Showing papers in "TESOL Quarterly in 2006"
TL;DR: Will Racism Disappear in Obamerica?
Abstract: Preface for Third Edition of Racism without Racists Chapter 1: The Strange Enigma of Race in Contemporary America Chapter 2: The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism Chapter 3: The Style of Color Blindness: How to Talk Nasty about Minorities without Sounding Racist Chapter 4: \"I Didn't Get That Job Because of a Black Man\": Color-Blind Racism's Racial Stories Chapter 5: Peeking Inside the (White) House of Color Blindness: The Significance of Whites' Segregation Chapter 6: Are All Whites Refined Archie Bunkers? An Examination of White Racial Progressives Chapter 7: Are Blacks Color Blind, Too? Chapter 8: E Pluribus Unum or the Same Old Perfume in a New Bottle? On the Future of Racial Stratification in the United States Chapter 9: Will Racism Disappear in Obamerica? The Sweet (but Deadly) Enchantment of Colorblindness in Black Face Conclusion
2,865 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored recent research into World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), focusing on its implications for TESOL, and the extent to which it is being taken into account by English language teachers, linguists, and second language acquisition researchers.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to explore recent research into World Englishes (henceforth WEs) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), focusing on its implications for TESOL, and the extent to which it is being taken into account by English language teachers, linguists, and second language acquisition researchers. After a brief introduction comparing the current situation with that of 15 years ago, I look more closely at definitions of WEs and ELF. Then follows an overview of relevant developments in WEs and ELF research during the past 15 years, along with a more detailed discussion of some key research projects and any controversies they have aroused. I then address the implications of WEs/ELF research for TESOL vis-a-vis English language standards and standard English, and the longstanding native versus nonnative teacher debate. Finally, I assess the consensus on WEs and ELF that is emerging both among researchers and between researchers and language teaching professionals. The article concludes by raising a number of questions that remain to be investigated in future research.
910 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider eight key questions relating to grammar pedagogy in the light of findings from the study of how learners acquire a second language (SLA) and provide a statement of their own beliefs about grammar teaching.
Abstract: The study of how learners acquire a second language (SLA) has helped to shape thinking about how to teach the grammar of a second language There remain, however, a number of controversial issues This paper considers eight key questions relating to grammar pedagogy in the light of findings from SLA As such, this article complements Celce-Murcia’s (1991) article on grammar teaching in the 25th anniversary issue of TESOL Quarterly, which considered the role of grammar in a communicative curriculum and drew predominantly on a linguistic theory of grammar These eight questions address whether grammar should be taught and if so what grammar, when, and how Although SLA does not afford definitive solutions to these questions, it serves the valuable purpose of problematising this aspect of language pedagogy This article concludes with a statement of my own beliefs about grammar teaching, grounded in my own understanding of SLA
778 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the epistemological underpinnings of a more general sociocultural turn in the human sciences and the impact that this turn has had on the field's understanding of how L2 teachers learn to do their work.
Abstract: Although the overall mission of second language (L2) teacher education has remained relatively constant, that is, to prepare L2 teachers to do the work of this profession, the field's understanding of that work—of who teaches English, who learns English and why, of the sociopolitical and socioeconomic contexts in which English is taught, and of the varieties of English that are being taught and used around the world—has changed dramatically over the past 40 years. This article examines the epistemological underpinnings of a more general sociocultural turn in the human sciences and the impact that this turn has had on the field's understanding of how L2 teachers learn to do their work. Four interrelated challenges that have come to the forefront as a result of this turn are discussed: (a) theory/practice versus praxis, (b) the legitimacy of teachers' ways of knowing, (c) redrawing the boundaries of professional development, and (d) “located” L2 teacher education. In addressing these challenges, the intellectual tools of inquiry are positioned as critical if L2 teacher education is to sustain a teaching force of transformative intellectuals who can navigate their professional worlds in ways that enable them to create educationally sound, contextually appropriate, and socially equitable learning opportunities for the students they teach.
657 citations
TL;DR: For instance, the authors traces the major trends in TESOL methods in the past 15 years and focuses on the profession's evolving perspectives on language teaching methods in terms of three perceptible shifts: (a) from communicative language teaching to task-based language teaching, (b) from method-based pedagogy to post-method pedagogical, and (c) from systemic discovery to critical discourse.
Abstract: This article traces the major trends in TESOL methods in the past 15 years. It focuses on the TESOL profession’s evolving perspectives on language teaching methods in terms of three perceptible shifts: (a) from communicative language teaching to task-based language teaching, (b) from method-based pedagogy to postmethod pedagogy, and (c) from systemic discovery to critical discourse. It is evident that during this transitional period, the profession has witnessed a heightened awareness about communicative and task-based language teaching, about the limitations of the concept of method, about possible postmethod pedagogies that seek to address some of the limitations of method, about the complexity of teacher beliefs that inform the practice of everyday teaching, and about the vitality of the macrostructures—social, cultural, political, and historical—that shape the microstructures of the language classroom. This article deals briefly with the changes and challenges the trend-setting transition seems to be bringing about in the profession’s collective thought and action.
496 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify and discuss four key issues arising from the recent technology-related literature (the status of CALL, its theoretical grounding, its cultural embeddedness, and its effectiveness).
Abstract: Rapid evolution of communication technologies has changed language pedagogy and language use, enabling new forms of discourse, new forms of authorship, and new ways to create and participate in communities. The first section of this article identifies and discusses four key issues arising from the recent technology-related literature (the status of CALL, its theoretical grounding, its cultural embeddedness, and its effectiveness). The second section synthesizes research findings from three current areas of research: computer-mediated communication, electronic literacies, and telecollaboration. The third section develops implications for teaching and research, highlighting the importance of the teacher, new understandings of language and communication, critical awareness of the relationships among technology, language, culture, and society, and new trends in research methods.
472 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the traditional positivist paradigm is no longer the only prominent paradigm in the field: Relativism has become an alternative paradigm, which is healthy and stimulating for a field like SLA.
Abstract: Looking back at the past 15 years in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), the authors select and discuss several important developments. One is the impact of various sociocultural perspectives such as Vygotskian sociocultural theory, language socialization, learning as changing participation in situated practices, Bakhtin and the dialogic perspective, and critical theory. Related to the arrival of these perspectives, the SLA field has also witnessed debates concerning understandings of learning and the construction of theory. The debate discussed in this article involves conflicting ontologies. We argue that the traditional positivist paradigm is no longer the only prominent paradigm in the field: Relativism has become an alternative paradigm. Tensions, debates, and a growing diversity of theories are healthy and stimulating for a field like SLA.
436 citations
TL;DR: This paper presented an overview of recent developments in second language (L2) teaching and highlighted the trends that began in the 1990s and the 2000s and are likely to continue to affect instruction in L2 skills at least in the immediate future.
Abstract: This article presents an overview of recent developments in second language (L2) teaching and highlights the trends that began in the 1990s and the 2000s and are likely to continue to affect instruction in L2 skills at least in the immediate future. Also highlighted are recent developments in instruction as they pertain specifically to the teaching of L2 speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In the past 15 years or so, several crucial factors have combined to affect current perspectives on the teaching of English worldwide: (a) the decline of methods, (b) a growing emphasis on both bottom-up and top-down skills, (c) the creation of new knowledge about English, and (d) integrated and contextualized teaching of multiple language skills. In part because of its comparatively short history as a discipline, TESOL has been and continues to be a dynamic field, one in which new venues and perspectives are still unfolding. The growth of new knowledge about the how and the what of L2 teaching and learning is certain to continue and will probably remain the hallmark of TESOL’s disciplinary maturation.
