Teaching pragmatics in a foreign language class and its importance in language learning

This article deals with the role of authentic children’s literature in foreign language teaching. The acquisition of a foreign language is a long and complex process in which language learners encounter a myriad of teaching methods and strategies. The importance of the study lies in the fact that literature, which is a crucial element of language and culture learning, is relatively neglected in foreign language teaching in schools. The aim of this paper is to explore, analyse and present, based on the scientific literature, the role of authentic literary works in language teaching, highlighting the advantages and at the same time describing the disadvantages and the difficulties encountered so that teachers can better adapt if they wish to use this approach in their own pedagogical repertoire. Literature contributes to a deeper knowledge and acquisition of the target culture and different languages and thus plays an essential role in the process of foreign language learning. Authentic, i. e. original, English-language literature provides teachers with an excellent opportunity to use appropriate language samples and examples to demonstrate real language use. The main purpose of using literature in foreign language classrooms is to promote learners’ overall language skills [5; 6; 17; 21]. Literary texts contain many examples of real-life language that are not found in textbooks. At the same time, literature is often criticised as being inappropriate to learners’ language level, challenging both syntactically and lexically. The literature analysis and its synthesis are presented in detail in the article. This paper also introduces prominent scholars in the field and analyse the latest research on the study of literature in the English classroom in primary and secondary schools. Finally, conclusions are drawn, and the case for further study of the issue is argued.

Language anxiety has serious repercussions for the process of foreign language (FL) learning and use. Some scholars (e.g., MacIntyre, 1999) even consider it the strongest predictor of success in FL learning. At the same time, several studies have suggested that the most anxiety-generating skill is speaking and that the FL aspect which frequently causes apprehension and fear of being ridiculed is pronunciation (e.g., Phillips, 1992; Price, 1991; Young, 1992). Interestingly, though several language-specific anxiety types have been identified and tools to measure them have been devised, no attempt to examine in depth the construct of anxiety related specifically to FL pronunciation and to design an instrument to diagnose it has been made. A better understanding of the concept seems particularly important when taking into account the fact that speaking is a condition necessary for acquisition (e.g., Savignon, 2005; Skehan, 1989) and that pronunciation anxiety (PA) appears to be significantly related to students’ willingness to communicate in the FL classroom (Baran-Łucarz, 2014a). The present paper has three major aims. First of all, it presents a working model of PA, whose underlying subcomponents are pronunciation self-perceptions (pronunciation self-image, self-efficacy and self-assessment), fear of negative evaluation, and a set of beliefs about pronunciation learning, its role in communication, and about how it sounds. Secondly, the initial version of an instrument (i.e., the Measure of Pronunciation Anxiety in the FL Classroom), designed to measure the construct is introduced. Thirdly, results of piloting the questionnaire among 151 young adults, and establishing its reliability and validity are reported. The paper closes with suggestions on how to refine the instrument and ideas for future research in this area.

It is quite common that the non-authentic frameworks where foreign language teachers could find themselves faced by manufactured pedagogical materials in foreign language classrooms, may seem artificial and unrealistic to both teachers and students, questioning whether learners are being prepared appropriately for communicative real life contexts in the modern time societies. The present study, then, represents a small-scale attempt to explore teachers and students’ attitudes and dispositions towards the use of authentic materials in the Algerian University. To this end, 87 first year LMD students as well as 06 EFL teachers from the English Department at Blida 2 University took part in the study. The findings from semi-structured interviews, surveys, and class observation, showed that nearly most participant teachers and students welcomed the idea of using less contrived and more realistic materials in the foreign language classes. In addition, both EFL teachers and students hold positive attitudes towards the valuable language opportunities that authentic materials could offer to meet the realness of the real world outside the foreign language class, which would positively affect the students’ foreign language skill

