Education and language

La didattizzazione di materiale autentico rappresenta una delle attività che il docente compie per favorire l’acquisizione della lingua straniera e motivare i propri studenti. Esistono degli indubbi vantaggi nell’utilizzare materiale autentico didattizzato in classe, poiché esso rappresenta un ‘evento comunicativo completo’, è estremamente dinamico, flessibile e diversificato, è indubbiamente motivante per lo studente di qualsiasi età.

Issues surrounding the decision of which language/s to use in formal education are of great importance to education policy makers in developing countries. However, this area is often ignored in studies of education systems. This study explores issues surrounding linguistic diversity and its implications for education, together with political concerns about language and resultant government language policies. Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Mali, are linguistically complex and have low literacy rates. These countries are concerned about the high levels of drop-outs and retakes in their school systems. In order to alleviate this, many have tried the introduction of indigenous languages in a variety of bilingual education programmes. One such programme, Pédagogie Convergente, combines the use of indigenous languages with an innovative pedagogy. This study contributes to the debate on linguistic diversity and language and education in Mali by researching the Pédagogie Convergente approach, and contrasting this with the Traditional French approach still being used in most Malian schools. It does this by focussing on the realities of everyday school life in one school complex. Data was collected using a variety of ethnographic research methods, including classroom observations, interviews, questionnaires and various recording techniques. The study concludes that Pédagogie Convergente appears to deliver a better education for Mali because students pass through the system more quickly, fewer drop out and students receive a better educational experience. But it argues that there are factors other than language and that the new pedagogy needs to be taken into account when evaluating the true benefit of the innovative approach

The Swedish educational policy for upper secondary English, which took effect in 2011 and adopts a globalized perspective on language, is explored with respect to how skills and awareness related to local, national, and international roles of English are represented in policy documents.  A discourse analytic approach to language policy is used to offer a critical reading of the national syllabus for English, the accompanying guide and commentary on the syllabus, and the general upper secondary curriculum.  Analysis, informed by the work of Robert Phillipson, shows how English is represented with respect to the specific functions it serves as a lingua cultura (a language indexing socially situated value systems), a lingua emotiva (a language of popular culture and entertainment), a lingua academica (a language of research, teaching, and learning), a lingua economica (a language of market forces and globalization), and a lingua tyrannosaura (a language of power or threat).  The findings show that sociocultural and sociopolitical dimensions are identified in the syllabus for English to a greater extent than academic and professional/vocational dimensions of English which are treated in more detail in the general upper secondary curriculum and that the relationship between plurilingualism and English is minimally addressed but nascent.

Online technology plays a significant role in higher education especially in assisting teaching and learning. In Afghanistan, to move towards student-centered and technology-driven learning, the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) encourages all universities to use technology to facilitate teaching and learning. This study, therefore, attempts to measure Afghanistan university students' perceptions of online tools utilization on their learning. A survey questionnaire was distributed to 217 students, and 35 of them volunteered to be interviewed. The results generally indicated positive perceptions of online tools utilization. However, participants believed that online tools are able to assist them develop surface learning better than deep learning. This is due to a number of barriers faced by the students, and universities in providing better learning experiences through technology. The findings suggest a need for trainings and constant exposure for both teachers and students for online tools to be effectively utilized to enhance learning.

The Handbook of Educational Linguistics is a dynamic, scientifically grounded overview revealing the complexity of this growing field while remaining accessible for students, researchers, language educators, curriculum developers, and educational policy makers.

-A single volume overview of educational linguistics, written by leading specialists in its many relevant fields

-Takes into account the diverse theoretical foundations, core themes, major findings, and practical applications of educational linguistics

-Highlights the multidisciplinary reach of educational linguistics

-Reflects the complexity of this growing field, whilst remaining accessible to a wide audience

This dissertation investigates the position of South Africa's 'First Peoples', the Khoehkoen and Bushmen, in relation to discourses of language, transformation, and higher education. It firstly presents the argument that the dominant thought paradigms in Afrikaans, the home language of most Khoekhoen and Bushmen South Africans and those descended from them, through which questions related to change and transformation are theorised are insufficient. To this end, the dissertation draws on Carli Coetzee's (2013) notion of 'accent', and theorises linguistic accentedness as a frame through which to analyse, and conceptualise, change and transformation in contrast to linguistic human rights and linguistic citizenship. The dissertation secondly analyses the various debates and concrete suggestions around the transformation of Afrikaans as a language. The lens of linguistic accentedness points to the current debates and suggestions as being unconducive to deep and sustained transformationspecifically in relation to Oranjerivierafrikaans, the dialect continuum of Afrikaans most associated with 'First People' speakers. Thirdly, the dissertation presents an overview of the available literature on Oranjerivierafrikaans, and using this literature, presents examples of how Oranjerivierafrikaans can be harmonized linguistically in order to elevate its status and functions, and specifically increase the hearability of Khoesan linguistic influences on Afrikaans.

