Rethinking the English pedagogy at Hope College in Taiwan

For many years Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and an English-Only approach to English teaching have characterised pedagogy at Hope College in Taiwan.

These approaches have had a significant impact on the ways in which students understand their cultural identities and develop competency in both oral and written English. Sometimes, in the EFL context in Taiwan, an English-Only policy can impact on students' learning in two ways. Firstly, it may cause students to doubt the validity of their own culture in comparison to English speaking culture. Secondly it may lead to students' resisting English culture because of enhanced feelings of nationalism. Furthermore, sometimes, students may feel disturbed when learning English in an English-Only class because the lack of cognitive understanding usually makes them misunderstand the content expressed in the target language (English) and misuse the target language.

In this paper I consider the need to reintroduce elements of the Grammar-Translation method to an EFL context and suggest an integrative pedagogy in which native English-speaking teachers, applying English only in the classes, focus on teaching listening and speaking to directly foster students' English linguistic competence, while local English teachers, applying both English and Chinese in the classes, focus on teaching reading and writing to foster students' in-depth cognitive ability of English culture and suitable written expression. The purpose of such integrative pedagogy is to keep students' cultural identity as well as advance students' understanding and correct use in English.

Literacy in the digital age : learning from computer games

The need for literacy and the English curriculum to attend to digital literacies in the twenty-first century is well established. Although studies in digital literacies have examined the inclusion of computer games in schools, there has not been an extended study of English teachers incorporating computer games into their teaching and learning through action research projects. This paper outlines the structure and progress of a research project exploring the uses of computer games in English classrooms. We argue that much can be learned about the teaching of both print and digital literacies from examining computer games and young people's engagement in online digital culture in the world beyond school.

An online environment for value added learning : more than you bargained for

Online web-based technologies are increasingly being used in educational and professional contexts to create an effective environment for teaching or professional learning. A number of studies have explored the intersections between on and off line teaching and learning, participants’ perceptions, and claims of connectedness and community fostered by online sites (Jones, 1998; Rheingold, 1995; Soderstrom, 2006). This paper will outline the development, functionality and usefulness of the online environment (Drupal) installed and used to support the Australian Government Summer School for Teachers of English. It includes an analysis of the virtual environment (social software) established for the Summer School. The research project aimed to determine what aspects of an online environment supported the success of this national professional development activity that incorporated physically present, and online communication, connection, and collaboration between 200 teachers over a period of seven months. In this paper the site manager explains their role and perspective of the potential of social software for learning.

Improving English language teaching in Thailand

The teaching of English in Thailand is a matter of national concern. The national government believes that the ability of Thai people to use English for effective communication is very important for the continuing economic development of Thailand. However many students who have had primary, secondary and university exposure to English find it difficult to conduct a conversation with a native speaker of English. The reasons for this include lack of student motivation and contextual support, large classes, the dominating effects of assessment on what is taught, and the English language competency of the teachers. The research in this thesis focuses on the teaching of English as a foreign language in secondary schools in Khon Kaen. The research reported here consists of one major and three minor studies. In the major study some of the principles of action research were used to explore strategies that would improve the teaching of English in a number of secondary schools in Khon Kaen in Thailand. In the first phase of the major study I worked with two teachers to design and implement a series of classroom activities that encouraged lower secondary students to use English. In the second phase I worked with a group of teachers to design and deliver a professional development program for twenty school teachers interested in improving their English language teaching. In the third phase I used data from the first two phases to design five new activities that were used in classrooms by two teachers. Findings from the three phases indicated that working collaboratively with school teachers can be a mutually beneficial professional experience and can improve student interest and learning. In the first minor study I used interview-conversations to investigate the perceptions that subject co-ordinators and teachers have towards English language teaching. The conversations covered the merits of detailed curricula and curricula frameworks, professional development, assessment, resources, and integration of English language with other subjects. It was clear that the teachers were aware of the national government s policies for the improving English language teaching and accepted the need for change. It was equally clear that the preparation of teachers and the resources available were major limiting factors in schools to teacher effectiveness. In the second minor study I examined the teaching of Mandarin in an Australian school that suffered from some of the same resource problems as Thai schools. Although there was only one teacher available for all of the Mandarin classes in the school she was extremely effective. Her teaching was an example of best practice. It included thorough preparation, the ability to manage lessons at the pace of the learners, active classes and individual attention, detailed assessment records, and the integration of language and culture. Some or all of these could be used in Thai schools. The third minor study was an investigation of the professional development experiences of English language teachers in Thai schools. In most schools there are consultative and administrative mechanisms, acceptable to principals and teachers, in place to support professional development. Access to native speakers was seen as very important. However, the schools in Khon Kaen province have little or no access to native speakers of English. Even if they were available, the schools do not have the funds to employ them. Findings from the four studies indicate that it is quite possible to use interactive, participatory or student-centred pedagogies to teach English as a foreign language in Thai classrooms. However, one cannot expect teachers to adopt such pedagogies unless they are convinced of their value. This can be achieved most effectively through a systematic and sustained program of professional development.

