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Learning opportunities outside school are met with increasing interest. Not only the visual character of leisure time venues supports foreign language learning, but also their aesthetic quality is enjoyed by students and teachers. Other learning venues outside school like work places and places visited during stays abroad are appreciated for their interactional support. However, as the ten papers of this volume show, the opportunity to experience free choice learning and hence the chance for life-long learning has to be well balanced with the scaffolding and the sheltered space that language learners need. Only if this dove-tailing works out well, resources can be better used and students can benefit in terms of motivation, cultural awareness, and increased foreign language competence.

Mit der Veröffentlichung des Gemeinsamen Europäischen Referenzrahmens (GER) im Jahre 2001 wurde versucht, für Fremdsprachenlerner in Europa ein allgemeines Bewertungskonzept zur Verfügung zu stellen, das als Orientierungshilfe im sprachlichen Bereich fungieren soll. Das Ziel dieser Studie liegt in der Evaluation des innovativen Potenzials des Europäischen Sprachenportfolios (ESP), einer Folgeveröffentlichung des GER. Zu diesem Zweck wurde die Arbeit mit dem ESP bei Schülern der 7. Klasse an dem griechischen Gymnasium in Dortmund in einem Zeitraum von fünf Monaten dokumentiert. Das Augenmerk richtete sich dabei auf die Selbstreflexionsprozesse, die bei den Schülern durch die Auseinandersetzung mit den Kann-Beschreibungen des ESPs ausgelöst wurden. Die Auswirkung der Arbeit mit dem Europäischen Sprachenportfolio wurde auf der Grundlage qualitativ-empirischer Erhebungen untersucht. Insgesamt wurde eine Akzeptanz des gesamten ESPs festgestellt und es ließ sich ein starkes Argument für die Arbeit mit dem Portfolio ableiten. Offensichtlich gelang es mit der Portfolioarbeit, auch schwächere Schüler in besonderer Weise anzusprechen und zu motivieren.

Diese Arbeit untersucht, ob sich die Sprechfertigkeit chinesischer Studierender im Deutschen während des Fachstudiums in Deutschland verbessert. Dazu wird mit mündlichen DSH-Prüfungen die sprachliche Entwicklung ermittelt. Die Ergebnisse werden dann auf die quantitativen Befunde einer Fragebogenerhebung bezogen. Mittels statistischer Tests werden soziale und psychologische Faktoren bestimmt, die sich auf die Verbesserung der Sprechfertigkeit auswirken. Zudem werden durch Interviews mit ausgewählten Probanden qualitative Daten erhoben, zu deren Analyse die Studie kulturwissenschaftliche und sozialpsychologische Ansätze heranzieht. Aus diesen empirischen Befunden werden dann differenzierte Empfehlungen für die Hochschulen zur Förderung des Weitererwerbs von Deutschkenntnissen abgeleitet.

This insightful book explores the impact of internet-based technologies on second language acquisition, focusing on informal learning. It traces the evolution of informal learning, emphasizing the crucial role of input, interaction, and output in acquiring English as a second language. The book analyzes diverse out-of-school practices, such as watching TV, gaming, and social media engagement, and their impact on L2 development. Additionally, it delves into various intervening variables—age, gender, proficiency, engagement, and affective variables—highlighting the personalized nature of L2 acquisition. It also addresses the challenges encountered by L2 teachers, advocating innovative teaching methods to bridge the gap between classroom teaching and the real world. This book is an invaluable resource for enthusiasts interested in the intersection of language acquisition, teaching methodologies, and modern technologies.

