Moving English Language Teaching Forward

Front matter

Magne Dypedahl (Ed.)

Moving English Language Teaching Forward

Festschrift in Honor of Ragnhild Elisabeth Lund

Contents

PROTACG E A A E A EE A A A E EE 7

Change and Development in the Cultural Dimension of

Language Teaching, and Beyond ...sssssnssnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn Michael Byram

Preface

Editing this Festschrift in honor of Ragnhild E. Lund has indeed been different from any other editing job. On the one hand, the work has been kept secret from Ragnhild. On the other hand, her presence has been strongly felt throughout the whole process. First of all, the contributors’ willingness to be part of this project is a result of Ragnhild’s position in the field of English language pedagogy, or English didactics. The same willingness to support the project was shown by the publication fund at the University of South-Eastern Norway, for which we are very grateful. As the personal greetings on p. 311 reveal, however, there has been extra warmth in the responses from contributors in this project that only a very well-respected person can bring forth. There are a number of reasons for this high regard of Ragnhild, but more than anything else, it can be explained by her lifelong and unconditional commitment to both her students and English language pedagogy. As Mona E. Flognfeldt - her co-author of the best-selling textbook English for Teachers and Learners - has commented, the guiding question for Ragnhild as a teacher and writer is the following: “What do students need to know?”. And her other principle is to always speak or write plainly. Indeed, there are sure to be many sentence structures and forms of expression in this anthology that Ragnhild would never approve of. Still, we know that she always respects colleagues who really care about English language pedagogy. And we all do.

The title of the anthology, Moving English Language Teaching Forward, reflects Ragnhild’s great contribution to the field of English language pedagogy as a teacher and researcher. While there are many scholars who are doing their fair share in this regard, the authors of this book have in some way or other moved English language pedagogy forward together with Ragnhild, for example as co-writers, fellow doctoral committee members, colleagues at the University of South-Eastern Norway, or just good colleagues sharing the same commitment to English language pedagogy.

PREFACE

Ragnhild’s international network is also evident in this anthology. Most notably, she is an original member of the Cultnet group, being one of the teachers and researchers who were invited by Michael Byram to come to Durham, England to meet for the first time in 1997. Byram, or Mike - as he would be called by Ragnhild and other Cultnet members, is arguably the most influential theorist of intercultural competence development and language pedagogy in the world, and he has helped shape policies on teaching and learning languages all over Europe. In chapter 1 of this anthology, he writes about the first meeting of the Cultnet group in 1997 and charts some of the changes that have happened in “the cultural dimension” of language teaching since then. The chapter winds up with reflections made by original members of the Cultnet group, including Ragnhild herself - who of course had no idea she was contributing to her own Festschrift.

The other chapters in the anthology have been written by scholars affiliated with universities and university colleges in Norway. In chapter 2, Janice Bland writes about opportunities for deep reading to achieve in-depth learning. In chapter 3, Cecilie Waallann Brown and Jena Habegger-Conti present an argument for the relevance of using photographs for intercultural learning in English Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. In Chapter 4, Tony Burner and Christian Carlsen report on findings from a European ERASMUS-funded project, OpenEYE (Open Education for Young Europeans through History, Art and Cultural Learning). In chapter 5, Magne Dypedahl presents a four-week intervention study that explores the systematic use and analysis of intercultural encounters in the English classroom. In chapter 6, Mona E. Flognfeldt discusses language-pedagogical theories and recent ELF research with a view to framing useful steps in a post-deficiency approach to English language education. In chapter 7, Sissil Lea Heggernes discusses in what ways recent international developments around the notion of interculturality might enrich English language teaching (ELT) in Norway. In chapter 8, Hild Elisabeth Hoff explores the affordances of literature as an educational medium in the School of the Future. In chapter 9, Sara Barosen Liverød examines the relationship between gamers’ and non-gamers’ self-efficacy when using English while playing video games at

PREFACE home and using English in the classroom. In chapter 10, Juliet Munden and Catharine Veronica Perez Meissner report on a study of textbooks in teacher education. More specifically, the chapter investigates authors’ perspectives on professional textbooks in English didactics, and one of the participants in the study was Ragnhild - again, without knowing that she was contributing to her own Festschrift. In chapter 11, Asli Lidice Göktürk Saglam explores the impacts of learning-oriented online integrated assessment tasks on students’ learning. In chapter 12, Delia Schipor and Vilde Smeby Hammershaug present an analysis of language learning strategies in the Norwegian national curriculum for English, LK2o. And in chapter 13, Heike Speitz and Gro-Anita Myklevold explore aspects of multilingualism and intercultural competence in the subject of English in the LK20 curriculum in Norway.

All of these chapters have been written with enormous respect for all the work Ragnhild has done to move English language pedagogy forward. In the words of Juliet Munden, Ragnhild is truly “a Dame of English didactics”, which is an appointment Ragnhild could share with Juliet herself. Although the authors have contributed to the anthology because Ragnhild is a Dame of English didactics, the anthology is first and foremost compiled in gratitude for Ragnhild’s role as the wonderful, straight-shooting Dame of the English section in Vestfold. She takes responsibility regardless of the task in question, and regardless of what might benefit her own interests. While she may disagree with colleagues on theory or other points, there is no end to how much room she will leave for others to excel and how much support she will offer to make her colleagues the best teachers and researchers they can possibly be. It is a great privilege and a gift in life to work with someone who is always there to take responsibility, give you that uplifting smile and, if necessary, cover your back. We are forever grateful to Ragnhild for really caring about English language pedagogy - and us.

Magne Dypedahl

Change and Development in the Cultural Dimension of Language Teaching, and Beyond

Michael Byram Durham University

Abstract: Ragnhild E. Lund attended the first meeting of the group which became known as Cultnet in 1997. This chapter charts some of the changes which have happened in “the cultural dimension” of language teaching since then by comparing the programme and people of 1997 with the same event in 2021. It is completed by some reflections from others who were there in 1997 and how they have changed but stayed the same in their intercultural lives.

In December 1997, a group of 14 PhD students, including Ragnhild E. Lund, met at the University of Durham, England, to talk about “Research Methods in Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Learning”. They were all in the midst of or about to begin their doctoral studies and had had difficulty in finding an appropriate supervisor or felt that they needed help with their research methodology. They had all been in contact with the fifteenth person present at the meeting - the author of this chapter - asking for help in some way. The best way forward seemed to be to invite them to share their concerns and help each other. This was the first meeting of a network which soon after took the name of “Cultnet” and then, in

Citation: Byram, M. (2022). Change and development in the cultural dimension of language teaching, and beyond. In M. Dypedahl (Ed.), Moving English language teaching forward (Ch. 1, pp. 11-16). Cappelen Damm Akademisk. https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.166.ch1

2021, “Cultnet: Intercultural Community for Researchers and Educators”, at its 23" meeting’ (https://cultnetintercultural.wordpress.com/).

The title of a second meeting, in December 1998, was - somewhat grandly - “Second International Research Students’ Conference on Intercultural Studies and Foreign Language Teaching”, with a significant change from “cultural” to “intercultural” studies and from “learning” to “teaching”. Later meetings were sometimes described as “symposium” or “meeting” and eventually as “meeting” and not “conference”. This is important because the function of the meetings is to provide an opportunity for talking about work in progress rather than presenting completed studies.

One of the purposes of this chapter is to compare programmes and topics in 1997 with those of 2021 in order to consider what this tells us about the “cultural dimension” in language teaching and its evolution. I use the phrase “cultural dimension” deliberately as a cover term, since terminology has also changed, reflecting the field’s deeper changes. This comparison is a case study which, while it cannot be generalised, can stimulate analysis and reflection in other cases and, perhaps, in the field in general, whatever terminology is used to designate this field.

Comparing the programs from 1997 and 2021 (the latter held virtually because of the pandemic) reveals the following:

- The focus on methodology in 1997 is prominent in the title of the meeting and participants’ abstracts, whereas in 2021 methodology was present only implicitly, and topics included: citizenship, cultural identities, literature, picture books, teachers’ beliefs, internationalisation, the public engagement of universities, humanitarian aid, linguacultural encounters, pupil mobility etc.

1 The meetings have taken place every year except 2020, which was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE CULTURAL DIMENSION

- In 1997 all participants, with two exceptions, were concerned with language teaching, most having practised or still practising as teachers, whereas in 2021 the proportion of topics other than language teaching was substantially higher’.

