Reading for meaning: The foundational knowledge every teacher of science should have

Reading is fundamental to science and not an adjunct to its practice. In other words, understanding the meaning of the various forms of written discourse employed in the creation, discussion, and communication of scientific knowledge is inherent to how science works. The language used in science, however, sets up a barrier, that in order to be overcome requires all students to have a clear understanding of the features of the multimodal informational texts employed in science and the strategies they can use to decode the scientific concepts communicated in informational texts. We argue that all teachers of science must develop a functional understanding of reading comprehension as part of their professional knowledge and skill. After describing our rationale for including knowledge about reading as a professional knowledge base every teacher of science should have, we outline the knowledge about language teachers must develop, the knowledge about the challenges that reading comprehension of science texts poses for students, and the knowledge about instructional strategies science teachers should know to support their students’ reading comprehension of science texts. Implications regarding the essential role that knowledge about reading should play in the preparation of science teachers are also discussed here.     

Social and cognitive factors influencing the reading comprehension of Arab students learning Hebrew as a second language in Israel

This study investigated the relationship of the attitudes and cultural background of Arab students in Israel to their reading comprehension of stories from Jewish and Arab culture. Participants were 74 eighth-grade Arab students (age 14–15 years) from Israel, learning Hebrew as a second language (L2). An attitude questionnaire, stories from Arab and Jewish culture and multiple-choice questions about each story were used. Results indicated that students scored higher on tasks of reading comprehension with texts from their own cultural setting than with texts from a culturally unfamiliar setting. Furthermore, results of the attitude questionnaire showed that motivation of Arab students to learning Hebrew was primarily instrumental rather than integrative. A conclusion of this study is that problematic social contexts negatively affect L2 learning of minority students. In order to facilitate Hebrew L2 learning, L2 curricula should include Hebrew language texts with content culturally familiar and relevant to the life of Arab learners.     

Teacher professional development through collaborative action research: impact on foreign English-language teaching and learning

In 2011 we, a group of English-as-a-foreign-language teachers at a secondary school in Argentina, decided to investigate our teaching practices through collaborative action research so as to improve our students’ learning opportunities and thus revitalise English-language teaching in our context. We implemented and evaluated the integration of content and language learning in our classrooms through the development of our own materials. The experience revealed a growth in professional development and how our motivation and autonomy influenced our students’ motivation and language development. In our attempt to disseminate our experience as a group, this report particularly focuses on the evaluation facets of our collaborative action research project so as to encourage other teachers and teacher-researchers to adopt collaborative action research to improve their own practices.     

Student affective reactions and the teaching and learning of foreign languages

This chapter argues for the recognition of the importance of student affective reactions in discussions of second language learning and teaching. It is argued that language learning is a particularly intense and ego-involving undertaking which requires a positive emotional stance on the part of the learner. The chapter reviews literature on how affective reactions — particularly motivation for language learning, foreign language anxiety, and student beliefs about language learning — impact on the language learning process and makes suggestions as to how teachers can promote positive affective characteristics. As affective variables represent the learner's willingness to engage in the activities necessary to develop second language proficiency, it is essential that teachers make the emotional needs of their students an instructional priority.     

The Old Man and the Sea: Navigating the Gulf between Special Educators and the Content Area Classroom

The special educator in the content area classroom often experiences an ill‐defined role, which can translate into marginalization within instructional settings. Indeed, most students with learning disabilities (LD) receive content area instruction from a general education teacher with the support of a special educator. However, the literacy demands of the respective content areas often present content specific challenges for students with language‐based disabilities and their teachers. To date, proposed content area literacy interventions have not addressed the specific language‐based needs of students with LD. In this article, we highlight the similarities among history, science, English language arts, and mathematics texts from a language perspective, and present strategies specifically targeting students’ background knowledge. We also provide recommendations to researchers and practitioners for improving content area learning.     

Selection,Frequency, and Functions of Literary Texts in Finnish General Upper-Secondary EFL Education

Although the number of studies on literature in language education has increased in the past two decades, the subject is still in need of empirical research. This case study examines literary texts, their selection, frequency, and functions in Finnish general upper-secondary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. The data was collected from 21 Finnish EFL teachers using a survey, and the content was thematically analyzed. In these contexts, literary texts had a marginal role. The texts were mostly twentieth-century poetry and novels. Selections by teachers were primarily based on the texts. Often students chose texts independently. Literature was mainly used to teach language, particularly reading skills, and secondarily as content. In light of EFL teaching, the results suggest a need for a conceptual expansion of literature, the wider use of literary texts with visual components, and the use of literary texts for developing students’ intercultural competence.     

