Problem solving in a foreign language / by Lena Heine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heine, Lena.

Series:

Studies on language acquisition ; 41.

Studies on language acquisition ; 41

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Second language acquisition--Study and teaching.

Language and languages--Study and teaching.

Language and culture.

Sociolinguistics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (229 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Although Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a popular teaching method, research on CLIL has nearly exclusively focused on aspects of language learning. Besides that, we are still lacking any cognitively well-grounded theory about the special features of contexts in which the focus is on content learning, but in which a foreign language is used as the medium of communicating information. This book re-examines the basis for CLIL from a cognitive perspective and investigates how the use of a foreign language as a working language influences the processing of content. It summarizes findings from cognitive psychology on thinking, problem solving and conceptual processing, and integrates them with models of language-specific mental activities such as speech processing and text composition. This provides a theoretically well-grounded basis for the understanding of the special features of CLIL, and promotes a Cognitive Linguistic perspective on CLIL pedagogy.The theoretical considerations form the basis for an empirical study that offers the first insights into what CLIL learners actually do when they solve content-focused tasks while using an L2. Through spontaneous verbalization of thought, detailed verbal protocols were elicited and analysed into language and content focused cognitive processes. The analysis shows that both language and conceptual thought interact closely and that a focus on language in general has positive effects on the processing of semantic content; the use of an L2 as working language can enhance this effect. Additionally, the study offers a thorough reflection and new perspectives on verbal protocols as research tools, in particular in L2 contexts.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Figures

Tables

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Language and thinking

Chapter 3. Problem solving

Chapter 4. Language-specific cognitive processes

Chapter 5. A model of conceptual-linguistic task solving

Chapter 6. Task design and task analysis

Chapter 7. Think-aloud data

Chapter 8. A coding scheme

Chapter 9. Problem solving in a foreign language

Chapter 10. Evaluation of the think-aloud method

Chapter 11. Results and discussion

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612716072

9781282716070

1282716077

9783110224467

3110224461

OCLC:

630543123