TESL Canada Journal
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Fostering the Development of ESL/ASL Bilinguals
No full textThis article provides a bilingual perspective about literacy development in deaf students and uses the bilingual perspective to recommend effective teaching strategies for this group of students with special needs. In the case of deaf students, however, the bilingualism is not between two oral languages, but between American Sign Language (ASU and written English. The analogy of Deaf education to bilingual education is imperfect, as the article shows, but nonetheless helpful in suggesting educational strategies. One difference from classic bilingual education is the difference in mode of the two languages, with ASL using a haptic mode (signing) and written English using a visual mode. Another difference is the nontraditional nature of Deaf communities. Although ASL communities certainly have histories and traditions, Deaf individuals rarely learn these from family ties or immersion in a kinship-based culture that "speaks" ASL. Despite these differences in language mode and cultural transmission, teaching deaf students benefits from many strategies usually associated with the teaching of second languages, including fostering motivation, developing self concepts, understanding language development, knowing elements of a student's first language, allowing judicious translation,focusing on comprehension rather than syntax, and incorporating cultural values and native speakers-signers as role models
Gender Positioning in Education: A Critical Image Analysis of ESL Texts
No full textThis article is adapted from a project report prepared for the author's MA in Education, the objective being to report the use of an adapted analytical technique for examining the images contained in contemporary ESL textbooks. The point of departure for the study was the identification of the trend in mass-market ESL materials from textual to visual communication, a trend discussed in the text. Together with this semantic shift, a political-economic agenda has been identified in the existence of organizations such as the British Council; the objective of the analysis was to discover whether the increasingly predominant images used in ESL texts convey a particular vision of and/or positioning of gender reality as part ofa wider-reaching agenda. The article provides background to the evolution of critical image analysis, followed by a rationale for the project based on the current realities of the global ESL market. There follows an outline of the data selected for analysis and the results of the image interrogation. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the ramifications of the study and the potential for further research work
Form-Focused Instruction in Communicative Language Teaching: Implications for Grammar Textbooks
No full textThis article examines a number of adult ESL grammar textbooks via an author designed checklist to analyze how well they incorporate the findings from research in communicative language teaching (CLT) and in form1ocused instruction (FFI). It concludes that although a few textbooks incorporate some of the research findings in CLT and FFI, they are not necessarily those chosen by the teaching institutions
Collaboration to Explore Teaching: A Case Study Report
No full textThe purpose of this study was to analyze the collaborative efforts of two EFL teachers to explore teaching with a view to solving problems in their respective classes. In so doing the study also attempted to investigate whether this process of collaborative reflection would lead to a change in these EFL teachers' instructional practices and attitudes toward teaching. The results of this qualitative research study indicate that during the process of collaboration, the participants formulated their own agenda for developing strategies to cope with their problems and for a possible change in their classroom practice. Moreover, the dialogue between the teachers seemed to affect their perception of an ideal teacher, although there was no change in their beliefs concerning to the extent to which they themselves had these characteristics of an ideal teacher
Bringing Life to Research: Life History Research and ESL
No full textDespite its potential, life history methodology has seldom been used in TESL research. This article first defines what is meant by life history research methodology, and then examines how it might benefit our research in TESL. Answering the question, What are the benefits of life history research? the author examines how life histories in other fields and in her own research have shifted focus from the extraordinary to the mundane, and from the universal to the singular, while simultaneously adding previously marginalized perspectives, challenging and informing theory, allowing for comprehensive reinterpretation, locating research historically, and encouraging the production of invitational texts. The author further argues that participants in life history research benefit from being listened to and from framing their stories in terms of overcoming adversity, while the researcher benefits from becoming critically involved with her or his participants. The final section of the article addresses some of the potential pitfalls of life history research, including reliability, verifiability, the tendency toward exoticism, difficulties with translation and authorship, and the "afterlife" of research. The article concludes by asserting that life history is one methodology that is powerful enough to begin recording the complexities of race, class, language, history, and cultures in our classrooms
An EAP Course for Chinese MBA Students
No full textThis article describes an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course for Chinese Master of Business Administration (MBA) students. Unequal English language learning opportunities overseas means that many otherwise excellent candidates are denied access to graduate programs at Canadian universities. Consequently, the Second Language Institute at the University of Ottawa decided to make ESL training estimates based on scores from the Canadian Test of English for Scholars and Trainees (CanTEST) for a group of Chinese applicants to the University of Ottawa's MBA program. Thirty-four candidates participated in an innovative EAP course that combined teaching language, study, and acculturation skills, whereas some candidates were also required to complete 240 to 480 hours of Intensive Four Skills English before undertaking the EAP course. Successful completion of the EAP course constituted fulfilling the requirements for admission into the MBA program. Teaching staff from both the Faculty of Administration and the Second Language Institute provided input into the EAP course