Enhancing Beginner-Level Foreign Language Education for Adult Learners: Language Instruction, Intercultural Competence, Technology, and Assessment(Routledge Research in Language Education)

This book is an authoritative text that explores best classroom practices for engaging adult learners in beginner-level foreign language courses.

Built around a diverse range of international research studies and conceptual articles, the book covers four key issues in teaching language to novice students: development of linguistic skills, communicative and intercultural competence, evaluation and assessment, and the use of technology. Each chapter includes teaching insights that are supported by critical research and can be practically applied across languages to enhance instructional strategies and curriculum designs. The text also aims to build intercultural competence, harness technology, and design assessment to stimulate effective learning in formal instructional settings, including colleges, universities, and specialist language schools.

With its broad coverage of language pedagogy at the novice level, this book is a must read for graduate students, scholars, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of language education, second language acquisition, language teaching and learning, and applied linguistics.

Foreword by Benjamin Rifkin

Acknowledgments

List of contributors

1. Introduction: Enhancing beginner-level foreign language education for adult learners

Ekaterina Nemtchinova

Part I: Teaching Language Competence

2. Postsecondary language learners’ ideal L2 self in a beginning Chinese, French, and Spanish classrooms

Yan Xie and Laura Ziebart

3. Experience with application of usage-based model of language to beginning L2 instruction

Serafima Gettys

4. Enhancing grammar acquisition among beginner-level learners of Chinese using the flipped learning model

Hongying Xu

5. Building beginning Spanish language learners’ linguistic and cultural competence through online task-based instruction

Lina Lee

Part II: Teaching Intercultural Competence

6. Integrating culture in language curriculum from beginning to intermediate level in a blended learning environment: A design-based empirical study

Shenglan Zhang

7. Intercultural competence in elementary-level language classes in higher education

Islam Karkour

8. The culture portfolio: Assessing growth toward intercultural competence

Julianne Bryant

9. Employing concept maps in teaching foreign language culture

Elmira Gerfanova

Part III: Teaching with Technology

10. Pathways to digital L2 literacies for text-based telecollaboration at the beginning level

Maria Bondarenko and Liudmila Klimanova

11. Student satisfaction and engagement in a beginning Ukrainian blended-learning course: Debunking fears of blending and lessons learned

Alla Nedashkivska

12. Data-driven learning in a low-level language classroom

Katya Goussakova

13. Поехали! Training Russian prefixed verbs of motion in virtual reality

Kristin Bidoshi and Ekaterina Nemtchinova

Part IV: Assessment and Evaluation

14. An exploration of beginner-level Korean learners’ perceptions and participation in collaborative writing tasks for learning-oriented assessment

Yunjung Nam and Hakyoon Lee

15. Feminist assessment in elementary world language courses

Veta Chitnev

16. Assessment of the relationship between derivational morphological awareness and second language reading comprehension

Anna Shur

Ekaterina Nemtchinova is Professor of Linguistics at Seattle Pacific University, USA, where she was named "Professor of the Year" in 2018. Her research interests include teacher education and technology in language teaching. She has previously authored a number of articles and textbooks in these areas.

"This book delivers exciting research focused exclusively on the vital first year of language study. Its four thematic sections – Approaches, Intercultural Competence, Technology, and Assessment and Evaluation – will be immensely useful to all language instructors, regardless of language taught." - Jason Merrill, Professor of Russian, Michigan State University; Director of the Middlebury College, Kathryn Wasserman Davis School of Russian, USA

"This book presents critical research findings and practical recommendations focused on language instruction at the elementary level in colleges and universities. I recommend this well-organized volume to all those working to encourage these language learners in their efforts to become effective communicators in today’s globalized world." - Marilyn S. Severson, Professor Emerita, Seattle Pacific University, USA

"With a thoughtful collection of empirical studies on a range of critical issues in the field of foreign language education, this volume fills in the gap of research devoted to novice level adult language learners in college and university programs. I highly recommend this reference book for professionals looking for research ideas and pedagogical recommendations in program design and curriculum innovation." - Yilin Sun, Professor, Seattle Colleges-South Seattle College; President of TESOL International Association (2014-2015), USA