La educación infantil de calidad se erige en la base de la sociedad del siglo XXI, cuyo signo de identidad más evidente es el cambio incesante. El lugar que ocupan las lenguas y la cultura en cualquier paradigma educativo es, sin duda, prevalente, y la ciencia concluye que el constructo lingüístico constituye el núcleo de la esencia humana. La lengua nos ofrece la identidad que nos diferencia del resto de las especies del planeta y la cultura va inextricablemente unida a ella, dotándola de complejos significados y posibilitando la transmisión de valores, creencias, actitudes y conductas de una comunidad. El lector encontrará en este volumen un nuevo enfoque en educación bilingüe para la infancia, que aúna un sólido bagaje teórico (alojado en el Bloque I de esta obra). El enfoque PETaL (Play, Education, Toys and Languages) se caracteriza por su flexibilidad para adaptarse a distintos entornos culturales, porque solo así cobra sentido. Su objetivo es educar al niño de este siglo para que sea capaz de desarrollarse en (y promover) una sociedad diversa, plural y cambiante.

Für eine erfolgreiche Integration in das deutsche Bildungssystem benötigen neuzugewanderte Kinder und Jugendliche eine gezielte Förderung in Deutsch als Zweitsprache. In vielen Schulformen werden hierfür separate Klassen eingerichtet, die einen Übergang der Lernenden in den Regelunterricht vorbereiten und begleiten. Obwohl der Unterricht in solchen Klassenformaten hohe und gleichzeitig sehr spezifische didaktische Anforderungen an die unterrichtenden Lehrkräfte stellt, existieren bis heute nur wenige passgenaue Angebote zur gezielten Weiterbildung. Das Buch setzt an dieser Ausgangslage an und präsentiert neben theoretischen Grundlagen für die Arbeit in schulischen DaZ-Klassen auch konkret verwendbare Unterrichtsentwürfe.

This book presents a new methodology for facilitating the acquisition of second languages in a natural way. This methodology aims to facilitate the acquisition of a second language in the same way that a child acquires his mother tongue, taking into account the characteristics of the environment of the acquisition of an L2, which in most cases is the classroom. These pedagogic principles have been obtained through a detailed study of infant and children's developmental psychology and the infant-directed speech (IDS), also known as Motherese. The book also provides with the main criticism different methods and approaches had had over the years and explains why this method overcomes these criticisms to teach a second language effectively

In the 21st century, there is a great need to rigorously examine'old'issues through newer perspectives and to put forth contemporary ones for thorough and proper consideration. With the widespread use of English in diverse contexts, the accumulation of knowledge and the innovations in all fields of study as well as the changes in every step of life around the world, things got more complicated and, at times, it has become harder for English language scholars and practitioners to find their ways. The book is an attempt to address the affordances and caveats regarding TESOL-related issues in the 21st century. The aim of the volume is to provide a comprehensive picture of the TESOL-focused research on an international level by shedding light onto the status of TESOL in the 21st century with the challenges and opportunities. The volume is intended to address the state-of-the-art TESOL-related issues for prospective and in-service teachers, language teacher educators, course developers and researchers.

This book explores the development of C-tests for providing efficient measures of foreign language proficiency in eight different languages: Arabic, Bangla, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Researchers report on how C-test principles were applied in creating the new language tests, with careful attention to language-specific challenges and solutions. The final, five-text C-tests in all languages demonstrated impressive psychometric qualities as well as strong relationships with criterion variables such as learner self-assessments and instructional levels. These test development projects provide new tests for use by foreign language researchers, and they demonstrate innovative and rigorous test development practices in diverse languages.

This book is an introduction to reconstructive foreign language research using the documentary method. It contains an intensive reflection on social practices and the role of language awareness within the context of the instructional interaction in the foreign language classroom. The narrative interview can independently be used for research on language and professional biographies as well as professional dispositions, and attitudes of foreign language teachers provide valuable insights into biographical formations. Similarly, it can be deployed for research on the foreign language learner, too. The working steps of the documentary method are being illustrated on the basis of concrete examples so that the book can be used by researchers as well as by students as a methodological introduction.

This monograph aims to stimulate thinking and increase consciousness about the cultural dimension of foreign language teaching.　The author draws from the theoretical framework of Schmidt's «ABCs of Cultural Understanding and Communication» (Schmidt, 1998; Schmidt & Finkbeiner, 2006) to support and advocate for expanding awareness in relation to the influence of culture on the perception of self and other. She interrogates how language learners acquire interpretative skills to gain a deeper reflexive understanding of different cultures and how electronic communication can be effectively utilised in teaching for intercultural learning. Learning how to interrogate diverse cultural practices using multiple cultural frameworks has been shown to facilitate authentic engagement with the complexities of diverse pluralistic societies. This qualitative research study explores how culture can be taught in the foreign language classroom and school setting.

This book investigates inconsistencies in the accent adopted by advanced German learners of English with respect to differences between standard American and British English (rhoticity, t-voicing, the vowels in the lexical sets «bath», «lot» and «thought»). From a theoretical point of view, the volume contributes to understanding the status of L1 transfer in language learners at «ultimate attainment», a stabilized, late stage in language acquisition. Unlike in many studies in second language acquisition, the approach taken here is variationist, taking into account extra- and intra-linguistic factors as potential explanations for variability. The findings suggest that in addition to the target accent the strongest external factor is time spent abroad, while L1 accent and proficiency level seem to have minor impact only.

Inklusion ist eine der aktuellen bildungspolitischen Herausforderungen. Die Realisierung von gemeinsamem Unterricht einer heterogenen Schülerschaft stellt auch den Fremdsprachenunterricht vor neue Aufgaben. Der Autor präsentiert Erkenntnisse einer dreijährigen unterrichtsbegleitenden, quantitativen wie qualitativen Erhebung inklusiven Englischunterrichts an einem Gymnasium und bettet diese umfassend in den Diskurs der Inklusions- und Zweitspracherwerbsforschung ein. Er formuliert «Best-Practice»-Empfehlungen, die einen eigenständigen, wissenschaftlich fundierten Impuls in die englische Sprachwissenschaft hinsichtlich des Zweitspracherwerbs und in die englische Fachdidaktik hinsichtlich der Unterrichtspraxis geben. Die Umsetzung von Inklusion kann gelingen, so das Fazit.

With regard to convergence policies Turkey is leaning towards Africa and the Middle Eastern countries and their efforts for global integration, thus intensifying synergy regarding Turkish language education policies. In recent years Turkish has become more popular as a world language. Turkish cultural centers opened in many countries and have played a significant role in gaining increasing interest in the Turkish language. Alongside with this development Turkish as a foreign language has come into prominence as a special study field. Especially when social, cultural and economic effects of powerful nations on other countries are considered, the examination of problems in this field and the immediate presentation of solutions are very important. The contributors to this volume examine the effects of language education methods, the effect of language on cultural transfer as well as the attitude towards and the motivation in language learning by taking a closer look at social platforms like YouTube and Facebook that provide an opportunity for language learning.

The author reviews both theory and research concerning learning foreign language lexis, and reports on a study into the dynamics of advanced learners'L2 lexicons. The theoretical part offers a discussion of the concept of the bilingual mental lexicon, the notion of lexical competence, the interface of word knowledge and the language skills, and the current trends in vocabulary testing. The study described in the book, which adopts a unique longitudinal design, is a significant contribution to our understanding of the changes taking place in receptive and productive lexicons in time. The obtained results carry important implications for course design, instruction and testing procedures in the context of teaching English as an L2 at the advanced level.

Das Buch beschäftigt sich mit der Entwicklung, Analyse und Rezeption fremdsprachlicher Lehrmaterialien in den Fremdsprachen Englisch, Französisch, Spanisch und Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache. Die Beiträge umfassen inhaltsbezogene Analysen, u.a. zur Grammatikpräsentation, zur Diversität von Texten und Aufgaben sowie zur Förderung der interkulturellen Kompetenz. Darüber hinaus gibt es empirische Studien, welche die visuelle Rezeption von Lehrbuchseiten, Kriterien für die Auswahl von analogen und digitalen Lehrmaterialien sowie die Umsetzung einer Lernerorientierung und einer Mehrsprachigkeitsdidaktik untersuchen. Schließlich bietet der Band auch Beiträge, die den Diskurs um Lehrmaterialien aus einer übergreifenden Perspektive heraus betrachten.

