Teaching and Research Speaker：Boxiang Zhang
Outline • I. Why to do research • II. Research areas • III. Research trends • IV. Research procedures • V. Some suggestions
I.Why to do research • 1. To promote teaching • Improve what we are not good • Teacher：good at practical teaching; • Not good at teaching ideas that back up the FLT. • Sharpen what we know • E.g. professional knowledge, teaching methods, etc. • Invigorate where we feel powerless • e.g. high-tech multi-media in FLT • Research helps us know why • To know what and how to teach is not enough.
2. New approaches require us… • Look at changes in FLT • Early approaches: • The Grammar-Translation Method • The Direct Method • The Audio-Methods • The Audiolingual/Audiovisual Method • The Oral-Situational Approach
More recent approaches • Cognitive approach • The Natural Approach • Notional-Functional • Communicative approach • Humanistic Approaches • Behaviorist approach • Post-Communicative approach • Constructivist/Integrative approach • Research helps us know the back-up philosophies.
3. Time urges us to catch up • The world changes from chain to pyramid and to network
We are living in a(n) … • Industrialized/post-industrialized world • Information world, • Knowledge world, • Digital world, • Networked world
Students today • Net Generation • Digital natives, sophisticated with technology • Equipped with: MP3 players, iPods, iPhones or smart phones, PCs, and all the other tools of the digital age
Live in a complicated remixed, mashed-up, digital, mobile, always-on media environment. • a. Listening to music. • b. Playing PC/video games. • c. Talking on iPhone. • d. Sending text messages (TMs) or Twittering. • e. Watching videos and/or TV. • f. Multitasking on at least 3 of the above.
Teachers today • Digital immigrants • One foot still in the past • And digital is their foreign language • For many teachers, curriculum remains a static body of knowledge that must be “covered”, “transmitted” and tested.
Students • More confident and skillful in using technologies than teachers • Research helps FL teachers • Build their confidence in using these technologies and solve the problem of low efficiency in FLT
4. Relationship between teaching and research Features of Research Thought-oriented Theoretical General, abstract Detached knowledge Science • Features of Teaching • Action-oriented • Practical • Specific, concrete • Experiential knowledge • An art
Research for teaching-oriented people: • Teaching and car driving • Coexistence • Doing research while teaching • Collaboration • Interaction of teaching and research • Complementarities • Research enhances teaching, while teaching promotes research.
II. Research areas • What to do in research? • Solve problems in our teaching. • 1. Basic elements of FLT • (1) Subject 1 (learner) • Native language level (local dialect), second language level • Ethical and cultural qualities • Personal qualities • (2) Object (content, the target language) • Form (phonetics, vocabulary, grammar syntax, discourse, etc.) • Content (text, hypertext, meaning, skills, competencies, etc.)
(3) Subject 2 (teacher) • Ethical qualities, • Professional knowledge, • Teaching competences, • Language skills, etc. • (4) Means • Teaching methods, • Teaching facilities, • Learning strategies, • Learning environments, etc.
2. Relationship of the elements M S1 OB S2 • (1) S1 (Students) • (2) Object • (3) S2 (Teacher) • (4) Means
III. Research trends • Reasons for research shift to new dimensions and focuses • Complexity of human societies • Pace of globalization • Development of high-tech • New theories of FLT • New needs of Language learners
1. Shift from form to function • Form: phonetics, vocabulary, grammar，syntax, discourse, etc. • Function: messages, themes, social and/or cultural values, tones (humorous, satiric, grotesque etc.) • e.g. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. • “Luncheon” (tone, implied meaning) • The shift is due to functional grammar, pragmatics and anthropological linguistics.
Function-stressed approaches • The situational method, • The functional syllabus, • The notional syllabus, • The communicative approach • From accuracy to fluency • From grammatical competence to communicative competence • Content-based teaching/learning
2. Labor-intensive to high-tech intensive • A shift from face-to-face instruction to multi-media instruction • Multi-media made many things possible in language teaching, e.g., VLE (virtual learning environment). This might make FLT into SLA. • High-tech intensive teaching approaches:
CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) • ICT (Information and Communications Technology) • CMC (computer-mediated communication) • Task-based teaching • Web-based teaching • e-Learning • Digitized learning • How to make FLT into SLA?
3. From external to internal • External factors: condition of changes • Internal factors: basis of changes, • And external through internal • e.g. You can lead a horse to the water, but you cannot make it drink. • Learning has to come from inside; you have to want to learn. • Chomsky (1988): …teaching should not be compared to filling a bottle with water but rather to helping a flower to grow in its own way.
