Linguistics and Education最新文献

The study explores the ways EFL teachers use multimodal resources to design classroom lead-ins on the basis of multimodal stylistic analyses of the lead-ins in six award-winning classroom demonstrations. Results show that verbal mode and image mode are mainly used in the lead-ins to establish cognitive framework for the new teaching topics, and body language, such as eye movements, facial expressions, and gestures, is particularly important in attracting students’ attention and motivate their participation. The foregrounded complementary reinforcement relationships within the multimodal ensembles in the lead-ins play significant roles in designing students’ learning experiences. Discussions on the multimodal stylistic features and their teaching effects also indicate that topic relevance, closeness to life, mode conciseness, proper use of body language, complementary reinforcement within mode ensembles, and dynamicity of mode choices are general guidelines for the design of effective multimodal classroom lead-ins. The study not only verifies the effectiveness of the multimodal pedagogical stylistic theory but also provides feasible implications for the design and implementation of multimodal classroom lead-ins in EFL teaching.

Including home languages in classrooms can increase multilingual students’ participation, improve literacy, and promote inclusion. It is a prevalent topic at academic conferences; however, home language use in classrooms is less common. This study was a microanalysis of home language use during Instructional Conversations at a linguistically diverse English-medium preschool. Data sources included 27 h of classroom videos of Instructional Conversations and interviews with educators who used children's home languages. Home language use during Instructional Conversations was rare in these data; however, when employed, it was followed by increased participation by the multilingual children, facilitating language and concept development. These findings indicate a need for explicit educator preparation on home language use in classrooms. Educators in this study who used children's home languages adopted alternative discourse patterns than those traditionally found in schools. They reported being motivated by the increased participation of multilingual children and positive responses from families.

Ecolinguistics, as an emerging paradigm in linguistic studies, provides an approach for analysing ecological constructions in texts. However, different contexts feature quite different ecological philosophical traditions. English textbooks, often including imported materials, raise consideration for its ecological suitability for different social contexts. This study examines the ecological evaluations of College English textbooks used in China to elucidate the underlying evaluations and assess them according to Chinese harmonious ecosophy. Adopting Martin and White's (2005) attitude system, this study analyses the selected textbooks from the aspects of affect, judgment and appreciation with the UAM Corpus Tool to annotate instantiations of natural resources. Semantic analyses suggest that the authorial construction of nature in textbooks propagate some inharmonious ecological worldviews. The study not only improves our understanding of stance of textbooks towards the natural world but also helps to explore the role textbooks play in ecological education.

In this article we develop translanguaging as a theoretical perspective in education by drawing together ideas of process and symbolic power. We first outline critiques of translanguaging, most particularly the issue of deconstructivism and concerns about transformative limitations. We then focus on the potential of translanguaging as a conceptual frame for how language mediates learning in the context of social inequity (schools). We primarily draw on Bakhtin's (1981) theorisation of language and Bourdieu's (1991) understanding of the relationship between language and symbolic power to suggest that taking sociohistorical context as central to translanguaging can help us to move beyond ‘internal’ structuralist debates and open up productive lines of inquiry at the intersection of language and learning.

There is limited research that examines African American students’ language learning experiences in Spanish-English dual-language program settings, which exacerbates the narrative that African American students are not the “ideal” demographic for bilingual programs. To address these concerns, we highlight the experiences of two African American multilingual children to examine how they form their translanguaging repertoires. Specifically, we focus on three types of enactments in which they embodied these repertoires, which revealed how they engaged language learning in dynamic and varied ways. These examples further challenge traditional norms engendered in bilingual programming writ large that exhibit narrow viewpoints of language speakers and language speaking.

Although some of the scholarship in applied linguistics and teacher education illustrates an understanding of the complicated domination of English—and particularly White Mainstream English (WME)—in the education of multilingual students who are learning English as an additional language, the issue remains that the teaching and learning of English is often positioned as a neutral, value-free endeavor in much of the curriculum and practice used in US K-12 classrooms, and around the world. Therefore, an important question centers around how teachers might use linguistically sustaining, humanizing language practices in their classrooms, despite working in contexts that generally privilege WME. To illustrate the important role that teachers can play in supporting humanizing, linguistically vibrant classrooms, we highlight the practices of Catherine, an African American teacher of multilingual students, and explore how she leveraged her own multilingualism to affirm a variety of language practices in her classroom.

A debate over the construct of academic language (AL) has engendered significant polarization in the field of language education. The issues at the heart of the AL debate are thorny and persistently elusive to resolve. Yet they are not unpredictable, particularly when viewed from the perspective of how scientific communities advance knowledge. In this article, we highlight two thorny issues with AL from the perspective of scientific practice: (a) the modeling issue and (b) the paradigm issue. For each issue, we discuss methodological and pedagogical implications using examples from research on language use in STEM education. Further, we analyze how the two thorny issues have manifested in other contentious debates in language education (cognitive-social debate, translanguaging vs. codeswitching). Finally, we propose ways forward in light of the thorny issues toward advancing our collective knowledge as a community of researchers and practitioners committed to the education of language minoritized students.

Drawing on a LangCrit perspective conscious of overlapping (or intersectional) processes of privilege and marginalization, we used a QuantCrit-informed critical discourse analysis to assess how the websites of 12 of the largest US school districts were communicating student demographics related to their dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs across race, socioeconomics, ability, and English-learner designation. Findings show that explicitly DLBE-related documents never referred to student demographic percentages and none of the data portals could show overlapping demographic categories. Only one district offered program-level data, which suggested starkly lower inclusion of students with disabilities compared to school-level and district-level data. School-level data for other districts suggested equal to equitable access in all categories except ability. We call for (1) more research and advocacy to rectify demographic exclusions and (2) program-level reporting that can show overlapping demographics so that the public can better check for equity in special programs like DLBE.

Little research explored how frequently and for what functions translanguaging occurs during second language (L2) writing processes. To fill this research gap, the study analysed translanguaging occurrences in 53 undergraduates’ L2 writing processes. Translanguaging data were collected through think-aloud protocols, computer screen recordings, stimulated recall, and written drafts. Data analyses yielded four main findings: (1) on average, learners of varied L2 proficiency levels translanguaged frequently during their L2 writing processes; (2) reasoning was the least frequently performed translanguaging function, while repetition was the most frequently performed translanguaging function; (3) the lower-level L2 students performed translanguaging significantly more often than did their higher-level counterparts; (4) the higher-level L2 students translanguaged for monitoring significantly less often than did their lower-level counterparts. This study can contribute to the literature on translanguaging by exploring cognitively mediational roles of translanguaging and examining potential influences of L2 proficiency on the frequencies and functions of translanguaging.

This paper explores learning practices facilitated by participants’ use of the chat function in a video-mediated second language context. Using Conversation Analysis with a multimodal approach, this paper examines naturally occurring interactions between different first language users (L1 users) and one second language user (L2) of Norwegian at a digital language café. Typically, in cases where the L2 speaker indicates a problem with a linguistic item, the L1 users write in the chat as part of their repair solution.

The findings show how the use of the chat contributes to various language learning practices, including practicing linguistic forms, using the newly learned item and looking up words on a smartphone. The study provides new empirical insights into how participants utilize digital resources in video-mediated L2 settings for language learning purposes.