Heine Problem Solving in a Foreign Language

1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-3-11-022446-7
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 226 Seiten

Reihe: ISSN

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.

Zielgruppe

Scholars in the Areas of Content and Language Integrated Learning

Autoren/Hrsg.

Heine, Lena

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Acknowledgements;7
2;Contents;8
3;Figures;11
4;Tables;12
5;Chapter 1. Introduction;14
6;Chapter 2. Language and thinking;21
7;Chapter 3. Problem solving;36
8;Chapter 4. Language-specific cognitive processes;49
9;Chapter 5. A model of conceptual-linguistic task solving;70
10;Chapter 6. Task design and task analysis;81
11;Chapter 7. Think-aloud data;95
12;Chapter 8. A coding scheme;112
13;Chapter 9. Problem solving in a foreign language;132
14;Chapter 10. Evaluation of the think-aloud method;175
15;Chapter 11. Results and discussion;190
16;Transcription conventions;204
17;References;205
18;Index;227

Über Autor(innen)

Lena Heine, University of Osnabrück, Germany.