TESL Canada Journal
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Prejudice in the ESL Classroom
No full textThis article about issues and strategies looks at the need for teachers to recognize prejudice among students in Canadian ESL classrooms. The author notes the lack of information on this topic in TESL courses and publications. A sampling of responses from ESL teachers interviewed about the issues is included and serves to highlight the need for more training and other forms of assistance. Finally, a collection of classroom activities is presented as ideas to encourage learners to honor diversity
Multiple Perspectives on Educationally Resilient Immigrant Students
No full textThis study explores in an innovative manner the notion of resilience in a group of immigrant students. Structured interviews were used to explore resilience issues with immigrant students enrolled in university. Two interviewers collected and recorded data together, but conducted separate and independent analyses to explore differences in results due to their own cultural backgrounds. Findings suggest that the traditional concept of resilience - one based on studies of students from lower socioeconomic classes in school in inner-city neighborhoods that identify social competence, problem-solving ability, autonomy, and satisfaction with school as significant resilience factors - is limited. The findings in this study suggest that immigrant students represent a different pattern of resilience related to a strong cultural belief in the value of education and the support, often financial, provided by their families. Interesting differences in interpretation related to the first culture of the researches suggest that "mirrored reflections" offers one way to capture differences in data interpretation resulting from researchers' backgrounds
From Generation to Generation: Survival and Maintenance of Canada's Aboriginal Languages, within Families, Communities and Cities
No full textThe survival and maintenance of Aboriginal languages in Canada depend on their transmission from generation to generation. Children are the future speakers of a language. This paper demonstrates that the family and the community together play critical roles in the transmission of language from parent to child. On their own, neither family capacity nor community support is sufficient to ensure the adequate transmission of an Aboriginal language as a population's mother tongue from one generation to the next. Intergenerational transmission is maximized in Aboriginal communities among families where both parents have an Aboriginal mother tongue. Transmission can be best realized with the support of the community in those families with either both parents or the lone parent having an Aboriginal mother tongue. Outside of Aboriginal communities, particularly within large cities, transmission and continuity is significantly reduced even under ideal family conditions of linguistically endogamous parents. For exogamous families, it appears that community effect, while positive, is nevertheless limited in offsetting their low rate of mother tongue transmission. Trends indicate continuing declines in intergenerational transmission accompanied by a decreasing and ageing Aboriginal mother tongue population and a growing likelihood that Aboriginal languages will be learned increasingly as second languages
Guidelines for the Selection of Topical Content in ESL Programs
No full textThe author contends that the topical content of ESL lesson materials in schools and universities is of ethical significance. Based on an established model for ethical judgment in social services, five guidelines for ethical selection of lesson topics are proposed and illustrated. Lesson topics must help ESL students: (a) adjust to local surroundings, (b) appreciate unfamiliar learning strategies, (c)
explore genuine interests, (d) embrace institutional standards of conduct, and (e) foster mutual acceptance in the face of conflicting perspectives. After highlighting the benefits of applying these guidelines, the article calls for further refinement of this set of guidelines
Presenting Canadian Values in LINC: The Roles of Textbooks and Teachers
No full textA survey of 63 employees in LINC programs in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta Indicated that the mandate of LINC to incorporate information on 'Canadian values' remains partly unfulfilled. Although professionally trained ESL instructors may be equipped to incorporate Canadian values into the content of classroom instruction, those who lack specific preparation are likely to rely on published texts. We analyzed 67 textbooks used in LINC programs. In general, most of the materials have little in the way of Canadian content and even less in the way of Canadian values. The survey responses suggested that some teachers dealt with general Canadian values if they cam up in class: others, however, felt that it was inappropriate to deal with such complex topics in LINC programs and that the proficiency level of LINC students was an obstacle. Most teachers felt that survival English was paramount in LINC
Achievement Goal Theory: A Perspective on Foreign-Language-Learners' Motivation
No full textIt has long been recognized that varying achievement goals elicit varying motivational patterns with varying behavioral consequences. Several sets of contrasting goal orientations have been proposed to explain differences in language students' achievement behaviors. A total of 135 third-year (n = 54 male; n = 81 female) students in a preservice English teacher education program participated in this study of goal orientation. The proposed goal orientations were measured by adapting the Goal Orientation Scale developed by Skaaalvik (1997) for the L2 learning domain, and students' language achievement was measured by a TOEFL test. Results indicated that students placed most emphasis on task mastery goals and that this was related to language achievement. Task mastery goals are negatively correlated with work-avoidance. Self-defeating ego orientation is positively correlated with both work-avoidance and self-enhancing ego orientation. The analysis also suggested that male students had a stronger
tendency to avoid work
What Four Skills? Redefining Language and Literacy Standards for ELT in the Digital Era
No full textOver the last 15 years, the rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT) has facilitated a revolution in how we use language. Online environments have facilitated creative and variable spelling using code hybridization and stylistic use of mechanical conventions such as punctuation and capitalization, lexical coinages, new genres and conversational shapes, new social networks, and digital identities. The traditional four-skills paradigm of text-based grammar study framing English-language teaching curricula no longer adequately describes language and literacies in the Information Era. This article examines changing language conventions in English used in online environments, theorizing directions for new and variable language conventions. The article makes the case that understanding relative language standards in digital environments is essential for teaching and testing appropriate and contemporary English language literacies
