Fact and fiction in language learning researching identity and language learning the world of adult immigrant language learners Eva and Mai - old heads on young shoulders mothers, migration, and language learning second language acquisition theory revisited claiming the right to speak in classrooms & communities.

Identity and language learning : gender, ethnicity and educational change

: This draft report from the Rand Reading Study Group (RRSG)1 formulates an initial proposal concerning the research issues that the community of reading researchers most urgently needs to address over the next 10-15 years. We encourage readers of this draft version to respond with feedback about our summary of the issues, the coherence of our model of reading comprehension, and our sketch of the research enterprise. Ultimately, this document may become the basis for more formal agenda setting. At this point it is an invitation to join a conversation about an area of great practical importance: reading development and reading instruction. The proposed research agenda builds upon a number of recent efforts to summarize the knowledge base in the field of reading. These efforts include the National Research Council report on Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, the Report of the National Reading Panel, and the recently published edition of the Handbook of Reading Research. Given the availability of these and other older sources,2 the RRSG did not see the need to replicate recent efforts to synthesize the knowledge base concerning initial reading and its implications for instruction and assessment of the general population. Thus we argue that the primary challenge of improving reading performance in the early grades is now to incorporate research based knowledge systematically into teacher preparation and practice. We still have much to learn, however, about how children become good comprehenders, how to design and deliver instruction, and how to prevent comprehension failure.

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Reading for Understanding: Toward an R&D Program in Reading Comprehension

Continuing to learn is universally accepted and expected by professionals and other stakeholders across all professions. However, despite changes in response to research findings about how professionals learn, many professional development practices still focus on delivering content rather than enhancing learning. In exploring reasons for the continuation of didactic practices in professional development, this article critiques the usual conceptualization of professional development through a review of recent literature across professions. An alternative conceptualization is proposed, based on philosophical assumptions congruent with evidence about professional learning from seminal educational research of the past two decades. An argument is presented for a shift in discourse and focus from delivering and evaluating professional development programs to understanding and supporting authentic professional learning.

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Reframing Professional Development Through Understanding Authentic Professional Learning

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The Translator As Communicator

This paper examines the changing landscape of literacy teaching and learning, revisiting the case for a “pedagogy of multiliteracies” first put by the New London Group in 1996. It describes the dramatically changing social and technological contexts of communication and learning, develops a language with which to talk about representation and communication in educational contexts, and addresses the question of what constitutes appropriate literacy pedagogy for our times.

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“Multiliteracies”: New Literacies, New Learning

Many people in "literate" societies, when asked to define literacy, almost always do so in terms of reading
and writing abilities This narrow interpretation of literacy, an
offspring of reductionist psychology, has reigned supreme in many academic and educational contexts for decades, greatly shaping literacy theories and classroom practices Within the past ten years, however, a large body of multidisciplinary
research has begun to undermine the authority of this
perspective by situating literacy in larger social practices

Constance C. Gerger

Papers

Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses.