Search results for "learning"
showing 10 items of 6669 documents
Knowledge ecology for conceptual growth:Teachers as active agents in developing a PluriLiteracies approach to Teaching for Learning (PTL)
2017
This article explores how a group of educators and researchers enacted an inclusive process of conceptual growth involving teachers and teacher educators as active agents, knowledge builders and meaning-makers in the development of a Pluriliteracies approach to Teaching for Learning (PTL). The evolution of a working model based on five emergent principles, foregrounded the need for stakeholders across different languages, cultures and disciplines, to work together from the start so that learning spaces were created where teacher development went alongside researcher development, and theorizing was not only inclusive of praxis but validated by it. A growth cycle emerged using theories of pra…
Affordances and constraints: Second language learning in cleaning work
2016
This paper examines opportunities for language learning in a cleaning job, which is a typical entry-level job for immigrants. An ethnographic case study approach is taken to investigate examples of the conditions that allow or prevent language learning for the focal participant, a sub-Saharan man who works as a cleaner in Finland. This case illustrates on a micro-scale the impact of the new economy on a worker in a company that has outsourced its cleaning services. Theoretically and methodologically, the study applies van Lier’s (2004) ecological approach to language learning and Scollon and Scollon’s (2004) nexus analysis. The analysis of interaction order shows that within outsourced clea…
Acquisition of Generic Competencies Through Project Simulation in Translation Studies
2017
Motivated by the research in several international and interdisciplinary initiatives, for example, P21 Partnership for 21st Century Learning or the Collegiate Learning Assessment instruments, we seek for a scalable and measureable set of generic competencies for translation studies. Up to now, the acquisition of competencies in translation studies has primarily been operationalized by implementing authentic projects in higher education classes using socio-constructivist approaches. This results in a hybridization of subject-specific competencies and generic competencies in translator education. Because of the necessity to focus on the acquisition of generic competencies as a primary learnin…
The exclusive language of science? Comparing knowledge gains and motivation in English-bilingual biology lessons between non-selected and preselected…
2018
ABSTRACTThe dominant role of English as the global language of science entails a requirement for science teachers to equip their non-native English-speaking students with receptive and productive l...
Researching pronunciation learning strategies: An overview and a critical look
2018
Disparate goals that learners might have in learning second or foreign language pronunciation and the scant classroom time that can be dedicated to teaching this target language subsystem dictate that learner autonomy is of vital importance in this case and adept use of pronunciation learning strategies (PLS) can be viewed as key to the development of this attribute. Surprisingly, research on these strategies is scarce, mainly focusing on the identification and classification of PLS, diverse instruments are used for data collection and the findings are inconclusive. The paper provides an overview of the available research on PLS with respect to their identification, learners’ preferences co…
Collaborative Game‐play as a Site for Participation and Situated Learning of a Second Language
2009
This paper addresses additional language learning as rooted in participation in the social activity of collaborative game‐play. Building on a social‐interactional view of learning, it analyses some of the detailed practices through which players attend to a video game as the material and semiotic structure that shapes play and creates affordances for additional language learning. We describe how players engage with the language resources offered by the game, drawing on the vocabulary, constructions, prosodic features and utterances modelled on game dialogue, in building their own actions during collaborative play. With these resources, the players display their ongoing engagement with the g…
CLIL: A European Approach to Bilingual Education
2016
Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is a term used especially in Europe for forms of bilingual education where an additional language, in most cases English, is used as the language of instruction in non‐language school subjects. This chapter outlines the development of CLIL, embedded both in European level policies and in growing awareness of the new orientations to language learning introduced, for example, in language immersion research. Because of its potential to serve as a context for meaningful language use and situated language learning, CLIL has been regarded by EU institutions as an important instrument to foster European citizens’ bi‐ and multilingualism, to be offere…
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOREIGN LANGUAGE ENJOYMENT AND GENDER AMONG SECONDARY GRAMMAR SCHOOL STUDENTS
2018
In the context of second language acquisition, foreign language enjoyment (FLE) is a relatively new concept. For that reason, none of the few research carried out in the field thus far has been focused on whether gender might be an important determinant of either a high or a low level of FLE. Thus, the purpose of the present paper was to examine the influence of FLE on learning English as a foreign language, as well as to investigate this relationship from the perspective of gender. The results of this study revealed that there are no statistically significant differences between males and females in FLE, while such differences are found in terms of the sources of FLE each gender perceives …
From face-to-face to blended learning using ICT
2016
This study examines the development of the education model created in connection with the Master Studies in Mathematical Information Technology. The model has developed from the first stage, where there was only face-to-face teaching supported with Learning Management System, to a stage where studying is possible also fully in online and students may choose themselves how much to take advantage of technology in their studies. The examination of the development of the education model is made from the viewpoints of accessibility, increased role of technology and interaction. In earlier studies, the education model has been evaluated for example from the viewpoints of changes in the participat…
University Teachers’ Conceptions of Their Role as Developers of Technology-Rich Learning Environments
2017
This phenomenographic study examines how a diverse group of university teachers conceptualised their role as developers of technology-rich learning environments at one university in Finland. The research findings illustrate a variety of conceptions. Five qualitatively different ways of understanding teachers’ roles regarding the development of technology-rich learning environments were found: 1) innovator, 2) early adopter, 3) adaptive, 4) sceptic and 5) late adopter. In order to connect the whole set of interconnected roles to a theory of change, Everett Rogers’ innovation diffusion theory was exploited in the last phase of analysis. Finally, hierarchically structured categories were creat…