Xuesong (Andy) Gao

The concept of communicative competence has been rendered as context-abstracted code-bound knowledge for language teaching and assessment. This Element offers a different perspective on 'communication' and 'competence'. Part I offers the rationale for this re-orientation. Part II examines the conceptual and pedagogic affordances and delimitations of the prevailing approach to communicative competence; Part III describes a conceptual re-framing of language use as ecological languaging in terms of embodied, situation-sensitive action through which people coordinate with others, artefacts, and environments; Part IV explores assessment approaches built on Bayesian principles for tracking learner development and progress by taking account of prior accomplishment, expert opinion, and emerging performance to create probabilistic trajectories; Part V focusses on professional developments related to conceptual refinement, curriculum design, teaching materials, and teacher education. Part VI considers some key future challenges. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The concept of communicative competence has been rendered as context-abstracted code-bound knowledge for language teaching and assessment. This Element offers a different perspective on 'communication' and 'competence'. Part I offers the rationale for this re-orientation. Part II examines the conceptual and pedagogic affordances and delimitations of the prevailing approach to communicative competence; Part III describes a conceptual re-framing of language use as ecological languaging in terms of embodied, situation-sensitive action through which people coordinate with others, artefacts, and environments; Part IV explores assessment approaches built on Bayesian principles for tracking learner development and progress by taking account of prior accomplishment, expert opinion, and emerging performance to create probabilistic trajectories; Part V focusses on professional developments related to conceptual refinement, curriculum design, teaching materials, and teacher education. Part VI considers some key future challenges. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from teachers and students in Hong Kong’s secondary schools, this book examines critical questions in relation to language learning motivation and instructional contexts. Readers are provided with a critical overview of developments in theory and research on language learning motivation and the potential to further extend these developments. Grounded in the Douglas Fir Group conceptualization of language learning, the book explores the complex interplay of diverse factors that shape learners’ motivation. It offers a unique window into the situated nature of language learning motivation in the macro, meso, and micro contexts of a Chinese heritage society. In so doing, it brings the Chinese voice into the theorization of this important language learning construct. Potential future research avenues are suggested, and implications for policy and practice are discussed. This book will be a useful resource for academics and postgraduates interested in the fields of English as a second language (ESL), English language teaching, language teaching and learning.

Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from teachers and students in Hong Kong’s secondary schools, this book examines critical questions in relation to language learning motivation and instructional contexts. Readers are provided with a critical overview of developments in theory and research on language learning motivation and the potential to further extend these developments. Grounded in the Douglas Fir Group conceptualization of language learning, the book explores the complex interplay of diverse factors that shape learners’ motivation. It offers a unique window into the situated nature of language learning motivation in the macro, meso, and micro contexts of a Chinese heritage society. In so doing, it brings the Chinese voice into the theorization of this important language learning construct. Potential future research avenues are suggested, and implications for policy and practice are discussed. This book will be a useful resource for academics and postgraduates interested in the fields of English as a second language (ESL), English language teaching, language teaching and learning.

This Element aims to elucidate the concept of language teacher agency by exploring the 'what' question, offering major conceptualisations of agency and explaining how they shape the way we approach teacher agency. The authors then continue with the 'why' question, and elaborate on the reasons that language teacher agency matters, based on a discussion of the varied purposes of teacher agency at multiple levels. They also acknowledge that teacher agency does not operate alone, and discuss how it intersects with such concepts as teacher identity, emotion, belief and knowledge. Based on this, they identify ways to promote teacher agency through making changes to contexts and/or actors. They then introduce the concept of collective agency and propose a multi-layered model based on an illustrative study. The Element ends with a call for a trans-perspective on understanding language teacher agency so as to facilitate the professional development of language teachers.

This monograph reports on a longitudinal inquiry into mainland Chinese undergraduates’ language learning experiences in an English medium university in a multilingual setting with a focus on their strategic language learning efforts. This book examines the issue as to what extent language learners’ strategic learning efforts depend on their ‘choice’, if ‘the element of choice’ is the defining characteristic of language learners’ strategic learning behaviour. The inquiry, using a qualitative and ethnographic research approach, reveals dynamic interaction between learners’ agency and contextual conditions underlying the participants’ strategic learning process. Such understanding informs pedagogical efforts to foster individual learners’ capacity for strategic learning and their capacities in opening up and sustaining a social learning space for exercising their strategic learning capacity or utilizing their strategic learning knowledge.

This monograph reports on a longitudinal inquiry into mainland Chinese undergraduates’ language learning experiences in an English medium university in a multilingual setting with a focus on their strategic language learning efforts. This book examines the issue as to what extent language learners’ strategic learning efforts depend on their ‘choice’, if ‘the element of choice’ is the defining characteristic of language learners’ strategic learning behaviour. The inquiry, using a qualitative and ethnographic research approach, reveals dynamic interaction between learners’ agency and contextual conditions underlying the participants’ strategic learning process. Such understanding informs pedagogical efforts to foster individual learners’ capacity for strategic learning and their capacities in opening up and sustaining a social learning space for exercising their strategic learning capacity or utilizing their strategic learning knowledge.