The linguistic immersion policy implemented in Catalan schools, whereby Catalan is the only language of instruction (llengua vehicular), has been the focus of an intense debate in both Catalonia and Spain. Notwithstanding the political saliency of this debate over the last decades, no research has studied the preferences of the Catalans on the linguistic regime in the school system. This article is the first to consider Catalan opinions about this issue. Based on a survey of a representative sample of the Catalan population (N=2,200) launched in 2016, this article examines the preferences of the Catalan population regarding linguistic immersion and alternative linguistic policies. Results show that even when support for linguistic immersion and alternative policies are divided, preferences about the distribution of Catalan, Castilian and English teaching hours in the classroom are not polarised. The article also explores the alignment of preferences regarding linguistic policies and pro-independence sentiment in Catalonia, as well as the demand for English as a language of instruction.

The article gives the most important examples of classicism in the culture of Saratov province namely in architecture and education. The author focuses his attention on the activities of Ivan F. Sinaisky (1799–1870) as a teacher in Greek both in Gymnasium and in Orthodox Theological Seminary in Saratov. Works translated by I. Sinaisky from Greek, his manuals and dictionaries for those who learned Greek, as well as his articles on Greek and Greek authors are being considered in the context of Russian and European classicism.

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108779715
This book is explores the interconnected issue of language, education and nationalism, presented through an ethnography of mother tongue education in Nepal. The recent sociopolitical changes in Nepal has brought assimilationist notions of Nepali nationalism under tight scrutiny and drawn attention to more plural, inclusive and diverse notions of Nepaliness. However, differences notwithstanding, both assimilationist and pluralist visions continue to remain normative in its approach and often posit ethnic and national identity in opposition to each other. Drawing on the everyday practices in two schools, Jagat Sundar Bwonekuthi and Jana Kalyan Higher Secondary School, this book illustrates that social actors in minority language education do not necessarily select between minority identity and national identity, but instead shift the terms of engagement by discursively positioning ‘ethnic identity’ as ‘national identity’.
This book is based on the premise that language dynamics in public places reveal a lot about the process of negotiation of symbolic power that is underway in any sociopolitical context. Here, the book highlights two distinct but interrelated dynamics. On the one hand, everyday language practices in the schools display inward-looking characteristics by ensuring mother-tongue competency and conscious construction of unified ethnolinguistic identity. On the other hand, there are outward-looking dynamics of transcending ethnic boundaries and actively engaging with the broader national education system. The salience of these processes is the simultaneous membership to multiple groups and claims over public spaces and in the spaces of nationalism hitherto associated with Nepali. Contrary to the ideas of difference espoused in ethnic activism and the assimilationist ideas of homogeneity articulated in nationalist discourse, students made simultaneous claims to more than one social identity which were considered neither incompatible nor binary opposites. This emerging narrative of simultaneities in minority language education may help us to appreciate the issues of national and minority identity in a more open-ended way.

Full text

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323918231_Universities_Their_Responsibilities_and_the_Matter_Of_Language_On_Supplementary-Language_Summaries_in_Internationalizing_Academia


Language & Education 2018

The dominance of English in scientific production raises issues in relation to certain responsibilities of Swedish universities, linked to the dissemination of knowledge and the development of the Swedish language. In light of this, the article deals with Swedish-language summaries (SLSs) in English-language doctoral theses. It treats the SLS as an instrument of language regimentation, deliberately aimed at limiting the near-total dominance of English. Drawing on language policy documents , along with scholarly accounts and interview data, the article discusses the SLS as conceived by advocates in language policy and planning, university policy-makers, and active researchers. It is shown that the SLS is aimed at counteracting negative effects pertaining to knowledge outreach as well as register formation. I argue that there is a contradiction between these two aims: on the one hand, an SLS that is simple enough to bridge the gap between science and society is not likely to contribute to the expansion of advanced registers of Swedish; on the other hand, an SLS that takes seriously the task of expanding Swedish registers will be unintelligible for the wider audience. Yet, it may still serve as a reminder that languages other than English are worthy of consideration and use.

