Reducing fossilization among advanced language learners through introspection, online corpora, and targeted exercise

Grant:

Lecturers' Professional Development Fund (LPDF)

Academic Year:

2010 - 2011 (June 1, 2010 through May 31, 2011)

Funding Requested:

$2,000.00

Project Dates:

Sat, 01/01/2011 - Wed, 08/31/2011

Applicant(s):

roann

Overview of the Project:

The goal of the proposal is to find my participation as a presenter at the AILA [International Association of Applied Linguistics] World Congress in Beijing at the end of August 2011. The workshop is part of the Learner Autonomy in Language Learning strand. The focus of the workshop will be on identifying difficulty areas that advanced language learners have and showing how the use of freely available online language corpora (e.g. MICASE/MICUSP, COCA) can help learners decide which forms to use based on native speaker preferences. Presenting at AILA provides an exceptional professional development opportunity: (1) I will be able to use materials developed for the workshop in my classes; (2) as I become more proficient using the online corpora myself, I will be better able to guide my students in their use; (3) I will gain experience converting my materials to PowerPoint and incorporating online links into the presentation; (4) I will be immersed for one week in the most current key issues in the field of Applied Linguistics; (5) I will be able to network with applied linguists and English language teachers from around the world; and (6) experiencing the Chinese language and culture will enrich my experience as a teaching at the ELI, where most students in my classes are from China.

Final Report Fields

Project Objectives:

To present my work on learner introspection and online corpora, learn about the current key issues in the field, and network with applied linguists from around the world. To gain greater insight into my students’ language and culture, provide them with tools for becoming more independent language learners, and help them improve their accuracy of oral and written expression.

Project Achievements:

a. Working on the conference presentation helped me become more familiar with the online language corpora and made it easier for me to present them as tools in my writing classes. Having studied Chinese during the semester prior to my trip helped me understand the difficulties my students have learning English. At the same time, it gave me greater insights into the Chinese culture because I was able to interact directly with the people. Connections were made with international applied linguists, between UM colleagues and conference participants, and between former UM students and language teaching professionals in China. b. How many students were impacted by this project? Undergraduate students: 5 per semester Graduate students: 40 per semesterc. How many courses were impacted by this project? 3 courses per semester

Continuation:

I will continue using online language corpora in the classroom, developing ways to make the tools more accessible. I will continue to improve my teaching based on insights about the Chinese language and culture.

Dissemination:

Insights from the presentation along with conference abstracts, handouts, and information about international online corpus resources have been shared with colleagues. Colleagues have been encouraged to attend the next congress to be held in 2014 in Australia.

Advice to your Colleagues:

Attending AILA, held only once every three years, is extremely beneficial for connecting with top applied linguistics researchers from around the world. Presenting put me in touch with others working specifically in my area of interest and made me more aware of similar work being done outside the U.S. The three-year cycle makes it easy to conduct research, submit an abstract, and apply for funding.

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