Pub Date : 2021-09-23DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2021.1979578
Pilar Safont
ABSTRACT Multilingualism in the world is the norm and the classrooms are no exception. The dynamic and flexible practices of multilingual teachers and learners in the classroom are referred to as translanguaging . As shown in the literature on the topic, translanguaging discourse simply exists in classrooms. It is the means of communication employed by multilingual learners in multilingual learning settings. However, research on classroom pragmatics has adopted a monolingual perspective, and the need to examine multilingual learners and teachers from a multilingual viewpoint has been raised. Bearing this research gap in mind, this study focuses on examining teachers’ reactions to learners’ translingual practices as instances of attitudinal conduct and potential sources of incidental pragmatic learning. Data for the study comprise transcripts from twelve video-recorded English as L3 lessons involving 268 learners (m.a. = 8.4) and 12 teachers. Interestingly, this study confirms the role of the language programme in the classroom requestive behaviour and the existing monolingual bias in young multilingual instructional settings.
{"title":"‘In English!’ teachers’ requests as reactions to learners’ translanguaging discourse","authors":"Pilar Safont","doi":"10.1080/07908318.2021.1979578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2021.1979578","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Multilingualism in the world is the norm and the classrooms are no exception. The dynamic and flexible practices of multilingual teachers and learners in the classroom are referred to as translanguaging . As shown in the literature on the topic, translanguaging discourse simply exists in classrooms. It is the means of communication employed by multilingual learners in multilingual learning settings. However, research on classroom pragmatics has adopted a monolingual perspective, and the need to examine multilingual learners and teachers from a multilingual viewpoint has been raised. Bearing this research gap in mind, this study focuses on examining teachers’ reactions to learners’ translingual practices as instances of attitudinal conduct and potential sources of incidental pragmatic learning. Data for the study comprise transcripts from twelve video-recorded English as L3 lessons involving 268 learners (m.a. = 8.4) and 12 teachers. Interestingly, this study confirms the role of the language programme in the classroom requestive behaviour and the existing monolingual bias in young multilingual instructional settings.","PeriodicalId":17945,"journal":{"name":"Language, Culture and Curriculum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48211552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-20DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2021.1978476
M. Yeldham, V. Choy
ABSTRACT The main purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness for L2 English learners of a new direct approach to segmental pronunciation instruction that combined articulatory instruction with abdominal enhancement techniques. The participants were Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong, where the school curriculum relies chiefly on indirect instruction within a task-based language teaching (TBLT) framework. Thus a second purpose of the study was to examine whether the direct approach may be a useful addition to the Hong Kong curriculum. Randomly-assigned experimental and comparison groups of recent school graduates completed pronunciation tasks embedded within a TBLT framework. However, the experimental group had direct attention drawn to the segmental sounds, including advice and feedback on how to produce them, while the comparison group did not. Both groups completed a pretest/posttest reading-aloud task. The segments targeted in this test (and in the instruction) involved selected long vowel/diphthong sounds, voiced fricative consonants, and /t/ and /d/ in syllable-final consonant clusters. Results showed the experimental group significantly outperformed the comparison group overall and in each of these segmental categories, highlighting the importance of the direct articulatory–abdominal instruction. The results also suggested such instruction should be given greater attention in the Hong Kong curriculum.
