Taking a dynamic usage-based turn at university level: insights from a new language curriculum mixing tasks and films.
Dynamic Usage Based (DUB) approaches see language as a large array of conventionalized constructions that are meaningful units of language including pragmatic sense. Within this approach, language teaching should focus on exposing learners to those constructions in meaningful contexts (Verspoor, 2017) to foster automatisation and routinisation.
Recent studies on the effectiveness of DUB in second language development have shown positive effects on general oral and written proficiency, particularly in fluency and complexity (Hong 2013; Irshad 2015; Koster, 2015; Rousse-Malpat et al. 2021). Those studies focused mainly on the development of language proficiency.
This project aims at taking the DUB turn at university level for language students whose learning objectives go beyond second language proficiency and also include sociocultural competences such as analyzing cultural specificities, understanding culture and navigating culture.
To do so, we designed and tested a new instructional approach based on three modern approaches to language learning and teaching: Dynamic Usage-Based (Verspoor, 2017), Task Based Language Teaching (Ellis et al, 2019) and Film Language Integrated Learning (Kassenberg et al., 2020). In this presentation, we will show the results of two studies.
In study 1, a literature review on the three approaches showed that they were highly compatible but that they dealt differently with three topics: focus on form, type of input and feedback. Interviews with teachers (N=3) showed how the three approaches were integrated into one instructional approach and how was dealt with the differences found in the literature review.
In study 2, the effects of a two weeks treatment with the instructional approach were investigating, focusing on the development of students' language proficiency and sociocultural competence (N=14). Using a pre-test/ post-test design, results of a survey showed no improvement in their language proficiency but significant improvements in their sociocultural knowledge and skills. Additionally, students mentioned that they generally liked this way of teaching.
At the end of the presentation, the next steps into designing, evaluating and improving this type of instruction at university level will be discussed.
References
Hong, N. (2013) Dynamic usage-based approach to second language teaching. Unpublished
PhD thesis. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
Irshad, F. M. (2015) Second language development through the lens of a dynamic usagebased
approach. Unpublished PhD thesis. Rijkuniversiteit Groningen, Groningen,
Netherlands.
Kassenberg, T., Galati, F., de Vries-Zhuravleva, D., & Menke-Bazhutkina, I. (2020). 12. Film Language Integrated Learning: A Usage-Inspired L2 Teaching Approach. In Usage-Based Dynamics in Second Language Development (pp. 271-294). Multilingual Matters.
Koster, D. E. S. (2015) A dynamic, usage-based approach to teaching L2 Dutch. Dutch
Journal of Applied Linguistics 4(2): 257–64.
Rousse-Malpat, A., Koote, L., Steinkrauss, R., & Verspoor, M. (2021). Parlez-vous francais? Effects of structure-based versus dynamic-usage-based approaches on oral proficiency. Language Teaching Research, 13621688211040298.
Verspoor, M. (2017) Complex dynamic systems theory and L2 pedagogy. In L. Ortega
and Z. Han (eds) Complexity Theory and Language Development: In Celebration of
Diane Larsen-Freeman 143–62. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
