Young learners’ portrayals of ‘good English teacher’ identities in South Korea

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 225-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
So-Yeon Ahn ◽  
Gordon Blaine West

AbstractIn the climate of shifting language policies and constant influx of native English-speaking teachers to South Korea, the question of what constitutes a “good” language teacher (GLT) arises. To this end, the present study examines how 577 young English learners (K-6th grade) come to demonstrate their understanding of GLT by making use of visual images and written narratives. A social semiotic, multimodal approach to analysis is employed to scrutinize how these textual and visual narratives construct and/or presuppose a certain image of teacher identity and, as a result, display societal ideologies (Jewitt 2009). The findings yield two dimensions with regard to the objects associated with GLTs, an emotional/abstract dimension and a teaching-related dimension, and the differing use of these objects in relation to teacher gender indicating students’ awareness of teacher roles and gender. Moreover, the ways in which learners place themselves in the storied worlds seem to provide evidence for how teacher identity is, in fact, co-constructed with the notion of learner identity. Thus, the study underscores the complex nature of GLT identity construction and further highlights the benefits of using both textual and visual methods to gain better insights into learners’ beliefs about, attitudes towards, and perspectives on teachers, students, and language learning.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10333
Author(s):  
Weonjin Shin ◽  
Fuhui Tong ◽  
Hsiang-Yu Chien ◽  
Myeongsun Yoon

In this research, we tested the psychometrics of a translated and adapted second language learning motivation instrument among Korean English learners. A total of 1373 college students from 9 universities and 11 majors in South Korea responded to the questionnaire. After the content validation, back-translation, and pilot study, 12 factors and 76 items were chosen for further construct validation. The data were then analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Through EFA, 11 factors and 55 items were extracted while CFA analysis indicated good fit (CFI > 0.9, SRMR = 0.05, RMSEA < 0.05) of the measurement model. The results of this study showed acceptable psychometrics properties of questionnaire which is culturally and structurally appropriate in a Korean college context.


Author(s):  
Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes ◽  
Heather Norris Nicholson

In the rapidly growing study of amateur film, this groundbreaking book addresses the development of British women's amateur visual practice. Drawing upon social and visual anthropology, imperial and postcolonial studies and British, Commonwealth and gender history, the authors explore how women in Britain and overseas, used the evolving technologies of moving imagery to create visual stories about their lives and times. Locating the making, watching and sharing of women's recreational film-making against wider societal, technological and ideological changes, British Women Amateur Filmmakers discloses how women from varied backgrounds negotiated changing lifestyles, attitudes and opportunities as they created first personal visual narratives about themselves and the world around them. Using non-fictional films and animations, the authors invite readers to view films through different interpretative lens and provide detailed contexts for their case-studies and survey of over forty women amateur filmmakers. Whether in remote communities, suburban homes, castles, missionary or diplomatic enclaves, or simply travelling as intrepid sightseers, women filmed their companions, other people and their surroundings, not only as observers but often displaying agency, autonomy and aesthetic judgment during decades when careers, particularly after marriage, were often denied in film and other professions. Research across Britain on films in private hands and specialist archives, interviews and extensive study of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (IAC's) collections enable the authors to reposition an activity once thought of as overwhelmingly male and middle class.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-129
Author(s):  
Asti Gumartifa ◽  
◽  
Indah Windra Dwie Agustiani

Gaining English language learning effectively has been discussed all years long. Similarly, Learners have various troubles outcomes in the learning process. Creating a joyful and comfortable situation must be considered by learners. Thus, the implementation of effective learning strategies is certainly necessary for English learners. This descriptive study has two purposes: first, to introduce the classification and characterization of learning strategies such as; memory, cognitive, metacognitive, compensation, social, and affective strategies that are used by learners in the classroom and second, it provides some questionnaires item based on Strategy of Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) version 5.0 that can be used to examine the frequency of students’ learning strategies in the learning process. The summary of this study explains and discusses the researchers’ point of view on the impact of learning outcomes by learning strategies used. Finally, utilizing appropriate learning strategies are certainly beneficial for both teachers and learners to achieve the learning target effectively.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Stefani ◽  
Gabriele Prati

Research on the relationship between fertility and gender ideology revealed inconsistent results. In the present study, we argue that inconsistencies may be due to the fact that such relationship may be nonlinear. We hypothesize a U- shaped relationship between two dimensions of gender ideology (i.e. primacy of breadwinner role and acceptance of male privilege) and fertility rates. We conducted a cross-national analysis of 60 countries using data from the World Values Survey as well as the World Population Prospects 2019. Controlling for gross domestic product, we found support for a U-shaped relationship between gender ideology and fertility. Higher levels of fertility rates were found at lower and especially higher levels of traditional gender ideology, while a medium level of gender ideology was associated with the lowest fertility rate. This curvilinear relationship is in agreement with the phase of the gender revolution in which the country is located. Traditional beliefs are linked to a complementary division of private versus public sphere between sexes, while egalitarian attitudes are associated with a more equitable division. Both conditions strengthen fertility. Instead, as in the transition phase, intermediate levels of gender ideology’s support are associated with an overload and a difficult reconciliation of the roles that women have to embody (i.e. working and nurturing) so reducing fertility. The present study has contributed to the literature by addressing the inconsistencies of prior research by demonstrating that the relationship between gender ideology and fertility rates is curvilinear rather than linear.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily S Nichols ◽  
Marc F Joanisse

