APLNG 597A Meaning in Second Language Learning

Meeting objective: 2, 3, 4, 6, 7

Downloadthe attached files

Thinking with your hand

Textbook 1. for "gesture"

There were two major topics discussed in this course to explore “meaning” in language and second language learning from a critical perspective: meaning is not fixed in language and some meanings are expressed by gesturing or metaphorical language. Although they have been neglected in language teaching, these parts are important in assessing learners’ language development, identity, and ideology. Additionally, incorporating gestures and metaphorical language in teaching may bring out strategies for dealing with long existing problems (e.g., teaching preposition).

Textook 2. for "gesture"

      Connecting gesturing to meaning, we focused on “growth point” where the meaning lies in gestures. We all have experienced that sometimes our gestures precede what we would like to say or already said. More often, gestures “complete” what we would like to convey. However, language teachers or standardized tests measure learning outcome often by spoken outputs. This reminds teachers that, from the current paradigm, many meanings produced by learners are left out, especially when students speak in English still gesture in their first language.
 

      The second topic was the role of metaphors in language teaching. Although metaphorical language has been included as a topic in language teaching, it mostly appears in advanced materials. However, people cannot not speak or write without using conceptual metaphors. Simple phrases, like “lift the grade” “raise the tax,” show a cultural perception that “good is high.” In this section our group did a metaphor teaching project (see the following picture).

 Following the idea that metaphor constructs ideology, my final project analyzed texts of the Tea Party Movement from the metaphorical language perspective (please see the attachment: final project).

Teaching "metaphor" in class 

Textbook for "metaphor"

The course changed my understanding of writing and teaching writing. Although half of the time was devoted to gesture analyzing, it actually gave me an insight of how language users construct meaning in a dialectical way. Writing is the same process as gesturing, in the sense that writers move back and forth to establish the meaning. When writing can be taken as a thinking process, teachers can put their focus on the writing process rather than written products.