Second Language Learning and Teaching

Series Editor
Mirosław Pawlak

For further volumes:

http://www.springer.com/series/10129
About the Series

The series brings together volumes dealing with different aspects of learning and
teaching second and foreign languages. The titles included are both monographs
and edited collections focusing on a variety of topics ranging from the processes
underlying second language acquisition, through various aspects of language
learning in instructed and non-instructed settings, to different facets of the teaching
process, including syllabus choice, materials design, classroom practices and
evaluation. The publications reflect state-of-the-art developments in those areas,
they adopt a wide range of theoretical perspectives and follow diverse research
paradigms. The intended audience are all those who are interested in naturalistic
and classroom second language acquisition, including researchers, methodologists,
curriculum and materials designers, teachers and undergraduate and graduate
students undertaking empirical investigations of how second languages are learnt
and taught.
Mirosław Pawlak Jakub Bielak
•

Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak
Editors

Classroom-oriented
Research
Achievements and Challenges

123
Editors
Mirosław Pawlak
Jakub Bielak
Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak
Zakład Filologii Angielskiej
Adam Mickiewicz University
Kalisz
Poland

ISSN 2193-7648 ISSN 2193-7656 (electronic)

ISBN 978-3-319-00187-6 ISBN 978-3-319-00188-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-00188-3
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013944284

 Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

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Preface

As Allwright and Bailey (1991, p. 18) so aptly comment, following the observation
offered by Gaies (1980), ‘‘(…) the classroom is the crucible—the place where
teachers and learners come together and language learning, we hope, happens. It
happens, when it happens, as a result of the reactions among the elements that go
into the crucible—the teachers and the learners’’. In practice, this means that even
the best laid-out plans concerning how a lesson should proceed are subject to far-
reaching modifications as a result of the various interactions taking place in the
course of this lesson, with the consequence that the impact of the pedagogic
choices made by teachers is extremely difficult to predict. This is because, on the
one hand, such practices have to be modified in many cases in the face of unex-
pected events in the classroom or their limited efficacy in a particular context, and,
on the other, even if they are fully implemented, their impact on second language
development is mediated by a number of variables, the most important of which
are teacher characteristics and individual learner differences. All of this points to
the need to carry out research on different aspects of teaching and learning lan-
guages in a classroom setting with an eye to gaining more profound insights into
these processes and devising ways of enhancing their effectiveness, such that
would be firmly grounded in current theoretical positions and empirical evidence,
but at the same time be practicable in a specific instructional context.
The present volume contributes to this line of inquiry by bringing together
papers dealing with different facets of classroom-oriented research, ranging from
reports of original studies to considerations of issues in research methodology, as
well as providing useful guidelines for everyday classroom practice. The book is
divided into four parts, each including contributions touching on similar topics,
although, in some cases, the choices had to be somewhat arbitrary due to the fact
that the articles were related to more than one of the leading themes. Part I, entitled
Individual Variation, contains four papers which demonstrate how the character-
istics of learners and teachers, in particular age, anxiety, beliefs and the use of
language learning strategies, impact different aspects of classroom language
learning. Part II, Teaching and Learning to Teach, focuses upon the role of the
teacher, both in terms of his or her role in managing classroom interaction,
problems involved in teacher education, and the contribution of action research.
The common theme in Part III, Instructional Practices, are the different actions

v
vi Preface

taken by teachers in order to develop all the components of communicative

competence, with the papers included therein being tied, among others, to the
employment of Internet resources, assessment of learners’ abilities and the pos-
sibilities of integrating content and language in the classroom. Finally, Part IV,
entitled Research Tools, is devoted to issues involved in studying the teaching and
learning processes during language lessons, focusing in particular on the use of
teacher narratives and lesson observation, the benefits of applying mixed methods
research, and the role of triangulation in investigating learner autonomy. We
believe that, thanks to the diversity of the topics covered, the multiplicity of
theoretical perspectives embraced, the inspiring examples of how classroom-based
studies should be designed and conducted, as well as sound guidelines for class-
room practice, this edited collection will be of relevance not only to experts in the
domain of second language acquisition, but also to methodologists, materials
writers, graduate and postgraduate students, and teachers wishing to enhance the
effectiveness of their instructional practices.

