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.     

Language (in)competency,communication strategies,and the development of an international academic teacher identity: becoming an audible minority

Despite universities’ enthusiasm for internationalization, international academic mobility requires considerable institutional and cultural adjustment in terms of teaching and supervision styles, research expectations, and departmental relationships. Although language competency underpins these practices, research on international academics has neglected the impact of language proficiency on professional identity. This article uses autoethnography to document conversations about language ability during my first two years as an academic in a French-language university. My responses to language-related comments evolved over time, reflecting how I positioned myself as a linguistic – or audible – minority, vis-à-vis the linguistic majority. Using cultural phenomenology, the findings highlight the interactional, unstable nature of international academic identities and the importance of positive collective support for international academics who shift from majority to minority linguistic status.     

Sprachdiagnostische Grundlagen für die Förderung bildungssprachlicher Fähigkeiten

The present article takes up the discussion about the interrelatedness of linguistic proficiency and educational achievement among children learning German as a second language. We provide an overview of diagnostic procedures for linguistic needs analysis, which were developed in the context of the German research program ‘FÖRMIG’. Linguistic features of school-based registers as well as the cognitive representation of academic language proficiency among bilinguals will first be addressed as the most relevant dimensions in the assessment of academic language proficiency. Finally, based on the concept of linguistic core-proficiencies after Ehlich, each of the four procedures is characterized with reference to its particular scope of identifiable aspects of academic language proficiency. Thereby it becomes evident that the procedures reflect age-specific language demands of school: Whereas the focus of assessment is first located on central aspects of grammatical and lexical knowledge as fundamental premises of schooling, the field of attention—with increasing age of the children—shifts more and more towards performance in technical language and certain text-types indicating academic language proficiency.     

论外语能力的培养

本文在对语言能力、交际能力和外语能力进行界定的基础上着重讨论并分析了目前外语教学界存在的几个误区.文章认为,要培养学生的外语能力,我们在教学中就应该注重语言能力的培养,针对学生的需求组织教学,强调从交际活动中学会交际,注重文化的了解和表达,强调自学能力的培养.     

中国人关于世界语言学的再思索——读林玉山《世界语言学史》

《世界语言学史》是一部关于世界语言研究理论和方法产生、发展的学术史,是目前国内第一部打破以欧美为中心的比较详尽地介绍和研究世界语言学发展变化的语言史专著,也是第一部将21世纪初期的东西语言学纳入到语言学史研究框架内的著作,具有很高的学术性和可读性。     

Children's Early Decontextualized Talk Predicts Academic Language Proficiency in Midadolescence

This study examines whether children's decontextualized talk—talk about nonpresent events, explanations, or pretend—at 30 months predicts seventh-grade academic language proficiency (age 12). Academic language (AL) refers to the language of school texts. AL proficiency has been identified as an important predictor of adolescent text comprehension. Yet research on precursors to AL proficiency is scarce. Child decontextualized talk is known to be a predictor of early discourse development, but its relation to later language outcomes remains unclear. Forty-two children and their caregivers participated in this study. The proportion of child talk that was decontextualized emerged as a significant predictor of seventh-grade AL proficiency, even after controlling for socioeconomic status, parent decontextualized talk, child total words, child vocabulary, and child syntactic comprehension.     

An Investigation of the Language Demands in Content Assessments for English Language Learners

The purpose of the present study is to examine the language characteristics of a few states' large-scale assessments of mathematics and science and investigate whether the language demands of the items are associated with the degree of differential item functioning (DIF) for English language learner (ELL) students. A total of 542 items from 11 assessments at Grades 4, 5, 7, and 8 from three states were rated for the linguistic complexity based on a developed linguistic coding scheme. The linguistic ratings were compared to each item's DIF statistics. The results yielded a stronger association between the linguistic rating and DIF statistics for ELL students in the “relatively easy” items than in the “not easy” items. Particularly, general academic vocabulary and the amount of language in an item were found to have the strongest association with the degrees of DIF, particularly for ELL students with low English language proficiency. Furthermore, the items were grouped into four bundles to closely look at the relationship between the varying degrees of language demands and ELL students' performance. Differential bundling functioning (DBF) results indicated that the exhibited DBF was more substantial as the language demands increased. By disentangling linguistic difficulty from content difficulty, the results of the study provide strong evidence of the impact of linguistic complexity on ELL students' performance on tests. The study discusses the implications for the validation of the tests and instructions for ELL students.     

Playing football without a ball: language,reading and academic performance in a high‐poverty school

Second language (L2) reading research suggests that there is a complex interplay between L2 proficiency, first language (L1) reading and L2 reading. However, not much is known about the effect of L1 proficiency on L1 reading, and of L1 reading on L2 reading, or vice versa, in bilingual settings when readers have few opportunities for extensive reading in their L1. The relationships between L1 (Northern Sotho) and L2 (English) proficiency and L1 and L2 reading were examined in Grade 7 learners attending a high‐poverty primary school in South Africa, during the course of a year when a reading intervention programme was implemented. The effect that attention to reading and accessibility of books had on the learners' reading proficiency in both languages was examined, and the factors that predicted academic performance were analysed. When the learners were engaged in more reading, L2 reading contributed more variance to L1 reading than L1 proficiency. Reading in both languages also contributed significantly to academic performance. The study highlights the need for more cross‐linguistic reading research in different educational settings.     

语言起源视角下的语言模糊性根源探索

语言起源问题是语言学研究的重要课题之一,由于受到课题难度、科学发展水平等因素的限制,语言起源问题曾一度被视为学术研究的禁区.受体验哲学的影响,语言学界在语言起源问题的研究方面又有了新的思路,解开语言模糊性之谜也成为可能.根据体验哲学的观点,语言起源和语言的模糊性是同时发生的,二者都是人类实践活动的结果,语言的模糊性根源于人类语言对实践活动反映的片面性、不完备性,同时还受活动主体、认识客体、认识主体的情感因素等方面原因的影响.     

Differential Prediction in the Use of the SAT and High School Grades in Predicting College Performance: Joint Effects of Race and Language

The literature on differential prediction of college performance of racial/ethnic minority students for standardized tests and high school grades indicates the use of these predictors often results in overprediction of minority student performance. However, these studies typically involve native English‐speaking students. In contrast, a smaller literature on language proficiency suggests academic performance of those with more limited English language proficiency may be underpredicted by standardized tests. These two literatures have not been well integrated, despite the fact that a number of racial/ethnic minority groups within the United States contain recent immigrant populations or heritage language speakers. This study investigates the joint role of race/ethnicity and language proficiency in Hispanic, Asian, and White ethnic groups across three educational admissions systems (SAT, HSGPA, and their composite) in predicting freshman grades. Our results indicate that language may differentially affect academic outcomes for different racial/ethnic subgroups. The SAT loses predictive power for Asian and White students who speak another best language, whereas it does not for Hispanic students who speak another best language. The differential prediction of college grades of linguistic minorities within racial/ethnic minority subgroups appears to be driven by the verbally loaded subtests of standardized tests but is largely unrelated to quantitative tests.     

Second language learners' performance in mathematics: Disentangling the effects of academic language features

Several studies have shown that the linguistic complexity of items in achievement tests may cause performance disadvantages for second language learners. However, the relative contributions of specific features of linguistic complexity to this disadvantage are largely unclear. Based on the theoretical concept of academic language, we used data from a state-wide test in mathematics for third graders in Berlin, Germany, to determine the interrelationships among several academic language features of test items and their relative effects on differential item functioning (DIF) against second language learners. Academic language features were significantly correlated with each other and with DIF. While we found text length, general academic vocabulary, and number of noun phrases to be unique predictors of DIF, substantial proportions of the variance in DIF were explained by confounded combinations of several academic language features. Specialised mathematical vocabulary was neither related to DIF nor to the other academic language features.     

The Effects of Test Accommodations for English Language Learners: A Meta-Analysis

A meta-analysis using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was conducted to examine the effects of test accommodations on the test performance of English language learners (ELLs). The results indicated that test accommodations improve ELLs' test performance by about 0.157 standard deviations—a relatively small but statistically significant increase. Once the potential predictors that may have contributed to the variance of the effect sizes across studies had been accounted for, only English proficiency was found to be significant. Further, the results indicated that ELLs with a low level of English proficiency benefited much more from test accommodations than did those with a high level of English proficiency. Little difference was observed in regard to other factors such as students' ethnicity, students' grade level, or the subject for which they were being examined. Although previous studies have suggested that linguistic simplification may be more effective than other methods, results from this meta-analysis offered no support for that suggestion.     

English as a symbol of internationalization in higher education: a case study of Vietnam

Vietnam universities have experienced remarkable changes brought about by their internationalization policies. The switch to English as a medium of instruction (EMI) for some academic programs was one of these critical changes. Literature has reported numerous issues related to EMI, including inadequate language proficiency of teaching staff. This paper looks at a qualitative research study on how a government university from Vietnam employs different strategies to enhance teachers’ English proficiency. The study reveals that the introduction of new supporting systems, assessment bodies, recruitment criteria and institutional strategies on training, monitoring and motivation have created cultural change within the teacher community. This cultural change, which includes elements such as self-directed learning, peer learning, professionalism, and ‘open-to-change’ attitudes, has been perceived by both leaders and teachers to be conducive to teachers’ language learning. The findings presented in this paper seek to contribute to the formulation or adjustment of policies related to educational reforms, such as curriculum reform, teacher recruitment and teacher professional development in non-English-speaking countries.     

