Editorial

This collection of papers has emerged from the Language Education across Borders conference held at the University of Graz, Austria in 2017 (see also Kostoulas, 2019). In the age of translanguaging, multilingualism, multiculturalism, globalization, international migration, transnationalism, and the blending of content and language education, there is an ever greater need in language education to reflect on the interconnections and overlap between languages, disciplines, constructs, and contexts that have traditionally been conceptualized in bounded ways. Instead, professional and personal domains have got increasingly permeable boundaries leading to emergent qualities that require new ways of theorizing, researching and teaching. The idea behind the conference was to promote interdisciplinary exchange and encourage people to challenge the notions of borders of all kinds. The aim was to promote discourse and exchange and re-think the fragmentation and separation imposed by borders – real or imagined. It was hoped that by prompting people to reflect on the kinds of borders that bound their research and practice, we would be challenged to think outside of these borders and find the rich, creative space that can lead to innovation and fresh perspectives on the familiar

Using journals to investigate the learner’s emotional experience of the language classroom

This paper will report on a study conducted as part of a PhD project investigating affective factors in language learning. A study involving 73 advanced tertiary level learners was carried out over the course of one semester (approximately 4 months) in 3 parallel classes. The learners were asked to keep a journal following guidelines on content focusing on their emotional experience of the language classroom. On the basis of an initial analysis of the journals, a questionnaire was constructed to validate the data from the journals. In addition, the questionnaire provided meta-feedback on the use of journals from the learner perspective. This paper will discuss the use of journals as a tool for investigating learner beliefs and emotions and will present the preliminary results of the study

Drones and Stones - Using UAV SfM photogrammetry to investigate petroglyph degradation of Neolithic megaliths at Cromeleque dos Almendres, Portugal.

The Almendres Cromlech is the largest and most important of the Neolithic Megalithic enclosures in Portugal. The scale and significance is reflected in the presence of a series of petroglyphs on the site, which provide insight into the lives of the Neolithic people. The stones sit in shallow sockets in thin lithosoil, which has been eroded increasingly quickly with the loss of stabilising vegetation due to the rise in footfall at the fully accessible site. The petroglyphs protrude just a few centimetres at the most and are at risk from both natural weathering and damage by human contact. This makes the cromlech particularly vulnerable to erosion, putting the archeological record at risk. To both preserve this site for education and future study, and examine the effects of erosion on the site, UAV SfM photogrammetry was used to create millimetre accurate 3D models of each stone. These were then analysed in Blender using a virtual grazing light technique in order to identify the petroglyphs that were present. The results were then compared with previous surveys. Overall, this study found fewer petroglyphs than earlier studies, but does show two megaliths to have previously undiscovered decorations. It is concluded that the discrepancies between the results of this and previous studies is mostly due to erosion and differences in interpretation, although human error, bias and methodological differences likely played a part as well

A Framework for Exploiting Emergent Behaviour to capture 'Best Practice' within a Programming Domain

Inspection is a formalised process for reviewing an artefact in software engineering. It is proven to significantly reduce defects, to ensure that what is delivered is what is required, and that the finished product is effective and robust. Peer code review is a less formal inspection of code, normally classified as inadequate or substandard Inspection. Although it has an increased risk of not locating defects, it has been shown to improve the knowledge and programming skills of its participants. This thesis examines the process of peer code review, comparing it to Inspection, and attempts to describe how an informal code review can improve the knowledge and skills of its participants by deploying an agent oriented approach. During a review the participants discuss defects, recommendations and solutions, or more generally their own experience. It is this instant adaptability to new 11 information that gives the review process the ability to improve knowledge. This observed behaviour can be described as the emergent behaviour of the group of programmers during the review. The wider distribution of knowledge is currently only performed by programmers attending other reviews. To maximise the benefits of peer code review, a mechanism is needed by which the findings from one team can be captured and propagated to other reviews / teams throughout an establishment. A prototype multi-agent system is developed with the aim of capturing the emergent properties of a team of programmers. As the interactions between the team members is unstructured and the information traded is dynamic, a distributed adaptive system is required to provide communication channels for the team and to provide a foundation for the knowledge shared. Software agents are capable of adaptivity and learning. Multi-agent systems are particularly effective at being deployed within distributed architectures and are believed to be able to capture emergent behaviour. The prototype system illustrates that the learning mechanism within the software agents provides a solid foundation upon which the ability to detect defects can be learnt. It also demonstrates that the multi-agent approach is apposite to provide the free flow communication of ideas between programmers, not only to achieve the sharing of defects and solutions but also at a high enough level to capture social information. It is assumed that this social information is a measure of one element of the review process's emergent behaviour. The system is capable of monitoring the team-perceived abilities of programmers, those who are influential on the programming style of others, and the issues upon III which programmers agree or disagree. If the disagreements are classified as unimportant or stylistic issues, can it not therefore be assumed that all agreements are concepts of "Best Practice"? The conclusion is reached that code review is not a substandard Inspection but is in fact complementary to the Inspection model, as the latter improves the process of locating and identifying bugs while the former improves the knowledge and skill of the programmers, and therefore the chance of bugs not being encoded to start with. The prototype system demonstrates that it is possible to capture best practice from a review team and that agents are well suited to the task. The performance criteria of such a system have also been captured. The prototype system has also shown that a reliable level of learning can be attained for a real world task. The innovative way of concurrently deploying multiple agents which use different approaches to achieve the same goal shows remarkable robustness when learning from small example sets. The novel way in which autonomy is promoted within the agents' design but constrained within the agent community allows the system to provide a sufficiently flexible communications structure to capture emergent social behaviour, whilst ensuring that the agents remain committed to their own goals

