1. Interaction. The interactions learners have with each other build interpersonal skills, such as listening, politely interrupting, expressing ideas, raising questions, disagreeing, paraphrasing, negotiating, and asking for help. 2. Interdependence. Learners must depend on one another to accomplish a common objective. Each group member has specific tasks to complete, and successful completion of each member’s tasks results in attaining the overall group objective.

将“Cooperative Learning”融入课堂——浅谈英语素质教育

Розвиток та імплементацію навчальних мовних програм можливо здійснювати декількома шляхами, кожен з яких має різні імплікації дизайну курикулуму. У статті робиться спроба описати та порівняти три курикулумних підходи. Поняття форвардного, центрального та зворотного дизайну забезпечує ефективне модельне уявлення про різноманітні підходи дизайну курикулуму та їх практичне застосування. Ключові слова: навчальний план; форвардний, центральний та зворотний дизайн; методи, методика, оцінювання.

Curriculum development in language teaching

Acknowledgements Introduction PART ONE - BACKGROUND Introduction 1. Second language acquisition research: an overview PART TWO - THE DESCRIPTION OF LEARNER LANGUAGE Introduction 2. Learner errors and error analysis 3. Developmental patterns: order and sequence in second language acquisition 4. Variability in learner language 5. Pragmatic aspects of learner language PART THREE - EXPLAINING SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: EXTERNAL FACTORS Introduction 6. Social factors and second language acquisition 7. Input and interaction and second language acquisition PART FOUR - EXPLAINING SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: INTERNAL FACTORS Introduction 8. Language transfer 9. Cognitive accounts of second language acquisition 10. Linguistic universals and second language acquisition PART FIVE - EXPLAINING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Introduction 11. Individual learner differences 12. Learning strategies PART SIX - CLASSROOM SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Introduction 13. Classroom interaction and second language acquisition 14. Formal instruction and second language acquisition PART SEVEN - CONCLUSION Introduction 15. Data, theory, and applications in second language acquisition research Glossary Bibliography Author index Subject index

第二语言习得研究 = The study of second language acquisition

Teaching Languages to Young Learners - Lynne Cameron; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001, xi+258 pages.

This reflection identifies education as the primary domestic priority for both major political parties Her commentary opens our conversation about education with an important question: How do you fundamentally change public education in a way that is not intrusive and over-reaching but, in the short-term, turns education around? Having learned his lesson from the senior President Bush, whose poll numbers plummeted when he vowed to abolish the US Department of Education in the 1992 presidential race, Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) vowed instead to "overhaul" it when he ran for president against Bill Clinton President Clinton, you may remember, actually ran as the "education president" He had been the "education governor" in Arkansas, after all, and championed policies that raised test scores and helped more disadvantaged kids get to college In the 2000 presidential election year, both candidates ranked education among their highest priorities George W Bush called himself the "real" education presidential candidate, and now President Bush still calls education his top domestic priority None of this is surprising Previous presidential election cycles have seen education emerge as the number one issue on which most Americans believe more federal dollars should be spent A 2000 survey by the University of Chicago revealed that over the preceding ten years, support for education had risen to the top of America's priority list, surpassing concerns about crime September 11, 2001, has likely skewed those conclusions for the upcoming presidential election, but, unquestionably, a presidential candidate's view of and plan for education is one of the issues voters prioritize in evaluating and picking their national leader President Bush has already begun to run on the issue Unlike in other presidential cycles, however, Bush faces opposition to his own education policies from within his party and from Democrats For the first time anyone I know in education can remember, state governors, legislators, and administrators are actually considering not taking Bush's federal education funds Imagine it The federal government offers hundreds of millions of education dollars to a budget-strapped state, and the state says, "Naaaaaaaaah--you keep it" It's extraordinary, particularly at a time when almost every state in the union has a budget deficit Ms Thornton, Patton Boggs partner, was chief of staff to the United States Secretary of Education, deputy advisor to President Clinton for the 1996 presidential debates, and associate counsel in the 1992 presidential transition She has written numerous articles in publications including Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, American Lawyer, Boston Globe, and Legal Times So, what's going on? In 2002, President Bush enacted No Child Left Behind, the signature piece of education legislation that he promised voters in his 2000 campaign and the bill he expected to propel him through a 2004 reelection Indeed, the fact that he--by his own admission--has not actually read the bill aside, President Bush has been traveling the country talking about the bill's importance and its early success The new law requires annual testing of students in grades three through eight and requires schools whose students do not meet the bill's standards for "adequate yearly progress" to take remedial action The schools could be designated as failing, and they are exposed to penalties, including forced transfer of students and being taken over by the state The complicated new law is more than one thousand pages long and attaches the availability of federal funding to successfully meeting the bill's stringent, high-consequence requirements …

The Politics of Education

Autonomous learning: A teacher-less learning!

