Text next : new resources for literacy learning

This collection of resources provides classroom examples and case studies, offers a platform of ideas for teachers to investigate new ways of building the literacy development of their students.

English for a new millennium : leading change

Book overview: This book came about as a result of The Australian Government Summer School for Teachers program that was announced as part of the 2007-08 Budget Package: Realising Our Potential. The Summer School brought together over 200 academics, teachers and education department officials for a smorgasbord of keynote presentations, workshops and social events that is unlikely to be repeated in this country. English for a New Millennium gives every English teacher an opportunity to share in the richness of that experience. It includes contributions from Catherine Beavis, Ray Misson, Elizabeth Webby, Gabriel Matters and Clare Bradford.

Negotiating curriculum work in ESL

Conducting applied research in workplace settings on and/or with colleagues raises a host of ethical and procedural issues about research. Empiricist, interpretive, and critical approaches all have a place in understanding, describing and changing curriculum perceptions. As one moves from one paradigm to the other the voices of the agents in the curriculum process become increasingly prominent. With reference to some of my own workplace research under the three paradigms mentioned above, I describe ways in which educational research in workplace settings represents curriculum reality and can act as an engine of change.

Constructing emergent literacy : negotiating literacy technologies in preschool-school transition

Examines conflicting views about early literacy in homes, Preschools and schools as interactive technologies challenge traditional print-based literacies. The research found that significant differences between children's multimodal literacies and versions of emergent policies, may threaten successful literacy acquisition.

School-based materials for critical reading in English

This research aims to examine Thai students' critical thinking ability in reading English by using materials developed by a research team using a collaborative action research methodology. Initially, a survey of self-percpetions of Thai secondary students on their critical thinking ability was conducted. Then, two Thai teachers were interviewed about their materials and methodology in teaching students to read critically. Lastly, a literature of critical literacy was reviewed to introduce the notions to Thai teachers and Thai students.

From play to poetics

An expedient approach towards organizing ideas and drafting at the sentence-level, play with phrase structures in the Vygotskyan tradition demonstrates the often unexploited possibilities afforded to composition students through creative experiential learning; circumvents prescriptive pedagogies; and makes explicit a student's tacit awareness of standard grammars and more valued rhetorical conventions.

A processability approach to agreement morphology in Arabic L2

This thesis tests the processability theory (PT) (Pienemann 1998;2005) predictions for agreement morphology in the acquisition of Arabic L2. The thesis has demonstrated that, apart from a few cases, learners of Arabic L2 acquired the test structures according to the PT's predictions for L2 sequential development.

Imagining future selves

This thesis reports how a vision of an ideal self as a speaker of English in the imagined global community where English is being used as lingua franca (ELF) by a vastly growing number of non-native English speakers (NNESs) for a wider communication alongside their L1, positively influences Taiwanese students' engagement in learning English in an exam-dominant context.

Optimal models for the provision of postgraduate programmes in TESOL for tertiary teachers of English in a developing country

Investigates the major theoretical and practical issues related to distance education and English language teacher retraining. Suggests a number of models for the provision of Australian postgraduate programmes in TESOL for the upgrading of the teaching qualifications of Vietnamese tertiary teachers of English.

Developing english skills through reflective portfolios in Hong Kong universities

This research concerns the use of portfolios by teachers of English (L2) to assist non-native speakers in Hong Kong universities to complete their studies in English. Portfolios as an English learning tool have yet to win converts from the ranks of language teachers in Hong Kong chiefly because of concerns about reliability and fairness. Two recent initiatives in Hong Kong have, however, prompted a reappraisal of the place of portfolios in English language learning. They include the use of learning portfolios in secondary school and ePortfolios by university students for learning and employment purposes.

As an English (L2) teacher of many years, I initiated my research to investigate the experiences of seven university students in Hong Kong in using reflective portfolios for English learning. Three research questions framed my research: 1) in what ways can reflective portfolios impact on L2 learning strategies? 2) what are the effects of reflective portfolios on progress in L2 acquisition as perceived by students? 3) what are the perceptions of university students towards reflective portfolios as a method of L2 learning?