动机因素与第二语言习得——调动冷漠型学生的学习动机

为了调动冷漠型学生的学习动机,本文从非智力因素在第二语言习得中的作用出发,进而分析动机作为期望值的结果,旨在从动机的角度帮助第二语言老师和学习者改善其教学和学习方式。     

Textual Cohesion and Effective Reading: A teaching strategy

The unfamiliarity of the language of books sometimes contributes to the limited effectiveness with which pupils read. An action research project was carried out with a group of primary school teachers and their pupils, who belong to minority ethnic groups, in order to develop a teaching strategy to help these pupils to attend to the cohesive elements of texts, alongside the conceptual content. The teachers selected texts for reading and discussion with their pupils and they included in the discussion some prepared questions aimed at recovering the meaning of cohesive devices in the texts. The teachers found that they developed their own awareness of the linguistic demands on pupils of the texts which they selected, and the responses of the pupils demonstrated the contribution of the cohesive elements of the texts to the interplay of the factors, linguistic and conceptual, which influence pupils' effective reading.     

应用多媒体技术激发大学生英语学习动机

在网络与多媒体外语教学日益受到关注和认可的今天,如何通过新型的教学模式激发非英语专业学生学习动机,从而提升学习效果成为一个重要研究课题。在语言学视角下分析非英语专业大学生学习英语的动机,从而帮助教师将多媒体辅助教学和互联网知识扩展有效地与学生的学习兴趣联系起来,最终提升学生第二语言习得效果。     

The exclusive language of science? Comparing knowledge gains and motivation in English-bilingual biology lessons between non-selected and preselected classes

The dominant role of English as the global language of science entails a requirement for science teachers to equip their non-native English-speaking students with receptive and productive language skills for communication in scientific contexts. Although science courses with English elements are part of some schools’ bilingual programmes, they are usually not available to a wider student audience, but are restricted to high achieving or highly motivated students. The present study was to test whether a newly developed biology content and language integrated learning (CLIL) unit could also benefit standard ninth grade classes. The learning gains and motivation of bilingually inexperienced students were compared to those of a preselected group and a comparison group that had been taught solely in their native language. All participating classes achieved similar gains in content knowledge, and the standard students rated their motivation for bilingual science lessons as positive, albeit not as high as the preselected group. We thus provide evidence against concerns that teaching non-selected students bilingually might lead to deficits in content knowledge acquisition. Following this, we conclude that scientific English should be a part of standard science lessons regardless of specific school programmes.     

Using Picture Books as Paired Texts to Teach Educational Theories

Picture books, when used thoughtfully and artfully, can teach theories to graduate students in literacy and foreign language education. In this article, the authors described how a pair of picture books is used to teach Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development and Krashen's Input Hypothesis in the fields of literacy education and applied linguistics. The authors first introduced the theoretical foundation and rationale of using picture books as paired texts to teach educational theories. Then, from a macroperspective, they described the procedures of designing a class activity with paired picture books. Next, they provided language teachers and educators with a specific sample in which materials, objective, and specific instructional steps are clearly listed. In the end, the authors explained how the article contributes to the field from three perspectives: first, it offers a helpful strategy to language educators who make instruction of theories to graduate students easier; second, it provides insights to language and content area teachers on teaching across the curriculum by using picture books; third, it suggests how teachers can pair other learning mediators with picture books to improve student learning.     

Cotton Island: Students’ Learning Motivation Using a Virtual World

As technology advances, it is important for teachers to seamlessly integrate technology into their innovative teaching techniques. Using virtual worlds is one alternative to traditional teaching methods that can provide rich learning experiences. The purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to present Cotton Island, an avatar‐based 3‐D virtual learning environment in Second Life and (b) to evaluate students’ learning motivation in using Cotton Island as a learning tool. Cotton Island was designed with unique navigational features to provide access to rich resources and educational activities that improve students’ knowledge of cotton. Based on the ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) model, this study assesses students’ learning motivation when using Cotton Island as a learning tool, and whether students had a positive learning outcome consistent with the instructors’ goal of knowledge improvement. The results show that students had a positive experience in terms of learning motivation and knowledge improvement.     

非英语专业大二学生英语学习动机调查(英文)

很多研究者认为动机是二语习得者成功学习语言的重要因素。因此,英语教师应清楚地了解学生的学习动机类型和影响他们学习动机的因素在哪里。该研究以255名大二学生为调查对象,以秦晓晴、文秋芳(2002)编制的动机量表为研究工具,调查了这些学生的学习动机。该调查显示出大二学生的英语学习动机对他们英语学习的提高不利。学生的学习动机以工具型为主。大多数学生缺乏学习主动性。他们学习英语主要是为了通过英语期末考试和CET考试。调查结果也表明相当一部分学生的学习动机是外在型的。这部分学生缺乏英语学习的热情,没有足够的兴趣。英语调查结果也显示他们认为一些不可控因素导致了其英语学习的失败。大部分学生认为学习环境会对自己英语学习的动机产生影响。在良好的学习环境下,学习者有学习英语的渴望。如果没有良好的学习环境或氛围,多数学生表示他们不会保持学习英语的热情。还有一些学生认为自己不想学习英语的原因是英语太难了。这些都是不可控因素。同时,老师被认为对他们的英语学习有很大的影响。学生对老师有很强的依赖性。他们把自己没能学好英语归因于老师。     

Effects of pre-service teachers�� receptive vocabulary knowledge on their interactive read-alouds with elementary school students

