Nr. 1 05-10-2015 Maintaining and increasing

Transcript:Nr. 1 05-10-2015 Maintaining and increasing:
Nr. 1 05-10-2015 Maintaining and increasing proficiency in- and outside the classroom using IT tools: a look at electronic flashcards, serious gaming and app-based military wordlists Kristian Kolding, Kåre Kildevang-Jakobsen & Allan Juhl Kristensen Dept. of Languages and Cultures Royal Danish Defence College (RDDC) Nr. 2 05-10-2015 Technology and Language Learning aT RDDC BILC SEMINAR Demonstrate ways that the Dept. of Languages and Cultures is trying to use technology to enhance language learning in the face of: a dictate that learning, including language learning, increasingly take place as blended and distance learning; a general requirement to acquire, maintain and improve L2 MIL proficiency throughout military careers; a need for easily acessible learning materials for self-directed study; a professional conviction that vocabulary matters in SLA. Nr. 3 05-10-2015 Vocabulary and SLA BILC SEMINAR Increased attention within Second Language Acquisition (SLA) teaching and research to the relevance and importance of vocabulary/lexis since the mid-90s (Coady & Huckin (1997); Ellis (1997); Lewis (1993)): ‘…the ability to refer to concrete and conceptual entities is as fundamental to language as is the capacity provided by grammar to relate such entities to one another. Knowledge of a language [in our case the military domain] demands mastery of its vocabulary as much as of its grammar…’ (Wilkins, 1974) Nr. 4 05-10-2015 Vocabulary and SLA cont’d BILC SEMINAR Vocabulary in the systemic lexical sense of words, phrases, chunks, collocations, formulaic sequences etc. is crucial to both communication and comprehension in a military context (cf. STANAG 6001), including interpreting and translation. ‘acquisition of a word’s semantic and conceptual properties, and the mapping of word form labels onto meaning representations, result from conscious (or explict) learning processes.’ (Ellis, 1997) Vocabulary needs to be explicitly taught and learned (intentional/incidental); it will not develop quickly enough through simple exposure to written or spoken language. (Folse, 2004) Nr. 5 05-10-2015 Learners & USERS BILC SEMINAR 1) Language Officer/Military Linguists programme (Arabic, Persian, Russian) 2) English courses at officer academies and junior staff course level. 3) French courses to meet operational demands for linguists and officers 4) Language support across the armed forces (reference works) Nr. 6 05-10-2015 Learners’ needs BILC SEMINAR Proficiency levels: beginner-expert Aims/ambitions: functional-expert; general-military Circumstances: from round-the-clock language learners on Language Officer programme to part-time distance learning alongside active duty for junior officers Motivation: from live-and-breathe languages among Language Officer cadets to junior officer’s need to pass exam to gain