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IAFOR Conference #18: Helping Language Learners Build Knowledge – Roger Palmer
This talk will focus on ways to help learners build knowledge as they learn second or foreign languages, enabling them to join the target language community. In a country like Japan, where learners, teachers and the society of which they form a part share the same first language, other languages may be squeezed out even when there is a desire to learn them. Despite time, effort and good intentions, neither Willingness to Communicate (MacIntyre, Clément, Dörnyei and Noels,1998), nor skills training, nor Communicative Language Teaching has provided a viable way forward for those who wish to or need to learn other languages.
A solution put forward by Byrnes (2006) is to draw on lessons from Sociocultural Theory and Systemic Functional Linguistics, using functional descriptions of language in context to assist language learners. Drawing lessons from Byrnes (2006), three main areas are attended to.The first examines the need for a commitment to teaching language learners up to their potential, whether intermediate or advanced, in the target language.The second explores ways to help L2 learners understand meaning in the texts that they read and those they construct. Acceptance in a social or cultural group requires being able to analyse and break down a variety of texts and understand how they work.The third is the use of technology in language education.Technology represents one part of the solution, and it will be argued that technology should be embraced in the digital age just as it was embraced when it meant the printing press, or the pencil.
It follows that efforts be directed more towards the building of knowledge, by such means as integrating content and language instruction.
Roger Palmer is associate professor at the Hirao School of Management, part of Konan University in Japan, where he serves as Co-director of Language Programmes. From 2011 to 2013, he led a team investigating genre-based L2 writing and technology, working with fellow researchers in Japan and Indonesia. Roger has co-authored over a dozen textbooks for EFL/ESL learners of English, including iZone, Pearson Asia’s four-level print-digital course. His research interests include content-based instruction, genre-based pedagogy, ICT, and multimodality.
Roger Palmer was a Featured Presenter at the IAFOR Asian Conference on Language Learning 2014 (ACLL2014) and the IAFOR Asian Conference on Technology in the Classroom 2014 (ACTC2014).
You can find a video of this podcast below:
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By IAFOR PodcastsThis talk will focus on ways to help learners build knowledge as they learn second or foreign languages, enabling them to join the target language community. In a country like Japan, where learners, teachers and the society of which they form a part share the same first language, other languages may be squeezed out even when there is a desire to learn them. Despite time, effort and good intentions, neither Willingness to Communicate (MacIntyre, Clément, Dörnyei and Noels,1998), nor skills training, nor Communicative Language Teaching has provided a viable way forward for those who wish to or need to learn other languages.
A solution put forward by Byrnes (2006) is to draw on lessons from Sociocultural Theory and Systemic Functional Linguistics, using functional descriptions of language in context to assist language learners. Drawing lessons from Byrnes (2006), three main areas are attended to.The first examines the need for a commitment to teaching language learners up to their potential, whether intermediate or advanced, in the target language.The second explores ways to help L2 learners understand meaning in the texts that they read and those they construct. Acceptance in a social or cultural group requires being able to analyse and break down a variety of texts and understand how they work.The third is the use of technology in language education.Technology represents one part of the solution, and it will be argued that technology should be embraced in the digital age just as it was embraced when it meant the printing press, or the pencil.
It follows that efforts be directed more towards the building of knowledge, by such means as integrating content and language instruction.
Roger Palmer is associate professor at the Hirao School of Management, part of Konan University in Japan, where he serves as Co-director of Language Programmes. From 2011 to 2013, he led a team investigating genre-based L2 writing and technology, working with fellow researchers in Japan and Indonesia. Roger has co-authored over a dozen textbooks for EFL/ESL learners of English, including iZone, Pearson Asia’s four-level print-digital course. His research interests include content-based instruction, genre-based pedagogy, ICT, and multimodality.
Roger Palmer was a Featured Presenter at the IAFOR Asian Conference on Language Learning 2014 (ACLL2014) and the IAFOR Asian Conference on Technology in the Classroom 2014 (ACTC2014).
You can find a video of this podcast below: