Transdisciplinary qualitative paradigm in applied linguistics: autoethnography,participatory action research and minority language teaching and learning*

The paper emphasizes the crucial importance of transdisciplinary approach to qualitative research methodology in teaching and learning contexts involving highly stigmatized minority languages. Autoethnography and participatory action research are herein employed as constructive, critical, qualitative methodological procedures relevant to transdisciplinary research on minority languages in applied linguistics. An international project on teaching and learning Romani, QUALIROM, is used as a case study in order to emphasize the fact that mere theoretical knowledge and professional expertise are important but not sufficient for successful implementation and sustainability of outcomes in this field of linguistic research. The analysis suggests that socially engaged minority language learning and teaching projects should be understood as transdisciplinary, collaborative activities that transcend academic boundaries, and in which research participants create a number of interactive contexts within project-oriented communities of practice aimed at reshaping dominant social relations and practices.     

美国儿童语言发展与教育研究趋势

20世纪90年代以来,在美国政府及社会各方面的强烈关注下,儿童语言发展与教育研究取得了一系列进展,一度重建了美国儿童阅读能力发展的教育目标、教育方法和教学建议。近几年来,在语言理论与实践研究中呈现出以下趋势:对儿童语言发展失调原因的认识,从单一基因解释向多基因解释转换;重视社会文化因素在儿童语言发展中的作用;拓展了对儿童语言加工处理方式的认识;在研究方法上,从注重研究范式向注重研究实效转换。     

Does the use of migrant languages in German primary schools transform language orders? Findings from ethnographic classroom investigations

ABSTRACT

Migration-related multilingualism is a core issue of academic discussion regarding educational inequality in German schools. While existing studies have analysed the discrimination against children’s languages from linguistic minorities in school, this paper focuses on social practices in a primary school that seeks to recognise and value multilingualism. The aim of this article is to investigate the extent to which the inclusion of migration-related multilingualism can transform language orders in school and classroom. For this purpose, we examined linguistic practices on the micro-level of the classroom based on lesson protocols. The observed practices indicate that the inclusion of the children’s languages is meant both as a means of valuing and acknowledging the children’s multilingualism and as part of comprehensive language teaching and learning. The question as to the scope of individual schools for overcoming monolingual ideologies within the structural context of the national educational system and dominant societal discourses remains, however.     

Negotiating the World: Some philosophical considerations on dealing with differential academic language proficiency in schools

Differential academic language proficiency is an issue of major educational concern, bearing on problems varying from pupil performance, to social prospects, and citizenship. In this paper we develop a conception of the language‐acquiring subject, and we discuss the consequences for understanding differential language proficiency in schools. Starting from Wittgenstein's meaning‐as‐use theory we show that learning a language requires an activity that relates the subject both to the community of language users, and to the things language is about. In opposition to Luntley, we contend that this does not mean that linguistic development involves linguistic adjustment to the world ‘as it is’. It is argued that, in as far as linguistic development involves a process of adjustment, this concerns conceptions about the world as it is presupposed to be—a ‘world’ that is subjected to doubt and revision time and again. With respect to dealing with differential academic language proficiency, this approach to linguistic development suggests bringing pupils into situations which require active participation in processes of ‘negotiating meaning’, including negotiating the prevailing presuppositions about what the world is like. This also puts novices in a different position—less assimilatory—recognising their co‐constructive potencies at a more fundamental level.     

Belarusian as an endangered language: can the mother tongue of an independent state be made to die?

While decline and/or extinction threaten an ever-increasing number of languages, most of these are minority tongues that struggle for survival against dominant languages. The present paper reports the case of Belarusian, a national and co-official language, which the great majority of the population of Belarus considers as its mother tongue, but which has become endangered due to sustained official policies discriminating against it, and the general apathy of the population. The paper places this complex and puzzling situation in the historical context of people long accustomed to changing cultural and linguistic elites, with a succession of rulers that paid little regard to the wishes or needs of the majority of the country’s inhabitants. Recent data are presented showing the rapid decline in the teaching of Belarusian language in schools and other public domains and the use of mixed dialects as the prevailing mode of communication, shifting through a Belarusian-Russian mix (trasianka) to Russian. The effort of a small national linguistic elite to sustain the use of standard Belarusian is examined against the concept of language as a core value of culture and Fishman’s framework for reversing language shift, in order to evaluate the prospects of maintaining Belarusian as an integral part of the linguistic heritage of Europe.     

