Language experience narratives and the role of autobiographical reasoning in becoming an urban science teacher

One of the central challenges globalization and immigration present to education is how to construct school language policies, procedures, and curricula to support academic success of immigrant youth. This case-study compares and contrasts language experience narratives along Elena’s developmental trajectory of becoming an urban science teacher. Elena reflects upon her early language experiences and her more recent experiences as a preservice science teacher in elementary dual language classrooms. The findings from Elena’s early schooling experiences provide an analysis of the linkages between Elena’s developing English proficiency, her Spanish proficiency, and her autobiographical reasoning. Elena’s experiences as a preservice teacher in two elementary dual language classrooms indicates ways in which those experiences helped to reframe her views about the intersections between language learning and science learning. I propose the language experience narrative, as a subset of the life story, as a way to understand how preservice teachers reconstruct past language experiences, connect to the present, and anticipate future language practices.     

Transitions,transformations and finding success. A phenomenological analysis of the experiences of a doctoral student in early candidature

ABSTRACT

This article examines and analyses the authentic experiences of a doctoral student, Kate, in the period just prior to Confirmation, an academic milestone in the Australian doctoral education context. The article uses qualitative phenomenological inquiry as the methodology and employs ideas drawn from the writings of hermeneutical phenomenologist, Paul Ricoeur, especially his notions of narrative, self, time, and human agency. These ideas are utilised in order to ‘get inside’ the constructions of self, the strategies of learning and adaptation, and the experiences of being a doctoral candidate within the milieu of an Australian university education faculty. The writers argue that such a close and personal examination of experience and a hermeneutical approach to analysis is important for a deep understanding about how Kate negotiated her way through the hurdles of early candidature and adapted her life and identities towards success. Particular focus is given to Kate’s experiences of transition and change and the formation of her academic identity that emerged out of these experiences, which led to successful negotiation of this early period of candidature. The research findings reported in this article suggest that Kate’s deep reflexivity, enjoyment of her research and sense of her own well-being as a doctoral student are significant for her perseverance through difficult milestones and ultimately her successful completion of her PhD.     

Understanding the Development of a Hybrid Practice of Inquiry-Based Science Instruction and Language Development: A Case Study of One Teacher’s Journey Through Reflections on Classroom Practice

This qualitative case study looks closely at an elementary teacher who participated in professional development experiences that helped her develop a hybrid practice of using inquiry-based science to teach both science content and English language development (ELD) to her students, many of whom are English language learners (ELLs). This case study examines the teacher’s reflections on her teaching and her students’ learning as she engaged her students in science learning and supported their developing language skills. It explicates the professional learning experiences that supported the development of this hybrid practice. Closely examining the pedagogical practice and reflections of a teacher who is developing an inquiry-based approach to both science learning and language development can provide insights into how teachers come to integrate their professional development experiences with their classroom expertise in order to create a hybrid inquiry-based science ELD practice. This qualitative case study contributes to the emerging scholarship on the development of teacher practice of inquiry-based science instruction as a vehicle for both science instruction and ELD for ELLs. This study demonstrates how an effective teaching practice that supports both the science and language learning of students can develop from ongoing professional learning experiences that are grounded in current perspectives about language development and that immerse teachers in an inquiry-based approach to learning and instruction. Additionally, this case study also underscores the important role that professional learning opportunities can play in supporting teachers in developing a deeper understanding of the affordances that inquiry-based science can provide for language development.     

口语强化训练对促进大学生英语学习原发性动机的影响

学习动机是学习者个体因素中最具能动性的因素之一。国内外众多研究表明二语习得者的学习动机对学习的成败影响重大。这些研究提倡教师在教学中应充分掌握各种学习动机的特点,采用适当的教学方法,培养和激发学生的动机,这对学生的英语学习会产生长久的推动作用。通过对武汉纺织大学英语口语强化训练课的特殊形式的总结和探讨发现,教学过程中教师对大学生英语学习动机、尤其是原发性动机的激发有其独特的规律。同时,口语强化训练课以其独特的编排方式、多样化的课程检验体系为学生营造了一个全景式的英语环境,为学生学习英语语言及其文化提供了有力的条件。     

Pedagogical Thinking in a Student's Mind: A conceptual clarification on the basis of self‐determination and volition theories

