Till Örebro universitet

Assessing the quality of student notes in TESOL can take many forms, including total number of notations, content words, and information units. Such evaluative methods emphasize the quality of student notes and eliminate the complex issue of information transfer from notes to postlistening activities. Measures of note quality provide instructors with valuable information on student ability that can feed into subsequent pedagogy for notetaking as well as offering students a routine for receiving objective feedback on the completeness and efficiency of their notes. The following entry reviews previous research on the topic, summarizes several methods for assessment of note quality in TESOL, and discusses pedagogical implications.

English medium instruction (EMI) has been increasing in higher education with broad intentions of stimulating internationalization and cross-cultural learning experiences. This form of education presents opportunities and challenges for teachers and students alike. Key challenges involve various levels of second language (L2) speaking and listening abilities among teachers and students operating in EMI contexts. This exploratory study therefore examines the relationship between the main ideas two EMI lecturers in Sweden intended for their students to learn during lectures and the main ideas that EMI students report learning in the same lectures. Prior to six lectures, the teachers summarized to the researcher the main ideas to be included in the respective lecture. Immediately following the lecture, students provided their own summaries of the main ideas. A keyword analysis comparing the teachers' intended messages and students' reports shows that students may not be recognizing and acquiring the main ideas that the teacher intends. Further analysis distinguished two sub-groups of students: those with self-reported Swedish as a first language (L1) and those with self-reported L1s other than Swedish. A binomial proportion test showed that L1 impacted the amount of lecture main idea key words reported by the students in this study. The paper closes with a pedagogic perspective encouraging EMI lecturers to monitor student uptake on a regular basis and adjust their lecture delivery to support better learning and retention of content delivered via EMI.

The importance and amount of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) usage and English Medium Instruction (EMI) lectures continue to increase on university campuses as universities worldwide seek to promote internationalization among both the student body and the faculty. While EMI has become a priority, the teaching and learning that occurs within this framework needs to be monitored for effectiveness and efficiency. Many of the teachers and students in these EMI courses do not share a common first language and likely have a first language other than English. Therefore, they are operating in EMI with varying levels of second language (L2) English ability, which can lead to low levels of student comprehension, learning and satisfaction unless the lecturer takes special care in their delivery of content. This paper explores the linguistic composition of EMI lectures in the Swedish context and reports survey findings of students' self-reported levels of comprehension related to lecture content and their lecturer's L2 English use. Three case studies are described and illustrate various linguistic factors that can contribute to or inhibit student comprehension in EMI lectures. Pedagogic implications are presented with the intention of supporting EMI lecturers and their students.

To prepare learners for the arduous tasks of simultaneously listening to and taking notes during (English medium instruction) EMI lectures, instructors have implemented explicit notetaking instruction with some degree of success. However, many such studies focus on improvements within the instructed group and do not compare results with those from control groups, leading to questions of generalizability. Thus, questions remain as to whether explicit notetaking instruction generates better results than uninstructed notetaking practice (e.g., when the teacher says “take notes").

The present study involved control and intervention groups at the intermediate and advanced proficiency levels. The control groups received no explicit notetaking instruction, while the intervention groups received a 10-week period of scaffolded notetaking instructional cycle. Both groups completed lecture listening and notetaking activities prior to the explicit instruction. Student notes were collected and analyzed for “information units”, which are defined as the smallest item of information that on its own can be determined as true or false (Anderson, 2014). Statistical analysis of information unit scores show the notetaking instructional cycle had a significant impact on notetaking performance for the intervention groups. Pedagogic implications stemming from the findings are discussed, which have resonance for EMI and English for academic purposes (EAP) courses. 

English medium instruction (EMI) lectures have been growing in number as more universities worldwide seek to provide intercultural educational opportunities. While the lecture format is well‐established in tertiary education, EMI lectures represent a complex learning environment that is influenced by the spoken English proficiency of the lecturer and the listening abilities of the lecture attendees. Various factors can impact the relative success of participants in EMI lectures. Relevant theoretical and research‐based information on EMI lectures is described, including pedagogic implications and suggestions for both EMI lecturers and students attending such lectures.

The importance and presence of notetaking in L2 educational contexts has gradually increased to a point where many now recognize notetaking as an essential academic skill for EAP preparatory and EMI courses worldwide. In order to meet the increasing demand for notetaking, materials writers and commercial publishers have designed and produced a number of notetaking textbooks. Despite their availability on the market and frequent use in EAP and other L2 courses, the ability of the average teacher to discern the quality of materials for notetaking may be underdeveloped. This article presents a series of eight questions that can be used as a basis for evaluating and comparing the quality and content of notetaking textbooks with a view to better preparing teachers to understand what notetaking is, how it can be taught, and what materials can and do offer.

