Castledown Journals
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Postgraduate instructors’ formative feedback on EFL students’ assignments in email communication: A gender-based study
No full textThe present study seeks to delve into the intricacies of feedback strategies adopted by male and female Jordanian EFL postgraduate university instructors when responding to their students’ assignment submissions and inquiries via asynchronous communication mode, namely email communication, to see if there are any significant differences in their use of these strategies due to the gender of the instructors (male vs. female). A corpus of 180 emails was put under investigation (90 sent by male teachers and 90 sent by female instructors). These were analyzed quantitatively using a t-test to capture if there are significant differences in the use of formative feedback strategies between male and female Jordanian efl instructors. The analysis was couched within a set of frameworks which all provided different types of corrective feedback, namely, Schute (2008) and Narciss and Huth (2004). Subsequently, a qualitative analysis followed in order to show how and why teachers implement a given formative feedback strategy. The findings indicate that female instructors employed more formative feedback strategies in comparison with their male counterparts. The most frequently used strategy among female teachers was direct feedback, the provision of cues and information tutoring, while male teachers made more use of questioning and in a number of emails, they provided no feedback. In light of the findings of the present study, some pedagogical implications might come to the fore
Engagement beyond a tour guide approach: Korean and US elementary school students' intercultural telecollaboration
No full textThis paper reports findings from a case study of intercultural telecollaboration between elementary school students in South Korea and the United States via the social networking service Classting. The goal was to provide an opportunity for Korean students with limited exposure to authentic English language communication to interact with native speakers of English and for the US students to experience online intercultural activity in class with the hope of promoting intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in both student groups. The study applies Byram’s (1997) model of ICC to analyze patterns of engagement within the communication between students. Findings indicate that although both student groups endeavored to create common ground in their intercultural encounters, there was a tendency to relate to each other by enacting a Tour Guide Approach towards their own culture and a Tourist Approach (Byram, 1997) towards the other culture. Findings also show, however, that students went beyond such approaches during “off task” interactional moments, drawing on shared small cultures to initiate more authentic interpersonal engagement and opportunities for knowledge exchange
A developmental framework for online language teaching skills
No full textThis article focuses on the need for teachers to develop online skills and describes how experiential, participant focused workshops can change the way in which language teachers can integrate technology into their teaching and help them to successfully implement these 21st century skills. It starts by briefly sketching the development of online language teaching in distance pedagogy and introducing the skills development for teachers and the necessity of online teaching skills before outlining previously developed frameworks in this area. The article then describes how – within a European context of increasing demands on language teachers’ technological competence – a dynamic framework for experiential teacher training workshops was developed that is based on a pyramid of online teaching skills. Bringing together insights from research and more than a decade of experience in online teacher training, this article sets out this developmental framework and argues for the need of participant focused, flexible and dynamic training opportunities for language teachers
Translanguaging as a boundary crossing mechanism: A Turkish-American Youngster and her linguistic negotiation of three discursive spaces
No full textIn order to effectively respond to the increased linguistic and cultural diversity in the U.S. schools and close the consistently documented achievement gap between culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students and mainstream students, teachers need to take an asset-based approach and be able to draw on CLD students’ entire funds of linguistic knowledge. However, few studies have examined CLD students’ linguistic choices in multiple discursive spaces with different linguistic norms, values and practices. This article addresses this research gap through a case study of Elif, a Turkish American student and her linguistic boundary crossing experiences within and across three discursive spaces: her home, her Turkish heritage language school, and her mainstream school. Through in-depth analysis of interviews, observations, and field notes, the study revealed that Elif experienced different linguistic environments and boundary types. She negotiated experiences that ranged from smooth to managed to insurmountable boundaries. Finally, translanguaging practices acted as a key boundary object that mediated sociocultural discontinuities in the Turkish heritage language school, and facilitated Elif’s experiences between Turkish dominant and English dominant discursive spaces
Eroding the monolingual monolith
No full textAustralian schools are increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse places, and yet, the monolithic weight of the “monolingual mindset” (Clyne, 2008) still hulks at the centre of Australian education systems. Despite this, there is increasing recognition of the value of multilingualism, and the importance of incorporating students’ home languages and multilingual abilities into teaching and learning. Teachers, teacher educators and curriculum developers seek guiding principles for multilingual approaches and examples of effective strategies which can be adapted and translated for diverse educational contexts. This paper suggests some principles which support effective multilingual pedagogy, illustrated with examples from students learning English as an additional language or dialect (EALD) and their teachers in two South Australian secondary schools. At a foundational level, a multilingual stance underpins the success of multilingual pedagogies. Attention to both vertical and horizontal dimensions of multilingualism (Heugh, 2018) is central to effective multilingual pedagogy. Additionally, the expertise of both students and teachers must be recognised and specified. Multilingual students are experts in using and managing their multilingual repertoires for interaction and learning, while teachers are responsible for learning design, teaching school literacies, and maintaining a supportive learning environment. A key to success is that multilingual pedagogies are developed from and respond to students’ existing multilingual practices. It is hoped that these principles can help extend discussion around the use of multilingual resources and translanguaging practices in school-based learning, and give impetus to collaboration engaging students, teachers and researchers in action research and development of multilingual pedagogies. In this way, Australian education might begin to emerge from the shadow of the monolingual monolith
