L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature
Not a member yet
461 research outputs found
Sort by
Curriculum and language in Aotearoa New Zealand: From science to Putaiao
Get PDFWhat becomes of knowledge when a language has been displaced through colonisation and is being recovered and revitalized? In the 1970s in Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand), Maori began teaching their children through the medium of te reo Maori [Maori language] (L1) in an attempt to save it from extinction. This paper explores the translation work in relation to a new technical language development (L3) based on the language of instruction (L2) for a new Maori language science curriculum [putaiao]. We argue that the development of new terminology, no matter how culturally sensitive the process is, creates new problems. First, the new words can be perceived as representing traditional knowledge and, secondly, traditional Maori knowledge will be erased with the new language. The challenge presented to all concerned is how students will develop a more authentic experience of Maori language, knowledge and culture. The paper argues that the journey between science and putaiao is an ongoing transformation based on language and the epistemology held within and is made more complex by the relationships that exist between L1 (home), L2 (school), and L3 (discipline specific) in a language revitalization context
The academic writing of teacher candidates: Connecting speaking and writing
Get PDFThis paper presents a small-scale study that examines the relationship between spoken and written discourse among master\u27s level teacher candidates at an urban American university. It analyzes the writing of teacher candidates before and after the introduction of a student-centered, group interaction methodology, the Nominal Group Technique. Some of the specific areas assessed are the relationship between what students said in their groups and what they wrote in essays, interaction dynamics among teacher candidates in groups, observer perceptions of group behaviors, and teacher candidates\u27 perceptions of writing performance before and after the intervention. The study also assesses teacher candidates\u27 essays (N = 9) and compares them to the essays of a control group (N = 8). A significant increase in scores is noted from pretest to posttest after the treatment. Reaction to the class experience was largely positive. Pedagogic implications arising from findings are considered together with some tentative pointers toward future research
Mother tongue education in Brazil: A battle of two worlds
Get PDFConsidered as both the salvation of the educational system and the main agent in the failure of the schooling process, mother tongue education in Brazil is a battlefield between the traditional or grammatical paradigm and the socio-interactionist paradigm. The battle occurs on several fronts from academy to textbook to law, and those who defend the socio-interactionist paradigm are winning most of them. However, the imminent victory of this paradigm can be problematic. The new paradigm needs to consider its excessive pragmatism and utilitarianism, among other difficulties, beyond the classroom. The socio-interactionist paradigm also needs to prove that it is capable of success in an area in which failure seems to be the rule, as shown by institutional evaluations of mother tongue education
The paradigms of Romanian language and literature curricula in the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century
Get PDFThis article is the synthesis of research focused on the history of the Romanian mother tongue language and literature curricula of the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century. The curricula I analysed comprise a history with complex syncopated rhythms, periods of re-constitution and recrystallisation alternating with periods of deconstruction and repression. The changes of rhythm are the result of the dialogue between the institutional policies of the Ministry of Education and the language, literature and education sciences. This dialogue was a positive and constructive one in the periods of socio-cultural and economic evolution of the country and absent or extremely tense during the communist period. The article presents a history of the curricular projects for the study of the Romanian mother tongue language and literature by middle and secondary school pupils
What place for literature in the education of French-speaking countries? A comparison between Belgium, France, Quebec and Switzerland
Get PDFThis contribution attempts a partial synthesis of a large international study (Collès, Dufays & Maeder 2003), which explores the teaching and learning of Romance languages in France, French Belgium, French Switzerland and Quebec. Each author analysed in their country or region the official instructions related to primary and secondary school and the plans of action related to teachers\u27 training. All dealt with the same questions. Considering those data, the analysis here focuses particularly on the section of the report concerning the teaching and learning of literature in French mother tongue lessons. Specifically, I address three questions:
1. Over the last 50 years, what place and value has been given to literature in the official programs for primary and secondary schools in the 4 countries or regions, compared to the other subjects considered as part of teaching French?
2. What are today\u27s prescriptions as far as literature is concerned? In relation to the contemporary debate between different paradigms, is literature first handled in terms of skills or in terms of knowledge ? Which values are these knowledges and skills bound to?
3. What about the teachers\u27 literature training? Are there important changes in this field which might be similar to the changes in the official prescriptions? Where were and are the teachers trained ? What were and are the nature of, the level required and the relative weight given to this particular training
‘Writing\u27 computer games: Game literacy and new-old narratives
No full textThis article presents a case study of the authoring of computer games by two secondary school pupils (a girl and a boy) in an English comprehensive school. The students\u27 work is analysed as examples of multimodal literacy, in which both narrative and ludic aspects of their games are taken into account. The analysis is set in the context of recent debates about media literacy, proposing that game-literacy can be seen as a subset of media literacy; and that full realisation of it will involve game design as well as game-play. The final section of the article considers a written proposal by a 12 year-old boy for a game based on \u27The Odyssey\u27, concluding that the conceptual apparatus of game-design offers new ways to approach narrative in schools
Literacy practises in kindergartens and conceptualisations about written language among Portuguese preschool children
Get PDFOur aim was to characterise the relationships between literacy practises developed in Portuguese kindergartens and children’s conceptualisations about the functions and nature of written language. The participants were 16 kindergarten teachers and 160 five-year-old children—i.e. a 1:10 teacher/child ratio. We developed an observation grid to characterise their literacy practises. It covers two main aspects of the teachers’ work: reading, writing and metalinguistic practises (14 items) and ways of supporting children’s attempts to read and write (16 items). It was used by two observers who spent two weeks in the kindergartens. The kindergarten teachers were divided into three groups depending on their literacy practises. In order to characterise the children’s conceptualisations about written language, in October and May we assessed both their perceptions of the objectives and functions of written language and their invented spelling. The results show that there are close relationships between literacy practises pursued by the three groups of kindergarten teachers and the children’s conceptualisations about written language
The Portuguese Language Area in secondary education curriculum: Contemporary processes of reconfiguration
Get PDFIn Portugal, the last decade has been characterised by important reforms in the educational system particularly of secondary education. The Portuguese Language Area, comprising different subjects, was submitted to deep changes concerning its aims, content, methodologies, and assessment. In this paper, it is my purpose to analyse some of those changes, focusing on their underlying principles, their main features and their impact both in the pedagogic field and in the public sphere. I consider firstly the political and educational circumstances in which the reconfiguration of the Portuguese Language Area in secondary education took place. Then, I proceed to describe the main features of the official pedagogic discourse that gives expression to such reconfiguration through an examination of the Portuguese Language Syllabus. After that, school textbooks are focused on, in order to understand how they interpret the official discourse and how they conceive pedagogic practice. Subsequently, as a means to capture continuities and discrepancies between pedagogic and public spheres, the analysis deals with a corpus of texts from the media that give voice to positions concerning the teaching of Portuguese. In the last section, according to the analysis previously developed, I discuss the tensions that lie across the Portuguese Language Area and that will probably regulate the directions of its development