Linguistics and Education最新文献

This qualitative study has investigated how a group of bilingual university students in Hong Kong understand digital citizenship and construct it through digital literacy practices in social media. Drawing on interview data and examples of digital activity shared by the students, we adopt the theories of digital literacies and translanguaging and transsemiotizing to reveal how they construct digital citizenship through an complex interplay between several factors, most prominently (1) a variety of digitally mediated social, cultural and educational practices the students engage in, (2) their agency of deploying diverse linguistic and semiotic recourses to achieve varied communicative effects in different settings and (3) their personal pursuits of intellectual and professional development and social engagement in a digitalized and globalized society. We then discuss how the findings can enrich our understanding of digital citizenship and its relationship with digital literacies in a multilingual and multicultural context such as Hong Kong. The implications for digital citizenship education are also discussed.

In 2004 English became a compulsory subject in the primary curriculum in Saudi Arabia, yet analyses of this reform have been limited. This mixed methods study examines the perspectives on the primary English reform of 504 long-serving ELT professionals. Based on interviews and questionnaires, the study concludes that respondents were largely supportive of the policy to start English early; they believed it had a positive effect on levels of English among Saudi state school pupils, even though it was also felt that the official targets stipulated by the Ministry of Education were over-ambitious. Most respondents believed, too, that teaching English in primary school had allowed pupils to develop more positive attitudes to English. Despite these positive views about the 2004 reform, it was also felt that primary ELT in Saudi Arabia was still characterised by a number of challenges, particularly regarding the lack of specialised teacher preparation, demanding textbooks and the limited time allocated to English in the curriculum. It is recommended that addressing such challenges should be an important element in any reforms, particularly given the recent decision in Saudi Arabia to introduce English from Grade 1.

College courses are an important forum for combating the stigmatization of African American Language (AAL). However, there is no comprehensive data regarding where, how, and by whom AAL content is taught. Understanding the landscape of college teaching about AAL could help identify challenges faced by instructors who teach this content, as well as policies or practices that could help support these instructors. We surveyed college instructors (N = 149) in multiple disciplines (primarily Linguistics, Education, English, and Communication Sciences) who teach courses with AAL content. We found patterns in the sources of support and levels of resistance instructors reported. Instructors also expressed varied levels of knowledge and confidence related to teaching about African American Language and Culture. Many of these patterns were correlated with instructors’ racialized identities and language backgrounds. We discuss implications for professional organizations, university department leaders, and instructors who teach AAL content.

Addressing scant duoethnographic practices of international doctoral students in the field of Applied Linguistics, as English teachers and learners from Indonesia and Thailand, we engaged in currere-informed duoethnography. We interrogated our English language learning and teaching trajectory from early education to graduate education through our narratives to gain a critical understanding of how our perceptions toward Englishes shaped by formal curriculum have evolved and of the repercussions of the perceptions we hold toward our personal curriculum. Four phases of currere method of regressive, progressive, analytical, and synthetic were framed in a transnational lens. This framing posits languaging as an entanglement of semiotic resources to unpack colonial hegemonic ideology that governs our languaging and educational practices and our transformative perceptions as emerging transnational teachers. This study aims to extend currere-informed duoethnography by incorporating the dimensions of transnational practices and identity construction. It also offers practical implications for English teachers and graduate students to actively construct transnational spaces and identities.

This paper presents a case study of the academic information literacy practices of two Chinese international doctoral students in the United States, drawing on the theoretical concepts of translanguaging and spatial repertoire. This investigation is situated within and against the deficit discourses surrounding the information literacy of international students, especially those who use English as a second language in western English-dominated academia. Using phenomenological interviewing, weekly information-seeking diaries, and focus group data, the study shows that these two students gather online information in multiple information ecosystems through the mobilization of multiple languages and diverse spatial repertoires. The results highlight the role of situated assemblages of linguistic, semiotic, and multimodal resources for successful information seeking and call for an expanded conceptualization of information literacy for multilingual international students. This paper concludes with a discussion on the importance of adopting an asset-based perspective when examining the information literacy of these students and provides recommendations for faculties, librarians, and research supervisors to consider when designing information literacy education for multilingual international doctoral students.