- Participants in 1997 were all presenters and, with two exceptions, were “students”, whereas in 2021 “students” were a small minority, and most presenters were in employment as teacher researchers in higher education, including some who had been students in 1997.

- In 1997 the terms used to describe the content of participants’ research included “the cultural dimension”, “teaching culture”, “promoting cultural knowledge”, and “intercultural understanding”, whereas by 2021 other terms appear such as “intercultural competence”, “intercultural awareness”, “intercultural citizens/citizenship”, and one reference to “global citizenship”.

- In 1997 oral presentations were “works in progress” dealing with plans for data collection, methods of analysis, or simply initial plans, whereas in 2021, most presentations were of completed work and, though still a “meeting”, the event had many characteristics of a “conference”.

What does this list tell us?

Most immediately and obviously, there is a change away from worries about the research methods, which may indicate more research confidence in general and in particular that research students have sufficient guidance from their supervisors in ways not evident in 1997.

Secondly, there is an inclusion of other areas of study beyond language teaching, and even beyond education, although language teaching and education are still dominant. The network remains true to its origins.

The presence of references to “citizenship” and education for citizenship in 2021 is a third noticeable feature?

2 I refrain from statistical analysis since the total of 14 in 1997 became 120 participants and 53 presenters in 2021.

3 There is no denying that the membership of Cultnet Intercultural largely comprises “language people” and “language teachers”. Networks develop like rolling snowballs, bringing more people with similar interests into the group, which currently has approximately 300 members.

Fourthly, the change towards being a conference rather than a meeting for sharing work in progress perhaps indicates more certitude and maturity and, again, a reduced need for help with research design, methodology and so on.

Fifthly, the membership of the network and the presenters at the 2021 meeting include many people who are well established in their careers and who supervise their own PhD students, and this suggests that the field has acquired a degree of maturity and recognition. Such recognition is for both research and teaching, since such people are now also teaching university courses which reflect their research interests.

Finally, the shift in terminology and the strong presence of “intercultural” and to a lesser degree “citizenship” in 2021 suggests a considerable conceptual change as well as a widening of the focus from “language”.

In short, in the specific case of this network of researchers and researcher teachers, there have been substantial changes over the period of two decades or so. Some changes are peculiar to the case — the characteristics of participants and their presentations - and some are probably indicative of developments in research on “cultural studies / intercultural competence”: broadening of focus from language to citizenship as well as from education to migration and de-colonising. Similar changes can doubtless be observed elsewhere’.

Will the trends continue?

Future-gazing is notoriously fraught with problems, but the significance of the “intercultural” in a time of globalization, migration and constant interaction among people of different origins and identities is not diffcult to predict. Research on social issues that include education will follow - and try to anticipate - societal evolution. The widening of focus in the Cultnet meetings, both within education and beyond

4 At about the same time as Cultnet was founded, the International Association of Language and Intercultural Communication (IALIC) grew out of a series of conferences on “Cross-Cultural Capability”. A similar analysis could be carried out if its programs are still available (www.ialic. international).

CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE CULTURAL DIMENSION education, is not difficult to predict, either. Although this bookis concerned primarily with language teaching, it is also predictable - or at least desirable - that language teaching should also turn its attention to societal changes.

And what about the people?

Apart from any intrinsic value this analysis may have, the Cultnet network is, perhaps primarily, a collection of people. Changes in the field of study depend on the research interests and academic careers of such people.

In 1997, the PhD “students” included some recent undergraduates and others in the midst of their career, usually in teaching. The recent undergraduates are now senior academics, and those in mid-career have entered into active retirement — or in one important case is about to do so.

One of the senior academics says that since 1997 she has “come full circle - in a roundabout way! - and am now immersed in care ethics theory and decolonisation”. Another says her ideas have changed substantially:

I (now) think what’s important is not what to teach about culture but what attitudes we, teachers and students, should hold toward others’ cultures. It is widely accepted that we should respect others’ cultures, but it is easier said than done. When a foreign cultural behavior, belief, or value really challenges the core value of my culture, how should I respond to it? And how should I teach my students?

She also emphasises how she would now like to “teach my students through the lens of foreign cultures, how they can understand their own culture more and value it”.

Of those who moved into active retirement, one says:

The voluntary work in which I am engaged draws daily on my experience of straddling the divide between different worlds - regions and nations in the UK, the UK and other nation-states, education and business/industry, private sector and public sector ... all call for mediation between different aspects of the other.

Another retiree, who is also working voluntarily, says:

In this voluntary work I have helped African asylum seekers who speak French to find their way through the cultural maze of the British asylum system (I speak French). Intercultural teaching has meant that I have a heightened awareness of a person's cultural identity.

As for the one about to retire, last and most important, Ragnhild refers to her research’ on and development of curricula and textbooks as connected with the “cultural dimension of FLT”, explaining that her work has resulted in a book: Teaching English Interculturally. She too refers to working with immigrants:

For me, the most fruitful way to work with ICC has been via our growing immigrant population. Most teachers have quite diverse classrooms. When we discuss the opportunities and the challenges of this situation, we get concrete examples that can be related to the teaching and learning - and the use - of

English as well.

Whether Ragnhild will follow others into voluntary work is not for me to predict or even suggest. Retirement has many options and, yes, duties, but whatever she does, she has an enviable achievement on which to lean.

5 Ragnhild provided her notes in answer to a request sent to everyone at the first meeting without knowing the true purpose behind this request. I hope she will forgive this minor deception.

Deep Reading and In-depth Learning in English Language Education

Janice Bland Nord University

Abstract: This chapter focuses on the opportunities of deep reading for in-depth learning. By in-depth learning, not only deepening but also widening of English teaching is meant - embracing cross-curricular learning on subjects that are interdisciplinary and relevant for students’ out-of-school lives. The importance of connectedness for in-depth learning is discussed, and the how of deep reading is examined - both the physical aspect of reading - on paper as opposed to reading on screens, and a suggested structure for responding to texts in the classroom. I describe an example of in-depth learning using a framework for deep reading with The Sleeper and the Spindle (2014) by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell, and incorporating other related texts such as different versions of fairy tales. With the deep reading framework, four interweaving steps suggest ways that students could be supported with unpuzzling, investigating, critically engaging with literary texts, and experimenting with creative response. The suggested activities include reciprocal teaching, exploring the multisensory nature of story, inferencing global issues such as gender, ageism, and ableism, activating agency through media literacy, and creative writing.

In this chapter, I question how deep reading of an adolescent-friendly literary text could pursue in-depth learning in English language education. Applying a deep reading framework to Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell’s The Sleeper and the Spindle (2014), I examine how this work (an illustrated

Citation: Bland, J. (2022) Deep reading and in-depth learning in English language education. In M. Dypedahl (Ed.), Moving English language teaching forward (Ch. 2, pp. 17-44). Cappelen Damm Akademisk. https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.166.ch2 fairy tale suitable for language students in their mid-teens) might be used for in-depth learning. Goals of in-depth learning include the objectives to help students see connections between their school subjects, help them reflect on their learning and master challenges in familiar and unfamiliar contexts and, most importantly, help them see how their learning can be applied to the world beyond school. In-depth learning is understood to mean that students become invested in their learning as they recognize its immediate relevance for their lives in the real world. In this way, in-depth learning seeks to involve students as agentive and ambitious participants in their own learning. Fullan, Gardner and Drummy (2019) define in-depth learning, as “learning that helps them [students] make connections to the world, to think critically, work collaboratively, empathize with others, and, most of all, be ready to confront the huge challenges that the world is leaving their generation” (p. 66). This seems to link both to Dewey’s approach to education as a mechanism for social change and Freire’s (1985) critical pedagogy approach, in which adults as well as children gain agency through reflecting on problems, developing critical consciousness and critical thinking, while taking on a certain degree of personal responsibility by working on possible solutions.

The role of connectedness and deeper knowledge in moving English language teaching forward

The in-depth learning approach appears appropriate for moving English language teaching (ELT) forward as there is currently a worldwide interest in critical thinking and in-depth learning across school subjects. The field of ELT can well embrace opportunities for critical thinking and in-depth learning as the educational goals of English language education are broad, often including multiple literacy, metacognition, learner autonomy and creative problem solving in addition to interculturality, empathy, diversity competence, engaging in cross-curricular topics and global issues. Fullan et al. (2019) emphasize connectedness for learning in depth - connecting to others, connecting to the world, and connecting to the purpose with passion (p. 68).

