scholarly journals Content Area Pre-Service Candidates Learning Language Teaching with Adolescent Immigrants in an Urban PDS Middle School

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-73
Author(s):  
Yanan Fan
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Second Language Literacy ◽  
Adolescent Immigrants ◽  
Term Papers ◽  
Learning Language

How do teacher candidates develop and reflect on their knowledge in second language literacy to support their students in a Professional Development School (PDS)? This article reports preliminary findings of a qualitative study that investigates the learning process of single-subject credential candidates in a pilot urban PDS site where they co-taught and co-learned in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program through an on-site seminar credential class.  Data collection included, but not limited to, researcher observational fieldnotes, candidate reflections, term papers, and transcripts of interviews and performances. The study finds that in an interactive, social learning space created by the PDS setting, teacher candidates challenged their assumptions about teaching English among immigrant students, as well as identified language learning opportunities in traditional worksheet-based activities and a communicative project.

Literacy in a Second Language

1989 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 145-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Grabe
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
First Language ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Second Language Literacy ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Learning Contexts ◽  
Language Literacy ◽  
Do So

As literacy has emerged to become a major issue in the 1980s, and will continue to do so in the 1990s, the only sure claim to be made is that the notion of literacy is extremely complex and fraught with generally accepted “myths,” hidden assumptions, over-generalizations, and simple all-inclusive responses to the challenges presented. This scenario is no less appropriate to the second language learning context than it is to the first language learning context. Thus, any examination of second language literacy requires discussion of both first language and second perspectives. It is naive to assume that the difficulties, complexities, contradictions, and debates in first language literacy do not apply equally to the large majority of second language learning contexts. Accordingly, second language literacy will be discussed in light of first language perspectives on literacy, reading, and writing, expanding these perspectives into second language contexts. (It should be noted that two excellent reviews of reading and writing in a second language appeared in ARAL IX (Carrell 1989a, Hudelson 1989a). This review should be seen as complementary to these two earlier articles.)

scholarly journals Usage-based Approaches to Second Language Acquisition: Cognitive and Social Aspects

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 473
Author(s):  
Yaghoob Javadi ◽  
Fakhereh Kazemirad
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
First Language ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Learning Language

Usage-based approaches focus on learning language through engaging in the interpersonal communicative and cognitive processes. They consider language as the best accomplishment of our social and cognitive competences which bridges society and cognition. Based on usage-based approaches, language can be learned from language use, by means of social skills and generalizations over usage events in interaction. These approaches actually explore how language learning occurs through language experience. Therefore, usage-based approaches are input-dependent and experience-driven and assume frequency of usage as an inseparable part of language learning which plays an important role in the language production, language comprehension, and also grammaticality of the patterns. While usage-based approaches have been successful in showing how first language is learnt from the input, it is still less clear how these approaches can be made use of in second language learning. The present study provides an overview of the usage-based approaches to second language acquisition and their cognitive and social underpinnings. Firstly, the notion, underlying tenets, and major constructs of usage-based approaches are summarized. Then usage-based linguistics is described in detail. Finally, cognitive and social aspects of usage-based approaches are taken into account.

scholarly journals Toward Linguistically and Culturally Responsive Teaching in the French as a Second Language Classroom

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meike Wernicke
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Prior Learning ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Critical Language Awareness ◽  
Langue Seconde

