Language Learning has utilized technology for decades, and while world-wide social dynamics place more demands for language learning, there has not been a widespread use of a specific technology as the dominant medium for language learning. In the meanwhile, Virtual Worlds technology emerged during the last two decades as an immersive technology that offers an online representation of reality, allowing user interaction with the surrounding environment including objects and other users through Internet-enabled desktop personal computers. Since their introduction, Virtual Worlds have grown in popularity, and are now utilized by a large online community as social and gaming environments. Over two decades of research have shown the potential of Virtual Worlds for learning in various fields, but very few empirical studies have been dedicated to explore Virtual Worlds for language learning. The focus of this PhD research project is to explore the potential of the Virtual World Second Life in enabling effective language learning. The research question is as follows: ‘Could Virtual Worlds offer a suitable language learning environment, similar or better than that offered by traditional media of language learning?’ Towards answering that question, a pilot and two studies were conducted in 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. Arabic language classes were delivered to groups of language learners in the UK using different media of language learning: a face-to-face (f-to-f) classroom, a videoconferencing (VC) classroom, and a Virtual World (VW) classroom. The language learning quality outcomes along with student attitudes were assessed through a comparative analysis between the three media, involving attitude surveys, interviews, assessments of learning outcomes, and the critical incident method applied to video recordings. Due to several limitations, the effectiveness of the VW medium in enhancing the quality of the language learning experience was found lacking in the light of data collected and analyzed. A set of conditions and recommendations is therefore described to better utilize VWs for language learning.

Learner autonomy is widely recognised as a desirable goal in tertiary education as it is found to comply with learner-centred approaches and enable students to pursue life-long learning (Sinclair, 2000a; Ciekanski, 2007). In language teaching and learning literature, it has become the main interest of researchers and practitioners who believe that learner autonomy can enhance students’ chance for success in learning a language. A great amount of research has been done to investigate various ways to foster learner autonomy in language teaching around the world (e.g., Benson, 2001; Breeze, 2002; Chan, 2001; Cotterall, 1995; Dam, 1995; Jing, 2006; Lo, 2010; L.C.T. Nguyen and Gu, 2013). However, learner autonomy is still widely considered a ‘western’ concept and much of the research has either been conducted in a western context or based on the western view of learner autonomy (Pierson, 1996, Sinclair, 2000a; Chan, 2001). This research aimed to gain more understanding of the development of learner autonomy in English language learning among students at a private university in Hochiminh city, Vietnam. The study has revealed that the major perception of learner autonomy in this Vietnamese context relates to ‘taking the initiative’ in learning, especially in selfstudy. The type of learner autonomy, as understood and practised by students in the context of Vietnamese tertiary education, has been argued to have the characteristics of Littlewood’s (1999) reactive autonomy. This finding lends itself to the application of Sinclair’s (2000a) teacher-guided/learner-decided approach to promoting learner autonomy. In other words, an integrated learner training programme (ILTP), which gradually developed students’ capacity to take more control in the learning process by providing them with metacognitive strategies for learning management, raising their awareness of themselves as learners and of the learning context, and encouraging them to explore the English language and its learning strategies, was perceived to foster the students’ willingness and enhance their ability to take the initiative in learning and create a habit of engaging more in self-directed learning. This study has also identified certain obstacles to promoting learner autonomy in Vietnam. In particular, the exam-oriented educational context poses significant challenges to both teachers and students in their efforts to promote autonomous learning. These difficulties include time constraints and a stringent syllabus. In addition to the contextual constraints, the large power distance between teachers and students in Vietnamese culture was also suggested to be a factor in hindering learner autonomy because it results in teacher reliance and an authoritarian view of the roles of teachers in the language classroom. This cultural trait, combined with the contextual constraints, seems to discourage teachers from giving students more control in the classroom and, at the same time, inhibits students from taking such control.