Pons Latinus ist ein interdisziplinäres Forschungsprojekt zur Modellierung und Evaluation eines sprachsensiblen Lateinunterrichts zur Unterstützung von Lernenden nichtdeutscher Herkunftssprache. Das Lateinische fungiert dabei – so die These – als Brücke zwischen Erst- und Zweitsprache und unterstützt durch die Initiierung verschiedener Sprachhandlungen den Zweitsprachenerwerb. Die Autorin hat im Rahmen einer zweijährigen Studie an einem Berliner Gymnasium neben Interventionen in Form sprachbildender Arbeitsmaterialien umfangreiche Evaluationen durchgeführt. Sie vergleicht in ihrer Studie die Leistungsentwicklung von Lernenden im Deutschen und Lateinischen und stellt signifikante Unterschiede fest, die die Verwendung des Lateinischen als «Sprachbrücke» befürworten.

The book explores the novel field of lexical and conceptual awareness in L2 reading from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective. The theoretical part consists of a thorough literature review of the key terms. The empirical part presents an in-depth analysis of L2 learners'lexical and conceptual awareness/challenges based on text and worksheet data as well as 110 hours of video material. In total, data from 156 L2 learners participating in video-taped collaborative reading scenarios and the corresponding stimulated recall sessions have been analyzed in a primarily qualitative manner. The results demonstrate the multidimensionality of the two major constructs and highlight learners'need for further support. Theoretical, methodological and practical recommendations are provided.

Neben Forschungsdesiderata dreier Expertinnen und Experten aus den Fachdidaktiken Romanistik, Anglistik und Germanistik widmet sich der Band verschiedenen thematischen Schwerpunkten: (Früh)kindlicher Spracherwerb, Spracherwerb in der Sekundarstufe und Spracherwerb in der Erwachsenenbildung. Er präsentiert ausgewählte Beiträge zu verschiedenen aktuellen Forschungsansätzen, die sich in Promotions-, Habilitations- und Publikationsprojekten niederschlagen. Der Band richtet sich nicht nur an Nachwuchswissenschaftlerinnen und -wissenschaftler, sondern auch an Studierende und Lehrende des jeweiligen Fachgebietes, die einen Einblick in die aktuelle fremdsprachendidaktische Diskussion bekommen möchten.

This book discusses the nature of optionality in second language grammars and the indeterminacy observed in second language users'linguistic representations. For these purposes, experimental data from 213 learners of German and 150 learners of Russian have been collected and analysed with a special focus on the acquisition of various «subjectless» and impersonal constructions as well as argument licensing. Whereas voice alternations and argument licensing are topics amply discussed in theoretical domains, their practical implementation within second language research has remained a research lacuna. This piece of work intends to fill the gap.

The book investigates adult second language (L2) acquisition of Greek by first language (L1) Russian speakers in the bi-dialectal setting of Cyprus. The participants all reside in Cyprus and came from former Soviet republics to Cyprus as young adults. The focus of the study is on the L2 acquisition of determiners, clitics and morphological agreement and relevant interpretable and uninterpretable features such as gender, person, number and case in both nominal and verbal domains. This explorative study of the real linguistic situation in Cyprus concerning adult second language/dialect acquisition tests theoretical hypotheses and provides insight into language development.

