is
strongly related to frequency of word occurrence. Within the limitations
imposed by the size of the tests, therefore, frequency-based tests appear
able to capture and characterise a learner’s size of vocabulary knowledge
and provide an objective, quantifiable measure of the lexical resources
available to learners as they develop through childhood into adulthood.
Tests of this kind are, arguably, applicable to all learners of English and
are not subject to the difficulties imposed by methodologies based on the
lexis of a particular educational system.
The test used in this study appears to have characterised the scale of
vocabulary acquisition in an immersion learner well and results confirm
the impression that immersion learners can make very fast progress at the
outset of learning with very little formal support. To acquire some 2,500
lemmatised words in a year is really impressive progress. Nonetheless, at
the end of a year of immersion the learner in this study was still far from
native-like and had a knowledge of the most frequent 5,000 words in
English, some 30% smaller than that of a monolingual native-speaker.
Even after two years of immersion, knowledge may still be 25% less with
the difference in knowledge concentrated in the infrequent ranges. The
immersion learners’ knowledge may be sufficient for oral and general
interaction but the comparatively small knowledge in the less frequent
range suggests other skills associated with academic performance may be
compromised. Obviously, this conclusion is based on a handful of case
studies and this is an area that requires replication and more detailed study.
With the growing number of learners in British schools in the position of
acquiring the language of the medium of instruction while actually
undergoing that instruction, informing teachers, parents and learners alike
as to their knowledge and progress is important. Being able to quickly and
objectively quantify the scale of such knowledge must provide a useful
tool to teachers who work with these children.
For monolingual and bilingual learners it would appear that a 5,000-
word test will significantly under characterise the volume of word
knowledge that these learners have once they progress beyond the
reception levels aged about 4 or 5. A more extensive frequency-based
measure working on bands that go beyond 5,000 would seem likely to
 Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 319

yield useful results. Even with such measures, however, the scale of
learning appears, compared to some estimates, relatively modest at the 2 to
3 words per day that Anglin (1993) and Biemiller and Slonim (2001)
found among US learners. This figure is significant since it suggests that
the differences between native and non-native users of English, while
important in their impact on performance, are not so large that formal
intervention to redress the imbalance cannot be considered. Interventions
of this kind have been attempted in North America and include, for
example, Dialogic Reading (Whitehurst Falco, Lonigan, Fischel,
DeBaryshe, Valdez-Menchaca, & Caulfield 1988), Text Talk (Beck &
McKeown, 2001), Direct and Systematic Instruction (Biemiller, 2003),
and Anchored Instruction (Juel & Deffes, 2004). Research to investigate
this possibility would appear a priority given the number of learners who
potentially have need of it.

References
Adolphs, S., & Schmitt, N. (2003). Lexical coverage of spoken discourse.
Applied Linguistics, 24(4), 425-438.
Aitchison, J. (2003). Words in the mind: An introduction to the mental
lexicon (3rd ed.). Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell.
Anglin, J. M. (1993). Vocabulary development: A morphological analysis.
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58(10),
Serial No. 238.
Beck, I., & McKeown, M. (1991). Social studies texts are hard to
understand: Mediating some of the difficulties. Language Arts, 68(6),
482-490.
Biemiller, A. (2003). Vocabulary: Needed if more children are to read
well. Reading Psychology, 24(3-4), 323-335.
Biemiller, A., & Slonim N. (2001). Estimating root word vocabulary in
normative and advantaged populations: Evidence for a common
sequence of vocabulary acquisition. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 93(3), 498-520.
Bialystok, E., Luk, G., Peets, K., & Yang, S. (2010). Receptive vocabulary
differences in monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism:
Language and Cognition, 13(4), 525–531.
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching Language to Young Learners. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Cunningham, A., & Stanovich, K. (1997). Early reading acquisition and its
relation to reading experience and ability 10 years later. Developmental
Psychology, 33(6), 934-945.
320 Chapter Seventeen

D'Anna, C. A., Zechmeister, E. B., & Hall, J. W. (1991). Toward a

meaningful definition of vocabulary size. Journal of Reading Behavior,
23(1), 109-122.
David, A. (2008). Vocabulary breadth in French L2 learners. Language
Learning Journal, 36(2), 167-180.
Duke, N., & Carlisle, J. (2011). The development of comprehension. In:
M. L. Kamil, P. D. Pearson, P. A. Afflerbach, & E. B. Moje (Eds.),
Handbook of Reading Research 4 (pp. 199-228). New York:
Routledge.
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, D. M. (1997). Peabody picture vocabulary test (3rd
ed.). Circle Pines: American Guidance Services.
Edwards, R., & Collins, L. (2013). Modelling L2 vocabulary acquisition.
In: S. Jarvis & M. Daller (Eds.), Vocabulary knowledge: Human
ratings and automated measures (pp. 157-184). Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
Geay, C., McNally, S., & Telhaj, S. (2012). Non-native speakers of
English in the classroom: What are the effects on pupil performance?
IZA Discussion Paper No. 6451. London: Centre for the Economics of
Education.
Gleason, J. B. (2005). The development of language. Boston: Pearson.
Goulden, R., Nation, P., & Read, J. (1990). How large can a receptive
vocabulary be? Applied Linguistics, 11(4), 341-363.
Graves, M. F. (2006). The vocabulary book. New York: Teachers College
Press.
Hakuta, K., Goto-Butler, Y., & Witt, D. (2000). How long does it take
English learners to attain proficiency? Policy report, the university of
California linguistic Minority Research Institute. Retrieved from:
https://www.stanford.edu/~hakuta/www/research/publications.html
Hazenberg, S., & Hulstijn, J. H. (1996). Defining a minimal receptive
second-language vocabulary for non-native university students: An
empirical investigation. Applied Linguistics, 17(2), 145-163.
Kilgariff, A. (2006). BNC database and word frequency lists. Retrieved
from: http://www.kilgariff.co.uk/bnc-readme.html#lemmatised.
Kohnert, K., & Windsor, J. (2004). The search for common ground: Part 1.
Lexical performance by linguistically diverse learners. Journal of
Speech Language and Hearing Research, 47(4), 877-890.
Laufer, B. (1988). What percentage of text-lexis is essential for
comprehension? In: C. Laurén & M. Nordemann (Eds.), Special
Language: From humans to thinking machines (pp. 316-323).
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
 Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 321

Lorge, I., & Chall, J. S. (1963). Estimating the size of vocabularies of

children and adults: An analysis of methodological issues. Journal of
Experimental Education, 32(2), 147-157.
Marzano, R. J. (2004). Building background knowledge for academic
achievement: Research on what works in schools. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Meara, P. (1980). Vocabulary acquisition: A neglected aspect of language
learning. Language Teaching, 13(3-4), 221-246.
Meara, P., & Milton, J. (2003). The Swansea levels test. Newbury:
Express.
Meara, P., Milton, J., & Lorenzo-Dus, N. (2001). Language aptitude tests.
Newbury: Express.
Milton, J. (2007). Lexical profiles, learning styles and construct validity of
lexical size tests. In H. Daller, J. Milton, & J. Treffers-Daller (Eds.),
Modelling and assessing vocabulary knowledge (pp. 45-58).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
—. (2009). Measuring second language vocabulary acquisition. Bristol:
Multilingual Matters.
—. (2010). The development of vocabulary breadth across the CEFR
levels. In I. Vedder, I. Bartning, & M. Martin (Eds.), Communicative
proficiency and linguistic development: Intersections between SLA and
language testing research (pp. 211-232). Second Language
Acquisition and Testing in Europe Monograph Series 1. Rome:
EUROSLA.
Milton, J., & Alexiou, T. (2009). Vocabulary size and the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages. In B. Richards, M. H. Daller,
D. Malvern, P. Meara, J. Milton, & J. Treffers-Daller (Eds.),
Vocabulary studies in first and second language acquisition (pp. 194-
211). Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Milton, J., & Treffers-Daller, J. (2013). Vocabulary size revisited; native
speakers’ vocabularies and the link with academic achievement.
Applied Linguistics Review 4(1), 151-172.
Milton, J., Wade, J., & Hopkins, N. (2010). Aural word recognition and
oral competence in a foreign language. In R. Chacón-Beltrán, C.
Abello-Contesse, M. Torreblanca-López, & M. López-Jiménez (Eds.),
Further insights into non-native vocabulary teaching and learning (pp.
83-98). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Nagy, W. E. (1988). Teaching vocabulary to improve reading comprehension.
Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
322 Chapter Seventeen

Nagy, W E., & Herman, P. (1984). Limitations of vocabulary instruction.

