Session 5B

The modification of a noun by another noun (e.g. paper plane) is not typically part of the English curriculum in Spanish schools. This is so in spite of the presence these structures have in the textbooks used both in the English subjects as well as in the content subjects taught in English (Gomez Garzarán 2017). 
We have analyzed the production of noun-noun constructions (i.e. NN compounds) by 84 L1 Spanish-L2 English children in order to address (i) the role of direct explicit instruction as opposed to indirect implicit instruction in the English classroom; and (ii) the effect length of exposure can have in native-like attainment in these cases. Four groups of participants have been considered: two groups that have been part of a 3-year teaching program involving explicit NN instruction (a 9-year-old group and an 11-year-old group); and two more groups of the same ages following the regular instruction where NN modification is not explicitly addressed in the classroom. Participants have been tested by means of a referential communication task (Yule 1997), with two distinct roles (Schober 1995): the director (subject tested) and the matcher (experimenter). This director-matcher task, which simulated a board game, prompted participants to produce NN compounds by means of specifically designed pictures. 
Results show (i) that explicit instruction does have an effect and that this effect is positive in that not only a more native-like production is achieved but also a higher number of these structures do appear after the explicit instruction period; and (ii) that length of exposure also has a parallel effect but is accentuated when combined with explicit instruction. This has a double implication: (i) that explicit teaching of grammatical properties is effective and (ii) that the productivity of English NN compounds is something that can actually be taught. 
Selected references: 
de Graaff, R., & Housen, A. (2009). Investigating the effects and effectiveness of L2 instruction. In M. H. Long & C. J. Doughty (Eds.), The handbook of language teaching, 726–755. 
Fernández-Fuertes, R., Álvarez de la Fuente, E., Parrado, I. & Muñiz, S. (2008). La bici pirata se convierte en pirate bike o en bike pirate: la composición nominal en datos de adquisición de niños [The pirate bike turns into pirate bike or in bike pirate: nominal compounding in children acquisition data]. In L. Pérez, I. Pizarro and E. González-Cascos (Eds.) Estudios de Metodología de la Lengua Inglesa, IV, 421–438. 
Goo, J., Granena, G., Yucel, Y., & Novella, M. (2015). Implicit and explicit instruction in l2 learning. Studies in bilingualism, 48, 443-482. 
Gómez Garzarán, E. (2017, May). English word order in adjective-noun strings and noun-noun compounds in the production of L1 Spanish children. Paper presented at the 35 AESLA International Conference. University of Jaén. 
Nicoladis, E. (2002). What's the difference between 'toilet paper' and 'paper toilet'? French-English bilingual children's crosslinguistic transfer in compound nouns. Journal of Child Language, 29, 843–863. 
Schober, M. (1995). Speakers, addressees, and frames of reference: Whose effort is minimized in conversations about locations? Discourse Processes, 20, 219-247. 
Spada, N., & Tomita, Y. (2010). Interactions between type of instruction and type of language feature: A meta-analysis. Language learning, 60, 263–308. Yule, G. (1997). Referential communication tasks. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.

In this presentation, I will discuss a native speaker teacher's self development focusing on the factors influencing his teacher self evolution. To explore this, I employed a self-discrepancy theory proposed by Higgins (1987) who identifies three key self components: the actual self, which represents the attributes one believes one possesses; the ideal self, related to the qualities one ideally would like to have (e.g. aspirations, hopes, wishes); and the ought-to self, representing the qualities one believes one ought to possess (e.g. obligations, responsibilities, duties). When there is a discrepancy between people's actual and ideal or ought selves, they are motivated to engage in actions to reduce that discrepancy and achieve their desired selves. The data were collected in Armenia in three phases over a period of six months using semi-structured interviews, journal writing and unstructured classroom observations followed by post-observation interviews. The data were subject to thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). In order to foster trustworthiness and achieve rigour in data analysis, both manual and electronic analytical tools (NVivo v10) were combined (Davis & Meyer, 2009). Tom (a pseudonym), whose case I am going to present, was a native speaker of English who moved to Armenia at the age of forty five. Realising that he had an advantage of speaking 'really good English', Tom decided to pursue a career of an English teacher. Native speakers are still considered 'ideal' English teachers in many countries, including Armenia, which inevitably results in 'favouritism' of native speakers (Moussu and Llurda, 2008) over their non-native speaker counterparts and, frequently, leads to certain privileges and hiring discrimination (Clark & Paran, 2007). Gradually, Tom realised that nativeness just gave him 'a foot in the door' and to be an effective teacher he needed to professionally develop. Consequently, his teacher self evolved from being a 'showman', who entertained students to the teacher who simultaneously possessed the components of his ought-to self – a competent teacher who had to provide sufficient knowledge so that students could successfully complete the course and his ideal teacher self – a teacher who could teach entertainingly. Simultaneously, he was trying to avoid becoming his feared teacher self – a boring teacher who was unable to teach grammar. All these selves were interconnected and formed a holistic and balanced self which was feasible in his context. The feasibility and blending of multiple possible selves are key features of Tom's teacher self evolution (Sahakyan et al., 2018). Importantly, his teacher self development was influenced by significant others, particularly, students. Tom highlighted that in the classroom he transformed into a 'different animal' who was acting 'from the heart' and could even look 'stupid' trying to motivate his students. 
References:
Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (2), 77-101.
Clark, E. and Paran, A. (2007) The employability of non-native-speaker teachers of EFL: A UK survey. System 35 (4), 407-430.
Davis, N.W. and Meyer, B.B. (2009) Qualitative data analysis: A procedural comparison. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 21 (1), 116-124.
Higgins, E.T. (1987) Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect. Psychological Review 94 (3), 319-340.
Moussu, L. and Llurda, E. (2008) Non-native English speaking English language teachers: History and research. Language Teaching 41 (3), 315-348.
Sahakyan, T., Lamb, M. and Chambers, G. (2018) Language teacher motivation: From the ideal to the feasible self. In S. Mercer and A. Kostoulas(eds) Language Teacher Psychology. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.