ISSN:0039-8322    

DOI:10.1002/j.1545-7249.1986.tb00659.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The last few decades have seen phenomenal growth in the demand for English and marked improvement in language teaching procedures. Yet, a retrospective view of the development of our profession shows that the need to shape teaching programs to the social, economic, and cultural context of those who seek to learn English continues to be crucial. This article examines issues related to our understanding of what English is, of what language is and how it develops, and of what teaching is and can be, and argues for a pluralistic approach to collaborative growth in education, one which takes full account of the notions of differential growth and appropriate methodology. The article concludes with a set of goals to guide professional self‐examinatio

ISSN:0039-8322    

DOI:10.2307/3586291

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

While competency‐based education has become widely accepted as the state‐of‐the‐art approach to adult ESL, there has been little published discussion of its theoretical assumptions or social implications. This article examines eight key descriptors of competency‐based education in light of critiques from the fields of curriculum theory, adult basic education, and second language acquisition theory. The results of an informal survey of teacher attitudes toward competency‐based adult education in ESL are incorporated. The article situates the competency‐based approach in its historical context as part of a tradition of socializing immigrants for specific roles in the existing socioeconomic order. It suggests that the systems demands of this approach (for accountability and “social utility”) may impose constraints that get in the way of such pedagogical considerations as student‐centered learning. The article concludes by stressing the need for further debate and analysis, rather than uncritical acceptance, of compe

ISSN:0039-8322    

DOI:10.2307/3586292

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A basic, but inadequately fulfilled, requirement of evaluation studies comparing the effects of teaching programs is that the tests used should be program‐fair. In this article, attention is first of all drawn to the potential for misinterpretation of experiments lacking program‐fair criteria. Second, the strategies adopted by various researchers to come to terms with the issue are considered from the perspectives of (a) standardized tests, (b) specific tests for each program, (c) program‐specific plus program‐neutral measures, (d) common/unique objectives, and (e) appeal to consensus. Finally, it is concluded that while the issue remains largely unresolved, there are some general principles which can be gleaned from past exp

ISSN:0039-8322    

DOI:10.2307/3586293

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Surveys of academic writing have an important role to play in providing a more complete picture of writing than the “process” approach has given us. However, previous academic writing surveys have not satisfactorily answered the question of just what kinds of academic writing tasks are typical. Without such information, creating realistic writing tasks in the English‐for‐academic‐purposes (EAP) classroom remains largely a matter of guesswork. The present study attempts to fill this gap, taking as its data the actual handouts in university classes. The tasks were classified into seven categories, which are described. The implications of the controlled nature of many of the writing tasks are discussed, and ways to put these findings into use in the EAP classroom are

ISSN:0039-8322    

DOI:10.2307/3586294

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Think‐aloud protocols, a version of verbal report in which participants state their thoughts and behaviors, have become increasingly popular as a means of studying the comprehension processes of native English speakers. The study reported in this article used think‐alouds to examine the comprehension strategies used by college‐level students—both native speakers of English and nonnative speakers—enrolled in remedial reading classes as they read material from a college textbook. “Poor” readers (those who had failed the college's reading proficiency test) were chosen for study because they are the ones at whom college remedial reading programs are aimed. Furthermore, their use of comprehension strategies has not attained the degree of automaticity found in fluent readers. Thus, they may be more aware of how they solve the problems they encounter as they read. Some of the strategies used by the ESL and native‐speaking readers in the study are described. Strategy use is related to measures of memory and comprehension and to academic performance, and implications for teachin

ISSN:0039-8322    

DOI:10.2307/3586295

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Teachers attending summer institutes were asked to react to different varieties of English and Spanish. The teachers participating in the ESL and Applied Sociolinguistics Institutes evaluated four varieties of English: (a) standard American English, (b) Hispanicized English, (c) ungrammatical English, and (d) English/Spanish code alternation. The teachers participating in the Bilingual Institute judged four varieties of Spanish: (a) standard Mexican Spanish, (b) local Spanish, (c) ungrammatical Spanish, and (d) English/Spanish code alternation. All three groups of teachers rated each variety in terms of its appropriateness for the classroom, degree of correctness, and the speaker's academic potential. The teachers ranked the English and Spanish varieties on a standard continuum. Teachers from the Bilingual Institute differentiated among the four Spanish varieties, while teachers in the ESL and Applied Sociolinguistics Institutes did not judge code switching less favorably than ungrammatical English. Some of the notions that teachers held about Spanish varieties were influenced by Spanish proficiency, ethnicity, and birthplace. Knowledge about language use in bilingual contexts did influence the teachers' level of tolerance toward marked English varieties, suggesting that some attitudes toward nonstandard speech styles are influenced by cognitive and motivational considerations.

ISSN:0039-8322    

DOI:10.2307/3586296

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The purpose of the study reported in this article was to determine the effectiveness of various types of communicative acts (e.g., requests for information, calls for attention, intention statements, and so on) for eliciting native‐speaker input. The study examined some of the spontaneous communicative acts of a group of young second language learners and their native‐speaker interlocutors' responses in three play situations. Results showed that while the response rate to some types of utterances was predictable (e.g., to requests for information), others (e.g., calls for attention) did not generate the expected feedback. In addition, there was an unexpectedly high response rate to other communicative acts, such as statements of intention. These findings are discussed as evidence of superordinate strategies in child discourse. The implications of such behavior for language learning and teaching are discussed, and classroom applications are sugges

ISSN:0039-8322    

DOI:10.2307/3586297

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0039-8322    

DOI:10.2307/3586298

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0039-8322    

DOI:10.2307/3586299

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY