RECHELLE M.

MALANUM
PH. D. EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT

SYNTHESIS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING RESEARCHES

Instructed Second Language Vocabulary Learning

Norbert Schmitt University of Nottingham, UK

This article overviews current research on second language vocabulary learning. It

concludes that a large vocabulary is necessary to function in English: 8000–9000 word
families for reading, and perhaps as many as 5000–7000 families for oral discourse. In
addition, a number of word knowledge aspects need to be learned about each lexical item.
Taken together, these amounts to a substantial lexical learning challenge, one which
many/most learners fail to meet. To facilitate adequate vocabulary learning, four vocabulary
learning partners (students, teachers, materials writers, and researchers) need to contribute
to the learning process. Vocabulary learning programs need to include both an explicit,
intentional learning component and a component based around maximizing exposure and
incidental learning. The four learning strands (meaning-focused input, meaning-focused
output, language focused learning, and fluency development) suggested by Nation (2001)
provide a structure by which to integrate intentional and incidental vocabulary learning. The
overriding principle for maximizing vocabulary learning is to increase the amount of
engagement learners have with lexical items. All four learning partners need to acknowledge
the incremental nature of vocabulary learning, and to develop learning programs which are
principled, long-term, and which recognize the richness and scope of the lexical knowledge
that needs to be mastered.

Creating Teacher Community: Research and Practice in

Language Teacher Education
Martha H. Bigelow and Constance L. Walker

Language teachers who engage in action research should serve as inspiration to

language teacher educators to examine their own practices using the same methods.
Admittedly, one challenge to doing the sort of research that needs to be done in language
teacher education is the fact that this type of inquiry is often not part of the research
interests of those teacher educators who lead or provide instruction in their teacher
education program (Bartels, 2002). In the same way we want to hold high expectations for
our language teachers, we must continue to require high expectations of the programs that
prepare them. Teacher education has come into its own. It is imperative that this also occurs
very specifically in language teacher education, where we can, as professionals, take
advantage of the encouraging research conducted at every classroom level from the
immersion Kindergarten to the graduate preparation course for foreign language teachers
and including what can be learned from the English for Specific Purposes course for nurses
on a small Pacific Island.
All of the studies in this collection contribute to what we know about language
teacher learning and cognition and to what we know about best practices for facilitating
teacher development. And while many of the papers are situated in their own unique
context, it becomes readily apparent that we all have much to learn from each other and
that findings on one side of the globe can inform research and practice on the other. We are
preparing teachers to fan the fires of developing bilingualism and biliteracy, a daunting task
to be sure. Asking and answering questions, then discussing both processes across national
and cultural and professional boundaries, is part of that task.
It is clear that we can be optimistic about the place of research in language teacher
education, and, more importantly, the mutually informative process of research and
practice. More than ever our practice is informed by people who are asking interesting and
relevant questions in ways that expand our sense of what is possible. The ranks of
“researcher” in our world of second languages have been expanded to include teacher
educators, as well as teachers themselves. The settings where research is conducted have
also been expanded to include not only actual language classrooms, but meetings and
mentoring sessions. We now seek to examine not only what we are teaching, but what and
how we think about what and how we are teaching. We now consider rich research data to
even include conversations with learners about this wonderful process called language
learning.

Language Teaching Strategies and Techniques Used to Support Students Learning in a

Language other than Their Mother Tongue
Natascha Thomson, Kongsberg International School

In today’s global society many learners are facing the challenge of accessing an
International Baccalaureate (IB) programme in a language other than their mother tongue.
To enable learners to fully participate in both the academic and social aspects of school life,
educators need to recognize how this phenomenon impacts on teaching and learning and
identify ways to support language development.
Learners who are learning in a language other than their mother tongue will often
have a wealth of knowledge in a language other than that of the classroom. However, these
students will often not have been introduced to the vocabulary and concepts of the new
language necessary for comprehending content. Cameron (2000:40) comments, “…if they
are not understanding, they cannot be learning.” As it can take up to seven years for learners
who are using a language other than their mother tongue to attain the same levels of
academic language proficiency as those expected for learners learning in a mother tongue
the implications of this in relation to learning are paramount.
The Learning in a Language Other than Mother Tongue Document (International
Baccalaureate 2008:6) states, “A threshold level of proficiency in cognitive academic
language is essential for the learner participation and engagement that is necessary for
subsequent success in an IB programme.” Ways to develop this proficiency seemed to be a
question of many during a Primary Years Programme (PYP) workshop that the researcher
attended. The issue of how to teach the PYP to children who did not speak English or the
language of instruction was a common problem identified by many. Based on this issue a
research investigation with the aim of raising teacher awareness of the strategies and
techniques that could be used to support the language development of young learners was
conducted.
Language Teaching Research and Language Pedagogy

A book review from Rod Ellis and Wiley-Blackwell about language Teaching Research and
Language Pedagogy. As Rod Ellis states in his Preface, Craig Chaudron’s book, Second
Language Classroom: Research on Teaching and Learning, published in 1988, reviewed
systematically the L2 classroom research up to that time. Although Chaudron updated the
research community on the development of classroom research in 2001 with an article
published in The Modern Language Journal, the space given to it and the relatively brief
nature of the review make it necessary that a new volume presenting a comprehensive
survey and critical appraisal of the research into L2 learning and teaching in classrooms be
available. Ellis’ new book, Language Teaching Research and Language Pedagogy
(LTRALP), serves this purpose perfectly well. Anyway, it has been over 20 years since the
publication of Chaudron’s 1988 book, and the rapid development of the field warrants the
publication of such a comprehensive book. LTRALP includes 11 main chapters in addition to a
concise Preface, where Ellis explains his own theorising of language teaching. He presents
two views; one is what he refers to as the ‘external view’ and the other as the ‘internal view’.
The former regards language teaching in terms of methods, approaches, materials and
techniques, and the latter in terms of it being a ‘process’. He posits that such a distinction is
important and that the studies he has reviewed in the book can be categorised according to
this typology. It is also in his Preface that Ellis highlights the two principal research
paradigms: the normative paradigm, which tends to test hypotheses and the interpretive
paradigm, which ‘seeks to describe and understand some aspect of teaching by identifying
key variables and examining how they interrelate.’

Research on language and Learning

Eva Alcon

Taking into account several limitations of communicative language teaching (CLT),

this paper calls for the need to consider research on language use and learning through
communication as basis for language teaching. It will be argued that a reflective approach
towards language teaching and learning might be generated, which is explained in terms of
the need to develop a context-sensitive pedagogy and in terms of teachers’ and learners’
development.