Foreign Language Teaching in Asia and Beyond: Current Perspectives and Future Directions

✍ Scribed by Wai Meng Chan (editor); Kwee Nyet Chin (editor); Titima Suthiwan (editor)

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 336
• Series: Studies in Second and Foreign Language Education [SSFLE]; 3
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book, comprising two parts, is concerned with both the science and the art of foreign language teaching, with a particular, but not exclusive, focus on Asia.

Under the theme of “Theoretical foundation and research”, Part 1 of this book informs the readers about recent efforts in theoretical and empirical research which have had an impact on foreign language teaching or promise to yield results that will shape its future. These studies, not just from the domain of foreign language teaching but also its primary feeder disciplines of linguistics and second language acquisition, offer the necessary theoretical and conceptual foundation for both current and future research and practice.

As its theme “Classroom practice and evaluation studies” suggests, Part 2 focuses on new and innovative developments in curricular and classroom practice, all built upon insights from research in the above-mentioned disciplines and poised to become standard practices. These projects include qualitative and quantitative evaluation studies which have yielded insightful data for the refinement and continued development of the projects and their underlying theoretical concepts.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1 Foreign language teaching in Asia and beyond: An introduction to the book
Part 1: Theoretical foundation and research
Chapter 2 Preparing language teachers to teach learning strategies
Chapter 3 Discourse Politeness Theory and second language acquisition
Chapter 4 Integrating general purpose and vocationally-oriented language learning (VOLL) – New goals for language and teacher training
Chapter 5 Pragmatics in foreign language teaching and learning: Reflections on the teaching of Chinese in China
Chapter 6 Development of a foreign language anxiety model
Chapter 7 Facilitating students’ understanding of English news: Peer scaffolding in an EFL listening classroom
Chapter 8 Vocabulary learning strategies among adult foreign language learners
Part 2: Classroom practice and evaluation studies
Chapter 9 Technology in the service of constructivist pedagogy: Network-based applications and knowledge construction
Chapter 10 Pedagogical concerns: Some common features of content-based instruction, task-based learning and business case study, and their roles in an EBP class
Chapter 11 Memorizing dialogues: The case for “Performative Exercises”
Chapter 12 The whole world communicates in English, do you? – Educational drama as an alternative approach to teaching English language in Japan
Chapter 13 From oral interview test to oral communication test: Alleviating students’ anxiety
Authors and their affiliations
Index