Assessing low-level cognitive processes of word recognition
No full textA fundamental skill required for vocabulary development is word recognition ability. According to Perfetti (1985), word recognition ability relies on low-level cognitive processing skill to be automatic and efficient in order for cognitive resources to be allocated to high-level processes such as inferencing and schemata activation needed for reading comprehension. The low-level processes include orthographic knowledge, semantic knowledge, and phonological awareness. These low-level processes must be efficient, fluent, and automatic in second language readers in order for them to achieve the ultimate goal of reading comprehension. This article briefly describes the concept of word recognition, its relation to vocabulary, and three tests that were designed to measure the three components of word recognition (orthographic, semantic, and phonological knowledge) in a longitudinal study that investigated the effects of word recognition training on reading comprehension
Students’ evaluation of a classroom bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy
No full textA bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy advocates student’s unrestricted classroom access to their own technology devices to assist in the completion of learning objectives. Literature illustrates that implementing byod can cause trepidation at the administrative and teaching levels due to the potential negative consequences and distractions that it can cause, despite the benefits that can be claimed. Investigations into the use of BYOD in university level second language education in Japan are limited. Similarly, it is also largely unknown whether students can make the tangible shift to using their own devices in the classroom to assist in completing tasks while remaining task focused. This study illustrates student’s evaluations of a BYOD policy in a two-semester Academic English report writing and presentation focused program. It reveals, through a detailed categorization and illustration of qualitative comments, that students made a meaningful and positive shift in opinions. At the conclusion of the program, students placed a high value on the ability to use their own devices to achieve positive task outcomes. This study can build reassurances amongst teachers that student’s use of their own devices in the classroom can be targeted, beneficial and motivating
Intelligent personal assistants for autonomous second language learning: An investigation of Alexa
No full textThe ubiquity of smartphones and the growing popularity of smart speakers have given rise to cloud-based, intelligent personal assistants (IPAs), such as Siri and Google Assistant. However, little is known about the use of IPAs for Autonomous Second Language Learning (ASLL). Thus, the aims of this study were twofold: to assess Japanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ perceptions towards IPAs, also known as virtual assistants, for ASLL, and to better understand learner behavior of these technologies. A total of 14 Japanese university students were given smart speakers and interacted with a companion IPA, Amazon Alexa, over a two-month period in their homes. Moreover, the participants completed a survey consisting of Likert-scale items and open-ended questions to obtain their views of the IPA for ASLL. While the results indicated that the students had mostly favorable views of Alexa for L2 learning, many of them did not actively engage with the virtual assistant during the data collection period. Furthermore, students tended to give up when faced with communication difficulties with the IPA. These findings highlight the potential of IPAs for ASLL and underscore the gap between what students say, and what they actually do, with language learning technology
Storyboarding-based collaborative narratives on Google Docs: Fostering EFL learners’ writing fluency, syntactic complexity, and overall performance
No full textThis study examined the impact of storyboarding- based collaborative narrative writing using Google Docs on EFL learners’ writing fluency, syntactic complexity, and overall performance. For this purpose, a cohort of 30 EFL college learners was selected and exposed to a nine-week intervention where they collaboratively wrote storyboarding-based narratives on Google Docs. This study adopted a pretest posttest quasi-experimental mixed-method design in which both quantitative (writing tests) and qualitative (reflection as well as group and self-evaluation cloud forms) data were collected and analyzed. Results of the study revealed significant differences between students’ pretest and posttest mean scores on writing fluency and overall writing performance with a large effect size. Conversely, there was no significant difference between their mean scores on syntactic complexity. Qualitative results showed that most students appreciated the storyboarding-based collaborative narrative writing activities on Google Docs and reported that they were of much benefit to them
Digital ethnography for culture teaching in the foreign language classroom
No full textWith the increasing recognition of the importance of developing intercultural competence in foreign language education, there is now much discussion amongst scholars and teachers as to how to move beyond fact-based approaches to teaching culture by promoting more interpretive and reflective learning within a critical frame. Whilst study abroad is often seen as the ideal context for promoting such learning, this paper considers the possibilities of enacting a digital ethnographic approach to culture teaching within the foreign language classroom. Such an approach involves engagement with online resources in the studied language for the purposes of identifying and interpreting diverse linguistic and cultural forms, as well as critiquing problematic cultural representations. This paper begins with a brief overview of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Mobile-Assisted Language Learning, and then goes on to consider three main approaches to teaching culture with the use of computers and mobile devices. The paper then puts forward a number of concrete pedagogical suggestions for the implementation of a digital ethnographic approach to teaching culture in the foreign language classroom which emphasizes interpretation and critical reflection