Expectations eclipsed in foreign language education: learners and educators on an ongoing journey / edited by Hülya Görür-Atabaş, Sharon Turner.

Between June 2-4, 2011 Sabancı University School of Languages welcomed colleagues from 21 different countries to a collaborative exploration of the challenging and inspiring journey of learners and educators in the field of language education.\ud \ud The conference provided an opportunity for all stakeholders to share their views on language education. Colleagues met with world-renowned experts and authors in the fields of education and psychology, faculty and administrators from various universities and institutions, teachers from secondary educational backgrounds and higher education, as well as learners whose voices are often not directly shared but usually reported.\ud \ud The conference name, Eclipsing Expectations, was inspired by two natural phenomena, a solar eclipse directly before the conference, and a lunar eclipse, immediately after. Learners and educators were hereby invited to join a journey to observe, learn and exchange ideas in orde

Whole-Brain-Based Oral Reading : A Study on Teaching English as a Second Language

This paper is the accumulation of various researches and data stemmed from this researcher\u27s English classrooms at his private English school as well as his university and college classes over two decades since 1991. The researches were made and the data was collected concerning reading activities in the classrooms.In this paper, first, the importance of reading is discussed, and then various types of reading are introduced : they are right-brain reading, Whole-language reading, Whole-brain reading and Whole-brain-based oral reading. Whole-brain reading and Whole-brain-based oral reading are by-products of Whole-language reading. They were developed by this researcher during the courses of his teaching. In order to make Whole-brain-based oral reading successful, this researcher has introduced phonics programs, various fundamental training including eye-movement training and eye-voice-span practice, word-chunk training, and practice with rhythm and timed reading.Then, the step-by-step oral reading programs for beginning readers and advanced readers are introduced. These programs were actually applied to the researcher\u27s classrooms to make the reading successful. With these programs, it may be possible that any instructors can experience Whole-brain-based oral reading in their classrooms.Oral reading activities are also helpful and effective for the students. Here, three types of oral reading activities are introduced ; Perfect Reading Game, Text-independent Shadowing Practice and Filling-in-the-space Game.Finally, a word of acknowledgement goes to Antony Boys, a former professor at Ibaraki Christian Junior College, for giving advice to this researcher in preparing for the initial version of this paper

Reading aloud activity in L2 and cerebral activation

This article explores the cerebral mechanism of reading aloud activities in L2 learners. These activities have been widely used in L2 learning and teaching, and its effect has been reported in various Asian L2 learning contexts. However, the reasons for its effectiveness have not been examined. In order to fill in this gap, two studies using a brain-imaging technique, near-infrared spectroscopy, were conducted in order to determine a cerebral basis for the effectiveness of reading aloud activities. Study 1 investigated learners with high L2 proficiency to show the difference in cerebral activation between L2 and L1 learners as they read a passage aloud. The effect of material difficulty was also examined in this study. Study 2 then examined learners with both high and low L2 proficiency to show the effect of material difficulty vis-à-vis the learners’ L2 proficiency. The effect of repeated reading aloud activities was also investigated in this study. These studies show that (a) reading aloud in L2 results in a higher degree of cerebral activation than reading aloud in L1 does; (b) reading material beyond learners’ L2 ability aloud results in low brain activation; (c) repetition of the same normal reading aloud activity in L2 does not necessarily increase (or decrease) the level of cerebral activation; however, (d) including a repetitive cognitively demanding reading aloud activity does cause high brain activation. On the basis of these findings, this article provides a cerebral basis for the effectiveness of reading aloud activities in L2 learning

大学の英語授業における放送英語の効果的な利用法

　外国語学習者向けの市販教材の多くは，CD，DVD など付属メディアを利用することで，英語音声を学習できるよう工夫されている。しかし，その音声教材の大半は，録音スタジオで英語母語話者が学習者の理解度を考慮して読み上げたものなので，発話速度を落としたうえ自然な英語発音に付きものの音声同化現象などが省かれていることがある。そのような教材のみを利用した学習者は，英米の地で実際に話されている英語が十分理解できなくて，がく然とすることがあると聞く。英語の中・上級学習者は「本物の英語発音」に慣れておく必要があるのではなかろうか。本論では本物の英語発音のひとつである放送英語を利用した効果的な学習方法を提案する。本論の一つ目の目的はアメリカのテレビニュース英語の特徴を分析することで，二つ目の目的は大学の英語授業における放送英語の効果的な利用法を紹介することである。実践報

Improving Phonemic Awareness in ESL Pronunciation Using Shadowing During Tutorials: Implications for ESL Teachers

Although there are numerous reasons to improve pronunciation instruction, the teaching of phonologic structures in English has become less popular among k-12 classrooms. This study proposes that the use of a relatively new technique may positively improve ESL students\u27 pronunciation of American Standard English. This technique is known as shadowing. The data obtained was analyzed and evaluated in terms of phonological structures. The motivation to do this particular study came from previous research concerning word boundaries and phonological structures of consonants, in addition to my previous experience as an ESL tutor and instructor at SCSU. Students were making too many phonemic errors. This study will provide evidence for specific effects on phonemic awareness and also in regards to fluency and accuracy. To accomplish this, a shadowing methodology was used. The participants performed three types of audio-recorded speech samples both before and after their weekly tutorial sessions. Each would serve as a pre-test/post-test. First, spontaneous speech samples were used. Second, rehearsed speech samples were used. Third, read aloud activities were conducted to produce recorded speech samples. The recordings of speech samples were provided by four native speakers of English, two Caucasian males and two Caucasian females. This generated the authentic speech samples necessary for data analysis. The activities stemmed from a modified activity from the St. Cloud State ESL Department\u27s Tutorial packet. The samples were assessed by native speakers of English (speech sample raters) who listened to samples and scored each one based on a speech rubric provided by the researcher. The results of the data collected (scores from raters) were calculated and presented in the form of paired TTests. Common problems associated with pronunciation and whether the use of shadowing leads to an increased level of phonemic awareness were the target objectives for the elicited data. The students were divided into two groups. Student Group, A used a written transcript while making the shadowing attempts and Student Group B did not. The results indicated that most of the comparisons did not yield statistically significant results (gender and language yielded no significance). However, even though two of the mean scores for groups A and B ( comparing pre and post-test) yielded a difference, none of them were statistically significant as neither were equal or greater than the Alpha value of 0.05

Factors influencing reading difficulties of advanced learners of English as a Foreign Language when reading authentic texts

A thesis submitted to the University of Luton in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThis thesis investigates factors influencing the reading difficulties of advanced learners of English as a foreign language. It proposes a new approach to reading research and pedagogy in which neuroscientific insights on human verbal and non-verbal cognition are incorporated into the theoretical conceptualisation. This thesis explores the neurosdentific literature for the purpose of identifying basic principles governing human perception, emotion and cognition. The mechanisms of learning and memory are also studied. It examines how the verbal systems of the brain interact with the non-verbal systems. Making use of neural perspectives, a critical review of historical and of current reading models is conducted. Attempts are made to provide alternative interpretations for the phenomena recognised in empirical studies based on observations of reading behaviours, on computer-based studies and on the introspective data of experts and of learners. This thesis reports two experiments which were designed to investigate the Ll and L2 reading processes through Think Aloud, Immediate Retrospection, Questionnaires and Interviews. The results indicate that advanced learners, despite their established reading ability in their native languages, often rely heavily on cognitive and studial styles of L2 reading which inhibit fluent and effective reading. Neural accounts are offered which suggest that the ineffective reading styles are due to weakness in the degree of neural developments. This thesis evaluates the reading sections of current and typical coursebooks according to neural-based criteria and concludes that learners are not being given the opportunities to develop the neural networks required in fluent and enjoyable reading. Finally suggestions are made for future reading research and pedagogy

THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE KATAKANA WORD RECOGNITION TRAINING AMONG NOVICE LEARNERS OF JAPANESE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Because word recognition processes differ depending on orthographic systems, second language learners with different orthographic backgrounds need to acquire new word recognition strategies suitable to the orthography in their second language. Japanese is a multi-script language and one of the scripts, katakana, is mainly used to transcribe Western loanwords. Due to the sound alternations resulting from the process of borrowing, learners of Japanese often experience difficulties in reading and writing katakana loanwords. Thus, this study investigates the effectiveness of online katakana word recognition training among novice learners of Japanese. Thirty-one students from a first-semester Japanese course at a large research university in the Midwest were randomly divided into three groups and assigned different online training programs outside of the class for four weeks designed to establish sound-letter correspondences of katakana. The first experimental group (Scrambler Group) put the randomly scrambled letters in the right order to form a target katakana loanword by listening to the vocalized word, while the second experimental group (Reading Group) practiced with the same set of the words solely by enunciating and listening to the model reading. The participants took pre- and post-tests before and after the training so that the improvement resulting from the training was observed. The test was composed of two tasks, naming and providing the English meanings of katakana words. The number of correct answers was counted and the response time for a participant to process each word was measured. The test included words practiced in the training and unpracticed words in order to test whether the training effects was transferred to processing unpracticed words