This is a study of how teachers, students and administrators in a particular university's language department in Guanajuato, Mexico, construct the English teachers' professional image. The experiences of ten teachers, fourteen students, and two administrators at the Language Department of the University of Guanajuato in Mexico are explored through data obtained from conversations, narratives, critical incidents, e-mail correspondence and field-notes. This thesis began as an investigation of the construction of the 'native/non-native' debate. However, it arrived at a final point which is concerned about the ways in which individual perceptions are constructed and affected through historical or social pressures. From the data collected key areas emerged, such as: identity, labelling and the socio-political relationship between Mexico and the United States and its consequences. The data shows the polarization that exists between 'native speakers' and 'non-native speakers' themselves concerning aspects such as birthplace, ethnicity and nationality. In order to make sense of this data, I decided to employ the concept of spin to explain how images of the English teacher and speaker are constructed and maintained (or rejected) by participants. This is used as a lens to understand the evolution of the creation of the 'native speaker' image and labels. This helps understand how the 'native speaker' image came to play such a critical —and sometimes apparently harmful— role in the construction of the Other and the Self. Specifically, the 'native speaker' spin was not a point of investigation, but emerged as a significant tool for the discussion of the data as the analysis progressed. Overall this study seems to set a precedent that there is no clear-cut division between 'native' and 'non-native speakers'. Rising awareness of how complex labels operate through discourses, institutions and hiring policies may help to bring about more recognition of commonalities of English teachers as professionals.

Although there have been numerous studies on motivation in foreign language learning and on emotions in general education, little research in foreign language learning have focused on the relation between motivation and learners' emotions (Maclntyre, 2002), as this shift to the affective side of motivation has only recently been suggested. Thus, this study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on how foreign language learning motivation is shaped by emotional experiences. In order to gain a better understanding of the emotional experiences originating during classroom instruction and their impact on foreign language learners' motivation, I carried out a qualitative study focusing on 18 students in an ELT programme in a Southeast Mexican university. Data was gathered through personal narratives, an Emotional Reactions Journal and semi-structured interviews. Analysis and interpretation of findings was done using a Grounded Theory approach in order to focus on the views of the participants themselves. Findings reveal the pervasive influence of emotional reactions on foreign language learners' motivation. Emotions, whether negative or positive, impact not only negatively but also positively. Emotional reactions reported by participants mainly originated from teachers' interpersonal skills and the classroom environment. Although participants in this study reported more negative than positive affective experiences, the outcomes of these experiences were positive. The Mexican socio-economic context played a crucial role in helping students transform negative experiences into learning and motivational strategies which proved to be beneficial, not only for their learning processes, but also for their personal development. The study highlights the crucial role language learners' emotional experiences have on their motivational behaviour and the significant influence teachers have on this. Recommendations for language teachers are offered so they can help foreign language learners minimise the negative impact of emotional experiences on their learning process, and promote positive emotions conducive to learning and energising learners' motivation.

