Search results for "Language learning"

Towards a fun and playful model for young children's foreign language learning

2017

This thesis proposes a model for young children's foreign language learning with a focus on fun and playfulness as well as emotional needs. The model is based on a wide range of literature on children's development, education, and foreign language learning specifically. Foreign language teachers are surveyed to discover their current practices. This data is analysed and compared to the proposed model. The study finds many teachers already follow many of the principles of the proposed model in their everyday practice. The use of fun activities as well as an awareness of learners' emotions are prevalent. Communication and technical aspects of language are also major themes common across teach…

Kulttuurienvälinen osaaminen liikuntakasvatuksessa : opiskelijoiden kokemuksia turvapaikanhakijoille pidetyistä liikunnallisista kielityöpajoista

2017

Yhteiskunnan monimuotoistuminen heijastuu koulumaailmaan monella tavoin. Se näkyy erityisesti oppilaiden erilaisina kulttuureina ja uskontoina ja on luonut tarpeen kehittää liikunnanopettajien kulttuurienvälistä osaamista. Kulttuurienvälisellä osaamisella tarkoitamme muun muassa omien, kulttuurisidonnaisten ajatusmallien tiedostamista, vuorovaikutustaitoja sekä kykyä toimia eri kulttuureista tulevien ihmisten kanssa tilannekohtaisesti. Suomesta puuttuu lähes kokonaan tutkimus, jossa tarkastellaan kulttuurienvälistä osaamista liikuntakasvatuksen kontekstissa. Tartumme tähän aiheeseen selvittämällä liikunnanopettajaopiskelijoiden kokemuksia, kun he kohtasivat kulttuurisesti monimuotoisia ryhm…

Tinker, Tailor…: Creativity in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

2018

The word creativity has recently won great popularity in numerous contexts, showing both positive (“creative writing”) and negative (“creative accounting”) connotations. The concept itself has many meanings as it may refer to the end product of one’s activity, the cognitive processes involved in the creative act, the personality of a creative person, the development of creativity across the life span, and also the factors that either stimulate or inhibit the process of creation (Łukasik, 2015; Simonton, 2000). There is also a distinction between exceptional creativity, manifesting itself in important works that are significant for a given society, and everyday creativity, which can be obser…

Teaching heritage German and Russian through authentic material in Jyväskylä, Finland : A case study

2017

Since 2013, sixteen heritage language teachers in Jyväskylä, Finland, have been developing an Active Library (ActLib) method and an online cooperative learning forum designed to create and share authentic language learning material. The main objectives are twofold. Firstly, from the learner’s perspective, the aims are to enhance pupils’ language awareness while encouraging them to use their language repertoire as a resource in learning, to develop authentic activities, and to increase pupil agency. Secondly, from the teachers’ and education policy perspective, the aim is to prepare heritage language teachers to introduce in advance the new Finnish core curriculum. A further objective is to …

Young People's Emerging Multilingual Practices : Learning Language or Literacy, or Both?

2019

Research on language learning and research on literacy are typically seen as two separate strands of enquiry and thus the concepts of language and literacy have traditionally been kept apart. This is partly due to epistemological questions related to language and literacy. In this chapter, I will discuss these concepts in the context of multilingualism. Approaching multilingual language use from the perspective of literacy practices enables us to look beyond language to social practices and to examine the relationship between the concepts of language and literacy, literacy practices and language learning. Two data sets are used to illustrate how language, literacy, and language learning are…

Converging Perspectives in the LESLLA Context

2013

There has been a surge in Low Educated Second Language and Literacy Acquisition (LESLLA) learners in adult language programs. In response to the growth of this learner population in language classes, there has been increased interest in the professionalization of the field of adult education specific to work with LESLLA learners. As researcher and practitioner awareness and understanding of the LESLLA context continues to expand, necessary and qualitative transformations of second language (L2) teaching and L2 teacher education are taking place. This article provides a glimpse into a larger ethnographic case study that explores the teaching worlds of two LESLLA teachers working in community…

Audiovisual processing of Chinese characters elicits suppression and congruency effects in MEG

2019

Learning to associate written letters/characters with speech sounds is crucial for reading acquisition. Most previous studies have focused on audiovisual integration in alphabetic languages. Less is known about logographic languages such as Chinese characters, which map onto mostly syllable-based morphemes in the spoken language. Here we investigated how long-term exposure to native language affects the underlying neural mechanisms of audiovisual integration in a logographic language using magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG sensor and source data from 12 adult native Chinese speakers and a control group of 13 adult Finnish speakers were analyzed for audiovisual suppression (bimodal responses…

On Migration and Illiteracy—Dealing With Texts in L2 Italian Initial-Literacy Classes

2019

Acquiring the language spoken in the host country is crucial for social inclusion of migrants. From this perspective, illiteracy represents a social problem since it has repercussions on second-language acquisition/learning process. In order to investigate the role of illiteracy in L2 Italian acquisition, the paper aims at analyzing the oral productions of L2 Italian learners with equal L1 but a different level of education, i.e., low educated vs. non-educated. The learners’ productions are collected through semi-structured video interviews. From the perspective of the conversational analysis, the interviews are transcribed and studied taking into account also non-verbal aspects of the oral…

Simone Falk, Mobile-Assisted Language Learning. Eine empirische Untersuchung zum Einsatz digitaler mobiler Endgeräte im Kontext des Fremdsprachenunte…

2021

“Ihmisiltä poissa” – away from people : language learning spaces in Finnish as a foreign language students’ chat during the covid-19 pandemic

2020

Smart phones enable learners to practice language use in different spaces and environments beyond the classroom. Finnish language students in two North American universities participated in a collaborative chat project as part of their second-year language course. In this article we analyze how students' chat entries reflected their learning in different domestic spaces during the global covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020. nonPeerReviewed