Lanspan Lectures 2025

Schedule of Lanspan Lectures 2025

Abstracts

Nienke Smit (Utrecht University) - What it takes to tutor - unpacking the construct of scaffolding in language teaching and learning

In this talk we will reevaluate our understanding of scaffolding, a concept which is often mentioned as a feature of effective teaching. Scaffolding can be summarised as the right instructional support at the right moment in time. I will present the results of a large replication study of Wood, Wood, and Middleton (1978). The original experimental study was the first to find evidence that a contingent use of verbal and non-verbal instructions lies at the heart of scaffolding. We replicated the instruction times and tutor accuracy but failed to replicate the effect of contingent instruction on children’s independent performance. The null outcomes of this replication study invite scholars and practitioners in (language) education to rethink operationalisations of scaffolding, adaptivity and contingency. I will adopt the meta theoretical lens of complex dynamic systems theory and discuss the role of type, timing, synchronisation, and amount of support in the teaching-learning process

Jelle Brouwer (Radboud University Nijmegen) - Learning for Life: Investigating language learning as an intervention for older adults with (past) depression

The proportion of the population over the age of 65 is growing rapidly. Older people may encounter several challenges related to their mental and cognitive health. The most well- known of these challenges is Alzheimer’s Disease, but lesser known is late-life depression. Depression later in life is common and comes with both psychological and cognitive symptoms. Furthermore, those who have had a depressive episode in older adulthood are at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease. While psychological interventions or medication are effective for mood symptoms, cognitive problems often persist even after the depressive episode is over. Therefore, it is important to investigate activities that improve both psychosocial well-being and cognitive functioning for those with (past) depression. The effectiveness of several types of non-pharmacological interventions has been studied. In the past decade, language learning has received special interest. Speaking multiple languages during the lifetime has neuroprotective effects. Crucially, the language co-activation that is thought to underlie bilingualism’s beneficial effects occurs relatively early in the learning process, suggesting that learning a language as an older adult may also be beneficial. In addition to these potential cognitive benefits, language learning in older adults has also been found to be a profoundly meaningful social activity that improves one’s sense of autonomy and confidence. As such later-life language learning is a promising intervention that targets both psychosocial well-being and cognitive functioning. While the theoretical benefits of later-life language learning are encouraging, results thus far are mixed. This may be because studies generally recruit cognitively and mentally healthy older adults who have comparatively little room for improvement with regards to psychosocial well-being or cognitive functioning. Therefore, in our project, we opted to investigate the effect of language learning in older adults with (past) depression. In this presentation I will talk about my work within the CogFlex project (done with fellow Phd candidate Floor van den Berg, supervisors Remco Knooihuizen and Hanneke Loerts, and PI Merel Keijzer). In particular I will focus on two studies: First, an intervention study where we compared effects of language learning on cognitive functioning and psychosocial well-being in older adults with (past) depression and a control group. Second, a diary study where we tracked non-linear changes in positive and negative affect.

Abu Saleh Mohammad Rafi (University of Groningen / University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh) - Southernising Translanguaging in Bangladeshi Language Education: Transformative Potentials and Limits

Language education in the Global South cannot be fully understood through frameworks developed in the Global North, as educational goals and socio-political realities differ due to long histories of exclusion and disenfranchisement. In Bangladesh, translanguaging is a lived classroom reality despite strict English-only policies, yet translanguaging pedagogies remain under-theorised and are often conflated with codeswitching. This talk argues for distinguishing classroom translanguaging pedagogies from everyday practices and for expanding pedagogical design beyond students’ linguistic repertoires to affirm their historical, cultural, and political identities as part of a broader decolonial agenda. Drawing on a translanguaging pedagogical intervention in a Bangladeshi private university, the talk highlights how multilingual scaffolding, culturally relevant texts, and guided readings in Bangla and English can enhance reading comprehension, support students’ engagement, and challenge entrenched social prejudices, such as colorism.

