Reflection 7

On  the  relation  between  automated  essay  scoring  and modern  views  of  the  writing construct

By PAUL  DEANE

The article on automated essay scoring (AES) left the debate unsolved for me. I tried to identify the advantages and disadvantages of AES. On the one hand, it includes reliability, consistency, ease of scoring, less subjectivity, less bias, quick assessment. On the other hand, writing to a machine violates the essentially social nature of writing, reduces the validity of assessment, and ignores the communicative and cognitive perspectives of writing. According to the definition of writing construct, which serves the human communication purposes, the role of AES diminishes significantly as it cannot ensure validity. Another threat is that the use of AES might change the teachers’ instruction of writing and the learners’ perceptions and behaviors about writing competence – the system can be gamed.

I agree that AES can measure only certain aspects of writing, such as organization, vocabulary, grammar, mechanics, and style. But it cannot interpret meaning, infer communicative intent, evaluate factual correctness and quality of argumentation, or take the writing process into account. Nevertheless, whenever, I teach my students essay writing, I draw their attention to the communicative purpose of writing, quality of argumentation, and the writing process, as well. 

Reflection 6

A sound foundation?  What we know about the impact of environments on learning and the implications for Building Schools for  the  Future

By Pamela Woolner,  Elaine  Hall*,  Steve Higgins, Caroline McCaughey  and  Kate  Wall

For me, the review of the literature on the impact of physical environment on learning was not convincing in the sense that it did not provide rigorous research findings related to that impact on such aspects as leaner attainment, engagement, attendance, or well-being. Unquestionably, the absence of comfortable furniture, temperature, ventilation, lighting, color, display, and other environmental conditions will affect negatively on the above mentioned learner aspects. However, it is unclear to what extent the presence of all these physical conditions could enhance language learning process.

This reflection reminded me of the article by Krashen who argued for providing access to good libraries, thus enhancing independent reading, as the research showed a positive correlation between enhanced independent reading and high test scores. The suggestion for future schools to make flexible environmental improvements is acceptable but not easily available.

Reflection 5

Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom:                                           

 A Pedagogy for Learning and Teaching?

By ANGELA CREESE and ADRIAN BLACKLEDGE

The discussion around translanguaging in bilingual classroom revealed a new role of codeswitching in a language classroom. In an Armenian EFL classroom, this would be considered a negative attempt both on the part of the teacher and the learner. Using L1 is attributed cross-contamination, careless language habits, and so on. However, in a complementary school, where ecological approach dominates, bilingual instruction can be beneficial for a number of reasons, including conveying complete information, engaging with diverse audience, making meaning, transmitting information, performing identities, keeping the task moving forward, etc.

 Among these, I think, the performance of identities is prevalent. While in an Armenian EFL context, this identity is performed in the ecology outside the classroom, in complementary schools, there is the urge to negotiate multicultural identities. This makes links for classroom participants between social, cultural, community, and linguistic domains of their lives. 

Reflection 4

ELF on a mushroom: the overnight growth in English as a Lingua Franca

By COLIN SOWDEN

English as a Lingua Franca: concepts, use, and implications

By ALESSIA COGO

            The debate between Colin Sowden and Alessia Cogo on the topic of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) provoked some questions to think over: what to teach? what kind of language is to be specified for the subject to fulfill its educational objective? I assume the answer is the consideration of what is appropriate for particular uses in communication, and for particular users in different communities. 

The fact is that English has become the language of international communication which is primarily the result of two factors: the expansion of British colonial power, which peaked toward the end of the 19^th century, and the emergence of the US as the leading economic power of the 20^th century. The point is that English is international to the extent that it is not only the native speakers’ language, otherwise the international status of English would be undermined. The countries where English is a foreign language have also developed their varieties of English that are now recognized as varieties in their own right. All this variety of varieties considerably complicates the choice for practical teachers and for the people in authority who are responsible for structuring the language education in a particular country.