This exploratory qualitative study presents the findings of a deductive analysis of the online teacher education coursework of four self-identified monolingual English-speaking content-area teacher candidates (TCs) at a Hispanic-serving university in the southwestern United States. Guided by Clarke's (2009) framework of ethical self-formation and Ruiz's (1984) orientations to language planning, the authors examined the intersections between identity construction and language ideologies as these TCs navigated their positionalities as monolinguals preparing to teach multilingual learners. Findings revealed that teacher candidates harbored both asset and deficit beliefs about teaching multilingual learners. Implications suggest that through reflective online teacher education coursework, monolingual content-area TCs may develop agency, empathy, and a multilingual stance as they challenge deficit beliefs about multilingual learners.

Language difference is often framed through a deficit lens, especially for multilingual student writers. Compounding this issue, teacher candidates (TCs) rarely receive sustained guidance on how to give effective writing feedback. As a result, many TCs perceive the primary purpose of writing feedback to be surface-level error correction. To address this challenge, our study explored how TCs (n = 42) across two universities engaged with a writing feedback approach grounded in discourse analysis principles. We examined participants’ feedback on writing authored by adolescent multilingual learners before and after exploring discourse analysis as a feedback method. Findings suggested a shift from a corrective to an observational focus, linguistic curiosity rather than evaluation, and ascribing intentionality to students’ language choices. These findings demonstrate the potential of discourse analysis as a tool in writing feedback to frame language difference as an asset, toward disrupting deficit-oriented views of linguistic diversity in multilingual writing and classrooms.

This study explores how emotions mediate students’ post-journey evaluations of their study abroad experiences and why specific emotions are valued in the evaluative process. Based on 175 post-journey reports and four focus-group interviews produced by South Korean students attending a short-term study-abroad program at U.S. universities, this study analyzes the emotional shift from linguistic insecurity to confidence. Their reflections show that their linguistic insecurity stemmed from their ideology of self-deprecation and the unfamiliar types of English encountered in the host country. However, they state that English-only environments and enhanced awareness of English as a lingua franca helped them overcome linguistic insecurity. In this process, they valued improved confidence in English, while defying the possibility of improving their actual English proficiency. Drawing on the ideology of English in South Korea, this study suggests that such a distinctive evaluation of emotions rationalizes students’ investment in English language learning.

In 2019–2020, students of two English for Architects and Civil Engineers courses at a German university were tasked with creating a digital, multimodal video composition explaining a technical concept to a lay audience. The resultant multimodal artefacts, however, often did not exhibit typical semiotic patterns associated with explaining or describing in science-related disciplines. In particular, 78% of artefacts featured ‘mediated focalisation’, a framing technique used to align the composer with their audience and more commonly associated with fictional narrative or social media. The paper describes how this framing technique appeared in the artefacts and explores how and to what effect it was used. It will unpack the implications of using this technique for the performance of professionalism and ‘authenticity’ in architecture and STEM communication. A subsystem of mediated focalisation techniques and a new ‘coding orientation’ will be proposed, so that educators may better prepare students for these emergent shifts.

This study examines tutor-initiated error-correction sequences in one-to-one consultations for second language (L2) writing. Using conversation analysis (CA), the paper presents three examples illustrating what the tutor does to help tutees come up with solutions to grammar problems in their essays. The detailed analysis demonstrates how the tutor's directives to read in order to find and solve an L2 grammar issue, along with the tutees’ alignment, create opportunities for the tutees to self-correct. The study explores: (1) how the tutor's directive to read leads a tutee to self-correct; (2) how the tutor manages a tutee's resistance to a directive to read and trouble display through “narrowed-down support”; and (3) how the tutor manages a tutee's trouble display through multiple directives to read. The findings suggest pedagogically useful practices, and contribute to CA research on L2 writing consultations in general and the understanding of tutor-initiated error-correction sequences specifically.