In English-majority contexts such as British Columbia, French second language (FSL) teachers are increasingly encountering students who are also learning French in addition to English and their home languages. Research findings show that dual language learners are successfully supported through multilingual pedagogies that acknowledge and explicitly value students’ prior learning experiences and multilingual knowledge as an integral resource in their language learning. This poses a particular challenge for FSL teacher candidates whose own language learning experiences have been shaped by institutional bilingualism and monoglossic approaches in bilingual education contexts. This article sets out the implications of this challenge and then describes a teacher education course that specifically addresses the Teaching of English as an additional language (TEAL) with teacher candidates in an elementary French specialist cohort program at a university in British Columbia. The discussion provides an overview of the course and then describes some of the ways in which critical language awareness can be fostered among FSL teacher candidates’ strategies to encourage a linguistically and culturally responsive approach to FSL teaching. Dans un contexte majoritairement anglophone comme celui de la Colombie-Britannique, les enseignantes et enseignants de français langue seconde (FLS) se trouvent de plus en plus souvent face à des élèves qui apprennent le français en plus de l’anglais et de la langue qu’ils ou elles parlent à la maison. Les recherches démontrent que les élèves qui apprennent deux langues bénéficient de pédagogies multilingues efficaces qui reconnaissent et mettent explicitement en valeur leurs expériences d’apprentissage antérieures et leurs connaissances multilingues, et ce, en en faisant une partie intégrante des ressources dans lesquelles ils peuvent puiser au cours de leur apprentissage linguistique. Cela pose un défi particulier pour les enseignantes et enseignants de FLS en formation dont les expériences d’apprentissage linguistique ont été façonnées par le bilinguisme institutionnel et une conception monoglossique des contextes éducatifs bilingues. Le présent article expose les implications de ce défi et décrit ensuite un cours de formation d’enseignantes et d’enseignants qui porte spécifiquement sur l’enseignement de l’anglais comme langue complémentaire (TEAL) dans le cadre d’un programme offert par une université britannico-colombienne à une cohorte de spécialistes de la langue française au niveau élémentaire. La discussion présente un aperçu du cours et décrit ensuite certaines façons de favoriser le développement d’une conscience linguistique critique dans le cadre des stratégies des enseignantes et enseignants de FLS en formation afin de promouvoir le développement d’une conception de l’enseignement qui prenne en compte les réalités linguistiques et culturelles.

Multiple Discourses, Multiple Identities: Investment and Agency in Second-Language Learning among Chinese Adolescent Immigrant Students

1996 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Lee McKay ◽  
Sau-Ling Cynthia Wong
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Chinese Adolescent ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
Adolescent Immigrant ◽  
Multiple Discourses

In this article, Sandra McKay and Sau-Ling Wong argue for a revision of code-based and individual learner-based views of second-language learning. Their position is based on a two-year qualitative study of adolescent Chinese-immigrant students conducted in California in the early 1990s, in which the authors and their research associates followed four Mandarin-speaking students through seventh and eighth grades, periodically interviewing them and assessing their English-language development. In discussing their findings, McKay and Wong establish a contextualist perspective that foregrounds interrelations of discourse and power in the learner's social environment. The authors identify mutually interacting multiple discourses to which the students were subjected, but of which they were also subjects, and trace the students' negotiations of dynamic, sometimes contradictory, multiple identities. Adopting B. N. Peirce's concept of investment, McKay and Wong relate these discourses and identities to the students' exercise of agency in terms of their positioning in relations of power in both the school and U.S. society.

scholarly journals The Language Commons: An Innovative Space Supporting Second Language Acquisition

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41
Author(s):  
Judith Giering ◽  
Hope Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Current Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Innovative Teaching

In 2015, language faculty and administrators at a large public university met to evaluate the needs of the more than 20 language programs offered on campus. A priority emerged for language learning space better equipped to facilitate authentic interaction and communication. The committee conceived of an alternative language learning space that would be motivating, collaborative, and inviting, and offer a variety of technologies in support of innovative teaching and learning.  Now in its second year of operation, the Language Commons facilitates formal and informal learning activities for students and faculty that are aligned with current theory and practice of Second Language Acquisition. Language faculty utilize the space for innovative instructional activities that might otherwise be limited by small, inflexible classroom spaces. This article describes the development of the Language Commons from initial conception through design, and the rich array of activities occurring in the space, featuring examples of faculty uses of Commons spaces and technologies. Preliminary outcomes suggest the Commons is valued for its support of student motivation, lowering of anxiety, opportunities for community engagement, and as a place to disrupt classroom hierarchies and routines.

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