386 citations
TL;DR: The authors surveyed the current state of English for specific purposes (ESP) by surveying ongoing debates on key topics: needs assessment and its goals, specificity in instructional methods, and the role of subject knowledge in instructor expertise.
Abstract: This overview of the current state of English for specific purposes (ESP) begins by surveying ongoing debates on key topics: needs assessment and its goals, specificity in instructional methods, and the role of subject knowledge in instructor expertise. Two strands of current theory and research are next surveyed, namely, genre theory and corpus-enhanced genre studies, and critical pedagogy and ethnographies, followed by examples of research and theory-informed pedagogical strategies for literacy and spoken discourse. Topics in need of further inquiry are suggested.
371 citations
TL;DR: The authors survey key concepts and theories defined and debated in various fields, including race, ethnicity, culture, racialization, racism, critical race theory, and critical white studies, to provide a foundation for future explorations.
Abstract: The field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) brings people from various racialized backgrounds together in teaching, learning, and research. The idea of race, racialization, and racism are inescapable topics that arise in the contact zones created by teaching English worldwide and thus are valid topics to explore in the field. Nonetheless, unlike our peer fields such as anthropology, education, and sociology, the field of TESOL has not sufficiently addressed the idea of race and related concepts. This special topic issue is one of the first attempts in our field to fill the gap. This introductory article will survey key concepts and theories defined and debated in various fields, including race, ethnicity, culture, racialization, racism, critical race theory, and critical White studies, to provide a foundation for future explorations.
307 citations
TL;DR: This article used a within-subjects design to examine the effect of the type of written exercise on L2 vocabulary retention, using input for the meaning and usage of the new words from a specially prepared minidictionary.
Abstract: The present study used a within-subjects design to examine the effect of the type of written exercise on L2 vocabulary retention. Using input for the meaning and usage of the new words from a specially prepared minidictionary, university intensive English program students (n = 154) practiced target vocabulary in three types of written exercises conditions: one fill-in-the-blank exercise, three fill-in-the-blank exercises, and one original-sentence-writing exercise. An unannounced posttest using a modified version of the vocabulary knowledge scale tested the meaning of the word (L1 translation or L2 synonym) and usage of the word in a student-written sentence. A repeated measures ANOVA revealed that mean scores for the three exercise types were significantly different from each other, with words practiced under the three fill-in-the-blank exercises condition retained much better than those practiced under either of the other two exercise conditions. The findings suggest the important feature of a given L2 vocabulary exercise is not depth of word processing but number of word retrievals required. This result has implications for language teachers, curriculum designers, and, in particular, materials writers of traditional workbooks and CALL materials.
TL;DR: The direction of pedagogical developments since the 25th anniversary issue of TESOL Quarterly has been discussed in this article, where three tendencies characterize professional practice: (a) a continuation along the earlier lines of progression (i.e., in opening up the classroom to learning opportunities, integrating skills, and teaching for specific purposes); (b) a radical reorientation along new paradigms, in understanding motivation and acquisition in terms of social participation and identity construction; in developing methods from the ground up, based on generative heuristics; in widening testing to include
Abstract: This overview delineates the direction of pedagogical developments since the 25th anniversary issue of TESOL Quarterly. Three tendencies characterize our professional practice: (a) a continuation along the earlier lines of progression (i.e., in opening up the classroom to learning opportunities, integrating skills, and teaching for specific purposes); (b) a radical reorientation along new paradigms (i.e., in understanding motivation and acquisition in terms of social participation and identity construction; in developing methods from the ground up, based on generative heuristics; in widening testing to include formative assessment; in accommodating subjective knowledge and experience in teacher expertise); (c) unresolved debates and questions about the direction in certain domains (i.e., when and how to teach grammar; whether to adopt cognitivist or social orientations in SLA, testing, and teacher education). Our professional knowledge gets further muddled by the new movements of globalization, digital communication, and World Englishes, which pose fresh questions that are yet to be addressed. However, grappling with these concerns has engendered realizations on the need for local situatedness, global inclusiveness, and disciplinary collaboration that are of more lasting value.
