Learning by doing: Promoting language teacher competencies for networked teaching and learning

AbstractOne of the opportunities to engage (future) language teachers in the use of ICT for interactive and collaborative language learning is by having them actively participate in ICT-enabled networked learning environments. This participation can take place at the level of task development, the level of task completion and the level of task evaluation. In the European NIFLAR project (Networked Interaction in Foreign Language Acquisition and Research) student teachers acquire competencies for online language teaching by participating in networked tasks for intercultural communicative competence, at these three levels: (1) they develop tasks for intercultural communicative competence by video-web communication and virtual worlds; (2) they participate in the tasks as native speaker interlocutors communicating with foreign language learners; and (3) they carry out action research on the task effects on communication, intercultural competence, language proficiency and added value of the ICT tools

Setting the stage: designing effective professional development in improvisational drama techniques for foreign language teachers

Researchers worldwide have identified affective benefits of improvisational drama techniques (IDTs) on foreign language (FL) learners. Yet the characteristics of professional development programmes (PDPs) that could lead to long-term integration of drama among FL teachers appear largely undiscovered. Through expert interviews, a needs analysis questionnaire and a literature review, this study aimed to determine which design principles a PDP must fulfil to effectively address educational challenges surrounding IDT-implementation. The findings revealed that such training calls for a symbiosis between practical considerations, namely school environment and training conditions, and tapping into a mindset among FL teachers that allows them to (re)discover core beliefs and carry out IDTs with ‘artistry’

Reconceptualizing critical cultural awareness for the context of FL literature education: The development of an assessment rubric for the secondary level

The construct of critical cultural awareness (CCA) is often regarded as an element pertaining to intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997, 2021). In this model, CCA is defined as the ability to “evaluate, critically, and on the basis of a systematic process of reasoning, values in one’s own culture and other cultures” (Byram, 2021, p. 90). Although the potential of literature to develop learners’ CCA is widely accepted by intercultural education scholars, Byram’s definition has some limitations as a theoretical basis for teaching students how to “evaluate and reason critically” about literary texts, as it does not take into account certain aspects of literary reading and critical interculturality that are essential in contemporary foreign language (FL) teaching and learning. This study aims to redefine CCA for the specific context of secondary literature education in a bottom-up manner, based on an analysis of student texts about migratory literature. To this end, 97 students learning Spanish as a FL in the upper forms of pre-university education (aged 15–19) at four schools in the Netherlands were asked to write an evaluation of two literary texts they read in class. Via qualitative analysis of these texts with Atlas.ti, three content categories – social justice, emotions and conflict – and two evaluative categories ­– cultural representation and transformation – were identified for CCA. The findings of this study have implications for other FL literature teaching settings, as a generic rubric for assessment of student texts was developed based on the criteria that emerged from the data

Key principles for an integrated intercultural literary pedagogy: An educational design research project on arts integration for intercultural competence

Intercultural competence in foreign language teaching has gained importance in recent times. Although current work has highlighted the advantages of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) for intercultural development, little is known about its potential for teaching literature in secondary schools. Treating literature itself as an art form, the aim of this article is to formulate research-based design principles for an integrated intercultural literary pedagogy (IILP) that may foster intercultural competence through arts integration in foreign language classes. This article reports on the process of evaluating IILP-based pilot lesson materials in pre-university education in the Netherlands. Educational design research was applied as a method that encompasses the systematic study of designing, developing, and evaluating educational interventions through an iterative process of evaluation with stakeholders. Three iterations of formative evaluation were conducted, with additions to the tentative design principles following each of the first two iterations. The process resulted in a set of four refined principles. Results also illustrated the effectiveness of IILP-based lesson materials for intercultural competence. Although participating students encountered some difficulties relating to the functionality of the design, the students appreciated its social relevance and reported that the processing of literary texts through dialogic tasks with peers in the target language fostered intercultural language learning

Evaluating and Improving Teacher Educators’ Language-Oriented Performance in Content-Based Teaching

In general, teacher educators are considered to be educational specialists whose main task is to communicate content-based concepts to prospective teachers. However, unfortunately, most studies on teacher professional development overlook this specific language-oriented aspect of content-based teaching. Therefore, we address the aforementioned research gap and argue that teacher educators’ evaluation of their language-oriented performance in educational communication enhances the quality of their content-based teaching. Accordingly, we examine how the language-oriented performance of teacher educators is evaluated by both individual teacher educators (sample size N=3) and their students (N=32) in a small-scale intervention study. The findings of the study reveal that there is a relationship between the order of application of five language focus areas (i.e., language awareness, active listening, formalizing interaction, language support, and language and learning development, as noticed by the students), and teacher educators’ ability to apply these areas in accordance with their objectives related to content-based teaching

Confronting Co-workers: Role Models, Attitudes, Expectations, and Perceived Behavioral Control as Predictors of Employee Voice in the Military

Speaking up and confronting co-workers when they behave undesirably is important for the well-being of the personnel and organizational performance. In some organizations, a culture of silence prevails, however. Although a number of organizational environments are particularly receptive to employee voice, others are less open to voice behavior, which gives rise to a risk of undesirable behavior. Direct communication (voice) can reduce this enhanced risk. In this study, we used the Theory of Planned Behavior to examine the extent to which attitude, social norm and perceived behavioral control determine voice in hierarchical contexts, which, in general, tend to inhibit voice behavior. For this purpose, a survey study was conducted among military and civilian personnel of the Netherlands Ministry of Defense (n = 374). Results showed that employee voice is rather high, regardless of rank, position or gender. Structural equation modeling showed that voice was significantly predicted by perceived behavioral control and injunctive norms (i.e., what is considered to be normal in a certain working-environment). Contrary to expectations, voice was not predicted by attitude and descriptive social norms (i.e., what people see that others are doing in this respect). Stimulating confronting skills and creating a climate in which speaking up is perceived as normal may be beneficial for organizations in general and hierarchical organizations in particular

Practical solution or missed opportunity? The impact of language of instruction on Dutch history teachers’ application of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)

Teaching history requires clear, detailed and subject specific language. History teachers teaching in a second language are confronted with students' second language limitations, which likely have an aggravating impact on their application of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). We analysed and compared 12 Dutch spoken and 12 English spoken paired history lessons in junior grades 7 and 9. Contrary to our expectation, we found a strong similarity of the teachers’ PCK application in both grades 7 and 9, irrespective of the used language. The PCK application in both grades and languages was of average quality, while the PCK used in grade 9 was more advanced

Verschenen proefschrift. The SpeakTeach Method: een spraakmakend proefschrift

Rick de Graaff bespreekt het proefschrift van Esther de Vrind (2020): The SpeakTeach method; Towards self-regulated learning of speaking skills in foreign languages in secondary schools: an adaptive and practical approach