Motivation matters in mobile language learning : A brief commentary

In this paper I offer a brief commentary on motivational issues in mobile language learning, drawing on empirical insights from the articles in this special issue

Language learning motivation : current insights and implications

The issue of learner motivation has long exercised researchers and practitioners in the field of language education. However, it is only within the past decade or so that we have witnessed productive interaction between the interests of researchers and teachers. Up until the early 1990s, research interest focused primarily on describing, measuring and classifying language learner motivation and exploring its role in theoretical models of the language learning process. The findings from such research offered little to teachers concerned with the practical question of how to motivate their learners and keep them motivated. Moreover, this research agenda was powerfully shaped by social-psychological perspectives on learner attitudes to target language cultures and people (Gardner 1985; Gardner and Lambert 1972), while motivational influences and processes within the social environment of the language classroom remained relatively unexplored. In a seminal critique of the social-psychological tradition, Crookes and Schmidt (1991) set forth a new agenda for research on a more ‘practitioner-validated’ classroom-based concept of language learning motivation. The need to establish closer links between theory and practice and to develop what Dörnyei (2001a:103) has called more ‘education-friendly’ approaches to language learning motivation research stimulated an unprecedented wave of discussion during the mid-1990s (for a detailed summary, see Dörnyei 1998), and has considerably reshaped the direction of theory and research in the field

Language learning motivation through a small lens : a research agenda

In this paper I propose an agenda for researching language learning motivation ‘through a small lens’, to counteract our tendency in the L2 motivation field to engage with language learning and teaching processes at a rather general level. I argue that by adopting a more sharply focused or contextualized angle of inquiry, we may be able to understand better how motivation connects with specific aspects of SLA or particular features of linguistic development. Keeping the empirical focus narrow may also lead to interesting and illuminating analyses of motivation in relation to particular classroom events or to evolving situated interactions among teachers and learners. I propose a number of possible research tasks that might be undertaken by experienced researchers, teacher-researchers or student-researchers wishing to investigate language learning motivation ‘through a small lens’

Motivation Matters in Mobile Language Learning: A Brief Commentary

In this paper I offer a brief commentary on motivational issues in mobile language learning, drawing on empirical insights from the articles in this special issue

Promoting teacher–learner autonomy through and beyond initial language teacher education

With the growing international market for pre-experience MA in ELT/TESOL programmes, a key curriculum design issue is how to help students develop as learners of teaching through and beyond their formal academic studies. We report here on our attempts at the University of Warwick to address this issue, and consider wider implications for research and practice in initial language teacher education. At the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick, we run a suite of MA programmes for English language teaching professionals from around the world. Most of these courses are for students with prior teaching experience, but our MA in English Language Studies and Methods (ELSM) programme is designed for students with less than two years’ experience and, in fact, the majority enrol straight after completing their undergraduate studies in their home countries

Measurement of Surface Strain by Surface Reflection Raman Scattering

My talk today sort of comes from the unreal side of the world in the sense that this method of nondestructive testing is quite new and nobody has used it, and I am presenting this method as a possible method for the future. Of course, the unreal world today often becomes the real world tomorrow, so there is a good possibility that the method that I present here will become a useful one. At the moment, of course, the equipment that I use for these measurements can\u27t be hung on the airplane wing or anything of that sort

Language motivation in a reconfigured Europe: access, identity, autonomy

In this paper, I propose that we need to develop an appropriate set of conceptual tools for examining motivational issues pertaining to linguistic diversity, mobility and social integration in a rapidly changing and expanding Europe. I begin by drawing on research that has begun to reframe the concept of integrative motivation in the context of theories of self and identity. Expanding the notion of identity, I discuss the contribution of the Council of Europe's European Language Portfolio in promoting a view of motivation as the development of a plurilingual European identity and the enabling of access and mobility across a multilingual Europe. Next, I critically examine the assumption that the individual pursuit of a plurilingual identity is unproblematic, by highlighting the social context in which motivation and identity are constructed and embedded. To illuminate the role of this social context, I explore three inter-related theoretical frameworks: poststructuralist perspectives on language motivation as 'investment'; sociocultural theory; and theories of autonomy in language education. I conclude with the key message that, as with autonomy, language motivation today has an inescapably political dimension of which we need to take greater account in our research and pedagogical practice

Time-series photometry of Earth flyby asteroid 2012 DA14

Context. The object 2012 DA14 is a near-Earth asteroid with a size of several tens of meters. It had approached closely the Earth on 15 February, 2013 UT, providing an opportunity for precise measurements of this tiny asteroid. Aims. The solar phase angle of 2012 DA14 had varied widely around its closest approach but was almost constant during the following night. We performed time-series photometric observations on those two nights to determine the rotational properties and phase effect. Methods. The observations were carried out using the 0.55-m telescope at Saitama University, Japan. The R-band images were obtained continuously over a 2 hr period at the closest approach and for about 5 hr on the next night. Results. The lightcurve data from the second night indicates a rotational period of 11.0 +1.8/-0.6 hr and a peak-to-peak amplitude of 1.59 +/- 0.02 mag. The brightness variation before and after the closest approach was separated into two components that are derived from the rotation and phase effect. We found that the phase curve slope of this asteroid is significantly shallower than those of other L-type asteroids. Conclusions. We suggest that 2012 DA14 is coated with a coarse surface that lacks fine regolith particles and/or a high albedo surface.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic