Learning & Teaching Foreign Languages

 
An icon showing glyphs from different alphabets.

Applying research to practice

Read and Reflect

Recommendations for applying findings from second language research in the communicative language classroom are presented by Haley and Rentz in their 2002 article: Applying SLA research and theory to practice: what can a teacher do?

Read the article and answer the following questions.

 

  1. Which finding is attributed to which researcher in the first part of the article?
    1. SLA research findings do not provide straightforward guidance for the teacher and probably never will.
    2. While learners follow relatively invariant routes of learning, these routes are not linear and during phases of interlanguage restructuring, apparent regression occurs.
    3. Looking at the learner and the language acquisition processes provides information on what learners normally do or do not do and what can and cannot be taught.
    4. The heterogeneity of levels in classes is a well-known reality and developmentally targeted teaching would be very difficult to organize.
    5. [SLA research can] help teachers to understand patterns of learner error and its inevitability and to accept the indirect nature of what is taught and what is learned.
  2. According to Haley and Rentz, what does recent SL research recommend teachers do?
  3. Which two researchers are linked to learner readiness?  Which hypotheses are associated with each?
  4. How does Long define focus on form?
  5. Which cognitivist and constructivist SLA concepts can you identify in the section Teachers and their everyday practices?
  6. Do the authors consider communicative class textbooks helpful?

ANSWERS

1. Which finding is attributed to which researcher in the first part of the article?

a) SLA research findings do not provide straightforward guidance for the teacher and probably never will (R. Ellis)

b) While learners follow relatively invariant routes of learning, these routes are not linear and during phases of interlanguage restructuring apparent regression occurs. (Mitchell & Myles)

c) Looking at the learner and the language acquisition processes provides information on what learners normally do or do not do and what can and cannot be taught. (Pienneman)

d) The heterogeneity of levels in classes is a well-known reality and developmentally targeted teaching would be very difficult to organize. (Lightbown)

e) [SLA research can] help teachers to understand patterns of learner error and its inevitability and to accept the indirect nature of what is taught and what is learned. (Mitchell & Myles)

 

2. According to Haley and Rentz, what does recent SL research recommend teachers do?

A combination of methods that would incorporate attention to "learner readiness" and "focus on form" in a communicative program would seem to be a mixture that a teacher should try to develop in the classroom.

3. Which two researchers are linked to learner readiness?  Which hypotheses are associated with each?
Krashen, Input hypothesis/Monitor Model
Pienneman, Teachability hypothesis/Processability theory

4. How does Long define focus on form?

"focus on form...overtly draws students' attention to linguistic elements as they arise incidentally in lessons whose overriding focus is on meaning or communication" (Long, 1991, pp. 45-46)

5. Which cognitivist and constructivist SLA concepts can you identify in the section Teachers and their Everyday practices?
noticing, processing, output, feedback, interaction

6. Do the authors consider communicative class textbooks helpful?
Yes, they suggest teachers can select a variety of activities corresponding to different learning styles.

 

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional