Reading to Learn in a Foreign Language

An Integrated Approach to Foreign Language Instruction and Assessment

Keiko Koda, Junko Yamashita

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351727082
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

This book describes a theory-guided approach to Foreign Language (FL) course development, implementation, instruction and assessment. It documents the development and implementation of a theory-guided approach designed to exploit cross-linguistically sharable competencies as resources for promoting FL learning. The volume delineates the processes of (a) identifying cross-linguistically sharable competencies, (b) exploring ways of exploiting sharable competencies as resources in promoting language skills through their purposeful use for content learning, (c) implementing the instructional approach in multiple EFL classrooms, and (d) evaluating the approach by comparing learning outcomes across classrooms. It presents a solid conceptual framework that integrates theories in multiple research domains, including second language acquisition, knowledge acquisition, and language assessment. It also provides detailed descriptions of framework construction and classroom implementation – the two processes that are integral to course design and development.

Part I

Theoretical foundations

1 Reading to learn in a foreign language

An integrated approach to FL instruction and assessment

Keiko Koda and Junko Yamashita

A steady increase in globalization has induced rapid growth in the need for, and supply of, individuals with high levels of proficiency in a foreign language. Over the past three decades, the internationalization of higher education institutions has been prioritized worldwide (Rose & McKinley, 2018). Universities and colleges are expected to build an environment that will give their students the ability to compete in a progressively more interconnected world. Under these circumstances, the role of foreign language education in post-secondary institutions has been reconceptualized as a means of globalizing campus profiles and academic programs.

In response to those changes, language teaching communities have promoted culturally rich and intellectually challenging approaches to foreign language instruction (e.g., American Council of the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 2012; Kramsch, 2014). In the past decade, the endorsement has yielded various forms of content-driven language instruction, such as CLIL (content-and-language integrated learning) and CBI (content-based instruction) (Stoller, 2004; Dalton-Puffer, 2011). Despite its popularity, our understanding of the potential benefits of dual-focused approaches is still limited. A consensus has yet to emerge, for example, as to what constitutes content learning, how it enhances language development, and what are reasonable outcome expectations in dual-focused instruction. Clarifications of these fundamental issues make it possible to deliberate (a) how best the two foci can be integrated in foreign language (FL) instruction, (b) what factors might influence such integration, and (c) what impacts dual-focused instruction might have on cognitively mature language learners.

In an attempt to address these and other questions, we developed an integrated approach to FL instruction and assessment within a framework that was built around the notion of reading to learn (Koda, 2016; Koda & Yamashita, 2018). As a multifaceted construct, reading to learn entails three interrelated operations: (a) Constructing text meanings based on linguistic information presented in a text (text-meaning building), (b) connecting text information to the reader’s personal experiences and prior knowledge (personal-meaning construction), and (c) reflecting on what the reader has learned from the two preceding operations (knowledge refinement). Within the framework, we then identified three sets of requisite skills (collectively referred to as Integrated Communication [IC] skills) each corresponding to one of the reading to learn operations. In a collaborative project, the IC skills approach was implemented in college foreign language classrooms in Japan and the US. The primary objective of the project was to explore the potential benefits of the IC skills approach for college-age FL learners.

This volume documents the project in its entirety from inception to culmination. In specific, the volume delineates the theory-guided processes of (a) identifying cross-linguistically sharable resources that are available to cognitively mature adult learners, (b) exploring ways of promoting their autonomous use of non-language-specific resources to enhance language learning, (c) implementing the IC skills approach in multiple FL classrooms, (d) evaluating the approach by monitoring students’ progress over the course of the semester during the implementation period, and (e) reflecting on FL teaching and learning in college classrooms.

By documenting the project, we hope to shed some light on some of the issues mentioned above. Based on our experience with the project, we also hope to share our collective reflections on several pressing issues in FL education in post-secondary institutions: For example, (a) what the role of cognition is in adult FL learning; (b) what it means to teach a foreign language to cognitively mature FL learners, and (c) how best FL instruction can cultivate students’ active involvement and deep engagement in learning in college FL classrooms. Through the documentation, it is also our hope to demonstrate some instructional features that appear to be conducive to promoting students’ utilization of non-language-specific resources and how the autonomous use of those resources affects language skills development. Finally, through the depictions of the project from both theoretical and pedagogical perspectives, we hope to illuminate (a) the role of theory in language pedagogy, (b) specific benefits of theory-guided approaches to FL instruction and assessment, and (c) real-life challenges in putting theory into practice.