This study deals with the use of images in the foreign language classroom. My research in more than 500 texts on the use of visual media in foreign language teaching shows that for centuries images have been recommended as teaching tools for foreign language classes because of their didactic functions (for the clarification of meaning, the practice of grammar and vocabulary, motivation, increase of memory and intercultural learning). It also shows that because of their wide use teaching methodologists demanded in 1989 to train students' visual competences. However, barely any empirical research has been done in German foreign language teaching methodology regarding these assumed didactic functions; and competence models for the development of visual competences (visual literacy) are still lacking. Yet, both are needed to employ images in language classes in a goal-oriented and successful manner. Based on scientific research by visual studies / visual culture this study devises principles for the use of visual media in foreign language teaching. With reference to psychological studies it explains the didactic functions of images (see above) and draws up conditions that have to be met for the successful use of visual media. To facilitate the choice of suitable images for class this study presents a typology of images for foreign language teaching, which is based on categories from the field of visual culture. Next, this study develops a methodology for the work with images in the foreign language classroom, referring to scientific methods but also considering important didactic principles such as process-orientation. In addition, with reference to research on visual literacy this study introduces a definition of visual competence as well as competence models. One chapter brings together the didactic functions of images, their conditions, the typology of images, the methodology, the definition of visual competence, and the competence models and shows how these results can be implemented in class: For two English classes I chose pictures of different types because of their didactic function(s). In a next step, I devised tasks to have the students work with the pictures according to didactic principles (process-orientation, action-orientation etc.). Due to the new methodology the students' visual competences can be trained in this course, too. This helps them to access and understand images which supports the images' didactic function(s). I conclude that visual studies is the key to the effective use of pictures in foreign language classes because it is the source of the results that I base my hermeneutic study on.

There are a large number of foreign language learners in China. Lots of research has been done on how to improve foreign language learning efficiency, but in reviewing the foreign language learning researches, it can be easily seen that the cultural effects on foreign language learning have not been given its due attention. Much of the research has been done within the scope of particular theories. This thesis attempts to explore the science of foreign language learning from the perspective of cultural effects on language learners, especially the effects of culture on foreign language learning beliefs. The efficiency of foreign language learning can be improved by improving learning strategies, which in turn are determined by language learning beliefs. The language learning beliefs are adversely affected by such cultural factors in Chinese culture as patterns of social hierarchy, face, collectivism and past oriented time concept. These cultural patterns help explain the existing language learning beliefs in China. Understanding the effects of these cultural patterns on foreign language learning beliefs, foreign language teachers can better understand students' learning beliefs and help students in turn with the evaluation of their learning beliefs; students of foreign languages can develop their own independent understanding of the foreign language, avoiding some false language learning beliefs.

Due to the development of globalization, people have higher and higher requirements for foreign language learning, and oral expression has become a difficult problem faced by many students. Oral anxiety has also appeared in many foreign language learning classes. This paper studies students' oral anxiety in foreign language classrooms. This paper first analyzes the origin and influence of language anxiety, and then discusses the forms of classroom oral anxiety and its influence in depth and detail, and discusses the influencing factors of oral anxiety from the aspects of subjective and objective factors. It is found that individual differences, learning motivation, self-evaluation, cultural background and values can form oral anxiety, which harms students' foreign language use and mental health. This study also tries to put forward some countermeasures to relieve international students' oral English anxiety in class, such as changing self-cognition, improving self-evaluation, establishing learning motivation, and jointly coping with and reducing oral English anxiety with teachers and schools.

