Teacher cognitions on the integration of language arts in the new senior secondary English language curriculum in Hong Kong

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anisa Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Language Curriculum ◽  
Senior Secondary

Engaging Exam-Oriented Students in Communicative Language Teaching by ‘Packaging’ Learning English Through Songs as Exam Practice

RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822097854
Author(s):  
Kevin Wai-Ho Yung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Communicative Language Teaching ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Language Curriculum ◽  
Teachers And Students

Literature has long been used as a tool for language teaching and learning. In the New Academic Structure in Hong Kong, it has become an important element in the senior secondary English language curriculum to promote communicative language teaching (CLT) with a process-oriented approach. However, as in many other English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) contexts where high-stakes testing prevails, Hong Kong students are highly exam-oriented and expect teachers to teach to the test. Because there is no direct assessment on literature in the English language curriculum, many teachers find it challenging to balance CLT through literature and exam preparation. To address this issue, this article describes an innovation of teaching ESL through songs by ‘packaging’ it as exam practice to engage exam-oriented students in CLT. A series of activities derived from the song Seasons in the Sun was implemented in the ESL classrooms in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Based on the author’s observations and reflections informed by teachers’ and students’ comments, the students were first motivated, at least instrumentally, by the relevance of the activities to the listening paper in the public exam when they saw the similarities between the classroom tasks and past exam questions. Once the students felt motivated, they were more easily engaged in a variety of CLT activities, which encouraged the use of English for authentic and meaningful communication. This article offers pedagogical implications for ESL/EFL teachers to implement CLT through literature in exam-oriented contexts.

scholarly journals State educational agencies in an uncertain environment: Understanding state provided networks of English Language Arts curricular resources

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Serena J. Salloum ◽  
Emily M. Hodge ◽  
Susanna L. Benko
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
English Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Quadratic Assignment ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Language Arts Teachers ◽  
Arts Teachers ◽  
Organizational Ties ◽  
State Educational

Rapid adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Race to the Top (RTTT) competition, and backlash around these policies created widespread uncertainty among state educational agencies (SEAs). SEAs may have not had a clear direction about how to support standards implementation in a new context, and therefore, may have looked to their professional networks, their geographic neighbors or other highly regarded SEAs, or other sources for information and resources to guide their decisions about where to send teachers for information about standards. Drawing on institutional theory (Meyer Rowan, 1977) and isomorphism specifically (DiMaggio Powell, 1983), we posit that coercive forces (primarily due to RTTT application and CCSS status) as compared to mimetic and normative forces influenced the organizations to which SEAs turn for curriculum materials. Using Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure and a data set of over 2,000 state-provided resources for secondary English Language Arts teachers from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., we indeed found that coercive forces had a relationship with shared organizational ties, demonstrating that RTTT application and CCSS adoption influenced resource provision.

It’s All about Personal Connections

2012 ◽  
pp. 185-202
Author(s):  
Luke Rodesiler ◽  
Lauren Tripp
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
English Language ◽  
Networked Learning ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Language Arts Teachers ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Secondary English Language Arts ◽  
Personal Connections ◽  
Arts Teachers

Given the potential of informal online learning via social networks for supporting the career-long professional growth of in-service teachers, research must be conducted to better understand the ways in which today’s future teachers are being prepared for and experiencing such practice. This chapter presents the authors’ efforts to move in that direction, a qualitative study describing six pre-service secondary English language arts teachers’ perceptions of self-directed networked learning during a teaching internship. Findings suggest that participants perceived networked learning as a viable and valuable approach to supplementing professional growth despite also perceiving challenges in the form of context, identity, and time.

scholarly journals Analyzing Student Learning Gains to Evaluate Differentiated Teacher Preparation for Fostering English Learners’ Achievement in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms

2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Ryan Lavery ◽  
Joyce Nutta ◽  
Alison Youngblood
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Nonnative Speakers Of English ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
K 12

Researchers compared pre/post classroom assessment scores of n = 8,326 K-12 students taught by n = 288 teacher candidates to determine if a differentiated teacher education program prepared them to support English learners’ (ELs) achievement in classrooms including native and nonnative speakers of English. Candidates in Group 1 comprised academic subject (secondary mathematics, science, and social studies) teacher candidates, who completed six teacher preparation courses with 15 key assignments that included a focus on ELs. Certification areas for Group 2 candidates include language arts instruction (elementary, early childhood, and secondary English language arts). Group 2 candidates completed from 12 to 15 courses with 41 to 50 key assignments that included a focus on ELs. Results indicate that teacher candidates in both groups helped narrow the gap between ELs and non-ELs from pretests to posttests. ELs performed no differently when taught by candidates from either group. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed.

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