Many authorities in higher education did not enthusiastically embrace the idea that college students should receive explicit instruction in how to think. Note that the academic community was opposed to good thinking, but many educators believed that it was a misguided effort. For example, Glaser (1984) cited abundant evidence of Critical Thinking failures in support of his argument that thinking skills are context-bound and do not transfer across academic domains. Glaser and other sceptics were partly correct. Better thinking is not a necessary outcome of traditional, discipline-based instruction. But, increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity make Critical Thinking as necessary as sunrise. This study attempted (1) to examine the predictive relationships of student dispositions and their abilities to think; and (2) to open a refreshed horizon in teaching students to develop their ability of Critical Thinking. Furthermore, the authors believed that to motivate students’ disposition, it is indispensable for the teacher to scaffold them to think critically.

/pdf/critical-thinking-in-higher-education-a-pedagogical-look-2va10vb0vn.pdf

Critical Thinking in Higher Education: A Pedagogical Look

Student-centered instruction has some connections with the social constructivist view, which emphasizes activity and the importance of communities of practice in the learning process. While learner-centered instruction is well advocated in education, traditional teacher-centered education may still be dominant. This preference might result from the lack of interest on the part of teacher to share his/her power. The paper, having provided a philosophical basis of learner-centered instruction, studied the role of learner-centered instruction in achieving democratic ends. By drawing on the concept of power, authority and democracy, the authors had an attempt to make a distinction between various types of instruction, specifically learner-centered in which the teacher consciously or unconsciously tends to share his power, and letting students have a voice in the future of education will help learners construct their view of the world. Also, the authors elucidated the concept of cooperative learning as an inevitable grounding feature of learner-centered instruction. The author claimed that placing the control of class in the pupils’ hands does not result in the absence of authority on the part of the teacher. Keywords : power, constructivism, democracy, cooperative learning

/pdf/learner-centered-instruction-a-critical-perspective-3u8qv59tvh.pdf

Learner-Centered Instruction: A Critical Perspective

A great deal about the origin of ESP could be written. Notably, there are three reasons common to the emergence of all ESP: the demands of a Brave New World, a revolution in linguistics, and focus on the learner (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). The author started this paper with the short review of needs analysis, giving a brief explanation about the approaches to needs analysis, with a particular attention to genre analysis. Bhatia (2004) maintains, “Language is power, and the power of language is the ‘power of genre’ (p. 189). Accordingly, power of genre is not only to construct, use, interpret and exploit genres, but also to innovate novel generic forms (Bhatia, 2004). The writer argued genre analysis gives teachers a more central role in preparing the learners to learn. The blame, in the writer’s opinion, does not rest with the learners but with the teachers and genre analysts who treat genre analysis as simply textual artifacts. As Bakhtin (1986) points out genre must be fully mastered to be used creatively (cited in Bhatia, 2004). This paper has established that ESP students need to be scaffolded by teachers in order to understand the construct of any professional genre to enable them to produce these genres effectively. Also, this approach is recommended not only as a basis for teaching ESP but also for the teachers’ professional development. In the same line, genre analysis can enable instructors to become aware of the hidden assumptions and gain insight into pedagogical implications. The main purpose of this article is to elucidate the power of genre in the analysis of students’ needs. Index items: needs analysis, ESP, genre

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Needs Analysis: ESP Perspective on Genre

The most important theme of critical pedagogy (hereafter CP) is the belief that educations systems are political (Freir, 1970). In effect, the centrality of politics and power in our understanding of how school work is an inevitability. Good education should aim at political transformation for the purpose of justice and human being liberation. This will be available if there is a congruity between what a teacher thinks (theory) and what he/she does (practice) in the class. In fact, CP asserts that the relationship between pedagogy and politics is two way; not only is pedagogy political, but pedagogy provides the knowledge and abilities through which individuals can see themselves as political agents and act accordingly. The present study was an attempt to investigate the educational-political implications of CP in Iran educational system, with the emphasis on the fact that the failures and successes of an educational system is ascribed to people’s linguistic and socio-cultural interaction, which are under the influence of dominant ideology, institutional practice and social relations.   Apart from its valuable ideality, CP seems to become an ignis fatuus. The role of teachers is not more than a museum curator whose duty is restricted to placing knowledge in the mind of students. In fact the lack of political perspective on the part of teachers and learners reduces teachers to a technician. Nevertheless, English language teaching is not a technical business devoid of any ideology. Key words: Critical Pedagogy; Marginalization; Praxis;

Nima Shakouri Masouleh

Papers

Autonomous learning: A teacher-less learning!

Critical Thinking in Higher Education: A Pedagogical Look

Learner-Centered Instruction: A Critical Perspective

Needs Analysis: ESP Perspective on Genre

Critical pedagogy: An ignis fatuus!