(Tech. Rep. No. 326). Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Center for
the Study of Reading.
Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oller, D. K., & Eilers, R. E. (Eds.) (2002). Language and literacy in
bilingual children. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
Paradis, J. (2007). Second language acquisition in childhood. In E. Hoff &
M. Shatz (Eds.), Handbook of language development (pp. 387-406).
Oxford: Blackwell.
Pearson, B., & Fernández, S. (1994). Patterns of interaction in the lexical
growth of two languages of bilingual infants and toddlers. Language
Learning, 44(4), 617-653.
Schmitt, N. (2007). Current perspectives on vocabulary teaching and
learning. In J. Cummins & C. Davison (Eds.), International handbook
of English language teaching: Part II (pp.827-841). New York:
Springer.
Seashore, R. H., & Eckerson, L. D. (1940). The measurement of individual
differences in general English vocabulary. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 31(1), 14-38.
Shaywitz, B. A., Holford, T. R., Holahan, J. M., Fletcher, J. M., Stuebing,
K. K., Francis, D. J., & Shaywitz, S. A. (1995). A Matthew effect for
IQ but not for reading: Results from a longitudinal study. Reading
Research Quarterly, 30(4), 894-906.
Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences
of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading
Research Quarterly, 21(4), 360-407.
Stæhr, L. S. (2008) Vocabulary size and the skills of listening, reading and
writing. Language Learning Journal, 36(2), 139-152.
Thorndike, E. L., & Lorge, I. (1944). The teacher’s word book of 30,000
words. New York: Teacher’s College, Columbia University.
Treffers-Daller, J. (2011). Operationalizing and measuring language
dominance. International Journal of Bilingualism, 15(2), 147-163.
Vermeer, A. (2004). The relation between lexical richness and vocabulary
size in Dutch L1 and L2 children. In P. Bogaards & Laufer B. (Eds.),
Vocabulary in a second language (pp. 173-189). Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
White, T. G., Graves, M. F., & Slater, W. H. (1990). Growth of vocabulary
in diverse elementary schools: Decoding and word meaning. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 82(2), 281-290.
 Measuring Child Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 323

Whitehurst, G. J., Falco, F., Lonigan, C. J., Fischel, J. E., DeBaryshe, B.,
Valdez-Menchaca, M. C., & Caulfield, M. (1988). Accelerating
language development through picture-book reading. Developmental
Psychology, 24(4), 552-558.
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE CHALLENGES IN ACHIEVING
GLOBALIZATION THROUGH ENGLISH
LANGUAGE LEARNING IN JAPAN:
A FOCUS ON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
RIE ADACHI

Abstract
The Japanese government is currently restructuring the way English is
taught at schools and plans to introduce English classes to elementary
education hoping to help Japanese society better adapt to a globalized
environment. This chapter reviews these changes, examines the
background of the reforms and looks at the issues involved in the process
of globalization in Japan. The particular focus of this study was on English
education in elementary schools. Pupils’ motivational attitudes toward
learning English as well as their communicative attitudes toward other
people were analysed. With regard to pupils’ communicative attitudes, the
findings indicate that the introduction of foreign language activities in
Japanese elementary schools had both positive and negative aspects. On
the plus side, pupils tended to have a more positive attitude toward other
people and the findings suggest that pupils who understood the need to
learn English were more likely to exhibit a positive attitude toward
English activities. On the negative side, pupils who did not see the
importance of learning foreign languages were likely to have less positive
communicative attitudes. Although the Japanese government is now facing
up to the challenges of a globalized environment, it does not seem to have
taken into account what language and intercultural skills will be
fundamentally important for Japanese students in the future. This chapter
emphasizes the fact that Japanese people are faced with the dilemma of
how to develop a global perspective and how to engage with the diversity
of contemporary Japan.
 Achieving Globalization through English Language Learning in Japan 325

Introduction
Japanese students today need to acquire intercultural communication
skills in order to live in a globalized world. As globalization progresses,
competition to hire excellent human resources is rising in the world and
Japanese universities face an urgent need to cultivate students capable of
working internationally. In an effort to increase Japanese students’ English
language proficiency and communication skills, the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) recently proposed
higher English learning objectives for every level of the educational
system and suggested formally introducing English as a subject in
elementary schools (MEXT, 2013a). It had been argued that English
proficiency among Japanese learners is lower than that of learners from
other countries (MEXT, 2012). Tsuneyoshi (2005, p. 67) states “the
Japanese wonder how it is possible for students to learn English for six to
ten years, and yet fail to speak simple English.” Japanese students study
English as a foreign language (EFL) and they rarely have the opportunity
to practice English communication in their daily lives because there are
few TV programs and daily newspapers in English, and only a small
number of English native speakers live in Japan.
There are a number of challenges which Japanese students face in
order to improve their English communication skills and become citizens
of a globalized society. To begin with, if students are unable to understand
the need for learning English, it is difficult for them to motivate
themselves to learn it as learning a language that is not used in everyday
life takes both time and effort. Moreover, there is a need for the Japanese
government to invest more money in the education system. There are not
enough English teachers in elementary schools and most of them have no
skills in spoken English communication. If English education is to be
introduced in elementary schools, the government needs to offer training
courses for in-service teachers and set up English education courses for
teachers of young learners in universities. Thirdly, the ability to use
English is not enough to live in a globalized society, rather, a multicultural
perspective is required for future generations.
Contrary to the advancement of globalization, the Japanese Ministry of
Justice has had a strict policy towards immigrants and refugees. However,
a Japanese society that is becoming more diverse and multicultural is
necessary in order for Japanese students to develop a global mindset. To
help students become global citizens, what do Japanese government
officials need to do? Is it enough to just promote English education? This
326 Chapter Eighteen

chapter focuses on English education in Japanese elementary schools and

looks at the educational problems and needs that are likely to arise in the
context of a globalized world.

English Education Reform in Japan

Issues With Globalization
As Japan faces globalization, MEXT (2013a) plans to improve English
education and their proposals include teaching English not in Japanese but
by using English in the classroom as much as possible, preparing new
teaching materials, and introducing English as a specific subject in
elementary schools. The plans are designed to improve the overall English
proficiency of Japanese high school graduates in an effort to develop and
internationalize Japanese higher educational institutions.
The internationalization of universities has become an urgent priority
due to the instantaneous nature of communication and rapid advances in
transportation, which result in an increased need for intercultural and
international understanding and knowledge (Bartell, 2003). Altbach and
Knight (2007, p. 290) define globalization as “the economic, political, and
societal forces pushing 21st century higher education toward greater
international involvement.” Doiz, Lasagabaster, and Sierra (2013)
researching a university in Spain found that the impact of globalization
and internationalization in higher education is even greater than before,
and it is reflected in the spread of English-medium instruction and the
increase in student mobility and exchange programs.
With globalization expanding, Japan is facing the challenge of
reforming its educational policy. MEXT has implemented a number of
projects to help internationalize Japanese education, including proposals to
increase the number of international students to 300,000 by 2020.
According to MEXT (2013c, p.1), one aim of this is to “gain from the
advancements of other countries which will ultimately lead to Japan’s
further development.” However, because of insufficient residential
accommodation, the number of international students had only reached
135,519 in 2013 (MEXT, 2014a). Furthermore, according to Burgess,
Gibson, Klaphake, and Selzer1 (2010), Japan, while acknowledging the
necessity of embracing global trends, currents and standards, it also wants
to protect and strengthen Japanese national identity in the face of foreign
pressure. Currently in Japan, kokusaika (internationalization in Japanese)
is less about transcending cultural barriers and more about protecting them,
 Achieving Globalization through English Language Learning in Japan 327

while grurobaruka (globalization in Japanese) is an external process over

which Japan has little or no influence or control (Burgess et al., 2010).
Hashimoto (2013) argues that a focus on the differences between Japan
and foreign countries, as well as between Japanese and foreigners is still
clearly evident in Japanese society in general. With regard to bilingualism
in Japan, Hashimoto (2013) points out that it is an attribute that belongs
exclusively to foreigners or ‘Others’ and that the English-only initiatives in
both secondary and tertiary education have highlighted the separation of
the national identity and English in the education system. She describes
the dichotomy between Japanese people and others as follows:

“Japan’s concept of internationalization is about promoting Japan to the

international community, not about becoming part of it, and this concept is
based on a view of the world as the Japanese/Other.” (Hashimoto, 2013, pp.
29௅30)

It would seem that the Japanese society does not actually want to
change; rather, the Japanese would prefer to keep their identity intact and
to resist the era of globalization. However, with the number of foreign
residents and foreign students increasing in recent years (see Figure 18-1),
Japanese people need to consider how best to develop a positive attitude
toward living together with other people and in doing so how to preserve
their national identity.
Phan (2013) stresses the importance of examining the issues surrounding
the new English language policy, the internationalization of higher education,
national cultural identity, and the over-promotion of English which
undermines the study of other foreign languages. He suggests that national
cultural identity often has to contend with the western hegemony and the
widespread perception that “the West is better” (Phan, 2013, p. 164). He also
argues that while Japan has successfully maintained the value of its own
cultural identity through its language education policies, English has
fundamentally influenced Japan in much deeper and complex ways.
Similarly, Kobayashi (2013) warns that all language teaching professionals
need to be more aware than ever that language education policies are by no
means immune from the power of language ideologies.
328 Chapter Eighteen

250000

200000

150000

100000

Foreign
50000
residents
Foreign
students
0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Figure 18-1: Growth in foreign residents and foreign students in Japan. Based on
the data from the Ministry of Justice (2014) and Japan Student Services
Organization (2014).