{"title":"The effectiveness of direct articulatory–abdominal pronunciation instruction for English learners in Hong Kong","authors":"M. Yeldham, V. Choy","doi":"10.1080/07908318.2021.1978476","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2021.1978476","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The main purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness for L2 English learners of a new direct approach to segmental pronunciation instruction that combined articulatory instruction with abdominal enhancement techniques. The participants were Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong, where the school curriculum relies chiefly on indirect instruction within a task-based language teaching (TBLT) framework. Thus a second purpose of the study was to examine whether the direct approach may be a useful addition to the Hong Kong curriculum. Randomly-assigned experimental and comparison groups of recent school graduates completed pronunciation tasks embedded within a TBLT framework. However, the experimental group had direct attention drawn to the segmental sounds, including advice and feedback on how to produce them, while the comparison group did not. Both groups completed a pretest/posttest reading-aloud task. The segments targeted in this test (and in the instruction) involved selected long vowel/diphthong sounds, voiced fricative consonants, and /t/ and /d/ in syllable-final consonant clusters. Results showed the experimental group significantly outperformed the comparison group overall and in each of these segmental categories, highlighting the importance of the direct articulatory–abdominal instruction. The results also suggested such instruction should be given greater attention in the Hong Kong curriculum.","PeriodicalId":17945,"journal":{"name":"Language, Culture and Curriculum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44256605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-20DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2021.1979577
Ka Yan Lam
ABSTRACT This article presents the findings of a university reading and writing workshop on fairy-tale reimaginations. Fairy-tale reimaginations, understood as rewriting fairy tales using alternative narrative techniques, can be introduced into a literacy classroom where learners read reimagined fairy tales that stimulate their critical response and subsequently reimagine new stories that interrogate presumptions in the traditional tales. To justify the design of the workshop and its effectiveness in enhancing student learning, I combine restorying and critical literacy as the theoretical framework. By theorising fairy-tale reimaginations as a form of restorying, I foreground fairy-tale reimaginations as acts of resistance that reflect more diversifying perspectives in the society (Thomas & Stornaiuolo, 2016). I have chosen the four dimensions of critical literacy (FDCL), synthesised by Lewison et al. (2002) to illustrate how the workings of fairy-tale reimaginations befit the general principles of critical literacy. For a fuller realisation of critical literacy through consumption, production, and distribution of texts, understood as action and reflection upon the action, I contend to develop a reading/writing pedagogy that places emphasis on reading and rewriting followed by sharing and reflection. To this end, I hope to offer teacher-researchers insights to bring the fantasy genre into their literacy classroom.
{"title":"Engaging with critical literacy through restorying: a university reading and writing workshop on fairy-tale reimaginations","authors":"Ka Yan Lam","doi":"10.1080/07908318.2021.1979577","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2021.1979577","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article presents the findings of a university reading and writing workshop on fairy-tale reimaginations. Fairy-tale reimaginations, understood as rewriting fairy tales using alternative narrative techniques, can be introduced into a literacy classroom where learners read reimagined fairy tales that stimulate their critical response and subsequently reimagine new stories that interrogate presumptions in the traditional tales. To justify the design of the workshop and its effectiveness in enhancing student learning, I combine restorying and critical literacy as the theoretical framework. By theorising fairy-tale reimaginations as a form of restorying, I foreground fairy-tale reimaginations as acts of resistance that reflect more diversifying perspectives in the society (Thomas & Stornaiuolo, 2016). I have chosen the four dimensions of critical literacy (FDCL), synthesised by Lewison et al. (2002) to illustrate how the workings of fairy-tale reimaginations befit the general principles of critical literacy. For a fuller realisation of critical literacy through consumption, production, and distribution of texts, understood as action and reflection upon the action, I contend to develop a reading/writing pedagogy that places emphasis on reading and rewriting followed by sharing and reflection. To this end, I hope to offer teacher-researchers insights to bring the fantasy genre into their literacy classroom.","PeriodicalId":17945,"journal":{"name":"Language, Culture and Curriculum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47827170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-20DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2021.1979576
Mengjia Zhang, Elisabet Pladevall-Ballester
ABSTRACT HEIs (Higher education institutions) in mainland China are making enormous efforts to implement internationalization. As a result, EMI (English-medium instruction) courses are growing rapidly in number and popularity while relevant research is still insufficient in comparison to European countries. Besides, although much existing research has explored students’ beliefs and attitudes towards EMI, little is known on whether their beliefs and attitudes may change over time or after the completion of a course, and on whether students’ experiences in different EMI courses may differ. This paper specifically reports on students’ perspectives towards different EMI disciplinary courses: International Trade, Film Production and Project Management. Pre-post semester student questionnaires are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results show that students were generally positive towards EMI courses but their attitudes changed to worse at the end of the semester. Students in the International Trade course had more positive attitudes than students in the Film Production and Project Management groups. Findings are discussed in relation to classroom teaching practices in the three groups, which were observed three times over the semester. Finally, teaching implications and language policy-related decisions are also considered.
