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<font size=3>Regarding the re-examination of basic concepts defining
educational linguistics, one such would be Cummins' BICS/CALP distinction
(which is related to what Bernard and others have already mentioned as
the "gap between school languages and home languages", I
think) We need a clearer understanding of precisely what we mean by
"school language" and "home language", and this would
underlie our need for up-to-date assessment instruments, particularly in
bi/multilingual contexts. <br><br>
Cheers,<br>
Dan <br><br>
At 09:55 PM 12/14/2003 -0500, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>In a recent issue of Working Papers
in Ed Linguistics (18,2), the editors mull over proposed definitions of
our field:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Spolsky's vision of educational
linguistics was that it would be a field of (applied) linguistics, much
like educational psychology or educational sociology are fields of their
disciplines proper, that "start[s] with a specific problem and then
looks to linguistics and other relevant disciplines for their
contribution to its solution" (1978: 2). <br>
<br><br>
Following from a recent discussion about definition, I'm drawing up a
list of the top "problems" in our field. When you
consider educational linguistics overall, what problems, theoretical or
practical, most need to be tackled right now and why? Is there a
pressing need for a basic concept (such as communicative competence) to
be re-examined? What connections urgently need to be made?
<br>
The following is one example: I suspect that educational
linguistics could benefit from an integrated model of sociolinguistic and
cognitive approaches to SLA, not only to refine theory but for the sake
of solving specific teaching questions, such as what ways are available
to improve the grammatical accuracy of second language students'
writing? One such attempt is proposed by Dwight Atkinson
["Toward a Sociocognitive Approach to Second Language
Acquisition." <br>
The Modern Language Journal 86 (4): 525-545.]
</blockquote><br><br>
Leslie<br><br>
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<br><br>
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<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite> <br>
</blockquote><br>
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<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Professor, TESL/Applied Linguistics Program<br>
Co-editor, <i>Language Testing<br>
</i>English Department<br>
Iowa State University<br>
Ames, IA 50011, USA<br>
Phone: (515) 294-9365<br>
Fax: (515) 294-6814<br>
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