Authentic and explicit research culture:Students’ induction into research, Dr Peter Mickan, Ingrid Winter, Dr Hiromi Teramoto; ERGA workshop, Adelaide September 2012

1. Authentic and explicit research culture:
Students’ induction into research
Dr Peter Mickan
Ingrid Winter (PG student)
Dr Hiromi Teramoto
Discipline of Linguistics, University of Adelaide
peter.mickan@adelaide.edu.au i
ngrid.Winter@student.adelaide.edu.au hiromi.t
eramoto@adelaide.edu.au
ERGA workshop presentation
Adelaide, September, 2012

2. Inquiry: action research,
reflective practitioner
 Research identity & professional practice
 Practitioner managed
 Classroom research
 Qualitative/naturalistic studies
 Relevant investigations
 Collaborative—in community
 Resource-based—people + information
 Documentation & reporting

3. Instruction in higher education
 Limitation of the transmission model of instruction is
the representation of information as known and
established
 The experience inhibits inquiry and limits scope for
discovery
 re-conceptualisation of the nature of academia and
its role in wider society
 responsibility to generate innovation through
academic & industry links
 What constitutes academic work?

4. Inquiry-based instruction
 Research & teaching tended to be treated as
separate academic activities (Schapper and Mayson,
2010)
 University of Adelaide 2008-2012 strategic plan
identifies innovation and creativity (University of
Adelaide, n.d) as priorities
 Curriculum design in Higher education (Mickan
2012): what specific practices & discourses [texts]
characterise a subject, which students need to
manage?

5. Language learning—why
inquiry-based instruction?
 Multiple, conflicting theories: cognitive,
structural, behaviourist, acquisition v.
learning, naturalistic, social theory,
acquisition v. learning etc
 Contradictory research methods: quantitative,
experimental, ethnographic, naturalistic, case
study etc.
 ????????????????????????????

6. Students’ experiences of
learning languages
 Knowledge base related to LL:
Universal, normal, shared, natural
 Vast experience of different texts
 Study of Language Learning is learning
academic practices & discourses or
texts associated with LL (transforming
experience into meanings!)

7. Theories of language & learning:
Socialisation & semiotic
 Social theory of language learning: learning
through conversing naturally & purposefully with
people
 Language functional in social context
 Halliday (1978) Language as social semiotic—a
resource for making meanings
 “… all knowledge is like this: to “know”
something is to have transformed it into meaning,
and what we call “understanding” is the process of
that transformation” (Halliday in Webster (ed): 2)

8. Language learning: ideal for
inquiry-based instruction
 Common & shared realities
 Naturalistic documentation
 Students select focus
 Exploration & application of theory of LL
 Collaborative opportunities

9. Language learning: the course
 In this subject we will explore our most important
social experience – learning language – learning to
speak to write and read and learning to make sense
of the world with language. We will look at child
language learning and how the social relationships of
childhood influence our language learning. We will
examine second language acquisition. Bilingualism is
another topic. Literacy is a controversial topic so we
need to look at what literacy is and how we develop
the multileracies for living in a high tech information
age.

10. Objectives
 To examine language development as a social experience
 To review leading-edge research on language learning
 To evaluate theories of language learning
 To analyse child language development data
 To examine second language acquisition experiences
 To develop frameworks for probing issues such as
bilingualism and language learning difficulties
 To develop practical skills in researching questions within
the field of language learning
 To apply findings of research in society, for example in
education.

11. Task 1 Potential for inquiry?
 What is the potential for students”
inquiry? Open-ended? Possible
questions? Possible topics?
 What course-specific practices do
students participate in?

12. References
Halliday, M. A. K. 1978. Language as social semiotic:
The social interpretation of language and meaning.
London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. in Webster (ed) 2009 The essential
Halliday. London, Continuum
Mickan, P. 2012. Language curriculum design and
socialisation. Brighton, Multilingual Matters