Methods of language teaching, Appunti di Linguistica

Scarica Methods of language teaching e più Appunti in PDF di Linguistica solo su Docsity! METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) INTRODUCTION How do teaching methods and techniques works? How can cognitive styles and individual differences (motivation) affect learning? Knowing how students learns helps making teaching methods more effective and finding the most appropriate strategy for everyone (also in case of atypical development). What are the individual differences? Are constructs refer to dimensions of enduring personal characteristics that are assumed to apply to everybody and on which people differ by degree. There is a sort of contradiction between general principle of the human mind and uniqueness of individual mind, the peculiarity of social sciences with respect to natural sciences is that differently from what happens in natural sciences, behaviour may vary significantly in response to a certain event. Annoying consequence for SLA/FLL (foreign language learning): wide variation in terms of ultimate success in L2 mastering, the effectiveness and outcomes are significantly constrained by ID. 1st language acquisition seems to be an exception to variability (everyone attains a native proficiency) but IDs are active also in this domain: different learning styles and rates, different strengths and weaknesses. The variables that contribute the individual differences are: • Cognitive: aptitude (intelligence?) • Affective: motivation, attitude • Personality • Other factors (age, L1) Study ID in L2 teaching is so important because it is the most consistent predictor of L2 learning success, highly correlated to language attainment in instructed setting, no other phenomena investigated in SLA has come even close to this level of impact. INDIVIDUAL VARIBLES IN FLL – AGE Age is perhaps the most relevant force of differences that we can find btw 1 e 2 language acquisition. Consider the case of a bilingual children who are exposed to both L1 and L1 from the beginning, in this case the 2 languages are acquired simultaneously in a native competence typically without problem. This is very different from 2LA because the language is acquired later in time, we know that with the increase of the age of the exposure to language the outcomes of the process of acquisition can be very different. The age of acquisition impact on speed and outcome. There is a popular belief according to which children are better in learning languages than adults which appear to METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) have difficulties even after years of struggle. Researchers tried to answer three fundamental questions: 1. Is there a biological constraint on language acquisition? 2. Can native competence in the L2 be achieved? 3. Are the leaning strategies of young vs. older learners different? 1st question. There are neurolinguistic studies which seems to support the Critical Period Hypothesis (languages cannot be learned successfully after the closure a specific temporal window which goes from age 9 to the onset of puberty). Neurolinguistic data shows that the brain is neurologically programmed to be shaped and influenced by experience which sensibly affect or perception of the world and ability process external stimuli including language, these is only possible if the exposure of this input occurs in a specific time in period. The crucial characteristic of the critical period is that it is irreversible, in the sensitive period compensation in possible. The two notions of CP and SP in SLA are interchangeable. One of the 1st scholar who discuss the Critical Period Hypothesis was Lenneberg who observed that children have a natural brain predisposition to acquire their L1. Evidence for the CP comes to Feral children which are not exposed to language in infancy/childhood due to being brought up in the wild, in isolation and/or confinement (Genie was deprived of social interaction from birth, still lacked linguistic competence after 7 years of rehabilitation). The case of deaf children is surprisingly similar, if they are exposed to the sing language after infancy hey are not able to acquire competence at the same level of children who acquired it before, a linear decline in performance with increasing age of exposure and low mastery if the language is acquired after puberty. “Automatic acquisition from mere exposure to a given language seems to disappear after puberty, and foreign languages have to be taught and learned through a conscious and laboured effort. Foreign accents cannot be overcome easily after puberty. However, a person can communicate in a foreign language at the age of forty”. (Lenneberg). Automatic acquisition of a language takes place only during a critical period (age 2 – puberty/early teens), after that period language learning is more slowly and less successful. According to Lenneberg in order to learn a 2L the abstract structure of the 1st language which is called matrix for language skill needs to be established in early childhood. It is possible to achieve a good level of the 2nd language only if there is a complete native like competence in the 1st sentence. On the contrary if this matrix has not been established within a specific time (critical period) LL will not be successful. Once accomplished subsequent LL may be possible at any age. Is there a systematic relationship METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) in morphosyntax, so in grammaticality judgement tasks (pronoun and anaphors). She was able to pick out Egyptian from non-Egyptian accent, good speak perception, very good at phonological competence. Her accent was judges as entirely native (7 out of 13 judges). Other disadvantages of adults in addition to age are; less time to learn, fewer opportunities, less sympathetic input and more difficult discourse demands. Adults are not only penalized, they have also some advantages which are; having already learnt the L1, they are cognitively more mature (more accustomed to explicit learning). Experimental evidence showed that adolescents and adults show an initial advantage over children, one of 1st studies were conducted by Krashen, Long & Scarcella 79 who reviewed 32 studies of L2 learning; adults (and adolescents) proceed through early stages of syntactic and morphological development faster than children (same time/exposure). Older children acquire faster than younger children and learners who begin exposure as children generally achieve higher L2 proficiency. Another study conducted by Muñoz 06 stated that if the L2 is learnt at school, the advantage of the late starters persists after even 5 years of instruction in formal contexts and younger starters do not catch up in this period. So, the context of acquisition can moderate the age effect. Why do they present this kind of advantages? Cognitive factors; more abstract mode of thinking of adults. The reason is that children and adults seem to adopt different strategies in language learning. It seems that younger children tend to have a higher ability to intuit grammar than adults, this is an implicit learning from massive input (absence of consciously accessible knowledge; no need to learn rules). Adults learners compensate with abstract thinking, analogy and conscious attention, they are better in explicit learning (applying rules). - Initial advantage thanks to the shortcut provided by awareness of explicit structures - Disadvantage when rules are too complex or probabilistic to be fully learned in an explicit way Summarizing; the critical period is not an all-or-nothing concept, rather, continuum of subsequent sensitive period in which the plasticity of the brain gradually declines (interaction with other aspects, individual variables, exposure etc.) 0-3 years → constant exposure children will achieve native-like competence 4-8 years → children can still reach a native competence, with appropriate exposure After 9 years → native competence will be difficult to achieve, success will depend on other factors. Effects more marked on phonology (and grammar). METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) Should teaching strategies be differentiated for age? Of course yes, specific teaching methods are more effective/appreciated at particular ages. The main characteristics of young children learning 2L is that is seems that they do not learn by explanation but with exposure, their understanding comes from what they hear, see, touch and interact with; they have advantaged over adults in informal settings, it is better an indirect teaching method that is an inductive one, for instance teaching abstract concepts (grammar rules) should be avoid/limited to older children. They have a limited attention span (10- 15 minutes) so it is better to organize short and varied activities, another important aspect is that they have a high need for individual attention and approval from the teacher (suggested main topic; presenting themselves and their own life). Implications for teaching adolescent are that they are more ready for abstract thinking activities (inductive + deductive methods), they have a higher responsibility/understanding of the need for learning. They have a strong need for peer approval, fear of negative judgement so better to work on self-esteem. Generally, more cognitively mature; they can be engaged in intellectual activities (discussion, explicit metalinguistic reflection on grammar). Implications for teaching adults; advantages over children in formal setting, they have a clear understanding of their goal (high level of motivation) and cognitive maturity + long span (suitable for abstract and metacognitive activities. There is a preference for deductive than for inducive methods (both can however be beneficial), they can be critical or have