Furthermore, the Japanese government has put an overwhelming focus

on English language education. While Shimomura (2014), the Minister of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, stresses the importance
of English language education as a response to globalization, he does not
explain how to promote a good relationship with most of the foreigners
and foreign students who live in or visit Japan, who come from the
“expanding circle” countries (Kachru, 1992, p. 356), mainly from Asia.
Kobayashi (2013) argues that English imperialism constrains
plurilingualism and deprives Japanese pupils of opportunities to learn
languages other than English. In order to help students develop respectful
attitudes toward others, researchers and teachers should acknowledge the
importance of diversity and multilingualism in the educational system. If
the ‘spirit of harmony’ is central to Japanese society, we should also
nurture more positive and respectful attitudes toward the other
non-English people, especially Asian people.
To become a truly globalized person, there are other important qualities
to nurture, in addition to English language proficiency. These include
developing an interest in other cultures, developing a worldview that
accepts diversity and multilingualism as natural phenomena, and acquiring
intercultural competence. Living in the emerging global environment, the
younger generation will need an understanding of other cultures as well as
international literacy to build close, multilateral relationships with other
people. The intercultural competence of students can be a measure of the
 Achieving Globalization through English Language Learning in Japan 329

effectiveness of the internationalization efforts in higher education

(Deardorff, 2006).
In the future, Japanese people will have more intercultural contact,
especially with people from other Asian countries. If students focus only
on learning English language skills, they could not get a chance to learn
how to communicate well with the other non-native English speakers.
Since the Japanese government plans to proceed in the direction of
internationalization and to develop a higher education policy in response
to globalization, they must engage with the issues described above. The
reform of English language education is not enough for Japanese students
to develop and internationalize their attitudes to live in the context of a
globalized society. Students will need not only English communication
ability, but also openness toward foreigners. They will need to nurture a
broader identity and a balanced outlook, and cultivate a global mindset as
well as intercultural competence. Developing an interest in other people
and other cultures, broadening one’s own perspective, and fostering
intercultural relationships will become increasingly necessary in the
globalized Japanese society.

English Teaching in Japanese Elementary Schools

In response to globalization, the Japanese government plans to
drastically increase the number of English instruction in schools by 2020
(MEXT, 2013a). The idea is that third and fourth grade students will have
classes in English language activities once or twice a week, while fifth and
sixth grade students will have English language classes as a subject three
times a week.
In Japan, students used to start learning English after entering junior
high school. However, in 2008, MEXT revised its curriculum guidelines
and in 2011 Japanese elementary schools introduced the ‘foreign language
activities’ program. According to MEXT (2009), the main objective of the
introduction of the foreign language activities program was:

“to form the foundation of pupils’ communication abilities through foreign

languages while developing the understanding of languages and cultures
through various experiences, fostering a positive attitude toward
communication.” (p. 1)

As most Japanese elementary school teachers have neither experience in

teaching English, nor the confidence to teach English, they encountered
330 Chapter Eighteen

grave difficulties in implementing the program (Adachi, Sakai, & Aizawa,

2014). Home-room teachers (HRTs) are too busy to prepare additional
classes in English: they have to teach all subjects and they are generally
“responsible for everything from classes and extra-curricular activities to
cleaning and even the students’ lives at home” (Fennelly & Luxton, 2011,
p. 21). Furthermore, most HRTs lack the qualifications to teach English.
According to MEXT (2014b), in 2013 only 16,506 elementary school
teachers (i.e., 4.7% of all teachers) were qualified to teach English.
Therefore, foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs) are usually
dispatched from private contracting companies to schools or they are hired
by local governments, as well as Japanese teachers of English (JTEs),
most of whom are local people hired by the school, in order to support the
implementation of the foreign language activities program at schools. Of
all foreign language activities classes in 2013, 57.9% were conducted by
ALTs, 14.9% were taught by JTEs, and only 2.3% were taught by English
language teachers from junior and high schools (MEXT, 2014b). ALTs and
JTEs usually adopt a team-teaching style with HRTs. As most HRTs do not
have the confidence to teach English (Fennelly & Luxton, 2011), they feel
challenged and under pressure when teaching even one English class a
week. Unfortunately, the educational reforms plan does not make
provisions for offering sufficient English teacher training programs for
elementary school teachers (MEXT, 2013b). Instead, the plan promotes the
leaders of English within the teacher training programs, who would offer
English training to one key teacher at each school who would then be
expected to train the other teachers at the school.
In contrast, in neighboring Korea, which is also one of the ‘expanding
circle’ countries, official English education started much earlier than in
Japan, and English became a required subject in 1997. Similar to Japan,
English is taught primarily by regular HRTs and most of them were not
originally trained to teach English (Butler, 2004). Kim (2011) reports that
a typical elementary school in Korea has two or three English teachers.
Although there is no required qualification to become an English teacher
in elementary schools, teachers usually take a national six-month
in-service teacher training program as well as a national ability test for
teachers, the Teaching English in English Test (TEE TEST). According to
Kwon (2009), while English education in Korea has improved generally,
problems still remain, including incompetent teachers, especially in their
speaking ability, students losing interest and confidence, and poor English
skills among some students.
As both Fennelly and Luxton (2011) and Adachi et al. (2014) have
 Achieving Globalization through English Language Learning in Japan 331

revealed, many elementary school teachers are too busy to prepare for
English classes, they feel overworked and think teaching English is too
much of a burden. Without sufficient teacher training and time to prepare,
teachers cannot improve their confidence in English and will continue to
feel both embarrassed and exhausted. Such teacher attitudes toward the
foreign language activities program and the introduction of more English
classes in elementary schools are bound to have a negative effect on the
outcomes of educational reform.
As argued in the previous section, in order for Japanese students to
gain awareness of the globalized society and to develop a global mindset,
they will need to develop fundamental communication abilities, which
include open-mindedness toward other people and a positive attitude to
building good relationships with people from different cultures. Therefore,
this study has focused on investigating the extent to which the introduction
of English language lessons in elementary schools has increased Japanese
pupils’ interpersonal communication skills and their positive attitude
towards other people.

The Study
Participants
The study was conducted with fifth and sixth grade pupils. The data
were collected at three schools in the Chubu area (K school, I school, and
N school) and one school in the Kansai area (O school). K school and I
school were surveyed both in the beginning and at the end of the school
year. O school was also investigated at the start of the school year,
however, it withdrew from the study at the end of the school year. N
school was added to the project in the end of the school year. All four
schools were in relatively newly-developed residential areas and were not
specially-designated schools for English education. Most of the HRTs at
these schools were not English teachers and tended to depend on foreign
ALTs. During the year covered by the study, HRTs in all schools began
conducting some English activity classes for fifth and sixth grade pupils in
preparation for the formal introduction of the foreign language activities
program. The schools were similar in terms of the educational
environment. All data were collected during classes with the cooperation
of the HRTs. The total number of students who participated in the study
were 427 (219 boys, 206 girls and 2 unanswered) and 591 (310 boys, 280
girls and 1 unanswered), at the beginning and the end of the school year
332 Chapter Eighteen

respectively. Roughly, half of the students were in Grade 5 and half in

Grade 6. Table 18-1 indicates the number of classes at each school before
and during the study and as it is shown, the number of classes increased
especially in the 5th and 6th grade.

Table 18-1: The number of English classes in Grades 5 and 6.

