TESOL and Applied Linguistics

Action-Based Teaching and Learning refers to an approach that puts the learner’s agency (or ability to act) at the center of attention. Language is not seen as an object (a set of grammar rules, vocabulary), but as a form of human action. Moreover, the processes of language learning involve the mind, body, emotions, and all the senses. In this presentation, content-based, task-based and project-based learning are all construed as approaches that put the learner's agency at the center. In addition, form-focused or grammar teaching can also be conducted in an action-based manner, in which linguistic action is future-oriented and not past-oriented, and success-driven rather than correctness-driven. Examples of classroom tasks illustrating an action-based approach will be given.

Every routine on the Lextutor website started life as a reverse-engineering of the language software used in a research study, but then developed in line with its many users' suggestions, for research or teaching purposes or both. This presentation will trace the evolution of some of Lextutor's most heavily used routines, from the origins of each in a research paper to its modification for many unexpected purposes. Concordancing, Vocabprofiling, Reaction Time research, and Cloze passage building are the main software stories. Behind the stories, the presentation will question the supposed gap between research and practice in applied linguistics