Summer School 2023

SUMMER SCHOOL 2023

UNIVERSITÉ CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS

Ecological Perspectives on Language Teaching:
Designing a Second Language Acquisition Research Study

University of California, Davis
July 10-14, 2023

Aims of the Workshop

Language Learning is multidimensional and recent approaches to second language research and teaching have called for more ecological methods of research. A plurality of research methods allows for the complexity and ecology of the language learning classroom thereby facilitating the transfer of findings into practice. Given the number of instruments available to collect data (performance assessment, questionnaires, interviews, cloze texts, etc.) researchers need to choose the best method to connect and integrate their data. In addition, classroom practice can influence data collection as well as how the data is to be coded and analyzed.

This workshop will take the participants through the design of a research project including writing the proposal, data collection, coding, and statistics. For each step of the process, participants will hear a best-practice lecture and then work in small groups to practice the concepts highlighted in the lecture. This is a hands-on workshop with the goal that participants will outline the design of a research project and be able to implement it after the workshop. All language teaching researchers will benefit from participation, regardless of how far their project has already progressed. Download and view the program at the bottom of this page.

Participants

This workshop is for PhD students and Post-Docs in SLA as well as others in instructed SLA and language teaching research with a commitment to more ecological research designs. Participants should come to the workshop with a project in mind that they can work on and develop during the workshop. Students will reflect critically on their own research, receive specialized feedback and actively engage in discussion. The workshop will be a student-centered endeavor. Researchers working on any foreign language are encouraged to apply.