tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57140453661689024892024-03-05T19:26:29.265-08:00Evidence Based EFLDedicated to looking at language and language teaching from an evidence-based viewpoint.mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.comBlogger152125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-39022031662580241292022-12-31T19:25:00.003-08:002022-12-31T19:26:17.248-08:00So long and thanks for all the fish! <p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">10 years ago I posted my first post on this blog. </span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It was a criticism of people taking the word <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2012/03/literally-bored-to-death.html">"literally" too literally</a>. Now, 10 years later, this is my final post. </span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A lot has changed in ELT in the last 10 years. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Learning styles and some of the other weird practices I criticised seem to be on their way out. This would be cause for celebration but I am worried that new whacky ideas have rushed in to fill the gap. I'm not sure that ELT is any more evidence-based now than it was 10 years ago. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A lot has changed for me too. Since starting this blog I have written a book</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> which was nominated for an ELTon, a number of papers and I have been invited to speak in a number of countries. I couldn't have imagined when I started the blog back in 2012 that anything like that would have happened but it's been a (mostly) fun experience and I have got to meet some really great people.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">10 years in numbers</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In 2012 I wrote a post celebrating the fact the blog hit <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2012/08/1000-views-thanks-for-reading.html">1,000 views</a>. Since then it has been viewed more than half a million times. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The most popular nation for views was the US followed, rather curiously, by Russia. The most common search term that led to the blog is xxxxxx (no doubt related to </span><a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2013/02/is-guessing-from-context-load-of-xxxxxx.html" style="font-family: helvetica;">this</a><span style="font-family: helvetica;">). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This post will be the 152nd post on this blog. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So after 10 years</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> what were the most popular posts of all time? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">10. <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2016/05/try-this-it-works-error-correction-for.html">Chris Smith's guest blog on oral error correction </a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">9. Leo Selivan on <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2016/02/misapplied-linguistics.html">Misapplied linguistics</a> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">8. T<a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-myth-of-neat-histories.html">he Myth of neat histories</a> (one of my favourite posts) </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">7. <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2018/12/2018-wrap-up-and-some-thoughts-on.html">2018 wrap up post</a> (a rather odd one for the top 10) </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">6. Is <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2012/05/is-korea-worst-place-to-teach-english.html">Korea the worst place to teach English</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">5. <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2012/10/learning-styles-facts-and-fictions.html">Learning Styles: Facts and Fictions</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">4. Philip Kerr on <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2014/05/left-brains-and-right-brains-in-english.html">left and right brains in ELT</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">3. <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2013/01/skimming-and-scanning.html">Skimming and Scanning</a> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">2. <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2014/02/linguistic-myth-2-swearing-shows-lack.html">Swearing shows a lack of intelligence</a>? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">1. <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2012/06/ma-tesol-app-ling-or-delta-which-to-do.html">MA or DELTA: which to do</a>? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">If you want to explore other posts on this blog then there is an incomplete index <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/p/most-popular-posts.html">here</a>. </span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Unwritten blog posts </span></h3><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I have a bad habit of starting blog posts but never finishing them. At present there are about 60 half written blog posts that seemed doomed to stay half written. So here are some of the delights I never got round to finishing. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">1. A post defending learning styles, as an intellectual exercise. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">2. A post on language and religion, with specific reference to Mormons. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">3. Something about the number of rejections I have had when submitting articles to journals and some things you could do to increase your chances of getting an article accepted. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">4. A long post on Krashen </span></p><p><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Note: I did a poll and many people replied that Krashen has been proved "generally right" about most things. The post was looking at how wrong he is about so many things, like teaching reading (he is seriously <a href="http://www.danielwillingham.com/daniel-willingham-science-and-education-blog/if-youre-going-to-write-about-science-of-reading-get-your-science-right">anti-science in his views</a>), input only approaches, rejection of error correction as useful, and some of the weirder things he has claimed such as his views on <a href="https://www.angelfire.com/az/english4thechildren/krashen.html">bilingual education</a> and how he treats <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2015/09/guide-to-methods-part-3-what-richards.html">suggestopedia </a>as a serious approach. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Krashen is charismatic, funny and persuasive </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">and the closest thing in ELT to a real cult-of-personality Guru and I'm a little surprised academics give him as much credit as some do. </span></span></i></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">5. A post on cancel culture in ELT</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">6. A post on creativity and if it can be taught</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">7. A whole series of posts on testing</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">8. A whole series of posts on Chomsky </span></p><p><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Note: I have so many notes but no complete posts. Chomsky is endlessly interesting but if you want to know more I suggest reading "<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-linguistics-wars-9780199740338?cc=jp&lang=en&">The Linguistics Wars</a>" edition 2 which is excellent on the subject OR <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Evaluating-Cartesian-Linguistics-Computational-Investigations/dp/3631645511/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1672542614&refinements=p_27%3AChristina+Behme&s=books&sr=1-1">Christina Behme's book</a> on the subject which is an exceptional piece of writing. </span></span></i></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">9. A post on bad science for good causes</span></p><p><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Note: This will probably appear somewhere in some form. </span></span></i></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Finally! </span></h3><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I want to say thank you to the few people who have approached me over the years at conferences and other events and said they enjoyed reading the blog. It really meant a lot and I appreciate it. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I've had a strange relationship with twitter over the years. I have met some great people there and it's a great resource for academics to find each other and share work. It can also be incredibly toxic and has some bad incentives programmed into it. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I will likely keep my twitter account but these days I find myself checking it less and less. I will lurk so feel free to send me a DM but don't be offended if I don't get back to you very quickly. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Anyway, I am now off to work on a much bigger and more personal project that I expect to take up almost all of my time. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpiY5Ssj3GzApwFLPRveyJ-b4DQ3qKQPdObZKvS3ehdV2XzcDQo1Os7qg4ec5XHxEN8aDfYiguLardxj59Qt3c_yPY0urJ9zPr8BEEJky-KLZgfrQEYVDKBFIMTkvNGrnwBe8gY-q6VE-oOMLBMGsRQYHpVOKtjfoTl73KgYUnPxYL3mGpO3lWMVa5/s1478/fgfgf.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1478" data-original-width="1108" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpiY5Ssj3GzApwFLPRveyJ-b4DQ3qKQPdObZKvS3ehdV2XzcDQo1Os7qg4ec5XHxEN8aDfYiguLardxj59Qt3c_yPY0urJ9zPr8BEEJky-KLZgfrQEYVDKBFIMTkvNGrnwBe8gY-q6VE-oOMLBMGsRQYHpVOKtjfoTl73KgYUnPxYL3mGpO3lWMVa5/s320/fgfgf.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span><p></p><p><strong style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;">Thanks for reading!</strong></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Russ Mayne</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">2023/1/1</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p></div>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-17987069144731198122022-01-18T21:13:00.005-08:002022-01-18T23:52:30.979-08:00Is there a replication crisis in ELT? <p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH5D6Pcvz83nIeRNAGm9Hu-K0OstKZtKdykWmK5ikU3BVsFdRq7D9NfuK7SGB2pYS0VlaKvy52QUDo91LT_E37zjF67IKOIkJ-0l2neZjdWMEKzk-yNphKJnMnZXEP6ufKZgyw5pnU_Gg/s852/img+1.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="852" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH5D6Pcvz83nIeRNAGm9Hu-K0OstKZtKdykWmK5ikU3BVsFdRq7D9NfuK7SGB2pYS0VlaKvy52QUDo91LT_E37zjF67IKOIkJ-0l2neZjdWMEKzk-yNphKJnMnZXEP6ufKZgyw5pnU_Gg/s320/img+1.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In a <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2012/10/can-horses-do-maths.html">2012 post</a> I talked about the famous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect">Pygmalion effect</a> in education which shows that teachers expectations for students alone were enough to influence actual outcomes. It’s a truly amazing finding and minimizes the influence of home life, peer group <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2466/pr0.1966.19.1.115">and IQ</a>. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/BF02322211.pdf">Rosenthal and Jacobson</a> showed that, as I noted,</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> "teachers' attitudes towards their students can affect students in quite remarkable ways".</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> The authors were lauded and their paper has been cited over 12,000 times but there was just one problem, it probably wasn't true. </span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">As I noted in that original post, there were some failed attempts to replicate the results. What I didn't realise at the time is just how shaky the original research was (</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/1968-thorndike.pdf">Thorndike wrote that</a> the stud</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">y “is so defective technically that one can only regret that it ever got beyond the eyes of the original investigators!”) a</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">nd just what a controversial subject it has become (there is a nice overview </span><a href="https://thenewstatistics.com/itns/2018/04/03/weve-been-here-before-the-replication-crisis-over-the-pygmalion-effect/" style="font-family: helvetica;">here</a><span style="font-family: helvetica;">). </span></div><div><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNsIQUlMagGiM6UgtV9w6AU2wTSrbLKPjw0I670V9Ld-PovGTOIOndrZKTZUteSYqtx1SQVPdUPWGeDCiimksD82RwSGgBxNl1bcXXGuAqpLuMERYVhyphenhyphengSKLXcUnT_k3wEXUmo12RyndI/s1200/sec_9816187.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNsIQUlMagGiM6UgtV9w6AU2wTSrbLKPjw0I670V9Ld-PovGTOIOndrZKTZUteSYqtx1SQVPdUPWGeDCiimksD82RwSGgBxNl1bcXXGuAqpLuMERYVhyphenhyphengSKLXcUnT_k3wEXUmo12RyndI/s320/sec_9816187.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The Pygmalion effect is not, however, an anomaly. In fact a host of famous psychological studies have come under scrutiny in recent years. The Stanford prison guard experiment, for example, has, to date, not been <a href="https://gen.medium.com/the-lifespan-of-a-lie-d869212b1f62">successfully replicated</a>. Nor has the claim that holding a pencil in your teeth will make you <a href="http://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/StrackRRR_manuscript_accepted.pdf">feel happier by creating a "smile"</a>. Did you hear the one about how priming people with adjectives relating to old age can make them walk like old people? <a href="https://www.wilsonquarterly.com/quarterly/the-american-quest-for-redemption/does-hearing-words-like-wrinkles-cause-you-walk-slowly/">That didn't replicate</a>. <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science/does-thinking-about-professors-make-you-smarter#:~:text=In%20nine%20separate%20experiments%2C%20with,%E2%80%9D%20and%20%E2%80%9Cstupidity%E2%80%9D%20primes.">Neither</a> did the one in which thinking about professors makes you smarter. How about</span> the one about how standing in a power pose makes you actually more powerful? <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2016/09/power-poses-co-author-i-dont-think-power-poses-are-real.html">You guessed it.</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aac4716">one incredible article</a> with over 270 authors that attempts to replicate 100 studies in top ranking psychology journals, researchers found that only around one third to a half replicated. This finding is part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis">replication crisis in science</a>, which has involved fields from <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/201218">medicine </a>to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00461520.2021.1895796">cognitive psychology</a>. One paper <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/533452a">notes that</a> "Data on how much of the scientific literature is reproducible are rare and generally bleak." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Bad news for science, but what's the situation like in ELT? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The simple answer is that no one really knows as replication is vanishingly rare in SLA and applied linguistics. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">One of the people pushing for replication in ELT is Emma Marsden, co founder of the oasis database. In a comprehensive <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/lang.12286">2018 paper</a> (which </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">stretches to 70 pages</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">) Marsden and colleagues investigate the state of replication in the field. They note that at present </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1d1e; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 16px;">little is known about replication in second language (L2) research</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">". </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In the paper Marsden et al surveyed the literature for replications, finding 67, a number they describe as "very low". The authors estimate that for every 400 papers published, 1 gets replicated. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Of the 67 papers they found around a third of the replications they looked at did not produce the same result as the original study. <strike>At a rough estimate then 30% of the research out there is wrong.</strike> (Edit: Dan Isbell correctly points out that failure to replicate does not mean the original study was "wrong". As <a href="https://twitter.com/Daniel_R_Isbell">he notes</a> "a single replication is not a final verdict.")</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Replication can provide important insights for teachers. A <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2019/12/try-this-it-works-432.html">replication of nations work on 432</a> for instance, showed that merely repeating the task, without shortening the time, led to the same increases in fluency as practice + time reduction. That means 4/4/4 is as effective as 4/3/2. Replication </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">can also </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">help by testing claims in non-</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weird" style="font-family: helvetica;">weird</a><span style="font-family: helvetica;">" </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">populations (particularly useful for ELT)</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Th</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">e lack of replication may explain the </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">surprisingly low level of </span><a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2021/05/retraction-in-elt.html" style="font-family: helvetica;">retraction in ELT</a><span style="font-family: helvetica;">. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><!--/wp:paragraph--><!--wp:paragraph--></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #1c1d1e; font-family: helvetica;">There are <a href="goog_1445432549">efforts to change </a></span><span style="color: #1c1d1e; font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/lang.12338">t</a>he situation and increase the amount of replication</span><span style="color: #1c1d1e; font-family: helvetica;">. For instance, Language Learning is publishing a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/lang.12338">special "replication" edition</a>. The publication of this project is set of for June of this year and will make interesting reading. But as things stand the lack of replication in SLA should seriously worry those trying to argue for the importance of research in supporting teaching. </span></div><div>
<!--/wp:paragraph--></div></div>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-54584940514108729102021-10-04T05:47:00.003-07:002021-10-04T05:55:43.881-07:00It's over 9000!! <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZUDJG-1jDRZtaCkK3trpDtnteV1Tb71SgH0FLu3tYE54ItPN5XnUUlurGKAS5nFxXh70IfF-bqD5kuEGAYCVtnWviYfab0PxCv6eFqWY15OS2Oz_hvAqMFS8DrpFru_WhmmyxpkdlzQ/s1280/itsover1000.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZUDJG-1jDRZtaCkK3trpDtnteV1Tb71SgH0FLu3tYE54ItPN5XnUUlurGKAS5nFxXh70IfF-bqD5kuEGAYCVtnWviYfab0PxCv6eFqWY15OS2Oz_hvAqMFS8DrpFru_WhmmyxpkdlzQ/s320/itsover1000.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">(This post includes video clips that may not show up on mobile devices)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The recent hit Netflix show </span><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/netflix-s-squid-game-sensation-here-s-why-it-s-n1280646" style="font-family: helvetica;">Squid Game</a><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> has caused controversy online after reports that the translation is not correct. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Podcast host <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/feeling-asian/id1481891689">Y</a></span><span color="inherit" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;"><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/feeling-asian/id1481891689">oungmi Mayer</a> caused a stir when she tweeted out that the English translations of the Netflix show were "botched" and that </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span color="inherit" style="font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;">"</span><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://twitter.com/ymmayer/status/1443615642385592324">if you don’t understand Korean you didn’t really watch the same show</a></span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;">". She noted that "zero" of the original dialogue was </span>preserved<span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;">. So, what happened? How could a huge company like Netflix make such a mess of translating a show like this? </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;">I decided to investigate. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The first thing to understand about translations are that there are different types. One is literal and <a href="https://www.vengaglobal.com/blog/translation-localization-difference/">another is localised</a>. For an example of the problems that translating can cause think about the phrase "bless you". In Japanese no one says "bless you" after someone sneezes so if you were translating a "bless you" in a movie into Japanese, how would you do it? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A literal translation would have you translate the phrase "bless you" into Japanese. That would be weird because it would imply some kind of religious experience. So, you might opt instead to "localize" the dialogue and have someone say something like "caught a cold?" which might express the same level of concern as "bless you". </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Localisation explains why the 90s show Pokemon rendered Rice Balls into "donuts". Presumably Western 90s kids had never seen rice balls before and the translator opted to go for a more familiar food. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2K31Hj1Oz1g" width="320" youtube-src-id="2K31Hj1Oz1g"></iframe></div><p style="font-family: helvetica;">Another issue with translation is that it often differs depending on whether you are translating for a dub or for subtitles. With dubbing, getting a translation that matches the mouth movements of the actor may take precedence over literal accuracy. If someone says "Get out!" in English, you would look for a similar phrase in the other language which had two syllables (Check <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B35E8QleVhg&ab_channel=VanityFair">this video</a> out for an interesting look at this process). </p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Rumour has it that the infamous "over 9000" meme (original "over 8000" in Japanese) was dubbed as 9000 because it <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Over_9000!">better fit the </a></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Over_9000!"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">mouth</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> movements</span></a> (<span style="font-family: helvetica;">I can't find any evidence to support this claim though it would be a curious change to make for no reason). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For subtitles, the main concern is space. Time reading is time not watching the show. Some people are also much slower readers than others and so brevity is key. If you are interested in the rules for subtitles you might want to peruse this <a href="https://www.channel4.com/media/documents/corporate/foi-docs/SG_FLP.pdf">Channel 4</a> guide. For dramas, they allow 38 characters per line. That's about the length of the previous sentence. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">All of this means, if you watch a dubbed foreign show with the subtitles on you will find that they don't match at all. Both are good translations but the subs and the dub are working with different constraints. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">With further ado, let's take a look at the <a href="https://twitter.com/ymmayer/status/1443671264091152396">complaints</a> about Squid Game. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The first one is that one of the female players, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwvBgABbtD8&ab_channel=ImajenThat%21">Han Mi-Nyeo</a></span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">, </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">swears a lot and the swear words get removed in the translation. The example she gives is when the player says "what are you looking at" and the subtitles say "go away". </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The problem with this criticism, <a href="https://twitter.com/seoulocello/status/1443759857237209090?s=19">as a few twitter users pointed out to her</a>, is that rather than watching the subbed version she seemed to be watching the [CC] closed caption version. As this account points out, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_captioning">closed caption</a> is a transliteration of the dub. The line is actually correctly translated in the subtitles as "<a href="https://twitter.com/seoulocello/status/1443759872630198274">what are you looking at</a>" but in the CC version it's just "go away". But why the difference? As Yuri7 <a href="https://twitter.com/seoulocello/status/1443759886651871234">notes</a>, the original Korean phrase is two syllables so the dub opted for the two syllables "go away" presumably to fit the mouth movements better. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The next example Mayer uses is a character who says "I'm not a genius but I can work it out" rather than the correct, "I'm really smart but I never got a chance to study". </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">As it turns out though, Yuri </span><a href="https://twitter.com/seoulocello/status/1443759886651871234" style="font-family: helvetica;">yet again notes</a><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> that Mayer was watching the closed</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> captions and not the subtitles, which did accurately render that line as "I never bothered to study but I'm unbelievably smart". The Gganbu scene can also </span><a href="https://twitter.com/seoulocello/status/1444381897119895558" style="font-family: helvetica;">be explained</a> <span style="font-family: helvetica;">as an issues with space and reading the CC instead of the subs. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So this all seems to have been just a simple misunderstanding. No harm, no foul, right?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Perhaps, but something that makes me a little uncomfortable about all of this is the speed at which this spread and was reprinted in several newspapers (for example, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58787264">in the BBC</a>, the <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/10/01/squid-game-gets-called-out-for-botched-korean-translations/">NY post</a> and the I<a href="https://nypost.com/2021/10/01/squid-game-gets-called-out-for-botched-korean-translations/">ndependent</a>.) without really anyone bothering to check the accuracy of it. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I also feel a little sorry for the translator(s) who worked on the show. To her credit, <a href="https://twitter.com/ymmayer/status/1443687926521647104">Mayer wrote</a> that it wasn't the fault of translators but the industry which overworks and underpays </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">them. Presumably though, Mayer has no idea if the translating agencies Netflix employ, overwork or underpay employees, but this tweet has 33k likes and so most people will be left with that impression. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Mayer's <a href="https://twitter.com/ymmayer/status/1443615642385592324">original tweet</a> has 116k likes and her <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@youngmimayer/video/7013820557414141189?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1">tiktok video has 2 million</a>. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Most people who have seen this story are now left thinking that Netflix subtitles are rubbish and this is because translators are exploited. All of this is because of one person's misunderstanding. Also, rather disappointingly, after having the mistake pointed out to her and </span><a href="https://twitter.com/ymmayer/status/1443954404814688258" style="font-family: helvetica;">admitting she got it wrong</a><span style="font-family: helvetica;">, Mayer still has not deleted the original post or published a correction. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">*notes: I don't speak Korean and I'm not a translator so if any of the information in this post is wrong let me know and I'll correct it. </span></p>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-56511121975670758582021-09-25T16:50:00.000-07:002021-09-25T16:50:29.262-07:00Everything you ever wanted to know about massing, blocking, spacing and interleaving (Interview with John Rogers)<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">While writing our recent book, <a href="http://malingual.blogspot.com/2021/07/an-introduction-to-evidence-based.html">an introduction to evidence based ELT</a>, we contemplated writing a chapter on grammar teaching using massed and spaced conditions. Quickly it became clear that this was a rather complicated area and not one with clear findings, and so the chapter didn't make it to the book. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This was a shame because there was a lot of interesting research we came across</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> when planning it. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">While reading around the subject, one name that kept coming up in the SLA research was John Rogers. So I was delighted when I discovered John's <a href="https://twitter.com/rogersisinbrno">account on twitter</a> and when he agreed to talk to me about this area of research. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="403" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fUdt5g3Jo78" width="485" youtube-src-id="fUdt5g3Jo78"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">If you would like to read more of John's work then check out his profile <a href="https://ied.academia.edu/JohnRogers?from_navbar=true">here</a> or if you have any questions then follow him on <a href="https://twitter.com/rogersisinbrno">twitter</a>. </span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-20181578815317833092021-07-07T17:42:00.002-07:002021-07-07T17:42:27.710-07:00Interview with Sue Leather and Jez Uden (Extensive Reading)<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/cambridgeenglish/authors/sue-leather">Sue Leather</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jez-uden-4b9372103/?originalSubdomain=uk">Jez Uden</a> have a new book out on the topic of Extensive Reading and Motivation. I was keen to talk to them after looking into research on extensive reading and finding it to be one of the most effective interventions available to teachers. Here we chat about their new book, and some of the benefits of extensive reading. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="352" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vbO1_UnFHbU" width="476" youtube-src-id="vbO1_UnFHbU"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">If you would like to read the book then you can get it from </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="font-family: helvetica;">Amazon </a><span style="font-family: helvetica;">or directly from the </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="font-family: helvetica;">Routledge </a><span style="font-family: helvetica;">site.</span></p><br />mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-8059528427292484032021-07-01T21:44:00.003-07:002021-07-01T21:46:07.892-07:00An introduction to evidence-based teaching <span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7JS9yEmbKKQtjnBZmwpzWICkG_25YkLhQotV6RwwqWiK-DF2etROWn7cgR0GXsGabs1_V4KYC5lEijuYaRYD84iF9_GTe_SSM-Lx5qmhM737NQegsBoiIF_59AvWqRzWz4DGrqWv76HE/s599/fddddd.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="449" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7JS9yEmbKKQtjnBZmwpzWICkG_25YkLhQotV6RwwqWiK-DF2etROWn7cgR0GXsGabs1_V4KYC5lEijuYaRYD84iF9_GTe_SSM-Lx5qmhM737NQegsBoiIF_59AvWqRzWz4DGrqWv76HE/s320/fddddd.JPG" /></a></div><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So, rather unbelievably, I <a href="https://www.pavpub.com/pavilion-elt/teaching-english/an-introduction-to-evidence-based-teaching-in-the-english-language-classroom">have a book coming out</a>. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In February 2019 I gave a plenary at Ireland ELT. Afterwards, Kirsten Holt of Pavilion said she enjoyed the talk and that someone should really write a book about this kind of thing. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Later, at a Pavilion event Kirsten mention the same idea to Carol Lethaby. As it turned out, Carol and I had previously worked together on a couple of papers and Carol and Patti Harries were already working on proposal for a book. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Two years later and the book is finally out to buy! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I think this book is quite different to other books on teaching and research (but then again, I would say that). </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A lot of books about research into teaching are written by researchers attempting to bring research findings to a more general audience. What we have attempted to do is something similar but as all of us are teachers, not researchers, we hope that this will give the work more of a teacher's perspective on things. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">An interesting aspect of the book for me was that it touches on topics that aren't discussed that frequently in ELT. for instance, the information on Cognitive Load Theory, retrieval practice and the importance of background knowledge was largely new to me (though I had seen it mentioned in non ELT books). </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We have tried to provide clear sources for all the claims and pack as many useful ideas into the text as possible. I feel pretty confident that even those who know quite a lot about research will find some interesting takeaways in here. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span>And while we do mention learning myths and things that don't have good evidence to support th</span></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">em it isn't 200 pages of slamming learning styles. There is as much "wh</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span>at works" as "what doesn't". </span><span>The book also features advice for teachers who want to look at </span><span>research</span><span> themselves. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span>The books is not a "how to" or a "100 great games" type of book. There are no photocopiable practical activities for teachers to use in their next class. That said, it does have a lot of practical suggestions on what teaching techniques might be effective and how materials can be adapted or replaced. The second half is also practical and contains activ</span>ities for teachers or trainee teachers, so the book could be used on teacher training courses like the DELTA, CELTA or even on MA courses. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Despite bearing the title "evidence based" we are not making any claims that the book is flawless or the definitive word on best practice in ELT. T</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">he word "introduction" is used to indicate that we do not go into minute amounts of detail on every topic. Rather, the book gives and overview on a number of topics. No doubt there will be some who disagree with our conclusions on some topics as it's hard to find 100% agreement on much. There are even parts that the authors don't entirely agree on. That being said we believe we have gone with reasonable positions on the issues we have dealt with. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Thanks to everyone who has offered advice or constructive feedback over the years! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I hope you enjoy the book </span></div>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-21366555083182676192021-06-01T21:44:00.006-07:002021-06-02T17:57:16.663-07:00A list of lists <p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">While reading for my<a href="https://www.pavpub.com/pavilion-elt/teaching-english/an-introduction-to-evidence-based-teaching-in-the-english-language-classroom"> forthcoming book </a>I came across a lot of lists that authors had put together based on what we could say about teaching from the available evidence. I thought they were interesting but they didn't make it into the book. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So here is a list of those lists. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">(</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">There are some other interesting lists which are too long to include here. They include Swan's list of things </span><a href="https://mikeswan.net/some-things-i-believe/" style="font-family: helvetica;">he believes about language teaching</a>, <span style="font-family: helvetica;">Thonrbury's 12 <a href="https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/s-is-for-sla/">observations</a></span>,<span style="font-family: helvetica;"> and Hattie's list of <a href="https://books.google.com.tw/books?id=VdhAAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT9&lpg=PT9&dq=Principle+1+Explanations+of+human+learning+in+terms+of+native+ability,+talent,+or+intelligence+are+severely+constrained+by+one+consistent+and+persistent+finding:+that+substantial+investments+of+time,+energy,+structured+tuition,+and+personal+effort+are+all+required+in+order+to+develop+mastery+in+all+knowledge+domains+investigated.+Notions+such+as+talent,+ability&source=bl&ots=S5vhduqU_V&sig=ACfU3U1dG_z3BC170GbSKLsJnmCZCrH2AA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjPgpXlj_jwAhVHxIsBHUYoBpAQ6AEwAnoECAIQAw#v=onepage&q=Principle%201%20Explanations%20of%20human%20learning%20in%20terms%20of%20native%20ability%2C%20talent%2C%20or%20intelligence%20are%20severely%20constrained%20by%20one%20consistent%20and%20persistent%20finding%3A%20that%20substantial%20investments%20of%20time%2C%20energy%2C%20structured%20tuition%2C%20and%20personal%20effort%20are%20all%20required%20in%20order%20to%20develop%20mastery%20in%20all%20knowledge%20domains%20investigated.%20Notions%20such%20as%20talent%2C%20ability&f=false">principles</a>.)</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Mike Long (<a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Second+Language+Acquisition+and+Task+Based+Language+Teaching-p-9780470658949">2014</a>) </span></h3><p>
</p><ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Use
task, not text, as the unit of analysis <o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Promote
learning by doing <o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Elaborate
input (do not simplify; do not rely solely on “authentic” texts). <o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Provide
rich (not impoverished) input.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Encourage
inductive (“chunk”) learning.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Focus on
form (TBLT)<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Provide
negative feedback <o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Respect
“learner syllabuses”/ developmental processes.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Promote
cooperative/ collaborative learning.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Individualize
instruction <o:p></o:p></li>
</ol><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Rod Ellis (<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X05000138?casa_token=O8DYKQraP-0AAAAA:s2BQAhPwLFT42Xxlfu61PK7n_vyYGo7998O68YJdDQv65_vgHrK8tKiTiOLsCJXSuosWBFilVa4R">2005</a>) principles of instructed language learning </span></h3><div></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span><p></p><ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Instruction
needs to ensure that learners develop both a rich repertoire of formulaic
expressions and a rule-based competence<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Instruction
needs to ensure that learners focus predominantly on meaning<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Instruction
needs to ensure that learners also focus on form<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Instruction
needs to be predominantly directed at developing implicit knowledge of the
L2 while not neglecting explicit knowledge<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Instruction
needs to take into account the learner’s ‘built-in syllabus’<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Successful
instructed language learning requires extensive L2 input<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Successful
instructed language learning also requires opportunities for Output<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">The
opportunity to interact in the L2 is central to developing L2 Proficiency<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">Instruction
needs to take account of individual differences in learners<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">In
assessing learners’ L2 proficiency it is important to examine free as well
as controlled production</li></ol><h3 style="text-align: left;">Nation's principles of vocab learning (<a href="https://books.google.com.tw/books?id=sKqx8k8gYTkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Draw+attention+to+the+generalisable+underlying+meaning+of+a+word%22+3.+Give+repeated+attention+to+words+4.+Help+learners+recognize+definitions+5.+Prioritise+what+should+be+explained+about+particular+words+6.+Help+learners+remember+what+is+explained+7.+Avoid+interference+from+related+words&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwvd-XxfXwAhWHwZQKHW_AChMQ6AEwAXoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q&f=false">2013</a>)</h3><div><p class="MsoNormal">1. Provide clear, simple, and brief explanations of meaning <br />2. Draw attention to the generalisable underlying meaning of a word <br />3. Give repeated attention to words <br />4. Help learners recognize definitions <br />5. Prioritise what should be explained about particular words <br />6. Help learners remember what is explained <br />7. Avoid interference from related words</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Hunt and Beglar (<a href="https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/1914-current-research-and-practice-teaching-vocabulary">1998</a>) principles of vocab learning</h3>1. Provide opportunities for the incidental learning of vocabulary.<br />2. Diagnose which of the 3000 most common words learners need to study.<br />3. Provide opportunities for the intentional learning of vocabulary.<br />4. Provide opportunities for elaborating word knowledge.<br />5. Provide opportunities for developing fluency with known vocabulary<br />6. Experiment with guessing from context.<br />7. Examine different types of dictionaries and teach students how to use them.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Lightbown generalizations drawn from research (<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Patsy-Lightbown/publication/30989447_Great_Expectations_Second-Language_Acquisition_Research_and_Classroom_Teaching/links/54b687380cf2e68eb27e9aaf/Great-Expectations-Second-Language-Acquisition-Research-and-Classroom-Teaching.pdf">1985</a>)</h3><h1><o:p></o:p></h1>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">“Adults
and adolescents can ‘acquire’ a second language.” <o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">“The
learner creates a systematic interlanguage which is often characterized by
the same systematic errors as the child learning the same language as the
first language, as well as others which appear to be based on the
learner's own native language”<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">“There
are predictable sequences in acquisition such that certain structures have
to be acquired before others can be integrated”<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">“Practice
does not make perfect”<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">“Knowing
a language rule does not mean one will be able to use it in communicative
interaction”<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">“Isolated
explicit error correction is usually ineffective in changing language
behaviour”<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">“For
most adult learners, acquisition stops—'fossilizes'—before the learner has
achieved native-like mastery of the target language”<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">One
cannot achieve native-like (or near native-like) command of a second
language in one hour a day<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">“The
learner's task is enormous because language is enormously complex”<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">“A
learner's ability to understand language in a meaningful context exceeds
his/her ability to comprehend decontextualized language and to produce
language of comparable complexity and accuracy”<o:p></o:p></li>
</ol></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Palmer's principles of <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46961/46961-0.txt">language teaching</a> </h3><div>(1) The initial preparation of the student by the training of his spontaneous capacities for assimilating spoken language.</div>(2) The forming of new and appropriate habits and the utilization of
previously formed habits. <div> (3) Accuracy in work in order to prevent the acquiring of bad habits. </div><div> (4) Gradation of the work in such a way as to ensure an ever-increasing
rate of progress. </div><div> (5) Due proportion in the treatment of the various aspects and branches
of the subject. </div><div> (6) The presentation of language-material in a concrete rather than in
an abstract way. </div><div> (7) The securing and maintaining of the student’s interest in order to
accelerate his progress. </div><div> (8) A logical order of progression in accordance with principles of
speech-psychology. </div><div> (9) The approaching of the subject simultaneously from different sides
by means of different and appropriate devices<br /><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Van Patten 5 implications of <a href="http://edis5480sm13.blogspot.com/2013/06/epilogue-implications-for-teaching.html">research</a></h3>1. The more input the better <br />2. The more interaction the better <br />3. All learner production should be meaning based or communicative <br />4. Focus on Form should be meaning based or tied to input or communication <br />5. We should watch out for what we expect from our learners<div><br /></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Ortega 5 generalizations of interlanguage research (<a href="https://books.google.com.tw/books?id=h3n_mZtVTWoC&pg=PT58&lpg=PT58&dq=%22Not+all+sequences+present+equal+challenges+for+instruction%22&source=bl&ots=gWzV8vp3mm&sig=ACfU3U02Hbc5v_so2-eT3JKj2XHOTsisOA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjeqZ-okPjwAhXvw4sBHWMmDhcQ6AEwAXoECAIQAw#v=onepage&q=%22Not%20all%20sequences%20present%20equal%20challenges%20for%20instruction%22&f=false">200</a>9)</h3>1. Instruction affect the route of L2 development in any fundamental way <br />2. Instruction can have some effect on processes, fostering some and inhibiting others <br />3. Instruction can be ineffective and even counterproductive when it ignores developmental readiness <br />4. Not all sequences present equal challenges for instruction <br />5. Instruction has a large positive effect on rate of development and ultimate attainment<br /></div><div>
<br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">Ferris’s principles of preparing teachers for written error <a href="https://books.google.com.tw/books?id=MhWf0qyC7ZsC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=%22Teachers+of+L2+writers+need+to+understand+the+principles+of+second+language+acquisition+and+of+composition+theory.%22&source=bl&ots=XewCkZdSz8&sig=ACfU3U0hn_r28OY8ym9kWmB0nBAlVpMyLw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiVwvjgkPjwAhUOGKYKHXwPB4oQ6AEwAXoECAIQAw#v=onepage&q=%22Teachers%20of%20L2%20writers%20need%20to%20understand%20the%20principles%20of%20second%20language%20acquisition%20and%20of%20composition%20theory.%22&f=false">correction</a></h3>1. Teachers of L2 writers need to study aspects of grammar that are particularly problematic for non-native speakers of English. <br />2. Teachers of L2 writers need practice in recognizing and identifying errors in student writing. <br />3. Teachers of L2 writers need practice in developing lessons and teaching grammar points and editing strategies to their writing students. <br />4. Teachers of L2 writers need to understand the principles of second language acquisition and of composition theory. <br />5. Teachers of L2 writers should become familiar with language structures needed for different task types and academic disciplines.<div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Dornyei's 10 commandments of <a href="https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2011/05/06/10-commandments-for-motivating-language-learners/">motivation </a></h3>1. Set a personal example with your own behaviour <br />2. Develop a good relationship with the learners <br />3. Increase the learners’ linguistic self-confidence <br />4. Make the language classes interesting <br />5. Promote learner autonomy <br />6. Personalise the learning process <br />7. Increase the learners’ goal-orientedness <br />8. Familiarize learners with the target culture <br />9. Create a pleasant relaxed atmosphere in the classroom <br />10. Present the tasks properly<div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Grabe and Stoller reading syllabus principles (<a href="https://books.google.com.tw/books?id=ssyxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT136&dq=Incorporating+deliberate+practice+into+reading+curricula+supports+reading+skill+development&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiO1_-akfjwAhWHN5QKHZmEDkAQ6AEwAHoECAcQAg#v=onepage&q=Incorporating%20deliberate%20practice%20into%20reading%20curricula%20supports%20reading%20skill%20development&f=false">2020</a>)</h3><br />1. Ask students to read a lot and often for well-defined purposes. <br />2. Incorporating deliberate practice into reading curricula supports reading skill development <br />3. Promote discussion about the text <br />4. Build students motivation to read <br />5. Teach vocabulary as the foundation to reading <br />6. Make students aware of textual features <br />7. Work on fluency <br />8. Teach learners to be strategic readers <br />9. Teach rather than test for main idea comprehension <br />10. Reading lessons should be pre- during post style <br />11. Texts should be selected based on students needs and ability <br />12. Digital literacy needs should be considered <br />13. Connect reading to writing <br />14. Assess their progress<div><br /></div></div></div>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-49466462912238753492021-05-05T22:12:00.006-07:002021-05-27T19:35:46.040-07:00EBEFL asks: should we use translation software?<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">I was recently presented with an almost flawless piece of writing from a students whose English level precluded her producing such an almost flawless piece of writing. Initially I thought, “oh no…we have to have *that* conversation”…</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">In her tutorial the student guilty confessed to using translation software. I told her I was surprised because google translate famously produces awful translations from Japanese to English. “ah” she said, “I didn’t use google”.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">She directed me to a site called <a href="https://www.deepl.com/en/translator" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">DeepL</a>. I threw a bit of Japanese in from Wikipedia and this is what I got out.</p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-680" data-attachment-id="680" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595493659","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="1-1" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1-1.jpg?w=1024" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1-1.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1-1.jpg" data-orig-size="1288,340" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/1-1/" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1-1.jpg?w=1024" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1-1.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1-1.jpg?w=150 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1-1.jpg?w=300 300w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1-1.jpg?w=768 768w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1-1.jpg 1288w" style="border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /><figcaption style="color: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">DeepL</figcaption></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Now this isn’t perfect but it’s pretty damn good. For good measure I threw it into google translate and got a pretty good rendering too.</p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-682" data-attachment-id="682" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595493787","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="2-1" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2-1.jpg?w=1024" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2-1.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2-1.jpg" data-orig-size="1236,345" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/2-1/" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2-1.jpg?w=1024" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2-1.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2-1.jpg?w=150 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2-1.jpg?w=300 300w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2-1.jpg?w=768 768w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2-1.jpg 1236w" style="border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /><figcaption style="color: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">google translate</figcaption></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">I was quite surprised at how good the Google Translate version was. But I shouldn’t have been . Sure, it was an endless source of comedy in 2004 when it produced weird and wacky sentences, but that was 15 years ago and technology moves on (in 2004 no one thought computers would beat humans at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Go </a>any time soon, that happened in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaGo#:~:text=In%20October%202015%2C%20the%20original,9%2Ddan%20professional%20without%20handicap." style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">2015</a>. There is an excellent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">documentary about it</a> online). Google translate switched to using “Neural Machine Translation” around 2017 and this has reportedly led to <a href="https://observer.com/2017/03/google-translate-neural-update/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">much better quality translation</a>s.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">So, is there any point in banning students from using translation software to write their essays anymore, particularly in EAP contexts? We wouldn’t mind them using dictionaries to translate words, and rather than just banning them, perhaps we could focus on getting them to use this tool more effectively? It certainly beats receiving a paid for or plagiarised submission.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Let me know your thoughts.</p>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-58828052992277320712021-05-05T22:12:00.003-07:002021-05-27T19:35:46.090-07:00Retraction in ELT<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">I am currently reading the new book, Science Fictions by Stuart Ritchie. It deals with meta research (research about research) and outlines all the ways in which science is currently going wrong. In one section dealing with retraction, Ritchie notes that “1.97 per cent of scientists admit to faking their data at least once” and suggests that that number is probably an underestimate as people are unwilling to admit to things like this even when asked in anonymous surveys.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">This number means that for every 50 papers published in ELT one is likely to contain faked data. Some of these cases have come to light in biology and psychology and this led me to wonder if there were many retractions in ELT. So I asked twitter.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><a href="http://getgreatenglish.com/ftsd/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Marc Jones</a> instantly found two (<a href="https://www.journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/IJALEL/article/view/1046" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">here </a>and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0033688211401257" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>) both of which were retracted due to plagiarism. One was plagiarism of another scholars work and the other was self plagiarism (submitting the same paper for double credit). I also found one from The journal of Computer Assisted Language Learning <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09588221.2018.1440695" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">retracted for (self) plagiarism</a><a href="https://twitter.com/StuartJRitchie?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">. </a>So far no fraud.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><a href="https://twitter.com/StuartJRitchie?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Stuart Ritchie</a> pointed me to the <a href="https://retractionwatch.com/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">retraction watch searchable database</a>. I tried searching by journal and found a RELC paper published by Ivan Chong which was withdrawn for “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0033688216687457" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">significant data errors</a>“. There was also The journal, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X1200125X" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">System </a>which had<a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2012/12/11/failure-at-system-systems-failure-leads-to-duplicate-publication-retraction/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"> the misfortune to publish one article twice</a> –<em>in the same issue</em>!</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">The journals Applied Linguistics, ELTJ and TESOL Quarterly have apparently had 0 retractions to date. The database is not complete though and I was also sent this piece which was retracted from the prestigious “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2006.0340a.x" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">language learning</a>” journal. It’s not that clear what went on here but it seems like one author noticed errors in the data and requested a retraction.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">As an interesting aside, Richie notes that people <em>continue to cite retracted articles even after they have been retracted</em>. I was curious about this so I used google scholar to check citations of the 2003 Language Learning article. There were hits from 2018 and even from 2019. I don’t know the date of the retraction but I feel pretty confident it was well before these dates.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Out of thousands of papers in ELT I could find only two that were withdrawn due to data issues. So either ELT is a paragon of virtue or we haven’t got very good at sniffing out fraud yet.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">But how easy is it to get a journal to retract a paper? While researching <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/iral.ahead-of-print/iral-2017-0067/iral-2017-0067.xml" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">an article on learning styles</a>, I came across a couple of very curious articles. The first was <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/003368829302400204" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Hyland 1993</a>, the second was <a href="https://www.jalt-publications.org/jj/articles/2756-learning-styles-japanese-students" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Hyland 1994</a>. While reading the 1994 article I got a strange sense of Deja Vu:</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0.25em; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-top: 0px;">In essence, <span style="font-weight: 700;">learning style research suggests that people make sense of the world in different ways and these ways are partly created by cultural experiences </span>(Hyland 1994)</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Learning style research therefore suggests that people make sense of the world in different ways</span>, more importantly however<span style="font-weight: 700;">, these ways are partly created by cultural experiences</span> (Hyland 1993)</p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">and</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0.25em; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Eight Japanese universities participated in the survey with 265 undergraduate students responding. The questionnaire was also administered to 140 Japanese students at various English proficiency levels at a tertiary college in New Zealand</span> to determine whether overseas study influenced modality and group preferences. (Hyland 1993)</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Eight Japanese universities participated in the survey with 265 undergraduates responding. The questionnaire was also administered to 140 Japanese students at different English proficiency levels at a tertiary college in New Zealand.</span> (Hyland 1994)</p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">and</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0.25em; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-top: 0px;">Essentially the concept <span style="font-weight: 700;">expresses the simple idea that each learner has a clear and coherent set of learning likes and dislikes</span>, <span style="font-weight: 700;">but studies </span>have<span style="font-weight: 700;"> addressed </span>an enormously wide <span style="font-weight: 700;">range of factors</span>. (1993)</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Learning style research <span style="font-weight: 700;">expresses the simple idea that each learner has a clear and coherent set of learning likes and dislikes</span>, <span style="font-weight: 700;">but </span>people differ in their learning styles in a number of ways and <span style="font-weight: 700;">studies </span>have <span style="font-weight: 700;">addressed a</span> huge <span style="font-weight: 700;">range of factors</span>. (1994)</p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Most of the later (1994) article is a verbatim copy of the earlier one with minor phrasing adjustments such as those shown above. This type of thing is usually known as either self-plagiarism (see the examples above) or, on a smaller scale, <a href="https://publicationethics.org/text-recycling-guidelines" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">text recycling </a>and is considered unacceptable in academic publishing. Many journals have rules against it, such as<a href="https://jalt-publications.org/jj/submissions#:~:text=Restrictions,Conventions%2C%20for%20all%20manuscripts%20published." style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"> JALT itself</a>:</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0.25em; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Papers sent to <em>JALT journal </em>should not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication elsewhere.</p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">I thought this was a bit strange and so I contacted JALT, the 1994 publisher, to make them aware of the issue. They told me that they take such matters very seriously and would investigate. After an investigation they informed me that this was all just an honest mistake, a bit of a mix up. The paper had been submitted to two journals by accident and and as a previous editor had dealt with the matter, it would be wrong to retract the article now.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">How one accidentally submits the same article to two journals is, I must confess, a mystery to me. More mysterious was JALT’s reasoning. Regardless of what a previous editor had decided, a repeat publication is still in the literature with no indication that it is a repeat.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">I wrote back suggesting that since I was unaware that it had all been resolved, as was the current editor and presumably future readers, it might be worth retracting the article, or at least adding a note to explain what had happened. They told me they were very grateful for my suggestion but no, they weren’t going to do anything. And so both articles remain in the literature.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">It is also odd that Hyland himself, a incredibly respected editor and prolific author would not want the article to be retracted. In fact, until recently he continued to list both papers among his publications (his new blog, however, only lists papers <a href="https://people.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/null(6a69791f-ab60-47bd-8f33-a1d23d6b1511)/publications.html?ordering=researchOutputOrderByPublicationYear&page=0&descending=false" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">from 2003</a>). Not retracting the paper may be less embarrassing in the short term but it means that there is always the chance for some annoying blogger to bring attention at some point, to what was a mix up .</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">In truth, I’m not ‘that’ surprised that nothing happened here. <a href="https://twitter.com/sciandlife?lang=en" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Brendan O’Connor</a> a student at the University of Leicester discovered that a well respected psychologist was “<a href="https://publicationethics.org/text-recycling-guidelines" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">recycling</a>” parts of papers into new publications to an alarming degree. Although O’Connor has <a href="http://steamtraen.blogspot.com/2018/04/some-instances-of-apparent-duplicate.html" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">documented this to an impressive degree,</a> some journals were reluctant to do anything at all when confronted with these findings.</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0.25em; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-top: 0px;">As whistleblowers, data sleuths and anyone else who’s contacted a scientific journal or university with allegations of impropriety will tell you, getting even a demonstrably fraudulent paper retracted is a glacial process – and that’s if you aren’t simply ignored or fobbed off by the authorities in the first place.</p><cite style="color: currentcolor; display: block; font-size: 0.8125em; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.875em; position: relative;">Science Fictions</cite></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Well quite.</p>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-24304955602971789462021-05-05T22:12:00.000-07:002021-05-27T19:35:45.973-07:00Non evidence based teaching tips<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">Here are a random collection of things which I think are really important but which are not really evidence based.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">5. Deal with behavioural issues as soon as possible</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">If you’re like me, then having a student on their phone or basically doing something distracting will put you off your stride. I think most of the time, with adult learners there’s no malice, they are just thinking about their own problems.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">If something is bothering you in class then deal with it as soon as possible. If a student is bothering you, then it’s likely they are bothering other students in the class. They suffer and you suffer. I usually ask to see anyone who is doing something they shouldn’t after the class. I don’t think this has to be a difficult conversation, just “don’t do X”. Setting clear rules on day 1 is a big help.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">4. use coloured paper with wide margins and light ink when making cards</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">It might seem a bit “TEFL” for an EAP teacher but it really saves time. If you are producing cut-ups then pre-make a document which has side margins wide enough that you don’t have cut them at all. Make the spaces between the sentences as large as possible because there is nothing worse than chopping a few words off one set. Finally, print each set on different coloured paper to make them easy to sort.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">3. Everything usually takes longer than you think</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">I have a compulsive fear of running out of materials before the end of the lesson and I know that I am not alone. I did have a tendency to over plan for a long time and end up not getting through the material. I’m better at this now, and there are some easy ways to control the time in the lesson. These usually relate to how you give the answers (just write them all up and let the students check themselves or nominate people and have others confirm the answers). You can also, – shock horror – do activities <span style="font-weight: 700;">twice </span>if you find you have too much time. It might seem lazy, but the students will probably benefit from the practice.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">(I only actually ran out of material twice in 20 years, which isn’t bad.)</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">2. Learn student names</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">I’m not great with names but I make sure that I always do this in the first class. It’s really cringy by the third lesson to be pointing and saying “you” and I think it makes the classes less effective. If I can’t learn them because there are too many students, or because I will only see the group a few times then I give them a name plate of some kind.</p><ol style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Do the damn worksheet</span></li></ol><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">This is a cardinal rule for me and yet the one that I observe the least, much to my detriment. Do the damn worksheet yourself. It’s only once you are in class that you realise that Q3 isn’t actually possible in passive, or that you can’t explain something about the grammar point you are supposed to be focusing on, or you don’t actually know why “pain” is countable in “what a pain”, or how to explain the word “innovative”, or why “try” takes infinitives and gerunds while”trying” only takes infinitives, and on and on for 20 years. It is only when you try to do the worksheet that you realise the planned activity is not physically possible or that it would take 2 hours to complete. Do the damn worksheet!</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px;">What are your basic teaching tips?</p>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-52774624740005057812021-05-05T22:11:00.001-07:002021-05-27T19:35:46.056-07:00Evidence isn’t enough<p> </p><div class="post-image-link" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 0.875em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/2020/08/20/evidence-isnt-enough/" rel="bookmark" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" class="attachment-independent-publisher-2-full-width size-independent-publisher-2-full-width wp-post-image" data-attachment-id="660" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595321877","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="1" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg?w=318" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg" data-orig-size="318,274" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/1/" height="274" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg?w=318" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg 318w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg?w=150 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg?w=300 300w" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto -0.4375em; max-width: 100%; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; vertical-align: middle;" width="318" /></a></div><div class="entry-content" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 1.75em 0px 0.875em; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-top: 0px;">Why do some people continue to believe that climate change is not a threat despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that it is?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">One theory is that the people who reject the evidence for climate change are doing so because they are uninformed. The idea is that if they were only a bit more educated on science they would suddenly realise the error of their ways. This is called the <span style="font-weight: 700;">knowledge deficit model</span>.<br /><br />Researchers have sought to investigate how accurate this model is. They<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate1547" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"> tested the hypothesis</a> that a lack of knowledge about climate change predicted thinking it was less of a risk. They tested subjects scientific literacy and compared that with views on climate change.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">If their hypothesis were true we would expect to see that risk perception would rise with more knowledge. It would look a bit like this.</p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-660" data-attachment-id="660" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595321877","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="1" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg?w=318" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg" data-orig-size="318,274" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/1/" height="335" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 389px) 100vw, 389px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg?w=318" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg 318w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg?w=150 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/1.jpg?w=300 300w" style="border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="389" /><figcaption style="color: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">source <a href="https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1298&context=faculty_publications" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a></figcaption></figure><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">In fact they found this. </p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-661" data-attachment-id="661" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1595321889","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="2" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2.jpg?w=340" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2.jpg" data-orig-size="340,270" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/2/" height="336" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 423px) 100vw, 423px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2.jpg?w=340" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2.jpg 340w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2.jpg?w=150 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/2.jpg?w=300 300w" style="border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="423" /><figcaption style="color: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">source <a href="https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1298&context=faculty_publications" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a></figcaption></figure><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">There was no correlation between scientific literacy (as measured by a test) and belief that climate change was a risk. Some of those who believed climate change was a big problem knew a lot about science and conversely some who knew little about science thought the risk was great. In short, the knowledge deficit model was a bust.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">However, when the researcher compared political affiliation with belief in climate change they found the correlation they were looking for. It seems that being left wing was a much bigger indicator of believing climate change was a risk and vice versa for being right wing and this was regardless of scientific literacy.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">The researchers propose that when a subject, like climate change, becomes politically partisan, facts will do very little to alter opinions. David McRaney has dubbed this “<a href="https://youarenotsosmart.com/transcripts/transcript-tribal-psychology/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">tribal psychology</a>“. When something becomes a matter of identity for your in-group, then the evidence ceases to matter very much.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Take something as simple as wearing face masks during a pandemic. A year ago it would have been hard to image people physically attacking each other over an issue like this, but<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/08/06/new-jersey-woman-assault-staples-store-eg-orig.cnn" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"> here we are</a>. <a href="https://youarenotsosmart.com/2020/07/31/yanss-185-why-the-reason-behind-why-some-people-refuse-to-wear-masks-during-a-pandemic-has-little-to-do-with-the-masks-themselves/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">McRany has an excellent Podcast on this subject</a>. He notes that masks may now be a badge of group loyalty, like putting pronouns in your bio. These findings are especially interesting when thinking about research and teacher beliefs.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">In education most people are already left wing, yet the battle between <a href="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/2016/09/28/boooooo-hurrah/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">trad and prog teacher “tribes</a>” rages on with almost daily outrages during which members can prove their group loyalty. Today, it’s language use in schools, before that it was exclusion and before that it was something else. Topics change, but the dance remains the same.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">It’s very “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">natural</a>” for people to pick a side and to stick to that side regardless. As <a href="https://youarenotsosmart.com/2020/07/31/yanss-185-why-the-reason-behind-why-some-people-refuse-to-wear-masks-during-a-pandemic-has-little-to-do-with-the-masks-themselves/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">McRaney </a>notes, our evolutionary history as social animals means that group membership could have meant the literal difference between life and death. It’s also a very frustrating part of human psychology leading to irrationality, partisanship, class divisions, religious intolerance, and so on.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">A large body of psychological research shows how when we form <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_and_out-group#:~:text=In%20sociology%20and%20social%20psychology,an%20individual%20does%20not%20identify." style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">in and out groups</a> we start to view those two sides very differently. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_favoritism" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Our side</a> is hard done to, sensible, upstanding and decent. The other side is getting away with murder, idiotic, immoral and craven. If we make a mistake, it was an accident, if they do it was calculated. worst of all, McRaney notes that people would rather be wrong than out of good standing with their “tribe”.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">If people’s identities are wrapped up in a certain sets of beliefs and if those beliefs form an in-group/out-group dynamic it is likely that everything will be viewed through that lens. it is also likely that, in this situation, no amount of evidence will change minds. A good example of this is <a href="https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">phonics research</a>, the results of which have been <a href="https://www.parkerphonics.com/post/a-brief-history-of-reading-instruction" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">resisted for decades.</a></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">So here are some suggestions to try to avoid our natural tendencies towards “tribal psychology”. This advice is aimed mostly at myself, but if you find it useful, then great. I suggest these in the full knowledge I will probably be unlikely to follow them very well.</p><ul style="list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Try not to become too invested in any one side </span></li></ul><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">This is very difficult, but the more we see the other side as the enemy, the easier it is to start seeing everything through a partisan lens. Next, we may stop looking at the evidence all together and just side with our ‘tribe’.</p><ul style="list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Try to find things you can agree with </span></li></ul><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Whenever possible and no matter how small it is, try to find points of agreement between you and people in your out group.</p><ul style="list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Try to stay agnostic where possible </span></li></ul><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">We would like the research to say “X” but it doesn’t exactly say “X”. Well, the best thing we can do is just not have an opinion. “I don’t know” is a valid opinion.</p><ul style="list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Be dubious of research that supports your world view</span></li></ul><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><em>Paper finds thing I want to be true is wrong</em> *scoff* “what was the sample size?” “Let me check the methodology section!” “This author is right winger!”</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><em>Paper finds thing I want to be true is true</em>! RETWEET without reading! “OK the sample size isn’t ideal but it’s a promising piece of research!” “who cares what the author’s politics are?!”</p><ul style="list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Make appeals to people on their terms</span></li></ul><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Learning styles advocates never seem to get particularly fazed by the charge that the practice lacks evidence. They do, however, get upset by the idea that it pigeon holes students. My guess is learning styles advocates like the theory because it represents individualism and student centric learning. Questioning that claim resonates more than pointing out the lack of evidence.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Facts aren’t enough</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Research tell us that the knowledge deficit model is flawed. If we can’t get people to believe in the threat of climate change despite the evidence, there is little hope of convincing them about anything else. A research based approach has to consider not only the facts that can be gleaned from research, but people’s feelings too. Bashing teachers over the head with research is unlikely to change minds but it may cause them to resent you. It’s then fairly easy for teaching experts to <a href="https://www.tttjournal.co.uk/uploads/File/ttj_plus/Alan_Maley_research_chapter.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">dismiss research as “irrelevant for teachers”</a> and find a receptive audience.</p></div>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-63010610216969995102021-05-05T22:10:00.001-07:002021-05-27T19:35:46.107-07:00What is acquisition and how is it measured?<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">In SLA research, one finding seems beyond reproach is that there is a set order in which students acquire grammar. This “internal syllabus” cannot be overridden and thus textbooks that present grammar unit by unit are pointless and worse ‘unnatural’, because students are unable to learn what is taught until they are developmentally ready.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">The research that underpins these claims comes from three main sources. The first are the morpheme studies which attempt to emulate L1 research showing n<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_acquisition" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">ative speakers learn English morphemes in a fixed order</a>. The second is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processability_theory" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Pienemann’s work</a> which unlike the morpheme studies does not look at the order of acquisition of several forms but instead looks at the stages learners go through in acquiring a single form (<a href="https://jalt-publications.org/files/pdf-article/art1_22.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">questions for instance</a>). The third are <a href="https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=ZxVXAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=interlanguage&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWy7DFj9PrAhVM05QKHd57C-UQ6AEwAHoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=interlanguage&f=false" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">interlanguage </a>studies.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Although this research is often discussed, I have found the details are rarely forthcoming. I was curious to know two things about these landmark studies. Firstly, how was ‘acquisition’ measured, and secondly what do they consider to be ‘grammar’? In this post I will be looking at the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14679922/2015/65/1" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">morpheme studies</a>.</p><h2 style="background-color: white; color: #333332; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 32px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 0.4375em; margin-top: 0.875em;">1. what falls under ‘grammar’ and what does not?</h2><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">In the morpheme studies, a set of roughly 10 morphemes are usually researched. These vary slightly such as when researchers separate articles into ‘the’ and ‘a’, or look at long and short plural sounds but in general they don’t differ much between researchers. The list of morphemes include such things as <em>plural forms</em> (dogs), <em>Copula </em>(is) (He is happy), <em>auxiliary </em>be (he’s coming), <em>irregular past</em>, <em>regular past</em>, <em>articles </em>and <em>possessive </em>-s (John’s cat).</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">There is a lot that teachers would consider ‘grammar’ that is not included. For instance:</p><ul style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">I should play tennis. (Modals)</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">If you like it, then buy it. (Conditionals)</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">I’ve told you already (perfect forms)</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">What are you doing? (Questions)</li></ul><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">2. How is acquisition measured?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">In the morpheme studies, a test subject is said to have acquired a grammatical form if they can produce it correctly in a test. The test, called a <a href="https://ncela.ed.gov/rcd/bibliography/BE001385" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Bilingual Syntax Measure</a> (BSM), is usually carried out on children and involves showing cartoon like pictures and eliciting language from the subjects. A researcher will, for instance, say ‘here is a girl, now there are two of them. So there are two _____?’ this is known as an ‘obligatory context’ as students <em>have to</em> use the correct form to answer.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">The next stage is that researchers score the learners depending on whether they produce the correct form or not. For instance (<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1974.tb00234.x" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Dulay and Burt 1974</a>):</p><ul style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">totally correct ie. “she’s dancing” (2 points)</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">half right, ie. “She’s dances” (1 point)</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">wrong ie. “She’s dance” (0 points)</li></ul><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">The scores of the entire group are then added up and plotted on a chart. The equation used was the sum of the whole group / the number of possible points x 100. If more learners correctly produce plural -s than produce possessive -s, then the researchers claim that plural -s is acquired before possessive -s.* In the morpheme studies a form was said to be ‘acquired’ if subjects produced it accurately when elicited 90% of the time.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #333332; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-top: 0.875em;">What did they find?</h3><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Researchers seemed to find that all students acquired language in the ‘roughly’ the same order regardless of their L1. For instance <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Second-Language-Learning-Theories-Publication/dp/0340807660" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Mitchell and Myles</a> (2004: 43) argue that these results suggest ‘second language learners are guided by internal principles that are largely independent of their first language’.</p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><a href="https://www.oxfordenglishtesting.com/uploadedFiles/6_New_Look_and_Feel/Content/oopt_measure.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-840" data-attachment-id="840" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1599379829","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="capture" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/capture.jpg?w=634" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/capture.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/capture.jpg" data-orig-size="634,557" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/capture/" sizes="(max-width: 634px) 100vw, 634px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/capture.jpg?w=634" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/capture.jpg 634w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/capture.jpg?w=150 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/capture.jpg?w=300 300w" style="border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></a><figcaption style="color: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.oxfordenglishtesting.com/uploadedFiles/6_New_Look_and_Feel/Content/oopt_measure.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">source </a>oxfordenglishtesting.com</figcaption></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">The interesting thing to notice when looking at this table is that the orders found were not actually the same between researchers, which is a little surprising for a ‘universal’ order. That said some researchers seemed not to mind and grouped the morphemes into ‘sets’ which are acquired in order.</p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-842" data-attachment-id="842" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"1.8","credit":"","camera":"iPhone 7","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1599380794","copyright":"","focal_length":"3.99","iso":"25","shutter_speed":"0.02","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="img_6508" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/img_6508.jpg?w=204" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/img_6508.jpg?w=191" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/img_6508.jpg" data-orig-size="204,320" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/img_6508/" sizes="(max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/img_6508.jpg?w=204" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/img_6508.jpg 204w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/img_6508.jpg?w=96 96w" style="border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /><figcaption style="color: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">source Krashen in <a href="https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=4jKgBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Larsen-Freeman+and+Long+1991&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0itzbldPrAhV7yIsBHY3VDicQ6AEwAHoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=krshen%2077&f=false" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Larsen-Freeman and Long<em> 1991</em></a>: 90</figcaption></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">The eagle-eyed among you will perhaps spot that there are still some outliers here such as “articles” appearing in stage 2 yet 1st in Dulay and Burt and 11th in Hakuta.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #333332; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-top: 0.875em;">Issues with this research</h3><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">I was interested to discover, that despite the ‘<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0023-8333.2005.00295.x" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Holy Grail of SLA research</a>‘ status that the morpheme studies have achieved, they have been under scrutiny for almost as long as the have been around. Some of the criticisms levelled at this research is as follows (apologies for not being able to properly source the origin of these).</p><ul style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">morphemes with different meanings (a/the) were grouped together in some studies</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">What was classed as ‘grammar’ was a very limited number of morphemes</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">most of the early research was carried out on ESL learners, not EFL students</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">The orders vary in different papers, notably <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1974.tb00509.x" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Hakuta 1974</a> (n-1)</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">students were all grouped together to obtain results, hiding individuals or national groups who may not have followed the “natural” order.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">the studies did not look at acquisition over time but rather just took a snapshot</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">accuracy order does not necessarily mean acquisition order</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Students’ overuse of the target morphemes was not counted</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">The “universal order” is more accurately thought of as the “Spanish student order”</li></ul><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">(Note some of these criticism have merit and others less. Check Larsen-Freeman and Long 1991 for a more detailed explanation.)</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Notably, the claim that the order is universal has started to look suspect as L1 does indeed seem to have some influence on L2 (something that will not surprise most teachers). <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00524.x" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Luk & Shirai</a> (2009) have argued that researchers continue to promote the order as ‘universal’ ignoring the evidence that it seems to be affected by a students’ L1. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-second-language-acquisition/article/l1-influence-on-the-acquisition-order-of-english-grammatical-morphemes/3263C3E82ECA4A7EB19D8F50E45FA1C3/core-reader#:~:text=Dulay%20and%20Burt%20(Reference%20Dulay,L2%3A%2095%20Mexican%2DAmericans%2C" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Corpus research</a>, for instance <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=2xBeAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA325&dq=Cross-linguistic+influence+on+the+accuracy+order+of+L2+English+grammatical+morphemes.+In+S.+Granger,+S.+Ga%C3%ABtanelle,+%26+F.+Meunier&ots=EgT-4m3thG&sig=VRg5FHf95MxByOyqQzn_1czrCWs#v=onepage&q=Cross-linguistic%20influence%20on%20the%20accuracy%20order%20of%20L2%20English%20grammatical%20morphemes.%20In%20S.%20Granger%2C%20S.%20Ga%C3%ABtanelle%2C%20%26%20F.%20Meunier&f=false" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">shows that</a> students seem to acquire morphemes in a different order. For instance, Japanese has a possessive particle ‘の’ but no plural particle and Japanese students seem to learn possessive -s before they learn plural -S (Anecdotally, this chimes with my experience). <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1974.tb00509.x" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Hakuta’s study</a> had a similar results and interestingly, Hakuta found that articles, which do not exist in Japanese, were late acquired by the Japanese student he studied.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00524.x" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Luk & Shirai</a> (2009) found that not only Japanese but Korean and Chinese learners (all of who lack plurals) generally acquired possessive -s earlier and both plurals and articles ‘later than is predicted’ by the ‘natural order’ hypothesis. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227787752_Explaining_the_Natural_Order_of_L2_Morpheme_Acquisition_in_English_A_Meta-analysis_of_Multiple_Determinants" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Other authors have noted that salience (how easy it is to hear the morpheme in input) could also play a role</a> in explaining the order. And another possible factor is frequency, which is ‘the second most popular of the suggested causes of the L2 functor acquisition order (after L1 transfer)’ (Goldschneider and DeKeyser <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0023-8333.2005.00295.x" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">2002: 29</a>)</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">So the ‘holy Grail’ seems to have a few cracks in it. One author who believes that the morpheme studies have been used to make claims that they could not support is Mike Swan, who notes:</p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0.25em; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em; margin-top: 0px;">We have no reason at all to believe that the learning of most grammatical items is constrained in this way: that for yet-to-be uncovered developmental reasons, students might need to learn comparatives before relative pronouns, dativizing verbs before quantifiers or infinitives of purpose before possessive ’s. To claim that learnability findings preclude the operation of a grammatical syllabus is a large and unjustified leap across a wide logical gap.</p><cite style="color: currentcolor; display: block; font-size: 0.8125em; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0.875em; position: relative;">(<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-teaching/article/applied-linguistics-a-consumers-view/9F354C6CFD61EB3E9364B8057BE4E3D7/core-reader" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Swan 2018: 254</a>)</cite></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px;">*the research methods are actually a bit more complex than this and differed between researchers but I have simplified it for the purposes of the this post.</p>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-19501403854369191762021-05-05T22:09:00.002-07:002021-05-27T19:35:45.957-07:00Is TEFL too nice?<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-align: justify;">Criticism can be hard to take. In the book “</span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kindly-Inquisitors-Attacks-Free-Thought/dp/0226705765" style="color: #0087be; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-line: none;">kindly Inquisitors</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-align: justify;">” the author relays the story of</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-align: justify;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Cantor" style="color: #0087be; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-line: none;">Georg Cantor</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-align: justify;">a mathematician who “lost his mind because of the hatred and animosity against him and his ideas by his teacher Leopold Kronecker: He was confined to a mental hospital for many years at the end of his life” (2014: 296) Kubota suggests that “The field of L2 education by nature attracts professionals who are willing to work with people across racial boundaries, and thus it is considered to be a ‘nice’ field”. But is TEFL</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-align: justify;"> </span><em style="color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-align: justify;">too</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-align: justify;">nice?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">It might seem an odd question to ask, after all, how can people be too nice? For me, sometimes the desire to protect relations and be kind tips over into a kind of censorship. This happens when criticism is withheld or watered down to protect people’s feelings. Here are some personal anecdotes:</p><div style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;"><ul style="list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Before I gave a talk once, the organisers asked me to remove references to certain people in a talk they had invited me to give.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">While writing an piece I was asked if I could remove references to authors who held the views I was criticising.</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Maybe I was wrong in these situations, after all, it is entirely possible to criticise a position without saying who holds it. That said, when discussing the prevalence of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/70/1/16/2450153" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">neuromyths in ELT</a>, for instance, might it not be important to note that prominent figures are promoting these things? Or is being discreet more important?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><a href="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/names.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-900 size-full" data-attachment-id="900" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1601306479","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="names" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/names.jpg?w=656" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/names.