TEACHING LANGUAGES FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES WITH TECHNOLOGY: WHAT TO TAKE TO THE DIGITAL CLASSROOM

The article focuses on the experience of online language learning in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic at Sechenov University (Moscow, Russia). Due to the differences in accepted professional communication practices in medical sphere in Russia and abroad there is a need of commenting, propagation and constant focusing on the part of the instructor. The aim of this research was to obtain a clear and a detailed picture of medical students’ attitude towards the change in the mode of delivery in teaching languages for medical purposes, which occurred during the lockdown and triggered a sudden shift in the roles. We analyzed the technologies used, the alterations to the academic content, modes of delivery, and the student’s attitude towards ESP/EMP employing mainly a quantitative methodology of gathering and analyzing data. The survey of the students showed that, though there is a strong preference in favor of technology use and more independent learning, they fully understand the role of the instructor in the process.

Translanguaging Pedagogy to Support Bi/Multilingual Students' Language Learning in Social Studies

This qualitative case study investigates how Mrs. Vega, a high school social studies teacher, supported her emergent bi/multilingual immigrant students' development of academic, content-based language learning in a U.S. Government class. Drawing upon data collected as part of a larger ethnography and using translanguaging pedagogy as a theoretical frame, this chapter centers Mrs. Vega's translanguaging stance, design, and shift. Findings demonstrate the multiple and varied ways Mrs. Vega's pedagogy supported her students' already-present linguistic and cultural abilities in support of their disciplinary learning. Implications are provided for theory and practice.

Evidence-Based Transition Practices

Preparing youth to become active and independent citizens is a critical goal for all societies. However, youth with disabilities are less likely to achieve the same adult outcomes as their non-disabled peers. Although there is a growing body of research that has identified best practices regarding the facilitation of youth with disabilities from school to an inclusive adult life, many teachers do not have the requisite skills or knowledge to facilitate this process. This chapter explores best practices in transition education for teachers beyond the academic content, identifying eight key strategies that should inform teacher preparation programs. Using a case study from Iran, this chapter critically reflects on the relevance of these strategies in an international context, where inclusion and education of students with disabilities is an emerging field.

Preparing Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teachers: Developing an Equity-Oriented Teacher Education Curriculum

As classrooms worldwide are becoming increasingly diverse, teacher education programs need to develop an equity-oriented curriculum, integrating domains of knowledge that prepare all classroom teachers to support the academic content and language learning of immigrant students. The first step of such an effort is to systematically examine the existing curriculum for its strengths and gaps. Using the conceptualizations of culturally and linguistically responsive teachers as an analytical tool, the study critically examined 31 out of 110 course readings required by five teaching methods courses of a US nationally ranked elementary teacher education program. The findings reveal an overall restricted focus on issues of supporting bilingual students and a discrepancy among topics addressed in different subject areas. The study calls for problematizing the “just good teaching” mindset, dismantling the deficit and monolithic portrayal of bilingual communities, acknowledging the complexity of teaching bilingual learners, and striving for conceptual coherence in curriculum reconstruction.

Using dyadic observation to explore equitable learning opportunities in classroom instruction

Because of poverty, many children do not receive adequate prenatal care, nutrition, or early childhood education. These inequities combine to ensure that many students enter school with considerably less academic content knowledge and skills for learning than their peers. Teachers and schools did not create these gaps, but they must address them. The impact of schools in reducing gaps has been explored for decades only to yield inconsistent findings. One possible reason for these contradictory results is because these studies ignore classroom process. We argue for the inclusion of process in research on opportunity and achievement gaps to better articulate if schools provide inequitable learning opportunities. Further, we argue for dyadic (teacher to individual student) measurement of classroom process because commonly-used observation instruments only measure teachers’ interactions with the whole class. These instruments obscure differential teacher treatment that may exist in some classrooms. To improve policy and practice, we call for supplementing extant measures of teachers’ whole-class interactions (process) and student outcome (product) measures with those that measure dyadic interactions to learn how opportunities to learn in classrooms and schools are distributed among students to reduce, sustain, or enhance learning gaps.

Towards a Sustainable Classroom Ecology: Translanguaging in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in a Finance Course at an International School in Shanghai

Pedagogical translanguaging has emerged as an important strategy facilitating the sustainable use of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in educational settings. This mixed-method study, conducted in an EMI finance classroom at an international school in Shanghai, China, investigates the translanguaging practices of students in classroom interactions as well as their attitudes toward translanguaging as a communicative and pedagogical strategy. Drawing on video-assisted classroom observations and semistructured interviews, this study reveals that the participants’ translanguaging practices are motivated by ease of communication, facilitated by contextual resources, and reflect their strategic maneuvering of the linguistic resources in their repertoires. The data also suggest that the participants are generally positive about translanguaging as an aid in comprehension and for the enhancement of content learning. Some participants, however, expressed reservations about the acceptance of translanguaging as a standard, formal linguistic choice. The findings suggest that EMI teachers should recognize the linguistic resources of students in their entirety and incorporate them into classroom activities to promote biliteracy and the learning of academic content.