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) has been a perennial concern in language learning, as foreign language (FL) learners often communicate feelings of anxiety, stress, or nervousness. This study explored the role of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in speaking practice for FLA management of 48 undergraduate participants in an EFL class in Egypt. An eight‐week, quasi‐experimental pretest–posttest design examined learner anxiety levels using a 33‐item FLA questionnaire. Their oral proficiency was assessed via roleplaying using an interaction‐enhanced public version of the IELTS speaking evaluation rubric. The results confirmed that FL learners experienced FLA pre‐ and post‐intervention. The identified anxiety levels played a facilitative role in FL learning with several ensuing gains. The use of conversationally enhanced AI chatbots in interactive activities slightly intensified learners' FLA, thus meriting further investigation of these objectives. Overall, subject to further development, AI chatbots are promising for significantly improving linguistic output gains; however, this study found that learners' speech‐related anxieties were not reduced following the interactions with the chatbots. It is concluded that FLA plays an underexplored facilitative role in sharpening learner cognitive faculties and linguistic capacities. Moreover, AI chatbots may be beneficial in advancing FL learning with significant potential in EFL contexts, facilitating improved interaction and oral communication. These findings support the integration of AI technologies as effective tools in FL education, providing flexible, interactive, and learner‐centred learning. This study is expected to be of considerable interest to FL educators and learners.

Emotionality plays a significant role in teaching and learning a foreign language. Emotions are always present in a foreign language classroom, and teachers and learners aim to determine how to regulate them (Bielak & Mystkowska-Wiertelak, 2020). In the literature on applied linguistics and psycholinguistics, the importance of emotions has been subject to considerable discussion (Dewaele, 2010; Pavlenko, 2006; Wierzbicka, 1999). We already know that students’ and teachers’ emotional needs should be discussed, understood, and met to develop (Aron, 2013; Mercer & Gregersen, 2020). Despite the importance of emotionality, there remains a paucity of evidence on language learners’ perceptions of emotions and emotionality. Researching perception seems to be an essential strategy for understanding any element influencing the affective dimension of a foreign language classroom, especially when we consider the psychological state of teachers and students due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the generally poor mental health that characterises young people from Generation Z. Thus, the primary aim of the following study was to analyse spoken definitions of emotionality, provided by Generation Z university students (N = 70). The analysis was conducted at the intersection of psycholinguistics and applied linguistics. It employed qualitative content analysis. The results show an informative picture of how GenZers talk about such personal issues as emotions, which will certainly be helpful for educators and researchers in the context of psycholinguistics and well-being research.

Family factors significantly influence the development of critical thinking (CT) dispositions. Yet, the dynamics of this influence among foreign language (FL) learners remain underexplored, with potential moderating factors still unclear. Building on social capital theory, social support theory, and ecological systems theory, this study explored this relationship among FL learners and further investigated whether teacher support moderates this connection. A total of 16,006 secondary students from China participated in the study, spanning grades 7 through 12 (M age = 14.842 years, SD = 1.416). Data were collected using student-reported CT disposition scale, FL teacher support scale, and SES questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis revealed a positive relationship between SES and CT dispositions of FL learners. Furthermore, moderation analysis showed that teacher support positively moderated this relationship. That is, higher levels of teacher support enhanced the positive effect of SES on CT dispositions among FL learners. This research has both theoretical and practical implications for the development of CT dispositions among FL learners.

Contents: Preface. J.K. Hall, L.S. Verplaetse, The Development of Second and Foreign Language Learning Through Classroom Interaction. Part I: Classroom Interaction and Foreign Language Learning. C. Kinginger, Learning the Pragmatics of Solidarity in the Networked Foreign Language Classroom. A.S. Ohta, Rethinking Recasts: A Learner-Centered Examination of Corrective Feedback in the Japanese Language Classroom. P.N. Sullivan, Spoken Artistry: Performance in a Foreign Language Classroom. D.A. Consolo, Teachers' Action and Student Oral Participation in Classroom Interaction. P.A. Duff, Repetition in Foreign Language Classroom Interaction. E. Takahashi, T. Austin, Y. Morimoto, Social Interaction and Language Development in a FLES Classroom. Part II: Classroom Interaction and Second Language Learning. M. Boyd, V.M. Maloof, How Teachers Can Build On Student-Proposed Intertextual Links to Facilitate Student Talk in the ESL Classroom. D.E. McCormick, R. Donato, Teacher Questions as Scaffolded Assistance in an ESL Classroom. D. Boxer, F. Cortes-Conde, Identity and Ideology: Culture and Pragmatics in Content-Based ESL. L.S. Verplaetse, Mr. Wonder-ful: Portrait of a Dialogic Teacher. R. Damhuis, A Different Teacher Role in Language Arts Education: Interaction in a Small Circle With Teacher. M. Hajer, Creating a Language-Promoting Classroom: Content-Area Teachers at Work. J.K. Hall, Classroom Interaction and Additional Language Learning: Implications for Teaching and Research.