TL;DR: This article investigated the effects of four types of listening support: previewing the test questions, repetition of the input, providing background knowledge about the topic, and vocabulary instruction, and found that the most effective support overall was providing information about the topics, followed by repetition of input.
Abstract: Listening comprehension is a difficult skill for foreign language learners to develop and for their teachers to assess. In designing suitable listening tests, teachers can provide various forms of support to reduce the demands of the task for the test takers. This study investigated the effects of four types of listening support: previewing the test questions, repetition of the input, providing background knowledge about the topic, and vocabulary instruction. The research involved a classroom-based experiment with 160 students enrolled in a required English listening course at a college in Taiwan. The results showed that the most effective type of support overall was providing information about the topic, followed by repetition of the input. The learners' level of listening proficiency had a significant interaction effect, particularly in the case of question preview. Vocabulary instruction was the least useful form of support, regardless of proficiency level. The findings are generally consistent with the results of the small number of previous studies in this area but there is certainly scope for further investigation.
TL;DR: The authors analyzed the accent perceptions of a group of 37 English language learners and 10 American undergraduate students listening to a one-minute passage read by four speakers with different accents of English: General American, British English, Chinese English, and Mexican English.
Abstract: This study analyzed the accent perceptions of a group of 37 English language learners and 10 American undergraduate students. Each subject listened to a one-minute passage read by four speakers with different accents of English: General American, British English, Chinese English, and Mexican English. Participants then attempted to identify the different accents and stated their preferences and opinions about each. They also provided background information, including reasons for studying English and pronunciation goals. Additionally, 11 participants were individually interviewed about the different accents. Although more than half (62%) of the learners stated that their goal was to sound like a native English speaker, only 29% were able to correctly identify the American accent. No strong correlations were found between the ability to identify accents and the amount of time spent in the United States nor time studying English. However, an almost perfect correlation was found between the accent voted easiest to understand and the one that participants preferred. The lack of consistency in identifying accents may reflect an idealized conception of what the native accent aspired to actually sounds like. This finding and the priority placed on listening comprehension suggest a need for more thorough consideration of accent in ESOL programs.
TL;DR: This paper examined the challenges faced by beginning K-12 ESOL teachers in the United States as they grappled with the signifi cance of their own racial identities in the process of negotiating the inherent racialization of ESOL in their language teaching contexts.
Abstract: Through a year-long critical feminist ethnography, this article examines the challenges faced by beginning K – 12 ESOL teachers in the United States as they grappled with the signifi cance of their own racial identities in the process of negotiating the inherent racialization of ESOL in their language teaching contexts. I foreground the signifi cance of race in the teaching, language, and identities of four K – 12 public school teachers; three White and one Korean American, whose orientations were specifi cally antiracist. The study examined the implications of teachers’ privileged status as native speakers of standard English, a raced category, within an institutional culture that underscored the supremacy of both Whiteness and native speaker status. The study found the teachers’ practice to be complexifi ed by their attentiveness to their own and their students’ racial identities and by their consciousness of the situatedness of their practice within a broader sociopolitical context. The fi ndings also illustrated the ways in which the teachers negotiated spaces in which they could challenge the silent privilege accorded to Standard American English by problematizing school policies surrounding World English and African American Vernacular English. Implications for theory, practice of teaching English to speakers of other languages, teacher education, and professional development are discussed. So I got the book Counting in Korea. … On the cover, there’s a picture of a [boy wearing a] traditional Korean outfi t. All the kids looked at it and said: “He looks like you.” So he looked at it and said: “He’s stinky! Stinky boy.” And he pushed it away.
TL;DR: The authors found that learners' use of higher level target vocabulary improved in postreading composition and was largely maintained in delayed writing, and attributed this improvement to the teacher's use of interactive elicitation of vocabulary and a writing frame, and specific instruction to learners to use target vocabulary.
