scholarly journals Neoliberal discourses in Spanish for business: An ethnographic classroom study

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-49
Author(s):  
Jesse W. Rubio
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Language For Specific Purposes ◽  
Market Rationality ◽  
Job Attainment ◽  
Student Participant ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Contemporary Education ◽  
Education Courses

AbstractBeginning in the 1970s, education has responded to the rise of neoliberalism across macro-, meso-, and micro-level contexts through shifts in practice and structure. Meanwhile, language learning is often promoted as an instrument in job attainment and transnational business communication. For example, in language education, courses in language for specific purposes, whose ubiquity continues to increase, often reflect the market rationality embedded in contemporary education and support an instrumental orientation to language learning. This ethnographic study investigates the neoliberal discourses taken up by students and the instructor in a university-level Spanish for Business classroom. Drawing on triangulated data from classroom observations, field notes, informal interviews with students and the instructor, and a semi-formal interview with a focal student participant, the findings suggest that competition, compliance, and individualism were among the ideological discourses of the classroom. However, while societal and institutional discourses of neoliberalism were often interpellated, they were also resisted. Implications for praxis are also discussed.

Study abroad, human capital development, language commodification, and social inequalities

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Goldoni
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Human Capital Development ◽  
Capital Development

Abstract Neoliberal discourse has seeped into various practices of higher education and study abroad (SA), emphasizing the value of human capital development through international education and foreign language learning. Applied linguists have been strongly critiquing neoliberal ideologies, and how they reproduce social inequalities. In this study, the examples of Albert, Theresa, and Rebecca, three U.S. undergraduates in Spain, exhibit how elements of neoliberal discourse and the consumerist notion of second language education as a commodity perpetuate social inequalities abroad and at home. These students were part of an ethnographic study (2007–2008) that included 117 U.S. undergraduates enrolled in four academic SA programs in Spain. The stories of Albert, Theresa, and Rebecca are significant because they had traction within their SA cohort. The consumerist notion of education as a commodity was employed as the analytical framework in conjunction with Bourdieu’s concept of capital (1986). This study problematizes the neoliberal logic and the promise of human capital development associated with language learning through SA. It calls for more diversity, equity, inclusion in SA. A social justice pedagogical paradigm is discussed as a valid, alternative approach to help students emphasize humanistic imperatives over individualist imperatives, gain global understanding, and contribute to world justice.

THE USE OF COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNINGMETHOD TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING ACHIEVEMENT

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eko Widoyo Putro ◽  
Berlin Sibarani
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Learning Method ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Method Improvement ◽  
Community Language

This study is aimed at improving the second grade of students’ speakingachievement by using Community Language Learning (CLL) Method. Theresearch was conducted by applying classroom action research. The subject of this study was second grade of Private Senior High School (Sekolah Menengah Atas Swasta) of Dwi Tunggal Tanjung Morawa which consisted of 31 students. To collect the data, the instruments used were primary data (SpeakingTest) and secondary data (interview sheet, observation sheet, field notes). It can be seen from the score in test I, test II and test III. In the Test I, the mean of the students’score was (64.77), in the Test II was (71.35), and the mean of the students’ score of the Test III was (80.90). Based on the interview, and observation sheet, it shows that the expression and excitement of the students got improved as well. It was found that teaching of speaking by using Community Language Learningcould significantly improve students’ speaking achievement.Key Words: Community Language Learning, Method, Improvement, Speaking Achievement

Didattica delle lingue in prospettiva interculturale: innovazione e potenzialità

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 189-198
Author(s):  
Manuela Derosas
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Vast Literature ◽  
The Creation

Since the early ’80s the adjective "intercultural" in language learning and teaching has seemed to acquire a remarkable importance, although its meaning is strongly debated. As a matter of fact, despite the existence of a vast literature on this topic, difficulties arise when applying it in the classroom. The aim of this work is to analyze the elements we consider to be the central pillars in this methodology, i.e. a renewed language-and culture relation, the Intercultural Communicative Competence, the intercultural speaker. These factors allow us to consider this as a new paradigm in language education; furthermore, they foster the creation of new potentialities and configure the classroom as a significant learning environment towards the discovery of Otherness.

scholarly journals Sociolinguistic Markers of Friendship Among Persons With Dementia in Long-Term Care

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 575-575
Author(s):  
Pamela Saunders
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Pronominal Reference ◽  
Field Notes

Abstract Sociolinguistics and discourse analysis provide tools through which to examine how friendship is socially constructed through language and communication. Research on social isolation and loneliness reveals the importance of social interaction on the psychological and physical health of older adults. Given that linguistic, communicative, and functional abilities decline as dementia progresses, it is challenging to identify markers of friendship. The Friendship Project is an ethnographic study of social interaction among persons with dementia living in a long-term care setting. The data are from transcripts and field-notes of social interactions among residents with a range of cognitive impairments over a six-month time period. Results reveal that persons with dementia employ specific linguistic features such as narrative, evaluation, evidentials, and pronominal reference to make meaning and create relationships over time. Practical implications will be discussed.

scholarly journals Simulating language knowledge across the EU: language regimes, language learning and consequences for linguistic disenfranchisement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Civico
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Skills Acquisition ◽  
Linguistic Distance ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThe objective of this paper is to develop an simulation model able to test different language education orientations and their consequences for the EU population in terms of linguistic disenfranchisement, that is, the inability of citizens to understand EU documents and parliamentary discussions should their native language(s) no longer be official. I will focus on the impact of linguistic distance and language learning. Ideally, this model would be a tool to help EU policy makers make informed decisions about language practices and education policies, taking into account their consequences in terms of diversity and linguistic disenfranchisement. The model can be used to force agents to make certain choices in terms of language skills acquisition. The user can then go on to compare different scenarios in which language skills are acquired according to different rationales. The idea is that, by forcing agents to adopt certain language learning strategies, the model user can simulate policies promoting the acquisition of language skills and get an idea of their impact. In this way, the model allows not only to sketch various scenarios of the evolution of language skills among EU citizens, but also to estimate the level of disenfranchisement in each of these scenarios.

