Current L2 self-concept of Finnish comprehensive school students : The role of grades, parents, peers, and society

L2 (second/foreign language) motivation research in Finland has been scarce. Furthermore, international motivational research has focused more on ideal and ought-to selves, leaving the current L2 self-concept in the background. In the present study, we attempted to address this gap, exploring what shapes L1 (mother tongue) Finnish students' understanding of themselves as users and learners of L2s. Using structural equation modelling, we studied the relationships between students' (n = 1206) current L2 self-concept and parental encouragement, peer pressure, societal expectations, and grades. We further studied which of these factors are the best predictors of students' current L2 self-concep…

To correct or to cooperate : Mediational processes and L2 development

The present article argues for a conceptual distinction between corrective feedback and mediation that emphasizes the status of the latter not as an instructional practice but as a defining feature of human psychology (Vygotsky, 1987) that has direct implications for how instruction might be approached. Specifically, Sociocultural Theory (SCT) posits that humans are always and everywhere mediated, as individuals draw upon meanings and ways of thinking they have already internalized as well as those that are available in their immediate environment to regulate their actions. With regard to second language (L2) education, rather than exclusively focusing on learner independent performance or…

Multimodal mediational means in assessment of processes: an argument for a hard-CLIL approach

In Japan, CLIL instruction falls under a soft-CLIL approach, content serving as secondary to language instruction. Furthermore, assessment in classrooms in Japan is oftentimes limited to assessing ...

It’s Beyond Our Group ZPD : A Sociocultural Approach to the Unsuccessful Self-treatment of Writer’s Block in Times of COVID-19

This study is a replication of Upper (1974). Our results are identical. We too have been unable to focus and accomplish our writing goals since the beginning of the global pandemic. We are certainly not alone, and we would like to recognize all of our colleagues who have also had to take on additional responsibilities at work and at home over the past year that have made writing nearly impossible. nonPeerReviewed

Finnish Matriculation Examination, National Curriculum, and teachers’ attitudes, perspectives, and practices : when the two assessment cultures meet

The Finnish National Core Curriculum (NCC) and the Matriculation Examination (ME) are likely to shape what happens in classrooms around Finland, including classroom assessment. The present study aimed at exploring English academically oriented upper secondary school English teachers’ (n = 85) (1) attitudes to changes in the NCC and the ME, (2) their perspectives on these changes, and (3) how their assessment practices were shaped by the NCC and the ME. The data were collected roughly at the time both changes came into force. The data came from a survey and follow-up interviews with four teachers. The results indicated that teachers were quite positive about the changes but anticipated both …

L2 English vocabulary breadth and knowledge of derivational morphology : One or two constructs?

Derivational morphology (DM) and how it can be assessed have been investigated relatively rarely in language learning and testing research. The goal of this study is to add to the understanding of the nature of DM knowledge, exploring whether and how it is separable from vocabulary breadth. Eight L2 (second or foreign language) English DM knowledge measures and three measures of the size of the English vocabulary were administered to 120 learners. We conducted two confirmatory factor analyses, one with one underlying factor and the other treating vocabulary breadth and DM as separate. As neither model had a satisfactory fit without introducing a residual covariance to the two-factor model,…

Kieltenopetuksen varhentamisen kärkihankkeen seurantapilotti : loppuraportti

Yhdeksäsluokkalaisten opiskelukäytänteet englannin, ruotsin ja ranskan oppitunneilla ja vapaa-ajalla

The article reports on a quantitative investigation of the differences in Finnish 15–16 year- old students’ self-reported foreign/second language (L2) study practices and use across three languages: English (n=3,476), Swedish (n=1,679), and French (n=1,023). The data set consisted of (a) a questionnaire about students’ background and L2 study practices/use and (b) their L2 speaking and writing proficiency. The differences between the languages were generally small although the students reported to do their homework in Swedish considerably less regularly than in English and French and English was used more outside classroom than Swedish and French. The differences in the background variables…

