Researching Language In Schools And Communities

Researching Language in Schools and Communities is designed for those who intend to carry out and / or study research in children's language development, teaching English as a second language, children's literature, casual conversation, social class and language variation, classroom discourse, reading processes, teaching writing, literacy and curriculum area learning, critical literacies and related areas. The contributors are among the foremost researchers in these fields. In this book they introduce approaches to help investigate such areas in applied langauge research using systemic functional linguistics (SFL). A key purpose of this text is to facilitate the further engagement of language researchers with SFL perspectives, encouraging more collaborative transdisciplinary work across different fields of study and theoretical approaches in projects of mutual concern. The first two chapters outline the key aspects of SFL descriptions of the relationships between language and social context and the inter-related descriptions of text structures and grammatical systems. This provides sufficient background to enable those coming new to SFL to make productive, critical use of the research reviewed, studies described and advice on project design provided in the following chapters. Nevertheless, the book is an introductory resource and particular attention has been paid throughout to the extensive provision of clear references to more elaborated accounts of the important issues discussed.

This book describes dialect differences in American English and their impact on education and everyday life. It explores some of the major issues that confront educational practitioners and suggests what practitioners can do to recognize students’ language abilities, support their language development, and expand their knowledge about dialects. Topics addressed include: *popular concerns about the nature of language variation; *characteristic structures of different dialects; *various interactive patterns characteristic of social groups; *the school impacts of dialect differences in speaking, writing, and reading, including questions about teaching Standard English; and *the value of dialect education in schools to enable students to understand dialects as natural and normal language phenomena. Changes in the Second Edition: In this edition the authors reconsider and expand their discussion of many of the issues addressed in the first edition and in other of their earlier works, taking into account especially the research on dialects and publications for audiences beyond linguistics that have appeared since the first edition. This edition is offered as an updated report on the state of language variation and education in the United States. Dialects in Schools and Communities is rooted in questions that have arisen in workshops, surveys, classes, discussion groups, and conversations with practitioners and teacher educators. It is thus intended to address important needs in a range of educational and related service fields. As an overview of current empirical research, it synthesizes current understandings and provides key references—in this sense it is a kind of translation and interpretation in which the authors’ goal is to bring together the practical concerns of educators and the vantage point of sociolinguistics. No background in linguistics or sociolinguistics is assumed on the part of the reader. This volume is intended for teacher interns and practicing teachers in elementary and secondary schools; early childhood specialists; specialists in reading and writing; speech/language pathologists; special education teachers; and students in various language specialties.

Drawing on sociocultural theories of learning, this book examines how the everyday language practices and cultural funds of knowledge of youth from non-dominant or minoritized groups can be used as centerpoints for classroom learning in ways that help all students both to sustain and expand their cultural and linguistic repertoires while developing skills that are valued in formal schooling. Bringing together a group of ethnographically grounded scholars working in diverse local contexts, this volume identifies how these language practices and cultural funds of knowledge can be used as generative points of continuity and productively expanded on in schools for successful and inclusive learning. Ideal for students and researchers in teaching, learning, language education, literacy, and multicultural education, as well as teachers at all stages of their career, this book contributes to research on culturally and linguistically sustaining practices by offering original teaching methods and a range of ways of connecting cultural competencies to learning across subject matters and disciplines.

This volume seeks to enable language and education practitioners and researchers to get a sense of the range of issues being pursued in language and education research and the array of methods employed to do so. It focuses on language and education in relation to society, variation, culture, and interaction. Its unity of purpose and outlook with regard to the central role of language as both vehicle and mediator of educational processes and to the need for continued and deepening research into the limits and possibilities that implies is most impressive.

This volume focuses on a case where community organizing, academic research and governmental responsibility were successfully mobilized and synchronized to bring about change in educational policy and practice. The focus of this book is the methodology implemented and the results obtained over the course of a year-long action research project on language and education in St. Eustatius, one of the islands of the Dutch Caribbean, commissioned by the educational authorities in both St. Eustatius and the European Netherlands. On the island, the language of instruction is Dutch, however, outside of the classroom most students only speak English and an English-lexifier Creole. The research project was set up to address the negative impact on school success of this disparity. It included a community-based sociolinguistic study that actively involved all of the stakeholders in the education system on the island. This was complemented by a multi-pronged set of research strategies, including a language attitude and use survey, a narrative proficiency test, in depth interviews, and a review of the relevant literature. The resulting report and recommendations were accepted by the government, which is now in the process of changing the language of instruction.

This edited volume offers a new look at community and heritage languages schools around the world, providing a comprehensive and nuanced portrait of language education and cultural understanding in and beyond school contexts. Covering research and practice, the contributors survey the global landscape of community and heritage language schools and explore new developments in the field to understand the challenges the schools face and discuss the impact they have on their students and surrounding communities. Chapters address key topics including language development, academic achievement, professional development, learner identity and agency, online learning, and teaching disruptions. Contributors highlight learners' voices throughout, with special attention to overlooked minority language communities and Indigenous voices. Through this wealth of thorough and insightful analysis, the contributors of this book position students of community/heritage languages schools as citizens of a plurilingual world who are central to global change. Abounding with original research, innovative ideas and cutting-edge teaching practices, this volume is ideal for courses on multilingualism and language and culture.

This text presents directions in classroom education generated by using ethnography and sociolinguistics as teaching tools, the theory behind these efforts, and the classroom practices involved. Chapters provide an introduction to ethnographic and sociolinguistic research, highlight the integration of students as researchers of culture and language in their own communities with concerns for academic learning, describe projects in which students studied language as sociolinguists, and describe how students' research on issues of culture and language was either a part of or led to their taking social action.

A ground-breaking book. For years educationists have sought evidence of genuine partnerships between schools and homes reciprocal partnerships where schools are as keen to foster home practices relating to literacy and learning as they are to tell families this is what we do and ask that they should do the same. Eve Bearne, Cambridge Un