Scaffolded Language Emergence in the Classroom: From Theory to Practice

✍ Scribed by Donald Kiraly, Sarah Signer

• Publisher: Frank & Timme
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 142
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book introduces an approach to elementary adult foreign language learning that is based on theory (in particular, complexity thinking and social constructivism) on the one hand, and years of practice using various unconventional methods on the other. A key assumption of the Scaffolded Language Emergence (SLE) approach is that a language need not be taught or learned in the conventional sense of these terms. Instead, it is argued, language can ‘emerge’, that is generate and maintain itself through authentic use. The study and application of rules is considered most useful in later stages of learning, while intuition and abductive thinking can be used very effectively to initiate or bootstrap naturalistic learning processes – even in adults learning a foreign language.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgements
SECTION I: THE GENESIS AND THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF THE SLE APPROACH • DON KIRALY
Introducing Scaffolded Language Emergence – An approach but not a method
Chapter 1: SLE – A post-method approach for initiating foreign language emergence
Chapter 2: Initial steps towards the SLE approach
Chapter 3: Structuro-Global Audio-Visual (SGAV) methodology: a partially successful attempt to shift from an instructionist to a constructivist epistemology
Chapter 4: The Natural Approach: comprehensible input and a cognitivist epistemology
Chapter 5: A case for emergence as the key process underlying language learning
Chapter 6: Pedagogical beacons
SECTION II: FROM THEORY TO EXEMPLARY PRACTICE • SARAH SIGNER
Introduction
Chapter 7: Affordances, signifiers and embodiment in the SLE classroom
Chapter 8: Teaching-centred vs autonomous learning
Chapter 9: Autonomy and collaboration in the SLE classroom
Chapter 10: Material affordances and the learning environment
Chapter 11: Beyond teaching – From scaffolding to emergence
SECTION III: A PROLOGUE… INSTEAD OF A CONCLUSION • DON KIRALY
Chapter 12: Initial guidelines for Scaffolded Language Emergence facilitators
References