Linguistics and Education最新文献

In this article, we explore the affordances of a framework informed by systemic functional linguistics for nuanced analysis of both students’ and teachers’ discourse moves in classroom interaction. Drawing on classroom discourse data from a middle school social studies inquiry context, we highlight coding categories from the analytic framework that help us systematically identify how students develop disciplinary knowledge propositions with longer turns of talk, how they engage with others’ points of view in substantive ways that enable co-reasoning, and how the focal teacher contingently adjusts her discursive strategies to facilitate students’ knowledge construction. We discuss how this framework adds to existing analytic constructs and tools for researchers to examine academically productive student discourse while also allowing researchers to characterize how discourse patterns shift to serve varied instructional goals and student needs across learning activities.

Clinical skills training requires a comprehensive understanding of how tutors demonstrate their knowledge, and fulfil their tutoring practices in medical education. This study aims to investigate expertise demonstration of different tutors following students' requests for information during clinical skills training. For this purpose, video recordings of the suturing skill training provided by three different tutors (medical expert, research assistant, and near-peer tutor) were analysed through Conversation Analysis. The findings show that medical expert showcases expertise knowledge through different practices such as using directives and providing assessments while the research assistant takes a more collaborative approach, involving peers in the learning process. The study also indicates that the near-peer tutor employs concise and less informative utterances, refrains from giving direct feedback. This research offers valuable insights into how tutors display expertise by documenting various interactional practices in clinical skills training, and providing data-driven implications for professional training programs in medical education.

Increasing research has recently been devoted to issues of racism within TESOL; however, most studies have been directed towards the unearned privilege of teachers labelled as ‘native English-speaking teachers’ (‘NESTs’) and the unjust marginalization of those perceived as ‘non-native English-speaking teachers’ (‘NNESTs’). This focusing on the former as the exclusive beneficiaries and the latter as the sole victims of racial discrimination has led to overlooking a large portion of language teachers whose professional experiences fit neither group. Approached through the lenses of communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) and critical race theory, and guided by a narrative inquiry approach, this qualitative study tackles this gap by investigating the professional identity construction trajectory of an African American English language teacher working in a dominated by the native speakerism ideology Saudi university. Relying on in-depth interviews as the main data source, the findings revealed that the participant’s trajectory and forms of (non)participation were profoundly, yet detrimentally, shaped by his non-Whiteness. The study concludes with implications for research, practice, and policy.

Language and linguistic diversity play a key role in disparities in academic achievement. With around 25 % of preschool children in Australia communicating in a language other than English at home, developing a greater understanding of early childhood educators’ viewpoints towards, and engagement with, children's linguistic and cultural resources is vital. This research project asks how educators in early childhood settings view children's linguistic and cultural diversity. Employing Q methodology, the study investigated subjective viewpoints among educators at the early childhood level in Australia. Three distinct viewpoints were identified, shedding light on the complexities of language and culture related issues, as well as some of the challenges for EC educators in responding to the diverse needs of children. The findings reinforce the need for tailored pre-service and in-service professional learning that supports the development of teacher identity as well as their theoretical and pedagogical knowledge of multilingual language development.

Educators and researchers increasingly recognize the impact of teachers’ agency on language education policy enactment in their classrooms. The study is aimed to conduct cross-cultural comparisons of Israeli and Icelandic teachers regarding their agency towards linguistically and culturally diverse children in a preschool context. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 selected teachers who had rich pedagogical experience in educating children with immigrant background. In both countries, we found that teachers’ agency was expressed on continuums from teachers’ proactivity to teachers' passiveness regarding linguistically and culturally diverse teaching; from perception of home language as a resource to viewing it as a barrier to the child's progress in the societally dominant language; and from equal relationships to teacher-parents’ hierarchical relationships. Despite historical and socio-cultural differences between the two countries, we found striking similarities between the teachers in their reports on classroom management of diversity and interactions with children and families.

Languages are subjects in schools. Schools offer opportunities to learn and develop languages beyond the dominant language of instruction. In Germany, the Standing Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) defines the least common denominator in this regard. The article portrays the development of educational policy positioning on teaching of languages as subjects in Germany, using resolutions of the KMK and sketching current implementation in selected states. It is shown that while acknowledging multilingualism as a relevant feature of the population and appreciating it symbolically, teaching of languages as subjects is still dominated by a monolingual ideology. So far, school laws distinguish sharply between obligatory foreign languages relevant for school leaving certificates and heritage languages that can be developed voluntarily outside regular schedules with no or limited relevance. This begs the questions as to whether this divide is still adequate in a multilingual society.

The present special issue addresses transnational and translingual social practices in school contexts with a focus on tensions between discourse and practice in science, politics and education. The six contributions present conceptual and research developments and include current research projects, methodological and theoretical reflections as well as didactical implications

The present article explores how transnational practices are taken into account in regular and alternative schools. To answer this question, a study focusing on the online presence of all regular and alternative schools (n = 197) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, was conducted. The data was analysed using methods of qualitative content analysis via deductive and inductive category formation. The categories were based on the theoretical framework of school theory according to Fend (2011), and school culture according to Helsper (2008a, b). The findings show that in alternative schools, more space emerges for transnational practices as distance from the regular German system grows. These institutions, increasingly in private ownership, explicitly ascribe themselves the competence to educate members of transnationally-orientated social groups without discrimination and while considering their group-specific migration experiences. Regular schools also offer programmes that aim to take into account the specific migration-related characteristics of their student bodies. However, the logic of internationalisation is argued less as an elitist strategy than as a way to compensate for disadvantages. The paper presents these transnational and translingual educational offers and discusses the respective strategies against a background of methodological challenges.

In this commentary, I will draw together some of the most interesting points from the diverse papers assembled in this special issue and bring them into conversation with current research on language education policy and practice. I will focus on three key ideas that emerged from the theories, methodologies and data presented: (1) the complex hierarchisation of languages in national educational policies, (2) language and multilingualism in neoliberalising schools, and (3) relations between language education policy and practice. In concluding, I will make suggestions on how to support teachers in implementing transnational and translingual practices.

The UK, and perhaps particularly England, is often seen as a nation subscribing wholeheartedly to a monolingual mindset. The national curriculum remains resolutely monolingual, despite linguistic diversity in primary classrooms having increased rapidly. Current research and anecdotal evidence suggest that translanguaging in English schools is rare, despite the documented ‘multilingual turn’ in applied linguistics, and transnational practices are seen as being facilitated only within families. This study explores attitudes and practices towards supporting multilingualism and encouraging children's sense of transnationalism, rather than solely English language acquisition and assimilation into British culture. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers across England, and the resultant transcriptions were analysed thematically to explore the experiences and attitudes of participants. The data presented in this paper focuses on instances of what we have termed ‘inert benevolence’ and we identify a number of conscious and subconscious barriers to truly incorporating languages beyond English in classroom practices.