Aujourd’hui, la pédagogie des échanges à distance, s’appuyant sur la communication médiée par les outils numériques, permet de porter un regard nouveau sur les capacités des jeunes apprenants possédant un bagage minimal de la langue cible à interagir à distance avec des locuteurs de la langue partenaire. Inscrite dans un cadre socioconstructiviste et interactionniste, la thèse questionne le potentiel que représentent des projets d’échanges s’élaborant en fonction des personnes et des moyens à disposition. Elle s’appuie sur l’observation de quatre partenariats franco-britanniques initiant un projet sur une année scolaire à l’école élémentaire. Elle cible l’apprentissage de l’anglais (et du français sur le principe de la réciprocité des échanges). Elle cherche à identifier les conceptions et intentions initiales des acteurs. Nous observons sur le terrain ce qui se construit à partir des activités conjointes des enseignants et des élèves (collecte de données à partir de dispositifs variés entrant dans le protocole d’une recherche-action). L’analyse s’effectue à partir de deux hypothèses principales, l’une dirigée vers la dimension sociale des échanges et l’autre vers les effets sur l’apprentissage linguistique. La prise en charge des apprenants de leur apprentissage, la diversité des productions et des aptitudes langagières concernées, la cohérence des activités avec le lien social qui s’instaure ou la présence d’une réflexion métacognitive et métalinguistique sont au nombre des caractéristiques des projets étudiés. Elles conduisent à une réflexion sur l’action et l’apprentissage situé propres à favoriser la collaboration et l’autonomisation. / Today, the pedagogy of distance exchange projects based on mediated digital communication tools allows new insights into the ability of young learners with minimal competence in the target language to interact at a distance with young speakers of that language. Situated within a social constructivist and interactionist framework, the study investigates the potential of exchange projects and how they develop according to the people and resources available. Based on observations of four Franco-British partnership projects undertaken in upper primary school (ages 7-10) over one year, it investigates pupils’ learning of English or French through reciprocal exchange projects. It also seeks to identify the participants’ initial project designs and intentions (through questionnaires and interviews). The results of what transpires through the joint activities of teachers and students are examined (various data collection means were employed according to action research protocol). The data analysis follows two main hypotheses: one directed towards the social dimension of (student) exchanges and the other towards the impact on language learning. Organizational variables, as well as technical-educational, psychological and institutional variables are thus examined. Numerous characteristics of the projects observed emerged including: pupils’ taking responsibility for their learning, diversity of language production and language skills involved, coherence between the activities and the established social ties and evidence of metacognitive and metalinguistic reflection. These lead to consideration of the ways in which situated learn-ing and action foster collaboration and empowerment.

There have been profound changes within German culture and society in recent decades including the social reality and legal equality of same-sex couples and parents and an increased visibility of non-heterosexual individuals. Through my many years of formal education and as a teacher of English as a Second or Other language (TESOL) in Germany, I have not seen this reality represented in TESOL education in target language samples, textbooks, images or critical discussions. The aim of this thesis was to explore whether teachers and students on a TESOL language teacher education (LTE) programme at a Bavarian university are aware of issues of gender, sexual diversity and heteronormativity on their programme and in their classrooms. This fits well with the many other studies carried out internationally in this field over the past few years but looks specifically at a politically and culturally homogeneous part of Germany. By adopting a feminist poststructuralist and queer-theoretical approach to create, deliver and reflect on a course geared specifically towards troubling the silence and exclusion of sexual diversity in (language) teacher education, it investigates if and how social change has manifested itself in a Bavarian LTE programme. Through the use of multiple data collection methods, a background questionnaire to situate the students in this Bavarian context, interviews with non-heterosexual staff and students, a troubling course-construction, delivery and recording, a researcher reflective journal, and participant exit interviews and reflective written assessments, this case study examines staff and students' experiences of and attitudes towards heteronormativity in LTE and que(e)ries the potential for change. The findings reveal that there is initially little conscious awareness of the pervasiveness of heteronormative discourses in LTE TESOL classrooms or in language use, but that through que(e)rying materials, critical dialogue, reflection in interviews and classes, practice and active explicit analysis of taken-for-granted exclusions and silences, a heightened and critical awareness can be achieved.

No description available.