There is also at the present time an escalation of online interactions raising demands for criticality precisely while making connections to the world. Social media have been key in helping communications stay open during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Salomon (2016) argues that “it is questionable whether virtual interaction truly functions as a collaborative tool as it usually does not afford the creation of shared beliefs, values and deeper knowledge” (p. 155). Rather, the echo chamber effect of online communication is resulting in societies becoming ever more polarized. Kramsch and Zhu (2016) describe the dangers in the following manner: “Such environments risk isolating them [people] in communities of like-minded peers, makes them vulnerable to electronic surveillance and makes them addicted to peer approbation and peer pressure” (p. 45). Connectedness is central to the notion of in-depth learning, and educational goals of ELT call for intercultural connectedness, in addition to the practice of language skills. Nonetheless, in-depth learning within ELT can be more nuanced and sensitive to the possibility of polarization when taking place in a classroom community of learners. And while ELT can be usefully supplemented by virtual interaction, this must be fully integrated into the pedagogical goals.

Comparing digital reading and print reading for complex cognitive growth

Another issue that needs attention in the context of ELT and in-depth learning relates to reading on paper compared to reading on screens. It is a key educational responsibility to question the wisdom of allowing digital reading to entirely replace print reading in school language education. Norway has widely facilitated the use of digital devices in the classroom; as a result, children use their tablets for writing, illustrating, creating, reading texts digitally (often including the coursebook) as well as retrieving information, quizzes, and digital contests. This development progresses fast, overtaking the research that explores the consequences of this major shift - the move away from physical materials such as print books, pens, pencils, and different kinds of papers. In response, Stole, Mangen and Schwippert (2020) cautiously state, “We need a more nuanced picture of what various digital technologies are good for, and when long form print (book) is preferable for learning” (p. 10). The research team also warns of potentially changing students’ reading behaviour through encouraging only digital reading: “As online reading typically involves skimming and scanning, rather than reading for pleasure or to learn, it is possible that some children develop a screen reading behaviour that is not beneficial for deep reading for comprehension” (Støle et al., 2020, p. 10).

English-language fiction and nonfiction for children and adolescents are frequently a part of school curricula, including in Norway (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2019). Story apps especially designed for interactivity work well on tablets, can be very motivating and, in shared reading situations, can prompt dialogue in the language classroom. However, the students’ hunting for hotspots in story apps can distract from the story and message (Brunsmeier & Kolb, 2018; Schulz-Heidorf et al., 2021). Therefore, it is imperative that children do not completely lose print reading, which supplies them with opportunities for deep reading. It is also important that teachers, librarians, and curriculum designers become better acquainted with children’s literature scholarship. This is because most kinds of illustrated children’s literature (picturebooks, graphic novels and illustrated chapter books, see Bland 2018b), which are designed to be read as print books, do not work well in digital format. The layout is changed when creating ebooks from multimodal print books, which affects the meaning and the opportunities for artefact emotion. Artefact emotion refers to an aesthetic response to a striking artistic creation, such as a literary text (Hogan 2014), and can be inspired by a combination of meticulous craft and literary cohesion.

Similarly, sensory anchoring of language and meaning is supported when students can touch and smell the books they read. Baron (2015) reminds us of the “physical side of reading: holding books in your hands, navigating with your fingers through pages, browsing through shelves of volumes and stumbling upon one you had forgotten about” (p. xiv). Particularly younger students should be encouraged to “explore and use their senses in a variety of ways to experience language learning” (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2019, p. 5). However, all students profit from multisensory, whole-person learning, which is also known as head, heart and hands learning (Gazibara, 2013). Students can and do lose the fascination of print books. For instance, I have seen picturebooks left untouched on students’ desks after the class of 12-year-olds, who use digital coursebooks as a rule, had listened to a story being read aloud while watching corresponding scanned images in the student teacher’s slideshow. It did not occur to any of the students to study the pages and pictures more closely during follow-up oral and written response activities by opening the physical picturebook that lay on their desks.

