This paper discusses cognitive and cybernetic theories of human learning and how these can influence the design of multimedia learning environments. We first briefly outline the formalised theories of cognitive flexibility, discourse, activity and conversation from the perspective of the way in which the hypermedia may be semantically structured to facilitate learning. Two instances are then pr...

This chapter examines the use of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology in the context of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and language learning and teaching research. A brief introduction to ASR is first provided, to make it clear why and how this technology can be used to the benefit of learning and development in second language (L2) spoken discourse. This is followed by an ...

In this paper I explore the potential for viewing education as an “unrestricted communication community” (Habermas 1990: 88), using categorisations from Habermas of different kinds of action as analytical tools for examining educational practices. For the paper, I pursue two main themes: 1) how the concept of communicative action in relation to the three forms of knowledge-constitutive interest...

    A review of previous research on receptive skills among EFL learners  reveals that in contrast  to extensive research in reading, fewer studies have focused on the process  of listening comprehension in EFL contexts. The current study examines the effects of discourse signaling cues on Iranian EFL students' listening comprehension in academic lectures and also investigates the effect of tea...

This study was an attempt to investigate the comparative impact of two types of teaching approaches, namely content-based (CBI) and task-based (TBLT) instruction on the reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. For this purpose, sixty intermediate students from a pool of eighty five students studying at a private language school were chosen using a piloted PET. The students were then rando...

The present study examines the role of Gal’perin’s Concept-based Instruction (CBI) as a pedagogical approach in teaching cognitive grammar-based (CG-based) concepts of tense and aspect to EFL students. Following the sociocultural theory of L2 Acquisition (SCT), arming L2 learners with scientific concepts can lead to L2 development by deepening their understanding and raising awareness of L2 str...

It is not difficult to make claims for the academic success of Critical Discourse Analysis. Chouliaraki and Fairclough begin their new book Discourse in Late Modernity with the statement: ‘Critical discourse analysis ... has established itself internationally over the past twenty years or so as a field of crossdisciplinary teaching and research which has been widely drawn upon in the social sci...

the present research aimed at investigating the interaction of the classroom talk to have a better understanding of the teachers’ practice teaching which can pave the way for reflection on teaching. the study benefitted from conversation analytic perspective to qualitatively and interpretively examine the classroom discourse of the teacher-learner interaction. the classroom talk was analyzed th...