Shift from teacher to learner • Student-centered teaching; • Autonomous learning; • Individualized teaching/counseling; • And interaction between teacher and student. • Do more research on students
Characteristics of the learner • Age • Gender • Personality (Extroversion/introversion) • Motivation (intrinsic/extrinsic; integrative/instrumental) • Aptitude (high/low) • Intelligence (linguistic/logical/musical/interpersonal) • Learning styles (perceptual/cognitive; field-independent/field-dependent) • Learning strategies (cognitive/affective)
New Roles of teachers • Facilitator and guide • Collaborator • Designer • Orchestrator • Evaluator • Integrator • Learner • Researcher
Teacher requires to learn: • New knowledge • New skills • Organizational Skills • Conceptual Skills • New literacies • Scientific, digital, critical, linguistic, cultural
New Means • Teaching methods and approaches • Facilities and technologies: • Audio devices: CD, Web, audiocassette recorder. • Video: DVD, cassette, Web, laserdisc, camera. • Television: Both satellite and terrestrial television programs • Computers • Internet • Environment • Exposure to authentic English all the time with audio and visual materials
IV. Research procedures 1. Statement of the problem 2. Literature review 3. Hypothesis/Questions 4. Choice of research method 5. Design of study 6. Data collection 7. Data analysis 8. Write-up
Statement of the problem • To choose a question that satisfies certain criteria: • Not too broad or general • Not being answered by previous research • A question to be answered • A question that can be answered • To be expressed in a clear, precise, and concise way, and only in one or two sentences.
Take my lecture topic as an example • Suitable or not? • No. • Too big; • Too general. • Have to be narrowed down.
Teaching • What kind of teaching? (literary/science) • Language teaching (NLT/SLT/FLT) • Research • What kind of research? (fundamental/applied/developmental ) • Applied research (professional/non-professional) • FLT and teaching-oriented research
Literature review • A critical evaluation of previous research • A literature review answers the following questions: • What has been said on the topic? • Who are the key writers? • What are the prevailing theories and hypotheses? • What questions are being asked? • What methodologies and methods are appropriate and useful? • It is not a chronological catalog of all of the sources, but an evaluation, integrating the previous research together.
Hypothesis • A logical supposition, a reasonable guess, an educated conjecture • Help to collect and locate the right kinds of data needed • Experiments and tests are conducted and the data is collected. • Hypotheses take three formats: • A question • A conditional statement • An If, then statement
Choice of research method • Crucial to choose the right method • Exploratory research, which helps to identify and define a problem or question. • Constructive research, which tests theories and proposes solutions to a problem or question. • Empirical research, which tests the feasibility of a solution using empirical evidence. • Qualitative research • Quantitative research
Design of study • It is a blueprint of research, dealing with at least four problems: • what questions to study, • what data are relevant, • what data to collect, • and how to analyze the results • The first level is about designing the overall structure of the research • The second level concerns decisions about how to collect evidence.
Data collection • It is the process of gathering and measuring information on variables of interest, to answer stated research questions, test hypotheses, and evaluate outcomes. • Ways of data collection • Direct observation • Interviews • Surveys • Experiments and testing • Questionnaires • Case study
Data analysis • Conduct data graphing, visual inspection, statistical analysis, or other operations on the data as appropriate. • Quantitative analysis is considered to be objective – without any human bias attached to it. • Analysis of qualitative data is accomplished by methods more dependent on people’s opinions, knowledge, assumptions, and inferences (and therefore biases).
Write-up • Steps of paper writing • Write an outline • State your thesis • Organize your notes • Write your first draft • Revise your draft
The structure of the paper • Introduction • Materials and Methods • Results • Discussion • Conclusions • References • Format: • APA (American Psychological Association) style • MLA (Modern Language Association) style
V. Some suggestions • 1. Be a good thinker (research-oriented mind) • Have an inquisitive and curious nature • Never accept things without questioning • Be sensitive to new things • Be imaginative and intuitive • Consider other people’s feelings and thoughts • Take risks in thought and action • Be tough and persevering in spirit
2. Be a good reader • Reading enhances our mental ability and lets you experience the world from a brand new perspective • Read with an insatiable desire and an unquenchable thirst • Create the reading habit with regular reading triggers
What to read: • Humanities and social science works: Literature, philosophy, esthetics, psychology, anthropology, religion, history, popular science, • Professional works: linguistic theories, new ideas and approaches in FLT, etc. • Academic writings: language journals
3. Be a good learner • Take an active approach to learning • Have broad cultural interests and a passion for knowledge (esp. humanities) • Be good at learning from others (esp. scholars) and from previous researches • Attend all kinds of academic conferences • Be familiar with all kinds of new ideas • Be good at collecting and accumulating reference materials • Always be on the frontier
4. Be a good writer • Writing is refined thinking. • Brainstorm before starting to write • Make logical and effective organization • Have a clear sense of audience and purpose • Write in a clear, direct style • Writing needs lots of practice: • Diary writing • Notes taking • Teaching-script writing • Academic writing
Hope Thank you! • All of you will be both good teachers and good researchers.
