Perspectivas críticas en el aprendizaje intercultural de lenguas

Intercultural language teaching and learning is one manifestation of the critical turn in language education. Its critical dimension is characterised by a strong emphasis on self-reflexivity in both teaching and learning, and by a transformational agenda for language education (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013). Within language education, the critical project requires that the focus of language learning is to develop social actors capable of using language repertoires in ways that provide for agency both over language (in the choices they make about how to use their language resources) and through language (in the social possibilities they realise for themselves through their language repertoires). Within such a view of education, critical reflection comes to play an important role. To consider language education in such a way requires reconceptualising some of the fundamental starting assumptions of language education, which provides a basis for creating new emphases in both theory and practice. This article begins by examining the nature of this reconceptualisation and then examines the consequences of such reconceptualising for teaching and learning. It examines data from language learners to exemplify the forms of learning involved in this manifestation of the critical turn in language education.La enseñanza y el aprendizaje intercultural de lenguas es un ejemplo del cariz crítico que se ha adoptado en la enseñanza de lenguas. Su dimensión crítica se caracteriza por un fuerte énfasis en la reflexión personal tanto en la enseñanza como en el aprendizaje, así como por una aproximación transformadora (Liddicoat y Scarino, 2013). En el ámbito de la enseñanza de lenguas, el objetivo esencial consiste en que el enfoque del aprendizaje de lenguas se centre en desarrollar individuos capaces de usar repertorios lingüísticos de manera que sean sujetos activos tanto en el uso del lenguaje (en las elecciones que hacen sobre cómo usar sus recursos lingüísticos), como a través del lenguaje (en las posibilidades sociales que alcanzan por sí mismos a través de sus repertorios lingüísticos). Dentro de esa visión de la educación esta reflexión crítica juega un papel importante. Considerar la enseñanza de idiomas de esa manera requiere reconceptualizar algunos de los supuestos tradicionales de la educación de idiomas, lo que proporciona una base para crear nuevas áreas de actuación en la teoría y en la práctica. Este artículo comienza examinando la naturaleza de esta reconceptualización para seguidamente examinar las consecuencias de dicha reconceptualización para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. Este estudio examina los datos recopilados con estudiantes de idiomas para ejemplificar las formas de aprendizaje patentes en esta enfoque crítico en la enseñanza de lenguas

The erosion of Norman French dialect features: evidence from linguistic atlases

This paper will investigate the replacement of one dialectal feature characteristic of bas normand (i.e. western Norman) – the evolutions of C+l – as attested in the Atlas linguistique de la France (ALF) (Edmont and Gilliéron, 1902-9; data collected in the 1890s) and the Atlas linguistique et ethnographique de la Normandie (ALEN) (Brasseur, 1981, 1984, 1997; data collected in the 1970s). These atlases show a gradual erosion of the Normand palatalised forms (Cj and Cʎ) by standard French forms (Cl). This process is not however a simple replacement of dialectal forms by non-dialectal forms but rather shows a “wave” of changes in which an earlier sound change ʎ > j is also involved. The process seems to involve a gradual reduction of the range of Cʎ in favour of Cj and of Cj in favour of Cl, with no cases of immediate replacement of Cʎ by Cl as a generalised pattern of sound change in particular local varieties. An analysis of the geographical distribution of particular words with etymological Cl further shows that the dialect atlases show relics of the passage of Cʎ to Cj and Cj to Cl which suggest a wider geographical distribution of each form. The analysis shows that in the context of convergent dialects, claiming a replacement of dialect features by standard language features is an oversimplification of the sound changes processes involved

Critical perspectives in intercultural language learning

Intercultural language teaching and learning is one manifestation of the critical turn in language education. Its critical dimension is characterised by a strong emphasis on self-reflexivity in both teaching and learning, and by a transformational agenda for language education (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013). Within language education, the critical project requires that the focus of language learning is to develop social actors capable of using language repertoires in ways that provide for agency both over language (in the choices they make about how to use their language resources) and through language (in the social possibilities they realise for themselves through their language repertoires). Within such a view of education, critical reflection comes to play an important role. To consider language education in such a way requires reconceptualising some of the fundamental starting assumptions of language education, which provides a basis for creating new emphases in both theory and practice. This presentation begins by examining the nature of this reconceptualisation and then examines the consequences of such reconceptualising for teaching and learning. It examines data from language learners to exemplify the forms of learning involved in this manifestation of the critical turn in language education

Teaching languages from an intercultural perspective : rethinking the nature of learning

The movement towards an intercultural understanding of languages education has had many consequences for how languages are taught that involve more than an attempt to introduce additional elements in language education; moreover, the movement entails a true integration of language, culture and the intercultural in language pedagogy. This has promoted a rethinking of fundamental ideas about languages and cultures and the ways they are taught. This chapter will examine some of the core assumptions behind adopting an intercultural perspective in language teaching and learning, and discuss how these assumptions influence the practice of language teaching. In particular, it will focus on how teaching languages from an intercultural perspective has involved rethinking the nature of learning. The chapter will examine how learning has been understood in theories in applied linguistics and language education, and argue that such theories have narrowed the focus of languages learning—and have also narrowed what is meant by ‘language for learning’. The chapter will then examine some alternative views about learning drawn from outside the field of applied linguistics to consider more complex ways of conceptualising learning. It will argue for a hermeneutic understanding of the nature of learning and provide examples of what this might look like in practice through examining examples of students' work that reflect an interpretative understanding of language learning

Writing about knowing in science: aspects of hedging French scientific writing.

This paper examines a corpus of French research articles across a number of disciplines in order to examine the ways in which writers use modal verbs pouvoir, devoir and falloir and the lexical verbs sembler, paraître, apparaître and tendre to determine elements of their meaning and how writers use these to encode knowledge claims in their texts. The study reveals that scientific writers chose middle levels of epistemic warrant to represent their knowledge claims and in so doing construct science as a field of endeavour in which interpretations are potentially falsifiable