Mirosław Pawlak
Jakub Bielak
Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak

References

Allwright, D. and K. M. Bailey. 1991. Focus on the language classroom. An introduction to

classroom research for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gaies, S. J. 1980. Classroom-centered research: Some consumer guidelines. Paper presented at
the Second Annual TESOL Summer Meeting, Albuquerque, NM.
Acknowledgments

The editors would like to express their thanks to Professor Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel
(University of Opole, Poland) for her thoughtful comments and suggestions which
have greatly enhanced the quality of this work.

vii
Contents

Part I Individual Variation

Age and the Classroom Learning of Additional Languages . . . . . . . . . 3

David Singleton and Agnieszka Skrzypek

The Sociolinguistic Parameters of L2 Speaking Anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Christina Gkonou

Stability and Variability in Pre-Service Language Teachers’ Beliefs . . 33

Dorota Werbińska

The Relationship Between Learning Strategies and Speaking

Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Agnieszka Pietrzykowska

Strategy Training and its Application in the Process of Foreign

Language Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Olga Trendak

Part II Teaching and Learning to Teach

On the Role of Teacher Questions in EFL Classrooms: Analysing

Lesson Videos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Petra Kirchhoff and Friederike Klippel

Teacher Interpersonal Communication Abilities in the Classroom

with Regard to Perceived Classroom Justice
and Teacher Credibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Hadrian Lankiewicz

ix
x Contents

Action Research and Teacher Development:

MA Students’ Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Aleksandra Wach

Communicating Solidarity with the Reader: Linguistic Politeness

Strategies in EFL Methodology Textbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Joanna Nijakowska

Part III Instructional Practices

Micro- and Macro-Perspectives on Students’ Attitudes

to Online Classes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Anna Turula

The Use of Internet Resources in Developing Autonomy

in Learning English Pronunciation: A Qualitative Study. . . . . . . . . . . 169
Mariusz Kruk and Mirosław Pawlak

Intercultural Teaching in the Polish Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Paweł Sobkowiak

Getting Closer to Native Speaker Competence: How Psycholinguistic

Experiments Can Enrich Language Learning and Teaching . . . . . . . . 203
Mirja Gruhn and Nina Reshöft

Using Dynamic Assessment to Improve L2 Learners’ Knowledge

of Grammar: Evidence from the Tenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Reza Barzegar and Rana Azarizad

How to Teach in CLIL? Some Remarks on CLIL Methodology . . . . . 229

Katarzyna Papaja

Part IV Research Tools

Teacher Narratives in Teacher Development:

Focus on Diary Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Danuta Gabryś-Barker

Observations: The Eyes and Ears of Foreign Language Lessons . . . . . 259

Małgorzata Szulc-Kurpaska
Contents xi

The Why and How of Using Mixed Methods in Research

on EFL Teaching and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Danuta Wiśniewska

Triangulation in Researching Autonomy:

A Post-Research Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Anna Czura
Contributors

Rana Azarizad is a senior M.A. student in TEFL in Iran University of Science

and Technology. She has been teaching general and specialized English both at
language schools and at the Scientific and Applied University. Her main areas of
interest are the teaching and testing of English.
Reza Barzegar holds a Ph.D. in TEFL from Isfahan University, and is currently
an Assistant Professor at Azad University of Damavand, Iran. His areas of interest
include CALL, proficiency testing, assessment, and intercultural competence. He
has published in the above areas.
Anna Czura Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Studies at
the University of Wrocław, Poland. In her research, she is mainly interested in
CLIL, language assessment, learner autonomy, intercultural communicative
competence, teacher training, and the role of mobility in education.
Danuta Gabryś-Barker is Professor of English at the University of Silesia,
Katowice, Poland, where she lectures and supervises M.A. and Ph.D. theses in
applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, and especially in second language acquisi-
tion. She also works as a teacher trainer. Her main areas of interest are multilin-
gualism (especially at the level of mental lexicon and syntax), neurolinguistics,
and psycholinguistics (modalities, learner profiles, and affectivity). As a teacher
trainer, she lectures on research methods in second language acquisition and TEFL
projects. Her major concern is the role of action research in teacher development.
Professor Gabryś-Barker has published approximately 100 articles nationally and
internationally, as well as two books: Aspects of Multilingual Storage, Processing
and Retrieval, Katowice (University of Silesia Press, 2005), and Reflectivity in
Pre-service Teacher Education (University of Silesia Press, 2012). She has edited
among others the volumes Morphosyntactic Issues in Second Language Acquisi-
tion (Multilingual Matters, 2008) and Action Research in Teacher Development
(University of Silesia Press, 2011). She is the editor-in-chief (together with Eva
Vetter) of the International Journal of Multilingualism (Routledge).