This article suggests that educational psychology should pay more attention to the role of the curriculum when the optimal motivation to learn in school is considered. The curriculum frames the teaching‐studying‐learning process in school. This fact has several implications on the motivation to learn in school. After the child starts school, his or her motivation to learn seems to change from an intrinsic motivation to an extrinsic motivation. To develop pedagogical thinking in a student's mind means that the student must become acquainted with the aims and goals of the curriculum, assimilate them into his or her integrated sense of self and, thus, fully accept them as their own. If this succeeds, it will have positive effects on the student's motivation at school and especially on the motivation to study and learn. The concept of pedagogical thinking in a student's mind is analogous to the concept of teacher's pedagogical thinking. Based on previous studies, this article provides an example of how joint‐planning can offer a learning environment that promotes students' pedagogical thinking and the internalisation of the aims and goals of the curriculum in school. This article calls for new theoretical syntheses and research programmes that better take into account the normative nature of learning and teaching in school.     

浅谈职业学校的英语教学

缓解学生外语学习焦虑是提高高职学校英语教学质量的最重要途径之一。该文基于多年教学经验并根据二语习得理论提出了一些可行性教学方法,通过降低学生的外语焦虑,增强其学习动机和自我效能感,以提高他们的英语学习效果,加快其英语学习进程。     

情感焦虑对外语自主学习的影响

自主学习是指由学习者自我决策、自我监控、自我管理学习过程的一种独立学习能力,其核心是一种认知的心理机制,学习者情感的介入是自主学习成功的关键因素之一。焦虑是影响语言学习的最大的心理障碍,它会通过影响在自主学习过程其它的情感变量如动机、态度、自信心等来妨碍自主学习进程以及学习效果。     

Motivation and Second Language Acquisition

In this paper,first the author provides a brief review of contemporary psychological views on motivation and motivation in SLL.The author then discusses Williams and Burden’ s (1997) cognitive model of motivation,which suggests that both internal and external factors are significant in motivation.And next the author selects two internal factors (attitudes to language learning in general and attitudes to target language community and culture) and two external factors (parents and teachers),discussing their relevance to motivation in language learning.After that the author refers in her answer both to the wider literature on motivation and her own experience of motivation as a language teacher and learner.The author concludes the paper by drawing some practical implications from employing this model.     

Tutoring an American autistic college student in Japanese and its challenges

This article discusses the relationship between autism and teaching a foreign language (TFL) and explores how specific teaching styles may strengthen learners' motivation. Autism is simply considered to be a social disorder of development. Autistic people are often seen as having difficulty in learning a language other than their first language. This assumption has prevented autistic people as well as those who have difficulties with mental and physical development from accessing opportunities to learn a foreign language. Therefore, this article focuses on teaching Japanese to an autistic American university student in the United States. The purpose of the article is to examine how autistic learners are motivated in reaction to specific teaching styles. Based on my tutoring experiences with an autistic American university student and an interview with the student's mother, this study explores an effective method of TFL to autistic learners.     

外语学习动机的激发与培养策略

动机作为语言学习诸个体因素中最具有能动性的主观因素之一,对学习效率的影响不容忽视.通过对动机的类型及其作用的分析上,提出在外语教学中,教师应重视对学生学习动机的激发和培养,使其维持较高的动机水平,有利于学习效果的提高.     

Redefining professional identity: the voice of a language teacher in a context of collaborative learning

Following a narrative and biographic approach, in this study, we present the case of an in-service language teacher and her professional learning trajectory in the context of the project ‘Languages and education: constructing and sharing training’. This project aimed at the construction of a collaborative teacher education context for learning and transformation of experiences, views and practices in language education, and involved teachers, teacher educators and researchers. Based on a single case study, the analysis tries to disclose the teacher’s discursive displacements as hints of professional transformation while she reinterprets the learning taking place in the collaborative education process. The signs of change are visible in the way she constructs meanings regarding her professional identity, re-identifies her mission as a language teacher and reconsiders her professional identity. Finally, we reflect upon how collaborative teacher education scenarios may foster teachers’ personal professional learning and renewed self-images.     

Trainee teachers’ experiences of classroom feedback practices and their motivation to learn

While different theoretical frameworks have been proposed to characterise the nature of feedback and the conditions under which feedback contributes to student learning, few empirical studies have examined the usefulness of these theoretical frameworks to understand student feedback experiences in classrooms particularly in a pre-service context. This article explores what classroom feedback practices trainee teachers experience, and how their feedback experiences relate to their learning motivation. The paper presents the results of questionnaire surveys conducted with 276 pre-service ESL trainee teachers in a BEd English education programme. The study found that trainee teachers in this study experienced predominantly activity-based feedback and teacher evaluation feedback, while peer/self feedback and longitudinal-development feedback were relatively infrequently used in the classroom. However, peer/self feedback and longitudinal-development feedback appeared to be most powerful in predicting positive motivational processes, followed by activity-based feedback and teacher evaluation feedback.     

RESEARCH SECTION: Curriculum integration and at‐risk students: a Canadian case study examining student learning and motivation

The combining of subject areas or disciplines, referred to in this article as curriculum integration, has been recognised as being linked to high levels of student motivation and learning. Sheryl MacMath of the University of Toronto, Jillian Roberts of the University of Victoria, and John Wallace and Xiaohong Chi of the University of Toronto discuss the findings of their case study (n = 23 students) based in a Canadian secondary school where an integrated unit on energy was taught to pupils identified as being ‘at risk’ of not completing high school. Teacher and student interviews, classroom observations and surveys were used in the case study to investigate student motivation and learning. Results from the study illustrate that students experienced higher levels of motivation and academic success compared to work on previous units. The authors explore how higher levels of student self‐efficacy were also recorded due to the repetition of content in different classrooms and across different contexts. The authors argue that further research in this area should examine more than student learning and motivation and highlights the need to focus specifically on opportunities for successful academic experiences where student efficacy is increased.     

Ebbs and Flows: A Longitudinal Study of an English Language Instructor’s Motivation to Learn Korean

Native English speaking language teachers who live and work in various parts of the world often express a desire to learn the language of their host country. Without sustained levels of motivation, however, their desires are unlikely to be realized. This article reports the findings of a longitudinal case study of an American English language instructor working at a South Korean university. It examines the factors that impacted her motivation to learn Korean, and explores the ebbs and flows that characterized her motivation over a one-year period. Findings revealed that while the participant did express a desire to learn Korean and formulated learning goals, the action necessary to achieve these goals did not occur. This article draws on the L2 Motivational Self System and the Process Model of L2 Motivation to provide a dual theoretical perspective on the findings.     

Re-Envisioning Language,Literacy, and the Immigrant Subject in New Mediascapes

This article explores how networked electronic communications have given rise to new social spaces, linguistic and semiotic practices, and ways of fashioning the self beyond the national context for immigrant youths in the United States. This article presents 2 case studies of immigrant students' communicative practices on the Internet: 1 involving a diasporic chat space and another related to the creation of global anime multimedia. Analysis of discourse, interviews, and observational data show that, within these transnational social spaces, the young immigrants created new learning experiences, competences, and representations of linguistic and cultural identities in the use of language and literacy. This evidence of changing language and literacy practices in the context of globalised communications call for a re-evaluation of the predominantly monolingual, monocultural, and nation-centric views of the adaptation and educational trajectory of immigrant students.     

Teachers' personal learning networks (PLNs): exploring the nature of self‐initiated professional learning online

In the field of Literacy Studies, online spaces have been recognised as providing many opportunities for spontaneous and self‐initiated learning. While some progress has been made in understanding these important learning experiences, little attention has been paid to teachers' self‐initiated professional learning. Contributing to the debates about learning online, this article explores three teachers' self‐initiated professional learning about digital technologies through their Personal Learning Networks. It reports the findings from a larger qualitative project and examines how the participants' digital literacy practices shaped their deliberate professional learning. The analysis identified several attributes of the participants' learning which, according to them, made professional learning appealing and effective: social, personalised, active and reciprocal, ongoing and blended. The article concludes by discussing how these findings can be used to draw out implications for teachers' professional learning.     

情感因素对儿童英语二语习得的影响

随着英语在我国的逐渐普及,英语初学者已经出现了低龄化、少儿化的特点。儿童与成人在第二语言习得方面有共同之处,但是由于年龄、性格、学习动机以及自我概念的不同与成人又有差异。通过分析三例儿童学习英语的情况,探索情感因素对儿童英语学习的影响,并提出相应的几点建议。     

外语学习者个人动机变化研究

本文以中国30位著名外语教育专家学习传记为样本,调查分析了他们各自的学习经历和内心体验,着重于定性研究,试图从他们的自传陈述中寻找在他们学习外语时的动机变化轨迹和规律。笔者认为,学习动机的变化是由兴趣引发、情境影响和成绩获得,最终成为促进学者以外语作为一生发展事业的动因。在理论上,这种在时空上大跨度的研究可以丰富当前的动机理论;在实践上,这种研究可以为我们的外语教育实践提供有益的启示。