Understanding Language Classroom Contexts

Arguably the whole point of education is to effect change in what people know and are able to do. Globalization has contributed to a common perception worldwide of the need to introduce changes to the teaching and learning of languages. The success of many attempts to do so has been limited by insufficient consideration of implementation contexts. Understanding Language Classroom Contexts explores and illustrates how what happens in any (language) classroom is influenced by (and can be an influence on) the contexts in which it is situated. A clear understanding of these influences is thus the starting point for planning effective change. The book considers many visible and invisible features of the multiple layers of any context, and provides a framework for understanding the types of factors that may influence whether changes (planned by a teacher or externally initiated) are likely to be successful. The book will help teachers (and educational managers or change planners outside the classroom) to understand why their classrooms are as they are and so to make informed decisions about what can or cannot (or not easily) be changed, and suggests how any changes might be appropriately managed.

Practice Teaching surveys issues and procedures in conducting practice teaching. Written for language teachers in training at the diploma, undergraduate, or graduate level, Practice Teaching, A Reflective Approach surveys issues and procedures in conducting practice teaching. The book adopts a reflective approach to practice teaching and shows student teachers how to explore and reflect on the nature of language teaching and their own approaches to teaching through their experience of practice teaching.

Adopting a learner-centred approach that places an emphasis on hands-on child SL methodology, this book illustrates the practices used to teach young second language learners in different classroom contexts: (1) English-as-an-Additional-Language-or-Dialect (EAL/D) – both intensive EAL/D and EAL/D in the mainstream (2) Language-Other-Than-English (LOTE) (3) Content-and-Language-Integrated-Learning (CLIL), (4) Indigenous (5) Foreign-Language (FL). It will be particularly useful to undergraduate teachers to build upon the literacy unit they undertake in the first years of their course to explore factors that constitute an effective child SL classroom and, in practical terms, how to develop such a classroom. The pedagogical strategies for teaching young language learners in the six chapters are firmly guided by research-based findings, enabling not only pre-service teachers but also experienced teachers to make informed choices of how to effectively facilitate the development of the target language, empowering them to assume an active and effective role of classroom practitioners.

The starting point for this collection is a chapter by Dick Allwright on the language learning and teaching classroom experience entitled Six Promising Directions in Applied Linguistics. The other distinguished contributors respond to this discussion with their own interpretations and from their own experience. The collection problematizes prescription, efficiency, and technical solutions as orientations to classroom language learning. Complexity and idiosyncrasy, on the other hand, are recognized as central concepts in a move towards centralizing teachers' and learners' own understanding of 'classroom life', in the contexts of language learning, adult literacy education and language teacher education.

This volume demonstrates how various methodologies and tools have been used to analyze the multidimensional, dynamic, and complex nature of identities and professional development of language teachers in digital contexts that have not been adequately examined before. It therefore offers new understandings and conceptualizations of language teacher development and learning in varied digital environments. The collection of pieces illustrates a field that is recognizing that digital environments are the contexts of teacher learning, not simply the object of it, and that issues of identity and agency are central to that learning. As an excellent resource on digital technologies, CALL, gaming, or language teacher identity and agency, the book can be used as a textbook in various applied linguistics courses and graduate seminars.

By far the majority of South African students get their schooling in a second language, which means that our classrooms are multilingual. This state of affairs is not exclusive to our country, as can be seen in the many academic conferences on multilingual learning and teaching. Terms like translanguaging and biliteracy appear in many articles and books that discuss the role language in education. What makes the multilingual nature of our South African classrooms challenging, is the fact that many learners switch from one language of learning and teaching to another at various points in their school career: from home language to English or Afrikaans after the foundation phase, from one language of learning and teaching to another when they move to new schools, high school or tertiary institutions. This book is an attempt to highlight the transitions; from home to school, from foundation to intermediate phase, from primary to high school, and from high school to tertiary institutions.

In an attempt to fill the gap left by the many published studies on classroom second language research, this book explores a variety of human, social, and political issues involved in the carrying out of such studies. Many journals are chock-full of the results of classroom research, with evidence to support one claim or another about the efficacy of one teaching method or another. Many textbooks are replete with statistical procedures to be used, and with experimental designs to fit varying situations. Too often overlooked in these treatments are the human, social, and political issues involved in carrying out research in classrooms that are not one's own. What are the problems going to be when one attempts work such as this? What does one do on discovering that an administrator's agenda is different than one had thought? What does one do when a teacher resents intrusions into her classroom? This book offers a view on those kinds of issues, as presented and managed by successful classroom researchers themselves. The authors present their own experiences including, on occasion, their trials and tribulations and how they dealt with them. They lay themselves open to criticism in doing so, but they make their contributions much the richer as well. The classroom contexts extend to different countries, and range from elementary schools to universities. Some of the issues presented are: * the necessarily collaborative nature of the research; * the question of meshing pedagogically sound and experimentally acceptable practices; * the often strong possibility that political and social decisions will interrupt the research; * the perennial question of reporting out the results; and * the training of graduate student researchers.

Language Development: Understanding Language Diversity in the Classroom offers comprehensive coverage of the language development process for pre- and in-service teachers while emphasizing the factors that further academic success in the classroom, including literacy skills, phonological awareness, and narrative. With chapters written by respected specialists in various fields, this interdisciplinary text illuminates the impact of language development on learning success and distinguishes between language differences and disorders, integrating illustrative case studies as well as helpful classroom strategies that teachers can implement right away.