Bio
Abu Saleh Mohammad Rafi, PhD is a Junior Research Fellow at the University of Groningen and concurrently an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh. He is also a Senior Research Fellow on an Australian Research Council-funded project on early language learning. Dr Rafi is a transdisciplinary scholar specialising in sociolinguistics, translanguaging, and critical AI studies, focusing on decolonising language education and promoting equity in multilingual societies. He has published widely on translanguaging pedagogies in leading journals, co-edited two international volumes on linguistic justice, and delivered keynotes at institutions including the University of Witwatersrand, China Three Gorges University, McGill University, and Buriram Rajabhat University. His recent publications include a Routledge volume on professional learning and a critical article in English Today (Cambridge University Press). At Groningen, he continues to explore translanguaging and culturally sustaining, justice-oriented pedagogies in European higher education contexts.

Catherine van Beuningen (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) - From challenge to resource: valorizing multilingual repertoires in the (language) classroom

Multilingualism is a defining feature of today’s globalized society, and as such, it is equally present in education. In the Netherlands, many children grow up with a language other than or in addition to Dutch, and all pupils learn new registers and foreign languages at school. Beyond the classroom, they also engage with multiple languages in their daily lives. These linguistic resources pupils bring to school can serve as a foundation for both their social-emotional and cognitive development. Yet many (language) teachers find it challenging to integrate students’ multilingual repertoires into their teaching practices. Through practice-oriented research in close collaboration with educational professionals, we therefore investigate how schools can effectively valorize linguistic diversity. In this presentation, I will discuss the rationale and dynamics of working in research-practice partnerships and report on findings from ongoing projects.

Lani Freeborn (University of Amsterdam) - Aptitude complexes: Expanding our view of language aptitude

In second language (L2) research, aptitude is typically viewed as a multi-componential, cognitive construct. Yet we know that L2 learning is influenced by multiple learner individual differences (IDs) besides cognitive abilities, and that these IDs interact. In this presentation, I discuss the affordances and implications of working towards a broader theory of language aptitude. Inspired by Snow’s (1992) theory of aptitude complexes and Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), we examined the joint functioning of cognitive, affective, conative, and contextual processes in L2 learning. We conducted a large, exploratory study of aptitude with 544 learners of L2 Dutch. First, we took a variable-centered approach, using exploratory graph analysis to estimate a partial correlation network of 25 ID variables, combined with a community detection algorithm to identify communities of closely-related variables. Results showed five communities of aptitude variables: Cognitive Abilities, Proficiency and Use, Motivation and Effort, Self-beliefs and Emotion, and Pro-social Behaviors. Learners with higher levels of multilingualism and less external pressure to learn Dutch made more L2 gains. Building on this, we then took a person-centered approach, using cluster analysis to identify groups of learners that shared similar characteristics. We identified five distinct groups of learners with mostly mixed aptitude profiles, indicating potentially compensatory mechanisms between different types of aptitudes. We also found that each group made similar amounts of L2 gains over time, demonstrating that different groups of learners likely have different pathways to L2 learning success. Taken together, our findings fit with Snow’s theoretical framework and highlight the importance of working towards a multivariate, integrative theory of language aptitude.

Matt Drury (University of Groningen) - Ecolinguistics from local to global: In the name of sustainability

Ecological collapse. Climate crisis. Pollution pandemic. Environmental and sustainability communication is clearly crucial in framing these issues in ways which can inspire the transformational change necessary. However, the current ways of communicating these concepts are far more likely to reproduce the status quo than actively challenge it. In this talk, I present an introduction to ecolinguistics. I consider some critical discourse (and cognitive) linguistic approaches to analysing text and talk, giving examples of how I applied these to qualitative text analyses during my PhD. You might question whether the choice of phrasing can make a difference in how we construe texts; I therefore also present results of an experimental study in phrasing and construal, which may go some way to answering this question. I finish by discussing the search for new ‘stories to live by’ (Stibbe, 2021) and our ongoing work on critical language awareness in the curriculum, hopefully providing a direct way in which lecturers and students alike can apply some of these insights into their work, study, and beyond.