Principles for language tests within the 'discourse domains' theory of interlanguage: research, test construction and interpretation

This article considers an alternative framework for handling the language testing enterprise and proposes some tentative theoretical hypotheses concerning principles of language testing. It is the writers' view that taking account of the perspective of interlanguage domain engagement and contextualization in testing research, production and interpretation allows for a richer conceptualization of the language testing process.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69012/2/10.1177_026553228500200208.pd

Learner and Teacher Roles in the Treatment of Oral Error in Group Work

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69127/2/10.1177_003368828001100204.pd

The interlanguage development in the spanish learning as foreign language in Teletandem under the View of the Complexity Theory

This article presents, under the perspective of Complexity Theory, the characteristics of the learning process of Spanish as a foreign language in Teletandem. Data were collected from two pairs of Portuguese-Spanish interagents, who were engaged in a systematic and regular interaction, based on the tandem principles. It was found that the learning experience is developed with the peculiarities that arise from the context, agents, members and their nuances, which revealed the presence of a shallow space between the systems of native and foreign languages.O artigo apresenta, sob o prisma da Teoria da Complexidade, as características do processo de aprendizagem de espanhol como língua estrangeira em Teletandem. Foram coletados dados de dois pares de interagentes português-espanhol, que travaram uma interação regular e sistemática, baseada nos princípios tandem. Verificou-se que a experiência de aprendizagem se desenvolve com peculiaridades decorrentes do contexto, agentes, elementos e suas nuanças, o que revelou a presença de um espaço raso entre o sistema da língua materna e o da língua estrangeira.Universidade Estadual PaulistaUniversidade Estadual Paulist

Translanguaging and the Transdisciplinary Framework for Language Teaching and Learning in a Multilingual World

The ideas and arguments associated with translanguaging have generated highly energized debates on a number of fundamental issues in linguistics, applied language studies and language education. Aspects of many long-held and apparently settled concepts such as ‘language/s’, ‘code switching’ and ‘Second Language Acquisition/Teaching’ have been fundamentally challenged. As has been acknowledged by scholars in the field, the discussions have at times led to polarized intellectual dispositions premised on particular disciplinary persuasions. In this Critical Review we offer a view from a language education perspective, with particular reference to additional/second/foreign language education in diverse socio-political contexts. We will first provide a historical context for the current debates on translanguaging by drawing attention to earlier efforts to make use of students’ own language to support additional language learning in an era of overwhelming monolingualism in language teaching. After that the discussion moves to the different approaches to translanguaging that have emerged and the pedagogic affordances and values attributed to them. In closing we raise a number conceptual and practice-related issues that would benefit from further deliberation and empirical research. Our view is that we are far from having exhausted the potentialities of translanguaging for educational development that may have impact beyond the classroom