some possible hostility to certain teaching activities due to past learning experiences, furthermore it is important to focus them on communicative activities. CROSSLINGUISTIC INFLUENCES Together with age another external factor that can have an influence in SLA can be that of crosslinguistic influences which have to do with the influence of the speakers L1 on the development of L2. Can the L1 negatively influence the process and outcomes of L2 acquisition? This question start arising in 1950-60 in the framework of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis CAH which was develop with the aim of drawing a comparison between the structures of L1 and L2 (whence negative transfer and error). It was found that L1 has a major source of errors in the L2, the CAH had the purpose of; predict areas which will be easy or difficult for learners and isolate what needs to be taught in L2 learning. There are three main Universal Pathways that critic this hypothesis: 1) Universal interlanguage patterns are followed in L2 development, regardless the L1: METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) The presence of this differences between L1 and L2 cannot altered the interlanguage patterns of the learners, indeed it was being found that pattern of acquisition of a specific SL are surprisingly similar in speakers having different L1. Ex; Acquisition of negation in English L2 > similar steps are observed with different L1s, at early stages pre-verbal negation is used (I not want that), this is attested in language with preverbal negation such as Italian but also in languages with postverbal negation such as Norwegian (Jeg vil ikke ha det). The only difference that we can found is that if the L1 is different (preverbal negation) the non-target stage may last longer. 2) Similarity effects: The presence of similarities can accelerate development (positive transfer) as lexicon; cognates (family > famiglia) or morphology; English/Spanish plural inflection (dog>dogs - perro>perros). But errors in the L2 can be found also if L1 and L2 present similarities; for example, the acquisition of articles in English L2 present difficult for all L1 groups, at early ages > alternation of one, this, the regardless the L1. If the L1 has articles system (Spanish, Italian) the non-target forms (this, one) are abandoned more rapidly. However, this don’t mean that Spanish and Italian native do not have difficulties in acquiring articles in the L2, indeed they can show a higher difficulties in understand and mastering the use of zero articles with generic meaning (*I like the red flowers) is more frequent in languages which do not have articles. The similarities do not prevent difficulties, they can determinate the nature of these difficulties. So, the presence of similarities can also constitute a disadvantage; for example, in the past/ present perfect in English L2, particularly difficult for French learners that use the passé composé and for the Italian learners that use the passato prossimo which are similar the English present perfect. There is an overuse of the present perfect also in non - appropriate contexts. 3) Crosslinguistic influences are not necessarily symmetric: For example, the case of pronouns; French L1 and Italian L1 / English L2 → presence of proclitics does not affect pronoun placement in English. It= Li seguo → *I them follow → rarely found → objects cannot precede verbs in English. Conversely English L1 / French or Italian L2 → I see them → *Je vois les → more frequently found → objects normally follow verbs in French, SOV in non-canonical. Structural properties of the L2 can modulate transfer effects. The presence of this universal let the scholar abandoned the CAH, in the late 70’ there were different view of the role of the L1, not all errors can be explained as due to METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) FOREIGN LANGUAGE APTITUDE Do certain people have a knack for L2 learning? What determines it? Alice Kaplan’s story. She is an American girl who began learning French at the age 5 and reach a very high level. Her interest was always as intense for French culture as it was for the French language. By the end of the two full-year study abroad experiences, a complete self-identification with the new community and culture had taken place. She later became a French language teacher and eventually completed a doctorate in French. To this day, Kaplan is committed to a life in which both French and English play prominent roles. Richard Watson’s story. He wanted to learn French and work a lot to reach a proficiency level, but his results were actually very scarce despite having attended many courses and struggled. He said “all those years of guilt and embarrassment at being a Cartesian scholar who could not speak French…I would learn to speak French, whatever it took, however long… Despite all these efforts, he failed his final examination (the first course and the only examination I had ever failed in my life) and could not move on to the next curricular level”. He is curtly informed by a famous French Cartesian specialist: Don’t try to speak French. Your French is terrible…Almost inexplicably, he had been defeated in his pursuit to learn to speak French. FL Aptitude: complex of general abilities that largely determines how quickly and easily an individual can learn a language (in an instructional context). In the long run language, aptitude is probably the single best predictor of achievement in a second language. Positively correlated with language achievements, evident in ultimate attainments/end of language program. It does not predict whether an individual can learn a FL. It predicts the rate and ease of progress in formal instruction setting (under optimal conditions of motivation, opportunity to learn and quality of instruction). Achievement and proficiency measure how well you have done in a specific task, aptitude tests look at how well you would do in a formal instruction context. How can we measure aptitude? The modern language aptitude test (MLAT, Caroll) is the best known and most widely employed test of FL aptitude which has been designed with the purpose of predicting how well, relative to other individuals, an individual can learn a foreign language in a given amount of time and under given conditions. Paper-and-pencil test battery composed of 5 parts (60-70 min). The score is to determine how goals will be achieved by an individual learner (assuming that she has at least some motivation to learn). Carroll’s factors of language aptitude rests on 4 abilities: METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) - Phonemic coding ability: identifying sounds, connecting them to symbols, remembering sound-symbol connection - Grammatical sensitivity: recognizing grammatical function of words (awareness of categories and grammatical relationships) - Inductive learning ability: infer rules governing the structure of the language and generalizing patterns - Rote learning ability: decontextualized learning of sound-meaning associations MLAT phonetic coding abilities: 1) Number learning: students are orally presented numbers in a new language (1-4, 10-40 and 100-400; auditory to learn them). Then they must translate 15 numbers into English. e.g. ‘ba’ = 1, ‘tu’ = 20, write down ‘tu-ba’ → 21 2) Phonetic Script: students hear a set of short nonsense words looking at their printed phonetic script (highly regular between sound and symbols). Then they hear one word at a time and must choose from four printed alternatives. e.g. buk → bot, but, bok, buk Grammatical sensitivity ability: 3) words in sentences: subject must select among 5 alternatives the one that performs the same function as the underlined word in the key sentence. e.g. Mary is cutting apple. → My brother John is beating his dog with a big stick. Rote learning (memory) ability: 4) Paired associates: 4 minutes to memorize 24 Mayan/English word pairs. Then, choosing the equivalent for each Mayan word from 5 English alternatives. All the distractors were contained in the original list. Very good predictive power: 16-36% achievements (proficiency level, final course grades, teacher ratings). Nevertheless, aptitude (and the MLAT) received limited attention and perceived as: out-to-date conceptually → old conception of the three components of FLL, especially of memory (static instead of dynamic). Little practical explanatory value → what are we measuring? Undemocratic with respect to learning → if learners are endowed with a fixed capacity, what is the sense of education? Other aptitude tests have been developed but none of them has provided a clear explanation of how this construct is characterized. Unanswered questions are; which are the cognitive correlates of language language? What is the role of working memory in FL aptitude and SLA? Is aptitude METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) related to intelligence? Is aptitude related to age? How are FL aptitude and L1 aptitude related? Memory: privileged components of language aptitude. Principal role in explanation of individual differences in L2 achievements. Short term memory: mechanism purely deputed to maintaining information for a limited period of time. Working memory: brain system that provides temporary storage and manipulation of the information necessary for cognitive tasks. WM: key to elaborating the concept of language aptitude and to integrating aptitude into the SLA process. Baddely’s working memory model: composed by an attentional controller which is the central executive and three subsystems which are phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and episodic buffer. The P.L is a temporary storage of verbal information, the VS is a temporary storage of visuo-spatial information, the EB deals with integration of information coming from