Gender and genre : a case study of a girl and a boy learning to write

This study addresses questions of gender and genre in early writing by drawing on systemic linguistic theory, It is a longitudinal case study that compares the writing development of two children, a boy and a girl/ who learned to write in classrooms that adopted an approach to writing known in Australia as 'process writing1, The children's written texts were analysed using the systemic functional grammar as developed by MAK, Hallidey and the models of genre and register as proposed by J,R, Martin. The children were followed for the first two and a half years of their schooling, from the first day of kindergarten to the middle of grade two. They were observed weekly during the daily ‘writing time’ and all texts were collected. Although the children were ostensibly 'free’ to determine both the writing topics and text types they produced, systemic analysis revealed that: 1) the majority of texts written were of one genre, the Observation genre, in which the children reconstructed their personal experience with family and friends and offered an evaluation of it. 2) a significant pattern of gender differences occurred within this genre, such that the boy reconstructed experience in terms of the male cultural stereotype of being an active participant in the world, while the girl reconstructed experience in terms of the female stereotype of being a more passive observer of experience. It is the strength of systemic linguistic analysis that it revealed how the choices the children made in language were constrained by a number of social and cultural contexts, including: a) the teacher's theoretical orientation to literacy; b) the models of spoken and written language available to the children; and c) the ideology of gender in the culture. In particular, the analysis made visible how children appropriate the meanings of their culture and socialise themselves into gender roles by constructing the ideology of gender in their writing. The study contributes to an understanding of genres by offering a revised description of the Observation genre, which derives from the Observation Comment genre originally identified by Martin and Rothery (1981). It also raises a number of implications for teacher training and classroom practice, including the need for: 1) increased teacher consciousness about gender and genre, especially an understanding that choices in language are socially constructed 2) a critical reassessment of the notion of 'free topic choice’ promoted by 'process writing' pedagogy, a practice which may limit choice and tacitly support the gender status quo.

Encounters with 'strangers' : towards dialogical ethics in English language education

This article takes the inquiry into 'nativeness' and 'non-nativeness' to the level of developing an ethical framework for professional practice in English language education. In so doing, our aim is firstly to use the 'sociology of the stranger' as a framework to problematize discourses on the Other and Othering. We shall argue that these discourses are sedimented in the modernist project of perpetual purification in which "order making ... becomes indistinguishable from announcing ever new abnormalities, drawing ever new dividing lines, identifying and setting apart ever new strangers" (Bauman, 1997, p. 11). Our next step is to open up the possibility of transcending these discourses in education through a dialogical ethics of respecting the otherness in the Other. Pedagogy based on the ethics of dialogical recognition emphasizes the value of difference in learning through the 'surplus of vision' that the Other provides for constructing new meanings and new ways to mean (Bakhtin, 1981; Levinas, 1969). The recognition of 'the foreigner in the self' has significant pedagogical implications for language educators and marks the movement from ethics to politics.

