Investigating how teachers and therapists (re)teach language to adults
Research type
Research Study
Full title
'Teaching Language': an investigation into how Speech and Language Therapists and Second Language Teachers (re)teach and informally assess language
IRAS ID
213070
Contact name
Emma Greenhalgh
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Dept. of Human Communication Sciences, University of Sheffield
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 26 days
Research summary
The project uses Conversation Analysis to analyse video recordings of a) Speech and Language Therapists and b) Second Language Teachers with the aim of comparing how they teach and informally assess language.
Speech and language therapists (SLTs) and second language teachers (L2Ts) share a common aim of helping their clients and students (people with communication impairments and people learning a second language respectively) improve their language skills and interpersonal communication. What is perhaps also noteworthy is that the stated outcome of the teaching or therapy session (i.e. competent language skills) is also the medium, which it has been argued creates a specialised form of interaction.
The researcher will video-record impairment therapy sessions between the Speech and Language Therapist and a client who has aphasia. Aphasia impairment therapy has been selected as providing the best comparison to second language teaching, albeit a person with aphasia is relearning their first language rather than a second. Conversation Analysis will then be used to analyse the therapist’s interactional patterns. These findings can be discussed with the therapist in a reflective interview (optional). The aim of the interview is for the therapist to be able to reflect on the therapy session and provide the researcher with their professional insight into the interaction.
This type of detailed linguistic and interactional comparison of the talk produced by both groups of professionals has not been carried out before. As well as providing theoretical findings about language assessment and teaching, the project is highly likely to have practical implications for practitioner training in both the health and education language teaching domains.REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SW/0338
Date of REC Opinion
9 Dec 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion