Conceptual Mediation through Translinguistic SCOBAs within C-BLI for Adult Learners of German
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/lst.19038Keywords:
conceptual mediation, translinguistic conceptualization, trans-linguistic SCOBAs, didactic sequence, reflective action-based teachingAbstract
This article discusses conceptual mediation through translinguistic SCOBAs: mediation tools that allow learners to move from their spontaneous linguistic knowledge to an organized, theoretical knowledge and to explain a given concept with respect to both the learners’ additional languages (ALs) and their L1. Translinguistic SCOBAs are used within the Integrated Plurilingual Approach (IPA) (Esteve et al. 2017), which draws on Concept-based Language Instruction (C-BLI). The IPA blends communicative and reflective activities in didactic sequences, in which conceptual mediation leads to translinguistic conceptualization. Conceptual mediation aims to help learners to appropriate concepts that are contrastively relevant. Translinguistic conceptualization unfolds through a gradual enrichment of the learners’ initial Orienting Basis of an Action (OBA) by means of four reflective activities: preliminary learner reflection, relevant contrastive analysis for raising conceptual awareness, joint completion and use of a systematizing translinguistic SCOBA, and retrospective learner reflection. This group of activities was developed within two IPA-based didactic sequences that were designed separately: (1) the grammatical concept ‘verbal aspect’ within personal narratives and (2) the socio-pragmatic concept ‘distancing’ within a set of interrelated oral and written genres. Each sequence was framed within a course of German as an AL taught at a different level (beginners and advanced) to adult learners with Spanish or Catalan as L1 and English as their first AL. The learners’ verbalized reflections during both sequences show that the reflective process of conceptual mediation with translinguistic SCOBAs, carried out through the four activities, proved useful in promoting perceived concept appropriation.
References
Carandell, Z., Keim, L., and Tigchelaat, A. (2010). Herramientas para la autorregulación. In O. Esteve, K. Melief, and A. Alsina (Eds) Creando mi profesión. Una propuesta para el desarrollo profesional del profesorado, 65–96. Barcelona. ICE: Horsori.
Carandell, Z. (2013). La secuencia didáctica como herramienta de mediación para la autonomía. In O. Esteve and E. Martín-Peris (Eds) Cuestiones de autonomía en el aula de lengua extranjera, 103–116. Barcelona. ICE: Octaedro.
Esteve, O. (2018). Concept-Based Instruction in Teacher Education Programs in Spain as illustrated by the SCOBA-Mediated Formative Model. In J. P. Lantolf, M. E. Poehner and M. Sawin (Eds) The Routledge Handbook of Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Development (pp. 487–504). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315624747-31
Esteve, O., Borràs, J., Naval-Surribas, E. and Vilaseca, L. (2003). Los aprendices como analistas del discurso. In J. M. Cots, and L. Nussbaum (Eds) Pensar lo dicho. La reflexión sobre la lengua y la comunicación en el aprendizaje de lenguas, 121–136. Lleida: Milenio.
Esteve, O. and Carandell, Z. (2009). La formació permanente del professorat des de la Pràctica Reflexiva. ARTICLES de Didàctica de la Llengua i la Literatura 49: 47–62.
Esteve, O., Farró, L., Rodrigo, C. and Verdía, E. (n.d.) Meaningfully designing and implementing SCOBAs in socioculturally based L2 (student) teachers education programs. Unpublished manuscript.
Esteve, O. and Fernández, F. (2019). Modelos de formación del profesorado: comunidades de práctica reflexiva. In La didáctica de lenguas de par en par. Diálogo entre teoría y práctica, 303–319. Barcelona: Octaedro.
Esteve, O., Fernández, F. and Bes, A. (2018). Pre-service Teacher Education from a Sociocultural Perspective: A Case Study on Teaching Learning through Conceptual Mediation. Language and Sociocultural Theory 5/2: 83–107. https://doi.org/10.1558/lst.37792
Esteve, O., Fernández, F., Martin-Peris, E. and Atienza, E. (2017). The Integrated Plurilingual Approach: A didactic model providing guidance to Spanish schools for reconceptualizing the teaching of additional languages. Language and Sociocultural Theory 4/1: 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1558/lst.v3i2.32868
Fernández, F. (2012). La enseñanza del alemán para estudiantes de traducción mediante secuencias de tareas con enfoque contrastivo. In M. Cánovas, M. G. Delgar et al. (Eds) Challenges in Language and Translation Teaching in the Web 2.0. Era, 75–84. Granada: Comares.
