Relational strategies in the discourse of professional performance review in an Irish academic environment: the case of language teacher education.

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Plateaux in pronunciation: the case of French learners of English as a foreign language

Within the field of second language acquisition the question of cessation of learning short of the target language norms, particularly among adult populations, has been widely discussed since the term FOSSILIZATION was first coined by Selinker in 1972. This article briefly outlines the main theoretical concerns of this phenomenon, which has had various terminological badges over the past three decades. It then details an experimental study whose aim it was to uncover the destabilising potential of instruction on the pronunciation of advanced French learners of English as a Foreign Language who displayed fossilization tendencies. The results indicate significant improvements made by the experimental group relative to the control group. In conclusion it is deemed appropriate to classify such learners as stabilised and not permanently fossilized as changes in pronunciation systems can occur given optimal conditions of learning and exposure

Spoken language analysis as an aid to reflective practice in language teacher education: using a specialised corpus to establish a generic fingerprint

In recent years, corpus exploitation has been finding its way into the language classroom in many different applications and formats (for examples, see contributions in Sinclair 2004, O’Keeffe, McCarthy, and Carter 2007, Chambers and Thompson Forthcoming). For practical reasons associated with availability and cost, much corpus-based instruction has engaged the use of written language corpora, which are now relatively easy to acquire

Engaged listenership in spoken academic discourse: the case of student-tutor meetings

This article uses a corpus of spoken English from an Irish university setting to examine how engaged listenership is signaled in meetings between tutors and graduate students. The various linguistic devices employed by both parties for this purpose are quantified and functionally analysed. The three strategies examined include minimal response tokens, for example, mm hm, mm, yeah, non-minimal response tokens e.g. really, right, fine, good, and simultaneous speech and interruptions. These items are found to differ quantitatively and functionally and are shown to be highly relevant for the effective functioning of students in such a spoken EAP context. Pedagogic implications are presented

Reflecting on reflections: the spoken word as a professional development tool in language teacher education.

The struggle for English Language Teaching (ELT), and by default language teacher education (LTE), to become recognized as fully-fledged professions is a continuing one (Wallace, 1991, pp. 4-6). However, increased professionalism in LTE has contributed greatly to its quest for independent disciplinary status in recent years. Some of these professional practices have occurred as a result of emerging philosophies, others because of empirical findings, and others still due to technical advances

Students engagement in reflective tasks: an investigation of interactive and non-interactive discourse corpora

Reflective learning, a practice carrying relatively high educational value, has been with us for some time. Its popularity has grown to the extent that it is often adopted unquestioningly by educational practitioners. However, there are some important questions to be asked in relation to reflective practice. In reality, its impact on improved and enhanced learning and practice, and ultimately its educational value, cannot be known without further examination, research and consideration. This paper uses evidence from a range of spoken and written corpora to gain some insights into the discourse of reflectivity as it is used by students and educators. The data, collected in a third-level educational context, involve students performing tasks widely believed to promote reflection. The spoken data come from student teachers discussing practice language lessons and their general studies, and the written data come in the form of student essays, online blogs and online discussions from student teachers, language students, and computer science multi-media gaming students. The corpora are firstly examined for engagement in reflection using levels of contribution and interactivity (quantitatively measured through word counts and utterance length). Secondly, comparative frequency lists are used to generate key lexical items (verbs, adverbs, adjectives, nouns) suggestive of reflective discourse. The analyses suggest that the amount and type of reflection is influenced by the discourse mode, the task, the participants and power dynamics. Ultimately, the objective of this paper is to take a first step towards suggesting a more tangible framework for examining the relatively elusive practice of reflection for educational purposes. In an attempt to do this, it raises some questions and generates further hypotheses for follow-up research investigation

Identity construction through narratives: a corpus-based discourse analysis of student teacher discourse

In this chapter, our aim is to examine the experiences recounted in the shared professional discourse of student teachers during their teacher education programme. This is done against the belief that ‘experience becomes linguistically and socio-culturally transformed through narrative genres and through the activity of recounting experiences for, to, and with particular interlocutors’ (Ochs, 2006, p. 64). The ultimate goal is to investigate the ways in which the interactions provide scope for the sharing of experience, and in turn, the co-construction and development of knowledge and identity. This is a unique chapter in this volume in that it draws on a corpus of teacher discourse, which is a new endeavor in LTE

"I'm fine girl, and how are you?" : The use of vocatives in spoken Irish-English

The use of phatic communion and small talk are obvious examples of how interpersonal relationships are built and maintained. This paper explores the use of vocatives, which play an equally important part in the affective realm of communication. This paper uses corpus-based tools and methodologies to explore the use of vocatives across a range of contexts in Irish English, highlighting the strong link between the use of vocatives and casual conversation in particular. Focusing on three high frequency forms (girl, lads and boy) in casual conversation, we investigate how their distribution and functions are conditioned by sociolinguistic variables like age and gender. The paper reveals new insights into interpersonal interaction which has informality at its core

Polish teenagers integration into Irish secondary schools: language, culture, and support systems

Social demographics in Ireland have changed dramatically over the last thirty years: from joining the European Union in 1973, through the 1980s recession, to the economic boom of the Celtic Tiger in the mid-1990s, and back to the current downturn. With its competitive economy, Ireland became an attractive destination in recent decades and immigration numbers grew extensively, albeit not consistently

Using language corpora in initial teacher education: pedagogic issues and practical applications

Recent years have seen a vast increase in the amount of materials such as dictionaries and grammars which are ‘corpus-based’ and it is difficult to dispute the contribution of corpus linguistics to English language description. There have also been many developments in the use of corpora in the classroom in data-driven learning (Johns 1991). However, this rapid development in new technology has not been matched in teacher education provision. This paper aims to make a case for the inclusion of corpus linguistics in initial language teacher education. We argue that apart from enhancing teachers’ research skills and language awareness, language corpora can aid pedagogic awareness through the use of in-house classroom corpora, and raise sociocultural awareness through the comparative investigation of large-scale commercially available corpora. We also look at the theoretical and practical considerations that need to be taken into account in the integration of language corpora in a teacher education program. We conclude that it is vital, given the pervasive nature of language corpora and their findings (especially in published materials), that future teachers have the critical evaluative skills to discern and mediate for the needs of their learners