{"title":"Students’ attitudes and perceptions towards three EMI courses in mainland China","authors":"Mengjia Zhang, Elisabet Pladevall-Ballester","doi":"10.1080/07908318.2021.1979576","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2021.1979576","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT HEIs (Higher education institutions) in mainland China are making enormous efforts to implement internationalization. As a result, EMI (English-medium instruction) courses are growing rapidly in number and popularity while relevant research is still insufficient in comparison to European countries. Besides, although much existing research has explored students’ beliefs and attitudes towards EMI, little is known on whether their beliefs and attitudes may change over time or after the completion of a course, and on whether students’ experiences in different EMI courses may differ. This paper specifically reports on students’ perspectives towards different EMI disciplinary courses: International Trade, Film Production and Project Management. Pre-post semester student questionnaires are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results show that students were generally positive towards EMI courses but their attitudes changed to worse at the end of the semester. Students in the International Trade course had more positive attitudes than students in the Film Production and Project Management groups. Findings are discussed in relation to classroom teaching practices in the three groups, which were observed three times over the semester. Finally, teaching implications and language policy-related decisions are also considered.","PeriodicalId":17945,"journal":{"name":"Language, Culture and Curriculum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44098367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-17DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2021.1942032
Lianjiang Jiang
ABSTRACT Although there is a growing call for L2/EFL teachers to connect the words they teach in classrooms with the world students participate outside classrooms, opportunities for L2/EFL students to engage with civic participation (CP) in language curricula remains limited. Drawing on student-authored videos from a digital multimodal composing (DMC) programme in China, this study reports on students’ manifestation of CP during DMC. Data from student-authored videos, classroom observation, and interviews reveal that the students used DMC for three forms of CP, including advocacy of the sexually discriminated, fundraising efforts for the left-behind children stricken by poverty, and promoting civic learning of disease-related knowledge and protection measures. The findings also reveal that these forms of CP were manifested by the students’ creative remixing of videos and visuals and ingenious layering of student-generated narrations based on their authentic concerns and community experiences. Implications on how DMC can be used to facilitate students’ CP in language curricula are discussed.
{"title":"Facilitating EFL students’ civic participation through digital multimodal composing","authors":"Lianjiang Jiang","doi":"10.1080/07908318.2021.1942032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2021.1942032","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Although there is a growing call for L2/EFL teachers to connect the words they teach in classrooms with the world students participate outside classrooms, opportunities for L2/EFL students to engage with civic participation (CP) in language curricula remains limited. Drawing on student-authored videos from a digital multimodal composing (DMC) programme in China, this study reports on students’ manifestation of CP during DMC. Data from student-authored videos, classroom observation, and interviews reveal that the students used DMC for three forms of CP, including advocacy of the sexually discriminated, fundraising efforts for the left-behind children stricken by poverty, and promoting civic learning of disease-related knowledge and protection measures. The findings also reveal that these forms of CP were manifested by the students’ creative remixing of videos and visuals and ingenious layering of student-generated narrations based on their authentic concerns and community experiences. Implications on how DMC can be used to facilitate students’ CP in language curricula are discussed.","PeriodicalId":17945,"journal":{"name":"Language, Culture and Curriculum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43149360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-06DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2021.1960855
Jeannette Sánchez-Naranjo
ABSTRACT Recent scholarship in professional development (PD) has advocated for solid conceptual frameworks and understanding of the complex process involved in how language educators may continue to develop and fulfil the current challenging teaching demands. However, specific relationships underlying departmental cultures and how language educators relate to professional development activities are not completely understood, particularly in large programmes implementing curricular reforms. This paper reports on the outcomes of a PD programme framed within three main notions of sociocultural theory (learning by doing, scaffolding and collaboration) and designed to support a language programme reform in higher education in the United States. Drawing from observation and PD programme data, findings indicate that beyond the expertise and open spaces to participate, language educators need to be engaged in content meaningful to them and manageable within the context of their second language teaching practices. The embeddedness of individual acts of both teaching and reflection about it becomes the bedrock for significant PD and is fundamental to transform language teaching practices.
