scholarly journals Collaborative action research: Building authentic literate practices into a foreign language program

2011 ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Theresa Austin ◽  
Mark Blum
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Collaborative Action Research ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Literate Practices ◽  
Authentic Literacy

Two university professors collaborate to carry out an action research project on literacy in a world language program. This article reports on their negotiations to define literacy, how they adapt the use of texts to the cultural backgrounds and interests of their learners and integrate native speakers in a community that builds various understanding of texts through discussion. Our collaborative process provides one example of how action research can systematically inform teaching and learning to build authentic literacy practices in a second or foreign language program.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Problems in Language Teachers’ Action Research

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ligang Han
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Collaborative Action Research ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Teachers Professional Development

In-service language teachers’ professional development is a crucial factor that influences the teaching and learning effectiveness. Educational action research is considered by many researchers and scholars as an effective way or approach for language teachers’ professional development. This article reports a case study of in-service English language teachers doing action research within a collaborative action research project. The focus of the case study is upon investigating the problems and difficulties that English language teachers encounter in doing action research and some solutions to the problems are provided. This research sheds light on the practice and application of educational action research.

scholarly journals Doing-It-Ourselves as Teacher Researchers: A Collaborative Action Research Approach for Improving Literacy Support at Home

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catia Guerra ◽  
Beatrice Hanratty ◽  
Andreia Onofre ◽  
Michele Tedeschi ◽  
Laura Wilenchik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Collaborative Action Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Literacy Support ◽  
Collaborative Action ◽  
Action Research Approach ◽  
Urban Elementary School ◽  
Teacher Researchers

This paper describes what a group of teacher researchers learned from conducting an action research project in an urban elementary school serving a multilingual community in the northeastern United States. A key goal of the project was to enhance parents’ and caregivers’ support of students’ literacy development in ways that built on home literacy practices. Teachers’ learning included understanding the importance of true collaboration, responding to parent feedback, and teacher-led professional development.

Constructing a Third Space

2015 ◽  
pp. 87-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Millar ◽  
S. Joel Warrican
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Third Space ◽  
Communications Technology ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Literate Practices ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The Creation

Burgeoning technologies are changing the global practices of youth to embrace a form of literacy which encompasses both skills and multimodal forms. In Barbados this has been perceived as disengagement from conventional literate practices and has caused concern in the wider Barbadian community. This view is reinforced by the seemingly ubiquitous engagement of youth with various forms of communications technology rather than traditional text. This chapter presents some insight, in the context of a Barbadian secondary school, into an action research project which sought to bridge the existing divide between traditional and semiotic literacies. This investigation confirmed that students were engaged in literate acts in diverse ways. The creation of third space required revised assumptions about the nature of literacy and redefined roles for teachers and students. This chapter concludes with recommendations for increased dialogue, collaboration and professional development among Barbadian secondary English teachers on issues related to literacy.

Curriculum Development in Technology-Enhanced Environments

2011 ◽  
pp. 492-504
Author(s):  
Mike Keppell ◽  
Eliza Au ◽  
Ada Ma ◽  
Christine Chan
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Implicit Theories ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Educational Beliefs ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Insight Into

As teacher-educators, we are acutely aware of our responsibilities in nurturing the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of pre-service teachers. As part of our interest in improving our teaching, learning, and assessment practices, we have been participating in an action-research project on technology-enhanced assessment over the last 12 months. Throughout this collaboration, we have become aware of our assessment practices and have been delighted that this has also resulted in a questioning of our current learning design for our modules and further clarity in our own thinking about why we teach the way that we do. The process of action-research has forced us to examine our educational beliefs and how these motivate our teaching and learning. This article focuses on why as teacher-educators it is our obligation to articulate our theories of teaching and learning. It is essential that we articulate these often-implicit theories not only as a means of engaging in dialogue with other teacher-educators, but also as a means of engaging in dialogue with our own students who are pre-service teachers. This cascading waterfall of dialogue and explicitness may allow pre-service teachers to gain insight into the decisions we make as teacher-educators and the rationale we use in our teaching. This obligation has important ramifications for the education of children in the Hong Kong setting, as pre-service teachers may see these explicit rationales as a guide to their own teaching within the early childhood, primary, and secondary settings.

Negotiation of power and solidarity in email

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-80
Author(s):  
Ikuko Nakane ◽  
Chihiro Kinoshita Thomson ◽  
Satoko Tokumaru
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Prior Exposure ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Over Time

The issue of e-politeness has been attracting increasing attention in the field of foreign language teaching and learning. This article examines how students of Japanese as a foreign language in Australia negotiated power and solidarity in their email correspondence with ‘facilitators’ in Japan who provided support in essay writing tasks. Their relationships, which were neither completely status-unequal nor status-equal, offer a unique social context for an examination of politeness. The study examines whether and how power and solidarity shifted over the 12 weeks of email exchanges. The results show varying levels of rapport and orientations to politeness developing over time, as well as evidence of students applying implicit input from the facilitators’ email messages. The article also considers the impacts, on the politeness phenomena in the data, of students’ cultural backgrounds and prior exposure to casual Japanese. The findings are discussed in relation to the question of ‘appropriateness’ in fostering foreign language learner ability to negotiate power and solidarity in intercultural communication.

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