Before the Study Grade 5 Grade 6

K school 15 15
I school 12 12
O school 33 33
N school 22-35 22-35
During the Study Grade 5 Grade 6
K school 35 35
I school 35 35
N school 30-35 30-35

The Purpose of the Study

Since the objective of foreign language activities was to “form the
foundation of pupils’ communication abilities,” “develop their
understanding of languages and cultures,” and “foster a positive attitude
toward communication” (MEXT, 2009, p. 1), this study attempted to find
out to what extent Japanese pupils developed positive attitudes or
openness toward other people and acquired intercultural communicative
competence by attending a higher amount of English language lessons. To
find out the effect of the foreign language activities, the study examined
the difference in pupils’ communicative attitudes at the start and at the end
of the school year. The study also attempted to identify the relationship
between pupils’ communicative attitudes and other variables related to
learning English.
The communicative attitudes in this study, do not refer to
communication abilities, but to “communicative attitudes with outsiders”
(Adachi, 2010, pp. 210-211). A construct called ‘Willingness to
Communicate’ (WTC) was first developed for researching first language
 Achieving Globalization through English Language Learning in Japan 333

(L1) communicative competence (McCroskey, 1992). MacIntyre, Clément,

Dörnyei, and Noels (1998) adapted WTC for second language (L2) studies
and conceptualized as a heuristic, pyramid-shaped model. They showed
that the WTC construct in L2 has different influential components from
the one in L1. Since then WTC has been used in L2 contexts (e.g., Yashima,
2002). Based on previous studies and considering the idiosyncrasies of the
Japanese context and the Japanese learners’ background, Adachi (2010)
proposed the addition of a new factor, “communicative attitudes with
outsiders,” also called “WTC with outsiders” (pp. 210௅211). It is defined
as pupils’ attitudes toward different people or people from different
cultures, it indicates effective and positive interactions with others, and it
includes not only verbal but also non-verbal behaviors (Adachi, 2012b).
The research questions for this study were:

1. What is the difference in pupils’ ‘communicative attitudes with

outsiders’ at the start and at the end of the school year?

2. Is there a relationship between pupils’ ‘communicative attitudes

with outsiders’ and their motivational attitudes towards English?

3. Could the efficacy of English language classes be evaluated

through pupils’ attitudes?

4. Did pupils’ ‘communicative attitudes with outsiders’ and other

attitudinal variables, increase as the number of English classes
increased?

Materials

The study utilized a questionnaire. Questionnaire items fell into six

categories and they covered motivational attitudes, orientation,
communicative attitudes and other variables about learning English. These
items were used in previous studies (see Adachi, 2009a, 2009b, 2010, 2011,
2012a, 2012b). Each item was rated on a six-point Likert scale, ranging
from strongly agree (6) to strongly disagree (1).
The questionnaire originally included 34 items. At first, in order to
verify the distribution of each item, all items were subjected to descriptive
analysis and the data were analyzed separately for the beginning and the
end of the school year. Although some items exhibited floor or ceiling
334 Chapter Eighteen

effects, most of them did not show a very skewed distribution, but two
items that exhibited a clear floor effect were excluded. The Cronbach’s
Alpha internal consistency reliability coefficient for three items which
were presupposed to be under the subscale of ‘Attitudes related to
Japanese identity’ was not acceptable, and none of the three items had any
correlations with ‘communicative attitudes with outsiders’. Subsequently,
these were also omitted.
As a result, 28 items were analyzed in this study and are outlined
below. The Cronbach Alpha internal consistency reliability coefficients
were calculated. They are shown in Table 18-2. Some of the Cronbach
Alpha values were not high, since the author attempted to operate some
subscales as presupposed concepts. However, although improvement of
some of the question items may be necessary in future study, they were
almost acceptable.

Table 18-2: Cronbach alpha for each attitudinal dimension at the

beginning and at the end of the school year.

Category Number of items Beginning End

Motivation 4 .84 .82
Orientation 9 .92 .93
People around a learner 3 .89 .86
Vitality of English 3 .82 .86
Attitudes toward learning 5 .76 .72
Communicative attitudes 4 .74 .77

The final list of questionnaire items fell into the following six
categories (attitudinal dimensions):

1. Motivation (four items) based primarily on the concepts of Gardner

(1985): This included effort, desire, and favorable attitudes; ‘FA
Enjoyment’ refers to enjoyment of lessons in foreign language
activities; ‘E Audio-visual’ refers to learning English at home using
audio-visual activities; ‘FA Learning more’ refers to a favorable
attitude toward the increase in the number of classes; ‘E Vocabulary’
refers to making an effort in order to build up vocabulary; and ‘D
 Achieving Globalization through English Language Learning in Japan 335

Improvement’ refers to a desire to improve in English.

2. Orientation (nine items) included instrumental orientation,
integrative orientation, and intercultural orientation.
a. Instrumental orientation (three items): ‘Information from
the Internet’ referred to getting information from the
Internet; ‘Work abroad’ referred to traveling or working
abroad; and ‘For future career’ referred to entering a
good college or a good company in the future.
b. Integrative orientation (three items): ‘Learn US and UK’
referred to learning about and understanding the culture
and people of the US and the UK; ‘Ex with US and UK’
referred to exchanges with people in the US and the UK;
and ‘Native speaker’ referred to speaking English like
native speakers.
c. Intercultural orientation (three items): ‘Learn L2 culture’
referred to learning and understanding the culture and
people of India, the Philippines and Hong Kong; ‘Ex
with L2 people’ referred to exchanges with people from
India, the Philippines and Hong Kong; and ‘Ex with FL
people’ referred to exchanges with people from China,
Russia and Brazil.
3. People around the learner (three items): This refers to descriptions
of how hard pupils try to study English because they get
encouragement from their ‘peers’, ‘parents’ and ‘teachers’.
4. Vitality of English (three items). These items referred to the degree
to which pupils recognize English as an important and powerful
language in their future social life (importance of English learning).
English will become increasingly important because people will
have more chances to ‘go and stay overseas’, or will need to ‘get
information’, or need to ‘avoid friction’ with foreign people.
5. Attitudes toward learning (five items). These items referred to
descriptions of positive attitudes, mainly concerning language
learning. To better understand English (to have confidence), to
believe in the value of effort, to be able to understand an ALT’s
spoken English, to have a positive attitude toward learning in
general, and to have a positive attitude toward learning multiple
languages.
6. Communicative attitudes with outsiders (four items): ‘Make a
compromise’ referred to the idea that ‘I try to make a compromise
when we have a conflict in the group in class’; ‘Non-verbal
336 Chapter Eighteen

communication’ referred to the idea that ‘I can give directions using

non-verbal communication to a foreigner who got lost’;
‘Acceptance of unfamiliarity’ referred to the attitude of being able
to talk with an unknown foreigner without fear; and ‘Friendly
attitude’ referred to the idea that ‘I try to make friends with foreign
transfer students when they join my class’.

Results
First, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed
on four communicative attitude items using data from schools K and I
school, as only these two schools were surveyed at both the beginning and
the end of the school year. There was no significant effect for either the
school by time interaction or a significant main effect for school. However,
a significant main effect for time was found only in the ‘acceptance of
unfamiliarity’ item (F = 7.47, p <. 05, Ș2 = 0.02). The other three items
(‘make a compromise’, ‘non-verbal communication’, and ‘friendly attitude’)
did not show any significant difference between the start and the end of
the school year. As scores for most items were not high (with a mean of
3.5) and with similar values over time, one finding of this study was that
there was not much difference in pupils’ communicative attitudes before
and after the increase in the number of English classes. However, since
there was a tendency for motivational items to decline (see also Adachi,
2012b), although pupils became more familiar with unknown foreign
people after increased exposure to English classes, they seemed neither to
want to learn more English nor to have more positive attitudes toward
different cultures or different people.
Next, in order to determine how ‘communicative attitudes with
outsiders’ could be explained by other attitudinal variables, structural
equation modeling (SEM) was applied to each item of data in the
beginning and the end of the school year, using Analysis of Moment
Structures (AMOS). The two models are given in Figure 18-2, Table
18-3 (df = 181, in both models) and Table 18-4. Both models showed
almost the same relationship, and reached acceptable levels, since the
goodness of fit indices indicated a good fit with the data, including the root
mean square error of approximation (RMSEA).
 Achieving Globalization through English Language Learning in Japan 337

V2
V1 V3

AL2
Vaitality of English AL1
AL3

Attitudes toward
learning

AL4 AL5
C1 C2
Instrumental C3
orientation
Communicative
Intercultural attitudes
Inst1
Inst3 orientation

Inst2 Integrative Inter3 C4

orientation Inter1
Inter2
Integ1
Integ3
Integ2

Note. V1 = Go and stay overseas; V2 = Get information; V3 = Avoid friction; AL1

= Confidence in English; AL2 = Belief in effort; AL3 = ALT English; AL4 =
Learning attitude; AL5 = Learning multiple languages; C1 = Compromise; C2 =
Non-verbal communication; C3 = Acceptance of unfamiliarity; C4 = Friendly
attitude; Inst1 = Information from Internet; Inst2 = Work abroad; Inst3 = For future
career; Integ1 = Exchanges with U.S. and U.K.; Integ2 = Learn U.S. and U.K.;
Integ3 = Native speaker; Inter1 = Learn L2 culture; Inter2 = Exchanges with L2
people; Inter3 = Exchanges with FL people.