Entrapped in the parental aspiration of acquiring elite like proficiency in English pupils from the underprivileged sections appear to be precariously positioned in coping with the complexities involved in classroom pedagogical processes where, undue emphasis is given on the learning of English. Many of them happen to be first generation learners, and owing to which they find themselves overburdened by parental expectations. The pressure to perform is more intense from their parents' side than from their teachers' side. These parents themselves never went to schools but they seem to be well informed about the significance of good education and the benefits accruing from such education. The students, on the other hand, find a disjunction between the language of instruction and their MT (which also happens to be the community language). With English as the medium of instruction, most students struggle with an inherent incomprehensibility in the learning process. Consequently, the whole learning process appears to them as tardy, burdensome and 'joyless'. By contrast, students from well off families have good exposure to the English language even outside school. Furthermore, they have access to internet, journals, magazines, newspapers, storybooks, movies and English speaking peer group and relatives. Their social capital enhances their linguist capital-they are more likely to become proficient in the English language than their underprivileged counterparts. The paper tries to bring forth challenges faced by these students from working class background by conducting ethnographic interviews.

Widespread scholarly and political attention to language-related inequities in the 20th century precipitated a spate of orientations to language planning in multilingual societies. While various orientations indicate a shift from earlier deficit to affirmative views of multilingualism, vigorous debates persist about the logical and pragmatic merits of each orientation. The resulting advocacy for language and multilingualism has yet to result in widespread mother-language-based multilingual education policies and practices. This article reviews a strand of these debates (language as right or resource) and argues that these debates deploy stringent criteria of rationality and social justice that are discontinuous with empirical realities of multilingualism and plurilingualism. It uses ethnographic evidence from India and Nigeria to demonstrate that, instead of the fixities of such criteria, actual language decision making in complex multilingual societies demands an integrative approach to theory, policy, and practice that is dialogic, tentative, and promotive of all possible languages.

This chapter examines a recent innovation in Indonesia's education system: the establishment of English medium 'International Standard Schools' (ISS). Although the ISS programme has its supporters, it has been subject to considerable criticism in Indonesia for threatening national unity and contravening the national constitution, for exacerbating social divisions and for demanding too much of teachers. This chapter focuses specifically on the issue of the allocation of resources for the ISS programme.

Technology plays an important role in higher education to assist teaching and learning. Use of web 2.0 tools can assist students to have effective learning activities. Afghanistan Ministry of Higher Education encourages university English instructors to utilize technology in order to facilitate language learning and teaching. Use of technology for English language and literature students was encouraged by MoHE. This study, therefore, tries to measure students' perceptions on the effects of using web 2.0 technologies in enhancing writing performance. A researcher developed questionnaire was distributed to 303 tertiary students of English and literature, and 40 of them were volunteered to be interviewed. The results generally show positive effects of online tools utilization on enhancing writing performance. However, the participants indicated a number of barriers faced by the universities in using web 2.0 tools. The results suggests to the MoHE and university authorities in providing training programs for both teachers and students in order to familiarize with the effective use of online tools in language learning.

Online technology plays a significant role in higher education especially in assisting teaching and learning. In Afghanistan, to move towards student-centered and technology- driven learning, the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) encourages all universities to use technology to facilitate teaching and learning. This study, therefore, attempts to measure Afghanistan university students' perceptions of online tools utilization on their learning. A survey questionnaire was distributed to 217 students, and 35 of them volunteered to be interviewed. The results generally indicated positive perceptions of online tools utilization. However, participants believed that online tools are able to assist them develop surface learning better than deep learning. This is due to a number of barriers faced by the students, and universities in providing better learning experiences through technology. The findings suggest a need for trainings and constant exposure for both teachers and students

This volume provides a state-of-the-art snapshot of language and education research and demonstrates ways in which local and global processes are intertwined with language learning, use, and policies.  Chapters present new research and cutting-edge syntheses addressing current theoretical and methodological issues in researching equity, access, and multilingual education. Organized around three central themes --- bilingual education and bilingualism, the continua of biliteracy, and policy and planning for linguistic diversity in education --- the volume reflects the holistic and dynamic perspective on language (in) education that is the hallmark of educational linguistics as a field.

Widespread scholarly and political attention to language-related inequities in the 20th century precipitated a spate of orientations to language planning in multilingual societies. While various orientations indicate a shift from earlier deficit to affirmative views of multilingualism, vigorous debates persist about the logical and pragmatic merits of each orientation. The resulting advocacy for language and multilingualism has yet to result in widespread mother-language-based multilingual education policies and practices. This article reviews a strand of these debates (language as right or resource) and argues that these debates deploy stringent criteria of rationality and social justice that are discontinuous with empirical realities of multilingualism and plurilingualism. It uses ethnographic evidence from India and Nigeria to demonstrate that, instead of the fixities of such criteria, actual language decision making in complex multilingual societies demands an integrative approach to theory, policy, and practice that is dialogic, tentative, and promotive of all possible languages.

Entrapped in the parental aspiration of acquiring elite like proficiency in English pupils from the underprivileged sections appear to be precariously positioned in coping with the complexities involved in classroom pedagogical processes where, undue emphasis is given on the learning of English. Many of them happen to be first generation learners, and owing to which they find themselves overburdened by parental expectations. The pressure to perform is more intense from their parents' side than from their teachers' side. These parents themselves never went to schools but they seem to be well informed about the significance of good education and the benefits accruing from such education. The students, on the other hand, find a disjunction between the language of instruction and their MT (which also happens to be the community language). With English as the medium of instruction, most students struggle with an inherent incomprehensibility in the learning process. Consequently, the whole learning process appears to them as tardy, burdensome and 'joyless'. By contrast, students from well off families have good exposure to the English language even outside school. Furthermore, they have access to internet, journals, magazines, newspapers, storybooks, movies and English speaking peer group and relatives. Their social capital enhances their linguist capital-they are more likely to become proficient in the English language than their underprivileged counterparts. The paper tries to bring forth challenges faced by these students from working class background by conducting ethnographic interviews.

This study aimed at examining the influence of lecturers' language style to emotional state of students in Indonesia. This study originated from the emergence of emotional pressure felt by the students in learning process which one of the factors comes from lecturers language style (Gunawan, 2016). This study utilized qualitative and quantitative method. Participants were 30 students and 10 lecturers. The findings showed that language style greatly affects students' emotional condition. That emotional aspect comprises shame, surprise, enjoyment, sadness, anxiety, anger, pride, and disappointment. Statistically, shame places the highest position with 86, 67%, followed by surprise 78.33%, then enjoyment 70%, sadness 68, 89%, anxiety 60%, anger 58.89%, pride 56.67%, and disappointment 30%. Finally, these findings become essential in psychology education due to it is in line with theory of Plutchik (1980) which argued that academic emotional condition could influence students' learning motivation and their interpersonal relationship to lecturers.

In March 2020, WHO (2020) declared Covid-19 as a pandemic and most institutions embarked on Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT). Central to ERT have been Digital Learning Specialists (DLS) who have been actively supporting teachers to make and sustain the transition. However, there has been limited research on their own experiences and perceptions during ERT. This autoethnography employs Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory as a conceptual lens, to look at ERT through the perspective of a DLS working in language education. The findings indicate that ERT challenged me to reconsider my premises and beliefs and grow as a professional. I also acknowledge that ERT, despite the challenges it presented, had a positive
effect on digital language learning during the pandemic. Yet, concerns remain about whether education systems will embrace more pedagogically sound online learning approaches post-pandemic or whether they will settle with ERT.

This study aims to explore the policy-making process of Languages Connect-Ireland's Strategy for Foreign Languages in Education 2017-2026. For that purpose, we concentrate on the consultation process adopted by the Department of Education and Skills. Drawing on a concept of foreign language competence as human capital, the aim of this study is twofold. Firstly, we investigate the extent to which the submissions to the consultation process form a sequence with the final document, Languages Connect; secondly, we examine the Irish government documents and compare the submissions reflecting the government approach to language with those problematising such discourse. The former analysis reveals how a market-led valuing of languages is embedded in the government discourse. The latter analysis further shows that linguistic diversity did not receive as much attention as language competence. Bearing in mind that participatory and deliberative procedures are meant to provide legitimacy for policy decisions, the paper concludes by discussing some of the positionings taken in Languages Connect and the role of the procedural mechanisms employed in the consultation.