Reading notes

1. Tshen Tashi (59064485)
How Languages are Learned
Pasty M. Lightbown and Nina Spada
Chapter 5: Observing Learning and Teaching in the Second Language Classroom
Natural and instructional settings
1. Natural acquisition context:
- the language at work/in social interaction/in a classroom.
2. In structure-based instructional environment:
- focus on language itself rather than on the messages carried by language.
3. Communicative, content-based, and task-based instructional environments:
- emphasis on interaction, conversation, and language use.
Description of characteristics in different acquisition setting
Characteristics
Natural
Acquisition
Settings
Structure-Based
Instructional
Settings
Communicative Instructional Settings
T-S S-S
Learning one
thing at a time
Exposed to a
variety of vocab.
& structures
One item at a
time
Simplified &
comprehensible
input
Erroneous
Frequent
feedback on
errors
Rarely corrected Frequently
corrected
Limited error.
Form focus
No error correction.
Meaning focus
Ample time for
learning
Many hours each
day
Limited few
hours a week
Short response Greater amount &
variety of language
High ratio of
NSs to
learners
Encounter many
proficient TL
users
Teachers are only
TL user
Only teachers Expose to
interlanguage
Variety of
language &
discourse types
Variety of
language events
Limited range
IRE
Instructional
strategies
Sociolinguistic
Pressure to
speak
Not forced Forced Little pressure in an accuracy
Access to the
modified input
Access Access Access
Observation schemes
COLT observation scheme
- Part A: content, focus, and organization of activity types.
- Part B: describes specific aspects of the language used by teachers and students

2. Characteristics of input and interaction
Classroom comparisons: Teacher-student interactions
- Classroom A: Structure-based approach - (either metalinguistics instruction or pattern
practice). Focus on form. Interaction is to practise the present continuous.
- Classroom B: Communicative approach – focus on meaning, conversational interaction, and
genuine questions.
Classroom comparisons: Student–student interactions
- Communication task A: Picture description – focus on meaning to complete the information
gap
- Communication task B: Jigsaw - focus on both form and meaning
Corrective feedback in the classroom
- students receiving content-based language teaching are less likely to notice recast than other
forms of corrective feedbacks
- recasts are noticed in classroom interaction even if they do not lead to uptake from the
student who originally produced the error
- correction is needed to encourage learners to self-correct.
- most frequent feedback in the explicit language focussed-exchanges, followed by content,
communication and management
- Medium (oral vs. written) corrective feedback is less important than the explicitness of the
corrective feedback recast vs. metalinguistics)
Questions in the classroom
- Students can produce more quality and quantity in output in open than closed questions
- Scaffolding; teacher’s use of display questions helps learners in classroom participation
- Students need more time to answer open/referential questions because they to expand ideas
- The performance of children are better when they receive intensive instructions
- More instructional hours will lead to success in learners
Ethnography
- Another way of observing teaching and learning in L2/FL classrooms
- Observes the activities, practices, and interaction––looking for patterns to emerge.
Ethnographic studies
- Clash of Language used in home and school lead to students’ failure
- Separation of ESL learner from their native speaker friends in the classroom does not help to
success the TL
- The sociopolitical transformation affects classroom practice and ultimately learning L2
Summary
This chapter reviewed about;
- Description and interpretation of different features of L2 instructions
- Studies examining specific pedagogical features
- Classroom interaction charts and taxonomies