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/names.jpg" data-orig-size="656,165" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/2020/11/01/is-tefl-too-nice/names/" height="165" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 656px) 100vw, 656px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/names.jpg" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/names.jpg 656w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/names.jpg?w=150&h=38 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/names.jpg?w=300&h=75 300w" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="656" /></a></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Personally I find it a little frustrating when reading an article that says something to the effect of “many believe that correction is not useful” or “some people disagree with this idea” and not seeing a link to <em>who</em> it is who is making these points. I would like to go away and read their work and see exactly what they say, but instead I just have to take the writer’s word for it.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Should we avoid giving this useful information for fear of offending? I tend to agree with<span style="font-size: inherit;"> Rauch who notes, “people who are hurt by words are morally entitled to nothing whatsoever by way of compensation. What is the right answer to the person who demands something because he is offended? Just this: ‘Too bad but you’ll live'”(</span><a href="https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=uZUVAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA27&dq=people+who+are+hurt+by+words+are+morally+entitled+to+nothing+whatsoever+by+way+of+compensation.+Whats+is+the+right+answer+to+the+person+who+demands+something+because+he+is+offended?+Just+this:+Too+bad+but+you%27ll+live&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjD38T598zlAhVhJaYKHeNbCRwQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=people%20who%20are%20hurt%20by%20words%20are%20morally%20entitled%20to%20nothing%20whatsoever%20by%20way%20of%20compensation.%20Whats%20is%20the%20right%20answer%20to%20the%20person%20who%20demands%20something%20because%20he%20is%20offended%3F%20Just%20this%3A%20Too%20bad%20but%20you'll%20live&f=false" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; font-size: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">80</a><span style="font-size: inherit;">)</span></p><div>So am I for people saying whatever they want? Well, not quite…</div></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;"></div><h2 style="background-color: white; color: #333332; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 32px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 0.4375em; margin-top: 0.875em;">Anything goes?</h2><div style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-size: inherit;">One of my ELT heroes is Mike Swan. His articles seem to cut through nonsense and provide a clear and fair examination of authors. At the same time he didn’t pull his punches and wasn’t afraid of frank criticism. However, if you’ve seen his <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-about-Language-Teaching-1982-2011/dp/0194424812" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">collected works</a> you’ll notice that the articles are prefaced with his current reflections on them. Before one of </span><a href="http://www.chubut.edu.ar/descargas/ingles/swan_article.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; font-size: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">his most scathing articles</a><span style="font-size: inherit;"> he writes the following:</span></p><div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="border-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 3px; font-style: italic; margin: 1.75em 0.875em 1.75em -1.9em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.75em;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">‘The tone of the articles was consequently excessively polemic, anti-academic, and at times downright rude. I now offer my belated apologies to the several distinguished scholars for whom I showed less respect for me certainly deserved.’ (2013:1)</p></blockquote><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;">Reading the essay that Swan is apologising for, I was struck by how mild it is compared to blog posts and tweets we can see daily. Swan, I suppose, belated recognised that criticism is hard enough to take without adding unnecessary venom. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Another negative side effect of overly unpleasant criticism is that your critics can dismiss you very <a href="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/a488e-old.png" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-27 alignright" data-attachment-id="27" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="old.PNG" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/a488e-old.png?w=614" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/a488e-old.png?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/a488e-old.png" data-orig-size="614,405" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/2020/11/01/is-tefl-too-nice/old-png/" height="198" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/a488e-old.png?w=300" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/a488e-old.png?w=300 300w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/a488e-old.png?w=600 600w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/a488e-old.png?w=150 150w" style="border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; display: inline; float: right; height: auto; margin: 5px 0px 10px 20px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></a>easily. “I don’t object to what you said, just the way you said it. Let’s discuss that instead.” This kind of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_policing#:~:text=Tone%20policing%20(also%20tone%20trolling,rather%20than%20the%20message%20itself." style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">tone policing</a> has <a href="https://teachingbattleground.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/teachers-should-welcome-open-debate-part-3/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">been examined by Andrew Old</a>, who notes that the subjective nature of ‘tone’ means that “almost any style of disagreement can be objected to on this basis”. Notably though, he draws the line at insults, threats and rudeness and is quick to block those he feels crosses the that line.</p><h2 style="color: #333332; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 32px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 0.4375em; margin-top: 0.875em;">An academic issue</h2></div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><a href="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/c58b3-scriv.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: #0087be; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="199" scale="0" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/1fb91-scriv.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="320" /></a></p><div><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Academic writing is often impenetrable, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1475158515000041" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">vague and dull</a>. Language seem to be used at times with the purpose of <a href="http://www.finchpark.com/courses/tkt/Unit_10/sheen.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">confusing rather than elucidating</a>. However, this dullness and cold objectivity can perhaps be used to temper the anger we might feel when reading a piece criticising something we have written.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Writing that someone’s view “does not seem to be supported by the evidence” might be easier to take than describing someone’s views as ‘crap’. Saying someone’s opinions are ‘moronic prattling’, while technically not insulting the person, is unlikely to lead to a productive debate. In fact, it is probably much more likely the other party will entrench their position rather than come round to your way of thinking. Sure, it’s great to get patted on the back after <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ben-shapiro-destroys-liberals" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">DESTROYING someone with FACTS and LOGIC</a> but how much does this kind of rhetoric effect any actual change?</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">It can also create a rather toxic environment. If the discussion becomes increasingly extreme, only the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">extremeophiles </a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">thrive. Others will choose not to engage. We <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;">thus lose all but one type of voice and it becomes an intellectual cul-de-sac of sorts. </span></span></p><h2 style="color: #333332; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 32px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 0.4375em; margin-top: 0.875em;">The importance of criticism</h2></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;"><blockquote style="border-color: rgb(0, 135, 190); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 3px; font-style: italic; margin: 1.75em 0.875em 1.75em -1.9em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.75em;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Controversy is good, it makes us think” </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Scott Thornbury, IATEFL 2016 Plenary</span></em></div></blockquote><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-size: inherit; text-align: justify;">Is it really a kindness to not criticise idea because you want to ‘nice’? Is it a good situation if </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralistic_ignorance" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; font-size: inherit; text-align: justify; text-decoration-line: none;">everyone disagrees with you but is cowed into silence</a><span style="font-size: inherit; text-align: justify;"> or should we encourage people to </span><a href="http://malingual.blogspot.com/2019/09/taboo-elt.html" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; font-size: inherit; text-align: justify; text-decoration-line: none;">say what they think</a><span style="font-size: inherit; text-align: justify;">? What if what they think will effectively silence others? It’s not an easy question to answer. I don’t know where the lines should be drawn and I don’t think people should have to put up with people being abusive to them. What I can say is that I think I’ve learnt far more from criticism than praise, no matter how hard it is to hear. To quote Kindly Inquisitors again “a no offence society is a no-knowledge society” (2014: 297).</span></p></div>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-53014320617866528082021-05-05T22:08:00.006-07:002021-05-27T19:35:46.073-07:005 flavours of hangman<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">Hangman can get a bit boring year after year. Here are a few modern varities to spice up any ELT classroom!</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Nb: this is intended as satire</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Learning styles</span></p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><a href="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/1-1.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-943" data-attachment-id="943" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1607428323","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="1-1" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/1-1.jpg?w=661" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/1-1.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/1-1.jpg" data-orig-size="661,271" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/1-1-2/" height="292" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 712px) 100vw, 712px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/1-1.jpg?w=661" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/1-1.jpg 661w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/1-1.jpg?w=150 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/1-1.jpg?w=300 300w" style="border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="712" /></a></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">21st Century Skills</span></p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><a href="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/2.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-944" data-attachment-id="944" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1607436856","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="2" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/2.jpg?w=731" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/2.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/2.jpg" data-orig-size="731,369" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/2-2/" sizes="(max-width: 731px) 100vw, 731px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/2.jpg?w=731" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/2.jpg 731w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/2.jpg?w=150 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/2.jpg?w=300 300w" style="border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></a></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">ELF</span></p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><a href="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/3.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-945" data-attachment-id="945" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1607436962","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="3" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/3.jpg?w=726" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/3.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/3.jpg" data-orig-size="726,356" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/3/" height="356" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 727px) 100vw, 727px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/3.jpg?w=726" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/3.jpg 726w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/3.jpg?w=150 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/3.jpg?w=300 300w" style="border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="727" /></a></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Critical pedagogy</span></p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><a href="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/4.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-946" data-attachment-id="946" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1607437042","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="4" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/4.jpg?w=722" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/4.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/4.jpg" data-orig-size="722,301" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/4/" height="302" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/4.jpg?w=722" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/4.jpg 722w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/4.jpg?w=150 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/4.jpg?w=300 300w" style="border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="723" /></a></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">TBLT</span></p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/5.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; color: #00aadc; outline: 0px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-947" data-attachment-id="947" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"Russell Mayne","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1607437077","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="5" data-large-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/5.jpg?w=724" data-medium-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/5.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/5.jpg" data-orig-size="724,163" data-permalink="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/5/" height="162" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 719px) 100vw, 719px" src="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/5.jpg?w=724" srcset="https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/5.jpg?w=719 719w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/5.jpg?w=150 150w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/5.jpg?w=300 300w, https://russmayne.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/5.jpg 724w" style="border-radius: inherit; border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="719" /></a></figure>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-43086070293189754832021-05-05T22:08:00.003-07:002021-05-27T19:35:46.016-07:002020 year in review<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">o good riddance to 2020! A year in which teachers everywhere were forced to become tech experts. I’m curious how well those talks on the wonders of tech will go down in future conferences now we have all experienced the brave new world of Zoom.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">This year has also shown us the power of science at work. When the 1914 pandemic happened, there was no vaccine and 50 million people eventually died of the disease. In contrast, after 1 year there are a number of vaccines for COVID19 all being rolled out at the same time. This is because science is cumulative. We can build on what we learn in order to do things better in the future. In ELT, research is still at a very early stage. It’s tempting to make the claim that research is useless and can’t tell us anything about the classroom (and <a href="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/2015/12/20/seeking-nirvana/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">many people do</a>). I think this is shortsighted. There are advances we can make and these advances will allow us to make other advances in the future.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">We also saw some of the problems with science. Unlike more faith based belief methods it is constantly updating and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfbH3oko9SA&ab_channel=NBCNews" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">changing based on findings</a>. At the start of the pandemic masks were not <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331493/WHO-2019-nCoV-IPC_Masks-2020.2-eng.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">strongly recommended by the WHO</a>. Now, they are. In ELT error correction was once considered pointless and ineffective, but new research seems to indicate that <a href="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/2017/11/13/try-this-it-works-written-error-correction/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">this is not the case</a>. Looking at the research one is always left thinking that results are often <a href="https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/do-facemasks-work/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">more complex and nuanced</a> than we would like.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Finally, we saw that o<a href="https://evidenceinformedelt.net/2020/08/20/evidence-isnt-enough/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">nce an approach becomes tied to a political cause it becomes almost impossible to convince people of the merits or demerits of that approach</a>. It was particularly striking this year that within the space of a week large protests went from being regarded as selfish, irresponsible and bound to spread disease to urgent and probably safe. Similarly masks became politicized to the point that for one side wearing them was surrendering your God given freedoms and for the other not wearing them was akin to murder. We need to make more efforts to bridge these gaps and talk to people in ways that makes sense to them.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Here are the most popular posts this year:</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">3. 5 flavours of Hangman</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">2. What is acquisition?</p><ol style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Is TEFL too nice?</li></ol><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px;">I haven’t really gotten on well with WordPress and I’m very tempted to move back to blogger. I have some interesting ideas for 2021, So thanks for reading and watch this space.</p>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-42613584649159762172021-05-05T22:07:00.008-07:002021-05-27T19:38:41.597-07:00Interview with Carol Lethaby<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">I became aware of Carol Lethaby in 2015 when she presented a talk on Neuromyths at TESOL. We have since worked together on a paper on learning styles in ELT. She talks here about this and about cognitive load theory and the importance of background knowledge in ELT.</span></p><figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper" style="position: relative;"><div class="jetpack-video-wrapper" style="margin-bottom: 1.6em;"><span class="embed-youtube" style="display: block; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" data-height="619" data-ratio="0.5627272727272727" data-width="1100" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dShO4cFwAyw?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; display: block; height: 416.418px; inset: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; position: absolute; width: 740px;"></iframe></span></div></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">If you would like to read more about Carol’s work then check out <a href="https://clethaby.com/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">her web page.</a></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Or check out the articles we mention below</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/iral/58/2/article-p221.xml" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Learning styles in ELT</a></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/70/1/16/2450153?login=true#" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Neuromyths in ELT</a></p>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-15121686353418158872021-05-05T22:07:00.005-07:002021-05-27T19:38:00.132-07:00Interview with Masatoshi Sato<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">At the end of last year Masatoshi Sato kindly agreed to sit down with me and discuss Evidence Based practice in ELT. Prof Sato is a advocate of research being used to support teaching. He has written books on evidence based pedagogy and has carried out work on teachers’ opinions of research and how it can support teaching.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Here we talk about what Evidence Based approaches mean to him, the gap between teachers and researchers and some of the problems with research.</p><figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper" style="position: relative;"><div class="jetpack-video-wrapper" style="margin-bottom: 1.6em;"><span class="embed-youtube" style="display: block; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" data-height="619" data-ratio="0.5627272727272727" data-width="1100" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q0Q8f1z5Lh8?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; display: block; height: 416.418px; inset: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; position: absolute; width: 740px;"></iframe></span></div></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">you can follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/masatoshi_sato" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Here are a selection of his recent papers</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tesq.611" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Motivation and vision in the classroom. TESOL Quarterly (2020)</a></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X20300506" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">The origin of peer feedback. System (2020)</a></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362168820923582" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Context matters! Context matters: Learner beliefs and interactional behaviors in an EFL vs. ESL context </a>(2020)</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijal.12263" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">ESL vs. EFL: Activity Theory. In JAL (2019)</a></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;"><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-second-language-acquisition/article/practice-is-important-but-how-about-its-quality/2C9B3512F13652E29957DD7285004ED0" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Practice is important but… SSLA (2019)</a></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/73/1/1/5168114?guestAccessKey=0be8195f-bd1b-4bc4-b42d-c3d9e296156d" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">Do teachers care about research? ELT Journal (2019)</a></p>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-47719649466723717472021-05-05T22:06:00.007-07:002021-05-27T19:39:12.643-07:00Interview with Chris Jones <p><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">I have been following</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/ELTResearch" style="color: #0087be; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-decoration-line: none;">Chris Jones on twitter </a><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">for about 5 years now and always found his work interesting. He is a researcher working in corpus linguistics with a special focus on spoken corpora and instructed second language acquisition. He recently edited a book on “Practice in second language learning”.</span></p><div class="entry-content" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0.875em 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper" style="position: relative;"><div class="jetpack-video-wrapper" style="margin-bottom: 1.6em;"><span class="embed-youtube" style="display: block; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" data-height="619" data-ratio="0.5627272727272727" data-width="1100" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4PUEBUBYiBs?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; display: block; height: 416.418px; inset: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; position: absolute; width: 740px;"></iframe></span></div></div></figure><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">If you would like to read more about Chris’ work then check out <a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/english/staff/christian-jones/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">his page</a> at Liverpool university or his profile at <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christian-Jones-5" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">research gate.</a></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.875em;">You can also check out the other articles we mention below:</p><ul style="list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Burton, G. (2019). <a href="https://dspace.mic.ul.ie/bitstream/handle/10395/2897/Burton%2C%20G.%20F.%20%282019%29%20The%20canon%20of%20pedagogical%20grammar%20for%20ELT%20-%20a%20mixed%20methods%20study%20of%20its%20evolution%2C%20development%20and%20comparison%20with%20evidence%20on%20learner%20output.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">The canon of pedagogical grammar for ELT:</a> a mixed methods study of its evolution, development and comparison with evidence on learner output. Unpublished PhD thesis, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Crewe, W. J. (1990).<a href="https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article-abstract/44/4/316/2924256" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;"> The illogic of logical connectives</a>. ELTJ (44)4 pp. 316-325</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Michel. M. (2018). Practising online with your peers: The role of text-chat for second language development. In n C.Jones (ed.).Practice in second language learning (pp.164-196). Cambridge University Press.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Zyzik,E ., & Marques Pascual, L. (2018). Practice with formulaic sequences: Can it promote the incidental learning of grammar? In C.Jones (ed.).Practice in second language learning (pp.55-78). Cambridge University Press</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Sinclair, J. (1991). Corpus, concordance, collocation. Oxford University Press. Jones, C., Byrne, S., & Halenko, N. (2018). Successful spoken English: Findings form learner corpora. Routledge.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Jarvis, H., & Achilleos. M. (2013). From computer-assisted language learning (CALL) to mobile assisted language use. TESL E-Journal, 16(4), 1-18.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Jones, C ., & Waller D (2010). If only it were true: the problem with the four conditionals. ELT Journal, 65(1), 24-32.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Jones, C. (Ed.)(2018). Practice in second language learning. Cambridge University Press. Halenko, N. (2018). Using computer-assisted language tools to enhance output practice. In C.Jones (ed.).Practice in second language learning (pp.137-163). Cambridge University Press.</li></ul></div>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-39372858357449500322021-05-05T22:04:00.003-07:002021-05-27T19:39:36.566-07:00Interview with Inge Alferink of OASIS<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">In this interview I talk to</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/ingealferink?lang=en" style="color: #0087be; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; text-decoration-line: none;">Inge Alferink</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px;">the project manager for the OASIS Database. She tell me what OASIS is, who it is for and how people can help out.</span></p><figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper" style="position: relative;"><div class="jetpack-video-wrapper" style="margin-bottom: 1.6em;"><span class="embed-youtube" style="display: block; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" data-height="619" data-ratio="0.5627272727272727" data-width="1100" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gFIeqzEj8OA?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; display: block; height: 416.418px; inset: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; position: absolute; width: 740px;"></iframe></span></div></div></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">For more information</p><ul style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Website <a href="https://oasis-database.org/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://oasis-database.org/</a> and help page <a href="https://oasis-database.org/help" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://oasis-database.org/help</a></li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Newsletter sign up <a href="https://mailchi.mp/481ba176f2d1/oasis-alerts" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://mailchi.mp/481ba176f2d1/oasis-alerts</a></li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">Twitter handle <a href="https://twitter.com/OASIS_Database" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">@OASIS_Database</a></li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;">IRIS <a href="https://www.iris-database.org/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://www.iris-database.org/</a></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.875em;">Here are links to articles we discussed:</p><ul style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 19px; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 1.75em 2em; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;"><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/modl.12426" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Marsden & Kasprowicz (2017)</a> and the OASIS <a href="https://oasis-database.org/concern/summaries/6w924b92p?locale=en" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;">summary </a>for that article</li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;"><a href="https://elifesciences.org/articles/27725" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Plavén-Sigray et al (2017)</a></li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.18898" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Kerwer et al (2021)</a></li><li style="margin-top: 0.4375em;"><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0231160" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0087be; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Stricker et al (2020)</a></li></ul>mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-28043427757794045822020-05-12T07:24:00.002-07:002021-05-05T22:02:04.267-07:00Woo Watch: speed reading <div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A friend recently forwarded to me an email from a BBC reporter (radio Leicester) making inquiries about speed reading. The email said:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
aim would be for someone to speed read the 50 page Government document that
becomes available at approx. 3:30pm today and take us through the key points
they managed to pick up along with giving us the time it took to do it.<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The
aim would be for someone to speed read the 50 page Government document that
becomes available at approx. 3:30pm today and take us through the key points
they managed to pick up along with giving us the time it took to do it.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wasn't sure if this was a joke so I looked up the reporter on twitter and found the following:</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="231" data-original-width="577" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMJ2V7Ak1w6i86kqeOo9UoRoRcMSaL54njuAFnwWc57Vh0rNYtgigdusj40uHy-mgB_QRW8wgx0rHlDVY1seLX-9jxYVCvtdezic6IY_RrkrcH26eo4CmDNjCPalRt5bXNw4n7cMt6JV0/w400-h160/Capture.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BBC radio Leicester </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So they found someone! They found one "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"><a href="https://news.sky.com/video/reading-harry-potter-in-27-minutes-10518667">Anne Jones</a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">" who has a reading speed of around <a href="https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/the-sad-truth-about-speed-reading-it-doesnt-work.html">4,000 WPM</a>! Jones read a 50 page government document in 8.5 seconds according to Carpenter. I questioned this in a tweet saying, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"this isn't possible, is it?" Oddly his tweet disappeared shortly after that. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many people, including me, would like to be able to read faster and there are lots of people, like Anne Jones, running course or selling books to tell you how this can be done. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One such person is Susan Norman who you may <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2012/11/nlp-notes.html">remember</a> as the author of several books and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Your-Hands-Nlp-Elt/dp/1901564002">articles on NLP</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Norman wrote <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Spd-Rdng-Techniques-Strategies-Accelerated-ebook/dp/B0047O2DRI">The Speed Reading Bible</a> with Jan Cisek an <a href="http://www.jancisek.com/">environmental psychologist</a> and <a href="http://www.fengshuilondon.net/about-jan-cisek-feng-shui-consultant">Feng Shui</a> expert (you can see him talking about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_8xdNZSomI">Feng Shui for animals</a> on the BBC here).</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have only been able to get a <a href="http://spdrdng.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Summary-of-37-Spd-Rdng-Techniques-1.8.pdf">sample of their book</a> but it contains tips and hints about how to improve your reading speed. Some of these seem eminently sensible like "have a clear aim for your reading" and "Don’t think ‘reading’, think ‘finding information’". The kind of advice we give to international students taking university courses. Others seem less convincing, such as the following: </span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Speed up your brain with ‘super-duperreading’*
Look quickly (1-4 seconds) down the middle of the
page using your finger to guide you for about 10
pages or until you begin to make sense of some of the
words. Then start reading with comprehension – but
you’ll be reading more quickly because your brain is
reacting more quickly.</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Likewise the suggestion to trainees to "open your peripheral vision" is a curious one. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So is speed reading possible? The short answer is "no". </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although it would be nice to read hundreds of books every week, sadly we are stuck with the roughly </span><a href="https://sandymillin.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/reading-speed/" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">300 words a minute </a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that "average" native speakers read at. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The longer answer is, it depends what you mean by "reading". Speed reading is really just <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2013/01/skimming-and-scanning.html">skimming</a>, and skimming involves a necessary decline in comprehension. You can go through a text faster but you won't be </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19751073" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">getting as much info</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, -you'll just be missing bits out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">it is unlikely that 400 words per minute can be easily surpassed </span><a href="https://legacy.theskepticsguide.org/speed-reading-facts-and-fantasy" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">as when reading, people subvocalise</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and therefore there is a physical limit to the speed they can read at. There is also a physical limit on how fast your eye can move across a page focusing on the words and 8 seconds for 50 pages is, I would guess, beyond that limit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Speed reading may sound "far out" but it actually looks quite tame when compared to a relatively new phenomenon, known as "<a href="https://www.quantumspeedreading.com/">quantum speed reading</a>". As with all things <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2019/05/tooth-fairy-expertise.html">quantum</a> and <a href="http://malingual.blogspot.com/2020/04/woo-watch-rise-of-neuro.html">neuro</a>, you are probably wise to be skeptical. The breathless blurb on th</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e QSR</span> website te</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">lls us that it is:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">a completely new technique for reading books <u>without looking at the pages</u>. It was developed in Japan and has been taught to both children and adults there for the last several years. Astonishing as it may seem to most of us who learned only to read books by reading a page at a time they can in fact be read by <u>simply flipping the pages</u></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They don't really just mean flipping pages though, right? Check the video. </span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1kK5gC0t-bU/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1kK5gC0t-bU?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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According to method creator Yumiko Tobitani, "after 72 classes, students can finish reading a <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3033247/utter-nonsense-not-everyones-same-page-about-speed-reading">100,000-word book within five minutes</a>" Although QSR doesn't seem to have taken off in Japan, it has found some <a href="https://mothership.sg/2019/10/speed-reading-china-claims-students-read-100000-words-5-minutes/">success in China</a>.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iOpa0AOWelY/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iOpa0AOWelY?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whether it's learning a language <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2012/11/its-not-easy-and-it-takes-time.html">in 10 days</a> or in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEEC1mkGDEw">your sleep,</a> humans will continue to look for short cuts to doing difficult things and there will always be those willing to offer a helping hand. In the case of Tobitani, this will <a href="http://www.midbrain-activation.com/YUMIKOMETHOD.html">only set you back $350</a>. </span></div>
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mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-17542347432250638782020-04-10T17:21:00.000-07:002021-05-05T22:02:04.279-07:00Woo Watch: The rise of Neuro <div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfbCr2vuaiQPgvNykdOLQX6wM6wdQrxDemHirg3GF1nLapVudz8xlEwCcFLL9NTGH-kRN9SPCnmEjUFNaVWYECGyd57J4G98O1oEcTAQ0g9DULkHUM9Du17HLOnWrq9IqRhTqzfNBrg6c/s1600/51uAiR96roL._SX335_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="337" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfbCr2vuaiQPgvNykdOLQX6wM6wdQrxDemHirg3GF1nLapVudz8xlEwCcFLL9NTGH-kRN9SPCnmEjUFNaVWYECGyd57J4G98O1oEcTAQ0g9DULkHUM9Du17HLOnWrq9IqRhTqzfNBrg6c/s320/51uAiR96roL._SX335_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="216" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are those in ELT who aren't fans of science and research. '<a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2014/09/teaching-is-art-not-science.html">It's an art</a>' they protest, 'stop trying to measure everything!' On the other side are those who grab science and embrace it wholeheartedly. Sometimes these hugs can be a little too hard, leaving science with broken bones and internal bleeding. The intention is good but the result is a squishy, science shaped mess. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One example of this is the rise of "Neuro" in teaching. The Neuro crowd are not doubt well-intentioned but can sometimes seem to stray dangerously close to the "woo" <i>side of</i> <i>the force</i>. <a href="https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=8xsVAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT9&lpg=PT9&dq=steven+poole+neurosceptic&source=bl&ots=a3H6-c6w02&sig=ACfU3U3B_A9JXunkxLhbNpJmxaaSMd-f3g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjEg9nvvNXoAhWKF4gKHcyJAP8Q6AEwAnoECAwQKw#v=onepage&q=steven%20poole%20neurosceptic&f=false">Satel and Lilienfeld note that</a> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">neuroscience "is vulnerable to being oversold by the media, some overzealous scientists, and neuroentrepreneurs who tout facile conclusions that reach far beyond what the current evidence warrants". </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Neuroscience is a legitimate science which offers many promising insights but as Dorothy Bishop, Professor</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of developmental neuropsychology notes, the attempts to link it to education <a href="http://deevybee.blogspot.com/2014/01/what-is-educational-neuroscience.html">are often misjudged</a>. And she is not the only one. Daniel Willingham has written that Neuroscience applied to education is "<a href="http://www.danielwillingham.com/daniel-willingham-science-and-education-blog/neuroscience-applied-to-education-mostly-unimpressive">mostly unimpressive</a>", stating that there is "definitely a lot of neuro-garbage in the education market." As the authors of "Brainwashed" note, there are many educational enterprises that seem to "</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">merely dress up or repackage good advice with neuroscientific findings that add nothing to the overall program.</span>"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Neuro" is popping up increasingly in ELT. For instance, in </span>a recently published piece by Cambridge University Press on "<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2018/11/27/great-student-great-classroom/">neurolearning</a>" t</span>he author argues that </span>"neu</span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rolearning" is useful for creating a "brain-compatible environment". The article goes on to use language like "Homeostasis" and "Hypothalamus" in order to suggest rather ordinary things like keeping the classroom at a good temperature.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The author published another article saying that "n<a href="https://twitter.com/kierandonaghy/status/1072060005556412416">o matter the target language, try to think about activities that will appeal to the different learning styles – visual, auditory and kinaesthetic</a>." and "</span>a brain-compatible environment can only be created by a passionate teacher". Unfortunately, after some online criticism, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2018/12/07/student-friendly-classrooms/">the page seems to have been removed</a>. Exactly what the word "neuro" adds to any of the approaches suggested in article, is not clear. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another example of the rise of "neuro" is "<a href="https://www.eflmagazine.com/coaching-language-coaching-and-neurolanguage-coaching/">neurolanguage coaching</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">®</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">", </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">which</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> is a mix of coaching and neuroscience. It's creator claims that:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cabin"; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">N</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cabin"; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">eurolanguage Coaches are trained in the practical application of neuroscientific principles, relating to how the brain learns, functions and reacts, in particular in relation to emotional triggers when learning a language, drawing Krashen´s affective filter into the scientific evidence arena.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Similarly, in Japan, 'neuro' has taken off! </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Japanese Language Teaching association (<a href="https://jalt.org/">JALT</a>) has a special interest group know as the "<a href="https://jalt.org/mind-brain-and-education">mind brain and Education</a>" sig. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The sig promotes something called <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/languagelearningandthebrain/">NeuroELT</a>. T</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">he group began as a charity project after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami">2011 Tohoku earthqua</a></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami">ke and tsunami</a> and went on to hold a series of conferences called the <a href="http://fab-efl.com/">FAB11</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't know much about these approaches and don't particularly have any bones to pick with either, but in both cases, as with neurolearning, it's a little unclear as to what precisely the role of "neuro" plays, other than to provide a slightly scientific veneer to otherwise ordinary educational practices. Is there that much to be gained by knowing that the prefrontal context "lights up" when students play Hangman? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Bloblolgy </span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Another curious side-effect of the rise of Neuro are the endless pictures of colourful brains accompanied by effusive explanations that this proves that X or Y is the case:</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho5W8PbkCzvzIr5PkiqDw6CUvOxx06UQcsRQdrpenhPD5tRaHNM7W5uWAvoBUaqC7P0InFDyng8_zc-c8Rq_XI9z2p0iH03HxaJeV3t4DZm8-iDAtXleoK0F8g3v6LJBqojc76BIof1Iw/s1600/brain.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="242" data-original-width="334" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho5W8PbkCzvzIr5PkiqDw6CUvOxx06UQcsRQdrpenhPD5tRaHNM7W5uWAvoBUaqC7P0InFDyng8_zc-c8Rq_XI9z2p0iH03HxaJeV3t4DZm8-iDAtXleoK0F8g3v6LJBqojc76BIof1Iw/s200/brain.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Here’s a spot that lights up when subjects think of God (“Religion center found!”), or researchers find a region for love (“Love found in the brain”). Neuroscientists sometimes refer disparagingly to these studies as “blobology,” their tongue-in-cheek label for studies that show which brain areas become activated as subjects experience X or perform task Y. (<a href="https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=8xsVAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT9&lpg=PT9&dq=Here%E2%80%99s+a+spot+that+lights+up+when+subjects+think+of+God+(%E2%80%9CReligion+center+found!%E2%80%9D),+or+researchers+find+a+region+for+love+(%E2%80%9CLove+found+in+the+brain%E2%80%9D).+Neuroscientists+sometimes+refer+disparagingly+to+these+studies+as+%E2%80%9Cblobology,%E2%80%9D+their+tongue-in-cheek+label+for+studies+that+show+which+brain+areas+become+activated+as+subjects+experience+X+or+perform+task+Y.&source=bl&ots=a3H6-c9x19&sig=ACfU3U19SQzek7yxvKPVKngs5WpnB_6VKQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwid0929yNXoAhVrIqYKHTr-Cd0Q6AEwAHoECAcQKQ#v=onepage&q=Here%E2%80%99s%20a%20spot%20that%20lights%20up%20when%20subjects%20think%20of%20God%20(%E2%80%9CReligion%20center%20found!%E2%80%9D)%2C%20or%20researchers%20find%20a%20region%20for%20love%20(%E2%80%9CLove%20found%20in%20the%20brain%E2%80%9D).%20Neuroscientists%20sometimes%20refer%20disparagingly%20to%20these%20studies%20as%20%E2%80%9Cblobology%2C%E2%80%9D%20their%20tongue-in-cheek%20label%20for%20studies%20that%20show%20which%20brain%20areas%20become%20activated%20as%20subjects%20experience%20X%20or%20perform%20task%20Y.&f=false">link</a>)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These images can be surprisingly effective. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It has been shown that brain images of the type neuroscience produces, actually helps to make </span><a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071002151837.htm" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">research seem more believable</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. However, when even a <a href="http://prefrontal.org/files/posters/Bennett-Salmon-2009.pdf">dead salmon</a> in an FMRI scanner can produce exciting looking blobs, we should proceed with caution. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This current</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> "</span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661308001563" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">neurophilia</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">" is not completely without precedent in ELT. The 90s saw a </span><a href="https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/58/1/28/597592" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">rise in popularity</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of </span><a href="https://www.englishaustralia.com.au/documents/item/183" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Neuro-linguistic programming</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. NLP, which has very strong pseudoscientific elements became so popular that it made appearances in a number of respectable people's <a href="https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=9mQ9l3K73BoC&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&dq=richards+and+rodgers+%22nlp%22&source=bl&ots=23DZhfWvRg&sig=ACfU3U1cCmAbwtbR_47MSgDK9YMPUuKzjw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwie75TkltroAhWR3mEKHU6CBgIQ6AEwAHoECAwQKQ#v=onepage&q=richards%20and%20rodgers%20%22nlp%22&f=false">work</a>. And what concerns me is that people who might have previously been previously swept up in various "<a href="http://malingual.blogspot.com/p/r.html">brain-based</a>" approaches might now be getting swept up in the "neuro" craze. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For example, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I recently discovered that the "</span><a href="https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">language teacher</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Journal had had an NLP <a href="http://bruce%20w.%20davidson/">special edition</a> (volume 21, no. 2) and one of the contributors to this special edition, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">an advocate of <a href="https://jalt-publications.org/old_tlt/files/97/feb/hypnosis.html">educational hypnosis</a> and</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;"> a <a href="https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/2103-nlp-resources-partially-annotated-bibliography-books-videos-periodicals-trainings-">proponent of NLP</a>, is also a <a href="http://fab-efl.com/page7/index.html">found</a>er of the </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">JALT Brain, Mind and Education sig. Other founders have also published articles on, for example, the </span><a href="http://schd.ws/hosted_files/catesol2016/e0/Kelly%20-%20David%20Kolb,%20The%20Theory%20of%20Experiential%20Learning%20and%20ESL%20(TESL_TEFL)%20(1).pdf" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Kolb model of learning styles</a>, <a href="http://www.academia.edu/3711243/Rethinking_activities_to_incorporate_theories_of_learning" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">the learning pyramid</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (a theory which must surely be on <a href="https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2018/01/07/research-myth-1/">life support at this point</a>) and a study into the </span><a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/iral/ahead-of-print/article-10.1515-iral-2017-0067/article-10.1515-iral-2017-0067.xml" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">VAK learning styles</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of over 30,000 dental students. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These articles are fairly old and it is possible that the authors no longer buy into these kinds of practices. Evidence for this can be seen in that the group </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">has a handy </span><a href="http://helgesenhandouts.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/5/11251138/fab_9_study_sheet_2_-_neuromyths.pdf" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: start;">neuro myths website</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and the NeuroELT website explicitly warns readers to watch out for </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">neuromyths</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The creator of "neurolanguage coaching</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">®</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">" has, likewise, explicitly distanced herself from NLP (her upcoming conference, however, does feature <a href="https://london20.neurolanguagecoaching.com/">one speaker</a> who is an NLP </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">practitioner</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.) All of this is reassuring, but I am still left with a linger sense of unease about the prospects</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> for "neuro" in ELT. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One area where 'Neuro' has already 'contributed' to education is in the proliferation and acceptance of many neuromyths. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/70/1/16/2450153" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Lethaby and Harries have shown that</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, as in other <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00429/full">areas of education</a>, many ELT teachers believe that people only use 10% of their brains or that there are <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2014/05/left-brains-and-right-brains-in-english.html">left brained and right brained</a> learners. But the prevalence of neuromyths and experts warning about giving too much attention to the "neuro" prefix seem to falling on deaf ears. No doubt neuroscience can bring interesting and useful findings to education, but the rush to embrace this new toy could also end badly. </span></span><br />
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mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-29775733903979914762020-01-19T15:16:00.000-08:002021-09-07T04:44:23.404-07:00Is the end of Erasmus Nigh? <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>While working in Leicester University I had a few classes teaching Erasmus students.These were always an interesting change from a lot of the other EAP classes we used to teach and although the students could be a bit challenging at times, they were a memorable bunch of students. I was a shocked earlier this year to see "Erasmus" trending on twitter and a large number of accounts mourning the (imminent) loss of the program. But are Eramsus' days really numbered? Here is <a href="https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/eltu/about/staff-directory/staff-pages/dan-jones">Dan Jones</a> from the University of Leicester to try to explain what's going on.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the last two years I’ve had a Google Alert set up for the combined key words of Brexit </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and Erasmus. Every so often, but not too often, I get a ping telling me about a Brexit/Erasmus news story. I’ve learnt that either the Google Alert algorithm or the UK government isn’t working. I get surprisingly few pings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you’re not familiar with Erasmus, here’s the quickest of summaries. Firstly, as an acronym it’s a bit of a stretch. It’s the <b>E</b>u<b>R</b>opean Community <b>A</b>ction <b>S</b>cheme for the Mobility of <b>U</b>niversity <b>S</b>tudents. Students can select up to 4 modules a semester, basically the same ones as the undergraduate students but they can choose from across departments. Some come for just a semester and some for the whole academic year (yes all seven months of it). We currently have students from Spain, France, Germany and Italy. The outbound British students get all the attention in the UK press (as we’ll see a lot of them grow up to be journalists), but the other half of the story is the students from other EU countries who come to study in the UK. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s centrally funded through the EU and runs in 7-year blocks. The current one ends this year and therefore the UK can’t keep putting off signing up for 2021-2027 much longer. Each 7 years has seen the budget and remit expand. The current programme’s budget is <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_13_1110">14.7 billion euros</a>. The new programme is notable for its budget of <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/news/commission-adopts-proposal-next-erasmus-programme-2021-2027_en">30 billion euros</a>.</span></div>
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<br />The UK’s involvement may now come to an end. What follows is a short Brexit story where nothing very much happens.<br /><br />From 24th June 2016 until December 2018 nothing very much happened. In universities, the plan was ‘wait and see’. The government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/erasmus-in-the-uk-if-theres-no-brexit-deal/erasmus-in-the-uk-if-theres-no-brexit-deal">offered</a> to underwrite the current programme, which was nice, but nobody believed them, so universities had to give their own separate guarantees (<a href="https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/global-experiences/your-global-experience/outgoing/erasmus-+/">e.g</a> and <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/international/studyabroad/">e.g</a>.).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">
The government advice on Erasmus up until 8th December 2018 started with <a href="https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20181208143227/https:/www.gov.uk/government/publications/erasmus-in-the-uk-if-theres-no-brexit-deal/erasmus-in-the-uk-if-theres-no-brexit-deal">“A scenario in which the UK leaves the EU without agreement (a ‘no deal’ scenario) remains unlikely given the mutual interests of the UK and the EU in securing a negotiated outcome.”</a> By December, it became clear that the May strategy of running down the clock and calling everyone’s bluff was a long shot and wasn’t going to work. Without making a fuss, on the 23rd December 2018, a civil servant updated the advice to <a href="https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20181221131227/https:/www.gov.uk/government/publications/erasmus-in-the-uk-if-theres-no-brexit-deal/erasmus-in-the-uk-if-theres-no-brexit-deal">“Delivering the deal negotiated with the EU remains the government’s top priority. This has not changed. However, the government must prepare for every eventuality, including a no deal scenario.”</a> </div>
<br />Just to repeat: <a href="https://thumbs.gfycat.com/GreatSociableAtlanticbluetang-mobile.mp4">NOTHING HAS CHANGED</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At a government level it wasn’t clear what preparing for every eventuality actually meant. But by January 2019 it meant hanging the universities out to dry <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/erasmus-in-the-uk-if-theres-no-brexit-deal/erasmus-in-the-uk-if-theres-no-brexit-deal">“UK organisations may wish to consider bilateral arrangements with partner organisations that would enable their projects to continue.”</a> </span></div>
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At a university level, all they could do was publish a reassuring strategy statement (<a href="https://www.napier.ac.uk/study-with-us/implications-of-leaving-the-eu/brexit-current-and-future-exchange-students">e.g</a>), but as everyone was fond of saying you can’t start doing new deals until you’ve left the old one. At a course planning level, how exactly do you prepare for every eventuality? Do you both plan and not plan all the modules, allocate and not allocate hours to teachers, book and not book rooms? So we decided to wait and see. </div>
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This period of limbo gave journalists the opportunity to reflect on what the UK might lose. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/09/erasmus-programme-year-studying-europe">This</a> and <a href="https://inews.co.uk/opinion/as-a-working-class-student-i-learnt-more-in-my-erasmus-year-than-at-university-1360098">this</a> being the most recent. Essential elements are 1) Facebook just reminded me I was an Erasmus student. 2) I had a lot of fun, 3) That was the year I found myself, 4) It wasn’t <i>all </i>about the drinking. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From my experience of hungover and sleep-deprived students, there’s some truth to the partying aspect. I can’t say about the finding yourself. But as all these articles quite rightly go on to say, Erasmus students get to experience living somewhere else, and from an academic point of view, they get to study modules at degree level outside of their specialisation. Our <a href="https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/eltu/erasmus/shakespeare">Shakespeare and literature modules</a> are taken by students from all academic backgrounds. We have students doing a TESOL module who had previously not given a thought to teaching, let alone teaching English (though admittedly, that doesn't sound too different to the usual route into teaching English). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you were in the UK in 2019 you won’t need reminding that, politically, it went a bit mad. In the run up to the original Brexit deadline of 29th March, <a href="https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/02/25/inenglish/1551083095_201216.html">El Pais</a> was reporting that Spanish universities were discouraging their students from applying to the UK. At my university, 20% of our Erasmus students are from Spain. But otherwise it was more ‘wait and see’. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A <a href="http://www.iu.qs.com/product/is-brexit-turning-international-students-away-from-the-uk/">survey</a> published in April 2019 of prospective students painted a more complex picture. When asked about whether they were more or less likely to study in the UK due to Brexit, 36% of EU students were less interested, 6% more interested. For non-EU international students it’s 10% less interested and 14% more interested. The proportion of ‘more interested’ might seem surprising, but it seems that some students see that a weakened UK pound will give them more spending power and a weakened UK HE will give students more leverage in getting into a higher ranked programme and university. </span></div>
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Of course it’s the majority in the middle that are neither more nor less interested and fortunately they just carried on as usual, and when we got to the start of term, the numbers held up quite well. We even have Spanish students. The El Pais article was either inaccurate or the students ignored the advice. For most students, the only thing that will stop them applying is taking down the application form. </div>
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In November 2019 Universities UK published <a href="https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/brexit/Documents/no-deal-brexit-implications-for-universities-and-minimising-risk.pdf">“A ‘NO DEAL’ BREXIT: IMPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITIES AND MINIMISING RISK”</a> They left the caps lock on as it’s directed at the government and it’s full of specific advice on what should be done. After years of vague technical notices, this is refreshingly readable (for a report on education policy). </div>
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Over the last week, there’s been a bit more pinging from my Google Alert than usual. Firstly, the Liberal Democrats tabled <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/lib-dems-press-keep-uk-eu-research-programmes-and-erasmus">an Erasmus amendment to the withdrawal agreement bill</a>. And when it was inevitably voted down, it was reported in the most pessimistic terms: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiewareham/2020/01/09/uk-parliament-vote-casts-doubt-on-the-future-of-erasmus-study-abroad-scheme/#5270338e3fa6">U.K. Parliament Vote Casts Doubt On Future Of Erasmus Study Abroad Scheme</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-erasmus-international-student-exchange-scheme-a9277251.html">Fears over future for Erasmus international student exchange scheme after Brexit</a>. (This second of these has this great celeb filler: "Fifty Shades of Grey author EL James was among those taking to social media to denounce the outcome, which she branded disgraceful”. Well if EL James says it’s disgraceful…). But as each of these reports goes on to concede, this doesn’t actually mean anything. With the exception of last year’s madness, opposition amendments don’t get voted for by the government.</div>
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In fact, there are some reasons to be cautiously optimistic. Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, saying <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/uk-could-develop-alternative-erasmus-if-needed">we’ll probably stay in but if we don’t then we’ll make our own</a>, at least suggests an engagement with the issue. It does raise the question, why would you make your own when there’s a perfectly good one that we’re already using? But it’s not unprecedented, Switzerland withdrew from Erasmus in 2015 as part of a move to limit immigration. The result was the <a href="https://ethz.ch/en/studies/non-degree-courses/exchange-and-visiting-studies/programmes/exchange-programmes/swiss-european-mobility-programme.html">Swiss-European Mobility programme.</a></div>
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At this point I’m as miserable as the next person on this rain sodden island, but I seem to be a bit more optimistic about Erasmus. Once we get past 31st January I think there will be a flurry of mini deals and Erasmus will be one of them. And anyway my most recent Google Alert tells me that Boris Johnson has just said flat out, <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pm-says-uk-will-continue-participate-erasmus">we’re staying in</a> Erasmus. Now, if we can’t trust the Prime Minister of Her Majesty’s Government then who can we trust?</div>
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mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-56997030692465903972020-01-03T03:30:00.000-08:002021-05-05T22:02:04.287-07:00Why there is not, and will never be, a ‘fifth skill’<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhae1RbE5kkQM5d4NBxi03Z13qhOUY6n6IZba8DGY0SsuTFfByn7nKTRK1oD_O8Xt__SOu7pwhI0tTwquWCuVW7pnSpgX-T49BEsAkxXG2Iqf-JjGvhbMf6vFP3OYD7AWXYugJ6K5jfDqs/s1600/15275239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="468" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhae1RbE5kkQM5d4NBxi03Z13qhOUY6n6IZba8DGY0SsuTFfByn7nKTRK1oD_O8Xt__SOu7pwhI0tTwquWCuVW7pnSpgX-T49BEsAkxXG2Iqf-JjGvhbMf6vFP3OYD7AWXYugJ6K5jfDqs/s200/15275239.jpg" width="158" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>My first teaching job was working at <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/04/22/national/geos-school-chain-files-for-bankruptcy/#.Xg8UmUczY2w">GEOS</a>. The GEOS method was ingenious. First you present the daily grammar target, then students practice it then you do some kind of role play. It wasn't until I started my MA that I realised that this method hadn't in fact been dreamed up by the geniuses at GEOS. It was PPP!</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />I first became aware of <b><a href="https://speakinggames.wordpress.com/">Jason Anderson</a>'</b>s writing when I saw his piece on <a href="https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/71/2/218/2447419">PPP in ELTJ</a>. As I read the article and <a href="https://speakinggames.wordpress.com/2016/07/16/why-practice-makes-perfect-sense/">the posts that accompanied it</a>, I really enjoyed the level of detail Anderson went into.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> He is someone who can really do a deep dive on a subject, see for example</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> his recent piece on the origin on </span><a href="https://speakinggames.wordpress.com/2019/03/24/on-the-origins-of-jigsaw-and-information-gap/" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Jigsaws and information gaps</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Jason is one of those people who seems to have produced 5 papers while other people are thinking about writing one. He has written <a href="http://www.jasonanderson.org.uk/publications.htm">several books</a> and has a very long list of <a href="http://www.jasonanderson.org.uk/publications.htm">papers</a> and <a href="http://www.jasonanderson.org.uk/talks.htm">talks</a> to his name with subjects from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w93mMJzGgnA">Translanguaging </a>to teaching large classes. </i></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
<b>Jason Anderson @jasonelt<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Teacher educator and researcher: </b><a href="http://www.jasonanderson.org.uk/"><b>www.jasonanderson.org.uk</b></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Visit </b><a href="https://speakinggames.wordpress.com/"><b>Jason’s blog here</b></a><b>.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Google the term “fifth skill” and you’ll find numerous
references, mainly from (English) language teaching communities, including
blogs, talks and even articles in academic journals. The range of things
offered forward as ‘the fifth skill’ is extensive, including:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">translation (e.g., Janulevičienė & Kavaliauskienė, 2002)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">grammaring (e.g., Larsen-Freeman, 2001)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">culture (e.g., Hong, 2008)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">cultural competence (e.g., Kramsch, 1993)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">intercultural awareness and language learning (Pulverness, 1999)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">viewing (e.g., Donaghy, 2019)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">retelling (e.g., Burns, 2005)</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And recently even Mario Rinvolucri (2019) joined the ‘fifth
skill’ club, proposing… inner monologue. Doh! It seems so obvious now he’s said
it. Reference to the fifth skill even shows up on a Google Ngram search (see
Figure 1).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnRT_jjwvMkmoyFvrCVWouNFUngvQ3quLb_nWNDNg9ku7FqhCeebtHofnTy818u57LSTCQL9sfcLVjLElWgP-06dI0Kw0v_xnJLxrQxUWv2V4Z1aoHCoWeFczuxwoJkXu77h0M-GEdb_8/s1600/four+skills+and+the+fifth+skill.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="1600" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnRT_jjwvMkmoyFvrCVWouNFUngvQ3quLb_nWNDNg9ku7FqhCeebtHofnTy818u57LSTCQL9sfcLVjLElWgP-06dI0Kw0v_xnJLxrQxUWv2V4Z1aoHCoWeFczuxwoJkXu77h0M-GEdb_8/s400/four+skills+and+the+fifth+skill.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: start;">Figure 1: </span><a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=the+four+skills%2Cthe+fifth+skill&year_start=1920&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cthe%20four%20skills%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cthe%20fifth%20skill%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cthe%20four%20skills%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cthe%20fifth%20skill%3B%2Cc0" style="text-align: start;">Google Ngram</a><span style="text-align: start;"> showing frequency of ‘the four skills’ and ‘the fifth skill’. From </span><a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/" style="text-align: start;">https://books.google.com/ngrams/</a><span style="text-align: start;"> Copyright 2018, Google Books Ngram Viewer.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yet, in this (hopefully humorous) blog post, I’m going to
argue that they’re all wrong to suggest that X is the fifth skill. First and
foremost, if any one of these writers is going to argue that their choice IS
the fifth skill, they either have to be ignorant of the numerous prior attempts
to offer a fifth skill (which suggests incompetence), or they are dismissing
the others as wrong, yet without justifying why (which suggests complacency).
They can’t all be the fifth skill, can they?</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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The point I’d like to make is not that they are wrong to
suggest that the specific skill that they are talking about is important – I’m
sure that they all are, even inner monologue (how many times has ‘inner karaoke’
saved you from boredom?). There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of
identifiably discrete skills involved in learning of any kind, and within this,
the learning of languages. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The point is a very simple one. The reason why some of us
still talk about ‘the four skills’, sometimes called the “foundational language
skills” (Hinkel, 2006, p. 110), is not because we’re so stupid that we haven’t
realised that there might be other skills involved in language learning, it’s
because we are referring to a matrix of two dichotomous categorical variables
that enable us to describe how we use language for communication, what Candlin
and Widdowson (1987) call “modes of behaviour”. Any instance of language
behaviour, or if you prefer, communicative<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>language ‘use’ (i.e., excluding entirely internal processes such as
inner monologue) involves, on a fundamental level, one of two channels, the
written or the spoken channel, and on an individual level, one of two
directions – reception (we see or hear something) or production (we utter or
write something). That makes 2x2 which equals? You got it, four. See Table 1 –
hopefully it’s familiar. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFO_QEiD8GqHcZH81w2Nv7eMFJwCaC2Zsh3JIkZ_oFO5ywsWSkPfEVf3tW8AYF-Tl1NNS6BJMRGYQz_Dx3g7AqtOxqdmdmhRlgd0J44XItwYPzzFpVkCQPbaMtk3cvNXJCc4hQp1PsJHc/s1600/ffffff.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="123" data-original-width="823" height="57" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFO_QEiD8GqHcZH81w2Nv7eMFJwCaC2Zsh3JIkZ_oFO5ywsWSkPfEVf3tW8AYF-Tl1NNS6BJMRGYQz_Dx3g7AqtOxqdmdmhRlgd0J44XItwYPzzFpVkCQPbaMtk3cvNXJCc4hQp1PsJHc/s400/ffffff.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: start;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Table 1: Where exactly would you put the fifth skill?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Within each of the four quadrants there are numerous
discrete and fuzzy skills, both those things often labelled sub-skills, and many
others besides, and there are broader skills that link these four skills
together, such as translation. Behind this two-dimensional table there are
numerous other cognitive skills that necessarily support and manage acts of
communicative language use. And in the beautiful, messy, complex world that is
social interaction we are able to use two or more of these skills
simultaneously (in conversation, for example). There are also, of course, many
other, interpersonal and multimodal skills that accompany our languaging acts.