Figure 18-2: Structural equation modeling of Japanese young learners'

communicative attitudes at the start and the end of the school year.

Table 18-3: Summary of fit statistics for the two models of

‘communicative attitudes with outsiders’.

Study CMIN/df df CFI NFI RMSEA

Beginning 2.29 181 .95 .92 .06
End 2.67 181 .96 .94 .05
Note. CMIN/df = chi-square divided by the degrees of freedom; df = degrees of
freedom probability; CFI = the comparative fit index; NFI = the Bentler-Bonett
normed fit index; RMSEA = the root mean square error of approximation.
338 Chapter Eighteen

Table 18-4: Relationships between ‘communicative attitudes with

outsiders’ and other attitudinal subscales using path analysis for the
two models.

At the start of the school year

Intercultural orientation Integrative orientation .98
Integrative orientation Instrumental orientation .94
Instrumental orientation Intercultural orientation .91
Instrumental orientation Vitality of English .74
Vitality of English Attitudes toward learning .78
Attitudes toward learning Communicative attitudes .82
At the end of the school year
Intercultural orientation Integrative orientation .98
Integrative orientation Instrumental orientation .96
Instrumental orientation Intercultural orientation .92
Instrumental orientation Vitality of English .82
Vitality of English Attitudes toward learning .73
Attitudes toward learning Communicative attitudes .73

Like the motivation models in Adachi (2012b), there was a direct path
from ‘Attitudes toward learning’ to ‘Communicative attitudes with
outsiders’. However, unlike the motivation models, ‘People around a
learner’ did not affect ‘Communicative attitudes with outsiders.’ It can be
said that the supportive attitudes of peers, HRTs and ALTs do not have any
influence on pupils’ learning attitude toward different people and people
from different cultures. In the two models, ‘Orientation’ and ‘Vitality of
English’ influenced ‘Communicative Attitudes’ indirectly, but ‘Motivation’
did not appear to have an effect on it. As in Adachi (2012b) ‘Motivation’
and ‘Communicative Attitudes’ influence each other to some degree, but
their relationship is not seen as significant. In the case of Japanese people,
learning foreign languages would have a strong impact both on
‘Communicative Attitudes’ and ‘Motivation,’ but it seems that both
 Achieving Globalization through English Language Learning in Japan 339

variables have different traits, because they do not have a direct

relationship with each other.

Discussion and Recommendations

One finding from this study indicated that the only communicative
attitude that could be improved with an increased number of classes was
‘Acceptance of unfamiliarity’. It can, therefore, be argued that it is difficult
to develop pupils’ interpersonal communicative skills with people from
different cultural backgrounds just by teaching more English classes. In a
previous study (Adachi, 2013), it was found that pupils’ communicative
attitudes tended to deteriorate a little over time. However, as the number of
English classes increased, it seems that pupils grew accustomed to dealing
with foreign teachers. A similar result was obtained in a survey by Benesse
Educational Research and Development Institute (2011). Their study
looked at the attitudes toward English of seventh grade or junior high
school students in Japan. Most students stated that what they gained from
learning English in elementary schools was becoming accustomed to
listening to English, to the sound and rhythm of English, and treating
foreigners positively. As a result, we can say that foreign language
activities seem to have a small but important effect on pupils by giving
them a positive attitude toward other people.
The most significant predictive variable on the communicative attitude
scale concerned students’ attitudes toward learning. Pupils who had a
positive attitude toward learning, they also had a positive attitude toward
communication. In addition, as vitality of English had a strong impact on
attitudes toward learning in both models, the result of the SEM indicated
that pupils who recognized the importance of learning English tended to
have favorable attitudes toward different people. The results showed that
‘vitality of English’ is affected by orientation as well as motivation at the
beginning and the end of the school year (see also Adachi, 2012b). In this
study, ‘vitality of English’ was strongly influenced by the three
orientations in both models and consequently, pupils who recognized the
importance of learning English tended to have favorable attitudes toward
learning and tried to participate in foreign language activities positively.
Therefore, if pupils learn to see English as an important language for their
future and have positive attitudes toward learning, they will try to actively
involve themselves in foreign language activities and to build better
relationships with foreigners and others.
340 Chapter Eighteen

However, if pupils are unable to find their own reasons for learning
English and do not understand the importance of learning it, they are likely
to have less positive communicative attitudes. In order to help pupils
develop positive attitudes, one solution is to give them chances to
communicate with ALTs from different countries rather than only ALTs
from English-speaking countries as is currently the case with most of them
(MEXT, 2014c). It is necessary for pupils to realize that nowadays people
in various countries use English as a second or foreign language and that if
pupils learn English they can communicate with many people globally. In
addition, it will also be necessary for HRTs to get pupils to acknowledge
that English is used as the global language and encourage them to be
willing to communicate with people from different countries. HRTs will
need to consider how best to help pupils understand the reasons for
learning English and to recognize the need to form good relationships with
different people. If pupils are able to do this, they will not only improve
their motivation toward learning English, but also develop open-minded
attitudes toward foreigners, and, in this way, acquire a global mindset.
Another way to strengthen pupils’ motivation to learn English, is to
introduce innovative teaching methods like content and language
integrated learning (CLIL) (Mehisto, Marsh, & Frigols, 2008). In CLIL
classrooms pupils learn the content subjects through the L2. Therefore,
students can focus on understanding and using the content, which would
motivate them to learn the L2.

Conclusion
The Japanese government is currently promoting a plan to increase
English communication skills in the educational system. However, in order
to make the plan a success, it is important to take into account the kinds of
abilities and qualities that will be really important for Japanese students
living in a globalized world. This study discussed issues related to the
reform of English education policy and problems with English education
in Japanese elementary schools. The study demonstrated that
communicative attitudes are not fostered just by increasing the number of
English lessons in school. In a globalized society, citizens need to
communicate with people from other cultures, both outside and within
Japan. These people are not necessarily native speakers of English.
Therefore, we need to develop pupils’ interest in learning foreign
languages, to lower their defenses toward foreign people, and to encourage
 Achieving Globalization through English Language Learning in Japan 341

them to build good relationships with other people. Teachers need to

cultivate open-minded attitudes in their pupils and develop their
intercultural competence. Kubota (2011) claims that in the ‘glocal’
paradigm, languages and culture are no longer fixed homogeneous
categories. Instead, they exhibit hybrid, fluid, and creative forms.
Therefore, as she states, a glocal approach to language teaching in Japan
requires awareness, attitudes and skills for border-crossing communication
that go beyond mere English proficiency. If Japan really wants to become
a member of the international community, we need to face the challenges
of how to develop a global perspective in our society.

Acknowledgement
This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research
(KAKENHI) (C), (No.23520768).

References
Adachi, R. (2009a). Age-related differences regarding motivation and
orientation of young Japanese EFL learners. Language Education and
Technology Journal of Central Japan, 20, 21-34.
—. (2009b). Motivation of young Japanese EFL learners and effect factors.
JASTEC Journal, 28, 43-64.
—. (2010). A structural equation model of motivation and attitudes of
young Japanese foreign language learners. Language Education and
Technology, 47, 205-226.
—. (2011). The effect of increased English activities on sociocultural
attitudes and intercultural communicative attitudes of young Japanese
learners. JACET Journal, 52, 1-18.
—. (2012a). Japanese elementary students’ motivational and
communicative attitudes in accordance with the increase of foreign
language activities. Journal of the Chubu English Language Education
Society, 41, 125-130.
—. (2012b). A motivational model in Japanese elementary students’
foreign language activities. Language Education and Technology, 49,
47-64.
—. (2013). Pupils’ changes in communicative attitudes toward English
activities; A case study at a Japanese elementary school. Annual
Review of English Language Education in Japan, 24, 221-233.
342 Chapter Eighteen