English and its others : towards an ethics of transculturation

The article focuses on the significant role of English subject in the quality education. It states that a dialogical ethics might play in English education today as an alternative to the latest forms of political moralism in schooling the other. It highlights the need for a shift from the contradictory moralism of empowerment to a dialogical ethics of teaching and learning English language and literarcy for students and teachers to obtain a critical distance from their cultural bearings.

Policy rhetoric and the renovation of English schooling: the case of Creative Partnerships

Facing difficulties in the implementation of its ‘standards’ agenda, the English government has recently introduced a set of policy strategies and initiatives which seek to promote enjoyment, innovation and creativity in education. One such initiative is Creative Partnerships (CP). Funded predominantly from the Arts portfolio, CP brings creative practitioners into schools with the intention of bringing change to teaching and learning, and, more widely, of achieving whole school change. Using a corpus of policy texts and interviews, we examine the claims made within CP about innovation and indicate the rhetorical means by which the impression of radical change is married to the standards agenda. In particular, we highlight the ways in which texts re-work traditions of progressive change. We argue that this rhetorical recuperation of the ideals of an earlier period is a sign of a more general policy adjustment in English education. However, since it is combined with a continuing commitment to market-driven change, it cannot be said to be indicative of a new policy settlement.

Language learning strategies of adult ESL learners using virtual independent learning environments

This case study explored the influence of the Virtual Independent Learning Centre on the preferred language learning strategies of adult immigrant English as a second language learners. Findings expand the understanding of English as a second language learners' use of language learning strategies within online independent learning environments.

e-learning through digital theatre : breaking down the tyranny of distance and limits of location

In this article, we report on a cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural digital exchange project between Australian Drama and Education students and Dutch English Language and Culture students, and examine the impact of the place-independent, technology-mediated communications and collaboration on their learning trajectories. The intensive, intercultural collaboration between the two groups of students resulted in a 50-minute group-devised, digital theatre play entitled Quarter Acre Dreaming. This play, performed through live interactive media by both Dutch and Australian students, traced the historical development of the Australian suburb, while integrating scenes of Dutch immigration into Australia. In the creative process, the students on either side of the globe interacted through Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), and used videoconferencing and Skype for live rehearsals and discussions to advance their learning of English, their performance repertoire and cross-cultural understanding.

Beyond externalizing and finalizing definitions : standards for teachers of english language and literacy in Australia (STELLA)

This article explores issues relating to the development of the Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia (STELLA). STELLA is the product of work by members of the Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE) and the Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA), the two key professional bodies in Australia representing secondary English teachers and primary school literacy teachers respectively. However, the question remains as to the extent to which English literacy teachers around Australia can meaningfully identify with these standards. This article asks whether professional standards can provide a framework for practitioner inquiry and the renewal of the English teaching profession in contradistinction to managerial pressures to impose standards for regulatory purposes.

Blended learning in finance : comparing student perceptions of lectures, tutorials and online learning environments across different year levels

In modern pedagogy, a blended approach is used comprising both face-to-face and online learning. This study investigates how undergraduate students majoring in finance view the different learning environments, and evaluates the changes in perception over the three years of the degree after controlling for gender, age, international/domestic student and English as a first language. Using a purpose designed survey instrument, students across the three years of undergraduate study rated the importance of lectures, tutorials and web-based learning environments in a blended learning model. The results indicate that there is still a strong preference for face-to-face learning. Additionally, there were significant differences in attitudes and perception by year level.

Introducing creative language learning in Japan through educational drama

Educational Drama as a teaching and learning methodology is already widely in use and well accepted by Australian teachers and students. This paper reports on a study in which the author investigated Japanese primary school students' and teachers' responses to educational drama as a pedagogical tool in their English language classes. The participants had no prior experience of drama in education. Along with the participants' responses, the applicability of educational drama as a teaching method for the Japanese teachers is also discussed. The author, as a teacher-researcher, used action research methods for this study. It became evident that educational drama tended to motivate the Japanese students' foreign language learning of English, by providing them with an opportunity for a higher level of engagement and participation in learning. In the study, the students showed enhancement of the skills necessary for learning, including social, communication, linguistic, non-linguistic and problem-solving skills.