But that doesn’t make any of them ‘the’ fifth skill.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Analysed synthetically at the simplest meaningful level there
is no act of language use possible that isn’t unambiguously categorizable
within the matrix of the four skills. What I am doing now. What your eyes are
doing now. What your speech organs might do if you don’t like this blog, and
what the person near to you might do with the sound waves entering their ear to
cause them to take offence. That’s why we talk about the four skills. So no,
you can’t add another one. Sorry.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>References<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Burns, D. E. (2005). Your story, my story, history. In
Tomlinson, C. A. et al. (Eds.) The parallel curriculum in the classroom, Book
2: Units for Application across the content areas, K-12 (pp. 5-56). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Candlin, C. N. & Widdowson, H. (1987). Language
teaching: A scheme for teacher education (preface). In Bygate, M. Speaking (pp.
ix-x). Oxford: OUP. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Donaghy, K. (2019). Advancing learning: The fifth skill –
‘viewing’. [Blog post]. Retrieved from <a href="http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/teacher-talk/advancing-learning/advancing-learning-the-fifth-skill-viewing/557577.article">http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/teacher-talk/advancing-learning/advancing-learning-the-fifth-skill-viewing/557577.article</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Hinkel, E. (2006). Current perspectives on teaching the four
skills. Tesol Quarterly, 40(1), 109-131.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hong, S. (2008). The Role of Heritage students in
incorporating culture into language Teaching. South Asia Language Pedagogy and
Technology, 1, 1-10.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Janulevičienė, V., & Kavaliauskienė, G. (2002).
Promoting the fifth skill in teaching ESP. English for Specific Purposes World,
1(2), 1-6.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language
teaching. Oxford: OUP. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Larsen-Freeman, D. (2001). Teaching Language: From Grammar
to Grammaring. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pulverness, A. (1999). The fifth skill-intercultural
awareness and language learning. <i>British Studies Now: Anthology Issues, 2,
6-10</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Rinvolucri, M. (2019). On my mind. IATEFL Voices, 272, 19. <o:p></o:p></div>
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mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-70292240863606289792019-12-29T16:43:00.000-08:002021-05-05T22:02:04.294-07:002019 wrap up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtajSUujeoKGQ59h8GfnYzVO2xiwiP_6mTHYBMiamw-mkr7r4PyDHS_uabxWbSxJLQob8c3xH34dYnKk2Hyt8IJlPt0tIRh-jFc_5x2m7bGUuOybaWtPz4KVq8KGiwGj_CivGtd70vcug/s1600/IMG_2230.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtajSUujeoKGQ59h8GfnYzVO2xiwiP_6mTHYBMiamw-mkr7r4PyDHS_uabxWbSxJLQob8c3xH34dYnKk2Hyt8IJlPt0tIRh-jFc_5x2m7bGUuOybaWtPz4KVq8KGiwGj_CivGtd70vcug/s200/IMG_2230.HEIC" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This year I moved from the UK back to Japan (for a 4th time) and started a new job at the I<a href="https://www.iuj.ac.jp/">nternational University of Japan</a> in Niigata. It's a really interesting uni, being entirely EMI by necessity as only 15% of the students are Japanese. Most of the 300 students come from East Asia, Central Asia and various parts of Africa. It is also surrounded by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koshihikari">koshihikari</a> rice fields, snakes and bears. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last year I wrote about my thoughts on twitter. This year I have tried to be it off it less but it I'm not sure I have been all that successful. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;">Twitter is still an awful form of communication. and probably the easiest way to fall out with someone who you would probably get on with in real life (or have previously gotten on well with in real life). Perhaps 2020 will be the year when I finally kick the habit? </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvUqD12myiSO1czwcpkqvDYhMXiQgBsw2iSlsXuCj4iHJoZwicvleGv_4MZNzHlBYocQt0uiwwKpfLeMYzKXBezsWoRSNZveUnx_-QzIAEgCBKmOlDUuLwUmdfgSww2IaL6mAp1s0RVGI/s1600/IMG_3713.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvUqD12myiSO1czwcpkqvDYhMXiQgBsw2iSlsXuCj4iHJoZwicvleGv_4MZNzHlBYocQt0uiwwKpfLeMYzKXBezsWoRSNZveUnx_-QzIAEgCBKmOlDUuLwUmdfgSww2IaL6mAp1s0RVGI/s200/IMG_3713.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This year I also wrote 10 blog posts, three book reviews and spoke at three conferences, <a href="https://www.elt-ireland.com/event-speaker-slides">ELTIreland</a>, <a href="https://excitelt.com/">ExcitELT</a>, and <a href="http://www.eltcalendar.com/events/details/8020">Nanzan langauge education seminar</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I did not attend the big conferences this year because the price would have been almost half of my entire research fund. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The conferences I did go to were all</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> relatively small and two of them were 1 day events with very low fees to attend and interesting formats. I think there is something to be said for these kinds of smaller conferences with novel formats. I certainly got the chance to meet and talk to a lot of other teachers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For example, I managed to finally meet people I had known for ages on twitter such as Formerly SwanDOS </span><a href="https://twitter.com/RachaelTESOL" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Rachel Fionda, </a><a href="https://twitter.com/MarjorieRosenbe" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Marjorie Rosenberg</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://twitter.com/LahiffP" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Peter Lahiff</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://twitter.com/McLaughlinLou" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Lou McLaughlin</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://twitter.com/Liam_ELT" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Liam Tyrell</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://twitter.com/timhampson" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Tim Hampson</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://twitter.com/BrereTokyo" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Peter Brereton</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, <a href="https://twitter.com/gotanda">Ted O'Neil</a>, </span><a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisPatrickF" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Chris Farrell</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, and </span><a href="https://twitter.com/darrenrelliott" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Darren Elliott</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (of </span><a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2015/11/review-of-elt-podcasts-art-2.html" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">lives of teaches fame</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">). Apologies if I missed you out...I'm very forgetful! I also </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">unfortunately</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">missed the </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">chance to meet Leo Selivan and Marek Kiczkowiak as I was passing through Liverpool. Maybe next year?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here were the top 5 posts of this year by views. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-authenticity-trap.html">The authenticity trap </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2019/03/evidence-based-resources.html">Evidence based resources </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2019/09/taboo-elt.html">Taboo ELT</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2019/07/moggs-rules.html">Mogg's Rules </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5. <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2019/05/tooth-fairy-expertise.html">tooth Fairy expertise </a> (my personal favourite) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the top 5 posts of all time haven't really changed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">1. <a href="http://malingual.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/ma-tesol-app-ling-or-delta-which-to-do.html" style="color: #0700dd;">MA or DELTA?</a></span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">2. <a href="http://malingual.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/linguistic-myth-2-swearing-shows-lack.html" style="color: #0700dd;">Does Swearing show a lack of IQ</a>? </span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">3. <a href="http://malingual.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/skimming-and-scanning.html" style="color: #0700dd;">Skimming and scanning</a></span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">4. <a href="http://malingual.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/left-brains-and-right-brains-in-english.html" style="color: #0700dd;">left brains and right brains in TEFL</a> </span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">5. <a href="http://malingual.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/learning-styles-facts-and-fictions.html" style="color: #0700dd;">Learning styles: facts and fictions</a></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Freire-well </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This year I also had a piece published in <a href="https://www.eflmagazine.com/oppressive-pedagogy/">EFL magazine on Freire</a> that generated a little bit of controversy. The piece was my personal reaction to a book that some claims is very important to the teaching profession. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It occurs to me, rather belatedly, that twitter has something of an amplifying and distorting effect. You can get the impression that ideas are really popular and important when really it's just a twitter thing. A political party can seem really loved or a celebrity can seem reviled when in reality it's just the impression twitter creates. I think this is probably true for critical pedagogy. In fact, t</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">he editor of one publication I sent the article to replied saying that though I made valid points the book was just not well-known or part of main stream teachers' reading lists to be of interest to readers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Likewise, one distinguished member of "TEFL royalty" told me, much to my surprise, that he had never heard of the book and similarly very few hands went up when J.J. Wilson reportedly asked teachers at a conference to raise their hands if they knew it. Writing about Freire then is a bit like writing about <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2012/11/nlp-notes.html">NLP</a>. Most people will shrug but <a href="https://gregashman.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/the-false-choice-at-the-heart-of-freire/">the fans will really come for you</a>. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUvsD-Lb1q-vHrkFg7GSgMg1hEiOOBg1zfPEJ3XV6C9jn8Uo0-cTH7gxr1Ufkw3xtwqMkvKi0V2i3jYRjTv5estEhbZxwAV8wblpGv1El8Gsjru21VwU-bO9H2Z4bYIfYSXmRQep7MzZM/s1600/trump.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="807" height="82" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUvsD-Lb1q-vHrkFg7GSgMg1hEiOOBg1zfPEJ3XV6C9jn8Uo0-cTH7gxr1Ufkw3xtwqMkvKi0V2i3jYRjTv5estEhbZxwAV8wblpGv1El8Gsjru21VwU-bO9H2Z4bYIfYSXmRQep7MzZM/s400/trump.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Am I Trump in this analogy?</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I think I got sucked into spending time on something that isn't really that important to most teachers and I'm probably done with the subject but t</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">o fans of critical pedagogy I ask the same question I ask everyone else on this blog, -w</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">here is your evidence that this stuff works? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Is blogging over?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And finally for this decade....EBEFL asks....is blogging over? Perhaps it's how little time I spent on twitter or perhaps it's who I follow or twitter's algorithm but I can't remember seeing that many new bloggers or blog posts going around this year. In contrast, everyone seems to have a podcast! So many in fact that I can no longer keep up with them all (though you can read reviews of some of them <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2015/01/review-of-elt-podcasts.html">here</a>, <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2015/11/review-of-elt-podcasts-art-2.html">here </a>and <a href="https://malingual.blogspot.com/2017/06/review-of-elt-podcasts-part-3.html">here</a>) Is podcasting the new blogging? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyway, as always, thanks for reading and have a great 2020. </span><br />
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mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714045366168902489.post-26158595902894031062019-12-18T05:13:00.001-08:002021-05-05T22:02:04.302-07:00Try this, it works! 4....3....2...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTW9KrpCyhQz9TbzMqfGBKIFc7tcR8PM1MnJg7bvMwpNQIgPBfbOJ48deSYah_cv42l5tymYT137GJ9bBBXR8a43GQhhZ6OCcVUvuxpg6RiavoGwsdCxTXUMAkHf5W1DtE9SLQPC9BwhE/s1600/hourglass-icon-png-23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTW9KrpCyhQz9TbzMqfGBKIFc7tcR8PM1MnJg7bvMwpNQIgPBfbOJ48deSYah_cv42l5tymYT137GJ9bBBXR8a43GQhhZ6OCcVUvuxpg6RiavoGwsdCxTXUMAkHf5W1DtE9SLQPC9BwhE/s1600/hourglass-icon-png-23.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Nation" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Paul Nation</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">'s <a href="https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/publications/paul-nation/1989-Fluency.pdf">4/3/2</a> 1 ac<span style="text-align: justify;">tivity is often cited as an excellent way to improve a students spoken fluency. I have used it myself and incorporated it into a lot of materials. It's evidence based after all, right? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Right? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The other day it suddenly hit me that I'd never once bothered to check if the method itself had any evidence to support it at all. Here's what I found. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The method </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In a </span><a href="https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/publications/paul-nation/1989-Fluency.pdf" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">paper from 19</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">89</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Nation describes the technique which originates in a 1983 paper by Maurice (if anyone has a copy I would love to read it). Ask students to prepare a talk on a given topic but don't let them make any notes. Pair the learners up and give them 4 minutes to talk about it. Their partner should not interrupt. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Next, the speaker and listener switch and the process is repeated. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After this the students switch partners and repeat the process but this time with the time reduced to 3 minutes. In the final iteration the time is reduced to 2 minutes. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The point of this is to get students speaking more fluently. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In order to test the efficacy of this method Nation recorded students doing the activity and then measured various aspects of the performance. For example her measured, the number of words per minute, the number of hesitations</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and the number of repetitions. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nation also measured accuracy by counting the number of errors per minute. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Results </span></h3>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The 432 technique seemed to lead to improvements in student fluency as measured by words per minutes (WPM), and a reduction in hesitation and repetition. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There was 'some' improvement in student accuracy. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Students seemed to get better at only including important information (control of content). Nation believes this shows students may get better at condensing information. </span></li>
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Some thoughts </h3>
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The study was N=6. That's very very small. Nation claims that despite this "the consistency of the results indicates that their gains from the activity would be typical of other learners" but with 6 advanced students can he really make these claims? </div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">There seems to be a lot missing from the methodology section of this paper. What was classed as a mistake? how long was a hesitation and so on. </span>There are no transcripts to look at to see what kind of language the students produced and w<span style="text-align: start;">e get no information about whether any students finished before the allocated time and if so how that was recorded. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Did students take it slowly on the first 4 minute round because they had some much time? </span><span style="text-align: start;">would student have been able to speak at the "final" speed if they had only been given 2 minutes from the beginning? If the time wasn't changed at all would students speed up anyway? </span></div>
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The "audience" students (those listening) do nothing other than listen. Whenever I do this activity I ask students to take notes to answer questions later on so they are at least paying attention. I also tend to start with a much shorter initial time. 4 minutes seems like a really really long time. The IELTS speaking test "long turn" only lasts for 2 minutes. </div>
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Replication </h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was curious if anyone had replicated the study, perhaps with a larger cohort. It turned out they had. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nation himself <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/003368829102200106">repeated the study</a> 2 years later with Supot Arevart, only this time with 20 intermediate level students. This time, the authors give a bit more detail about the procedure. It seems that students were grouped in fours and spoke once, listening three times (which seems a bit dull for a speaking lesson). This paper also contains transcripts of participant speech. </span></div>
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Results </h3>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Again there was an increase in WPM (18 more words from the first to the last performance) though it is not clear if the repetition or time reduction is the cause.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Individual student results are listed in this paper and show that whereas some subjects made great gains (an increase of 48 WPM) others did not. One student actually got worse (though that was a student with an very high initial WPM count). </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hesitations decreased by an average of around four fewer hesitations by the 3rd round. Again, the individual data shows us that the results were much more varied at an individual level with one participant going from 10 to 18 hesitation by the final round (incidentally the same student who did not make WPM gains). </span></li>
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De Jong and Perfetti (changing the topics) </h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This paper tested 4/3/2 with a group who repeated the same topic and one that got a new topic every round. They <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00620.x">found that</a> even if the topics differed for each time the levels of fluency increased. This would seem to indicate that the reduction in time alone can prompt students to appear more fluent. However, the authors also found that only those who had repeated their topic showed improvement in the posttest. </span></div>
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Boers (keeping the time constant) </h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another two replications were carried out by Boers who is quite critical of Nation. He raises the following issues:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nation claims that this is a well-researched technique (<a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?hl=en&publication_year=2009&author=ISP+Nation&author=J+Newton&title=Teaching+ESL%2FEFL+Listening+and+Speaking">Nation and Newton</a> 2009) when in actual fact there are very few studies into the technique. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nation research only shows improvements within the 4/3/2 activity itself. He does not show that this permanently affects a students fluency. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although Nation has claimed that 432 also improves accuracy and complexity, the actual results do not support that claim. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Boers wonders if the repetition alone, without the time pressure, may have the same effect. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Boers studies </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(2014, </span><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0033688214546964" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">N=10</a> <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2015, </span><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/tesq.232" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">N=20 with Thai</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">) introduced a control group with no time reduction (3/3/3 as well as 4/3/2)</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span></div>
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Results </h3>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As with nation Boers found increases in the number of words and WPM from the first to the third round. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Both papers found the number of <b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">disfluencies </b>(hesitations) decreased. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They also found that in the time-constant group students improved as well, though not by as much. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On striking finding was the amount of verbatim duplication in the shrinking time condition. This was notable to the authors as in some cases up to 50% of the texts were exact repetitions. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"There was no compelling evidence of increased lexical sophistication and no evidence of increased syntactic complexity."</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Boers found that participants seemed to repeating the same structures and this held for both replications. Although students got faster errors did not decrease significantly and in some cases they increased. Boers notes that as students were just be repeating the same thing without any getting and input on, or evaluation of their performance, this is hardly surprising. </span></div>
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Take away</h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most of the research shows that repeated practice will increase fluency as measured by WPM (or syll/sec). However it will probably not do much for accuracy or complexity. As Boers notes "that the 4/3/2 technique is recommendable if the sole aim of the activity is to push fluency. However, if the objective is to foster other". But it's worth noting that you will get an increase in fluency merely by reducing the time students have, even with different topics. You can also get a decent increase in fluency by having students repeat the task with no reduction in time. Simply put, rehearsing a talk and repeating it will tend to improve fluency. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">A modified 432 in which students get feedback on their performance (from other students or the teacher) and then repeat it may help with accuracy and complexity. But as with many things "more research is needed". </span></div>
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mallingualhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13278408615407649532noreply@blogger.com2