Empowering Nonnative-English-Speaking Teachers in Primary School Contexts: An Ethnographic Case Study

Grounded in the perspectives of language socialization and transnational habitus, this one-year ethnographic case study explores two middle-class Chinese sojourner families’ educational, bilingual and biliterate practices after their arrival in the U.S. It addresses the process that their middle childhood children experienced, from the excitement of the new English-speaking environment to linguistic and social isolation, to their adaptation to the environment and, finally, to transnational uplift. The families’ transnational practices throughout the four phases are shaped by their economic, educational and sociocultural dispositions that link together their country of origin and the U.S. They tend to cross national borders in language, literacy and education as well as to circulate glocalized English–Chinese biliteracy. This study reveals the disjunction between the families’ “imagined world” of the U.S. and the reality of a language barrier and ideological conflicts underpinned in an English-only society. The families’ transnational migration is an educational practice with access to their children’s “imagined world”. This study suggests that ESL learning should be considered as a socialization practice, which is tied to and structured by transnational fields in today’s globalized world.

Download Full-text

Case Study of Phonics among Primary School Students

International Journal for Innovation Education and Research ◽

10.31686/ijier.vol4.iss10.593 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 (10) ◽

pp. 11-16

Author(s):

Liu Xiaojing ◽

Junying Zhang ◽

Huang Jing

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

Primary Schools ◽

Reading Ability ◽

Teaching Approach ◽

Primary School Students ◽

School Students ◽

New Words ◽

English Speaking ◽

Grade 3

Phonics is a widely implemented teaching approach in primary schools in many English speaking countries. Through a flexural development, the teaching approach has been proved to be an efficient way of improving children’s decoding, spelling and general reading ability. This paper reports case study of presenting phonics to 10 students in Grade 3 in China. The study shows that phonics teaching can help the students to form a connection between words and their pronunciation, hence help students to acquire the ability to decode and spell new words in their further reading.

Download Full-text

Young EFL Pupils Reading Multicultural Children's Fiction: an Ethnographic Case Study in a Swedish Language Primary School in Finland

ELT Journal ◽

10.1093/elt/ccm084 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 62 (1) ◽

pp. 96-100

Author(s):

W. Arnold

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

Ethnographic Case Study ◽

Children’S Fiction ◽

Children's Fiction

Download Full-text

Overcoming Challenges of International Migration Research: A Case Study Approach in Southern Mexico

MIGRATION LETTERS ◽

10.33182/ml.v13i1.268 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 131-143

Author(s):

Julie Boyles

Keyword(s):

International Migration ◽

Common Ground ◽

Data Gathering ◽

Ethnographic Case Study ◽

Case Study Approach ◽

Southern Mexico ◽

Mixed Methods Approach ◽

Study Approach ◽

Migration Research

An ethnographic case study approach to understanding women’s actions and reactions to husbands’ emigration—or potential emigration—offers a distinct set of challenges to a U.S.-based researcher. International migration research in a foreign context likely offers challenges in language, culture, lifestyle, as well as potential gender norm impediments. A mixed methods approach contributed to successfully overcoming barriers through an array of research methods, strategies, and tactics, as well as practicing flexibility in data gathering methods. Even this researcher’s influence on the research was minimized and alleviated, to a degree, through ascertaining common ground with many of the women. Research with the women of San Juan Guelavía, Oaxaca, Mexico offered numerous and constant challenges, each overcome with ensuing rewards.

Download Full-text