What Constitutes Quality in Minority Education? A Multiple Embedded Case Study of Stakeholder Perspectives on Minority Linguistic and Cultural Content in School-Based Curriculum in Sunan Yughur Autonomous County,Gansu

While quality in education has long been a significant issue, definitions of quality are often taken for granted rather than argued for, allowing the possibility that the criteria used by researchers and planners to judge quality may differ from local stakeholders’ perspectives, particularly regarding the place within quality education of the knowledge, culture and language of non-dominant groups. However, there is an accumulating convergence of research that calls for assessments of quality in education of non-dominant linguistic and cultural groups that engage local stakeholders’ understandings. This paper presents a recent study that attempts to do this, investigating the perspectives of students, parents, teachers, and administrators in Sunan Yughur Autonomous County, a multiethnic, multilingual district in rural Gansu, inhabited by several nationalities. Over one hundred participants in three schools were asked what was important for children to learn in school; including what aspects of local (minority) knowledge, culture and language should be taught as part of school-based curriculum. The study found three educational visions in local schools: regular urban education; Chinese-medium, multicultural education; and bilingual, multicultural education. The study also found that stakeholders support the latter vision, which reflects society’s actual cultural and linguistic pluralism, as well as much research on quality education for non-dominant groups. The paper concludes with a call for a comparative approach, both domestic and international, towards the investigation of quality education of non-dominant groups in China.     

甘肃省少数民族地区包容性增长制约因素分析——基于“十二五”的历史方位

包容性增长是“十二五”时期甘肃省少数民族地区发展面临的重大课题。经济基础薄弱、发展任务繁重、自然条件恶劣、地理区住劣势明显、基础设施落后、社会事业发展滞后、人才资源匮乏、制度不完善、社会不公是制约“十二五”时期少数民族地区包容性增长的主要因素。深入分析少数民族地区包容性增长的制约因素,是推动少数民族地区包容性增长的前提。     

Teaching Kindergartners Racial Diversity Through Multicultural Literature: A Case Study in a Kindergarten Classroom in Korea

Research Findings: This qualitative case study examines Korean kindergartners’ literary discussions about racial/cultural diversity during a whole-group read-aloud. Using multiple sources of data, including observations, open-ended interviews, and written materials and children’s artifacts, this study found that (a) the children exhibited a biased attitude toward African characters, and their stereotypical views reflected their allegiance to their social/cultural contexts; (b) literary discussions about race provided the children with valuable opportunities to explore racial diversity, equality, injustice, and freedom; and (c) reading multicultural literature helped the children develop and practice their racial language and literacy skills. Practice or Policy: The findings of the study add several important contributions related to teaching young children multicultural literature. Reading literature should be used to provide a chance to explore real-life problems and critically analyze all of the differences children encounter on a daily basis. Teachers should encourage young children to freely share their views about diverse social issues by creating a space where children feel secure in exchanging different views. In order to create a more supportive literacy surrounding, teachers should understand how profoundly children’s social and cultural environments affect their reading practices.     

Challenging educational injustice: ‘Grassroots’ privatisation in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa

The phenomenon of low-cost private schools ‘mushrooming’ in poor areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and elsewhere, is now well-documented. Findings from research by the author’s teams and others show that these schools are serving a majority (urban and peri-urban) or significant minority (rural) of the poor, including significant proportions of the poorest of the poor. Concerns are raised in the literature about their implications for social justice. In The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen asks us to rethink ideas about justice; instead of the quest for a Rawlsian ‘transcendental institutionalism’, he argues for a comparative approach, grounded in the practicalities of human behaviour. Linking Sen’s ideas on justice with the grassroots privatisation leads to the tentative conclusion that those concerned with promoting social justice could agree to help improve access to, and quality in, the low-cost private school sector, rather than focus on the public education sector. Paradoxically, this could be true even for those whose ideal is an egalitarian public education system.     

Conversations about Visual Arts: Facilitating Oral Language

Visual arts, such as drawings, are attractive to most young children. Marks left on paper by young children contain meaning. Although it is known that children’s oral language could be enhanced through communication with adults, rarely is there a series of dialogues between adults and young children about their drawings. Often heard instead are simple comments given by adults like “It is a neat picture!” “You did a great job painting!” Yet, dialogic communication between adults and young children could not only help facilitate children’s oral language, but also bring about many other merits. Regrettably, little literature addresses oral language facilitation about visual arts. This article describes the significance of facilitating children’s oral language via adults’ talking with young children about their visual arts based on Otto’s (Literacy development in early childhood: reflective teaching for birth to age eight, 3edn. Pearson Education Inc, Upper Saddle River, 2008) linguistic scaffolding strategies and Halliday’s (Language in a social perspective: explorations in the functions of language. Edward Arnold Model of Language Functions, London, 1973). Implications and suggestions for future research are given at the end of this paper.     

学前儿童语言叙事能力的宏观结构研究

学前儿童语言叙事能力的研究在西方各国的儿童语言研究中都占有一席之地,而且也都以前期的基础性研究而进入了实用研究的阶段,广泛应用在学前儿童教育,儿童语言障碍诊断和干预,以及学前师范教育等教育层面的各个环节。在我国目前的儿童语言研究中,实证性的调查研究还处在启蒙阶段,还未见历时的实时话语的语料和分析的结果;而且照搬国外的理论和做法是否适合汉语和东方文化的特点还有待考证。本文就是在国外和港台等研究的基础上针对内陆地区的普通话语境,以收集到的4-6岁的学前儿童叙事语料为研究基础,运用语篇分析理论对学前儿童的语言叙事能力发展的宏观结构做出观察,记录和分析,总结其发展轨迹,展示其发展特点,为儿童语言叙事能力的发展研究奠定基础。     

A capital or capabilities education narrative in a world of staggering inequalities?

In a world of tremendous inequalities, this paper explores two contrasting normative models for education policy, and the relationship of each to policy, practices and outcomes that can improve lives by reducing injustice and building societies which value capabilities for all. The first model is that of human capital which currently dominates contemporary education policy globally, harnessing education policy to economic growth imperatives so that development through education is the means to the end of increased resources and income. The second model draws on the work of Amartya Sen to present a human capabilities model of education policy in which human lives are the end of development and the education focus is on promoting capabilities and functionings to choose a good life. An argument is advanced for capabilities as the superior approach. The paper closes by noting the problematic of social change and struggle demanded by a transformative view of education and how or if the capability approach is adequate to the task.     

Teenagers in cyberspace: an investigation of language use and language change in internet chatrooms

This article reports on a small‐scale investigation into the use of Internet chatrooms by teenage girls. Based on interview and observational data, it illustrates how the use of popular electronic communication is resulting in linguistic innovation within new, virtual social networks in a way that reflects more wide‐reaching changes in the communication landscape. The paper suggests that teenagers and young people are in the vanguard of these processes of change as they fluently exploit the possibilities of digital technology, radically changing the face of literacy. The study looks at teenagers’ perceptions of chatroom encounters and their learning about new ways of social and linguistic interaction. Observations of teenagers online show how rapid written conversations which combine features of face‐to‐face talk with explorations in interactive writing and the exchange of additional digital information, such as image files and web addresses, are enabling these young people to develop sophisticated and marketable skills. These innovations are contrasted with recent media and educational criticism of the language use associated with new technology. This tension between change and conservatism is explored by applying Bourdieu’s concept of ‘linguistic capital’.     

Capability Through Participatory Democracy: Sen,Freire, and Dewey

This paper explores possible important relationships and sympathies between Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Approach framework for understanding the human condition and the educational ideas of John Dewey and Paolo Freire. All three focus on the importance of democratic values in a fair, well-functioning society, while Sen and Freire especially explore the difficulties and possibilities of oppressed populations. Sen suggests that all humans have a right to choice in determining their life trajectories and should be provided with the tools that allow them to flourish. Both education and democratic values play important roles in creating the types of context that allow individuals and communities to recognize a wide array of human capabilities. We suggest here that the theories of Dewey and Freire offer avenues through educational processes for developing these contexts for expanded human capability. Dewey suggests an educational approach that stresses democratic values and the ability and willingness of individuals to reach out towards new possibilities. Freire stresses the idea of praxis playing a central role in education—a focus on the cycle of everyday action, reflection, and re-creation of action that leads to productive changes in life trajectories. We argue that Sen, Dewey, and Freire together help to offer a new way of understanding education in the twenty-first century.     

