School of Language and Culture

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https://hdl.handle.net/10292/554
The study of language, society and culture is at the core of the broad spectrum of knowledge known as the humanities. AUT's School of Language and Culture focuses on language in its widest sense — creative writing, English and its relationship with new media, translation and interpreting, international studies and the importance of intercultural competencies, discourse analysis and language teaching.

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Browsing School of Language and Culture by Author "Denny, HG"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Can busy classroom teachers really do action research: an action research study in an EAL [English as Additional Language] tertiary setting
    (Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand, 2006) Denny, HG
    Recent literature in general and language teacher education has promoted the benefits of empowering teachers to be in control of their professional development and curriculum development through reflection on practice and classroom based action research. The ‘teacher as researcher’ and ‘teacher as reflective practitioner’ movements are strongly influential in teacher education practice at present (Zeichner, 2001). Edge (2001) argues that action research augments the traditional notion of teachers as professionals who take theory and realize it in practice to include the notion of teachers as professionals who generate theory from practice. But how realistic for busy classroom teachers working in New Zealand conditions is classroom action research? Is this activity useful for such teachers and under what conditions is it possible? This paper describes an action research project carried out to investigate these questions. The participants in the study were a group of EAL classroom teachers at an Auckland tertiary institution, themselves undertaking classroom based action research into the teaching of casual conversation. Significant benefits are reported for teaching and research skill development, but there are also constraints. Recommendations are made with respect to the optimum design and resourcing of such teacher action research projects.
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    Improving the teaching of casual conversation through collaborative action research - a 'Leap in the Dark' or a 'Shot in the Arm'?
    (AUT University, 2005) Denny, HG; Roskvist, A.; Englefield, B.
    There is, in recent TESOL literature, much encouragement for teachers to undertake Action Learning and Action Research in order to improve teaching and develop research skills. But how practical and beneficial is this in a New Zealand tertiary setting where teachers of EAL have high teaching and administrative workloads and large classes? This paper describes the process of setting up a collaborative action research/learning project in which a group of teachers of adult EAL migrants focused on investigating the teaching of casual conversation in English. It surveys the literature that informed the research both on teacher research and the teaching of casual conversation in English and examines the benefits for teaching and for research skill development, the challenges, and the constraints of such an undertaking. Two members of the group outline briefly their action research into the teaching of aspects of casual conversation and describe specific strategies that helped learners in their own classroom contexts.
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    Improving the teaching of the pragmatic norms of conversation: a journey of reflective teacher action research
    (Tesolanz, 2010) Denny, HG
    Following the recent renewal of interest in the teaching of pragmatics (Kasper & Roever, 2004), the author has conducted a series of action research investigations into the teaching of pragmatic norms using elicited recorded samples of native speaker role-play (Denny, 2008). This article reflects on the journey and reports in detail on the final cycle of this action research journey in which the teaching of the pragmatics of casual conversation to two classes using such samples was investigated. The results indicate that there are noticeable levels of improvement in the ability of participants to use these norms and they see this improvement as having arisen from exposure not only to these semi-authentic recordings in the classroom but also to contact with native speakers outside the classroom together with explicit input from the teacher.
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    Making the implicit explicit: raising pragmatic awareness in trainee interpreters, using semi-authentic spontaneous discourse samples
    (TESOL, 2012-03) Sachtleben, A; Denny, HG
    Following the recent interest in the teaching of pragmatics and the recognition of its importance for both cross-cultural communication and new speakers of an additional language, the authors carried out an action research project to evaluate the effectiveness of a new approach to the teaching of pragmatics. This involved the use of semiauthentic discourse samples of New Zealand English to raise the pragmatic awareness of trainee interpreters in an undergraduate course taught by the first author. The researchers analysed qualitative data from learner blogs, written during instruction as part of the course requirements, for evidence that the learners noticed paralinguistic features used for pragmatic effect in conversations they overheard or took part in outside the classroom. The class teacher also kept a reflective journal recording her observations on learner progress and the usefulness of the materials. The researchers found there was a growth in the number of learners noticing pragmatic features during tuition, suggesting that the semiauthentic samples were effective as learning tools. Use of these samples also facilitated the noticing and discussion of cross-cultural differences and enabled more learner-centered methodology to be used.