Beyond error correction in EFL writing in a Finnish upper secondary classroom : a practical approach

In Finland, teachers have considerable autonomy over their assessment practices. Recent studies suggest that FL/L2 teachers, particularly at the upper secondary school, primarily focus on summative assessment rather than on formative assessment and feedback, which is in contrast with the latest Finnish National Core Curricula. Furthermore, while appreciating teacher feedback, learners do not perceive it as an integral part of assessment. In this paper, we propose formative classroom practices to support the learning process and go beyond error correction in FL/L2 writing. These practices are grounded on our earlier research, and they focus mainly on two themes: fostering learner choice in f…

Dialectics in CLIL Classrooms

Based on the insights that emerged in the chapters to this volume, in this chapter, we revisit the following: (a) relationship between teaching, learning, and assessment in the classroom-based assessment cycle (Davison 2008) and (b) integration in assessment in CLIL (Leung and Morton 2016). Two guiding questions will mediate our discussion: What is assessment promoting learning in CLIL? and How can assessment promoting learning in CLIL help to conceptualise assessment promoting learning in general? peerReviewed

This can be made more student-centred : Asynchronous mediation in in-service teacher professional development

Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory is a powerful foundation for research into teacher professional development. However, while this research has been growing, it has largely been focused on pre-service second/foreign language. Furthermore, there is a lack of research on how the instructional process informed by the principles of Sociocultural Theory, including assessment of candidates’ mediated performance, can be orchestrated to promote teachers’ conceptual development and induce changes in their classroom practices. The present study explores how asynchronous assessment of in-service teachers’ portfolios (with the focus on lesson planning) informed by dynamic assessment framework shaped the …

L2 English derivational knowledge : Which affixes are learners more likely to recognise?

Knowledge of derivational morphology is considered an important aspect of vocabulary knowledge both in L1 (mother tongue) and L2 (second or foreign language) English language learning. However, it is still not clear whether different derivational affixes vary in their (learning) difficulty. The present study examines whether Bauer and Nation’s (1993) teaching order of L2 English affixes can account for the difficulty learners have with recognising the affixes. The participants in the study were L1 Estonian and Russian learners of English at upper-secondary schools in Estonia (n = 62). Their performance was measured on a word segmentation task. There were significant differences in the numbe…

Exploring and Reshaping Learners’ Beliefs About the Usefulness of Corrective Feedback : A Sociocultural Perspective

A number of studies have shown that learners’ beliefs about the usefulness of corrective feedback for improving their L2 (a second or a foreign language) use influences the extent to which learners can utilize that same feedback. It seems, then, that changing some of these beliefs could benefit the L2 learning process. The present article reports on two small-scale studies, both drawing on a sociocultural perspective on the development of beliefs. Changes in learners’ beliefs about corrective feedback were observed both within a period of six months (Case study) and over the course of one research interview (Group study). The studies exemplify how the interplay of one’s own and other’s expe…

sj-docx-1-ltj-10.1177_02655322221114015 – Supplemental material for L2 English vocabulary breadth and knowledge of derivational morphology: One or two constructs?

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-ltj-10.1177_02655322221114015 for L2 English vocabulary breadth and knowledge of derivational morphology: One or two constructs? by Dmitri Leontjev, Ari Huhta and Asko Tolvanen in Language Testing

Guiding and assessing development of L2 writing process : the role of peer collaboration

This study, informed by Vygotskian notion of mediation and reporting on a partnership between a researcher (the first author) and a teacher (the second author), aims at exploring how peers’ comments can inform teacher assessment and guidance of learners’ L2 (second/foreign language) writing. The participants were 19 L2 English learners in an upper secondary school in Finland. We largely focus on the notes that one pair of learners made on each other’s essays and how they responded to peer assistance. Triangulating these data with classroom observation and a questionnaire, we traced how learners co-constructed their understanding of how their texts can be developed. The foci and how the iden…