different domains and the CE supervises and coordinates the slave sub- system. Phonological loop: temporary retention of verbal material, the components are; Phonological store → temporarily storage of acoustic information (capacity of 2 sec) and Articulatory rehearsal process → enhancement of memory performance by refreshing material in the store through subvocal repetition. → Translation of non-phonological material in a phonological code. Traces are held in the store and cyclically refreshed by the subvocal rehearsal system until necessary. PL is fundamental role in language learning, correlations; digit span/nonword repetition → vocabulary (both of native language and of foreign/novel languages). Phonological short-term memory deficits hamper the ability to learn new words: down syndrome → very poor phonological memory but intact visuo-spatial memory impaired acquisition of new vocabulary. Specific language impediment (SLI) → very poor memory, poorer vocabulary. Williams syndrome → normal phonological memory but very poor spatial cognition and IQ scores but good performance in verbal tasks and very rich vocabulary. Polyglots → high scores in phonological STM tasks, natural talent for acquiring new language (aptitude?). Visuo-spatial sketchpad: temporary maintenance and manipulation of visual and spatial information. Important role in spatial orientation, geographical knowledge and visual semantics (appearance of objects, ability to understand and use complex systems). Central executive is the most crucial component of WM has 4 functions: focusing attention (inhibition of irrelevant stimuli), dividing attention (coordination in dual tasks), switching attention and interface between the two slave-subsystems and LTM. Subjects with impaired METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) achieved a native-like proficiency in Swedish L2. The measure was composed by aptitude and grammaticality judgment tasks (auditory and written), the authors found that despite presenting different levels of aptitude all learners that were exposed to Swedish before age 12 showed a native-like performance and passed for natives. For those who were exposed after age 12 all high achievers had high aptitude scores, these results confirmed that high aptitude is required to compensate for age-effects. Does aptitude matter across different learning contexts? There are different positions; Krashen argued that only with explicit instruction there is involvement of aptitude, intelligence and academic skills. On the contrary, implicit instruction is not affected (rest on the universal innate abilities). Robinson argued that aptitude could provide important contributions across the board for FLL: every type of learning rests on the same abilities, even stronger role in implicit learning (no external help of instruction). Evidence is still mixed; more studies are needed. Classroom investigation; formal setting (deductive): the input is organized to make its structure more accessible (input enhancement) → aptitude is less important; all students are helped. Informal setting (inductive): the learner is required to actively bring structure to unstructured material → students with high aptitude have an advantage. Finally, Skehan identifies three aptitude components related to phases of SLA process: - Auditory ability (phonetic coding ability): it allows the learner to process input more readily providing processable and comprehensible input → most important at elementary stages - Linguistic ability (inductive learning ability + grammatical sensitivity); capacity to infer rules and make generalizations → equally important at all stages - Memory ability (role learning ability): acquisition of new information, storage and retrieval, processing → gains more prominence as proficiency increases Robinson developed the Aptitude Complex Hypothesis: learning depends on a combination of different cognitive abilities + conditions of instructional exposure (type of instruction + type of task) + motivational aspects. Multidimensional conception of aptitude: how effectively cognitive processes meet the environmental demands. To sum up: - Success in L2 academic classrooms can be predicted by language aptitude - Aptitudes is related to L1 abilities and to literacy skills - Central role of memory (especially for younger learners) and analytic abilities (especially for older learners) - High aptitude compensates for later age of acquisition METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) - Future studies are needed to fine-tine instructional approaches to boost L2 success What to do with students tested for aptitude? Never exclude students with low aptitude from compulsory foreign language requirements → exemption can have negative consequences, never underestimate learners or negate possibilities. Stream students into different classes for levels of aptitude, providing different teaching methods and final examination (desirable, but hardly possible). Some recommendations: identify specific areas of weakness where the learner will need more help to boost her success, try to individualize learning providing different strategies to satisfy all learners’ need, strengths and weakness. Any teaching class is a compromise to suit the greatest number of students. MOTIVATION Can motivation predict outcomes in FLL? Which kind of element do you think are particularly important to enhance motivation? Explaining L2 outcomes: not only cognitive factors (aptitude) but also conative factors; foreign language motivation (human intentions, plans, goals, commitments). Beyond aptitude, major ID variable significantly affecting language learning success, why? → motivation provides primary impetus to initiate L2 learning and force to sustain it, motivational factors can override effects on aptitude, high motivation → possible compensation for deficiencies in aptitude and learning conditions. The traditional approach; Gardner & Lambert Socio-educational model, they noticed that many people in Canada were able to reach high proficiency in L2 regardless of aptitude differences. Importance of the language environment and the social setting process, learning a FL is not socioculturally neutral. Learning is affected by sociocultural factors (attitudes, cultural stereotypes, geopolitical consideration). In their model has been proposed that motivation can be quantified along three main dimensions: 1) Motivational intensity → how much effort that the speakers wants to invest in learning the L2; 2) Desire to learn → how much personal investment in succeeding; 3) Attitude towards L2 learning → how much enjoyment in learning the FL. Variable that can contribute in driving and change motivation which are called antecedents of motivation. Orientation comprise all the motivations that a learner can have in learning = reasons for learning the L2. Most commonly reported are; instrumental motivation → pragmatic / utilitarian reasons (culture, job, travel, friendship), integrative motivation → METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) identification with the target culture, desire to become similar to L2 community, individuals who have a minority language spoken in family (grandpa, boyfriend). Both integrative and instrumental motivations may lead to success, but lack of either causes problems. Integrativeness = interest in learning the L2 to come closer to the L2 community and for this reason is more successful, this is determined by 3 points: positive attitude towards L2 speakers “it would be a great loss to lose the L2 culture”, general interest in foreign language and low ethnocentrism “I would like to study a lot of languages”, integrative orientation “I want to study languages to have the possibility to meet and discuss with varied people and to know different cultures”. According to Gardner, integrative motivation is the primal and highest motivation, most predictive of learning outcomes, achieve in presence of high level of integrativeness, high motivational quantity and positive attitudes. Motivation → the combination of effort + desire to achieve the goal of learning the language. Attitude / Motivation Test Battery (AMTB, Gardner), useful and widely used self-report instrument adapted for many learning contexts, is a scientific assessment (in terms of presentation and content). Methodology; Likert scale on a seven-point continuum (strongly disagree / agree), multiple choice items, semantic differential assessment. The truly motivated individuals are those who reach high in all three areas (motivational intensity, desire to learn, attitude). Criticism to G&L’s theory: too restricted to the Canadian context, more appropriate to describe L2 and FL acquisition (especially the concept of integrativeness). Language FL can be more related to utilitarian reasons. Element of renewal; more fine-tuned and situation analysis of motivation as it operates in actual learning situations (language classroom). Emphasis on motivation quality instead of quantity. Development of motivational strategies (on part of both the teacher and the learners themselves). Dörney, identity as a fundamental part in motivation (ignored by G&L). Ideal L2 self: attributes that we would ideally like to process, powerful motivator. Ought-to L2 self; attributes needed to reach goals and avoid negative outcomes. L2 learning experience; situation-specific motives related to learning environment (positive or negative experiences). Motivation is seen as the desire to reduce the discrepancy between out actual and ideal / ought selves → self-discrepancy theory. Tripartite structure of L2 motivation: internal desire of the learner, social pressure exercised by people in the learner’s image, experience of being engaged in the learning process. So = positive attitudes alone cannot sufficiently boost motivation (in contrast with G&L). METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) 1st imperceptibly. Encouraging positive self-evaluation, attribution theory is an important motivational role → shaping future behaviours. Most common attributions in school environment: ability, effort, task difficulty, luck, help or hindrance from others. Attribution theory: important motivational role → shaping future behaviours. Failure Low personal abilities Insufficient effort Low chance of future attempts High chance of future attempts How to promote positive attribution? Encourage effort attributions, positive motivational thinking, two attributional patterns; positive outcomes → personal abilities, internal factors (effort, perfectionist approach), negative outcomes → temporary external factors (bad luck, lack of effort or opportunity). Providing motivational feedback; notice and react to any positive learners’ contributions. Provide constructive feedback: prompt reflection on areas that need improvement, monitor and recognize learners’ accomplishments and milestones, take stock of progresses and make them tangible. Grades → should be used in a motivational manner, reducing their demotivating impact. Make the assessment system completely transparent, make sure that grades reflect also effort and improvement, encourage self-assessment by providing self-evaluation tools. AFFECT AND PERSONALITY Researchers in SLA domain have tried to investigate whether personality correlates academic achievement and outcomes. How personality is conceived in contemporary psychology? Our personalities are defined of 5 dimensions (OCEAN): - Openness to experience High: imaginative, curious, flexible, creative, original. Low: conservative, conventional, unartistic, practical. - Conscientiousness: orientation toward goals High: systematic, efficient, organized, hard-working, self-disciplined. Low: unreliable, careless, disorganized, lazy, negligent METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) - Extraversion-Introversion: social interest High: sociable, gregarious, active, talkative. Low: passive, quiet, withdrawn, aloof - Agreeableness: propensity to tolerance High: friendly, kind, cooperative, generous. Low: cold, rude, unpleasant, critical, uncooperative - Neuroticism-Emotional stability High: worrying, anxious, insecure, moody, unstable. Low: calm, relaxed, unemotional, self-satisfied. Can personality affect L2 learning? Lalonde, Lee & Gardner asked teacher to select the personality features of Good language learners → eleven trades of personality; meticulous, persevering, sociable, independent, inquisitive, involved, organized, active, flexible, assertive, imaginative. The two factors that seems to be most significant in L2 learning are openness to experience and conscientiousness. However, there are no clear and direct correlation. Personality traits are more implicated in language-related attitudes, anxiety, perceived competence, motivations but not in learning outcomes. Extraversion vs Introversion: both may have positive features depending on the situation. Extraverts tend to be more fluent in L1/L2 in stressful situations, faster speech rate, may display lower accuracy, more frequent and richer opportunities to use the L2. Considered as Monitor underusers: emphasis on communication, too risk-taking Introverts tend to have a higher lexical richness (at the expense of more hesitations), more cautions (fear of mistake), can benefits less from learning opportunities and speaking practice, less performant with external pressure, hesitations and slow speech and shorter utterances. Considered as Monitor overusers: emphasis on performance often self-rephrase, slower speed, higher level of anxiety. FL anxiety: is the affective factor that most pervasively obstructs the learning process. Anxiety can lead to breakdowns in automatic processing and seriously hinder L2 fluency and it has negative correlation to cognitive processing, motivation, willingness to communicate, language achievement. To measure anxiety: Foreign language classroom anxiety scale (Horwitz). People who suffer of anxiety show slower learning speed, an underestimation of L2 competence, tend to risk-avoiding behaviour (speaking less, less complex structure), low sense of self-worth, high-anxiety students expect and receive lower grades. Anxiety in low level have positive effects, is a complex construct with different facets. For one hand is inhibitory/debilitating effect; worry negative impact on performance, on the other hand is beneficial/facilitating; in some cases, it can promote performance, facilitating anxiety: investment of extra effort, pushing themselves to perform METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) better. Negative effects in tasks requiring high WM: Macintyre & Gardner study on intentional anxiety arousing in language learners (video camera during classes), all groups demonstrate significant increase in state anxiety, deficits in vocabulary acquisition. Anxiety arousal can play a casual role and lead to performance deficits (not just a function of poor performance). How can we reduce the level of anxiety and create an anxiety free zone? What generates anxiety? Answering questions, completing assignments, taking tests, pressure: being monitored and graded, fear of mistakes. To create anxiety free-zone it must avoid social comparison; avoid comparing successful and unsuccessful learners, public pronouncement of grades. Avoid competition; sometimes taken too seriously, propose instead only game-like activities and foster collaboration. Fight the fear of making mistakes; promote acceptance of mistakes as a natural part of learning, correct only mistakes that can hinder communication. You can no more learn a language without making mistakes than you can learn to play tennis without ever hitting the ball into the net. Willingness to communicate; global, personality-based orientation toward talking. In L2 is a crucial predictor of L2 use, it affects differently FLL and SLA, is determined by psychological traits and linguistic variables, is a dynamic concept; past experiences, communicative confidence, affective variables (anxiety). To sum up there is no clear correlation between personality and SLA, this is related to the difficulty in measuring personality factors. Personality may be a major factor only in the acquisition of conversational skills, not in the acquisition of literacy skills. Cognitive & Learning styles; LS is an individual’s natural, habitual and preferred way of absorbing, processing and retaining new information and skills. Crucial aspects; personal preference, typically bipolar, a continuum between two extremes, each learning style is pure and extreme case (typically combination), no value judgements; one can be successful in every style position. CS is the way by people perceive and process information and how we use this info to learn something. Research on Riding’s System: - Wholistic-Analytic Style determines whether individuals tend to organize information as an integrate whole or in discrete parts of that whole. Wholistic = see the situation as a whole (overall perspective, no details). Analytic = see the situation as a collection of parts. - Verbal-Imagery Style determines whether individuals are inclined to represent information during thinking verbally or in mental pictures. Verbalizers = people focused outward, are more active and prefer a stimulating environment. Imagers = those people focused inward, passive, prefer a static environment. The two METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) DYSLEXIA Dys + lexia = poor language. Marked difficulty in reading. There are two types of dyslexia; developmental dyslexia it develops in childhood and hampers the acquisition of reading, is a congenital disorder which becomes evident with literacy. Acquired dyslexia; is not congenital, loss of reading ability due to a brain damage (e.g. stroke). Developmental dyslexia is a specific impairment affecting the acquisition of reading and spelling skills, despite adequate intelligence, opportunity and social background, which occurs in absence of physical, neurological, emotional and socio-economic problems. Problems; definition by exclusion, just reading and spelling deficits? By definition by exclusion is meant that only those individuals that present learning disabilities without presenting co-occurring problems. Dyslexia is indeed part of the umbrella term of the specific learning disabilities, in Italian DSA, together with other disorders. It is normally said that around 20% of the students present learning difficulties, however not all of them will be diagnosed as having specific learning disabilities as dyslexia because in a great part these students will present learning difficulties because of the presence of additional problems. They could display cognitive deficits (mental retardation), physical deficits (neurological, visual, hearing), psychological factors (emotional distress), psychopathologies (mood disorder, behavioural disorders). If an individual present one of these deficits he/she cannot be diagnosed as suffering of specific learning disabilities (that is why is said definition by exclusion). Only a small part of the 20% of people who suffer of learning difficulties are defined as Dyslexic or SLD (3-10%). Specific learning disabilities (DSA) comprise four disorders; dyslexia, dysgraphia, dysorthography, dyscalculia. Implication for what concern the relationship between learning disability and cognitive level which is related to the notion of discrepancy. In order to have a diagnosis of dyslexia individual have this discrepancy, a gap between cognitive level and compromised abilities (reading). Individuals with low intelligence level cannot be diagnosed as dyslexics (dyslexics are intelligent!). Is