Abstract:

Whilst the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Mexico heavily emphasises communicative and meaningful language use, less attention has been paid to identity and emotions in the classroom and especially teacher identity and emotions. In this article, we take the specific example of Mexican BA students who are studying to be EFL teachers. We examine how their affective attitudes influence their self-perceived identities as teachers and how their BA programmes have worked at fostering those identities.



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Abstract:

The interaction of study-abroad L2 users with the host culture has been analyzed from different strands of Applied Linguistics and Education. Some of these studies have focused on the possible relations that can emerge among sojourners’ beliefs about the host culture, and their second language learning experience. However, these studies have mostly featured cases of native speakers of English learning other European languages, or English learners of Asian origin. This leaves a gap regarding the experiences of learners of English of other nationalities. This paper presents a narrative study that focuses on a different group of L2 users, analyzing the nine-month experience of three Mexican graduate students engaged in a study-abroad program in the United States. Relying on semi-structured interviews and classroom observations, the article offers a content analysis of the participants’ perspectives contrasted with their actions. The findings suggest that learners’ beliefs about the target language, its culture, and its speakers were dialectically generated* or modified as learners interacted with different groups of peers. The evidence shows that some of these beliefs contributed to the sojourners’ retreat into their small community of Spanish speakers. One of the consequences of this action was a tendency to avoid the use of the target language. However, some unexpected interactions with international students of other linguistic origins led the participants to discover the role of English as a means to communicate with speakers of other first languages (English as Lingua Franca). The final reflection of the learners on their L2 gains during the sojourn challenges L2 pedagogy to take the relation between language learning and cross-cultural social practices more seriously.

*In this article I use the term dialectic to refer to a holistic view of social phenomena that understands reality as an interrelated, emerging, and integrated series of sociocultural factors, actions, and intentions.



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Supplementary file: Appendix B
Supplementary file: Appendix C
Supplementary file: Appendix A

Abstract:

This article presents a variety of action-based activities with imperatives (called “commands”) that can be used to provide a change of pace, to supplement a lesson, and to aid in the development of the students’ competence in listening, speaking, grammar, and vocabulary. I first briefly contextualize the use of actions as an instructional procedure and set forth my reasons for using it. I then give suggestions for using and working with (1) simple commands (a basic procedure; commands for the whole class; student-to-student commands; commands with props; commands with cutouts); (2) board commands (writing and drawing commands); and (3) commands to expand the students’ listening comprehension (chained commands; structurally complex commands; novel commands; impossible commands). This is followed by a brief presentation of activities to develop speaking (role reversal; pair work; describing; remembering) and grammar (act and say; sentence combining). Hypotheses for the long-term retention of vocabulary learned through actions are presented. The article ends by asserting that within a teacher’s repertoire of effective strategies, procedures, and techniques there is a place for action-based activities.



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Abstract:

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Abstract:

This month in the vintage article section we will continue the theme from the last issue: Non-Native English-speaking teachers (NNESTS). For this we have gone back to an article published in the year 2000 (Vol. 23, No. 3): Non-native English Speaking Professionals: A New Agenda for a New Millennium. The author of the article, Lia D. Kamhi-Stein, together with George Braine and Jun Liu, is co-founding member of TESOL’s NNEST Caucus (now an Interest Section). She served as the caucus’ first newsletter editor and then as caucus chair. She also established the Non-native English Language Educators’ Issues Interest Section in the California TESOL (CATESOL) association. She has published extensively on issues related to NNESTs and has served as member of TESOL Board of Directors as well as secretary and president of CATESOL. Just a note about the article. At the time it was written, MEXTESOL had just made an effort to form their own NNEST Caucus and it was a “trending topic” of the 1999 MEXTESOL Conference in Mazatlan. Unfortunately the idea of have caucuses and internet section didn’t last long, and soon after this article was published, the MEXTESOL NNEST Caucus disappeared. This article originally appeared in the MEXTESOL Journal, Volume 23, Number 3, Winter, 2000 and can be downloaded below or consulted in the Archives. The text can be read online below with the Lia Kamhi-Stein's introduction. A revised modern version and this introduction from the author can be downloaded as pdf files.