This debate brings together experts in second language acquisition (SLA) and language education to address one of the perennial issues surrounding teacher development in the teaching of languages in primary, secondary and higher education.
It has often been assumed that teacher development and teacher knowledge lags behind advances in SLA theory and that it is the duty of language teachers and pedagogues to catch up with insights from research in language learning. This debate will challenge such an assumption and discuss whether and how insights from SLA theory and language pedagogy could mutually inform each other
- Should language educators take SLA knowledge at face value and if not, what kind of mediation and reflection should happen?
- Is there a need for a SLA and language pedagogy interface?
- Where do teachers’ practices and development stand in such a dialogue?
Prof. Florence Myles: Professor of Second Language Acquisition, Research Director and Director of LaDeLi (Centre for Research in Language Development throughout the Lifespan), University of Essex. Her research interests are in second language acquisition (SLA), especially French although she has also worked on Spanish SLA, and she is particularly interested in theory building in the field of SLA.
Dr Nick Andon: Lecturer in English Language Education and the Programme Director for the MA in TESOL in the Department of Education, Communication and Society at King's College London. He has worked on a number of teacher education and materials development projects in Gabon, Bolivia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Mexico, Argentina and Algeria. He is currently researching the knowledge, beliefs and practices of MFL teachers in the UK.
Discussants:
Amira Mills (Lecturer in Arabic, Modern Language Centre, King’s College London), Alejandra López-Vázquez (Lecturer in Spanish, Modern Language Centre, King’s College London)
A drinks reception will take place in the Language Resource seminar room (K-1.07.3) from 7:30–8pm.
Sign up for this event here
Read the blog post from the second debate, Modern Languages—A Discipline (still) in Search of an Identity