任意性原则的理论缺陷

索绪尔倡导的语言任意性原则被看作语言学中一场“哥白尼式”的革命,它推翻了传统的语言镜射的原子主义观点。然而,任意性原则从它诞生之日起就带有不容忽视的缺陷:它切断了语言与语言主体及世界的联系,切断了语言的历史流动,把语言意义来源归于抽象的系统结构,漠视概念形成的低级阶段。这一切最终导致任意性原则解释语言现象的无能。     

Translanguaging: developing its conceptualisation and contextualisation

Following from Lewis, Jones, and Baker (this issue), this article analyses the relationship between the new concept of “translanguaging” particularly in the classroom context and more historic terms such as code-switching and translation, indicating differences in (socio)linguistic and ideological understandings as well as in classroom processes. The article considers the pedagogic nature of translanguaging in terms of language proficiency of children, developmental use in emergent bilinguals, variations in input and output, relationship to the subject/discipline curriculum, deepening learning through language development, cognitive development, and content understanding, and the role of children, including Deaf children, and in the use of translanguaging in educational activity. The conceptualisation of translanguaging is also shown to be ideological.     

人才培养视角下民国大师级人才成长规律研究

在教育备受重视的今天,非常尴尬的事实是我们的教育体制难以培养出大师级人才,这引起了社会各界的高度重视。从历史的角度看,民国时期我国曾经涌现一批大师级人才,在他们的成长历程中也有一定的规律。例如,综合能力的培养、外语水平的提高、学术师承等规律和因素对他们的成才有着非常重要作用。因此,借鉴这些有意义的经验可以为当今的人才培养服务。     

语感生成:认知图式的心理学描述

语感之谜 ,犹如语文教育中的“哥德巴赫猜想”,使人总觉得“心底有”,却又“口中无”,谜底至今尚未完全揭开。人们的理解往往受制于语文教育本身 ,停留在狭隘的字面意义上——一般感受的表层描述 ,这样的描述使得语感的生成更加扑朔迷离 ,难于操作。本文将借鉴认知发展心理学的图式理论 ,对语感生成的奥妙进行心理学层面的描述     

Predicting second language writing proficiency: the roles of cohesion and linguistic sophistication

This study addresses research gaps in predicting second language (L2) writing proficiency using linguistic features. Key to this analysis is the inclusion of linguistic measures at the surface, textbase and situation model level that assess text cohesion and linguistic sophistication. The results of this study demonstrate that five variables (lexical diversity, word frequency, word meaningfulness, aspect repetition and word familiarity) can be used to significantly predict L2 writing proficiency. The results demonstrate that L2 writers categorised as highly proficient do not produce essays that are more cohesive, but instead produce texts that are more linguistically sophisticated. These findings have important implications for L2 writing development and L2 writing pedagogy.     

Moral Task of the Teacher According to Students,Parents and Teachers

In this longitudinal study, we examined the effects of the use of English as the language of instruction in the first 4 years of secondary education in The Netherlands on the students' language proficiency in English and Dutch, and achievement in subject matters taught through English. Compared to a control group in regular secondary education, students attending this form of bilingual education showed higher scores for their English language proficiency in terms of oral proficiency and reading comprehension. No effects have been found for receptive word knowledge and no negative effects have been found with respect to the results of their school leaving exams at the end of secondary education for Dutch and subject matters taught through English.     

Beyond English language proficiency scores: understanding the academic performance of international undergraduate students during the first year of study

ABSTRACT

Past research into the relationship between English proficiency test (EPT) scores and score profiles, such as the IELTS and the TOEFL, has shown that there is not always a clear relationship between those scores and students’ subsequent academic achievement. Information about students’ academic self-concept (ASC) may provide additional information that helps predict future academic success. Research has consistently shown a positive relationship between students’ ASC and subsequent academic achievement and educational attainment in both school and higher education settings. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between the academic performance of international students and their language proficiency and academic self-concept as well as other characteristics related to academic success. The study focused on first year international students in undergraduate business programs at an English-medium university in Canada. The following information was collected about the student participants: grades in degree program courses, annual GPA, and EPT scores (including subscores). In addition, students completed an academic self-concept scale. To obtain additional information about success in first-year business courses, instructors in two required courses were interviewed about the academic and language requirements in their courses and the profile of successful students. Correlations between the students’ course grades, GPA, EPT scores, and ASC score were calculated. The instructor interviews were analyzed using a content analysis procedure. The findings from all data sources were triangulated and show that language ability, ASC, and other factors impact academic success during the first year in a business program. The implications of these findings are discussed.