Ideally, the variety to be chosen depends on actual student needs. We, language teachers, have to choose between the British and the American varieties, as they represent the international role and usage of the English language. Whichever variety we choose, we should help our students to recognize the diversity of the language, which will help them as learners of the language in making judgments about it. We should be giving them the tools to achieve what they want in and with the language.

Reflection 3

For What and for Whom Is Our Research? The Ethical as Transformative Lens in Instructed SLA

By LOURDES ORTEGA

           

            The contribution of this article was that it provoked one important aspect – ethics as a valued research goal and professional and social responsibility for the field of instructed SLA. I agree with the argument that to be truly ethical, we must be prepared to defend what our research is for and who the beneficiaries of our research are. These moral values will inform the design, conduct, and dissemination of our studies. I think the achievement of this ethical goal will face a lot of obstacles – ideological, institutional, and others. But in the long run, it will generate rigorous and relevant research inspired by societal needs.

            In light of this, I would like to add that SLA research should not be socially constituted, meaning that knowledge, in general, should be the privileged presence of scholars and researchers, but should not be democratized as common property. This means that SLA research is not an open field of interest in language to which everybody is invited. You need to bring special knowledge or expertise - there should be knowing where, between whom, or on what the most productive discussions will emerge. 

Reflection 2

Paradigmatic Controversies/Contradictions and Emerging Confluences

By  YVONNA S. LINCLOLN and EGON G. GUBA

           

Coping with the paradigmatic controversies or contradictions, it became evident that emerging confluences are impossible unless there is a universal understanding of the truth. The article opened an array of issues which form the basic platform for understanding the nature of applied linguistics. The issues are related to axiology, accommodation and commensurability, action, control, foundations of truth and knowledge, validity and voice, reflexivity, and postmodern textual representation. Each of these issues represents one whole behind which are fighting carious philosophies.

My reflection on this article is through my general perspective on these issues. I believe that applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field that mediates between theory and practice of language acquisition and use. As linguistics concerns with the study of language, and pedagogy deals with the teaching of language, there should be relevance between these two. Applied linguistics establishes relevant concepts or models of language in the pedagogic domain, those that are most appropriate for teaching purposes. This field is not limited to the study of language learning, nor does it encompass all applications of linguistic theory. It concerns with the use of findings from theoretical studies of language for the solution of language-related real-world problems. The relation of applied linguistics to language teaching is based on the belief that such findings must be relevant to practical teaching of languages.

My argument is that applied linguistics should be academically instituted. It should be defined by certain rational principles applied to the data of everyday experience. Abstractions are devices for understanding reality not for replicating it. The essential distinction is between actual experience and the abstractions that are set up to partially account for them. The quality of research is measured by reference to some set of principles.

We need to become intelligent readers of research, draw this knowledge into interaction with our professional experience, and bring it to educational decision-making. We need to devise and conduct empirical analysis ourselves, to search for a model that will draw on and appeal to the learners’ experience as a language user. 

Reflection 1

The Contribution of Written Corrective Feedback to Language Development:    A Ten Month Investigation

By JOHN BITCHENER and UTE KNOCH

I would like to start my reflections with the acknowledgment of the significant role of applied linguistics which is a process of intellectual mediation between linguistics and pedagogy, whereby practical problems in which language is implicated are referred to theoretical ideas and, reciprocally, theoretical ideas are made relevant to the clarification of these problems. While reflecting upon the issues discussed in the classroom, I will focus on these clarifications as contributions to my understanding and knowledge of language learning and teaching.

Having read the article, I came to once again prove my beliefs about the corrective feedback to which I have always assigned a significant role in my teaching career. The article demonstrated this role stating that corrective feedback can have an influence on the long-term acquisition of certain linguistics forms. Although the study showed no differential effect of various types of feedback on accuracy development, I believe that the combination of written, oral corrective feedback and metalinguistic explanation could result in higher accuracy rates than any one of them separately. The other important implications were that we should adopt a targeted approach for a period of time and the error category to be focused on should be negotiated with learners. If we are able to provide additional feedback on more occasions, a high level of mastery is likely to be achieved in a shorter period of time.