27.3096, Review: Applied Ling; Lang Acq: Johnson (2015)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-27-3096. Wed Jul 27 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.3096, Review: Applied Ling; Lang Acq: Johnson (2015)

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Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2016 13:16:52
From: Hongying Xu [hxu at uwlax.edu]
Subject: Adult Learning in the Language Classroom

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/26/26-4135.html

AUTHOR: Stacey Margarita Johnson
TITLE: Adult Learning in the Language Classroom
SERIES TITLE: New Perspectives on Language and Education
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Hongying Xu, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Reviews Editor: Robert A. Cote

SUMMARY

“Adult Learning in the Language Classroom” by Stacey Margarita Johnson
explores the connections between foreign language learning and adult learning.
Johnson reports the results of a semester-long case study of one college-level
Elementary Spanish course. Employing a multiple-sources data collection
method, Johnson collected her data by 1) classroom observation; 2)
learning/reflective journals from the students; and 3) in-depth interviews
with the instructor and eight of the student participants. She reported the
students’ learning and discussed how class instruction helped the learning
happen by following the framework of the adult learning theory. This study
illustrates how adult students learn and transform in a beginning-level
language class and thus to reinforce the priceless value of college-level
elementary language courses. 

The book can be divided into four parts. Chapter 1 “Introduction” is an
introduction to the study and the contents of the entire  book. Johnson first
discusses the goal of foreign language education. She challenges the
widely-accepted goal of language education: to develop communicative
competence and fluency based on the time and effort required to achieve that
goal. Most adult learners who start to learn a foreign language at college
level do not continue their language study after one semester or two once the
language requirement has been satisfied. Johnson argues that more
comprehensive learning objectives should be proposed by using an
interdisciplinary perspective to help both students and instructors see the
value of adults’ short-term language learning. She did a case study to
exemplify the value of an elementary language course in changing adult
learners’ perspectives on important issues and developing their learning
autonomy. She introduces the background of the study, the instructor and the
students who participated in the study, and the data collection of this study.
Johnson also states the criteria she used in selecting the case.

The second part introduces the theoretical frameworks of adult learning and
foreign language education. Chapter 2  “Adult Learning Theory” discusses three
specific frameworks of adult learning theory: Experiential Learning,
Self-Directed Learning, and Transformative Learning, as well as how language
education can contribute to adult learning under these frameworks. Johnson
argues that language educators should pay as much attention to their adult
students as to the content they are teaching. Becoming familiar with adult
learning models will benefit language educators and help their students
develop as a person and as a global citizen. Under the framework of
Experiential Learning, experience is considered the foundation of education.
Different from children, adults come into their education with previous
experiences. Education helps them make sense of the past and the present. In
particular, Kolb’s cycle of experience learning is introduced, which starts
from Concrete Experience, followed by Reflective Observation, Abstract
Conceptualization, and Active Experimentation. The second framework is
Self-Directed Learning. Like some scholars, Johnson believes that 
self-directedness, instead of being inherent, is a product of adult education
and can be promoted in classes. The third framework: Transformative Learning
refers to the process of adult learners changing their perspectives as a
result of their reevaluation of “previously held beliefs and attitudes” (p.
18). Ten steps are involved in the process of transformative learning,
including a disorienting dilemma, critical reflection, planning of action,
etc. 

Chapter 3 “Adult Language Education” discusses different teaching methods
employed in language classrooms and teacher’s role in each method. After
reviewing the five key principles of foreign language education promoted by
ACTFL: communication, culture, connection, comparison, and community, the
author points out that these principles “seem to encourage adult development
through language study” (p. 29). However, she states that traditional
approaches, including  grammar-translation and audiolingual methods, do not
conform to the progressive philosophy of adult education. Instead, the
communicative approach is more relevant to students’ language learning and
adult development. The author supports her argument by making comparisons
between the two approaches in the aspects of content organization, student and
teacher roles, and source of knowledge.  Instructors’ organization of course
content is important in adult language learning. Two ways of organizing course
content are discussed: the product-oriented and content-based synthetic
syllabus vs. the task-based and theme-oriented analytic syllabus. The
differences between the two are mapped with the differences between the
content model vs. the process model of adult program planning. The author
argues that the roles that teacher and students play in the traditional
approach resemble the concept of “banking education” (Freire 1970/2000).
Whereas in the communicative approach, teacher is a facilitator and students
have more autonomy, and are thus more self-directed. In the traditional
approach, the only sources of language are the textbooks and some grammar
reference books, whereas in the communicative approach, the students have more
authentic sources to gain their knowledge of the target language. The author
suggests that we should move towards a new approach by taking the following
concepts and aspects into consideration: sociocultural contexts, critical
pedagogy, identity, motivation/investment, and intercultural competence. The
instructor, the students, and the classroom is an ecosystem, which affects
language learning in a powerful way. 

The third part discusses the study in details: the class, class observations,
results from students’ learning journals and the interviews, and the author’s
interpretation of the data. Chapter 4 “The Class” introduces the setting of
the class and the participants. The class under study was a first-semester
Spanish class at “an urban, Southern, community college” referred to as Urban
Southern Community College (USCC). Located in a metropolitan area with around
1 million people, USCC reports a majority (62%) of its student body as African
American and 45% of its students are over age 25 (p. 48). The class had 22
students, and 21 agreed to participate in the study. Eight of them also
participated in the one-on-one open-ended interview. The author introduces the
background, experiences, and motivation of each interviewee, whose age ranges
from 18 to 27. With different majors and interests, most of them wanted to
learn Spanish and put it into practical use. The class met twice a week in the
afternoons. The instructor, Ms. Salazar, originally from Spain, took a
dominant role in class, and students were not interested in the course
although they had a positive opinion of the instructor. 