{"title":"Departmental culture and professional development in the context of language programme reform","authors":"Jeannette Sánchez-Naranjo","doi":"10.1080/07908318.2021.1960855","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2021.1960855","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Recent scholarship in professional development (PD) has advocated for solid conceptual frameworks and understanding of the complex process involved in how language educators may continue to develop and fulfil the current challenging teaching demands. However, specific relationships underlying departmental cultures and how language educators relate to professional development activities are not completely understood, particularly in large programmes implementing curricular reforms. This paper reports on the outcomes of a PD programme framed within three main notions of sociocultural theory (learning by doing, scaffolding and collaboration) and designed to support a language programme reform in higher education in the United States. Drawing from observation and PD programme data, findings indicate that beyond the expertise and open spaces to participate, language educators need to be engaged in content meaningful to them and manageable within the context of their second language teaching practices. The embeddedness of individual acts of both teaching and reflection about it becomes the bedrock for significant PD and is fundamental to transform language teaching practices.","PeriodicalId":17945,"journal":{"name":"Language, Culture and Curriculum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07908318.2021.1960855","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41453208","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-28DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2021.1958832
Leechin Heng, H. Yeh
ABSTRACT Developing curricula that responds to the demand for internationalisation in higher education institutions (HEIs) has been gaining wide attention around the world. Taiwan, a country that houses more than 100 HEIs, is a keen member in joining the bandwagon of academic internationalisation. This paper explores the learning process and perceived benefits, as narrated by students from one HEI course, directed at developing students’ local cultural knowledge and global competencies, such as English and technological proficiency, through the means of video-making. An added objective of the course was for students to enter their completed videos to the Bilingual Video Competition hosted by a national university in central Taiwan. Findings from the study demonstrated that through the course, students have not only gained a stronger foothold of their cultural identity and English and digital literacy skills, but the process of the project has also led them to become more agentic and to recognise the importance of team work and collaboration. Suggestions for future studies will be discussed.
{"title":"Interweaving local cultural knowledge with global competencies in one higher education course: an internationalisation perspective","authors":"Leechin Heng, H. Yeh","doi":"10.1080/07908318.2021.1958832","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2021.1958832","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Developing curricula that responds to the demand for internationalisation in higher education institutions (HEIs) has been gaining wide attention around the world. Taiwan, a country that houses more than 100 HEIs, is a keen member in joining the bandwagon of academic internationalisation. This paper explores the learning process and perceived benefits, as narrated by students from one HEI course, directed at developing students’ local cultural knowledge and global competencies, such as English and technological proficiency, through the means of video-making. An added objective of the course was for students to enter their completed videos to the Bilingual Video Competition hosted by a national university in central Taiwan. Findings from the study demonstrated that through the course, students have not only gained a stronger foothold of their cultural identity and English and digital literacy skills, but the process of the project has also led them to become more agentic and to recognise the importance of team work and collaboration. Suggestions for future studies will be discussed.","PeriodicalId":17945,"journal":{"name":"Language, Culture and Curriculum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2021-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07908318.2021.1958832","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43095164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-16DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2021.1954938
Y. Gong, Chun Lai, X. Gao
ABSTRACT This paper reports on our inquiry into how language teachers’ identities relate to their efforts to teach intercultural communicative competence. In the study, we collected data through in-depth interviews with and observations of 16 Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong’s international schools. The analysis revealed that the participants simultaneously embraced multiple professional and sociocultural identities related to intercultural communicative competence teaching. Specifically, the professional identities included a Chinese language teacher identity and a school staff member identity, while the sociocultural identity comprised a Chinese culture bearer identity, a multicultural identity, a cultural transmitter identity, a culture learner identity, and a cultural bridge identity. These identities were found to compete with or reinforce each other in mediating the participants’ efforts in relation to teaching intercultural communicative competence; different identities were often associated with different understandings of and approaches to teaching intercultural communicative competence. The findings suggest that language teacher educators need to recognise teacher identities as an important pedagogical resource when preparing language teachers for teaching in cross-cultural contexts.
{"title":"Language teachers’ identity in teaching intercultural communicative competence","authors":"Y. Gong, Chun Lai, X. Gao","doi":"10.1080/07908318.2021.1954938","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2021.1954938","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper reports on our inquiry into how language teachers’ identities relate to their efforts to teach intercultural communicative competence. In the study, we collected data through in-depth interviews with and observations of 16 Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong’s international schools. The analysis revealed that the participants simultaneously embraced multiple professional and sociocultural identities related to intercultural communicative competence teaching. Specifically, the professional identities included a Chinese language teacher identity and a school staff member identity, while the sociocultural identity comprised a Chinese culture bearer identity, a multicultural identity, a cultural transmitter identity, a culture learner identity, and a cultural bridge identity. These identities were found to compete with or reinforce each other in mediating the participants’ efforts in relation to teaching intercultural communicative competence; different identities were often associated with different understandings of and approaches to teaching intercultural communicative competence. The findings suggest that language teacher educators need to recognise teacher identities as an important pedagogical resource when preparing language teachers for teaching in cross-cultural contexts.","PeriodicalId":17945,"journal":{"name":"Language, Culture and Curriculum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2021-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07908318.2021.1954938","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41283504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2020.1825470
Priscilla Bretuo
ABSTRACT The decision on which language(s) of instruction to use and how to use them in education is a persistent challenge in the development of quality education in multilingual countries like Ghana. This qualitative study of four public basic schools in the Ashanti region of Ghana explores teachers’ and pupils’ experience of the early-exit transitional education policy in Ghana to understand how it is implemented in the classroom and what its outcomes are for learning. It was discovered that linguistic heterogeneity within classrooms remains a challenge to effective communication despite bilingual instruction. This is exacerbated by the inadequate supply of teaching and learning resources and cognitive underdevelopment of the mother-tongue. The interaction of these factors makes only three years of bilingual instruction insufficient for children to develop adequate bilingual ability to advance intellectually after primary three with English-only instruction. This is more so the case for children at the primary level whose L1 is a marginal/non-dominant language linguistically different from the L1 of their classroom.