There are individual differences in the amount and type of vocabulary that adults produce to young children in the home environment before the children enter school. How many words a mother knows is a significant predictor of a child??s vocabulary. The current study addressed the question of whether there were individual differences in the amount and type of vocabulary that pre-service teachers produced in their first read-aloud lessons to first and second grade students. Specifically, would pre-service teachers with higher vocabulary scores differ from those with lower vocabulary scores in their choice of books to read and in the language they used to discuss the books? Results indicated that pre-service teachers with more advanced vocabulary scores chose books with more vocabulary diversity and sophistication. When they chose narrative texts, they also chose books that were more difficult in terms of their semantic cohesion. Both the receptive vocabulary of pre-service teachers and the language in the books that they chose had an effect on the ??teacher talk?? that they used in the lesson surrounding the book reading. Just as parents show individual differences in the richness of the language input provided to their children before they enter school, pre-service teachers own knowledge of language varies, and this influences the linguistic input that they provide to their students.     

论成人学员学习动机与第二语言学习

成人的第二语言学习受到多种因素的影响,其中学习动机因素在成人第二语言学习中占很重要的位置。本文基于许多专家学者二语习得的研究的基础上,进一步探究了广播电视大学成人学员学习动机对第二语言学习的影响,也对如何激发成人学员的学习动机,提高学习有效性提出了几点想法,希望通过本文给成人学员学习外语带来帮助。     

Student voice as a methodological issue in academic literacies research

Academic literacies research has been identified as an emerging but significant field in higher education. This article extends the discussions around methodology in academic literacies research by drawing on the current text and context debates in sociolinguistics and linguistic ethnography. It uses illustrations from a recent academic literacies research project to reflect on methodology and to emphasise the importance of a prolonged engagement with participants’ writing practices and experiences as well as the collection and analysis of a range of types of data to allow the researcher to become more familiar with the context. Methods such as allowing students to interpret their own writing, classroom observation and students’ written literacy histories gave the researcher real insights into the way students made connections to their own familiar contexts in order to learn. The research also highlighted the manner in which communication between students and teaching staff can break down because teachers misinterpret student utterances when they do not understand or know the contexts that the students are drawing on. At the same time, however, the researcher sounds some caution about the use of dialogue in ethnographic methodologies because communication is a two-way process and allocation of linguistic resources has been unequal. Therefore, where students’ resources do not match the context, they may struggle to communicate with the interviewer and to interpret their written texts. In these cases, interviewees who are first language speakers from privileged schooling backgrounds may be able to contextualise and interpret their writing more fully than interviewees who are speakers of English as a second or foreign language and who come from poorer rural schools.     

Engaging Black and Latinx students through communal learning opportunities: A relevance intervention for middle schoolers in STEM elective classrooms

With the aim of bridging research in educational psychology and teacher education, we designed a research-practice partnership to unpack the concept of relevance from a race-reimaged perspective. Specifically, we employed a mixed-methods sequential explanatory research design to examine associations between the communal learning opportunities afforded to Black and Latinx students, and their engagement patterns during STEM activities. Within a nine-week instructional unit we provided students six opportunities to rate their scholastic activities. High levels of behavioral engagement were sustained over the course of the instructional unit. On weeks when students rated the activities as higher in communal affordances, they also reported more behavioral engagement. Classroom observations facilitated our efforts to create state space grids that show when and how teachers used emancipatory pedagogies to support students’ learning. We used these state space grids, along with teacher interviews and student focus groups, to develop contextualized illustrations of two teachers of color as they successfully provided communal forms of motivational support over the span of six observations per teacher. These strategies differed based on three key factors: where the lesson was placed within the larger instructional unit, the way teachers interpreted and responded to their students’ engagement patterns, and how the demands of the larger school environment impacted classroom dynamics.     

小学低段汉语拼音的教学策略——以北师大版教材为例

汉语拼音是小学低段语文教学的重要内容,是帮助学生识字和学习普通话的有效工具.小学低段汉语拼音教学内容具有综合性、科学性、时代性、开放性,学生对汉语拼音已有一定程度的了解.据此,教师应采取变抽象为形象,加深印象;巧用文本,创设情境;巧用儿歌,口诀记忆;游戏巩固,寓教于乐等教学策略,以激发学生学习的兴趣,使其高效率掌握好汉语拼音,为识字、写作、阅读等打好基础.     

英语专业二外日语教学的指向性研究

拟对英语专业学生学习二外日语的动机进行剖析,并简要阐述教师应针对不同学生的学习动机进行有差异性、指向性的教学。希望这种带有指向性的教学理念为教师提升教学质量,促进教学发展起到借鉴、推动作用。     

影响高职学生学习的主要因素与对策研究——以广州城建职业学院为例

基于对部分学生、教师与辅导员的访谈,了解到学风、学习动力、教学效果与第二课堂活动是影响高职学生学习的主要因素。相应的改进学习的主要策略,是建设良好学风,激发学习动力,提高教学质量及优化第二课堂。