We investigated the extent to which second-language (L2) learning is influenced by the similarity of grammatical features in one’s first language (L1). We used event-related potentials to identify neural signatures of a novel grammatical rule - grammatical gender - in L1 English speakers. Of interest was whether individual differences in L2 proficiency and age of acquisition (AoA) influenced these effects. L2 and native speakers of French read French sentences that were grammatically correct, or contained either a grammatical gender or word order violation. Proficiency and AoA predicted Left Anterior Negativity amplitude, with structure violations driving the proficiency effect and gender violations driving the AoA effect. Proficiency, group, and AoA predicted P600 amplitude for gender violations but not structure violations. Different effects of grammatical gender and structure violations indicate that L2 speakers engage novel grammatical processes differently from L1 speakers and that this varies appreciably based on both AoA and proficiency.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Inseon Choi ◽  
Donghwan Lee ◽  
Kyung-Bok Son ◽  
SeungJin Bae

Data ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Domingo Villavicencio-Aguilar ◽  
Edgardo René Chacón-Andrade ◽  
Maria Fernanda Durón-Ramos

Happiness-oriented people are vital in every society; this is a construct formed by three different types of happiness: pleasure, meaning, and engagement, and it is considered as an indicator of mental health. This study aims to provide data on the levels of orientation to happiness in higher-education teachers and students. The present paper contains data about the perception of this positive aspect in two Latin American countries, Mexico and El Salvador. Structure instruments to measure the orientation to happiness were administrated to 397 teachers and 260 students. This data descriptor presents descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation), internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha), and differences (Student’s t-test) presented by country, population (teacher/student), and gender of their orientation to happiness and its three dimensions: meaning, pleasure, and engagement. Stepwise-multiple-regression-analysis results are also presented. Results indicated that participants from both countries reported medium–high levels of meaning and engagement happiness; teachers reported higher levels than those of students in these two dimensions. Happiness resulting from pleasure activities was the least reported in general. Males and females presented very similar levels of orientation to happiness. Only the population (teacher/student) showed a predictive relationship with orientation to happiness; however, the model explained a small portion of variance in this variable, which indicated that other factors are more critical when promoting orientation to happiness in higher-education institutions.


Multilingua ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Semiramis Schedel

Abstract This contribution treats “language immersion” as a linguistic ideology and explores narratives, practices, and subjectivities pertinent to that notion in the context of language-motivated voluntourism. Voluntourism programs offer short-term sojourns abroad, which combine voluntary work with holidays while promising “immersion” as an efficient alternative to classroom language learning. In the Mediterranean island state of Malta, whose population is mostly bilingual in English and Maltese, voluntourism has become an attractive product for the booming English language travel industry. Since there is a lack of critical sociolinguistic and second language acquisition research on the language learning trajectories of voluntourists, this piece examines the promise of immersion through the example of a hostel that figures as a workplace. Drawing on ethnographic data, it investigates how learning English through immersion while working abroad is imagined and promoted, whether or not it occurs, and what gains (linguistic or otherwise) it generates and for whom. The article argues that the voluntourism industry appropriates the discourse of immersion to responsibilize English learners for their linguistic self-skilling, thereby constituting them as neoliberal subjects that can easily be exploited as a cheap workforce.


Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung-Hoo Lee ◽  
Shuting Tao ◽  
Hak-Seon Kim

There is an increasing number of metabolic syndrome (MetS) patients worldwide, and there is no exception in South Korea. The risk complications of metabolic syndrome have been investigated by many previous research studies, while no data on any current trends of MetS are available. Therefore, the present study investigates the recent prevalence of MetS and its associated risk complications in Korean adults by using the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). The Survey respondents (n = 4744) were adults over the age of 30, and they had participated in KNHANES 2016, which is a health survey of a national representative sample of non-institutionalized civilian South Koreans. The cross-tabulation analysis was applied to figure out the general characteristics impacting on the prevalence of MetS; furthermore, the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using multivariate logistic regression analysis were presented for the risk complications of MetS. Findings from this study indicated that subjective health status, family structure, age, income level, use of nutrition labelling and gender showed significant connections with the prevalence of MetS. The risk diseases, stroke (OR = 2.174, 95% CI = 1.377–3.433, p < 0.01), myocardial infarction (MI) (OR = 2.667, 95% CI = 1.474–4.824, p < 0.01) and diabetes (OR = 6.533, 95% CI = 4.963, p < 0.001) were explored and verified attributable to the prevalence of MetS. The findings in this study suggest that sociodemographic characteristics-concentrated strategies are vital to prevent the prevalence of MetS in South Korea, and relative risk complications ought to be cautiously dealt with as well.


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