APPLE TREE MODEL OF EMOTION-INVOLVED PROCESSING

The aim of this paper is to summarize the findings of research done in the field of foreign language pedagogy, neuroscience, and psychology with regard to the emotion-cognition relationship. Several studies of qualitative and quantitative nature, which were conducted on teenage and university students, suggest that cognition is strongly affected by emotional experience. Especially positive emotionally competent stimuli experienced when learning a foreign language can contribute to deeper processing and better long-term retention, and at the same time, it is suggested that they have the power to alleviate foreign language anxiety and enhance foreign language enjoyment and the motivation of learners. With regard to these research findings and several cognitive theories, the Apple Tree Model of Emotion-Involved Processing in Foreign Language Learning is proposed and discussed – as well as several ideas on how to emotionally stimulate foreign language learners, which are applicable not only in foreign language classes but also out of the class. Their addictive nature ensures that learners can and do learn the foreign language every day at any time of the day in an authentic language environment – even without realizing it – doing it as a hobby.

Arabic and English Loan Words in Bahasa: Implications for Foreign Language Pedagogy

Many Arab students are currently pursuing their education at Malaysian institutions, and they have to study Bahasa Malaysia as a university requirement to be able to communicate with people in the local community. Therefore, this study aims to help Arab students learn Bahasa easily as Bahasa contains many loan words from Arabic and English. This article gives Arab students examples of Arabic and English loan words with which they are familiar and shows them the different phonological adaptations of Arabic and English loan words in Bahasa as the Arabic, English and Bahasa sound systems are different. A corpus of non-technical Malay words that are commonly encountered in public places in Malaysia was collected and analyzed. A contrastive analysis of Arabic and Malay, and English and Malay phonological systems was performed. Different homogenization processes are applied to Arabic and English loan words depending on the differences between Arabic and Malay, and English and Malay. Examples of Arabic loan words in Malay are: menara, Sabtu, Ahad, Akhir, tahniya. Examples of English loan words in Bahasa are: stesen, kelab, tren, kompleks, imigresen, destinasi. Further implications for learning Bahasa Malaysia by Arab students are given.

The Discursive Construction of Foreign Language Pedagogy at the University Level in Poland against the Background of the European Qualifications Framework

Katarzyna Nosidlak’s book focuses on the theory and practice of foreign language pedagogy construed on a national scale for the needs of higher education systems in Poland under the pressures of international requirements. It raises contemporary issues of official educational discourses on language policy in Europe, which are significant for shaping the vision of the world shared by humans in interindividual communication in general and English as a second language in particular. Approaching the European Qualifications Framework and the Polish Qualifications Framework as tools for coordinating and comparing the content and results of education in the EU Member States at all levels, from basic to post-secondary, the book essentially enriches the knowledge of foreign language teaching and learning in the era of unification of laws on education. The notable achievements of Katarzyna Nosidlak’s book lie in its emphasis on the role of discourses and discursive practices in social life, including the formation of the Polish education system on the example of language pedagogy, its revelation of the consequences of the application of the perspective of social constructivism for communicative practices in foreign language teaching, and its provision of a comprehensive overview of legal acts and publications on the qualifications framework for lifelong learning.

THE IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

The article describes the importance of using Information Technologies in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). It deals with some problems in the process of teaching EFL for students. Nowadays the importance of incorporating Information Technologies in Foreign Language (FL) education has often been emphasized, especially by foreign language pedagogy scholars. The aim of the paper was to summarize the results of the observations carried out at Nukus state pedagogical institute in Nukus in order to map ways of improving students’ foreign language were developed suitably and sufficiently in the observed EFL lessons. The analysis showed that EFL courses at the institution tend to regard the importance of integrating skills with the usage of ICT in FL education. As a result of discussion and analysis we concluded that it is pivotal to make use of 21st century skills in the process of teaching EFL.