Cette thèse vise à dégager les enjeux des rapports entre les différentes modalités d’enseignement et d’apprentissage des langues de statut différent en raison de l’évolution de l’environnement historico-culturel de la région du Banat. J’avance l’hypothèse que les ressources et les stratégies que les élèves utilisent dans l’environnement informel et non-formel des langues peuvent être mobilisées dans l’apprentissage formel des langues à certaines conditions : l’engagement de l’apprenant, le développement de son sentiment d’efficacité personnelle et l’aide de l’expert. L’apport des théories, notamment de la théorie écologique (Van Lier, 2004), m’a conduit à m’interroger sur l’existence potentielle d’un 4e environnement favorable à la mise en synergie des ressources et des stratégies présentes dans ces environnements. Pour étayer cette hypothèse, j’ai mis en place un protocole en deux étapes : tout d’abord, une enquête auprès d’élèves et d’enseignants de la région de Banat sous la forme d’un questionnaire adressé à cent élèves de collège et vingt professeurs, et une enquête qualitative au moyen de dix entretiens semi-directifs. Dans une seconde étape, j’ai mis en œuvre un scénario d’apprentissage de type blog dans ce 4e environnement avec un public de cinq élèves de 5e d’un collège de Timişoara. J’ai analysé les stratégies et l’engagement des élèves roumains pour démontrer comment une approche s’appuyant sur la prise de conscience de la pertinence de ressources et stratégies utilisées dans les environnements informels et non formels est susceptible d’optimiser les performances des élèves dans leur apprentissage d’une langue étrangère. / This doctoral dissertation is part of a systemic reflection and aims at identifying the relationship between different methods of teaching and learning languages due to the evolution of the historic-cultural environment of the Banat region. I put forward the hypothesis that the resources and the strategies used by the pupils within the informal and non-formal environment of languages can be mobilized within formal language learning under certain conditions: the pupil’s commitment, the development of his/her self-efficiency and the expert’s help. The contribution of theories, namely of the ecological theory (Van Lier, 2004), has lead me to question my thinking on the potential existence of a 4th environment favourable to the synergy of resources and strategies present within these environments.In order to support this hypothesis, I have established a two-stage protocol: firstly, an inquiry of pupils and teachers of the Banat region under the form of a questionnaire has been addressed to one hundred secondary school pupils and twenty teachers, and a qualitative inquiry through about ten semi-directive interviews. Secondly, I have established a learning device within this 4th environment, a blog, with an audience of five pupils from the fifth grade of a secondary school in Timişoara. I have thus analysed the strategies and the commitment of the Romanian pupils in order to demonstrate that an approach relying on the awareness of the relevance of the use of resources and strategies within the informal and non-formal environments is responsible for optimising the performances of pupils in foreign language.

Devant des exigences universitaires, notamment méthodologiques, discursives, linguistiques et culturelles, étrangers et natifs sont concernés proportionnellement par ces exigences. Pour le natif, la question sera posée en termes d’adaptation méthodologique et discursive à une institution supérieure au lycée au sein du même système éducative. Tandis que pour l’étranger, il sera question d’acculturation au système, aux discours et à la culture, universitaires d’un système et d’une langue différents des siens. Faire des études supérieures en langue étrangère dépasse les jeux de simulation et faire semblant, puisque les travaux rendus feront l’objet d’une notation et d’évaluation qui conditionne la réussite ou qui causent l’échec. L’étudiant est amené à maitriser différents genres de discours par lesquels il apprend et il est évalué. Le but est de former les étudiants aux savoir-faire académiques que peuvent les aider à acquérir des savoirs spécialisés dans leurs disciplines. L’objectif est de créer chez les étudiants des habilités discursives qui leur permettront « d’intégrer différentes manières dont s’élabore et se transmet le savoir à l’université, et de déceler les spécificités des discours qu’ils fréquentent » (POLLET M-C., 2001, P : 32). Pour ce faire, des dispositifs ont été mis en œuvre comme le « tutorat » ou la « méthodologie du travail universitaire ». Mais, face aux flux des étudiants étrangers et la nécessité de répondre à leurs besoins universitaires, un nouveau concept est né, et petit à petit a commencé à gagner du terrain dans les milieux didactiques, c’est le FOU. Un programme de FOU consiste à explorer les pratiques langagières par lesquelles le savoir circule à l’université. Puis d’essayer d’établir une typologie de différents genres. Ensuite, de dégager des dimensions enseignables conçues sous le principe de la transversalité ou au contraire basée sur la spécificité des genres de chaque discipline / To academic requirements, including methodological, discursive, linguistic and cultural, foreign and native are affected proportionally by these requirements. For the native, the question will be asked in terms of methodological and discursive adaptation to a higher institution to school within the same educational system. Whereas abroad it will issue acculturation to the system, speech and culture, a university system and a different language of his own. Pursue higher education in a foreign language beyond the simulation games and pretend, as the work submitted will be subject to a rating and evaluation that determines the success or cause failure. The student must master different genres of speech by which he learns and is evaluated. The goal is to train students in academic skills that can help them acquire specialized knowledge in their disciplines. The aim is to create in students discursive skills that will enable them to "integrate different ways to develop and transmit knowledge to the university, and to identify specific speeches they attend" (MC POLLET . 2001, P: 32). To do this, devices have been implemented as "mentoring" or "methodology of academic work." But, facing the flow of foreign students and the need to meet their academic needs, a new concept was born, and gradually began to gain ground in educational circles, the frensh for academics purpose. A academic purpose program is to explore the language practices by which knowledge flows university. Then try to establish a typology of different genres. Then, to identify teachable dimensions designed under the principle of cross or otherwise based on the specific kinds of each discipline