{"title":"Using language to improve learning: teachers’ and students’ perspectives on the implementation of bilingual education in Ghana","authors":"Priscilla Bretuo","doi":"10.1080/07908318.2020.1825470","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2020.1825470","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The decision on which language(s) of instruction to use and how to use them in education is a persistent challenge in the development of quality education in multilingual countries like Ghana. This qualitative study of four public basic schools in the Ashanti region of Ghana explores teachers’ and pupils’ experience of the early-exit transitional education policy in Ghana to understand how it is implemented in the classroom and what its outcomes are for learning. It was discovered that linguistic heterogeneity within classrooms remains a challenge to effective communication despite bilingual instruction. This is exacerbated by the inadequate supply of teaching and learning resources and cognitive underdevelopment of the mother-tongue. The interaction of these factors makes only three years of bilingual instruction insufficient for children to develop adequate bilingual ability to advance intellectually after primary three with English-only instruction. This is more so the case for children at the primary level whose L1 is a marginal/non-dominant language linguistically different from the L1 of their classroom.","PeriodicalId":17945,"journal":{"name":"Language, Culture and Curriculum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07908318.2020.1825470","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41470753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-17DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2021.1941077
Yanhong Liu, L. Zhang, Stephen May
ABSTRACT A number of studies have reported the cultural representations in English textbooks in many contexts, especially those in Asia. However, these studies relied on a small data set and the findings suffered severe limitations. To overcome such shortcomings, we self-built a corpus that has 40 volumes/books of over one million words to examine the cultural constellations evident in 10 sets of university English textbooks in China. With such a large corpus of 864 texts, which significantly exceeds the number of texts examined in previous studies, we intended to offset the weakness of manual content analysis in mining big data and thus also reduce subjectivity markedly. We subjected the whole data set to thematic coding through corpus tools. We found that: 1) the dominance of American/British cultures in these texts is prevalent, with the cultures of other Inner-circle countries in the periphery, and the cultures of the Outer-circle and Expanding-circle countries almost entirely neglected; 2) these textbooks showed little interest in local or Chinese cultures. We conclude by positing that the dominance of Anglo-American monocultural representation in English textbooks is problematic in an increasingly multilingual and multicultural world.
{"title":"Dominance of Anglo-American cultural representations in university English textbooks in China: a corpus linguistics analysis","authors":"Yanhong Liu, L. Zhang, Stephen May","doi":"10.1080/07908318.2021.1941077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2021.1941077","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A number of studies have reported the cultural representations in English textbooks in many contexts, especially those in Asia. However, these studies relied on a small data set and the findings suffered severe limitations. To overcome such shortcomings, we self-built a corpus that has 40 volumes/books of over one million words to examine the cultural constellations evident in 10 sets of university English textbooks in China. With such a large corpus of 864 texts, which significantly exceeds the number of texts examined in previous studies, we intended to offset the weakness of manual content analysis in mining big data and thus also reduce subjectivity markedly. We subjected the whole data set to thematic coding through corpus tools. We found that: 1) the dominance of American/British cultures in these texts is prevalent, with the cultures of other Inner-circle countries in the periphery, and the cultures of the Outer-circle and Expanding-circle countries almost entirely neglected; 2) these textbooks showed little interest in local or Chinese cultures. We conclude by positing that the dominance of Anglo-American monocultural representation in English textbooks is problematic in an increasingly multilingual and multicultural world.","PeriodicalId":17945,"journal":{"name":"Language, Culture and Curriculum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2021-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/07908318.2021.1941077","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46941892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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