INTEGRATING INTERCULTURAL ASPECTS IN EFL LESSONS AT SLOVAK SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Over the last decades the importance of incorporating intercultural aspects in FL education has often been emphasized, especially by intercultural communication as well as foreign language pedagogy scholars. Yet the everyday teaching practice in Slovakia does not always reflect this viewpoint, as it has been revealed due to some research in the field. The aim of the paper was to summarize the results of the observations carried out at secondary schools in Slovakia in order to map which intercultural aspects were developed suitably and sufficiently in the observed EFL lessons. The investigation showed that EFL courses at Slovak secondary schools tend to disregard the must of integrating cultural aspects in FL education. One of the reasons can be the lack of further education for in-service teachers in the given field; hence, the paper also includes some proposals for teacher development in terms of developing intercultural competences in FL courses

Investigating Foreign Language Teacher Anxiety Using SFL’s ATTITUDE and TRANSITIVITY Systems

This study investigates language teachers’ verbal construals of classroom anxiety and its cognitive precursors by drawing on the TRANSITIVITY and ATTITUDE systems in systemic functional linguistics (Martin & White, 2005) and integrating them with appraisal theory in cognitive psychology (Smith & Lazarus,1993). Three collegiate-level German teachers in a CLIL-like context participated in a two-week classroom observation sequence, which included 8 in-depth, semi-structured interviews that employed stimulated recall methodology by way of recorded classroom observations. Transcribed interview data were examined using both TRANSITIVITY analysis to capture experiential meanings and a multi-step TRANSITIVITY and ATTITUDE analysis to capture both emotional meanings and cognitive appraisals simultaneously. Findings revealed individual patterns of verbal construals of anxiety for each participant. The multi-step analysis uncovered discernible patterns for the verbal construal of cognitive appraisals that are strongly associated with both participants’ feelings of anxiety and their beliefs about the nature of language teaching. Based on these findings, a new system network for the description and approach to the analysis of foreign language (FL) teacher emotions is proposed and implications of the findings for future research into teacher emotions and beliefs, as well as for teacher training, emotional well-being, and foreign language pedagogy research are discussed.

Synchronous VCMC with TalkAbroad: Exploring noticing, transcription, and learner perceptions in Spanish foreign-language pedagogy

This mixed-methods study investigates the use of synchronous video computer-mediated communication (SVCMC) in a U.S. university’s Spanish-as-a-foreign-language curriculum. Using the SVCMC platform TalkAbroad, the university’s Spanish program required second-year students to participate in five, 30-minute, SVCMC conversations with Spanish first language (L1) speakers. Students then reflected on their SVCMC conversations by replaying the recorded audio from those sessions and transcribing passages of their conversations. Using an interactionist perspective, this research explores the utility of: (1) the SVCMC conversations, and (2) the subsequent listening/transcription activity by examining students’ reported noticing of linguistic items (e.g. L1 speaker vocabulary, grammar, etc.). Additionally, we report students’ general perceptions of engaging in SVCMC with TalkAbroad. Students’ noticing and perceptions were investigated using a combination of two questionnaires ( N = 35) that were administered following (1) the SVCMC, and (2) the listening/transcription activity, along with semi-structured interviews ( n = 10). Findings suggest both the SVCMC and listening/transcription activities are effective in promoting the noticing of vocabulary and content, but not grammar. Finally, students generally reported positive perceptions of engaging in SVCMC for the purposes of L2 learning. Related implications for pedagogy and curriculum design are discussed.

The embodied teaching of complex verbal constructions with German placement verbs and spatial prepositions

In recent years, foreign language pedagogy has recognized the need to focus (i) on larger meaningful sequences of words (Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992; Wray, 2002; Ellis & Cadierno, 2009; Gonzalez Rey, 2013) and (ii) further on communicative goals (Nunan, 1991; Widdowson, 1992; Savignon, 2000). Difficulties in the learning process of a foreign language result from the conceptual and constructional differences between expressions in the native and foreign language. Teaching materials often propose a lexical approach with an unstructured set of constructed examples. With the postulate of meaningful schematic templates, Construction Grammar (CxG) has a number of assets for foreign language teaching (FLT) and learning (FLL), it allows among others to establish a structured inventory of abstract constructions with prototypical exemplars and inheritance links between the constructions’ instantiations. To be proficient in a foreign language also means to use new words in constructions. Learners can be asked to extend the use of new lexical units as slot-fillers into constructional patterns. This is exemplified with the use of German posture and placement verbs in the caused motion construction and the corresponding intransitive locative construction. But having learned a vast number of constructional templates of a language does not automatically imply that learners can produce L2-constructions and their instantiations in a creative way. Therefore, CxG must be enriched with further insights from Cognitive Linguistics which claims that conceptual categories and their linguistic expressions are the result of embodied processes (Lakoff, 1987). This chapter makes some suggestions for interactive activities which can foster ‘embodied teaching and learning’.