dyslexia characterized only by reading and spelling disorders? NO. Dyslexia is a complex disorder affecting linguistic and cognitive performance at various levels. Reading deficits, spelling deficits, linguistics deficits (phonological, naming, grammatical) and can be also cognitive deficits (poor working memory, poor executive functions and attention deficits). Reading deficits; slow, effortful and inaccurate reading, dyslexics display visual difficulties with poor discrimination of similar grapheme differently oriented /p – b/, /d – b/, /u – n/. As well as difficulties in grapheme differing only for small details /m – n – r/, /c – e/, /a – e – o/, /f – t/. This visual difficulty can lead to substitution of similar- METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) looking, even if unrelated words (play for pay or republic for publicity). Beyond the visual difficulties a dyslexic can show phonological difficulties, problems in automatizing grapheme-phoneme conversion rules. Marked problems with nonwords, novel and irregular words. The Dual-Route Model; how does the brain process reading? This is one of the most well-known approach by Coltheart, Humphreys and Evett and subsequently implemented in Coltheart’s Dual-Route Cascade Model. There are two distinct mechanisms underlying the decoding and pronunciation of letter strings; lexical route, sublexical route, subsequently (part of the lexical r.) there is the lexical nonsemantic route. The sublexical route works in breaking down the string in its minimal components, grapheme-phoneme conversion rules used to read unfamiliar words, nonwords and pseudowords. The lexical route does not decompose but it processes the word as a whole, treating each string as an invisible unite. The orthographic input lexicon which is a memory storage for familiar words is used to familiar words, idiosyncratic exception word. Lexical nonsemantic route connects the orthographic input lexicon to the phonological output lexicon, bypassing the semantic system. This routes permit account for patients affected by dementia; a patient was able to read correctly 95% of the words but unable to understand the meaning. In order to read a nonwords we use the sublexical route, if we need to read irregular words, we use the lexical route, in order to read word, we can use both routes, the choice depends on the experience and frequency and complexity of the word. Dyslexics tend to show a preference to the lexical route, guessing strategy = errors. Impairment in the sublexical route due to phonological deficits. They have problems with; novel words, nonwords, irregular, infrequent words. Deficits more marked in languages with opaque orthographic system. The impact of the orthographic system; learning to read > depends on the orthographic system, higher opacity > higher difficulty. Italian; transparent with one-to-one correspondences, few exceptions whose pronunciation can be predicted applying conversion rules (/g/ in gatto e gelo). Once conversion rules are mastered, it is possible to read also novel words or nonwords. Reading could be possible using only the sublexical route (very few exceptions: garage). English; complex orthography with many-to-many relationship, the same grapheme can correspond to different phonemes and the same phoneme can be represented in different ways. Even when conversion rules are mastered, it can be difficult to read novel words. Sublexical route; conversion rules are complex to acquire and not reliable, massive use of the lexical route. Reading difficulties; reading errors more evident in language with an opaque orthographic system. Accuracy rates in word and nonword reading in dyslexic children across different languages. Accuracy rate is METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) only 40% for English children at the end of grade 1, close to ceiling for children speaking language with a more consistent orthography. Different activations at the neurological level; Paulesu et al. demonstrate the cultural effect of reading on brain functions, examining brain activation of Italian and English readers (PET study). Italian readers showed a greater activation of the superior region of the left temporal lobe (region associated with phonological processing) > sublexical route. English readers showed greater activation of the let inferior posterior temporal read and anterior portion of the inferior frontal gyrus (areas associated with word retrieval) > lexical route. We all read activating the same cerebral circuits, but the choice of the route depends on the transparency of the orthographic system. Dyslexics will experience higher difficulties in learning to read in different language depending on the transparency of the orthographic system of that language. When they read a transparency orthography like Italian will show impairment at the level of sublexical routes, however, due to inexperience they will have difficulties to resort reliably to the lexical rout, so they will prefer the sublexical route instead of lexical ones. On the contrary, in opaque orthography due to inexperience they will have difficulties to resort reliably to the lexical route, they will tend to resort more heavily on the lexical route committing many errors. They have difficult to acquire conversion rules, phonological and automatization deficits, demonstrating slow and incorrect reading. To sum up, the opacity of the orthographic system is responsible for different profiles across dyslexics, and maybe for the differences of incidents of dyslexia, there is possible underestimation of dyslexia in transparent systems. Spelling deficits and dyslexia; spelling is inextricably linked to reading, dyslexics perform at the level of younger children (very similar errors), they commit misspellings which are reasonable and linguistically motivated. Typical misspellings; omission of the second consonant in a complex cluster (trip as tip), omission of double consonants (dinner as diner), confusion of graphemes corresponding to similar phonemes (tomato as tomado), irregular spellings (packed as packt). Deficits are more marked with nonwords, better with familiar and frequent words > heavier reliance on the lexical route (recovery of the visual form of the word). Language deficits; consistent and widespread in dyslexia, all linguistic domains are affected; phonology, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, pragmatics. Phonological deficits; very widespread in dyslexia, in a study conducted by Ramus et al. it was discovered that all participants present phonological deficits, the most distinctive trait was poor phonological awareness. Typical task in detecting phonological awareness are; identify the initial, final or middle sound of words, detect and produce words that METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) in vocabulary and lexical access, poor grammatical abilities, WM/EF deficits, automatization deficits, low self-esteem, lack of motivation, classroom anxiety. Why is FLL challenging? L1 vs L2. Speech production and comprehension is less automatic > in the L2 speakers have to pay attention (conscious effort) to the content of the message, phonological, morphological, syntactics, vocabularies and pragmatics aspects. What major learning problems do dyslexic FL learners exhibit? Language learning difficulties in general at all levels. Literacy difficulties are expected to be more marked in the language with the deeper orthographic system. Could FL difficulties be predicted by L1 variables? Yes, phonological/orthographic skills (word recognition, spelling, pseudoword reading) and FL aptitude task. Are the FL problems in poor FL the result of affective difficulties like attitude, motivation, high anxiety? No, affective difficulties are actually the result and not the cause of language learning difficulties. Benefits of FLL; language FLL stimulates language development also in L1. Benefits on the level of speech; listening, imitation and repetition > more attractive in FLL. Benefits on the conceptual level; more sophisticated metalinguistic competence. Another domain in which dyslexics can find benefits is the social development; interaction, practicing turn-taking and social skills. Benefits on cultural awareness; learning new language and culture illuminating experience. Benefits of Bilingualism; AThEME (Advancing the European multilingual experience), aim; exploring the interaction between bilingualism and dyslexia. It has been found that bilingualism is beneficial to dyslexia, enhancing metalinguistic awareness and executive function. Bilingualism does not have negative influence on dyslexia, learning a second language and becoming bilingual are always great opportunities even in case of dyslexia. Inclusive teaching; meaningful and accessible learning for all students, the school system needs to be adequate for all learners. Classmates; valuable resource > cooperation and collaboration should be fostered, promoting a respectful environment. Adaptation; physical environments, material and teaching methodologies have to fit the student’s needs. Different learning strategies > multiple teaching strategies (multisensoriality). Metacognition; students should be encouraged to self-monitor and self-regulate their learning. Emotional and psychological factors; self-esteem and motivation. Evaluation and feedback; constructive and suitable for the student. Teaching FLL in dyslexia; typical (old) suggestion was simply to focus on the oral form, omitting or reducing reading and writing. This methodology was assumed because dyslexics’ oral and receptive competence in their native language are spared, they should be able to listen and speak in a foreign language but, this did not take account of other problematic areas, so the success in FL learning was seldom METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) achieved. The pure communicative method is characterized by no direct teaching of sound, grapheme-phoneme correspondences or grammatical rules is not effective for children with FL difficulties. Dyslexic are unable to implicitly grasp the knowledge of the internal structure of words and language. Language learning for dyslexic students is unlikely to be easy, however, success can be achieved. Teachers need to have a repertoire of specific strategies and techniques, crucial concepts are; multisensoriality (OG instructional approach, MSL approach), metacognition (explicit teaching of linguistic features, slow pace, revision), differentiation and self-esteem and motivation. The teacher’s choices must be well-informed by research! Multisensory Structured Language approach; it is based on Orton-Gillingham instructional approach for teaching L1 literacy, the multisensory learning involves the use of visual, auditory and kinesthetic-tactile pathways simultaneously. Children are more likely to stay engaged, retain information, and have a better memory of the skill. In this way connections are consistently reinforced between the symbols the student sees, the sounds the student hears and the action they can feel. (e.g. what letter or a word looks like, how it sounds and how the speech organs feel when producing it). “dyslexic students need a different approach to learning language from that employed in most classrooms. They need to be taught slowly and thoroughly the basic elements of their language – the sounds and the letters which represent them – and how to put these together and take them apart. They have to have lots of practice in having their writing hands, eyes, ears, and voices working together for conscious organization and retention of their learning”. Kinesthetic-tactile activities; underused teaching and learning channel that activate strong channels in dyslexics, e.g. learning an irregular spelling; trace letters and words with the index finger (tactile memory). Multimodal perception > as many sensory channels as possible, more effective than monomodal in; amount of remembered material and pace of learning. Example: teaching the letter /o/. The student is shown a card with the letter o with a picture of an olive, the student says the letter name o, then the key word olive, then the sound /o/ whilst making the shape of an olive with his hand. Once those techniques have been used to teach letter patterns, students are asked to decode (read) and encode (write) words and sentences using the patterns > automatization and fluency. The key to this MSL approach is that all three pathways are used rather than a whole word memory method, a tracing method, or a phonetic method alone. Another element which characterized the MSL is the pivotal elements; simultaneity and multisensoriality; simultaneous activation of different learning channels. Systematicity and sequentiality; items follow an ascending and logic order in METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) terms of complexity, each concept provided the underpinning from the next one to be taught (e.g. teaching one rule at time), make aware of the relationship between past and new materials, overlearning and frequent revision, cumulativeness and repetition. Sparks & Ganschow have further developed this approach for FL teaching with the aim of stimulating learning and inducing cognitive and emotional-motivational changes. The suggestion is to introduce different channels for learning and memorizing > reading and writing but also hearing, seeing, saying, acting, moving body parts. It is better to use more or even all channels (at every level; pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax etc.), actively involve students in using their stronger channels to bring on the weaker ones. The motto is “hear it, see it, say it, write it, act it out” make learning as active as possible. Effective for every learner not just for dyslexics! Scientific evidence; Nijakowska Polish dyslexic vs nondyslexic children learning English as a FL. Three different groups composed by; experimental group (dyslexic), dyslexic control group (no MSL) and unimpaired control group (no MSL). The main results demonstrated that spelling is more difficult, dyslexic underperform controls with no training; traditional instruction is successful for controls but not for dyslexics. Dyslexic show marked and persistent progress in reading/spelling thanks to the MSL. Metacognition; dyslexic students struggle with memorization and with identifying in an explicit way the patterns of the language. Engage dyslexic actively and explicitly in metacognitive strategy to allow compensation. Through this reasoning process they can gain the confidence and knowledge to become independent successful FL learners: structures and uniqueness of the new language, why certain expressions are used the way they are, how they can self-correct and monitor their reading and listening activities, thought- provoking questions, verbalizing (correct) answer through questions (why would you produce it this way? Why would you write it this way? Where would you put this word and why? Suggestion; rendering learning an active discovery process in which students become language detectives > this foster autonomy and promotes self-regulation. Differentiation; planned process of intervention in the classroom to maximize potential, based on individual needs. Aim: enable all pupils to demonstrate what they can achieve and to experience satisfaction in their learning. Every (dyslexic) person is an individual: there may be common factors, no two cases will be identical. Some strategies can be effective for one child and not for the another one. Self-esteem and motivation; important factors are patience, determination and motivation, reluctance; past negative experiences of language learning resulting in inhibited minimal responses. Engage students by activating their personal strengths and interests, do not call on students to spontaneously produce an METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) be trained, activities should be differentiated (depending on the specific aspect considered). Presenting grammar; to reinforce the connection between grammar and communication it is very important to start with a communicative activity, promote noticing of the grammar aspect (highlighting the target structure), written or oral text (also small dialogue). The first stage is followed by a generalization addressing the rule using inductive/deductive methods, deduction’s method implies the directly teaching of the rule meanwhile induction’s method invites the students to make their own observations. It can happen that students are asked to formulate an explicit rule, inductive methods are nowadays generally preferred. Remember that dyslexic struggle with patterns identification and with induction, it is important to provide students with an explicit rule; consciousness raising. It can be useful to include multisensoriality for a more effective teaching and to foster memorization. Another strategy very effective is the learning grammar with Cuisenaire rods (regoli) to foster grammar learning (all dimensions); introduce multisensoriality (use of colours), promote also kinesthetic-tactile activities. Practicing (form); for declarative knowledge to be proceduralized, a great deal of meaningful practice is required. Activities that are not meaningful > inert knowledge problem (not available for spontaneous use). Communicative grammar tasks; such as text manipulation or text creation. Krashen’s rule of forgetting; people acquire more effectively if they forget that they are learning > games and challenges particularly engaging for students. Pleasurable tension; serious goal-oriented tasks introducing an element of tension associated with game playing. Examples of activities; twenty questions, students have to ask 20 questions concerning a person or an object in order to guess the identity; yes-no questions. This is a meaningful and pleasant activity in which they have a specific reason for asking questions. Another type of activities are the problem-solving activities, students collect information about a topic (questionnaire), another example of problem-solving activity is the sentence-unscrambling task. Present perfect challenge; make up 20 sentences about this picture using the present perfect, are we/you able to make up 20 sentences about this picture using the present perfect? Make up 20 sentences about this picture using the present perfect in 2 minutes (also in groups). It is very important to propose clearly-defined attainable but not too easy task > collaboration/competition > motivation. Practicing (meaning); form-meaning does not require many repetitions, when dealing with semantic it is important to rely on realia and pictures. The total physical response can be used to practise meaning, asking students to act out something. Also miming it can be very useful to foster memorization through the kinesthetic-tactile channel, phrase meaning association can be proposed with METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) this purpose. Practicing (use); students should be explained the function of a structure (passive = defocusing the agent, focusing on the issue). Analysis of different types of texts to understand the function, choosing between different options based on the context; two different options (e.g. passive), multiple options (e.g. modals). Role-play activities, students can be given a specific context, a specific communicative intent. Teaching children; metalinguistic reflection is too difficult for children (they are not ready for grammar), it is better to focus on communication than on form while working with children. BUT teaching grammar should not