L2 English questions

The research on the amount and the types of corrective feedback beneficial for learning a second or foreign language has produced inconsistent results. Interestingly, studying corrective feedback from the perspective of a sociocultural theory of learning has the potential to resolve these differences although so far, these studies have been largely qualitative. The present study attempts to contribute to the existing research on corrective feedback from this perspective by comparing the effects of two types of automated corrective feedback on learning: adaptive feedback (i.e., feedback incrementally adapting to learners’ abilities by becoming more explicit and detailed) and knowledge of res…

Relationship between students' opinions, background factors and learning outcomes: Finnish 9th graders learning English

Word derivational knowledge and writing proficiency: How do they link?

Abstract Although word derivational (WD) knowledge, i.e., how new words are formed from existing words with help of derivational affixes, is considered important for learners of second or foreign languages (L2), there is still no clear answer as to what aspects comprise the construct of L2 English word derivational knowledge and how it develops. The present study adds to our knowledge on how the ability to derive English words develops among L2 English learners. More specifically, it sheds light on how word derivational knowledge relates to communicatively defined Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) language proficiency levels regarding learners' writing skills. In the study, 117 …

ICAnDoiT: the impact of computerised adaptive corrective feedback on L2 English learners

The present dissertation examines the impact of (computerised) adaptive corrective feedback, that is, feedback dynamically adapting to learners’ abilities, in English as a second/foreign language (L2) and explores the ways to maximise this impact. The study was inspired by the sociocultural perspective on development, which had implications for the interpretation of the results, including those obtained through statistical data analyses. The dissertation comprises five articles and a synthesis. In the first article, a positive effect of adaptive corrective feedback on the learners’ ability to formulate L2 English wh-questions is established. The second article explores how learners’ beliefs…

Assessing (for) Understanding in the CLIL Classroom

In this chapter, we conceptualise CLIL assessment as a dialogic activity in which teachers and learners share the responsibility for building learners’ understanding of subject-specific issues. We illustrate such a conceptualisation by first studying how secondary school CLIL teachers perceive classroom assessment in interviews collected in Finland and Austria. Then, by examining video data from a CLIL lesson, we show how opportunities for assessing to support learning can emerge in routine instructional interaction, and how a teacher can attend to learner talk both to develop his or her own understanding of the learner’s abilities and to promote these same abilities. Our data suggest that,…

"The thing… is kinda complicated" : What and how do you assess in CLIL?

“Every teacher is a language teacher” has almost become a mantra in educational systems throughout the world. However, what does it mean in practice? If language learning and teaching is a part of any classroom, how do you teach and assess both content and language simultaneously? This question inspired a collaboration of teachers and researchers from all around the world which we reflect on in this paper. nonPeerReviewed

Dynamic assessment of word derivational knowledge: Tracing the development of a learner

The present paper reports on a case study that explored the applicability of dynamic assessment (DA) for promoting learners’ word derivational knowledge in English as a second or a foreign language (L2). One learner’s performance on tasks assessing his word derivational knowledge was measured four times. The first two measurements were conducted before and after three weekly human-mediated DA sessions and the last two, which took place a year and a half later, before and after three weekly computerised DA sessions. Think aloud protocols and interviews were used to trace changes in the learner’s use of strategies and knowledge sources. The results revealed that following the dynamic assessme…

What is a language error?