Adachi, R., Sakai, S., & Aizawa, M. (2014). A study of Japanese

elementary school teachers’ perceptions of foreign language activities.
Language Teacher Education, 1(2), 50-69.
Altbach, P. G., & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher
education: Motivations and realities. Journal of Studies in
International Education, 11(3-4), 290-305.
Bartell, M. (2003). Internationalization of universities: A university
culture-based framework. Higher Education, 45(1), 43-70.
BERD (Benesse Educational Research and Development Institute). (2011).
Syo chu gakko no eigo kyoiku ni kansuru chyosa sokuho ban [The
prompt report of the survey on English education in elementary school
and junior high school]. Retrieved from:
http://berd.benesse.jp/global/research/detail1.php?id=3178
Breckenridge, Y., & Erling, E. J. (2011). The native speaker English
teacher and the politics of globalization in Japan. In S. Philip (Ed.),
English in Japan in the era of globalization (pp. 80-100). UK:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Burgess, C., Gibson, I., Klaphake, J., & Selzer, M. (2010). The ‘Global 30’
project and Japanese higher education reform: An example of a
‘closing in’ or an ‘opening up’? Globalization, Societies and
Education, 8(4), 461-475.
Butler, Y. G. (2004). What level of English proficiency do elementary
school teachers need to attain to teach EFL? Case studies from Korea,
Taiwan, and Japan. TESOL Quarterly, 38(2), 245-278.
Deardorff, D. K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural
competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of
Studies in International Education, 10(3), 241-266.
Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D., & Sierra, J. (2013). Globalisation,
internationalisation, multilingualism and linguistic strains in studies in
higher education. Higher Education, 38(9), 1407-1421.
Fennelly, M., & Luxton, R. (2011). Are they ready? On the verge of
compulsory English, elementary school teachers lack confidence. The
Language Teacher, 35(2), 19-24. Retrieved from: http://urx2.nu/gzhk
Gardner, R.C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning:
The role of attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold.
Hashimoto, K. (2013). ‘English-only’, but not a medium-of-instruction
policy: The Japanese way of internationalising education for both
domestic and overseas students. Current Issues in Language Planning,
14(1), 16-33.
Japan Student Services Organization. (2014). Result of an annual survey of
 Achieving Globalization through English Language Learning in Japan 343

the number of international students in Japan 2013. Retrieved from:

http://www.jasso.go.jp/statistics/intl_student/documents/data13_e.pdf
Kachru, B. B. (1992). The other tongue English across cultures. Chicago:
University of Illinois Press.
Kim, B. Y. (2011). Elementary school English language education in
Korea. Naruto University of education. The Center for English
Language Education at Elementary Schools Journal, 2, 1-8.
Kobayashi, Y. (2013). Europe versus Asia: Foreign language education
other than English in Japan’s higher education. Higher Education,
66(3), 269-281.
Kubota, R. (2011). Immigration, diversity and language education in
Japan: Toward a glocal approach to teaching English. In S. Philip (Ed.),
English in Japan in the era of globalization (pp. 101-122). UK:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Kwon, O. (2009). The current situation and issues of the teaching of
English in Korea. Ritsumeikan Studies in Language and Culture, 21(2),
21-34.
—. (2011). Roles of the government, the society and the professionals in
the improvement of English education. Paper presented at the Asia
TEFL Conference, July 27-29, Gyoyuk Munhwa Hoegwan, Seoul.
MacIntyre, P. D., Clément, R., Dörnyei, Z., & Noels, K. (1998).
Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in L2: A situational
model of L2 confidence and affiliation. The Modern Language Journal,
82(4), 545-562.
McCroskey, J. C. (1992). Readability and validity of the willingness to
communicate scale. Communication Quarterly, 40(1), 16-25.
Mehisto, P., Marsh, D., & Frigols, M. J. (2008). Uncovering CLIL:
Content and language integrated learning in bilingual and
multilingual education. UK: MacMillan Publishers.
MEXT. (2009). Syougakko gakusyuu shidoyoryo eiyakuban [Education
Ministry guidelines]. Chapter 4 Foreign language activities. Retrieved
from:
http://www.mext.go.jp/component/a_menu/education/micro_detail/__i
csFiles/afieldfile/2010/10/20/1261037_12.pdf
—. (2012). Gurobal jinzai no ikusei nit tsuite [How to develop global
human resources]. Retrieved from:
http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo3/047/siryo/__ics
Files/afieldfile/2012/02/14/1316067_01.pdf
—. (2013a). English education reform plan corresponding to globalization.
Retrieved from:
344 Chapter Eighteen

http://www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2014/01/23/
1343591_1.pdf
—. (2013b). English education reform plan corresponding to globalization
[Japanese, original version]. Retrieved from:
http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/kokusai/gaikokugo/__icsFiles/afieldfile
/2014/01/31/1343704_01.pdf
—. (2013c). Intermediary report on strategy to accept foreign students to
gain from the advancements of other countries. Retrieved from:
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/1342340.htm
—. (2014a). Working group report on advancing the establishment of
sufficient housing for international students in Japan towards realizing
the “300,000 International Students Plan.” Retrieved from:
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/1352543.htm
—. (2014b). Heisei 25 nendo koritsu syogakko ni okeru eigo kyoiku jisshi
jokyo chosa kekka ni tsuite. [The statistics for the result of
invesitigation on English education at public elementary schools at the
end of 2013]. Retrieved from:
http://www.mext.go.jp/component/a_menu/education/detail/__icsFiles/
afieldfile/2014/09/03/1351570_04.pdf
—. (2014c). 4. Shido Taisei [4 The instruction system]. Retrieved from:
http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chousa/shotou/102/shiryo/__ics
Files/afieldfile/2014/06/30/1348956_02.pdf
Ministry of Justice. (2014). Heisei 25 nen matsu genzai ni okeru zairyu
gaikokujin su ni tsuite. [The statistics for the number of foreign
residents in Japan at the end of 2013]. Retrieved from:
http://www.moj.go.jp/nyuukokukanri/kouhou/nyuukokukanri04_00040
.html
Phan, L. H. (2013). Issues surrounding English, the internationalization of
higher education and national cultural identity in Asia: A focus on
Japan. Critical Studies in Education, 54(2), 160-175.
Shimomura, H. (2014). Statement by Minister of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology of Japan on the October 12
International New York Times article “Japan's Divided Education
Strategy.” Retrieved from:
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/1353287.htm
Tsuneyoshi, R. (2005). Internationalization strategies in Japan. Journal of
Research of International Education, 4(1), 65-86.
Yashima, T. (2002). Willingness to communicate in a second language:
Japanese EFL context. The Modern Language Journal, 86(1), 54-66.
 CONTRIBUTORS

Rie Adachi, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Aichi University, in Aichi,

Japan. She has taught English and Intercultural communication at Aichi
University of Technology (2010-2015) and other universities for several
years. Her main research interests are intercultural receptive attitude of
Japanese and the motivation of young Japanese students. She has also
studied how to support Japanese students in developing a global mindset.
She has published many papers in the areas of motivation, intercultural
communicative attitudes, and EFL students’ learning environment. She is
also interested in introducing CLIL (Content and Language Integrated
Learning) into the Japanese educational system.

Thomaï Alexiou is an Assistant Professor at the Department of

Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, School of English, Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She is also the coordinator of the
Module ‘Teaching English to Young Learners’ (at the postgraduate level)
at the Hellenic Open University. Her research interests include early
foreign language learning and teaching and material development for very
young learners. She has been invited to give teacher training seminars and
she has published several articles and book chapters throughout Europe.
She has co-edited the Special Issue: Vocabulary, Part II: Input and Uptake
for the Language Learning Journal (2012) and she is the co-author and co-
editor of Magic Book 1 (2014) and Magic Book 2 (2013), EFL textbooks
used by young learners in state schools in Greece.

Elaine Borges (BSc in Languages/UNESP, MSc in Applied

Linguistics/UNICAMP, and PhD in Education/USP), did her doctoral
internship at the University of Murcia (Spain) and post-doctoral research
at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). She is currently an
Adjunct Professor in the Language Studies Department and in the
Graduate Program in Education at the State University of Ponta Grossa
(Brazil) where she also serves as Coordinator of the “English Without
Borders” federal program. Her research interests are on additional
language teaching/learning and teacher education in complexity theory
perspective. She leads the CNPq research group “LinC - Linguagem e
Complexidade”.
346 Contributors

Luiz Percival Leme Britto is a senior lecturer, researcher and teacher

educator at the Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará. He conducts
research and performs advisory services at various levels of education for
different administrative bodies and social organizations. He is interested in
reading, standard and linguistic variation of the Portuguese language,
teaching in primary and secondary school, higher education and adult
education. He coordinates the PNAIC - National Pact for Literacy at the
Adequate Age, and the LELIT (an education and intervention study group
focused on juvenile literature and school). He is a member of the
Movement for a Literary Brazil and the reference teacher of the
Portuguese Language Olympiad in the state of Pará.

Anthea Fester teaches in the General and Applied Linguistics programme

at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. She has published articles
related to language learning and teaching and has been involved in second
language teacher training at postgraduate level for many years. She has
developed and taught courses in English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
and second language teaching at undergraduate level for a number of
years. Her main research interests include curriculum and syllabus design
for EAL (English as Another Language), the teaching of academic writing
and language-teacher training.