be avoided. Privilege inductive processes and concrete activities, favour contrastive observations between L1 and L2, foster peer interaction and collaboration. Teaching adolescents and adults; metalinguistic awareness already developed, favour continuity among different linguistic disciplines (same terminology), both inductive and deductive methods can be adopted, older students may not feel comfortable with inductive approaches, learning preference (adults tend to be more autonomous and individualistic and to dislike group working). To sum up; broader remit (all dimension and modalities must be taken into consideration), meaningfulness engages students in communicative activities, transfer-appropriate processing; authentic contexts of language, focus on a specific dimension based on the student specific needs. DEVELOPING COMPREHENSION SKILLS We will use the term text which comprise both written and spoken activities. In order to comprehend a text, the first thing you need is the linguistic knowledge necessary to access the it which is the bottom-up processing, the starting points is the text together with all the single words and sentences composing it. Comprehension is a process which is built gradually, word by word and sentence by sentence, in a process which involves parsing (from single words to single sentences), this process is also called data-driven processing. In this view the 1st step in order to comprehend a text is that of perceiving the text, being able to access the text, identifying the words and sentences composing it, operation which requires a number of technical skills which are differentiated depending on the nature of the text (written or spoken). In case of written text, a number of technical skills are required which include the coding abilities (identification of the single graphemes or of the word as hole, sub-lexical route, lexical route). We need also a certain amount of proficiency in the target language, grammar knowledge of the morphosyntactic structure which are used in the text. In case of spoken text, we need different types of technical skills, in particular, we need to segment the speech stream METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) which allows us to recognize the sounds and identify the phonological forms of familiar words and to connect these words to their meanings (of course we need vocabulary and grammar knowledge too). For individuals who suffer of dyslexia or for all individual that are particularly poor at FLL, these processes will be more difficult. Not enough only to rely on bottom-up process, it does not guarantee full comprehension. (A: there’s the doorbell, B: I’m in the bath) → knowing the vocabulary and the meaning is not sufficient, there is a sub-message or more, hidden in the surface text (inferential process). Inferential processes are required. Readers are able to ignore something said in the text if it does not fit well to their expectations (landing was gentle), different individuals take different pieces of information out of the same text, the title of the text (as well as other visual elements) can influence comprehension. Bottom-up processing are important but not enough in order to tells us how text comprehension works. We need also top-down processing, it captures the idea that the starting point is not the text but within the listener’s/reader’s mind, also called concept-driven processing. The expectations about the text can crucially improve understanding of the text. In top-down processes, the readers or the listeners’ mind is able to figure out a general view of the reading or listening passage of the text by absorbing the overall picture of the text. An important notion in the top-down processing are the so-called schemata (mental framework that each individual has and brings when comprehending a text). These schemata play an important role in comprehension and are used already from early stages. Bottom-up process include the ability to apply schemata to text, to make predictions and inferences. What makes a text difficult to comprehend? Sentence length, vocabulary (bottom-up process). Actually it is not necessary to understand every single word in the text → the meaning of unfamiliar words can be figured out by means of the context. How to facilitate comprehension? Working on bottom-up processing concerning technical skills, by providing students with lot of practice and selectin the appropriate types of texts. In order to build appropriate expectations about the text and formulating hypothesis is important to activate background knowledge (top-down processes) before the listening or reading activity. Since we want this knowledge to be activated in advance, the 1st thing to do is guiding them with pre-reading or pre-listening activities, which aim at motivating the students before the real presentation. Arousing curiosity before presentation of the text is a positive motivational condition, enhancement of comprehension abilities and students’ gratification. Teachers should encourage students to formulate hypothesis based on specific contextual cues that come together with the text, they can be invited to form hypothesis METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) positive aspect of what our students have achieved and not to concentrate only in their failures (positive constructive feedback). Speaking: if students want to be able to speak fluently in their 2nd language, they need to be able to do quite a lot of things. 1st of all they need to pronounce words in the proper way to use the appropriate stress and intonation patterns but also morphosyntactic structures. Speaking required learners to simultaneously control bottom-up processes (retrieving words and grammar from memory, phonological form of words and the intonation patterns) and also top-down processes (communicating appropriately to the context and to the conversational situation and also to the cultural point of view). Beside real talk speaking also involves two important components which are conversational rules and survival and repair strategies. Conversational rules are those aspects that students need to know in order to manage a conversation in a foreign language, they need to know how to open a conversation (greetings or general type of openings), how to interrupt the interlocutor (I’m sorry to interrupt you but…), they need to know how to change topic and a repertoire of closing expressions. Survival and repair strategies such as ask for repetitions, get round the problem for example when they do not know a specific word (receptive and productive point of view). Different technical and strategical skills are required → teaching should cover all of them. Direct attention at strategies used in authentic conversations. Activities: controlled practice and free practice. Controlled practice → drills like exercises (highly repetitive and mechanical), negative aspects are that are not meaningful but is possible to take advantage of positive aspects of drills rendering them more meaningful. For communication truly to take place people need to be telling each other things that they do not already know, in effective teaching exercises there need to be an information gap which is what is missing in drills. Another type of practice which is necessary to develop a good speaking skill is the so-called real-thing practice or the free practice. It is non repetitive and are time consuming activities, they cannot replace controlled practice, but it is complementary, to develop communicative abilities in a broader sense. They are meaningful engage the learner with a specific aim, task, to perform in order to achieve a specific goal, they provide a whole practice, different aspects and structures. These activities are also more direct, we make effort in order to practice the language itself. Free practice is free, in contrast to the rigid once of controlled activities. With this king of methodology both technical and strategic competence (ability to organize discourse, circumlocutions, express an idea METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) without the right words) are practiced. Free types of activities in free practice: communication games, role play and simulation and discussion and debates. Communication games: stimulate the students interaction in the classrooms, specific task/objective, present some set of rules, (healthy) competition, communication between players (written or spoken). Games are important because they can enhance the motivation of the students and improve learning focusing on the content without anxiety or inhibition. Role play: activity which focuses on the reflection of reality and on the reproduction of the social and cultural relations that characterized the 2nd language. Students are asked to play characters following specific instructions given on role cards. It creates the conditions for real conditions preparing students for everyday communication environment, effective since the role play is a strong motivated method. Students can express emotion (angry, disappointment, joy), the teacher generally the role of facilitator (providing students with new vocabulary, comments, advices), in the role of spectator the teacher do not provide feedback (not recommended), the teacher can also play role of participant and take actively part in the game. Discuss and debates: can be informal (buzz groups) or highly formal in which students are asked to prepare a discourse to a specific issue, one of the best ways of encouraging discussion is providing activating in which students are asked to reach a decision or consensus choosing among different alternatives. Prepared talks can be asked to students which have to prepare a discourse to a specific topic, so not spontaneous talk, no real conversation, more writing like. Accessibility