Special Lecture by Dr. Andrea Révész

Using eye-tracking as a research and pedagogical tool: Insights from research on focus on form

In the field of SLA, it is generally assumed that, to optimise development, attention needs to be drawn to linguistic features (Schmidt, 2001). Some researchers have also argued that a focus on language or form is best achieved when linguistic information is supplied to learners in meaningful contexts through reactive pedagogic techniques (Long, 1996). To study the effects of focus-on-form interventions on attentional allocation, eye- tracking methodology is increasingly used by researchers (Conklin et al., 2018; Godfroid, 2020). So far, however, little research has considered the capability of eye-tracking as a pedagogical tool to initiate focus on form. I will start this talk with a brief review of the theoretical rationale for focus on form. Then, I will discuss and demonstrate how the effectiveness of reactive focus-on form techniques may be explored by the means of eye- tracking methodology in the context of multi-media learning. Next, I will consider the pedagogical potential of eye-tracking. Specifically, I will explore the extent to which the gaze-contingency affordance of eye-tracking (i.e., the possibility of designing pedagogical interventions that can react to and interact with eye-movements) may facilitate attention to and learning of L2 constructions. In doing so, I will draw on my own and colleagues’ work (Lee & Révész, 2020; Révész et al., in press). The talk will conclude with a discussion of future research directions with a view to informing L2 instruction.

About the Speaker

Andrea Révész is  is a Professor of Second Language Acquisition at the UCL Institute of Education, University College London. She obtained her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to joining UCL, she worked at Georgetown University and Lancaster University. Her main research interests lie at the interfaces of second language acquisition and instruction, with particular emphases on the roles of task, interaction, and individual differences in SLA. More recently, she has also begun investigating the cognitive processes underlying second language writing and speaking performance. She serves as associate editor of the journal Studies in Second Language Acquisition and is Vice-President of the International Association for Task-based Language Teaching (IATBLT). She was a winner of the 2017 IATBLT Best Research Article Award and is co-recipient of the 2018 TESOL Award for Distinguished Research. 

https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=AREVE24


2023Colloquium Series_poster_Andrea.pdf

Date: March 9, 2023

Time: 6:00-7:30pm JST

Language: English

Venue: Multimedia Research Center, 6F Hall

Contact:

Hyeonjeong Jeong

Email: jeong(at)tohoku.ac.jp 

Graduate School of International Cultural Studies (国際文化研究科

Posted on 2022.02.08