In response to the evolving landscape of language education, the "Dynamic Language Learning Framework" is conceived as a progressive pedagogical approach informed by key principles from notable works in the field. Inspired by the communicative language teaching philosophy proposed by Hymes (1971) and expanded upon by Canale and Swain…

While language aptitude and motivation are considered to be important contributors to second language (L2) attainment, two major gaps in the past research have been (1) a lack of nonlinear models stemming from a naive and tacit assumption that learning outcomes are linearly related to their predictors, and (2) a lack of unified and integrative…

This paper gives a brief summary of Halliday's theory of how children learn to talk, illustrating the development of children's language from the microfunctions through the macrofunctions and into the metafunctions of adult language. The paper points to a possible source of the misinterpretation of Halliday's theory in the work of Frank Smith…

The concept of modularity is used to contrast the approach to working memory proposed by Truscott with the Baddeley and Hitch multicomponent model. This proposes four sub components comprising the "central executive," an executive control system of limited attentional capacity that utilises storage based on separate but interlinked…

The paper considers apprenticeship as a model of education that both teaches technical skills and provides the grounding for personal formation. The research presented is based on long-term anthropological fieldwork with minaret builders in Yemen, mud masons in Mali and fine-woodwork trainees in London. These case studies of on-site learning and…

Examination of psycholinguistic models and theories underscores the need for a theory of the psychology of language as a basis for a language teaching model. However, the traditional relationship of pedagogical practice and scientific disciplines should be reversed, with practice primary, because at this level language tasks can be analyzed. (MSE)

Argues that the issues raised by the exchange of papers between Simon Borg and Paul Rastall are fundamental to the process of education and to the roles and identities of teachers and researchers. Points out that the distinction between the two kinds of knowledge within which education operates lies at the heart of the problem of bridging practice…

Argues that it is time to begin integrating models of second-language (L2) research, to test and develop integrated models for L2 data, and to develop integrated explanatory theories to explain these data. (22 references) (JL)

Describes a connectionist model accounting for newborn infants' ability to finely discriminate almost all human speech contrasts and the fact that their phonemic category boundaries are identical, even for phonemes outside their target language. The model posits an innately guided learning in which an artificial neural network is stored in a…

Individuals need communicative competence for personal fulfillment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment. Aim of the research is to work out English for Academic Purposes activity organization model and its introducing sequence for promoting communicative competence. Content: the search for English for Academic…

Human infants are predisposed to organize their experience in terms of certain concepts (natural) and not others (unnatural). Three formal, necessary conditions on the naturalness of concepts are offered. The conditions attempt to link the problem of naturalness to principled distinctions between sense vs nonsense, simplicity vs complexity, and…

Research addressing development of mechanistic models capable of acquiring languages on the basis of exposure to linguistic data is reviewed. Research focuses on major issues in developmental psycholinguistics--in particular, nativism and empiricism, the role of semantics and pragmatics, cognitive development, and the importance of simplified…

Describes recent theoretical developments in cognitive psychology that can be applied to second language acquisition, including consideration of linguistic theories in addressing the role of mental processes in second language acquisition, current cognitive learning theory, and possible applications of a theoretical model to memory representation,…

Seeks justification in the theories of Schumann, Brown, and Krashen for TESL Canada's recommendation for early access to English language training for immigrants. These theories may lend support to the existence of a critical period wherein adult immigrants are most likely to make significant progress in the study of English. (SED)

The aim of this research is to reveal the dynamics of focus on form in task completion via videoconferencing. This examination draws on current second language learning theories regarding effective language acquisition, research in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and empirical data from an evaluation of desktop videoconferencing-supported…