The role of tension in teaching languages
Titles of the Individual Presentations in a Panel
The role of tension in teaching languages (Larbi Oukada, Georgia College & State University)
Subject Area
Second Language Acquisition
Abstract
The role of tension in teaching languages
Larbi Oukada, Georgia College & State University
The presentation considers the importance of tension as a catalyst for creating developmental change and traces its inevitability to a set of teaching constraints that convert teaching into series of contentious confrontations.
The tension I am addressing in this session should be dissociated from its meaning as anxiety or stress. The latter is an emotional state and the subject of numerous essays examining its positive or negative impact on the accomplishment of instructional objectives. The tension I am addressing here is a mental activity put into motion (1) when the learner is actively engaged in acquiring new language; and (2), when the learner’s progressive aims are challenged by a series of regressive instructional constraints.
This session will attempt to articulate and document the following two major observations: (1) learning is an interplay of aims, constraints, conflicts, and compromises; and (2), such interplay generate a series of tensions that are both inevitable and valuable to effective language learning.
Brief Bio Note
Oukada bio
Professor Larbi Oukada, a native from Casablanca, Morocco, is the chair of the Department of Modern Languages & Cultures at Georgia College. Professor Oukada received a Ph.D. in linguistics from Louisiana State University. His research and publications have focused on French phonology, methods of teaching second languages, and the notion of curricular responsiveness. Professor Oukada co-authored a first-year program entitled Entre amis, in its 6th edition, adopted by over 350 colleges and universities, including Harvard. He has also led a team to write a second-year program entitled Controverses, based on compelling and controversial social issues..
Keywords
Teaching constraints
Location
Room 217
Presentation Year
2017
Start Date
3-24-2017 9:35 AM
Embargo
11-4-2016
Recommended Citation
Oukada, Larbi Dr., "The role of tension in teaching languages" (2017). South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL). 47.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/seccll/2017/2017/47
The role of tension in teaching languages
Room 217
The role of tension in teaching languages
Larbi Oukada, Georgia College & State University
The presentation considers the importance of tension as a catalyst for creating developmental change and traces its inevitability to a set of teaching constraints that convert teaching into series of contentious confrontations.
The tension I am addressing in this session should be dissociated from its meaning as anxiety or stress. The latter is an emotional state and the subject of numerous essays examining its positive or negative impact on the accomplishment of instructional objectives. The tension I am addressing here is a mental activity put into motion (1) when the learner is actively engaged in acquiring new language; and (2), when the learner’s progressive aims are challenged by a series of regressive instructional constraints.
This session will attempt to articulate and document the following two major observations: (1) learning is an interplay of aims, constraints, conflicts, and compromises; and (2), such interplay generate a series of tensions that are both inevitable and valuable to effective language learning.