Christina Gitsaki is an Associate Professor and Research Coordinator at

the Center for Educational Innovation, Zayed University, UAE. Dr Gitsaki
has previously served as the UNESCO Chair in Applied Research in
Education designing professional development programs for teachers in
the K-12 and higher education sectors. Dr. Gitsaki has served on the
executive boards of professional associations such as the Applied
Linguistics Association of Australia, the Gulf Comparative Education
Society, TESOL Arabia, and she is currently the Secretary General of the
International Association of Applied Linguistics. Her research interests are
in second language acquisition and pedagogy, the use of educational
technology in the second language classroom, teacher professional
development, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Lesley Harbon, Professor, University of Technology Sydney, is currently

Head of School of International Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences. She has published extensively in the areas of language teacher
education, intercultural language education, CLIL or bilingual education,
TESOL, and the perceived value of short term international experiences
for language teacher development. Her research papers have been
 Current Issues in Second/Foreign Language Teaching 347
and Teacher Development

published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and books since 1992.

Together with Robyn Moloney, she edited Language Teachers’ Narratives
of Practice (2013). Her work with professional teacher education groups
has developed in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam since 2010.

Nilton Varela Hitotuzi is a Lecturer in Education at the Universidade

Federal do Oeste do Pará and the leader of the Centre of Applied
Linguistics Studies and EFL Teacher Education research group, in Brazil.
He is the author of DRAMA-PROCESSO: educação problematizadora em
língua estrangeira no interior do Amazonas (2014). He has published
articles in the area of language teaching and critical pedagogy. He is
currently doing postdoctoral research on ELT Materials development at
the University of Leicester School of Education, UK. He is interested in
language teaching methodologies, pronunciation teaching, process drama,
critical thinking and classroom research.

Muchativugwa Liberty Hove teaches English Language and Literature at

North-West University, South Africa, and is currently a SAALA member
(an AILA affiliate) and interested in nation and narration, auto/biography
and the interface between literary production and cultural practices in
Africa. He has published scholarly articles in refereed journals in the areas
of ESL and cultural theory. He has authored From emasculation to
empowerment: African languages speakers long walk at a private school
in South Africa (2009), Imagining the nation: Autobiography, memoir and
history in the writings of Peter Godwin (2009), Polyphony and
polygraphy: African first language speakers at a private school in South
Africa (2014), Imagining the war veteran in Zimbabwean literary
discourse (2011), Hyphenated validity: Comparability of assessment
protocols in English language between two examination boards (2012),
and Strategies of re-presentation in auto/biography: Re-constructing and
re-membering with Kgomotso Michaelangelo Masemola.

Diane Johnson is the Chairperson of the School of Arts in the Faculty of

Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Waikato in New Zealand
where she teaches on the General and Applied Linguistics programme. She
has published a number of articles on issues in language teaching and
learning and has conducted a variety of pre- and in-service, teacher-
training seminars both in New Zealand and abroad. She has been a
principal writer of National Curriculum Guidelines documents for the New
Zealand Ministry of Education. Her research interests are centred on
teacher training, language teaching methodology, language teaching
348 Contributors

materials development, curriculum and syllabus design, language-teacher

training, and discourse analysis as it relates to language teaching.

Harumi Kimura teaches at Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University, Sendai,

Japan. She earned her doctorate from Temple University. She researched
second language listening anxiety in her doctoral study, and her academic
interests include second language acquisition, learner development, learner
psychology, and cooperative learning. She coauthored a book with Dr. G.
M. Jacobs, Cooperative Learning and Teaching, in English Language
Teacher Development Series (2013, Alexandria, VA: TESOL). In her free
time, she enjoys hiking and trekking.

Hideo Kojima is a Professor and teacher educator at Bunkyo University,

Japan. He obtained his TESOL Graduate Certificate from Georgetown
University, USA, and both MA in TEFL/TESL and PhD in Applied
Linguistics from the University of Birmingham, UK. His research interests
include: teacher education, learner/teacher autonomy, collaborative and
reflective learning/teaching, community of learning/practice, learning/teaching
portfolios, CLIL, language policy, etc. He has published extensively in the
areas of TEFL/TESL and teacher education.

Tero Korhonen, Master of Arts, teacher of English as a foreign language

and Swedish as a second language, is currently finishing his PhD research
in the School of Education, University of Tampere, Finland. His main
research interests include agency, autonomy and identity in FL learning,
language education, and issues related to narrative and narrativity in
language learning and teaching. He also has expertise in the European
Language Portfolio (ELP), and has co-authored about an ELP project in
Finland with Professor Emeritus Viljo Kohonen. His recent research
papers have been published in refereed books and journals.

Carmen Mills is a Lecturer in the School of Education at The University

of Queensland, Australia. Her research interests are informed broadly by
the sociology of education and specifically by issues of social justice in
education, schooling in disadvantaged communities and teacher education
for the development of socially just dispositions. Her current research as a
chief investigator on an Australian Research Council project explores
social justice dispositions informing teachers’ pedagogy in advantaged and
disadvantaged secondary schools.
 Current Issues in Second/Foreign Language Teaching 349
and Teacher Development

James Milton is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Swansea University

UK. A long-term interest in measuring lexical breadth and establishing
normative data for learning and progress has led to extensive publications
including Modelling and Assessing Vocabulary Knowledge (CUP, 2007
with Michael Daller and Jeanine Treffers-Daller), Measuring Second
Language Vocabulary Acquisition (Multilingual Matters, 2009), and
Dimensions of Vocabulary Knowledge (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014 with
Tess Fitzpatrick).

Mimi Nahariah Azwani Mohamed is a lecturer at the Department of

Language and Communication, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
(UTHM). She taught in secondary education for 10 years before joining
UTHM. She coordinates and teaches the UWB20302 Technical Writing
course for science, technology and engineering students. Her research
interests include English for specific purposes, English language teaching
and assessment, English language educators’ professional identity in
higher institutions and teaching problem solving skills in English
Language Teaching.

Robyn Moloney, is a teacher and researcher in the School of Education,

Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University. She teaches
methodology in language teaching and TESOL, and supervises doctoral
projects related to language learners and teachers. Her research interests
and her many publications focus on pre-service teacher education,
language teacher development, heritage language learners, and recently a
focus on the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language.

Karen Moni is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at The

University of Queensland. She co-ordinates literacy courses and research
methods courses in post-graduate programs and is the Executive Director
of Latch-On (Literacy and Technology-Hands-On), a post school literacy
research and teaching program for young adults with intellectual
disabilities. Her research interests include literacy and young adults with
intellectual disabilities, literacy and English for adolescents, and teaching,
learning and assessment in higher education.

Minako Nakayasu, professor of English at Hamamatsu University School

of Medicine, Japan, specializes in both linguistics and English language
education. Her research field as a linguist is mainly concerned with
semantics, pragmatics, English historical pragmatics, and English-
Japanese contrastive linguistics. She has authored Meaning and Context:
350 Contributors

Studies in English and Japanese Linguistics (2002) and Pragmatics of

Modals in Shakespeare (2009). She is currently working on her project of
the spatio-temporal systems in the history of English, particularly in the
Middle English period. Her research interests as an educator are teaching
methodology and curriculum development. Her teaching experience
includes TEFL at university level, various fields of linguistics, English
teaching methodology, and medical and nursing English.

Maria Luiza Fernandes da Silva Pimentel holds a first degree in

Teaching EFL and Portuguese Language and a diploma in EFL
Methodology. She is a Lecturer in Education at the Universidade Federal
do Oeste do Pará (UFOPA) and a member of the Centre of Applied
Linguistics Studies and EFL Teacher Education research group, in Brazil.
She is currently one of the coordinators of the PIBID-Letras-Inglês Project
at UFOPA and she is reading for her Master's degree in Education at
UFOPA’s Institute of Education Sciences. Her research interests are in the
areas of initial teacher education and continuing professional development.

Shadan Roghani is a research student at Swansea University. For her MA

dissertation she examined English vocabulary uptake among Persian
speaking children in a UK school. She is currently studying for a PhD and
is pursuing a line of investigation to examine whether using category
generation tasks can provide a useful metric for quantifying productive
knowledge in a foreign language.