This study focuses on primary foreign language teaching and learning. It seeks to reveal the perspectives and practice of three different stakeholders: specialist teachers, generalist teachers and head teachers. The study then places these beliefs and practice within a local, national and international context, considering the supporting factors for Primary Foreign Languages (PFL), as well as the challenges. It is a timely piece of research as it was conducted during the period when foreign language learning, for the first time in England, became statutory in primary schools. Furthermore, it took place during a timeframe of rapid change at all levels of education, which has had an effect on the translation of policy to practice. Data collection took place in two phases. In Phase One, an initial PFL practice mapping online questionnaire was sent to all schools in the Local Authority (LA) (n=69). Three schools agreed to participate. In Phase Two data collection methods employed in each of the three schools consisted of participant observations, semi-structured interviews, a self-reflective diary, informal conversation with staff and analysis of policy documents. The findings of the study show that all stakeholders in each school were supportive of PFL. However, this support did not translate into practice as the responsibility for PFL often rested solely with the specialist. As a result, the subject and specialists could be described as annexed, not fully integrated into the curriculum, and the specialists sought support from private companies instead of internally within the school. The majority of generalist teachers did not feel qualified to deliver the subject and there was a lack of future training options open to teachers wishing to train as PFL specialists. Those teachers who did express an interest in learning how to teach PFL felt that they could not engage fully with this endeavour due to internal and external pressure imposed upon them to achieve the highest possible pupil attainment in English and Maths. A disconnect was also revealed between the teachers’ most popular rationale for PFL teaching, which was preparing children to be ‘21st century global citizens’, and their actual practice. The teachers in the study recognised that, through learning a language and experiencing its culture, it may be possible to move from “egocentricity and ethnocentricity to a more altruistic sense of mutual benefit” (Byram, 2008:131). However, while espousing support for the teaching of intercultural understanding (ICU), the study reveals a lack of understanding in practice from stakeholders, policy writers and teachers. Overall, there is much goodwill for PFL as a subject, however, due to national and international drivers, it occupies a vulnerable place within the curriculum.

This study focused on instructors teaching German as a foreign language at two UK universities and examined their experiences with and attitudes toward free online neural machine translation (FONMT). In September 2022, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data. The results indicate a general openness toward FONMT, with instructors making varying assumptions regarding their learners’ reasons for utilizing FONMT. In addition, the instructors’ underlying conceptions of language learning in relation to FONMT became apparent and influenced their perspectives on assessment. The author presents FONMT from an instructor's perspective as a triangular relationship between assumptions (about students’ rationales), expectations (in light of language learning), and assessment (of language learning). Consequently, it appeared essential to consider potential reasons for using FONMT and the objectives of language learning when implementing FONMT in foreign language teaching and learning. By doing so, strategies become visible for both teacher training and language instruction that may assist learners in a purposeful use of FONMT while resisting its allure.