Des recherches en psychologie fonctionnaliste et en psychologie sociale ont établi de manière robuste l’existence de liens entre les émotions et la cognition, entre les émotions et l’apprentissage de langues et entre les émotions et les performances en langues étrangères. Cette thèse, inscrite dans le champ des sciences du langage - et de la didactique des langues, a pour objectif de décrire et d’analyser les manifestations verbales des émotions dans des entretiens de conseil à partir d’un corpus constitué d’authentiques séquences de travail enregistrées et transcrites. L’analyse porte sur les épisodes émotionnels et sur les énoncés d’émotions dans le contexte de l’entretien de conseil. La méthodologie utilisée pour repérer les épisodes émotionnels comporte deux étapes : une première étape où des signaux linguistiques considérés comme signalant potentiellement une émotion sont repérés, et par accumulation, indiquent des séquences particulières dans les entretiens de conseil, et une seconde étape où les séquences ainsi isolées sont étudiées qualitativement afin de mettre en évidence la présence ou l’absence d’émotion. Sur le plan des épisodes émotionnels, nos analyses mettent en évidence une gamme d’émotions plus large chez les apprenants, et une tendance chez les conseillères à utiliser leurs propres émotions afin d’effectuer du travail émotionnel auprès de l’apprenant. Sur le plan discursif, l’observation des énoncés d’émotions permet tout d’abord de mettre en évidence la place centrale de l’apprenant : une large majorité des énoncés d’émotions désignent en effet l’apprenant comme personne concernée par l’émotion. Par ailleurs, des postures différentes ont pu être identifiées chez les conseillères et chez les apprenants quant à l’utilisation des termes d’émotion. L’apprenant utilise principalement les énoncés d’émotion afin de s’auto-attribuer des émotions tandis que les conseillères utilisent les énoncés d’émotion afin de projeter des émotions chez les apprenants. Les observations effectuées permettent également de mettre en évidence un lien entre les émotions évoquées dans les entretiens de conseil et le déroulement de la formation. De manière générale, les émotions (épisodes émotionnels et énoncés d’émotion) apparaissent comme des indicateurs précis du déroulement de la formation. / Research in functionalist psychology and social psychology has shown the existence of strong relationships between emotions and cognition, between emotions and language learning, and between emotions and performances in foreign languages. This thesis in applied linguistics aims to describe and analyse the verbal manifestations of emotions from a corpus of authentic advising sessions which were recorded and transcribed. The analysis focuses on emotional episodes and emotion statements in the context of advising sessions. The methodology used to identify emotional episodes comprises two stages: in the first stage, linguistic cues are identified as potential signals of an emotion and, when accumulated, indicate particular sequences of speech; in the second stage, these sequences are isolated and qualitatively studied in order to either confirm or reject the presence of emotions. In terms of emotional episodes, the analyses show that learners exhibit a more diverse range of emotions than advisors. There is also a tendency for advisors to use their own emotions while performing emotional work. The observation of emotion statements shows first the centrality of the learner’s position: a large majority of emotion statements indeed involve the learner. Second, different postures were identified between advisers and learners in the use of terms of emotion. When using emotion statements, learners aim to self-assign emotions while advisers use emotion statements to project emotions on to learners. The analysis also helped to highlight the link between emotions expressed in advising sessions and the rhythm of learning. In general, emotions (emotional episodes and emotion statements) appear to be accurate indicators of progress in the learning process.