Abstract: Limited research on ESL learners' use of vocabulary in writing prompted our investigation of vocabulary use in composition by secondary school multi-L1 intermediate ESL learners in Greater Vancouver (n = 48). This study showed that though intermediate learners' use of 1,000–2,000-word-level vocabulary tended to remain constant, their productive use of higher level target vocabulary improved in postreading composition and was largely maintained in delayed writing. It also showed how, in so doing, their lexical frequency profile (LFP) improved. We attribute this improvement to the teacher's use of interactive elicitation of vocabulary and a writing frame, and specific instruction to learners to use target vocabulary. Though the exact factor or factors of vocabulary acquisition in this study is unclear, it is obvious that teacher elicitation, explicit explanation, discussion and negotiation, and multimode exposure to target vocabulary are all means of scaffolding and manipulating vocabulary that increased learners' use of target vocabulary. All these strategies in turn improve LFP in writing. The results suggest that this approach also makes vocabulary learning durable. Increased productive vocabulary acquisition also implies a much larger increase in recognition vocabulary, improving overall classroom language performance. Hinkel (2006, p. 109) calls for integrated and contextualized teaching of multiple language skills, in this case, reading, writing, and vocabulary instruction.
TL;DR: This article investigated whether lexical elaboration (LE), typographical enhancement (TE), or a combination of explicit or implicit LE affect 297 Korean learners' acquisition of English vocabulary, and they adopted a 2 × 3 MANOVA design with TE and LE as two independent variables and form-and meaning-recognition vocabulary posttests as two dependent variables.
Abstract: This article investigates whether (a) lexical elaboration (LE), typographical enhancement (TE), or a combination, and (b) explicit or implicit LE affect 297 Korean learners' acquisition of English vocabulary. The learners were asked to read one of six versions of an experimental text that contained 26 target words. The study adopted a 2 × 3 MANOVA design with TE and LE as two independent variables and form- and meaning-recognition vocabulary posttests as two dependent variables. The TE had two levels, enhanced and unenhanced, and the LE had three levels, explicit, implicit, and unelaborated. The results were (a) LE alone did not aid form recognition of vocabulary, (b) explicit LE alone aided meaning recognition of vocabulary, (c) TE alone did not aid form and meaning recognition of vocabulary, (d) LE and TE combined did not aid form recognition of vocabulary, (e) both explicit and implicit LE aided meaning recognition of vocabulary, (f) explicit and implicit LE did not differ in their effect on form and meaning recognition of vocabulary, and (g) whether a text was further enhanced in addition to either explicit or implicit LE did not seem to affect the acquisition of the previously unknown words' forms or meanings.
TL;DR: This article used a sequential analysis to examine teachers' display questions in an English as a second language (ESL) classroom and argued that display questions are central resources whereby language teachers and students organize their lessons and produce language pedagogy.
Abstract: Previous research into teachers' questions has focused on what types of questions are more conducive for developing students' communicative language use In this regard, display questions, whose answers the teacher already knows, are considered less effective because they limit opportunities for students to use genuine language use (Long & Sato, 1983) Although the research into teacher questions has been refined in recent years, it is not certain how much we know about how display questions work, especially how they are produced and acted on in the course of classroom interaction by language teachers and students This article uses a sequential analysis (Koshik, 2002; Markee, 2000; Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974; Schegloff, Koshik, Jacoby, & Olsher, 2002) to examine teachers' display questions Sequential analysis considers how classroom talk is the outcome of the contingent coordination of interactional work of common understanding (Moerman & Sacks, 1971/1988) Through analysis of transcribed interaction in an English as a second language (ESL) classroom, this article argues that display questions are central resources whereby language teachers and students organize their lessons and produce language pedagogy
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on issues that are integrally linked to pedagogic and curriculum concerns of English language teaching and highlight the common themes and concerns running through both sections in the belief that testing and assessment are two sides of the same educational coin.
