(1998). Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor analytic studies. Gifted and Talented International: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 97-98.

Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor analytic studies

This book provides an accessible guide to concepts in language testing and the testing of specific skills and systems. It combines theory and practical recommendations to help teachers understand the principles of testing and how they can be applied, supporting them to write better tests. The third edition has been extensively revised and updated to reflect recent developments in the field, while retaining the straightforward approach that made the earlier editions essential reading for trainee and experienced teachers alike. It features new content on technology, including computer adaptive testing and the use of automated scoring for all skills. It also includes an extended discussion of language testers' responsibilities, new chapters on non-testing methods of assessment and a checklist to help teachers choose tests.

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Testing for language teachers

Internationally recognised as one of the leading texts in its field, this volume offers a comprehensive introduction to vocabulary for language teachers who would like to know more about the way vocabulary works. Two leading specialists make research and theory accessible, providing the background knowledge necessary for practitioners to make informed choices about vocabulary teaching and testing. This second edition retains the popular format of the first edition, and has been rewritten to take account of the many developments in the past 20 years. There is a greater focus on the vocabulary learning process, with new chapters on incidental learning, and intentional learning, and a new wide-ranging discussion of formulaic language. The book now also includes extensive treatment of word lists and vocabulary tests, with explanations of their various strengths and limitations. Updated further reading sections, and new Exercises for Expansion make this volume more invaluable than ever.

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Vocabulary in Language Teaching

The paper argues that grammar correction in L2 writing classes should be abandoned, for the following reasons: (a) Substantial research shows it to be ineffective and none shows it to be helpful in any interesting sense; (b) for both theoretical and practical reasons, one can expect it to be ineffective; and (c) it has harmful effects. I also consider and reject a number of arguments previously offered in favor of grammar correction.

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The case against grammar correction in L2 writing classes

This article argues that language teaching would benefit by paying attention to the L2 user rather than concentrating primarily on the native speaker. It suggests ways in which language teaching can apply an L2 user model and exploit the students' L1. Because L2 users differ from monolingual native speakers in their knowledge of their L2s and Lls and in some of their cognitive processes, they should be considered as speakers in their own right, not as approximations to monolingual native speakers. In the classroom, teachers can recognise this status by incorporating goals based on L2 users in the outside world, bringing L2 user situations and roles into the classroom, deliberately using the students' L1 in teaching activities, and looking to descriptions of L2 users or L2 learners rather than descriptions of native speakers as a source of information. The main benefits of recognising that L2 users are speakers in the own right, however, will come from students' and teachers' having a positive image of L2 users rather than seeing them as failed native speakers. Language professionals often take for granted that the only appropriate models of a language's use come from its native speakers. Linguists look at the intuitions of native speakers or collect quantities of their speech; language teachers encourage students to be like native speakers. This article argues that the prominence of the native speaker in language teaching has obscured the distinctive nature of the successful L2 user and created an unattainable goal for L2 learners. It recommends that L2 users be viewed as multicompetent language users rather than as deficient native speakers and suggests how language teaching can recognise students as L2 users both in and out of the classroom.

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Going Beyond the Native Speaker in Language Teaching

Acknowledgements Preface Introduction 1. Comprehension and production strategies in language learning 2. The role of memory and lexical learning 3. Psycholinguistic processes in language use and language learning 4. Models of language learning 5. A rationale for task-based instruction 6. Implementing task-based instruction 7. Processing perspectives on testing 8. Research into language aptitude 9. Issues in aptitude theory: exceptional learners and modularity 10. Learning style 11. Learners, learning, and pedagogy 12. Conclusions Bibliography Index

A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning

L'enseignement base sur des travaux est un domaine ayant pris de l'importance depuis les 10 dernieres annees. Dans cet article, l'A. examine les critiques concernant cette mode actuelle de l'enseignement de la langue en matiere de communication, et passe en revue les theories et les recherches qui decrivent ses limites et ses qualites. Il propose ensuite un cadre permettant d'habiliter les enseignants a appliquer ce type d'instruction et d'eviter ainsi certains dangers qu'il comprend

http://mafrashab.persiangig.com/document/A%20framework%20for%20the%20implementation%20of%20task-based%20instruction.pdf

A framework for the implementation of task-based instruction

This article is broadly concerned with the differences between individual language learners. In terms of particular content areas of Individual Differences (ID) research, it surveys developments in foreign language aptitude, motivation, learner strategies, and learner styles. A brief review of earlier research on aptitude is presented, followed by discussions of more contemporary work on the origin of aptitude, namely, as a residue of first language learning ability, and on the existence of evidence for “learner types.” Motivation research is reviewed partly with regard to Robert Gardner's research, and then in terms of a wider framework for the functioning of motivation within an educational context. The review of learner strategies research emphasizes current attempts to develop taxonomies of such strategies, and to investigate their theoretical basis and their trainability. Finally, learner styles research, drawing on field independence theory, is discussed, and links are made with the research on aptitude. The article finishes with sections on conceptual and methodological issues in ID research.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0272263100009979

Individual Differences in Second Language Learning

This study focuses on the impact of different variables on the nature of language performance in the context of task-based instruction. Characteristics of tasks are discussed, and then a framework is offered that can organize the nature of task-based instruction and relevant research. The framework is used to generate predictions regarding the effects of three different tasks (Personal Information Exchange, Narrative, and Decision-Making) and three different implementation conditions for each task (unplanned, planned but without detail, detailed planning) on the variables of fluency, complexity, and accuracy. The study reports strong effects of planning on fluency and clear effects also on complexity, with a linear relationship between degree of planning and degree of complexity. However, a more complex relationship was discovered between planning and accuracy, with the most accurate performance produced by the less detailed planners. In addition, interactions were found between task type and planning conditions, such that the effects of planning were greater with the Narrative and Decision-Making tasks than with the Personal Information Exchange task. The results are discussed in terms of an attentional model of learning and performance and highlight the importance of tradeoff effects between the goals of complexity and accuracy in the context of the use of limited capacity attentional resources. The study contributes to the development of cognitive models of second language performance and addresses a number of pedagogic issues.

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The Influence of Planning and Task Type on Second Language Performance

Complexity, accuracy, and fluency have proved useful measures of second language performance. The present article will re-examine these measures themselves, arguing that fluency needs to be rethought if it is to be measured effectively, and that the three general measures need to be supplemented by measures of lexical use. Building upon this discussion, generalizations are reviewed which focus on inter-relationships between the measures, especially between accuracy and complexity, since positive correlations between these two areas have been less common in the literature. Some examples of accuracy–complexity correlations are reviewed. The central issue here is how to account for these correlations, and so the discussion explores rival claims from the Cognition and Trade-off Hypotheses. It is argued that such joint raised performance between accuracy and complexity is not a function of task difficulty, as the Cognition Hypothesis would predict, but that instead it reflects the joint operation of separate task and task condition factors. Extending the theoretical discussion, connection is made with the Levelt model of first language speaking, and it is proposed that the results obtained in the task-based performance literature can be linked to this model, modified to take account of differences between first and second language processing, particularly as these stem from differences in the underlying mental lexicons.

Peter Skehan

Papers

A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning

A framework for the implementation of task-based instruction

Individual Differences in Second Language Learning

The Influence of Planning and Task Type on Second Language Performance

Modelling Second Language Performance: Integrating Complexity, Accuracy, Fluency, and Lexis