28 MAY 2021, VITORIA-GASTEIZ (ONLINE EDITION)
17TH INTERNATIONAL
LASLAB SEMINAR
Children learning grammar in a foreign language context: Interactive tasks and attention to form
MEETING DESCRIPTION
Although teaching foreign languages in primary school is a world-wide practice, children aged 6-12 are an underresearched population and little is known about which communicative tasks help them to focus on formal aspects of language and facilitate their learning process.
This international seminar will feature experts in the field of foreign language learning in primary school in different contexts (Asia, Europe and North and South America) who will present findings from different experimental studies and draw pedagogical implications and applications for the primary school classsroom.
The workshop will be held entirely in English.
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Laura Gurzynski-Weiss
Laura Gurzynski-Weiss (PhD: Georgetown University) is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University (USA), where she teaches courses in second language acquisition, Task-Based Language Teaching, research and teaching methods, individual differences, and Hispanic Linguistics.
Recent research projects include task-based needs analysis and curriculum design for exposure-track Spanish at the elementary/primary level, as well as for a domestic Spanish immersion camp at the high school/secondary level. She directs the Task-Based Language Learning Task Bank, serves on the Executive Boards of the International Association for Task-Based Language Teaching and the International Association of Applied Linguistics, and is the co-founder and co-director of AILA Ibero-America.
(Indiana University, USA)
Natsuko Shintani
Natsuko Shintani is a Professor in the Faculty of Foreign Language Studies, Kansai University. She has taught English to young learners in her own private language school in Japan and applied linguistics courses at the master level at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Her research interests encompass the roles of interaction in second language acquisition, second language writing, and task-based language teaching for young learners. Her new co-authored book, entitled Task-based language teaching: Theory and practice, has been published with Cambridge University Press.
(Kansai University, Japan)
Masatoshi Sato
Masatoshi Sato is a Professor at Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile. He is a lifelong language learner, language teacher, and teacher trainer. His research agenda is to conduct theoretical and applied research in order to facilitate the dialogue between practitioners and researchers.
In addition to his publications in international journals, he has co-edited volumes from John Benjamins (2016: Peer Interaction and Second Language Learning), Routledge (2017: The Routledge Handbook of ISLA; 2019: Evidence-Based Second Language Pedagogy), Language Teaching Research (2021: Learner Psychology and Instructed Second Language Acquisition), and The Modern Language Journal (2022: The Research-Practice Relationship). He is the recipient of the 2014 ACTFL/MLJ Paul Pimsleur Award. He is currently the Editor of Language Awareness. Email: masatoshi.sato@unab.cl / Twitter: @masatoshi_sato
(Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile)
Yuko Butler
Yuko Goto Butler is Professor of Educational Linguistics at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the director of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program at Penn. Her research interests are primarily focused on the improvement of second/foreign language education among young learners in the U.S. and Asia in response to the diverse needs of an increasingly globalizing world.
Her work has also focused on identifying effective ESL/EFL teaching and learning strategies and assessment methods that take into account the relevant linguistic and cultural contexts in which instruction takes place.
(University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Rowena Kasprowicz
Dr Rowena Kasprowicz is a Lecturer in Second Language Education in the Institute of Education at the University of Reading (UK). She completed her PhD in Education at the University of York (UK). Her primary research interests are in classroom-based foreign language learning, particularly for young learners and in relation to the development of grammatical knowledge.
Rowena is a Research Specialist for the National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy, advising on the development of research-informed foreign language teaching and learning resources and leading on the development of the Gaming Grammar digital learning game. She is a collaborator on the Open Accessible Summaries In Language Studies (OASIS) initiative and a Theme Lead for the Research in Primary Languages network.
(University of Reading, UK)
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