Search results for " LANGUAGE"

Who and how? : Preservice teachers as active agents developing professional identities

2016

Abstract This study is part of an ongoing action research project with preservice class teachers in Finland. The study aims to better understand the forms agency takes in preservice teachers' professional identity development. Through the dialogical analysis of student assignments, this study outlines how student teachers are active within their own development and the way in which experiences are drawn on as preservice teachers exert their identity-agency. The results of this study provide a relational picture of identity development highlighting the way in which identity-agency is contextualized, potentially nourished by the relationships between self and other and dependent on experience.

Relational work in multimodal networked interactions on Facebook

2018

Abstract The paper argues that the notion of Relational Work (Locher and Watts 2005) needs to be expanded to be able to account for sociability in the networked interactions afforded by social platforms such as Facebook. Thus, the aim of this paper is to explore how the nature of networked interactions impacts the emergence of relational practices therein. Importantly, Relational Work is a language based framework whereas networked interactions are highly multimodal. By applying Norris’ (2004) multimodal framework to the analysis of a Facebook wall event, we show how key sociability functions are carried out by semiotic modes other than language. Furthermore, the analysis shows how relation…

ALR special issue: Visual methods in Applied Language Studies

2018

Abstract This introductory article serves two purposes. Firstly, it provides the background for the set of 11 articles that appear in the special issue of this journal and summarizes the articles along a number of dimensions. All the articles address aspects of multilingualism as subjectively experienced and they all make use of visual methodologies. Secondly, it subjects the articles to two meta-analyses. The first one compares and contrasts the studies by site: production, image and audiencing. The second one, in contrast, classifies the studies by the research strategy chosen by the researchers: looking, seeing or designing. The article concludes by pointing to future directions in resea…

The Metaphorical New Synthesis: Toward an Eco-Evolutionary Theory of Metaphors

2016

ABSTRACTMetaphors are a genuinely human construction. They are used to improve communication and they are a very powerful tool that might have an influence in human evolution. In this article I argue that metaphors, transformed in powerful memes, adapt to a new communicative niche and contribute to transform it. In order to prove this hypothesis, I study 319 cartoons published in the wake of the Germanwings air crash, where I inventory 144 metaphors. The study shows the conceptual metaphor evolution for a period of 2 weeks, and how the metaphors changed as a result of the variations in the communicative niche, becoming much more efficient communicatively.

Studying the visual and material dimensions of education and learning

2018

Looking towards the Future of Language Assessment: Usability of Tablet PCs in Language Testing

2016

[EN] This research addresses the change in how the Spanish University Entrance Examination can be delivered in the future. There is a wide acknowledgement that computer tests are very demanding for the delivering institutions which makes computer language testing difficult to implement. However, the use of tablet PCs can facilitate the delivery at even lower cost than the regular computer based language testing. 183 students in their last year of high school took a computer based language test which included reading, writing, listening and speaking. The research aspects were 1) whether they feel at ease with the tablet PC exam; 2) if they felt that visual aspects were accessible and 3) whet…

Children's Learning of Unfamiliar Phonological Sequences

1971

4 groups of 15 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-yr.-old children learned nonsense phonological sequences that varied in grammaticality by violating 0, 1, or 2 phonological rules of Ss' native language. The youngest age group made fewer errors in learning the most nongrammatical phonological sequences than in learning grammatical ones. With the 10- and 8-yr.-olds an opposite trend was found. The differences were not statistically significant. Implications for second language learning were discussed.

Chapter 9. Vocatives as a source category for pragmatic markers

2017

Openness to experience as a predictor of L2 WTC

2018

Abstract This paper aims to provide empirical evidence for the relationship between openness to experience and L2 willingness to communicate (WTC). The study posits that openness as a personality dimension may have a dual effect—both direct and indirect—on one's L2 WTC levels. First, openness directly influences L2 WTC through its stable character, shaping one's cognition, affect and behaviour. Also, it has a possible dual indirect impact by mediating perceived communicative competence and language anxiety. According to the results of step-wise multiple regression, openness can be regarded a significant predictor of L2 WTC, explaining 21% of its variability. It may be concluded that student…

Visual Methods in Researching Language Practices and Language Learning: Looking at, Seeing, and Designing Language

2016

The changing ways of using language and various understandings of what language is have consequences for the way we research language practices and language learning. When engaging in social contact, people use diverse and complex forms, modes, and varieties of language to communicate, and moreover, these resources often include icons, images, and other semiotic ways of meaning making. Visuality thus has a natural position in people’s language practices. In this chapter, we discuss how visual methods have been adopted and used as a methodological tool in researching language practices and language learning. With this focus, attention is geared to the materiality of language, on the one hand…