Abstract: Since the last TESOL Quarterly commemorative issue 15 years ago, there have been too many important developments in language testing and assessment for all of them to be discussed in a single article. Therefore, this article focuses on issues that we believe are integrally linked to pedagogic and curriculum concerns of English language teaching. Although the discussion has been organized into two main sections, the first dealing with issues relating to formal tests and the second to broader concerns of assessment, we highlight the common themes and concerns running through both sections in the belief that testing and assessment are two sides of the same educational coin. In the first section we address the issue of test authenticity, which underscores much of language testing enquiry. We consider developments in the field's understanding of this notion and suggest that relating test authenticity to target language use may be necessary but insufficient without considering authenticity as it is operationalised in the classroom. In the second section, acknowledging current concerns with standardized psychometric testing, we broaden the discussion to issues of validity, ethics, and alternative assessment. We first consider the intellectual climate in which the debates on such issues has developed and the relevance of these deliberations to pedagogy and curriculum. We then discuss some of the key issues in current classroom-based teacher assessment that are related to and can inform student second language competence and teacher professional knowledge and skills. We end by projecting how the current globalization of English may affect the understanding of authenticity and how this understanding is likely to affect testing and assessment practices worldwide.
TL;DR: The authors examined the role of literacy in the acquisition of second-language (L2) oral skills through a partial replication of Jenefer Philp's (2003) study of recasts in native speaker (NS) -non-native speaker (NNS) interaction.
Abstract: In this exploratory study, we examine the role of literacy in the acquisition of second-language (L2) oral skills through a partial replication of Jenefer Philp's (2003) study of recasts in native speaker (NS) -non-native speaker (NNS) interaction. The principal research question was the following: Is the ability to recall a recast related to the learner's alphabetic print literacy level? The participants in the study were eight first language (LI) speakers of Somali with limited formal schooling, who were grouped according to scores on LI and L2 literacy measures. Procedures involved interactive tasks in which participants received and recalled recasts on their grammatically incorrect interrogative sentences. Unlike Philp's more educated participants, our overall less educated participants showed no significant effects for recast length or, as a group, for number of changes in the recasts. This suggests that findings on the oral L2 processing of more educated L2 learners may not hold for the oral L2 processing of less educated learners. Within our less educated population, the more literate group recalled all recasts significantly better than the less literate group when correct and modified recalls were combined. Literacy level was also significantly related to ability to recall recasts with two or more (2+) changes, with the more literate group doing better than the less literate group. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
TL;DR: The authors investigated syllable duration as a measure of speech rhythm in the English spoken by Hong Kong Cantonese speakers and found that although some similarities existed, the Hong Kong English speakers showed smaller differences in the relative syllability duration of tonic, stressed, unstressed, and weakened syllables than the British English speakers.
Abstract: This study investigated syllable duration as a measure of speech rhythm in the English spoken by Hong Kong Cantonese speakers. A computer dataset of Hong Kong English speech data amounting to 4,404 syllables was used. Measurements of syllable duration were taken, investigated statistically, and then compared with measurements of 1,847 syllables from an existing corpus of British English speakers. It was found that, although some similarities existed, the Hong Kong English speakers showed smaller differences in the relative syllable duration of tonic, stressed, unstressed, and weakened syllables than the British English speakers. This result is discussed with regard to potential intelligibility problems, features of possible language transfer from Cantonese to English with respect to speech rhythm, and implications for language teaching professionals. considering nonnative patterns of English speech, two paths are generally pursued: segmentai and suprasegmental. This article focuses on the suprasegmental features of language. Speech rhythm is a suprasegmental aspect of pronunciation, those aspects which describe and address features larger than individual speech sounds. English speech rhythm in older native varieties like British and American English is often described as stress timed, which, in basic terms, means that the start of each stressed syllable is said to be equidistant in time from the start of the next stressed syllable. This kind of rhythm is in contrast to syllable-timed languages (e.g., French, Spanish, Cantonese), in which the start of each syllable is said to be equidistant in time from the start of the next. Instrumental studies have, in fact, shown that very little difference can be found between languages thought of as typically stress timed and typically syllable timed (Roach, 1982; Dauer, 1983), and, in fact, Cauldwell (2002) describes English as irrhythmical Whether these descriptions stand up under instrumental scrutiny, they do seem to have some psychological importance for speakers of the languages so described. English spoken with a syllable-timed rhythm
TL;DR: The authors found that the reading comprehension difficulties experienced by Arabic speakers might also reflect nontarget-like lower level processing of letters and words, such as letter and word identification, and deficient lower-level processing can inhibit reading comprehension.
