A Language School as a Complex System

A Language School as a Complex System PDF Author: Achilleas Ioannis Kostoulas
Publisher: Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften
ISBN: 9783631735688
Category : Complexity (Linguistics)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book uses a complex systems perspective to describe how a language school in Greece evolved, and at times resisted change. Starting with an accessible introduction to complex systems theory (CST), it uses a complexity perspective to interpret data generated during a year of fieldwork. The author outlines the linguistic, pedagogical and political influences that shape teaching and learning at the school. He shows how teaching and learning emerged from the interaction of top-down constraints, available resources, and purposes of instruction. This produces a nuanced understanding English Language Teaching against the backdrop of globalisation. Additionally, the author exemplifies how CST can provide a theoretically powerful frame for researching English Language Teaching.

A Language School as a Complex System

A Language School as a Complex System PDF Author: Achilleas Ioannis Kostoulas
Publisher: Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften
ISBN: 9783631735688
Category : Complexity (Linguistics)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
This book uses a complex systems perspective to describe how a language school in Greece evolved, and at times resisted change. Starting with an accessible introduction to complex systems theory (CST), it uses a complexity perspective to interpret data generated during a year of fieldwork. The author outlines the linguistic, pedagogical and political influences that shape teaching and learning at the school. He shows how teaching and learning emerged from the interaction of top-down constraints, available resources, and purposes of instruction. This produces a nuanced understanding English Language Teaching against the backdrop of globalisation. Additionally, the author exemplifies how CST can provide a theoretically powerful frame for researching English Language Teaching.

Teacher Beliefs as a Complex System: English Language Teachers in China

Teacher Beliefs as a Complex System: English Language Teachers in China PDF Author: Hongying Zheng
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319230093
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
The volume is a practical introduction to the ways in which the teachers deal with classroom events in the context of change for researchers, teachers, administrators who wish to implement curriculum reform to EFL in schools. The author provides insights into the beliefs of Chinese teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), and their pedagogical choices in the context of the National English Curriculum Reform. The complex nature of EFL teachers’ beliefs about EFL teaching and learning are exposed, how their beliefs interact with mental and actionable processes triggered by classroom practice, and how their beliefs co-adapt with contexts to maintain the stability of the teachers’ belief systems. This is the first study to present complexity theory in a narrative context of education, exploring the non-linear and unpredictable features of the relationship between the teachers’ beliefs and practices. Integrating complexity theory with interpretivist, ecological and sociocultural perspectives, this book contributes to the research agenda by providing a systematic framework for examining teacher beliefs as a whole, and examining the extent to which western theory may be applied to Chinese educational contexts.

Teaching for Complex Systems Thinking

Teaching for Complex Systems Thinking PDF Author: Rosemary Hipkins
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781990040207
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
What do a short car trip, a pandemic, the wood-wide fungal web, a challenging learning experience, a storm, transport logistics, and the language(s) we speak have in common? All of them are systems, or multiple sets of systems within systems. What happens in any set of circumstances will depend on a mix of initial conditions, complexity dynamics, and the odd wild card (e.g., a chance event). While it is possible to model and predict what might or perhaps should happen, it is impossible to be certain. "It depends" thinking needs to be applied. Future-focused literature identifies complex systems thinking as an essential capability for citizenship, and this book sets out to show teachers how they might foster it-for themselves as well as for their students. There are implications for pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment. Multiple examples show what changes might look like, for students of different ages, and in different subject contexts. This is a book of several layers: It is both practical and philosophical. There is explicit discussion of parallels between complexity science and indigenous knowledge systems (specifically mātauranga Māori in the New Zealand context). The many examples are designed to appeal to general readers with an interest in the complex challenges facing contemporary societies, as well as to teachers at all levels of the education system.

Disruptive Technologies and the Language Classroom

Disruptive Technologies and the Language Classroom PDF Author: Regine Hampel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783030313708
Category : Digital media
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
"This book captures the multi-faceted nature of new technologies and their potential for language use and language learning and the transformative changes they have introduced within language classrooms. With theoretically-grounded rigour, Regine Hampel provides a comprehensive, readable and thought-provoking account of disruptive technologies, shedding light on the theoretical and practical implications that come with new tools and new practices for language learning."--Cynthia J. Massey, Professor of Applied Linguistics, Massey University, New Zealand. "Digital technologies are changing our lives, and in this exciting book we see how they are shifting our language learning and teaching practices. By combining a complex systems theory perspective with sociocultural understandings, Regine Hampel offers rich ways to understand what is happening and opens up important questions for pedagogy, theory, and research." -- Lynne Cameron, Professor Emerita, Open University, UK. Although new technologies are embedded in students' lives today, there is often an assumption that their use is transparent, inconsequential, or a distraction. This book combines complex systems theory with sociocultural theory and the multimodal theory of communication, providing an innovative theoretical framework to examine how communication and meaning-making in the language classroom have developed over time, how technology impacts on meaning-making, and what the implications are for learners, teachers, institutions and policy makers. Recent studies provide evidence for the disruptive effect of technology which has resulted in a phase shift that is reshaping language education by creating new interaction patterns, allowing for multimodal communication, and introducing real-world communication into the classroom. The book proposes ways of responding to this shift before concluding that the new technologies are radically transforming the way we learn. It is likely to appeal to a range of readers, including students, academics, teachers and policy-makers. Regine Hampel is Professor of Open and Distance Language Learning at the Open University, UK.