The ongoing debate on code switching (CS) in multilingual societies and Foreign Language (FL) classes is still relevant and worth considering. This linguistic phenomenon simply refers to altering from one language to another during speech and writing (Richards and Schmidt 2013). While some authorities propose that interactions between learners and instructors in the FL class be carried out only in the target language, other opinions favour a careful blend of both target and source languages. Ghana, a multilingual country in West Africa, adopted English as its official language during the colonial era. French was later introduced to promote regional integration among Ghana and her neighbours, especially since Ghana is greatly surrounded by francophone countries within the subregion (Gandolfi et al. 2021). French has since then been the second most widely taught FL in the country, with a presence in almost all stages of the Ghanaian academic trajectory. This multilingual position of Ghana makes it common to find elements of CS present in FL classrooms, where both instructors and learners occasionally resort to English for instructional conversations (Chachu 2016). This study focuses on university students’ perceptions of CS between English as the source language and French as a foreign language (FFL) during the instruction of the latter. Some frameworks for teaching and learning FFL in Ghana prefer that the language of instruction and interaction be limited to the target language only (Soku and Azanku 2015). The Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR) however, suggests the possible use of CS for purposes of instruction when there are favourable conditions (Council of Europe 2001). To identify the roles of CS and investigate FL students’ opinions on this, our data was gathered from classroom observations and questionnaires that had both Likert scale and open-ended questions. This was at the end of their first semester of studying university-level FFL. It was observed that CS plays a significant role in the understanding of linguistic concepts and greatly improves students’ engagement and participation in the FL class. Of the 36 respondents, 34 felt their academic needs were met when the language of instruction and interaction alternated between French and English. Twenty-nine students reported losing focus easily in the FFL class in instances where the medium of interaction was limited to French alone, while 26 reported feeling nervous whenever they were asked to only communicate in French. For metalinguistic aspects of the language, 33 students, constituting 91.7% were of the view that a careful blend of English and French could go a long way to aid their understanding and foster the learning of grammatical concepts. Generally, students attested to better retention of vocabulary in the target language when there was a good blend of both languages. It is recommended therefore that language instructors resort periodically to CS to ensure understanding and engagement from students. CS also helps learners have the opportunity to intervene with their limited linguistic structures when they are faced with linguistic challenges in the FL classroom. Click here to read the corresponding ISSOTL blog post.

Language is the bearer of human thoughts and reasoning. Culture should become an integral part of teaching and learning foreign languages. Both society and its culture change over time. The language of this culture is being invigorated by new elements. Effective integration will help the teacher professionally present the content of his lesson by selecting appropriate cultural tools that will facilitate teaching and learning.Language and culture are inseparable, so any change in language threatens culture. Because language is a means of preserving the culture of the people, promoting social interaction and unity of both. Use of language means the transfer of people’s culture. Language expresses, preserves, and transmits the entire set of patterns, behaviors, beliefs, traditions, and customs of the thinking patterns of one group of people different from another.It has been repeatedly found that many students who have studied Russian and have visited Russia have differed significantly from those who did not have the opportunity. A foreign language learner also learns the cultural knowledge and skills necessary to be competent in learning a foreign language. Therefore, it is considered necessary to include culture in a foreign language curriculum, as this helps to avoid the stereotypical notion that language is not part of culture.Teaching culture creates awareness of the geographical environment, the historical or political development of a foreign culture, its customs and the literary achievements of its members. The task of the teacher is to stimulate students’ interest in the target culture and to promote the creation of a foreign language class. Love for one’s language is an aspect of cultural consciousness. Everything that a person thinks is expressed in language and embodied in our lives. The main purpose of teaching culture in a foreign language class is to raise students’ awareness and develop their interest in the target culture on their own.

This article aims to apply Stenhouse’s process model of curriculum to foreign language (FL) education, a model which is characterized by enacting principles of procedure which are specific to the discipline which the school subject belongs to. Rather than to replace or dissolve current approaches to FL teaching and curriculum development, this article seeks to improve and enrich communicative and task-based orientations with an additional criterion for assessing the educational worth of the tasks through which these orientations are developed. Unlike the objectives and competences models, principles of procedure provide an intrinsic justification of school curriculum by enacting the epistemological structure of any given area of knowledge in the educational process. Accordingly, the article will first justify the need to come up with a process model of curriculum for FL education which is built around such principles; then, it will formulate a basic framework that reflects the logical structure, concepts and epistemological perspectives of the language studies, as a first step to allowing these to enter the FL classroom and orient the teaching conducted in it; finally, it will present three tasks whose design was inspired by the abovementioned framework, and which were put into practice with Primary education English as a Foreign Language learners during the 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 academic years.