diplomas and masters’degrees in AL. These two sources of information
have made language teachers, especially teachers of English, much better
informed so that classroom practice is generally more rational and effective.Joseph Lo Bianco is equally positive:“A huge difference, basing pedagogy
on a richer set of factors, improvement in design of programs, and class-
room interaction, much improved knowledge of links between in-school and
out-of-school realities. Much more, too.”
According to Lourdes Ortega, the research on immersion has led to the
development of similar programs all over the world, in particular the devel-
opment of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in Europe.
David Singleton also sees this as an important development, but the effects
he has seen are not extensive. Fred Genesee remarks that“the new frontier
is the pedagogy of immersion”. In his view, immersion and CLIL have
proven to be affected by substantial research. With research instruments like
observation protocols and CA analyses of classroom interactions, AL
research could certainly play a significant role.
Alan Juffs is also largely positive:
I think that the influence has been significant. When I started as a lan-
guage teacher, Krashen’sinfluence was very strong. The research in AL
has brought back the need to focus on form (rather than forms), and
resulted in communicative language teaching paying more attention to
bottom-up processing as well as top-down schema development.Few informants are as positive as Ruiying Yang, who bases herself on her
experiences in China:
I think AL has led to a very big improvement of language education.
The studies of language system from a pedagogic perspective, the
insights into L2 learning process and the methods to facilitate learning
and acquisition, etc. have changed classroom instruction dramatically.
Teachers and instructors equipped with AL knowledge can make
informed decisions and carry out their teaching activities more effec-
tively and creatively. 30 years ago, in the English language teaching class
in China, the most frequent activities for learners were to listen to the
teachers, and to repeat and memorize limited forms. Now in a L2 class-
room, learners may carry out problem-solving and critical thinking
tasks, doing evaluations and giving presentations. They learn to articu-
late their ideas and to communicate meaningfully. I think such changes
have been brought along by the development of AL as well as teacher
education.Anne Burns argues that the enhanced awareness of the sociocultural context
of learning can be seen as a real improvement:
130 The impact of AL research