“It’s a Black Hole . . .”: Exploring Teachers’ Narratives and Practices for Digital Literacies in the Adult EAL Context

2021 ◽  
pp. 074171362199151
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Tour ◽  
Edwin Creely ◽  
Peter Waterhouse
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Digital Literacies ◽  
Strength Based ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Teachers Perspectives

A strength-based approach to teaching digital literacies can advance language education for adults from refugee and migrant backgrounds, preparing them for life in a new country. This article draws on a 6-month ethnographic study at an adult English language center in Australia and explores teachers’ perspectives and practices related to teaching digital literacies to understand how prepared they are to employ learners’ own resources. Using sociomaterial theory, this research found that English as an Additional Language (EAL) teachers’ narratives about learners focused on what they lacked rather than what they brought to learning. It also found that while teaching practices utilized some strength-based pedagogical principles, the teachers viewed their work as being deficient. They did not always recognize their agential power nor did they overtly understand that the technology itself afforded this power. The article concludes with implications for EAL practice and professional learning of teachers who work in the adult sector.

scholarly journals Teaching the Romanian neighbors Hungarian: language ideologies and the Debrecen Summer School

Multilingua ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Attila Gyula Kiss
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Summer School ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
The One ◽  
Hungarian Language ◽  
Historical Discourses

AbstractThis article is a contribution to the hitherto scant literature on learning a historical minority language and on language ideologies in the context of a study abroad program in Hungary, Debrecen. I analyse the language ideologies of the decision makers in Hungary and in the Debrecen Summer School in relation to the teaching of Hungarian to the neighboring peoples. Drawing on interactional data of participants from Romania, the perspective of learning Hungarian as a historical minority language is examined. The present article combines a historical approach with language ideologies by focusing on an institution offering language education. Language ideologies are presented as they appear in the larger historical discourses, contemporary documents, and media interviews. I briefly outline the major turning points in the history of the institution which also reflects the changing language ideologies and cultural politics of Hungary. The qualitative discourse analysis of interviews and the conclusion of this ethnographic study demonstrate that language ideological positions in relation to the teaching and learning of Hungarian have been firmly located in historical and cultural contexts. Discourse analysis of various data demonstrates that, on the one hand, the course providers have espoused competing ideologies of who the learners should be as well as how to present the country and the culture, while, on the other hand, showing that the learners have had to negotiate prejudice and stereotype rooted in discourses about the often burdened history.

The “other(ing)” costs of ESL

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ena Lee
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Student Identities ◽  
Global Language

While the commodification of English as a global language may give rise to varying degrees of political and economic benefits for language learners, a simultaneous “cost” of this return may be a continued perpetuation of various forms of hegemony. In this vein, this one-year case study investigated a Canadian post-secondary English as a Second Language (ESL) program that analyzed the interconnections between language and culture through a critical dialogic approach. Classroom observations, however, revealed that disjunctions existed between the pedagogy as it was conceptualized and the practices of the instructors teaching there and suggested that the “critical” discourses mediated within the language classrooms essentialized culture and, subsequently, the identities of the students. This paper presents the voices of students from Mainland China as they attempted to negotiate their local and global identities within the larger sociopolitical contexts of the English language, generally, and English language education, in particular. I argue that classroom discourses can (re)create subordinate student identities, thereby limiting their access not only to language-learning opportunities, but to other more powerful identities. This paper thus highlights how ESL pedagogies and practices might address and contest hegemonic discourses and concomitantly reimagine student identities in more emancipatory ways.

21st CENTURY IN GERMAN LANGUAGE LEARNING : IMPLEMENTATION OF CYBERGOGY CONCEPT

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-135
Author(s):  
Eldaa Crystle Wenno
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Language Education ◽  
21St Century Learning ◽  
German Language ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Study Program ◽  
Descriptive Case Study ◽  
The Times

As a place for learning activities, educational institutions must adapt to the times to not be viewed as a threat in the current era of education 4.0. Along with 21st-century learning needs to foster students' creative, innovative and competitive attitudes by implementing technology as an auxiliary medium in the learning process to produce quality students. This research is a descriptive case study to explore the application of the cybergogy concept about facing the challenges of learning in the 21st-century, especially in lecturing German in the courses offered by students. The sample in this study were students in semesters II, IV, and VI of the German Language Education Study Program, with 35 students. The instruments used in this study were questionnaires, interviews, and document review. Data from questionnaires, discussions and document reviews were analyzed using descriptive statistics referring to the Milles and Huberman stages. The results showed that the concept of cybergogy had been applying 30% synchronously and 70% asynchronously. On average, 93-94% of students and lecturers have used technology-based media in the German language learning process because of the availability of teaching materials and supporting facilities for information and communication technology to face 21st-century learning.

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