Linguistics and Education最新文献

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.

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.