xiii
xiv Contributors

Christina Gkonou is a Ph.D. researcher at the Department of Language and

Linguistics, University of Essex, UK. She works as a graduate teaching assistant in
linguistics, psycholinguistics, and methodology of teaching English as a foreign
language at the same university. She holds a B.A. in the English language, phi-
lology, and culture from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and an M.A.
in teaching English as a foreign language from the University of Essex, UK. Her
main research interests include individual differences in L2 learning with a special
focus on language anxiety.
Mirja Gruhn studied German and French language and literature and German as
a second language at Bremen University, Germany. She currently works as a
research assistant at the Department of German as a Foreign/Second Language at
Saarland University, Germany. She is currently writing her Ph.D. thesis in second
language acquisition. Her main research interests are second language acquisition
theories, psycholinguistics, foreign/second language teaching, and construction
grammar.
Petra Kirchhoff is an academic lecturer in ELT at Ludwig-Maximilians-Uni-
versity, Munich, Germany. She has done research on the use of media in the
language classroom (Blended learning, 2006) and on extensive reading in lower
secondary school. She has also developed ELT materials (Medilingua, 2006, Job
Applications, 2009). Her special interests are literature and media in language
teaching and classroom interaction.
Friederike Klippel holds the chair of English Language Education (EFL/TE-
SOL) at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany. Her research inter-
ests lie in the history of foreign language education, teacher training and
development, language teaching methodology, and classroom research. Of her
many books and numerous articles Keep Talking (Cambridge University Press) is
probably the best known.
Mariusz Kruk Ph.D., studied Russian Philology (Pedagogical University in
Zielona Góra, Poland) and English philology (Adam Mickiewicz University in
Kalisz, Poland). He has been working for a number of years as an elementary and
senior high school teacher. His main interests include computer-assisted language
learning, virtual worlds, learner autonomy, motivation, and statistics in applied
linguistics.
Hadrian Lankiewicz Ph.D., is Assistant Professor at the University of Gdańsk,
Department of Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, and Head of the
English Philology Department at the State Higher Vocational School in Piła. His
scientific interests oscillate between history, American literature, and applied
linguistics, with the primary focus on language acquisition and foreign language
teaching methodology.
Contributors xv

Joanna Nijakowska is Associate Professor in the Chair of Pragmatics, Institute

of English, University of Łódź, Poland (http://ia.uni.lodz.pl/pragmatics/faculty/
jnijakowska). She holds a doctoral and postdoctoral degree in Linguistics and is a
specialist in psycholinguistics, foreign language acquisition and didactics, and
learning difficulties. She has authored and edited books and papers on EFL and
dyslexia, and presented her research at European and American Academic Centers.
Her research interests include pragmatics and language learning as well as prag-
matic language disorders. Her current focus is on metadiscourse and politeness in
written academic discourse.
Katarzyna Papaja works in the Institute of English at the University of Silesia.
She received her Ph.D. degree in Applied Linguistics. She specializes in methods
of teaching English as a foreign language and bilingual education. Dr. Papaja has
taken part in many conferences in Poland and abroad, and she has published
widely on bilingual education methodologies (mainly Content and Language
Integrated Learning—CLIL). She was part of the team which conducted the
groundwork leading to the publication of Profile report—Bilingual education
(English) in Poland. She was also awarded a few scholarships and as a result was
able to gain teaching experience in countries such as Great Britain, the USA,
Germany, and Switzerland. At the moment, she is working on the development of
a CLIL syllabus.
Mirosław Pawlak is Professor of English in the Department of English Studies at
the Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts of Adam Mickiewicz University in Kalisz,
Poland and the Institute of Modern Languages of State School of Higher Profes-
sional Education, Konin, Poland. His main areas of interest are SLA theory and
research, form-focused instruction, corrective feedback, classroom discourse,
learner autonomy, communication and learning strategies, individual learner dif-
ferences and pronunciation teaching. His recent publications include The Place of
Form-Focused Instruction in the Foreign Language Classroom (Adam Mick-
iewicz University Press, 2006), Production-Oriented and Comprehension-Based
Grammar Teaching in the Foreign Language Classroom (with Anna Mystkowska-
Wiertelak, Springer, 2012), Error Correction in the Foreign Language Classroom:
Reconsidering the Issues (Adam Mickiewicz University Press, 2012), Applying
Cognitive Grammar in the Foreign Language Classroom: Teaching English Tense
and Aspect (with Jakub Bielak, Springer, 2013), as well as several edited collec-
tions on learner autonomy, form-focused instruction, speaking and individual
learner differences. Mirosław Pawlak is the editor-in-chief of the journal Studies in
Second Language Learning and Teaching (www.ssllt.amu.edu.pl) and the book
series Second Language Learning and Teaching (http://www.springer.com/
series/10129). He has been a Supervisor and Reviewer of doctoral and postdoc-
toral dissertations.
xvi Contributors