Listening in a second language is challenge for students and teachers alike. This book provides a personal account of an action research intervention involving listening strategy instruction that investigated the viability of this innovative pedagogy in the Japanese university context.

Listening to academic lectures in a second language (L2) can be a daunting task, as the listener faces various challenges related to processing the speech stream, prioritizing the importance of information, and deciding when, where and how to take notes. A host of factors can contribute to student comfort in and ability to take “good” notes during L2 lectures. This study explores student perspectives on personal, speaker, and contextual factors that impact notetaking in L2 lecture settings. To determine the extent to which these factors affect notetaking ability, participants (N = 711) studying on English for academic purposes (EAP) programs in five countries (Indonesia, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and the US) responded to an online survey. The present paper reports results holistically and from a cross-cultural perspective, leading to pedagogic implications and recommendations for stu-dents, EAP teachers, and English medium instruction (EMI) lecturers as well as any teachers who may teach groups with varying language proficiencies.

This paper reports on a study of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Sweden that aimed to generate a list of potential ideas for a research agenda in the English subject for upper primary school(grades 4−6), lower secondary school (grades 7−9) and upper secondary school (English 5, 6 and 7). Participating teachers responded to survey items that were based on the current National Curriculum for the English subject for grades 4−9 (i.e., LGR 11) and upper secondary school (i.e., LGY 11), which aim to stipulate content but not methods for teaching. As such, teachers are often left to interpret the curriculum themselves, with some support from complementary documents, which can lead to a range of learning outcomes and teacher ability. The survey focused both on teacher perceptions of student performance and the teachers’own confidence in teaching various aspects of the English subject as described in the curriculum. This paper reports the results from the survey, identifying specific aspects of thefour main language skills (i.e., listening, speaking, reading, writing) about which teachers expressed concern in terms of student performance, their own teaching ability, or both. Findings from this study can be used as a tentative agenda for implementing classroom research projects to investigate interpretations of the current steering documents and methods being used in EFL classrooms and the effects of any potential pedagogic innovations.

This entry explains matters of theoretical background related to listening for gist and how it distinguishes itself from other forms of listening. The entry further introduces various linguistic and personal elements that interact when one is listening for gist. Among the linguistic signals are stress and intonation patterns, as well as the use of coherence devices. Personal factors include motivation and decisions about when and where to focus attention. From here the entry moves on to suggest three categories of practice for the TESOL classroom: response activities, demonstration exercises, and production practice.

This article describes an innovation in the teaching and learning of vocabulary in English as a Foreign Language classes. Whereas vocabulary coverage in classrooms and textbooks traditionally focuses on lists of target words in printed form, this article promotes the notion of 'aural vocabulary' as an important part of 'knowing' words. It describes a set of activities used to improve learners' academic listening abilities and illustrates the activities by using the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000).

Notetaking is a complex and multifaceted activity that requires the coordination of several cognitive skills and physical movements under extreme time pressure. With the rise of English for academic purposes (EAP) courses and English medium instruction (EMI), notetaking in the TESOL field has become an important area with its own commercial textbooks, research base, and pedagogic practices. This entry reviews notetaking literature for both first language (L1) and second language (L2) contexts with a focus on intervention studies that involved teachers trialing pedagogic approaches with L2 English learners. Practical steps for notetaking in TESOL for teachers, particularly those involved in EAP or EMI courses, and students are provided.

This paper reviews and discusses research on notetaking during academic listening conducted in both first (L1) and second language (L2) contexts and is organized into two main categories: research that is beginning to impact English for academic purposes (EAP) classrooms and that which has yet to make an impact on EAP, but should. Overall, I assert that, while some relevant research on notetaking is reaching EAPclassrooms, there is an abundance of knowledge from L1 contexts as well as a number of unexplored areas that have potential to improve instruction and student ability. Throughout the paper, I hypothesize why certain research findings are not being applied in classrooms. In concluding, I provide suggestions for how researchers and teachers might further support colleagues in applying research findings.

Although the capacity of action research in the TESOL field has been both supported and criticized, this practical and flexible research orientation has potential as a framework for researching listening. The entry considers theoretical and functional issues related to action research and discusses how this cyclical and iterative research orientation can contribute to the advancement of listening instruction in the language teaching field. It shares strategies and ideas for investigating listening through action research, which can be applied to various contexts and ability levels.

Previous research has shown that explicit notetaking instruction in EAP courses has positive effects on student notetaking. However, many studies limit measurement of notetaking ability to immediately after an intense period of instruction. Thus, the retentional effects of notetaking instruction have yet to be investigated in the longer term. To address this research gap, this paper reports on a study that assessed students' notetaking performance prior to, immediately after, and then again four months after the notetaking instruction to examine the retentional value of notetaking instruction. Samples of student notes (n=40) from these three time points were analysed through 'information units' to determine any changes. Results indicate that the instruction had a positive and significant effect on performance in the short term and that student performance lessened over time. Pedagogic implications stemming from these findings, including regular notetaking practice and consistently reviewing notetaking strategies, are discussed.

