L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature
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Interpretation and literary competences: Empirical approaches in key concepts in literary education
Get PDFTeachers learning in a London school: Autonomy and development in the 1950s
Get PDFIn the first two decades after the war L1 (English) teachers in Walworth School, an ‘experimental\u27 state secondary school in a working-class area of London, worked out, essentially by themselves, a common curriculum and pedagogy for the entire ability range of students. In developing their widely influential approach the teachers constituted themselves as a professional learning community, engaged equally in developing practice in a school and participating in the hopeful politics and culture of post-war Britain. A current research project is investigating this history.
Walworth was ‘experimental\u27 in that it was a pilot, set up in 1946, for the comprehensive schools that were intended eventually to constitute the entire London system. Unlike those in the traditional segregated system, these schools would take the full range of children rather than a group selected by results in a test. Walworth attracted both new and experienced teachers with a commitment to a democratic and non-selective model of education.
In a period when there was almost no support for teachers in the form of professional development courses, governmental guidance or prescribed curricula, London teachers, together with individuals from teacher education institutions, formed a professional association for English teaching. The association discussed aims and methods, organized research groups and campaigned for a fairer system of public examinations.
The article describes how Walworth English teachers, in sympathy with many in the London Association for the Teaching of English, achieved both greater understanding and more effective practice. It focuses on developments in a specific area of English: the relationship between spoken and written language. The account follows a succession of teachers who built for themselves a professional development environment in which they collaborated as intellectual equals with colleagues in higher education on a working theory of language learning. New approaches to children\u27s talk in the classroom opened up ways to fluency in writing, while members of the English department of the University of London Institute of Education developed the concept—initially not part of teachers\u27 working understanding—of ‘language\u27 as a function with spoken and written modalities the relationships between which were fluid and, potentially, mutually fructifying. Ideas from psychology and linguistics were crucial to the eventual formulation of something like a theory, though the impetus came as much from what teachers were finding in working with children of all abilities, not least in the new comprehensive schools.
For teachers in this period to act as full professionals despite the austere conditions of an economy still recovering from the war points to the power of their belief in education as a social and political project and their commitment to an ideal of democratic collaborative working. Teaching was influenced by the interaction in teachers’ lives between professional concerns and political and cultural engagement. The learning that some English teachers experienced in working collaboratively on developing the subject with an awareness of current research and ideas, in association with committed academics and as a contribution to building a more equal society, made their time at Walworth the most rewarding of their careers
Language competition and challenges in pluralingual education: The case of a Hakka school in Taiwan
Get PDFThe Council of Europe and Taiwan are both promoting plurilingual and intercultural education for all students from various social groups. This paper aims to challenge the assumption that language learning can be expected to benefit all students equally. A Taiwanese socio-cultural study on junior high school students\u27 (aged 13) English language learning processes was employed as an example for discussion. Findings from the Hakka School, which is the focus of this paper, revealed an issue of emerging inequality arising from enforcement of mother-tongue education policy in Taiwan. Language competition and identity clashes create a new and worrying divide threatening to widen existing gulfs not only between urban and rural regions but also among other social groups within Taiwanese society. This study leads to several conclusions which highlight some implications for first, second, or English language teachers, educationists, as well as policy makers in countries like Europe and Taiwan
Invented spelling programmes and the access to the alphabetic principle in kindergarten
Get PDFThis study aims to understand the effects of two invented spelling programmes in the development of children\u27s invented spelling, namely to the phonetization of writing and to understand the correlations between phonological awareness and knowledge of letters and the phonetization procedures. Fifty-six five-year-old were divided into two experimental groups and one control group. In the pre and post-tests, children\u27s spellings were accessed through pseudo-words that contained fricatives and stops worked during the programmes and other non worked phonemes, both in initial and in final position. In between, G1 worked the grapho-phonetic correspondences of fricatives and G2 of stop consonants. Results show that both experimental groups achieved greater progress in spelling than the control group with no statistically significant differences between the experimental groups. In these groups the participants were able to spell the worked and the non worked phonemes in initial and in final position correctly. In G1, statistically significant differences were found, with better results in the phonetization of the worked fricatives in initial position than in final position. The results also indicated that the number of letters known in the pre-test has a significant correlation with the number of phonetizations in the post-test, whereas phonological awareness does not
Participation in literature and content subject classes: Culture, ethnicity and social space(s)
Get PDFThis qualitative case study discusses six English Language learner (ELL) adolescents\u27 experiences of language use in ESL classes, English Literature classes and content subject classes (i.e., Math and Science) in high schools of Toronto, Canada. We found that participants perceived English Literature classes as a social space of “others” where they were more likely to keep silent for several reasons. In contrast, ESL classes and content subject classes were considered as a social space of “ours” within which they participated more actively with hybrid forms of language use and sociocultural practice. This article links the findings to the nature of social spaces and language use. In particular, the content and interaction in classroom activities are explored, which form multiple social spaces for language use and impacts learning outcomes. The study concludes with a discussion on content, interaction and local practice in the school curriculum to enhance second language learning
Linking \u27heritage language\u27 education and plurilingual repertoires development: Evidences from drawings of Portuguese pupils in Germany.