Editorial

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Editorial

Much of the foreign language learning experience appears to involve the imagination: imagining other ways of life, other ways of viewing the world and talking about it, imagining unfamiliar places, meeting new people there and making new friends. However, as teachers and researchers, we know very little about how learners employ their imaginations to do any of these things nor do we know how to best utilize learners’ imaginations to facilitate their language learning. In this special issue of Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, we hope to highlight the growing scholarly interest in the role of imagination in foreign language learning and bring together diverse strands of research with a view to stimulating a future research agenda. Our own experiences as researchers and teachers have convinced us of the power of imagination in learning processes and it is our hope that this collection of papers will offer a forum for the sharing of ideas and promoting interest in what we believe to be a central aspect of the language learning experience

Exploring pre-service language teachers’ mindsets using a sorting activity

Researching mindsets has become a topic of considerable interest in language learning. However, the majority of studies tend to focus on learners and their mindsets, with very little research examining the mindsets of teachers, either in-service or pre-service. Yet, teachers' mindset beliefs about their competences as educators are likely to be fundamental to their willingness to engage in professional development and how they cope with challenges. In this study, we addressed two research questions: 1. What are pre-service teachers' mindsets about diverse language teaching competences? 2. In what ways do pre-service teachers explain their mindset beliefs about language teaching? Data were collected from 12 pre-service language teachers in Austria and Norway using two semi-structured interviews, a short background questionnaire, and a sorting task prior to the second interview. During the sorting task, the teachers arranged statements along a continuum and were asked in the following interview to explain their sorting. The findings revealed a set of interrelated beliefs best thought of as a system including beliefs beyond malleability. There was no evidence of categorical mindset beliefs but more orientations towards a particular perspective. The study raises important questions for research methodologies using binary dichotomies and single-point data collection tools.publishedVersio

Using Q methodology to investigate pre-service EFL teachers’ mindsets about teaching competences

This paper reports on a study investigating the mindsets of 51 pre-service teachers at an Austrian university using Q methodology. Despite the recent growth in interest in the concept of mindsets, little research has addressed the mindsets of teachers – most of it focusing on the mindsets of learners – and the research that does investigate teachers tends to focus on beliefs about learning or intelligence. This study offers a new perspective by focusing on teachers’ beliefs about their own teaching competences. A further aim of the study is to expand the methodological repertoire in language education researchers. This study considers the potential of Q methodology, a research approach used widely in social sciences and education, but, as yet, rare in this field. The data indicate that the most common mindset among the pre-service teachers is one based around a strong belief in the learnability of the more technical aspects of teaching, while interpersonal skills tend to be regarded as more of a natural talent fixed within the individual. One practical implication of this finding is that teacher education programmes may need to pay more attention to explicitly developing the interpersonal side of teaching. A further finding was that teacher mindsets are constructed through individuals’ management of various sets of implicit theories and tend not to conform to the established dichotomous model of mindsets.

USING JOURNALS TO INVESTIGATE THE LEARNER’S EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

AbstractThis paper will report on a study conducted as part of a PhD project investigating affective factors in language learning. A study involving 73 advanced tertiary level learners was carried out over the course of one semester (approximately 4 months) in 3 parallel classes. The learners were asked to keep a journal following guidelines on content focusing on their emotional experience of the language classroom. On the basis of an initial analysis of the journals, a questionnaire was constructed to validate the data from the journals. In addition, the questionnaire provided meta-feedback on the use of journals from the learner perspective. This paper will discuss the use of journals as a tool for investigating learner beliefs and emotions and will present the preliminary results of the study

Parenting a second time around: The strengths and challenges of Indigenous grandparent caregivers

Background: There is a lack of knowledge and research of Indigenous grandparents rearing grandchildren. A burgeoning area of research, the literature only includes studies conducted from the year 2002 and onwards. In order to minimize the burdens that Indigenous grandparents encounter when assuming this role, a greater understanding of this population is crucial. This scoping review was undertaken in an attempt to gain insight into and generate awareness of this population, specifically concerning their needs and experiences. Methods: Sixteen databases were searched, including two medical databases and fourteen social science databases. A total of 92 titles and abstracts were independently reviewed. Of these, 36 full-text articles were retrieved; 31 articles met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Findings: Four major themes were identified: (1) The historical context of Indigenous peoples and how this has affected families; (2) The context of caregiving and government policies as they relate to Indigenous grandparents raising their grandchildren; (3) The physical and mental health of the grandparents; and (4) Informal social support