In search of processes of language use in foreign language didactics. Polish studies in English language and literature [Crossroads and Interfaces: Studies in Linguistics and Literature], vol. 37.

Dakowska, Maria:

ISBN 10: 3631657900 / ISBN 13: 9783631657904

Published by Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2015

About this Item

370 pp., 1 b/w fig., 20 tables. A fresh, clean copy. - Summary: The author addresses key questions of foreign language teaching: How does foreign language learning take place? What is the mechanism of foreign language use and learning? What are the sources of our understanding of these processes? What significance does our understanding have for foreign language teaching? The main argument is that, in order to deal with the complexity of language learning and meet the current demands for foreign language competency, we must employ the framework of an empirical, relatively autonomous discipline of Foreign Language Didactics, constituted as a «normal» science which strives to understand foreign language learning as its subject-matter. This constructivist psycholinguistic conception targets language learning processes in the real world, i.e. as language use in the context of verbal communication, i.e. comprehension and production in speech and writing. The processes are represented as taking place in the learners cognitive system for information processing in communicative interaction, a universal human phenomenon. This perspective leads to systematic options and strategies for the practical teaching of foreign languages with focus on English as a world language. - Table of Contents: Introduction -- In a nutshell -- The purpose and its limits -- Some important conceptual distinctions -- The questions -- Chapter 1. Addressing the mystery of language learning and teaching: a retrospective sketch -- Introduction: colonizing the unknown territory -- 1.1. The pre-linguistic stage: grammar as the key to foreign language learning and its alternatives -- 1.1.1. Preoccupation with grammar -- 1.1.2. Alternatives to the Grammar-Translation Method -- 1.1.3. Characteristic features of the pre-linguistic stage -- 1.1.4. Contributions of Sweet, Jespersen and Palmer. The impact of phonetics -- 1.2. The linguistic stage: the role of the source disciplines in the mid-twentieth century -- 1.2.1. Approach, method, technique -- 1.2.2. The role of Transformational Generative Grammar -- 1.2.3. Selecting a descriptive linguistic model of language -- 1.2.4. Complicating the relationship of the field with the source disciplines -- 1.3. The present: mapping the territory -- 1.4. Toward autonomy -- 1.5. Concluding remarks -- Chapter 2. Targeting the relevant aspect of language: focus on language use -- Introduction: on the many facets of language -- 2.1. How to reduce the complexity of the problem? -- 2.2. The format of 'normal' academic disciplines as a source of orientation -- 2.2.1. Scientific activities as specialization of human cognitive processes -- 2.2.2. How can scientists communicate with the empirical reality? -- 2.2.3. On the interface between Foreign Language Didactics as an empirical discipline and the empirical reality -- 2.2.4. What informs a 'normal' academic discipline? -- 2.3. On the meaning of the adjective 'interdisciplinary' -- 2.4. Applications in a 'normal' academic discipline -- 2.5. The field of Foreign Language Didactics as a 'normal' academic discipline -- 2.5.1. Deriving models of language learning from language use -- 2.5.2. The human locus of foreign language use and learning -- 2.5.3. The learner as human information-processor -- 2.6. Advantages of regarding language use and learning as human information processing -- 2.7. The constructive contribution of the language learner to language use -- 2.8. Concluding remarks -- Chapter 3. Focus on the learner's cognitive equipment: the mechanism of human information processing (HIP) -- Introduction: the cognitive site of foreign language use -- 3.1. Distinctive properties of human cognitive functioning -- 3.2. Human information processing (HIP) -- 3.2.1. Hierarchies (subordinate and superordinate levels) in human cognitive functioning -- 3.2.2. The mechanism of human information processing including foreign language use -- 3.2.3. Perception: the interface between the subject and the.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: In search of processes of language use in foreign language didactics. Polish studies in English language and literature [Crossroads and Interfaces: Studies in Linguistics and Literature], vol. 37.
• Publisher: Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3631657900
• ISBN 13: 9783631657904
• Binding: Original hardcover, 22 cm.
• Condition: Wie neu
• Weight: 540 grams
• Seller catalogs:
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About this title

Synopsis

The author addresses key questions of foreign language teaching: How does foreign language learning take place? What is the mechanism of foreign language use and learning? What are the sources of our understanding of these processes? What significance does our understanding have for foreign language teaching? The main argument is that, in order to deal with the complexity of language learning and meet the current demands for foreign language competency, we must employ the framework of an empirical, relatively autonomous discipline of Foreign Language Didactics, constituted as a «normal» science which strives to understand foreign language learning as its subject-matter. This constructivist psycholinguistic conception targets language learning processes in the real world, i.e. as language use in the context of verbal communication, i.e. comprehension and production in speech and writing. The processes are represented as taking place in the learner’s cognitive system for information processing in communicative interaction, a universal human phenomenon. This perspective leads to systematic options and strategies for the practical teaching of foreign languages with focus on English as a world language.

About the Author

Maria Dakowska is a Professor of Applied Linguistics affiliated with the Institute of English Studies at the University of Warsaw (Poland). She works with EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher trainees, lectures, as well as conducts MA and PhD seminars on TEFL. Her academic interests range from Foreign Language Didactics as a scientific discipline to conceptions, current developments and strategies of teaching English as a foreign language. She has studied at universities in Britain, the US and Germany, authored six monographs and numerous articles in Poland and abroad.