of speaking activities Generally, the major problem that can be found when presenting students with speaking activities is that students are often reluctant because they may be shy or not predisposed to presenting themselves in front of other people, especially if they are asked to give opinions and worry about losing face (affective filter, especially dyslexics). Activities are perceived as too loosely structured and unguided and so difficult to perform; more structures activities and preliminary exercises are beneficial. It is important to activate the communicative resources to perform the task, student need to be encouraged to reflect on the communicative situations engaged in the activities, and the communicative expectations of the task. Importance of retrieve linguistic resources, which can be organized in a visual organizer, mind maps, flowcharts can be also useful. Guided practice is important to help students and only in a second step they can do free practice. Another important aspect is repetition, if there is the opportunity to repeat the activity students METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) will do it better and fluently. Plan → perform → analyse ↔ repeat. Is important to remember to teach also pragmatic/interactional skills (showing them some videos encouraging them to look at facial expressions of interlocutors and to mime these expressions without words and then speaking). Writing: many of the techniques already discussed for speaking can be adapted also for writing, communicative drills can be modified in a written way considering the more time to organize concepts and to focus on forms. The teacher can use the speaking exercise as a reinforcement of what has been already done. Focus on joining-together skills: cohesion and coherence. One way to exercise these skills is that of using cloze activities (filling the blank), sentence combining (order a sentence or opening sentence and a series of other sentence to choose to complete the text), passage re-assembly in which they are asked to join a sentence together to create a specific text. Accessibility of writing activities: writing task need to be introduced gradually, starting from short sentences and moving on with missing information with minimal involvement of production (cloze), only in a 2nd moment they can be asked to produce longer texts. Dyslexics can be allowed to use technology (compensatory tools: computer and spell checker) in order to help them with graphic difficulties or poor motorial abilities. Important to teach when and how to use them: technology is not a substitute of teaching. When students are engaged in writing they need to concentrate both on top-down (technical skills) and bottom-up processes (strategical skills), dyslexic students due to their difficulties tend to consume all of their processing resources for the technical aspects which are not automatic for them and this could has the consequence to dedicate time to top-down processes, they need to be supported and guided, teachers should provide them with specific model and strategies in order to be able to cope also with more complex types of activities. They should be supported for text planning, content shaping and personalization before, during and after writing activities. Before writing → provide them with precise and clear instructions about what they have to do and should also be invited to reflect on the topic of the task by collecting ideas, representation of content roadmap. During writing → shared writing (in order to teach appropriate strategies for text writing), the teacher can provide a model of writing sharing with students strategies and difficulties she has experienced, the students can work in group to create the 2nd paragraph with the consequent feedbacks of the teachers. Finally, students can follow the production individually. After writing → learners should be invited to review the text focusing on the content (looking at the road map), to the structure METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) progress and achievements that leads to educational decisions (suggest activities to strengthen some areas of learning, provide extra materials), are said to be process oriented so concerns the specific performance of a student not only in the specific test but also during the course of their learning. The same difference can be made with achievement texts and proficiency tests, the first ones are useful to teacher and learners since they indicates how well teaching has succeeded and where improvement need to be made (process not product), proficiency texts like placement, as in the case of evaluations address the level that have been reached in the language irrespective of the course or even of the presence of a course (product not process). Test items: can be categorized in four main dimensions. Direct tests are those in which the students are sked to perform the communicative skills which have been tested, ability to use the language in real communication, they can be discrete-point or integrative. An example of this test is the role-play which is also integrative, where the students have both to listen what the interlocutor is saying and also to comprehend the message that is conveyed, the productive ability choosing the relevant grammar, the lexical items, accurate pronunciation and intonation and so on, there are many skills required and involved in order to do the role-play activity. Other direct test might include composition (writing a letter) or reading and completing an application for instance. The disadvantages of this test are that they do not emphasize or give us a measure of the student’s knowledge of a specific item, for instance a learner might fail to produce a difficult structure by expressing the same concept in a different manner, we cannot be able to establish whether the learner avoid the difficult structure because of an inability to use it or if it was just by chance that he use a simpler structure, so the knowledge of specific items is not assessed (avoidance). For this reason, a good test should present a combination of direct, indirect, discrete- point and integrative testing to provide an overall picture of the student’s ability. In the case of indirect tests, we have a more indirect measurement of the students knowledge by getting on what actually lies beneath their receptive and productive skills, aim at finding out about the language knowledge trough more controlled items. They have the advantage of being quite quick and easy both to develop and administer and also to mark, they are very objective (close test both direct or indirect or a multiple-choice questions, paraphrasing and sentence re-ordering) however they have the limitation that they only show the learner’s ability to recognize or to produce individual items so are not used in actual communication, for this reason language abilities are more inferred that demonstrated. Discrete-point tests are those that considered only one aspect at time METHODS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING 2019/20 (Prof.ssa Maria Vender) (grammar test on specific construction like present perfect), in integrative texts students are asked to use different aspect at time and also different skills at time (dictations which involves both writing and listening activities) so it is more complete. Both discrete- point and integrative tests can be direct and indirect. Accessibility of evaluation and assessment: especially in the case of dyslexic students it is very important that teacher make sure that the evaluation procedures adopted are both valid and fair. Validity refers to whether it is true that a certain test measures what it should test, fairness refers to absence of biases which means that the text should not penalize students for their learning difference, so for their presenting specific disorder or disability. Both validity and fairness depend on a number of factors: the degree of limitation of the students in relation to his-her learning difference (open questions may be invalid for learners with writing difficulties), another aspect to consider is the type of support that have been provided to the student, since assessment has a formative value it would not be fair to ignore the type of support that the learner have been using during the course, if a dyslexic has used a compensatory tool for a written exam (road-map) they should be use it also in a oral examination, it would be not faire to not allow the student to use it. Also for the interpretation of the result it is important to consider the learning differences of the students and the learning goal that the teacher should accept for them. This should be done also to encourage them without pressure, when we interpret the result of a text to keep in mind who is the learner we are evaluating. It would be better to integrate their performance in the test with some forms of more informal assessment which can give a more precise pictures of their progresses (for dyslexic). For students with dyslexia there are some specific accommodations and modification to render the language test more accessible. Accommodations includes the arranging of the layout improving the legibility and readability of a specific text allowing the use of compensatory tools together with providing assistance during the test and providing extended time (short and frequent testing on limited areas are recommended). Depending on the severity of the limitation teachers can adopt some modifications, they can modify the test based on the student’s need and the present of a strong impairment. They can decide to split long tests in sub-tests (reducing quantity but not quality), depending on the profile they can be exempted from taking part at same tests or reduce the amount of material to memorize.