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    Reflection and dialogue on postgraduate professional development for experienced language teachers
    (RMIT Publishing, 2013) Conway, C; Denny, HG
    Recent discussion has focused on the benefits and constraints of using and teaching reflection for professional self-development (Farrell, 2007; Volk, 2010). Alongside this is an interest in the value of dialogue in teacher development (for example Edge, 2007). This paper describes the experience of advanced language teachers participating in a reflective practice project undertaken as a paper in a professional master’s qualification in a New Zealand tertiary institution. Using data from teacher participant reflective essays and an end of course evaluation, the paper describes teachers’ growth in reflectivity and notes the role of dialogue in promoting professional development. The paper also explores the extent to which Stanley’s framework (1998) was useful in measuring levels of reflectivity. The researchers found that teachers believed the course promoted their professional development in several ways, and that the activities participants found most helpful were ones that contained an element of dialogic interaction. Participants’ level of reflectivity at the end of the course was high on Stanley’s (1998) framework, but it was necessary to modify parts of the framework for use in this context.
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    Reflective practice and action research as a source of pre-service and in-service professional development and classroom innovation: burden or benefit? myth or reality?
    (AUT University, 2005) Denny, HG
    The concept of the teacher as reflective practitioner and teacher as researcher of his/her own classroom practice now has a long 20th and 21st century tradition and is promoted widely in the teacher education literature of recent years. But does it have real benefits for teacher skill development and innovation in classroom practice? This paper describes the outcomes of two research projects. The first examines the effectiveness of a reflective practice exercise carried out by both pre-service and inservice English teachers at AUT. The other follows the development of a collaborative action research project in which teachers reflected on and took steps to improve the teaching of casual conversation in their own classrooms. The paper will draw conclusions about the benefits and constraints for teachers of both reflective practice and the more formal action research, examining to what extent they help teachers to develop skills and encourage innovation in the classroom. Recommendations are made for future practice to support both reflective practice and its formalisation as action research.
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    Teaching pragmatics to lower level learners
    (TESOLANZ, Victoria University of Wellington, 2012) Denny, HG; Healy, J; Macdonald, F
    The teaching and learning of the pragmatics (socio-culturally determined norms) of a second language is vital if migrants and refugees are to live and work in the country of resettlement without miscommunication (Yates, 2008). One way of teaching these is by having learners listen to and work with naturalistic samples of native speaker interaction (Burns & Joyce, 1997). Following a series of action research investigations into the teaching of pragmatic norms using elicited recorded samples of native speaker role-play at intermediate level (Denny, 2008), the authors have turned their attention to learners at lower levels of proficiency. There are indications that it may be difficult to use authentic or semi-authentic samples to teach at this lower level (Denny & Basturkmen, 2011). This project sought to discover if lower-level learners can learn pragmatics by being helped to notice pragmalinguistic features in recorded discourse samples created from native speaker role-play. The research showed that this is possible, but that the teaching methodology needed to be adapted to the needs of this group of learners, using more teacher-facilitated activities and scaffolding, and focussing on the teaching of formulaic expressions.
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    The role of teacher consultation in teacher education: a teacher development project focused on designing and evaluating pragmatics-focused instructional materials
    (Applied Linguisitcs Association of New Zealand, 2011) Denny, HG; Basturkmen, H
    Limited knowledge of pragmatics (the socio-cultural 'rules' of interaction in a community and how they are realised in language) can constitute a barrier to successful communication in a second language (Eslami-Rasekh, 2005; Yates, 2008), particularly for advanced learners whose pragmatic mistakes are regarded as more serious than grammatical errors by native speakers (Bardovi-Harlig and Dornyei, 1998). Recent research indicates that L2 pragmatics can be taught and are in general best learned by explicit instruction (Jeon and Kaya, 2006).
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