To gain a holistic understanding of the complex phenomena under scrutiny, a case study methodology and grounded theory were utilised, the former to organise and generate qualitative data, and the latter to analyse data from three sources provided by the seven participating students: semi-structured interviews, portfolio artefacts, and weekly learning diaries.

There were two levels of data analysis. For the first level, analysis focused on coded data from portfolio artefacts, diary entries and interview transcripts as reported by students. The second level involved analysis from the Confucian and sociocultural perspectives. I pursued interpretation and continuous refinement of the data by using techniques drawn from grounded theory. The findings revealed that students generally employed a wide spread of L2 learning strategies in the cognitive, meta-cognitive, and socio-affective domain, reported increased awareness of effective language strategies, and considered portfolios a means of supporting time management and record-keeping, and a site for extended writing practice through reflection.

The findings suggest that students display a cyclical, context-specific shift in learning conception from quantitative to qualitative. Connected to this is students’ apparent ability to formulate strategic responses to externally imposed demands. It is found that such responses are culturally triggered, underpinned by Confucian beliefs. Although the Confucian tradition emphasises respect for established authority, the findings point to students’ creative re-configuration of mental schemata to engender change in role enactment and power relations, with the portfolio as a mediating tool of their experiences.

Based on the findings, I argue that my research has addressed the three research questions and contributed to two crucial aspects of L2 learning. The first pertains to the need for a balanced view of individual effort and social context in second language acquisition, corroborating the significant link between context and learner engagement. Another contribution centres on an enhanced understanding of the relationship between portfolios, reflection and L2, where students’ diaries in English and portfolio artefacts enable them to engage in critical reflection and to identify strategies for L2 improvement.

A cross-national study of teaching and learning in primary science classrooms

This presentation reports on the methodological issues confronting an Australian-German-Taiwanese team planning comparative video ethnographic research into primary science classrooms. The issues that will be canvassed include: the benefits of cross-cultural comparisons in providing perspectives on local practice, the theoretical justifications of such comparisons, selection of cases for comparison and possibilities for claiming cultural representativeness, the planning of appropriate data sets, the different comparative stories offered by different analytical frames, practical issues of communication and data sharing, and issues of entanglement of language and culture in the analysis.

Teaching and learning mathematics and science in a second or third language

 This study investigates the interaction between languages used for particular purposes in mathematics and science classrooms and the accompanying multimodal resources that support teachers’ strategies. The dual investigation sets this study apart, and produces its originality and contribution to the field. It develops a novel multimodal description of pedagogic strategies in multilingual mathematics and science classrooms in Malaysia.

Language background and language mastery in Indonesia : implications for the maintenance and teaching of the national language

The linguistic environment in Indonesia is extremely complex with some 700 local languages existing alongside the national language, bahasa Indonesia. The majority of Indonesians speak one of these local languages as their first language and begin formal study of the national language in school. This paper discusses some of the difficulties in creating a population that is fluent in the national language and considers the impact to those who are unable to master Indonesian to a degree that allows them to participate fully in the modern state. The role of teachers as models for language mastery is also considered in the context of their de facto role as language teachers, regardless of subject taught.

Adopting web-based learning and teaching: a case study in higher education

Most universities worldwide are becoming distance education providers through adopting web-based learning and teaching via the introduction of learning management systems that enable them to open their courses to both on- and off-campus students. Whether this is an effective introduction depends on factors that enable and impede the adoption of such systems and their related pedagogical strategies. This study examines such factors related to adopting a learning management system in a large multicampus urban Australian university. The research method used case study approaches and purposively selected the sample consisting of innovative teaching academics from across the university, who used web-based approaches to teach both on- and off-campus learners. The data were analyzed using a combination of Rogers' theory of diffusion of innovations and actor-network theory and revealed a series of enabling and impeding factors faced by pioneering technology-adopter teaching academics, some of which are technology related while others are policy related and common to large multicampus institutions. The study found that safe adoption environments recognizing career priorities of academics are a result of the continuous negotiation between the evolving institution and its innovative and creative staff. The article concludes with a series of conditions that would form a safe, enabling, and encouraging environment for technology-adopter teaching academics in a large multicampus higher education setting.