Agnieszka Pietrzykowska M.A., is a lecturer working at the Department of

English Studies, Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts, Adam Mickiewicz University
in Kalisz, Poland. Her main interests include grammar instruction and language
learning strategies.
Nina Reshöft studied English and Romance Linguistics and Literatures (M.A.) at
Bremen University, Germany. She currently works there as a research assistant in
the Department of English Linguistics. Her Ph.D. thesis is on the encoding of
motion events across languages. Her main research interests include spatial lan-
guage and linguistic typology, lexical semantics, cognitive linguistics, second
language learning and teaching, and corpus linguistics.
David Singleton took his B.A. at Trinity College, University of Dublin, and his
Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin,
where he is Professor of Applied Linguistics. He has served as President of the
Irish Association for Applied Linguistics, Secretary General of AILA, and Presi-
dent of EUROSLA. He has published in a wide range of domains, but his principal
current areas of interest are cross-linguistic influence, the lexicon, the age factor in
language acquisition, and multilingualism. He has recently been honored with the
title of Kutató Professor at the University of Pannonia.
Agnieszka Skrzypek holds a Ph.D. in psycholinguistics from Trinity College
Dublin. She is currently employed full-time at the University of Limerick, where
she is teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate programs in TESOL and lin-
guistics. She has taught on applied linguistics and TESOL programs in a number
of third-level institutions in Ireland and Poland. Additionally, she has considerable
expertise in statistical research methods. Her research interests include, inter alia,
the role of short-term memory in L2 learning and L2 processing, computerized
working memory training, cognitive linguistics, and educational psychology. She
has published papers in international journals and edited volumes.
Paweł Sobkowiak Ph.D., is senior lecturer at the School of Law and Adminis-
tration, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland, where he teaches courses
in business English and business Communication to students of management. His
main research interests include different aspects of teaching business English, the
professional development of language teachers, as well as, more recently, the
development of learners’ intercultural competence and intercultural teaching.
Małgorzata Szulc-Kurpaska Ph.D., has been teaching methodology at the
Foreign Language Teacher Training College since 1990. She specializes in
teaching English to young learners, conducting both pre-service and in-service
teacher training. Dr. Szulc-Kurpaska is a co-author of teaching programs for pre-
school and lower primary education, a coursebook for the first grade of primary
education entitled Sparks, published by Oxford University Press, and a method-
ology book Teaching English to Young Learners published by Wydawnictwo
Naukowe PWN. Since 2007 she has been supervising M.A. theses in Applied
Linguistics and Methodology, based in the classroom setting. In 2008, she was
Contributors xvii

involved in designing a new core curriculum for foreign languages in the Polish
education system. Since 2010, she has been conducting educational research in the
primary context as part of a EU project run by the Institute of Educational
Research in Warsaw.
Olga Trendak Ph.D., is employed at the Institute of English Studies, University
of Łódź, Poland. Her academic interests include, among others, second language
acquisition, learner autonomy, and form-focused instruction. Her doctoral disser-
tation was devoted to language learning strategies and their role in the process of
foreign language learning. It also dealt with the impact of strategic intervention on
learners’ linguistic development.
Anna Turula is a teacher trainer and Head of the Department of Modern Lan-
guages and Literatures with the College of Foreign Languages in Czestochowa,
Poland. She holds a doctoral and postdoctoral degrees in applied linguistics. Her
main research interests include form-focused instruction, adult/tertiary education,
affect in language learning and teacher training, and learning and teacher training
in virtual learning environments.
Aleksandra Wach Ph.D., works at the School of English, Adam Mickiewicz
University, Poznań, Poland as an EFL Teacher and Teacher Trainer. Her main
professional interests include learning and teaching grammar, the application of
music in teaching, teacher training, and, currently, the application of new tech-
nology in foreign language learning and teaching.
Dorota Werbińska Ph.D., works in the Modern Languages Department at
Pomeranian University, Słupsk, Poland. Her research interests include qualitative
studies in language teacher development, language teacher cognition and identity,
the hidden curriculum in the English classroom, teacher burnout, and teacher
reflectivity. She is the author of three books and almost 50 articles published
nationally and internationally, as well as the editor of two collections. The title of
her recent book is Developing into an Effective Polish Teacher of English
(Pomeranian University Press, 2011).
Danuta Wiśniewska Ph.D., is Assistant Professor at Institute of Applied Lin-
guistics, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. Her research interests
include research methodology, classroom research, action research, teacher
development, as well as silence and dialogue in EFL teaching and in research.