Adult Learning in the Language Classroom

By (author) Stacey Margarita Johnson

Publication date:

17 September 2015

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781783094165

This book explores connections between the fields of foreign/second language teaching and adult learning. This interdisciplinary approach serves as a framework in order to: (a) understand the teaching methods that promote the deeper, more critical sort of language learning advocated by scholars and professional organizations, (b) understand how adult students learn and transform through language study, and (c) reinforce the immense value of beginning language courses. Johnson studies a classroom of adult language learners for one semester, exploring issues of motivation and perceived value for these short-term learners as well as touching on issues around intercultural communication teaching and learning. The book will be of interest to adult language teachers as well as researchers studying adult education and second language learning.

Stacey Margarita Johnson has written a highly accessible analysis of adult beginners in a Spanish class, revealing how their learning is much more than acquiring competences. It transforms their lives and understanding of the world, and thus provides a much needed counter-balance to impoverished instrumental justifications for language teaching. Language learning enriches.