The framework

As noted above, the IC skills approach was conceived, developed, and implemented within the reading to learn framework. Because reading to learn simultaneously entails language processing and conceptual manipulation, reading to learn is an ideal construct for promoting the ability to use language as tools for knowledge acquisition and refinement (i.e., content learning). Grounded in theories of reading, learning, and second language development, the framework describes how linguistic knowledge and reading ability are developmentally and functionally interdependent, and in so doing, explains how such reciprocity warrants the incorporation of content learning in FL instruction as a means of fostering high levels of proficiency in the target language.

The IC skills approach

Within the framework, the Integrated Communication (IC) skills approach emerged through systematic efforts to incorporate content learning in FL instruction in higher education institutions. The approach, as noted above, aims to promote the ability to use language purposefully for constructing meanings from input and generating new insight. Vital to the approach are the learner’s active involvement and deep engagement in learning at each and every step towards knowledge construction. To meet the demands, the approach places an emphasis on the internalization of input information by asking the student to connect input information with her real-life experiences and prior knowledge. Such personalization plays an important role in knowledge construction as a powerful measure to immerse the student in the very process of learning.

In the approach, culture serves as the focal domain of content and refining cultural understanding is the primary objective of content learning. We view cultural understanding as structurally coherent representations emerging from iterative engagement in meaning construction and generation from texts dealing with a variety of cultural topics. In operationalizing cultural understanding, we adopted the notion of transcultural competence – the ability to comprehend and analyze all types of cultural narratives (MLA Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages, 2007).

The IC skills approach was implemented in ten English as a foreign language (EFL) classes at four universities in Japan and two Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) classes in the US. The approach is assessment driven by design in that assessments were developed directly from the learning objectives and used to guide, shape, and evaluate instruction. The assessment driven design was crucial to bring coherence to the project. Adherence to the learning objectives and IC skills specifications allowed the project team members to align assessment with learning, as well as assessment with instruction, consistently across diverse institutional and instructional contexts. In the approach, formative and summative assessments were used (a) to convey the learning objectives and expected outcomes to students, (b) to monitor their learning, (c) to help them learn to monitor their own progress, (d) to guide instruction, and (e) to make decisions about each student’s achievements for grading.

The volume

The volume integrates two distinct, yet equally integral, processes in language course development – i.e., instructional design and classroom implementation – within a single unified framework. Through the integration, the volume provides balanced accounts of language course development from both theoretical and pedagogical perspectives. From the theoretical perspective, the volume evaluates the utility of theory in guiding the development of language assessment and instruction. From the pedagogical perspective, it considers the potential benefits of using theory-defined constructs and construct-referenced assessment tasks in FL course development.

Finally, the paucity of data-based information on theory-guided approaches to FL instruction and assessment in post-secondary education reveals the strong need for orchestrated efforts in cultivating collaborations among researchers, program administrators, and instructors. The volume demonstrates analytical procedures for (a) identifying and operationalizing focal constructs to foster, (b) setting learning objectives around construct specifications, (c) using the construct specifications for developing assessment tasks, and (d) using the learning objectives for aligning instruction and assessment. It is our hope once again that the volume could serve as procedural guidelines for language course development designing and refining language courses that could foster higher levels of proficiency in diverse foreign languages.

Chapters

The volume consists of three parts, including theoretical foundations (Part I), fostering reading to learn skills in classrooms (Part II), and looking ahead (Part III). In Part I, two chapters follow the current chapter. In Chapter 2, Grabe and Stoller provide a comprehensive overview of content-based instruction (CBI) in language education. They critically examine the strengths and shortcomings of diverse instructional models to identify multiple instructional features that promote distinct facets of language ability in diverse instructional contexts. Drawing on a growing body of research on disciplinary literacy (Schleppegrell, 2004; Nagy & Townsend, 2012), Chapter 3 is devoted to unpacking reading to learn, the focal construct, in the approach. Koda demonstrates how reading to learn and language learning are closely intertwined and developmentally interdependent. She then explains how such reciprocity allows college-age learners to use their first language reading to learn skills as resources to accelerate FL learning.

Seven chapters (Chapter 4 through Chapter 10) in Part II offer detailed accounts of the implementation of the approach in diverse instructional contexts. In Chapter 4, Yamashita describes the implementation in three EFL courses at one of the top research universities in Japan. Murano (Chapter 5) also implemented the approach in her classes at the same university. They both describe significant changes in students’ views on language learning and increased learner autonomy. Baba’s implementation (Chapter 6) occurred in a tightly structured program which gave her little flexibility in making modifications. Her chapter reveals fundamentally different challenges she encountered in adopting the approach in her EFL writing course. In Chapter 7, Ichikawa shares yet another challenge he encountered in his implementation. His students were eager to learn about current social issues in the US, but their still developing English proficiency restricted them from fully partici...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• List of contributors
• Part I Theoretical foundations
• Part II Fostering reading to learn skills in classrooms
• Part III Looking ahead
• Index