Die zunehmende Internationalisierung der Hochschulen hat dazu geführt, dass für immer mehr Studierende das Studium ganz oder teilweise in einer Fremdsprache stattfindet. Dieser Band beleuchtet auf empirischer Basis die mit der Verwendung von Deutsch und Englisch als Fremdsprachen im Studium verbundenen Probleme. Er zeigt aber auch Ansätze zu deren Lösung sowie die Potenziale von Mehrsprachigkeit für den Wissenserwerb auf. Beiträge aus dem deutschen Kontext werden dabei ergänzt durch Studien aus Dänemark, Spanien und Südafrika. As higher education is becoming more and more international, a growing number of students at universities have to use German or English as foreign languages for their studies. On the basis of empirical data this volume discusses not only the challenges, but also the potential of multilingualism for the acquisition of knowledge. Chapters from the German context are supplemented by studies from Denmark, Spain, and South Africa.

The book introduces an innovative way of teaching grammatical language awareness via socio-cultural learning tasks (SCLTs). It takes a close look at task-supported teaching/learning and socio-cultural learning theory and how they are combined to develop challenging and motivating learning tasks. It also presents ways to implement SCLTs in heterogeneous EFL classrooms and evaluates the learning potential of SCLTs against the backdrop of a more traditional teaching and learning approach (PPP). Besides the illumination of the very promising concept of SCLTs, the applied qualitative and quantitative research methods hope to be a valuable contribution to SLA research.

The author addresses key questions of foreign language teaching: How does foreign language learning take place? What is the mechanism of foreign language use and learning? What are the sources of our understanding of these processes? What significance does our understanding have for foreign language teaching? The main argument is that, in order to deal with the complexity of language learning and meet the current demands for foreign language competency, we must employ the framework of an empirical, relatively autonomous discipline of Foreign Language Didactics, constituted as a «normal» science which strives to understand foreign language learning as its subject-matter. This constructivist psycholinguistic conception targets language learning processes in the real world, i.e. as language use in the context of verbal communication, i.e. comprehension and production in speech and writing. The processes are represented as taking place in the learner's cognitive system for information processing in communicative interaction, a universal human phenomenon. This perspective leads to systematic options and strategies for the practical teaching of foreign languages with focus on English as a world language.

The book addresses the role of the L1 (first language)-based concept categorization in L2 (second language) vocabulary learning from a cognitive linguistic perspective. The author hypothesizes that the patterns of one's L1-based concept categorization will be present in his or her L2 vocabulary learning as well. The two characteristics pertaining to concept categorization under investigation are the prototypicality and the basic-level effects. The results show that the psychological salience of the basic-level and the prototypical concepts in one's L1-based conceptual system is related to better retention and faster retrieval of the corresponding L2 words. The author argues that these two effects are dynamic in L2 contexts, being influenced by factors such as concept familiarity, formal instruction and exposure to the specific culture.

This empirical study investigates the acquisition and development of nominal morphology in L1-English-speaking children acquiring German as a second language in an immersion school context. The focus is on accuracy development in the emerging German article system. Embracing theoretical and applied aspects of second language acquisition research, the study brings together educational, cognitive and psycholinguistic dimensions of second language learning and teaching. Results have implications for curriculum design and quality development in language immersion and content and language integrated learning.

Texte in einer fremden Sprache zu schreiben, stellt hohe Anforderungen an Produzenten: Verlangt werden domänen- und kulturspezifische Kenntnisse sowie sprachliche, textbezogene und mediale Kompetenzen, die meistens in institutionellen Erwerbssituationen entwickelt und ausgebaut werden. Dementsprechend sollten all diese Aspekte im Rahmen einer mehrsprachigen Schreibdidaktik berücksichtigt werden. Die Beiträge behandeln das Thema «Textkompetenz» aus theoretischer und praxisbezogener Sicht nach textlinguistischen und funktional-pragmatischen Ansätzen. Sie konzentrieren sich überwiegend auf das Sprachenpaar Deutsch-Italienisch. Untersuchungsgegenstände sind Fragen der Kulturformen in Schrifttexten, des Zusammenspiels verschiedener Textebenen, der Überführung vom rezeptiven zum produktiven Wissen, das wissenschaftliche Schreiben und Vortragen im akademischen Kontext sowie didaktisch-methodologische bzw. berufsbezogene Aspekte der Textkompetenz.