Abstract: English as a second language (ESL) teachers have long noted that native speakers of Arabic exhibit exceptional difficulty with English reading comprehension (e.g., Thompson-Panos & Thomas-Ruzic, 1983). Most existing work in this area has looked to higher level aspects of reading such as familiarity with discourse structure and cultural knowledge to explain native Arabic speakers' ESL reading difficulties (Abu Rabia, 1996). However, higher level processes often depend on lower level processes, such as letter and word identification, and deficient lower level processing can inhibit reading comprehension (Koda, 1990). Given important differences in the written representation of vowel information in English and Arabic writing, it was hypothesized that the English reading comprehension difficulties experienced by Arabic speakers might also reflect nontarget-like lower level processing of letters and words. Two experiments compare the reading processes of native Arabic speakers to the reading processes of native English speakers and non-Arabic ESL learners and provide some evidence that native Arabic speakers are less aware of vowel letters in English texts than either control group. This differential awareness of vowel letters may contribute to native Arabic speakers' ESL reading comprehension difficulties. The implications of this research for ESL pedagogy are discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, a longitudinal qualitative case study was conducted to investigate the learning outcomes that transferred from a university content-based English for academic purposes (EAP) course to other courses and the factors that influenced that transfer.
Abstract: This article describes an investigation into the learning outcomes that transferred from a university content-based English for academic purposes (EAP) course to other courses and the factors that influenced that transfer. The study was a longitudinal qualitative case study in one faculty at a large North American university. Data were collected over one academic year through multipronged assessment measures from five first-year students who were participating in a content-based EAP course concurrently with other first-year university courses, as well as from two instructors of the content-based EAP course, 16 instructors of other courses, and one administrator. Data included interview transcripts, participant journals, class observation notes, and samples of course work. Evidence emerged to indicate that learning transfer did occur from the content-based EAP course to the students' other courses. The learning transfer fell into six broad categories that reflected a range of academic language skills (e.g., listening comprehension skills, writing skills) and other learning outcomes (e.g., study skills). The transfer of these learning outcomes was influenced by eight factors (e.g., requirements for learning transfer in activities in other courses, similarity between the content-based EAP course and other courses). Implications of these findings for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.
TL;DR: This article reported the findings of a small-scale study into the significance of racialization to five male Muslim Saudi Arab learners in a TESOL graduate program at a university in the United Kingdom.
Abstract: ■ This article reports the findings of a small-scale study into the significance of racialization to five male Muslim Saudi Arab learners in a TESOL graduate programme at a university in the United Kingdom. By racialization we mean the ways in which the idea of race might contribute to an experience of Othering (Kubota, 2001, 2004; Palfreyman, 2005) for these learners. A particular interest was how far and in what ways recent political events involving Arabs and Muslims, as well as an increasingly racialized discourse of Islamophobia in the UK media and wider society, had affected their experiences in this learning community. In recent years a considerable body of literature has stressed a need to acknowledge that TESOL classrooms are embedded in and thereby
TL;DR: The authors present personal narratives of two ESL/EFL researchers, White and Asian, who critically refl ect on the implications of racialized identities in conducting their respective studies. But, while the first author brings to the fore the complexities of race and racism in ESL/English research through her narrative of studying "the other,” the second author attempts to further complexify these issues by highlighting the distinctly unique tensions which arise when a researcher of color attempts to study "her own kind".