Chapter 5 “How the Class was Taught” reports the author’s observation of
instructional methods and class dynamics via field notes and  students’
learning journals. She elaborates on some representative features of the
instructional methods. English, the students’ native language, was used as the
primary language of instruction, which, as the author sees it, is a good thing
for adult learners to develop transformative learning. Another technique that
the instructor used is what the author calls “sidebars” which are “anecdotes,
personal viewpoints and critical commentary related to society and culture”.
Interestingly, many students mentioned these sidebars in the interviews and
talked about how they helped them see the teacher and the target culture.

In addition to these, the author describes film as a technique to provide
authentic text and to promote critical reflection (p. 70).  Putting all of the
techniques together, the author argues that the instructional choices fall
into the framework of critical pedagogy, which promotes students’ “critical
consciousness and social justice” (p. 75). 

Chapter 6 “What Students Learned” discusses what students learned based on the
author’s class observation, student learning journals, and one-on-one
interviews. Students were asked to complete a learning journal at the end of
each class. The journal includes four questions on 1) what they learned; 2)
how they learned it; 3) learning experience outside of class; 4) disorienting
dilemma. The author groups the learning into seven categories: content,
skills, personalized learning, learning about learning, learning about
differences, learning about connections, and learning to make sense of accents
(p. 78).  The author mainly discusses their metacognitive learning and their
understanding of the commonalities and differences between the target
language, culture, and community and their own. Students started to reflect on
their own learning: their gains, their problems, and what need to be worked
on. With comparisons in the different aspects of language and culture,
students’ metalinguistic awareness improved, and more importantly, some of
them started to critically think about their own culture. One interesting
aspect of learning is students’ understanding of the instructor’s strong
accent in English. Some students felt frustrated at following her accented
English at the beginning of the semester. However, their attitudes changed
later and saw her accent in a positive way and took her as “a linguist object”
(p. 89) to learn from. 

Chapter 7 “Transformation and Development” discusses the author’s
interpretation of the data within the theoretical framework of transformative
learning. The author argues that evidence from the students’ learning journals
and interviews is “consistent with the stages of transformative learning” (p.
95), which include exploring new sources of knowledge, becoming more
self-directed, critically assessing one’s own language and culture. Outside of
class, students started to “seek out opportunities to have contact with a
wider network of authorities on Spanish language and culture” (p. 96). Most
contacts were initiated by the students, which also serves as an indicator of
becoming more self-directed. Students became more motivated and put increased
investment into their language study. Interestingly, the author points out
that there is a complex relationship between motivation and learning outcome:
increased motivation did not necessarily lead to better performance.
Self-reflection occurred when students started to reflect on “the cultural and
linguistic norms” of their own (p. 104). As a result, students became more
open to other perspectives. The author also reports moments experienced by
students as the “disorienting dilemmas”, which is the first step in the
process of transformative learning. Those dilemmas occurred when students
learned about differences, connections, or about their learning. In the last
part, the author analyzes the possible instructional practices that may
contribute to the transformative learning observed among the students. Two of
them are highlighted: the sidebars and the film. 

The last part, Chapter 8 “Applications”, summaries the study briefly,
discusses the contribution it has made to the adult learning theories, and
draws some implications for foreign language education, including learning
objectives, teaching approach, class activities, assessments, and teacher
training. The author argues that language teachers should not confine
themselves to either traditional or communicative approaches. If they
integrate adult learning theory into their teaching, both approaches will
promote students’ growth towards becoming a global citizen. She gives specific
examples on how to integrate adult learning theories, such as experiential
learning, critical reflection, and transformative learning, into designing
activities in a language class. She also proposes that assessments of students
and instructors of language classes should reflect their achievements not only
in content and form, but also in their progress in deeper learning. It is also
suggested that the language instructor training should introduce adult
learning theories so that these instructors will be able to see the connection
and expand their “learning objectives to include critical awareness and
intercultural competence” (p. 129).  

EVALUATION

Potential readers of this book can be language educators, adult language
learners, and even administrators at colleges, especially at a time when the
fate of many language programs depend on their perceived value.  The biggest
contribution of this book is to help language educators, language learners,
and school administrators see the immense value of beginning-level language
classes at colleges under the frameworks of adult learning theories. One
semester or two of language classes may not help students fully learn a
foreign language but they definitely help develop students’ intercultural
awareness and competence, which has already become one of the goals listed in
World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages issued by ACTFL in 2012.

This study also expands the research area of foreign language education by
using an interdisciplinary approach between foreign language learning and
adult learning. The findings of this study indicate a strong feasibility and
necessity of integrating these two areas. The multi-sources data collection
also lends more power to the findings and conclusions. However, since the case
study is only based on one semester of one foreign language class. As pointed
out by the author, this study only shows the trend towards transformative
learning, rather than the ultimate result of it. Maybe a follow-up study over
a longer time span may provide us with a better picture. 

On the whole, this book reports a very interesting study in an adult foreign
language class from a new perspective. The findings are exciting and
encouraging to language educators, language learners, and program developers.
They help us look at lower-level foreign language classes from a new
interdisciplinary perspective and help us see the value of these classes in
promoting deeper and more reflective kind of learning among the students.
These kinds of learning are not only the goals of language education but also
of the undergraduate education in general. This book is, in some sense, an eye
opener for practitioners in the area of foreign language education.

REFERENCES

ACTFL: World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, 2012.
www.actfl.org/publications/all/national-standards-foreign-language-education


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Hongying Xu is a senior lecturer and also supervises the minor program of
Chinese Studies at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She devotes herself
in helping her students develop their communicative competence as well as
their intercultural awareness and perspectives. She has a Master’s in TESOL
and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, with special interest on second
language acquisition in instructional settings. Her research area includes
second language acquisition among adult language learners and language
pedagogy.





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