Modeling Complex Systems

Modeling Complex Systems PDF Author: Nino Boccara
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441965629
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
This book illustrates how models of complex systems are built up and provides indispensable mathematical tools for studying their dynamics. This second edition includes more recent research results and many new and improved worked out examples and exercises.

Challenging Boundaries in Language Education

Challenging Boundaries in Language Education PDF Author: Achilleas Kostoulas
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030170578
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This edited collection challenges the perceptions of disciplinary, linguistic, geographical and ideological borders that run across language education. By highlighting commonalities and tracing connections between diverse sub-fields that have traditionally been studied separately, the book shows how the perspectives of practitioners and researchers working in diverse areas of language education can mutually inform each other. It consists of three thematic parts: Part I outlines the field of language education and challenges its definition by highlighting additional theoretical constructs that have tended to be viewed as separate from language education. Part II investigates curricular boundaries, showing how the language-learning curriculum can be enriched by connections with other curricular areas. Lastly, Part III looks into the challenges and opportunities associated with language education against the backdrop of globalisation.

Introduction to Complexity and Complex Systems

Introduction to Complexity and Complex Systems PDF Author: Robert B. Northrop
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439894981
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 551

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Book Description
The boundaries between simple and complicated, and complicated and complex system designations are fuzzy and debatable, even using quantitative measures of complexity. However, if you are a biomedical engineer, a biologist, physiologist, economist, politician, stock market speculator, or politician, you have encountered complex systems. Furthermore, your success depends on your ability to successfully interact with and manage a variety of complex systems. In order not to be blindsided by unexpected results, we need a systematic, comprehensive way of analyzing, modeling, and simulating complex systems to predict non-anticipated outcomes. In its engaging first chapters, the book introduces complex systems, Campbell's Law, and the Law of Unintended Consequences, and mathematics necessary for conversations in complex systems. Subsequent chapters illustrate concepts via commonly studied biological mechanisms. The final chapters focus on higher-level complexity problems, and introduce complexity in economic systems. Designed as a reference for biologists and biological engineers, Introduction to Complexity and Complex Systems lends itself to use in a classroom course to introduce advanced students studying biomedical engineering, biophysics, or physiology to complex systems. Engaging and illustrative, this book aids scientists and decision makers in managing biological complexity and complex systems.

Individual Differences in Language Learning

Individual Differences in Language Learning PDF Author: Carol Griffiths
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030529002
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
This textbook takes a Complex Systems Theory approach to examine individual differences between learners and the potential impact of these variables on the process of acquiring a second language. The authors argue that individual variables cannot provide the complete picture, and that they must instead be understood as part of an interconnected and dynamic system of different factors in order to be useful in a language learning context. Written in an accessible style and suitable for final-year undergraduate and Masters-level students, the book includes clear definitions of key terms, discussion questions for classroom use, practical exercises and activities, and examples of real empirical studies that students and teachers can replicate in their own contexts. This textbook will be of interest to students taking TESOL and SLA courses and modules, as well as those on broader Applied Linguistics programmes.

Complexity Theory and Language Development

Complexity Theory and Language Development PDF Author: Lourdes Ortega
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027264961
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This volume is both a state-of-the-art display of current thinking on second language development as a complex system. It is also a tribute to Diane Larsen-Freeman for her decades of intellectual leadership in the academic disciplines of applied linguistics and second language acquisition. The chapters therein range from theoretical expositions to methodological analyses, pedagogical proposals, and conceptual frameworks for future research. In a balanced and in-depth manner, the authors provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of second language development, with a wealth of insights that promise to break the status-quo of current research and take it to exciting new territory. The book will appeal to both seasoned and novice researchers in applied linguistics, second language acquisition, bilingualism, cognitive psychology, and education, as well as to practitioners in second or foreign language teaching of any language.

The Intentional Dynamics of TESOL

The Intentional Dynamics of TESOL PDF Author: Juup Stelma
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501511068
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
This book presents intentional dynamics, which is a new perspective on TESOL contexts, activity and outcomes.The key innovation is a synthesis of complex systems and ecological theories, as well as the concept of intentionality from the philosophy of mind, to understand the psychological and social processes of TESOL. One aspect of intentional dynamics is the ‘ordinary’ intentions of individuals to perform particular actions, and of organisations to achieve planned outcomes. Another aspect is philosophically defined psychological and social forms of intentionality. Psychological intentionality is understood as what language learners' and teachers' (and other stakeholders') beliefs and emotions are ‘about’ or ‘directed at’. Social intentionality is the ‘aboutness’ expressed by TESOL materials, curricula and policies. The book explores how intentional dynamics both emerge from and give shape to TESOL activity, and outlines what are the practical implications of intentional dynamics for TESOL learners, teachers, researchers, managers and policy-makers.