PAC7 at JALT2008

Home

JALT2007 Plenary Sessions

日本語

Plenary I: Learning to value evaluation in language teaching
(Friday, 9:40 - 10:40 am)
John Norris
Plenary II: Spoken English, written English: Challenging assumptions
(Saturday, 11:05 - 11:50 am)
Ronald Carter
Plenary III: Classroom discourse as a semiotic resource for EFL learning
(Saturday, 3:05 - 3:50 pm)
Amy B. M. Tsui
Plenary IV: How large do our learners' vocabularies need to be?
(Sunday, 11:05 - 11:50 am)
Paul Nation
John Norris

I: Learning to value evaluation in language teaching

John Norris

Evaluation is often understood as an external process by which policymakers and funding agencies hold educators accountable through the use of standardized assessments and related mechanisms. However, the true value of program evaluation may come from an alternative understanding, wherein teachers take ownership over the process and make it a regular part of their educational practice. In this plenary, I will address how program evaluation can play a positive role in the service of improving curriculum and instruction, enhancing student learning, allocating program resources, and illuminating the value of language education in society. I will also provide strategies to help language teachers and their professional organizations (a) to increase the utility of evaluations in support of their language programs, and (b) to decrease potential negative consequences of evaluation. Finally, I will provide several concrete examples of teacher-led evaluation practice that have resulted in positive transformations for language education programs.

John Norris works in the areas of program evaluation, assessment, and pedagogy in foreign and second language education. He has taught and consulted in Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Spain, and across the US. His research has appeared in journals such as Language Learning, Language Testing, Language Teaching Research, Language Learning & Technology, Foreign Language Annals, and Modern Language Journal, and in a variety of books. Currently, he is the principal investigator for several national and international projects that seek to enhance the capacities of foreign language educators to engage in useful program evaluation and assessment practices.

Ronald Carter

II: Spoken English, written English: Challenging assumptions

Ronald Carter

The spoken language has been largely under-described and under-theorised within linguistics and accordingly teachers of English have lacked adequate models. Recent analysis of spoken discourse using multi-million word computerised corpora of authentic English usage is beginning to change this picture. In this plenary I will focus on some of these changes, drawing on new evidence concerning the specific character of spoken English grammar. The study of spoken language also raises fundamental questions about the nature of standard English grammar and its basis in written examples, about the notion of choice in language, and about materials development for the teaching of English as a whole.

Ronald Carter is Professor of Modern English Language in the School of English Studies, University of Nottingham. He is the author of over 40 books on applied linguistics, English language studies and English language teaching and learning. His most relevant publications with regard to this plenary are: Exploring Spoken English (Cambridge University Press, 1997) and Cambridge Grammar of English (Cambridge University Press, 2006) (both with Michael McCarthy) and (with David Nunan) The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Cambridge University Press).

Amy Tsui

III: Classroom discourse as a semiotic resource for EFL learning

Amy B. M. Tsui

In this plenary I will adopt a sociocultural perspective of learning and point out that EFL classroom discourse is a major semiotic resource that mediates the construal of reality as well as the target language. Using data from primary EFL classrooms in Hong Kong, I will argue that classroom discourse processes are intersubjective processes in which the construal of reality through a foreign language by each learner shapes and is shaped by the construal of reality and the target language by other learners. In addition, the teacher, with whom they interact, and all other resources, such as curriculum materials and pedagogical activities, mediate the learning process. Seen in this light, EFL classroom discourse is an emergent process which opens up an immensely rich semiotic space for EFL learning.

Amy Bik-May Tsui is Chair Professor of the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. She has published widely in the areas of spoken discourse analysis, classroom discourse, language policy, and teacher development. She serves on the editorial boards of a number of international journals. Her most recent books include Understanding Expertise in Teaching (2003), Classroom Discourse and the Space of Learning (2004, with Ference Marton), Medium of Instruction Policies – Which Agenda? Whose Agenda? (2004, co-edited with James Tollefson) and Language Policy, Culture and Identity in Asian Contexts (2007, co-edited with James Tollefson).

Paul Nation

IV: How large do our learners' vocabularies need to be?

Paul Nation

In this plenary, I will describe the making and purposes of a vocabulary test and will provide guidelines for administering it and interpreting the results. The test is designed to determine vocabulary knowledge up to the 14th 1,000-word level and consists of 140 multiple-choice items, 10 at each 1,000-word level. It is freely available at www.lextutor.ca/ and can be used by teachers and researchers for a variety of purposes. Research is continuing on its reliability and validity.

Paul Nation is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has taught in Indonesia, Thailand, the United States, Finland, and Japan. His specialist interests are language teaching methodology and vocabulary learning. His latest book is Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (Cambridge University Press, 2001); a further book on the teaching of vocabulary is likely to be published in 2007 by Thomson.