Why are we so afraid of making mistakes? Students in language classes, speakers of non-standard varieties, professionals working abroad – we all share the anxiety of dropping the ball. But where does this anxiety come from? Why do we perceive certain linguistic features as errors in the first place? Is there any inherent faultiness in such features, or is a language error arbitrary? And if it is arbitrary, are errors less real? In this discussion, Maria Khachaturyan, Maria Kuteeva and Svetlana Vetchinnikova zoom in on the social life of variation in language and its uneasy relationship with our normative ideas. After that, Gunnar Norrman and Dmitri Leontjev give their comments. The discussi…

Conceptualising Assessment and Learning in the CLIL Context. An Introduction

Multiple CLIL writers (e.g. Ball et al. 2015) have emphasised the significant role of assessment in promoting learning in CLIL classrooms, where there is a dual focus on learning content and language (Genesee and Hamayan 2016). Because of this dual focus, the assessment process in CLIL becomes more complex. Assessment in CLIL should provide insights into learner content and linguistic knowledge as well as strategies used to learn both content and language in order to identify student progress and needs. This should inform both teachers and students about how to enhance learning. Despite excellent overviews, guidelines, and practical activities in CLIL assessment (Lin 2016; Mehisto and Ting …

Resolving tensions caused by high-stakes assessment in an L2 classroom through mediation

The Finnish classroom assessment culture is considered that of assessment for learning. The situation in upper-secondary schools is different, however. While teachers in Finland appreciate assessment supporting learning, they feel unable to merge it with assessment of learning outcomes, and favour the latter due to the Matriculation Examination (ME; e.g. Leontjev, submitted), a high-stakes exam growingly used in university admission. Learners, likewise, expect teachers to prepare them for the ME (Lakkala & Ilomäki, 2013), the results of which play a significant role in their further studies. The tension between assessment for learning and exam preparation is, therefore, often resolved i…

Teacher as creator: Orchestrating the learning environment to promote learner development

Sociocultural theory (SCT) is a powerful basis for exploring and guiding L2 (second/foreign language) learner development. For the most part, however, the focus of classroom SCT-L2 has been on single activities, for example, teacher mediation of learners’ writing process or peer scaffolding. In this paper, we expand on these studies, building on Vygotsky’s (1997) metaphor of teacher as a creator of learner development. We propose how activities (1) where agency for guiding development lies with learners, (2) where the teacher takes the lead in guiding learner development, and (3) where opportunities for development emerge in dialogical interaction between the teacher and learners can be or…

It’s Beyond Our Group ZPD

This study is a replication of Upper (1974). Our results are identical. We too have been unable to focus and accomplish our writing goals since the beginning of the global pandemic. We are certainly not alone, and we would like to recognize all of our colleagues who have also had to take on additional responsibilities at work and at home over the past year that have made writing nearly impossible.

Multimodal mediational means in assessment of processes : an argument for a hard-CLIL approach

In Japan, CLIL instruction falls under a soft-CLIL approach, content serving as secondary to language instruction. Furthermore, assessment in classrooms in Japan is oftentimes limited to assessing the product summatively. In the paper, we argue for the value of focusing on content in CLIL activities and assessing the process with the goal to promote learning. The present small-scale study at a Japanese university explored how learners (n = 6) used multimodal mediational means to build their conceptual understanding of ‘Earth breathing’ in order to create a presentation on it for a general English course. The further goal was to explore how inferences made from assessing this process of lear…

Conclusion: Dialectics in CLIL Classrooms

Based on the insights that emerged in the chapters to this volume, in this chapter, we revisit the following: (a) relationship between teaching, learning, and assessment in the classroom-based assessment cycle (Davison 2008) and (b) integration in assessment in CLIL (Leung and Morton 2016). Two guiding questions will mediate our discussion: What is assessment promoting learning in CLIL? and How can assessment promoting learning in CLIL help to conceptualise assessment promoting learning in general?

Towards an Individualised Approach to Learners’ Errors

When I started working as a school teacher (which was before I began my Ph.D. studies), I decided to try to come up with a clever way of marking my students’ written assignments, correcting the errors of weaker students and only underlining those made by better ones. I found quite soon that it was often hard for me to assess my students’ abilities properly, which I realised when I started getting complaints from them that they did not understand what their mistakes had been. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm decreased, and I began abandoning my practice of approaching errors made by students of different abilities differently. nonPeerReviewed