Conference Contributions /LS KSM

Strategies in years 4-6 : possibilities and problems
Lundahl, Bo Conference paper in English for young learners - Forum 2012 : proceedings from the conference in Uppsala 19 June 2012; : Uppsala Universitet (2012) Conference on English for Young Learners -Forum, Uppsala, 19 June 2012	peer-reviewed conference PAPER

English abstract:	Strategies appear in all the parts of the syllabus for English in the new Swedish national curriculum introduced in 2011. The knowledge requirements for year 6 distinguish between the use of the singular “a strategy” for the lowest grade and the plural “strategies” for the higher grades.Although there are strong arguments in favour of including strategies in a language syllabus, teachers face several problems when assessing strategies summatively as a basis for grading, particularly listening and reading strategies. First, there is a problem of categorization and definition. Second, if listening and reading strategies are viewed metacognitively, they cannot be assessed when being used. Third, strategies may be used consciously or subconsciously. Fourth, the knowledge requirements indicate that teachers should establish a causal relationship between strategy use and comprehension, but strategies are not necessarily facilitative and learners’ successful comprehension may be due to other factors. While arguing that reception strategies should not have been included in the knowledge requirements, the text includes an example of how a teacher had her learners using listening strategies collaboratively and as a basis for formative assessment.
Swedish abstract:	Eftersom strategier fungerar som del av kommunikation bör de finnas med i språkundervisning och skolans styrdokument. Det finns emellertid problem med att de även inbegrips i språkundervisningens kunskapskrav. För det första kan strategier definieras och kategoriseras olika. För det andra kan receptionsstrategier inte bedömas då de används. För det tredje används strategier medvetet eller omedvetet. För det fjärde är inte all strategianvändning framgångsrik, men inkluderandet av strategier i kunskapskraven bygger på att läraren ska kunna fastställa ett kausalt samband mellan strategianvändning av förståelse. Texten inbegriper ett exempel på hur en lärare använde lyssnandestrategier i sin undervisning i kollaborativ anda och relaterat till formativ bedömning.

Strategies in years 4-6 Uppsala.pdf (400.1Kb)

Academic Writing in a Multi-lingual and Multi-disciplinary Context
Finnegan, Damian; Kauppinen, Asko; Wärnsby, Anna (2011) The Role of the Student Experience in Shaping Academic Writing Development in Higher Education, European Association of Teachers of Academic Writing (EATAW), 29th June – 1st July 2011 University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland	other

English abstract:

Damian Finnegan (damian.finnegan@mah.se) Asko Kauppinen (asko.kauppinen@mah.se) Anna Wärnsby (anna.warnsby@mah.se) Academic Writing in a Multi-lingual and Multidisciplinary Context One crucial challenge of academic writing concerns the increasing heterogenisation of student populations. In many writing classes, we now find “any combination of native-born, international, refugee, permanent resident, and naturalized students,” exhibiting considerable linguistic diversity and multiple levels of English proficiency (Preto-Bay and Hansen, 2006; see also Hall, 2009). At the same time, interest towards academic writing in European higher education is growing, yet resources for teaching do not reflect this. Moreover, the wider student base demands practical application from their writing courses, not theoretical knowledge of language skills (see, for example, Anderson 1983, 2009 on procedural vs. declarative knowledge). To show how these problems can be addressed, we discuss the course Academic Writing in English offered at Malmö University, Sweden, which currently enrolls approximately 300 students per year. The course design is explicitly based on the general model of information processing, which assumes that “complex behavior builds on simple processes” (McLaughlin and Heredia, 1996, p. 213). The focus of all learning activities is on acquisition of procedural knowledge geared towards comprehension and production. One distinctive feature of this course is the very tight integration of electronic resources and other teaching material. This provides student populations various types of continuous feedback and highly individualised learning paths. In this paper, we present and evaluate empirical data pertaining to students’ experience of the content, structure and resources in this course. We also discuss the preliminary results obtained through tests administered before, during and after the course. References Anderson, J. R. 2009. Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications. 7th edition. New York: Worth Publishers. Anderson, J. R. 1983. The Architecture of Cognition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Hall, Jonathan. 2009. “WAC/WID in the Next America: Redefining Professional Identity in the Age of the Multilingual Majority.” The WAC Journal. Vol. 20, November. 33-49. McLaughlin, B. and Hereda, J. L. C. 1996. “Information-processing Approaches to Research on Second Language Acquisition and Use.” In Ritchie, W. C. and Bhatia, T. K. (eds.), Handbook of Second Language Acquisition. San Diego: Academic Press, 213-228. Preto-Bay, Ana Maria and Kristine Hansen. 2006. “Preparing for the Tipping Point: Designing Writing Programs to Meet the Needs of the Changing Population.” WPA: Writing Program Administration, Vol. 30, Nos. 1-2, Fall. 37-57.

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Interpreting Modal Utterances in English and Swedish
Wärnsby, Anna (2011) ISLE 2011, International Society for the Linguistics of English, June 17-21 2011, Boston University, Boston, USA	other