Seeing and Saying Things In English

LLAS: Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, 2004

ENGLISH: How to teach the relativity of the concept of 'English', the relationship between language and 'thought', and strategies for adapting one's 'English' to the mind set of one's interlocutor. A shortened version of the full paper with the same title, as yet unpublished, delivered at the Pedagogical Forum of the 4th IALIC Conference, Lancaster University, 15.12.2003, and downloadable here: https://www.academia.edu/462267/Seeing_and_Saying_Things_In_English This shortened version was given at the CILT Higher Education Conference, University of London, 30.6.2004, and.appeared on the LLAS (Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies website, www.llas.ac.uk. The site was discontinued.in 2014 but an archived copy of the paper is still conserved on the WayBack machine (see link below). It is that copy which is made available here. ITALIANO: La relatività del concetto di "inglese", il rapporto tra linguaggio e "pensiero", nonché, in virtù di ciò, le strategie per meglio adattare ai propri interlocutori il proprio modo di parlare in inglese.

Revista ConCiencia EPG, 2020

El artículo tiene como objetivoproponer una enseñanza delidioma inglés basada en contextosde la vida cotidiana, mediante elenfoque comunicativo. Asimismo, se haceuna revisión teórica sobre este tema,comparado con el método de traduccióngramatical, donde se analiza la efectividaddel enfoque comunicativo en el proceso deenseñanza-aprendizaje del inglés. Lainvestigación es de tipo descriptivaexplicativa, donde se determina que, losdocentes desarrollan métodostradicionales aplicados a la enseñanza delinglés. En este sentido, la experienciapráctica demuestra en la actualidad, que, laaplicación del enfoque comunicativo esmínima, limitándose el desarrollo delproceso de enseñanza del idioma inglés.Este método, fomenta el uso de actividadessignificativas, donde, los estudiantes estánexpuestos a situaciones reales en contextosdiferentes del aula. Los resultados, seasocian a un cambio positivo a partir demétodos comunicativos en el aprendizaje yenseñanza del inglés

Approaches to Language in the Classroom Context, 2001

It offers an overview of language teaching by looking at its theory and practice. It explores how learner’s interlanguage has developed, what it is, how it is formed, what influences it, and so on. It deals with the influence of these ideas on classroom practice with the aim of extracting pointers for the future of instructed second language acquisition.

V Encontro Internacional de Formação na Docência (INCTE): livro de atas, 2020

This paper proposes a classroom intervention for teachers to use in their English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lessons to familiarise their students with the idea of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Here, Spanish students’ perceptions towards non-standard varieties of English in international contexts are investigated. The study, first of all, reveals an awareness by the majority of the participants of the need to learn to communicate better with other non-native speakers of English inside the EFL classroom. Most claim they would like their teachers to pay more attention to pronunciation in order to avoid misunderstandings, others suggest they need more exposure to non-standard varieties of English to be prepared for real-life interactions, proving that the proposed intervention raises students’ awareness towards the intercultural usage of English in global communication settings. The main objective of this paper is to, first, analyse the rise of English as a lingua franca, and, secondly, show a classroom experience designed to teach Spanish students Global English, instead of the traditional Standard English, with the aim of facilitating real-life communication outside the classroom. This classroom experience aims at raising awareness towards other varieties of English which students will most likely encounter in international contexts. This classroom experience proves that students are not presented to world Englishes in their learning process, not even C1 level students, which is the second highest level of English learning according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). It is clear that this intervention raises students’ awareness and creates more intelligible English speakers who are more prepared for international communication. After seeing the potential of this short classroom experience, one could claim that a wider classroom intervention based on this experiment could result in not only aware English speakers but also more intelligible ones, prepared for international interactions in today’s era: the era of the communication. This classroom intervention could be modified to be implemented in any other EU country for common intelligibility amongst EU nations.

The concept of 'concrete utterance' maintained by Bakhtin and its Circle questions the use of standard language, that is an established model language which does not respond any more to the needs of its users. A good example of this phenomenon is the remarkable spread of English all over the world used by speakers of other languages for specific purposes. It poses a debate about what English language we speak in a global context, and consequently what language is acceptable according to the 'norm'. If we consider that in international contexts only few English native-speakers, if any, are involved in the use of English as a vehicular, or a common foreign language, it is immediately evident that a new medium is in use, distant from British culture connotations, and more often locally connoted in terms of different accents, even new lexis adequately chosen by the concrete users in a given, specific, unique context.

2017

Conrado, 2020

RESUMEN The article focuses on the development of conversational competence in the teaching-learning process of foreign languages (FL). Current studies around this category demand a didactics to be oriented towards awareness, practice and reflection on the structural elements and mechanisms of conversation in order to achieve an optimal communicative performance in the students. However, the current methodology needs to deepen, from more critical and reflective positions, in the dynamics of the teaching-learning process, as the integration of knowledge, skills, strategies and attitudes that intervene in the conversational interactive dynamics has not been sufficiently addressed, especially in their relationship with context and intercultural exchange. The position argued in this work is that the dynamics of the teaching-learning process of conversational competence must be based on the development of collaborative relationships and symmetry among the students in order to co-construct a common interactive discourse, marked by the use of communicative and socio-affective strategies that allow to enhance the conversational skills of FL learners. ABSTRACT El artículo se centra en el desarrollo de la compe-tencia conversacional en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de las lenguas extranjeras (LE). Los estudios actuales en torno a dicha categoría deman-dan una didáctica orientada hacia la sensibilización, práctica y reflexión de los elementos y mecanismos estructurales de la conversación para alcanzar un óptimo desempeño comunicativo en los estudiantes. Sin embargo, la metodología actual necesita profun-dizar, desde posiciones más críticas y reflexivas, en la dinámica del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, pues aún no se ha trabajado, suficientemente, en la integración de los conocimientos, habilidades, es-trategias y actitudes que intervienen en la dinámi-ca interactiva conversacional, en su relación con el contexto y el intercambio intercultural. La posición que se argumenta en este trabajo es que la diná-mica del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la competencia conversacional debe fundamentarse en el desarrollo de relaciones de colaboración y si-metría en el alumnado para co-construir un discurso interactivo común, marcado por el uso de estrate-gias comunicativas y socio-afectivas que permitan potenciar las habilidades conversacionales de los aprendices de LE.

2017

This paper investigates the nature and properties of violations of conversational maxims in isiXhosa. In a conversation, a speaker and a hearer are supposed to respond to each other in turn and exchange with the information that benefits both of them. By giving the required information, they can understand each other‘s utterances for their conversations to be effective. The speaker and the hearer are said to have fulfilled the Cooperative Principle when they manage to achieve a successful conversation. By applying Cooperative Principle, the speaker allows the hearer to draw assumptions about the speaker‘s intentions and the implied meaning. However, people sometimes cannot fulfil those maxims and they seem to violate them. Violation is the condition where the speakers do not purposefully fulfil certain maxim. Speakers who violate a maxim cause the hearer not to know the truth and only understand the surface meaning of the speaker‘s words. In doing so the speaker can violate more tha...