Merrill Swain, expert on second language acquisition, gives a lecture on a conference on foreign language teacher training
On 14 and 15 May, the Sala dʼActes of the Palau de les Heures (Mundet Campus) hosts a conference on foreign language teacher training, organised by the Department of Language and Literature Teaching and Learning of the UB, together with the Institute of Education Sciences of the UB and the Spanish Association of Language and Literature Education. Within the conference, the prestigious expert in second language acquisition Merrill Swain pronounces a lecture. Moreover, the meeting includes the presentation of twelve teaching innovation experiences developed at faculties of Education in Catalonia and Spain.
On 14 and 15 May, the Sala dʼActes of the Palau de les Heures (Mundet Campus) hosts a conference on foreign language teacher training, organised by the Department of Language and Literature Teaching and Learning of the UB, together with the Institute of Education Sciences of the UB and the Spanish Association of Language and Literature Education. Within the conference, the prestigious expert in second language acquisition Merrill Swain pronounces a lecture. Moreover, the meeting includes the presentation of twelve teaching innovation experiences developed at faculties of Education in Catalonia and Spain.
Societyʼs increasing demand for foreign language skills as well as pressures to introduce foreign languages at early ages place Early Childhood and Primary Education teachers at the centre of attention. Conference organizers affirm that “university teaching staff responsible for teacher training has had to develop procedures, strategies and innovative educational resources that must be share and promoted”.
Dr Merrill Swain is emeritus professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the University of Toronto, where she has developed studies and given lectures for forty years. Her research is centred on bilingual education and second language acquisition (teaching, learning and assessment). Currently, Dr Swainʼs research activity is focused on the role of collaborative dialogue and metatalk in second language learning. She was president of the American Association for Applied Linguistic and vice-president of the International Association of Applied Linguistics.
Swain pronounced the lecture “Why do we need theory? Two theoretical perspectives on peer-peer interaction and several implications of these theoretical perspectives for foreign language teaching”, and she analyses a dialogue between two children who speak in a foreign language while they work collaboratively in order to illustrate how each theoretical perspective emphasizes different aspects of conversation and analyse their implications for foreign language teaching.