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 Here

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 : 185

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Police in the Hallways

Police in the Hallways PDF Author: Kathleen Nolan
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452933081
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Exposing the deeply harmful impact of street-style policing on urban high school students

Complex Systems and Applied Linguistics

Complex Systems and Applied Linguistics PDF Author: Diane Larsen-Freeman
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780194422444
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Accessible introduction to rapidly growing field of interest across disciplines. Explains key constructs: chaos; complexity; dynamic systems; emergence etc. Demonstrates applications to areas of applied linguistics. Illustrates how complex systems thinking can challenge established ideas. Discusses implications for theory, research, and practice.

Language and Complex Systems

Language and Complex Systems PDF Author: William A. Kretzschmar (Jr.)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107100453
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
A study of the relationship between language and complexity.

Language as a Complex System

Language as a Complex System PDF Author: Gemma Bel-Enguix
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443818232
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Language is one of the most challenging issues that remain to be explained from the physiological and psychological points of view. As a complex system, its formal modelling and simulation present important difficulties. Models proposed up to now have not been able to give either a coherent explanation of natural language or a satisfactory computational model for the processing of natural language. To investigate natural language, we need to cross traditional academic boundaries in order to solve the different problems related to language. This book is an attempt to connect and integrate several academic disciplines and technologies in the pursuit of a common task: the study of language. The main goal of the book is to boost the interchange of knowledge and viewpoints between specialists who, working on linguistics, biology or computation, have an interest in bringing their methods together in order to provide innovative and challenging tools and formalisms to approach and improve theories and models on languages. The subject of this book will attract researchers from many fields who are interested in natural or artificial languages and want to enrich their scientific research with theories, methods and ideas coming from different disciplines. People dealing with linguistics, computer science, formal language theory and biology may find in this book new and challenging ideas.

Challenging Boundaries in Language Education

Challenging Boundaries in Language Education PDF Author: Achilleas Kostoulas
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030170578
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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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.