Abstract: There has been increasing recognition of the need to pursue critical research in the fi elds of ESL/EFL; however, the role that race plays in our research practices has not been frequently discussed. In-depth explorations of how a racialized identity shapes (and is shaped within) complex interactions between the researcher and researched can uncover the ways that race affects all aspects of our investigations, from collecting data to reporting. This article presents personal narratives of two ESL/EFL researchers, White and Asian, who critically refl ect on the implications of racialized identities in conducting their respective studies. Both authors’ accounts share a common theme of tensions around researcher positionality, locatability, (self-)refl exivity, and how best to represent those we are researching and writing about. However, while the fi rst author brings to the fore the complexities of race and racism in ESL/EFL research through her narrative of studying “the other,” the second author attempts to further complexify these issues by highlighting the distinctly unique tensions which arise when a researcher of color attempts to study “her own kind.” The report will thus contribute to an enhanced understanding of the intersections of postcolonial identities, race, and critical research methodologies and ideologies in the TESOL fi eld.
TL;DR: In this paper, a qualitative practitioner study into the learning experiences of 30 immigrant ESL high school students in a 3-day innovative, Freirean-style, antidiscrimination leadership program is presented.
Abstract: This article presents selected fi ndings from a qualitative practitioner study into the learning experiences of 30 immigrant ESL high school students in a 3-day innovative, Freirean-styled, antidiscrimination leadership program. This case study is grounded in a social identity theoretical framework which assumes that linguistic interactions are not neutral nor is the right to be listened to universally accorded, but that these are linked to identity and structured through social power relations (including racism). In this article I fi rst ask how students came to understand race and racism as they used the integrative antiracism analytical framework of the program to examine examples of discrimination from their personal experience. Second, I ask what implications their analysis had for their identity claims as immigrant ESL learners. The research argues for an understanding of racialized power dynamics as integral to social identity construction through English language learning, especially as they intersect with discourses of national identity and cultural citizenship in the case of immigrant ESL learners. The study suggests that integrative antiracism education can support immigrant language learners’ intersectional and multilevel understandings of discrimination. These expanded understandings of discrimination can also facilitate broader possibilities for social identity claims and ethical visions of Canadianness.
TL;DR: This paper found that ESL newcomers feel pressured to assimilate into the dominant social culture of their schools, causing them to deny their own language and cultural identities (see Cummins 1996; Goto, 1997; Kaser & Short, 1998; Nieto, 2000).
Abstract: dents at K-12 schools in the United States. These groups typically resettle in urban areas and attend urban schools where a large number of African American students enroll. In the schools they are expected to acquire two forms of English: standard academic English (SAE) as used in the classroom and African American vernacular English (AAVE), the socially accepted language spoken by the majority of their school peers. AAVE is also the linguistic and cultural identity marker for African American students who use language as a way to define their common histories and establish a social, cultural, and linguistic allegiance to their group in and outside the school context. Many ESL newcomers feel pressured to assimilate into the dominant social culture of their schools, causing them to deny their own language and cultural identities (see Cummins 1996; Goto, 1997; Kaser & Short, 1998; Nieto, 2000). For such learners to be admitted into the social milieu of a school, they must first master the social, linguistic, and cultural codes of the dominant group - which exist in a tacit social hierarchy within a school. Often these ESL newcomers are relegated to a subordinate status, partly because they are seen as racially and culturally different, and partly because they do not know the particular choice of words, phrases, and phonological forms that will allow them greater access in the dominant speech community (Alim, 2005; Ogbu, 1987). Kubota (2001) alerts us to the "unwelcoming atmosphere" (p. 31) encountered by ESL learners in urban schools, who are often victims of ridicule because of their "funny accents," their low level of English proficiency, and their dress.