Get PDFThis article discusses the outcomes of an investigation of social representations of Portuguese primary school pupils in Germany towards “their languages” (mainly Portuguese and German) within a theoretical framework based on the concept of “Heritage Language” and its role in the development of plurilingual competences The results of the collected data (956 drawings from pupils in 7 German Federal States) point at the existence of: i) bounds between Heritage Language and the development of Plurilingual Competence; ii) stereotyped representations towards languages and cultures; and iii) the building up of a “linguistic culture”, since the pupils have already developed attitudes, knowledge and aptitude to deal with linguistic and cultural diversity. The study emphasizes the need to develop a more consistent multilingual awareness in order to optimize attitudes, knowledge and aptitudes evinced, namely in Heritage Language classroom
On teachers\u27 knowledge, skills and wisdom – and the inevitability of language
No full textThis article focuses on the concept of knowledge with a view on L1 teachers. Based on Aristotle\u27s epistemology, it explores how teacher knowledge could be described and understood.
The empirical foundation of the article is a case study of seven Icelandic L1 teachers. The article analyzes the concept of teachers\u27 professional knowledge and discusses questions such as: What kind of knowledge do the teachers actually possess and value? How do L1 teachers deal with the complexity of their work? Does their knowledge cover the needs of their profession? The analysis indicates that the L1 subject in some respects is in a special position: It addition to being a school subject, it relates to cultural traditions and values. Moreover, the subject relates to pupils\u27 development both as individuals and citizens, and so even deals with citizenship in a fundamental way. Furthermore, L1 is a tool for any subject: pupils need to read and to express themselves literary and orally in all classes. Besides, the subject often treats themes which affect pupils\u27 personally, e.g. due to the close connection between language and identity. Therefore teachers\u27 knowledge should include morality, in addition to academic and didactic skills
Policy in practice: Primary school English teachers learning about plurilingual and intercultural education
Get PDFIn an era in which the English language has assumed a preponderant role in education systems, particularly at primary school, it is important to understand in what ways English can contribute to plurilingual education and intercultural communication. But, what is the understanding of primary school teachers of English about plurilingual and intercultural education? What constraints do they face when they try to reconcile the English language syllabus with an awakening to languages and cultures approach as a step towards plurilingual and intercultural education? This article describes the representations of a group of English language teachers about the aims of English teaching at primary school; the development of professional knowledge regarding plurilingual and intercultural education, and the constraints and difficulties felt by these teachers as they manage the English curriculum and try to develop plurilingual and intercultural teaching. We conclude with a reflection on the implications of our findings for curriculum development and teacher education
Learning to read and write in bilingual contexts: A study and implementation program with indigenous Qom communities in Argentina
Get PDFThis paper aims to present a bilingual and intercultural program carried out with young children from indigenous Qom communities located in different areas throughout Argentina. The program seeks to promote learning and avoid the problems that these children often exhibit throughout the literacy acquisition process. Within a theoretical framework that combines psycholinguistic theories that recover the central tenets of the sociocultural perspective (Nelson, 1996, 2007), and literacy approaches from an intercultural perspective (Rosemberg, Borzone & Diuk, 2003; Borzone, Rosemberg, Diuk, Silvestri & Plana, 2004) we developed a series of educational materials to promote the learning of literacy in Qom and in Spanish to Qom children. The study articulates collaboration between researchers, teachers and community members, who selected community situations to be observed and carried out observation records. These records were used to write “ethnographic reading books”, intercultural storybooks that are used in the literacy settings. These “ethnographic books” reflect the children\u27s knowledge of his/her own dialect and community while integrating these with the standard language variety and other types of knowledge
Activity systems as cultural, cognitive and linguistic contexts for improving reading and writing practices in rural school
Get PDFThis study aims to explore the nature of the cultural break between family and school environments in rural communities in order to provide empirical support to the assumption that rural children knowledge is a valid basis for school learning. For exploring this assumption it is necessary to attend to each community activity systems since activity mediates human development (Vygostky, 1988). It is worth noting that activity systems involve physical, biological and social principles that natural and social sciences have identified and described in other contexts (ETSA, 1996; Gasché, 2001). The present work studies the activity systems of a rural community situated in Cordoba, Argentina. Data were analyzed taking Engeström´s model and Gasché´s categories (ETSA, 2001). Results showed differences between home and school environments were restricted neither to differences in the dialectal uses of Spanish nor to the operative knowledge about subjects: differences were found in knowledge identity itself. When this basis is not considered at school, children aren\u27t able to have an adequate access to decontextualized knowledge. So, the challenge is to understand the relevance of intercultural education, that is, to consider human experience diversity as a great opportunity to promote children development in every socio-cultural environment