Linguistics and Education最新文献

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations and care work occupations are highly segregated by gender. School textbooks play an essential socializing role in determining which occupations are perceived as typically male or female. Existing research on the gender representation of STEM and care work occupations in textbooks is limited in scope. Therefore, we used quantitative text analyses in a large sample of 202 current German textbooks to examine the gender representation of STEM and care work occupations. We used collocation analysis to explore the nature of the occupational representations, focusing on agency and communion. Men were portrayed significantly more frequently than women in STEM and care work occupations. Adjectives of agency and communion occurred rarely in the collocations. Further research is required to test our findings in other cultures and to take a more differentiated look into the use of agency and communion in textbooks.

The purpose of this study was to examine what happens when indigenous students, in a Grade 6 class in rural Taiwan, critically examine EFL textbooks. Without a critical reading of textbook content, indigenous students are unable to examine unfavorable mainstream position. However, there are few English as a Foreign Language (EFL) studies on a critical literacy approach involving indigenous students. Data collected include observations and transcripts of critical literacy teaching, participants’ artifacts, responses to questionnaires, interviews, and the researcher's reflection journal. The findings show that critical literacy classes can empower indigenous students by providing alternative ways for them to view the world and lead them to discern norms and “silenced voices” in EFL textbooks, and to “cross borders” by noticing and addressing sociopolitical power, thereby repositioning their own identities. The study extends the knowledge in knowing how critical literacy work for indigenous group and gives suggestions to EFL teachers.

During oral examinations, students sometimes fail to provide correct answers, which creates a challenge for examiners regarding how to respond. We know much about teacher feedback in classrooms from decades of research on IRE and IRF sequences. However, less is known about feedback in oral examination contexts. This study seeks to identify how teachers, as examiners, manage incorrect answers during oral exams in Norwegian secondary schools and how their responses affect student opportunities to display knowledge. A conversation analysis of 21 incorrect answers revealed that, in 16 cases, teachers explicitly classified answers as incorrect by using other-corrections or other-initiations of correction. In four cases, teachers implicitly classified answers as incorrect using an embedded initiation of correction. The analysis further shows that other-initiations of correction create interactional spaces for students to attempt self-correction. However, teachers’ other-corrections reduce students’ opportunities to display knowledge. These findings have implications for developing oral examination policies and training materials.

Assessment of student writing by human raters often involves discrepancies, necessitating discussions for resolution. This study explores this process within a US university's English for Academic Purposes program, focusing on the exit practices of dissenting raters - strategies used to conclude disagreements. Utilizing multimodal conversation analysis, the study reveals that dissenting raters typically employ two exit practices: acknowledging personal bias and deferring to the opinions of co-present raters. While acknowledging bias effectively ends disagreements, deferring to others can be perceived as challenging equal participation, thus introducing complexity into the resolution process. The study also highlights how social concerns regarding professional credibility and reputation influence raters’ resolution strategies. The findings offer valuable insights into the interactional complexities of academic placement meetings, underscoring the importance of understanding exit practices in these contexts. They also demonstrate the potential of a conversation analysis approach for uncovering unexplored facets of rater interactions.

There is a growing research interest in the dynamics of English Medium Instruction (EMI) university classroom interactions in non-Anglophone contexts. In the present study, we track the procedural unfolding of content knowledge co-construction across multiple online activities in an online EMI university classroom. Using Multimodal Conversation Analysis to examine the screen recordings of an undergraduate course on Educational Sciences at a state EMI university in Türkiye, we show how translanguaging plays a central role in enabling the participants’ displays of content knowledge by deploying multilingual (English, Turkish, the focal EMI university jargon) and multimodal (i.e., coordinating verbal and multimodal materials on the screen) resources across four phases of the online class, namely (i) lecturer talk, (ii) pre-task, (iii) task engagement in breakout rooms, and (iv) sharing outputs in the main room. The study brings implications for higher education EMI classroom interactions by describing the multilingual, multifaceted, multimodal, and sequential organization of screen-recorded online environments.

Interpreting (i.e., oral translation) is facing challenges due to the prevalence of machine translation, and one urgent question for interpreting educators is what knowledge and skills should be taught in the machine-translation age. Focusing on this issue, the present corpus-based study systematically quantified the differences between interpreting outputs from expert interpreters and two machine translation systems. Using text analysis tools, significant differences in multidimensional linguistic features including lexical, syntactic, and cohesive ones were shown between humans and machines but not between two artificial systems. Finer-grained statistical analyses indicated that human-machine differences in certain indices deviated in varied interpreting modes. Our data collectively revealed the strengths of human interpreters in audience-oriented communicative mediation but limitations in cognitive resources. By relating the findings to interpreting competence, the current research provides important implications for empowering students in adaptively resorting to human strengths and/or embracing machine translation technologies.

This study aims to contribute knowledge about how the meanings of words selected by students based on workplace experiences (placements) in basic adult L2 education were negotiated in classroom discourse. The study, conducted in the context of Swedish for Immigrants (SFI), drew inspiration from practice-based and ethnographic methodology. It focuses on a vocabulary assignment connected to students’ placements at preschools and a hotel. The analysis was based on transcribed audio recordings and underpinned by the theoretical perspective of knowledge-building interaction. As a theoretical contribution to the field, the study develops the concepts of contextual elaboration and shifts. The findings show that some students successfully used placement experiences to contextualize their chosen words, while others found it challenging to contextualize abstract words. In the follow-up discussions, the teacher, and the students collaboratively and multi-contextually expanded on word meanings by exploring different collocations and contexts of use.

Using a sociolinguistic approach to examine writing practices within a refugee family, this study highlights features of second language learning during resettlement. It examines what defines the process of L2 development for refugee background writers learning to write in English and their writing process over time. After only a few months in the U.S., prominent features of their writing included: modeling —imitating and copying; capturing speech—writing to learn pronunciation and writing based on speech; capturing meaning—getting the general idea; adjusting—adapting language to circumstances; sociolinguistic bridging—using first language writing knowledge to develop second language writing skills; sense-making— reasoning through steps for a deeper understanding; pursuing fluency— showing a vested interest in learning English by proactively practicing skills. These findings favor writing instruction with scaffolded challenging content over traditional genre instruction. However, such instruction should leverage a range of skills from both languages.

This study investigates language proficiency from the perceptual perspective of L2 medical doctors in the Finnish context. Informed by the principles of Exploratory Practice, the research data were collected in an inclusive co-investigation during a preparatory course for the legalisation examinations of medical doctors qualified outside the EU. The participants were engaged to co-investigate their approaches to language and particularly the linguistic challenges they face in their professional encounters. Based on the thematic analysis of reflective diaries and focus group interviews of 27 medical doctors, the article examines how they as L2-speakers of Finnish approach language and talk about and deal with the linguistic challenges they identify as part of their daily work. The findings suggest that including inclusive perceptual approaches to language education for professional purposes contributes to the language awareness and professional identity of L2-speakers.

The present paper examines dialogic interaction in educational contexts by problematising the role of authentic questions advocated by proponents of dialogic pedagogy. We begin by reviewing research on questions in teacher-fronted discourse, while critically assessing the types of knowledge these questions target and their potential to result in dialogic interaction. We then move to the context of academic writing tutorials, which differ significantly with respect to the knowledge the participants bring to the conversation, and where authentic questions have received relatively little attention. We analyse tutor questions and their sequential unfolding in tutorials where the tutors have the relevant subject-specific knowledge and where they do not – and where authentic questions prevail. The framework of epistemics, as developed in conversation analysis, allows us to establish the extent to which these questions result in the co-construction of new understandings of the assignment topic.