Ylva Sandberg is a PhD student/Lecturer in Language Education at

Stockholm University. With a degree in 1995 as a language teacher of
English and German, she has experience of language teaching in the
Swedish upper secondary schools, secondary schools and in adult
education. She has been engaged in reference work at the National Agency
of Education, as language pedagogy advisor at the school broadcasting
company, and as the international representative of language teachers in
Sweden. Since 2008 Ylva has been employed at the Department of
Language Education, coordinating student and teacher exchange, lecturing
and studying. She is currently working on the completion of her licentiate
thesis. Her publications include study material for language learning and
teaching, and more recently, in 2011, she published an article on Content
and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) course design. Her research
interests are in second language acquisition, teacher cognition and CLIL.
 Current Issues in Second/Foreign Language Teaching 351
and Teacher Development

Shigeru Sasajima, Professor of English Language Pedagogy in the

Faculty of International Communication at Toyo Eiwa University in Japan,
is currently interested in language teacher cognition, language teacher
education, CLIL, the CEFR, and Lesson (Learning) Study. He has been
working as a teacher educator as well as an EFL teacher in Japan for more
than 35 years. He earned his PhD in Education from the University of
Stirling in Scotland. So far he has published numerous books, papers, and
textbooks, which are all related to English language teaching and teacher
education. He also works as the Auditor Secretary of the Japan
Association of College English Teacher (JACET) and the Chair of JACET
SIG on Language Teacher Cognition. In addition, he has coordinated
several CLIL seminars.

Vi Thanh Son is a PhD candidate in Linguistics at the Centre of

Languages and Literature at Lund University, Sweden. Prior to that, she
received a BA in English and English Pedagogy at Cantho University
(Vietnam). After working as an international relations officer and English
teacher at Cantho University, Vietnam, she completed her Master’s degree
in Language and Culture in Europe at Linköping University (Sweden). She
also obtained a Master’s degree in Higher Education Research and
Development at Kassel University (Germany). She has presented several
papers at international conferences on second language learning and
teaching, second language acquisition, language policy in relation to
language learning and teaching, and corpus linguistics. She has also
published articles on corpus linguistics and the internationalization of
Vietnamese higher education. From these backgrounds, she has a range of
research interests: second language acquisition, language didactics,
language policy, language in relation to culture, corpora in language
teaching and learning, and the internationalization of higher education.

Ping Wang is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Foreign

Languages, Ludong University, China. She holds a PhD in Education from
the University of Queensland, Australia. She has extensive experience
teaching English as a Foreign Language. She has published research
papers in the areas of EFL and teacher education. She authored
Professional Development through CoPs: A Case Study of EFL Teachers
in China (2013). Her research interests include teacher education, second
language acquisition, and English Language Teaching.
 INDEX

3sg-s 265, 267, 274-276, 278-280 community of practice 54, 79

Aboriginal languages 77 complex adaptive system 105, 140-
acquisition 265-269, 271, 278, 280 141, 144-145, 148, 153, 158,
activities 9 160
affirmation 8 complexities 11
affordance 141, 159 complexity approach to language
applied linguistics 140-141, 143 teaching 140-141, 143, 145,
approach to language teaching 140- 153, 155, 160-161
143 complexity theory 140-144, 160
attractor states 105 constructing identities 90
Australia 73, 81 content-based instruction 213-214
autonomy 12, 142, 148, 155 context 15
autopoietic organization 141, 148, contextualised 97
160 continuing education 7
auxiliary 266-267, 276, 278, 280 cooperation 8
basic measures 17 cooperative learning 230, 236
bilingual education, 213, 215-216, copular 275, 277-278, 280
220, 222 course evaluation 200-206
Brazilian Amazon 3 course integration 123, 130, 132
Brazilian government 3 critical pedagogy 12
CAPES 5 curriculum 120, 121, 122, 130, 132,
CAS 105 164, 173, 213, 216, 220, 224
case study 285, 292 curriculum coordination 194
CELEPI 7, 10 dilemma 212, 218, 221
classroom 265, 268-270, 272-274, disadvantaged 165
279, 281 discursive features 166
classroom activities 269, 279 diversity 167
classroom challenge, 212-213 dynamicity 141, 153-154
classroom interaction, 213, 215, ecology 164, 170, 172
217-219, 223-225 education 3
CLIL 12, 207, 212, 213, 215-216 EFL 285, 290-292, 296-297
coherence 176 EFL teachers 8
cohesion 176 ELT for engineering 96
collaborative design 165 English as a lingua franca104
COLT 268-271 English as an additional language
comic series 285, 287, 296 141, 143, 145, 160-161
communicative language teaching English curriculum 191
22, 28 English for General Purposes 191
community 75 English for Medical Purposes 191
 Current Issues in Second/Foreign Language Teaching 353
and Teacher Development

English for Specific Purposes 191 language teacher training 20, 23-25,
English lesson 268, 270, 279 30, 81
English-speaking Amazonians 17 learners 265-269, 272, 275
ESP 86, 191 lesson design 215, 225
evaluation of achievement 200 lexical verb 275-277
explicit learning 305 linguistic registers 214-215, 225
foreign language context 247, 255- linguistic unpredictability 212, 217-
256 219, 221
foreign language identity 248, 255- literacy 164, 166, 169
257 longitudinal study 164, 165
frequency effects in learning 307 Matthew effect 305
genre 212-215, 220, 222, 224 mentors 6
globalisation 121, 123-124 meta-linguistic knowledge 214, 219,
goals 8 221, 224
government-funded schools 5 mindmap 197
grammar 266, 281 mixed-methods 113, 229, 232
group work 196 morphemes 266-267, 278
horizontal language 214 multilingual 165-167
icebreakers 200 multiliteracies 164, 167
IDEB 8 narrative analysis 250
identity 141, 157-158, 166, 182 narrative enquiry 72-73, 75
impact 9, 268, 272, 279 output 14, 215, 222
implicit learning 305 pedagogic tool 212, 219, 224
impoverished schools 164 pedagogical interventions 12
incentive 13 pedagogy for autonomy 258
incivility 228, 230 Peppa Pig 285-287, 289-290, 292,
incremental training 15 294, 296
individual accountability 236 performance 141-143, 154-156
initial teacher education 5 PIBID 5
instruction 265-269, 272-274, 280 PISA 107
interaction challenge 212, 224 PLIP 6
interaction design 213, 219, 225 positive interdependence 230, 240-
interlanguage 266, 275-276, 280 241, 243
interpersonal collaborative skills pre-service training 21, 23, 26-29
228, 242-243 preschoolers 285-286, 289, 291-292,
Japan Society for Medical English 296-297
Education 191 primary education 267, 268, 270,
language 265-269, 271-281 274, 279
language as complex adaptive Processability Theory 265-266
system 141, 145-146 professional development 13
language education 216 professional identity 94
language narrative 250 professional learning 80
language social practices 141, 156- proficiency 120, 124
157 pupils 268, 271-274, 280
language teacher 20, 22-24, 27-28, qualitative content analysis, 212,
73 217
354 Index

receptive vocabulary 285, 291, 296 teacher education 5, 212-213, 225

reflection 74, 215-216, 220, 223 teacher professional development 54
reflection-in-action 55 teaching and learning 265, 268, 270,
reflection-in-anticipation 56 281
reflection-on-action 55 teaching career 6
reflective practice 7 teaching experience 7
reflective practitioner, 215, 220 TEFL-Pibidians 10
relational communication, 217, 221- tensions 90
222, 224 textbook 121, 125-126, 128, 130,
repetition 274, 279 141-143, 145-146, 148, 153-
resource 164-165, 170, 172-173, 154, 156- 161
213, 215 tool 13
Retrodictive Qualitative Modelling training programme 20-21, 23-30
109 transactional communication 217,
school environment 7 222, 224
school teacher 9 transition 90
second language acquisition 106, translanguaging 212, 215, 223-225
141, 144-146, 158-159, 212-213 TV 286-289
semi-structured interview 217 upper secondary school 3
sense of plausibility 142, 153, 159 vertical language 214
singular 265, 267, 272, 275-280 Vietnamese 265, 270, 272-274, 279-
socio-affective barrier 212, 217, 281
221-222, 224 visual aids 197-199
spoken genre 214-215, 225 vocabulary and academic
stage 265-267, 275-280 performance 303, 317
strategic improvement plan 8 vocabulary growth rates 305, 315
strategies 8, 164, 212, 220, 222-224 vocabulary intervention 319
subject verb agreement 265-267, vocabulary profiles 313, 317
275-279 vocabulary size in bilinguals and L2
subject-content didactics 215 306-307
Swedish as a second language 214 vocabulary size in children 305-306
Swedish upper secondary school vocabulary size in native speakers
213, 216 304-305
syllabus 120-123, 130, 141, 158- vocabulary uptake 285, 288-289,
159, 164-165, 175, 177, 181, 291
213, 220-221 Western Pará 4
syllabus design 165, 175, 181 workload 10
teacher 266, 268-275 writing competencies 165, 168, 175
teacher beliefs and practices 20-23 X-Lex vocabulary size test 311
teacher cognition 106, 108, 212, 215