The relatively new practice of skimming rather than deep reading that is influenced by online browsing encourages many students to understand reading - and writing - as fleeting activities. Baron (2015) emphasizes how reading and writing are intertwined, and ephemeral online reading habits lead to less formality, precision and stamina in students’ writing: “Computers, and now portable digital devices, coax us to skim rather than read in depth, search rather than traverse continuous prose. As a result, how - and how much - we write is already shifting” (p. xiii). Carr (2020) maintains that our reading style has fundamentally changed: “What is different, and troubling, is that skimming is becoming our dominant mode of reading. Once a means to an end, a way to identify information for deeper study, scanning is becoming an end in itself - our preferred way of gathering and making sense of information of all sorts” (p. 138).

However, helping students achieve deep concentration on issues through focused reading and listening in addition to sharing thoughts through speaking and writing should be at the heart of ELT work for in-depth learning. A study of Norwegian 10-year-olds conducted by Stole et al. (2020) has revealed the importance of not entirely supplanting print reading with digital reading because children’s complex cognitive growth is best achieved through print reading. The strong implications of their study indicate that “in order to ensure comprehension development, children still need time to read enjoyable long-form texts to consolidate reading, develop vocabulary, automaticity and fluency, and thereby comprehension. If this does not happen in the home, it is even more urgent that schools encourage book reading” (p. 10).

A framework for deep reading and in-depth learning

Using carefully selected literary texts, we can combine a focus on both language and in-depth learning; language learning will thereby become central to education and not simply an acquisition of English as a useful commodity. In-depth learning should support our gaining new perspectives on the world and ourselves, which is sometimes known as worldmindedness and defined as “global openness and the disposition to reflect on how our actions and decisions concern us not only locally but also affect all peoples around the world” (Bland, 2022, p. 318). In-depth learning seeks to expand students’ limited subject knowledge and promote cross-curricular learning. When classroom teaching is dependent on memorization and divorced from global culture, opportunities for students to apply their learning beyond school in unfamiliar contexts are lost. The experiential learning approach emphasizes the role of students’ experiences outside of school as significant and relevant for their learning processes. So it is certainly worrying when, as Brevik’s (2016) study indicates, adolescents in Norway tend “not [to] see the educational profits of their out-of-school English usage” (p. 55). For the heart of in-depth learning is two-way agentic learning: students are empowered by having their out-of-school experiences made relevant in the classroom, and further empowered when their classroom learning helps them master fresh challenges by transferring their new learning to different contexts outside of school.

In order to become discerning participants of text, language learners need guidance in exploring ideas, investigating, critically engaging and experimenting with creative response, activities that can begin with picturebooks already in the primary school. Student teachers in teacher education need in-depth support in learning about deep reading of texts that primary and lower secondary language students could manage. A successful literary text aimed at young people is very often accompanied by transmedia stories and reimaginings such as audio books, fanfiction, films, images on the Web and graphic novel versions, which provide additional comprehension support through retellings, all-important shared multisensory experiences, and inspiration for students’ own creativity. They also provide opportunities for critical literacy, for instance reading against the text. The strong intertextual characteristics of much children’s literature is highly valuable for language and literacy learning, however a shortage of pre-service guidance in teacher education with this focus may be a global phenomenon (see Bland, 2019).

Figure 1 presents a framework of four interweaving steps as a potential guiding structure for the deeper exploration of various fiction or nonfiction texts in ELT. With this framework, the learning goals could embrace aspects of multiple literacy, critical thinking, interculturality, diversity competence, global issues, empathy, cross-curricular topics, creativity, metacognition, and learner autonomy.

UNPUZZLE AND EXPLORE

+ Explore conventions of format and genre.

+ Unpuzzle visual literacy and different semiotic modes in multimodal texts.

+ Explore the use of language and

rhetorical devices.

ACTIVATE AND INVESTIGATE

+ Activate prior knowledge - related world events, related texts.

+ Share first understandings on characterization, setting and plot.

+ Investigate and discover new knowledge.

Exercise information literacy.

CRITICALLY ENGAGE

+ Share related experiences and feelings. Cultivate a safe classroom climate.