Fernández, F. and Arumí, M. (2014). Ongoingly redesigning metacognitive questionnaires helping trainees to self-evaluate their translating. Babel. 2014; 60(3): 371–396. https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.60.3.06fer
Gal’perin, P. I. (1992). Stage-by-stage formation as a method of psychological investigation. Journal of Russian & East European Psychology 30(4): 60–80. https://doi.org/10.2753/RPO1061-0405300460
García, O. (2009). Education, multilingualism and translanguaging in the 21st century. In: Mohanty, A. K., M. Panda, R. Philipson, and T. Skutnabb-Kangas (eds.) Multilingual Education for Social Justice: Globalising the Local, 140–158. New Delhi: Orient Black Swan. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847691910-011
González Davies, M. (2014). Towards a Plurilingual Development Paradigm. From Spontaneous to Informed Use of Translation in Additional Language Learning. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer. Volume 8. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2014.908555
González Davies, M. (2015). Translating as Translanguaging in Additional Language Learning. Meta 60(2): 338–338. https://doi.org/10.7202/1032889ar
Haenen, J. (2001). Outlining the teaching-learning process: Piotr Gal’perin’s contribution. Learning and Instruction 11, 2001, 157–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-4752(00)00020-7
Herazo, J.D. (2014). Second language (L2) development as concept-mediated textual activity: exploring the role of functional language concepts in classroom L2 communication and learning. PhD dissertation. University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved from: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/20998/1/HERAZO_ETD_2014.pdf
Infante, Paolo (2018). ‘Mediated Development’ Promoting Learner Internalization of L2 Concepts through Cognitive-Process Focused Activities (MD) in J. P. Lantolf, M. E. Poehner, and M. Swain (Eds) The Routledge Handbook of Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Development. New York: Routledge.
Johnson, K. E. (2006). The sociocultural turn and its challenges for second language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly 40: 235–257. https://doi.org/10.2307/40264518
Karpov, Y. V. (2018). Acquisition of Scientific Concepts as the Content of School Instruction. In The Routledge Handbook of Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Development, 122–136. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315624747-7
Lantolf, J. P. and Poehner, M. E. (2014). Sociocultural Theory and the Pedagogical Imperative in L2 Education. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203813850
Menjíbar, Y. and Surribas, E, (2018). El trabajo por conceptos. Instrucción gramatical desde un enfoque competencial. In Textos de didáctica de la lengua y la literatura, 22–30. Barcelona; Graó.
Negueruela, E. (2008). A conceptual approach to promoting L2 grammatical development. Implications for language program directors, In J. P. Lantolf and M. E. Poehner (Eds). Sociocultural Theory and the Teaching of Second Language, 189–227. London: Equinox.
Negueruela, E. (2013). Comunicación y pensamiento verbal en la enseñanza de la gramática: un enfoque conceptual. Miríada hispánica (6): 53–70.
Swain, M. and Lapkin, S. (2013). A Vygotskian sociocultural perspective on immersion education. The L1/L2 debate. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education 1(1): 101–129, https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.1.1.05swa
van Compernolle, R. A., Gómez-Laich, M. P. and Weber A. (2015). Teaching L2 Spanish sociopragmatics through concepts: A classroom-based study. The Modern Language Journal, vol. 100(1): 341–369. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12318
van Compernolle, R. A. (2018). Concept-Based Pragmatics Instruction. Principles and Applications. In J. P. Lantolf and M. E. Poehner (Eds), with M. Swain (ed. consultant), The Routledge Handbook of Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Development, 211–228. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315624747-14
Van Ek (1975). Systems Development in Adult Language Learning: The Threshold Level in a European-Unit/Credit System for Modern Language Learning by Adults. Strasbourg. Council for Cultural Cooperation.
Van Lier (2007). Action-based teaching, autonomy and identity. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 1(I): 46–65. https://doi.org/10.2167/illt42.0
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). Thinking and speech (N. Minick, Trans.). In R. W. Reiber (Ed.), The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky, vol. 3: 237–285. New York: Plenum Press.
