Tesol Quarterly最新文献

INTRODUCTION

Critical reflection is, without doubt, the single most important component of the ELF (English as a lingua franca) awareness framework. ELF awareness has been proposed (Sifakis, 2019; Sifakis & Bayyurt, 2018) as a comprehensive way of incorporating ELF-related issues and concerns in different English language teaching contexts. As these contexts are vastly diverse, and as ELF itself is not a variety of English that can be “taught” to nonnative speakers (in the same way that Standard English or General American is taught—Seidlhofer, 2011), engaging in critical reflection has been perceived as a way of prompting teachers (but also other English language teaching [ELT] stakeholders, including learners) to identify those elements in ELF theorizing that meaningfully relate ELF to their individual teaching situation and develop and implement their own instructional interventions on that basis (Sifakis, 2007, 2014; Sifakis et al., 2022; Sifakis & Kordia, 2019).

The place and function of reflection in ELT as an effective and indeed essential component of teacher development has not been contested in the relevant literature (see Farrell, 2022). As Anderson (2020) notes, there are two dominant perspectives. Dewey's perspective (1933) advocates a rational, scientific approach to teacher reflection, emphasizing active and careful consideration of beliefs and knowledge. On the contrary, Schön (1991) promotes more intuitive reflection, rejecting academic knowledge in favor of experiential or practice-based learning. To date, various models have been proposed that usefully merge the two perspectives. For example, Farrell's (2022) model proposes that growth occurs by reflecting on our teaching philosophy, guiding principles, applied theories, actual practice, and critically examining moral influences on our work and identities. Farrell (2022) then goes on to suggest several techniques fostering teachers' reflection, such as reflective journaling, critical incident analysis, group discussions, and role-playing.

The outlook that we put forward in this article follows Farrell's broad framework, but clarifies that the ELF awareness perspective places on participants specific reflective ‘demands’ that require that they: (a) appreciate the implications of ELF for standard varieties of English and the roles of native and non-native users of English; (b) understand the local socio-cultural and even political-economic constraints of their ELT context, namely. those dimensions in the immediate and broader “culture” that will “allow” them to engage in potent ELF-aware instructional interventions (e.g., dealing with the impact of a prevailing testing culture); (c) are cognizant of their own deeper, and often unquestioned, convictions about using and teaching En

1 INTRODUCTION

Although Sociocultural Theory (henceforth, SCT) originated nearly a century ago in the writings of Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky, historical circumstances meant that the theory began to influence international research communities only in the 1980s. Since its introduction to the second language (L2) field (e.g., Frawley & Lantolf, 1985), central concepts such as mediation, internalization, and zone of proximal development (ZPD) have become widely invoked to understand processes of instructed L2 development. From the early 2000s onward, much L2 SCT scholarship has sought not merely to analyze learner development but to actively guide it through pedagogical practices informed by the theory (see Lantolf & Poehner, 2014).

To date, relatively few L2 SCT studies have been carried out in conjunction with corpus linguistics. In this paper, we outline central principles from the theory, with particular attention to how they have been brought into the L2 field. Included here is a line of scholarship that has employed the theory to organize L2 curricula around linguistic concepts and to design activities and resources intended to support learner engagement with them. This work, referred to as concept-based language instruction (C-BLI), provides fertile ground for uses of corpora to help teachers understand learner language abilities and to provide examples of language that illustrate the concept under study. After explaining common procedures associated with C-BLI, we offer examples from recent studies that suggest how the integration of this work with corpus linguistics might enrich L2 education. We then provide suggestions for future research.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The author declares none.