流行语的文化心理透视--以2013年十大流行语为例

流行语既是语言现象,也是一种社会现象和文化现象。它是透视社会的反光镜,反映了一定的时代特征,表达了人们丰富的文化心理。人们可以透过流行语来观察社会的发展,了解社会思潮、价值观念和大众心态。以2013年十大流行语为例,从社会语言学角度谈流行语的生成途径,从文化语言学和社会心理学角度解读流行语蕴涵的文化心理,可窥见流行语重要的社会文化价值和语言学价值。     

Computer use in learning about language

This study is part of a research project aimed at studying ways and effects of introducing computer use within a context of linguistic education. Linguistic activities, in which language was treated as an object instead of a means of communication, were carried out through a curriculum unit aimed at developing reflection on language. Within the curriculum a new software has been developed and implemented. The software promotes reflection on language and metalinguistic awareness in a social and educational context in wich «playing with language» is stimulated in children. It requires language comprehension and production, and offers to children (working in groups of three) the open task of composing sentences and stories in a problem solving setting. In this study we collected observational data on children’s interactions with the software and used the data as an ecological measure of children’s metalinguistic development. Positiv effects of the curriculum supported by the computer use were verified through measures of metalinguistic skills, investigated through individual interviews and administered also to a matched control group.     

Decisive Factors for Language Teaching in Sweden

This paper aims to examine why language teaching holds a prominent position within the Swedish school system. This statement applies to foreign languages as well as to home languages (or immigrant languages) and Swedish as a second language for immigrant children and adults. The Swedish educational system (comprising the social milieu and the school milieu) is here conceived as incorporating some specific constituent features that have led to the implementation of a generous language policy. This assumption turns out to be particularly obvious in the case of immigrant education. In fact, the analysis of the Swedish educational system illuminates different stakes at several levels - commercial/economic, social, political/ ideological, historical, linguistic, educational and cultural - for language teaching as a whole.     

Meeting the needs of children with specific speech and language difficulties

Clinical and diagnostic approaches to special educational needs do not translate easily into educational models. In some cases, these approaches can serve to limit understanding of children's wider needs. Children with specific speech and language difficulties (SSLD) are a case in point. Clear criteria exist for identification, but identification mechanisms may not relate to the child's wider educational needs. This paper addresses the ways that children with SSLD present in mainstream educational settings. The study aimed to identify all Year 3 children with SSLD in two English local education authorities. One hundred and thirty-three children (95 boys and 37 girls were identified). Sixty-five per cent of the children were in mainstream schools, 14.3 per cent in mainstream schools with designated units and the remainder in special schools. Half were at stage 5 of the Code of Practice, with most of the remaining participants at stage 3. Children experienced a wide range of difficulties, in addition to their primary speech and language problems. Patterns of difficulties varied across children, and associations existed between particular forms of language problems and learning and relationship problems. Professionals (teachers, educational psychologists and speech and language therapists) varied in their understanding of the children's needs. The data highlight the range and diversity of the needs of children with specific speech and language difficulties and the need for a multi-professional approach to these children. It is argued that ‘best practice’ for these children must consider the impact of speech and language problems on children's access to the curriculum and their social and behavioural needs. Narrow diagnostic models do not provide the appropriate information to inform educational practice and support inclusive policies.     

维果茨基社会文化视角下外语教师语言知识的建构

本文从维果茨基的社会文化理论的视角探讨外语教师的语言知识的建构,认为外语教师的语言知识,不论是关于语言的知识、运用语言的知识,还是教学的语言知识都应被视为是从社会环境的经验中产生的。外语教师的教学的语言知识至少应该涉及关于语言的知识,对外语学习过程的理解,以及批判的语言意识等几个方面。这几个方面的知识都与教师原有的生活经历和知识基础相关。外语教师的学习和教学经验决定了其教学的语言知识基础,这就意味着教师的自传应置于外语教师发展中的重要的地位。     

蒙古族民间儿童故事的特点及教育价值

蒙古族民间儿童故事以其独特的民族风情和艺术特色成为民族文化传承的重要媒介,它给儿童带来文化启蒙、人格奠基、道德启迪、生命体验等重要影响,同时也是儿童语言学习的重要资源。因此,挖掘和应用蒙古族民间儿童故事有着极为重要的意义。