Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.01.2009, Page 110

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Tímarit um menntarannsóknir, 6. árgangur 2009
access to English in Icelandic society through
the media, and it is widely used in various
sectors of life such as tourism, business,
commerce, finance and education. In a survey
of Icelanders’ foreign language knowledge
commissioned by the Ministry of Education
in 2001, the majority of participants (N=732,
age 18-75) stated that English was the foreign
language they found most important to know.
English was also the language the participants
said they used most other than their mother
tongue (Menntamálaráðuneytið, 2001).
The main purposes of this article are to shed
light on English language teaching practices
at the compulsory level in Iceland and discuss
them with respect to current theory about
language learning and teaching. The article
focuses on 2 main questions:
What teaching and assessment •
methods are most commonly used in
English instruction at the compulsory
level in Iceland?
Are the teaching and assessment •
methods consistent with the National
Curriculum objectives for English
and current ideas about foreign
language teaching?
Three main areas will be discussed: the
types of teaching methods used, the use of
English in the classroom, and the types of
assessment methods and feedback used in
English classes.
The article begins with a brief discussion of
the development of English teaching in light of
its current status as a global language. This is
followed by a discussion of language teaching
theory and clarification of important concepts
in the field.
Foreign language or second language?
The changing status of English in the world
is having repercussions on the teaching of
English. A shift is occurring between traditional
foreign language learning where exposure to
and learning of the new language is primarily
limited to the classroom and second language
learning where the new language is commonly
the dominant language in the culture and the
learner is exposed to it both in and outside the
classroom (as in many immigrant situations).
Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir (2007) proposes that
the foreign and second language context be
viewed as a continuum, and discusses the
consequences that the type and amount of
exposure experienced by learners in Iceland
have for their language learning. An example
of the impact that language exposure may
have on language learning can be seen in a
study of English skills of nine and ten year
old children in Iceland conducted in 2005.
The study tested the English comprehension
and communication skills of children in 8
schools around the country who had received
very little or no prior instruction in English
(Auður Torfadóttir, Brynhildur Ragnarsdóttir
& Samúel Lefever, 2006). The children were
asked to complete a set of English listening
tasks which were based on an international test
of English for young learners and intended for
use after 100-175 hours of formal instruction.
The outcome was surprisingly high - an average
of over 70% correct answers. The results show
that many children in Iceland have acquired
basic English skills by the age of 9 without any
formal English teaching. A likely explanation
is the great amount of English that children
are exposed to in their daily environment, for
example through media sources.
Communicative Language Teaching
Just as the nature of English exposure and
use has changed over the years, the objectives
of language teaching have also changed. It
is no longer considered sufficient to be able
to read classical texts in a foreign language
and be well-versed in grammar rules. Since
the 1970s the definition of language learning
has expanded to include much more than
knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Social,
cultural and pragmatic aspects of language are
now also recognized as essential elements of
language learning. Current language learning
pedagogy follows the lines of Communicative
Samúel Lefever