The skill of listening is complex and multifaceted. In order to describe the process of aural comprehension, two interconnected perspectives have been adopted: a bottom‐up perspective and a top‐down one. This entry discusses whether bottom‐up and top‐down listening strategies deserve attention in the TESOL classroom and suggests practical methods for incorporating them into listening lessons. The entry begins by considering the theoretical underpinnings of these two perspectives, with a view to exploring the discrete stages that listeners undergo in order to make sense of what they hear. It then moves on to describe how top‐down and bottom‐up strategies can be implemented in pre‐listening, listening, and post‐listening lesson stages.

Authentic materials such as TED Talks have become an everyday presence in the ELT classroom, often for practice listening and taking notes. However, teachers can struggle to teach the sub-skills that are involved in notetaking, and instead often simply tell students to ‘take notes’. This approach lacks the scaffolding required for the complex activity. When unpredictable and loosely structured authentic materials are used for notetaking, students can be overwhelmed and teachers left with few pedagogic ideas. To address the need for pedagogy for teaching notetaking with authentic materials, this paper reports a project that introduced a four-step pedagogic sequence in conjunction with TED Talks to upper secondary school students in Sweden. Analysis of pre- and post-intervention comprehension tests and samples of notes suggests that the sequence has positive effects, particularly regarding the quantity of notes recorded. The paper describes and provides justification for each step of the approach and discusses the pedagogic implications.

Taking notes while simultaneously listening to academic content in a second language is a daunting task for many students. While doing so, the note-taker is faced with a number of choices, including when, where, and how to take notes. Choices that students make are related to the overall format and system of notes as well as how to record specific pieces of information. The option of translanguaging, or making use of their multilingual resource, in note-taking is often overlooked by students and teachers in English for academic purposes (EAP) settings. The present article reports results of an international survey of EAP students with respect to their translanguaging habits and preferences when taking notes and presents a range of related pedagogic implications with the intent of preparing students for English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education.

This paper helps to address the need for improvement related to the teaching of pragmatic abilities in the ELT classroom. Some of the issues surrounding direct pragmatic instruction are discussed with regard to teachers’ and learners’ roles and expectations. The paper is part of an ongoing research project that practically applies key components of Grice’s maxims and the use of speech acts for consciousness raising and instruction. The authors promote a pragmatic continuum that encourages learners to assess and reflect on their pragmatic abilities. Examples are given to demonstrate its utility for instructors at a variety of levels to enhance learners’ spoken pragmatic ability.

With the growth of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in many contexts around the world, instructors of English for academic purposes (EAP) are tasked with preparing their learners to succeed in English-speaking academic environments. As the lecture continues to be a core component of academic learning, effective notetaking is critical to success. Although there is a growing body of research regarding notetaking skills in second language (L2) contexts, little of this research focuses on note quality. This situation is problematic for teachers, as there is no consensus on what constitutes “good” notes, making evaluation difficult. The purpose of the current study is to take a first step towards exploring this problem by examining the feasibility of using information units (IUs) as a measurement of note quality. Five teacher-researchers (TRs) rated IUs in two TED Talk transcripts using a three-point scale, based on perceived importance of information. The ratings were compared, and the TRs’ accounts of how they approached and completed the task were compiled. The results revealed a number of issues, in particular the lack of consistency in ratings among the TRs. Potential reasons for these inconsistencies are examined, and possible avenues for future research are outlined.

The importance of notetaking for English for academic purposes (EAP) students and teachers is growing due to a rapid increase in the number of universities offering English as a medium of instruction (EMI) courses around the world (e.g. [Teng, H. C. 2011. "Exploring Note-taking Strategies of EFL Listenerst." Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 15: 480-484.]). While there have been several studies on second language (L2) notetaking that focus on the types and styles of notes students take (e.g. [Siegel, J. 2016. "A pedagogic cycle for EFL note-taking." ELT Journal 70 (3): 275-286]; [Crawford, M. 2015. "A Study on Note Taking in EFL Listening Instruction." JALT2014 Conference Proceedings, Tokyo, JALT, 416-424]; Tsai and Wu 2010), student perspectives regarding their stated beliefs about and reported habits related to notetaking remain in need of further exploration. This paper reports on an investigation of notetaking from EAP students' perspectives. It presents the results of a cross-cultural survey on the views and habits expressed by Japanese (n = 256) and Swedish (n = 272) students. Findings from the study demonstrate the similarities and differences between students in the two countries in relation to notetaking in EAP courses.