La investigación se centra en el discurso oral formal en español y se ubica en el campo de la lingüística aplicada a las segundas lenguas. Selecciona el género presentaciones académicas orales (PAO), en lengua materna y extranjera. Aspira a derivar aportes para la enseñanza de la lengua oral formal en los ámbitos universitarios alemanes de E/LE. Se trata de un estudio empírico, descriptivo y contrastivo interlingüístico basado en un enfoque por categorías cuantitativo. El corpus comprende PAO (N=57) en español y alemán nativos, y en E/LE (LM alemán). Se realiza un análisis macrotextual, discursivo y contextual. Los resultados permiten describir las PAO, identificar semejanzas y diferencias entre grupos y establecer incidencias del contexto académico de procedencia en la actuación en E/LE.

Malaysian English: Language Contact and Change is a corpus-based study of contemporary Malaysian English. Based on linguistic features extracted from the Malaysian English Newspaper Corpus, this study demonstrates the diverse ways in which Malaysian English has changed as a result of contact with Malay and Chinese languages. The interactions between groups of speakers who are dominant in English and those who are dominant in Malay or Chinese have resulted in wide-ranging changes in Malaysian English. Multilingual individuals who juggle several languages in their daily communications have also shaped the structure of this variety. This volume suggests that variation and change in Malaysian English are the results of both the communal acquisition and the maintenance of English by a multilingual community.

This book explores a dialect contact situation in a second language setting – native speakers of English coming to Japan from different parts of the world as English teachers. It focuses on an Anglophone community in which speakers are socially and geographically mobile and have loose-knit networks with speakers of different languages and dialects. This longitudinal sociolinguistic study aims to investigate the relatively short-term linguistic changes induced by frequent face-to-face interaction with speakers of different dialects and to illustrate the impact of social network effects. Statistical analyses reveal that the individual speakers'interpersonal ties are important factors that influence the linguistic behaviour of the speakers in a dialect contact situation in an L2 setting.

Black and Wiliam's (1998) influential article Inside the Black Box prompted an increasing interest in assessment processes within the classroom. However, to date most of this research has been done in general and science education. This book reports on a detailed ethnographic study of Indonesian as a Foreign Language classrooms at two consecutive levels of schooling in Australia. Using the broadest possible definition of classroom-based assessment (CBA) and a grounded approach to analysis, data were used to develop a comprehensive framework for analysing CBA. This framework was then used to describe and compare assessment practices in the respective classrooms. The results demonstrate, inter alia, that how assessment was conducted was as important as what was assessed in these classrooms.

The book presents the process of first and second language acquisition in children as well as the main principles of conventional and unconventional approaches and methods implemented in the general education as well as the language education of children. The long-term quantitative study described focused on the comparison of the results obtained by young learners taught English according to the Helen Doron Method in private courses and the results gained by young learners instructed according to the modern eclectic method at public primary school. The results were compared in such language areas and skills as vocabulary, grammar, language chunks, pronunciation, listening skill, speaking skill and a general level of language acquisition.

Based on an innovative corpus-based approach, this book offers a comprehensive survey of the phonological and phonetic properties of L2 speech in English and German. The first part of the book critically examines current theoretical models and research methodologies in the field of second language acquisition of phonology and describes the advances that have been made in corpus linguistics over the past few years – in particular, the development of phonological learner corpora. It furthermore presents the first learner corpus of L2 English and L2 German that is fully aligned and has extensive phonological annotations: the LeaP corpus. The second part of the book describes the results of the quantitative and qualitative corpus analyses in the following areas of non-native speech: fluency, final consonant cluster realisation, vowel reduction and speech rhythm, intonation and general foreign accent. In addition, the influence of many non-linguistic factors, including instruction and a stay abroad, on the phonological properties of non-native speech is explored.