Language Acquisition
Learning to Write versus Writing to Learn: Students’ Perspectives on the Acceptance and Benefits of Their Experiences with Instruction in Writing
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hsiuling Robertson
Writing in Chinese has been one of the most difficult parts of learning the language. Most teaching focuses on grammar, vocabulary, and reading. Writing, on the other hand, has been neglected compared with these other skills. In the United States, learning to write in Chinese is often not even included in the current curriculum but exists chiefly as a by-product of classes in reading. Only recently, with the development of the Chinese language pedagogy the instruction in how to write is received more attention. In my heritage classes, I employ process theory, a test of learning; and post-process theory, a tool for learning other things through learning to write. When the former, I find that most students struggle to write a few short paragraphs consisting of simple sentences using basic words and phrases with little variety in sentence structures. With the latter, I find that learning to write helps students to better understand the subject of their writing and explain it to others. However, these observations are from my perspective as an instructor. In the presentation I first briefly introduce the process and post-process writing theories. Then I introduce how I apply these theories into my classes. The main focus is to explore the acceptance and benefits of students’ experiences with instruction in writing from students’ perspectives. A questionnaire and interviews were used for this research.
Emerging Practice in Speech-language Therapy in a Community Practice Context
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kristen Abrahams, Harsha Kathard, Mershen Pillay, Michal Harty
The profession of speech-language therapy (SLT) continues to struggle with issues around equity and service delivery. The study uses education as the entry point of exploration into how innovative practice may be developed. The study describes an emerging SLT practice (as developed SLT students), as part of the Schools Improvement Initiative, a university-community partnership. The data collection methods used were observation, document review, interviews, photovoice and experiential drawings. The results illuminate how SLT students navigate through their experiences of disruption of their traditional practice. It shows how critical engagement with political, historical, social and linguistic factors underlying their work in communication, facilitates new learning and insights into SLT practice. Shifting educational practices from a positivist to a critical curriculum framing provides students with a platform to interrogate the current SLT practices, re-examine the viability of our practices to serve populations and to reflect on how we as a profession can adapt and change with the changing healthcare landscape.
The Problem of Language Acquisition in Short-term Study Programs
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alan Garfield
Studies of language acquisition often footnote study abroad as a kind of effortless magical solution for painless language-related solutions. In fact, a consistent body of research clearly concludes that study abroad can have a positive impact on every domain of language competence. That data assumes study abroad experiences that are traditionally measured in semesters or years. Yet as reported in the U. S. Open Doors Study (Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State) over the past five years, full semester study abroad programs in the United States have stalled while short-term programs (eight weeks or less) are clearly in the ascendancy. What is the effect of short-term study abroad programs on students’ desire for language learning? This paper is based on a trial study of undergraduate students, not foreign language majors, and the degree of receptiveness for language acquisition before and after a short-term study program. With full semester programs on the wane, we have to examine how language learning is perceived by students in short-term study. The research is clear regarding first person intensive exposure in promoting language skills; this study quantifies motivation in students who participate in short-term programs. Language acquisition has a new friend.
Making a Social Difference through Students in Schools
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Helen Sadig, Cecile De Cat
There is no more powerful transformative force than education (UNESCO, 2015) and no greater conduit for learning in schools than language. With approximately one in five pupils in the UK speaking English as an additional language (EAL), there is a growing need to adopt a linguistically-informed pedagogy across the curriculum to support the development of pupils’ cognitive academic language proficiency (Cummins, 1984) or academic literacies. Our study responds to this civic need by providing language pedagogy training to enhance the quality and impact of a “Students into Schools” scheme at the University of Leeds. The scheme sends students into local schools to provide literacy, numeracy and discipline-specific support on a voluntary basis or as a credit-bearing module. We deliver EAL training both to the students taking part in the scheme and for local teachers (as a CPD opportunity). Data collected from individual teacher interviews, along with online teacher and student surveys, are being used to inform the development of this training. We present initial findings that highlight the need to promote an inclusive, multicultural approach; prioritize language for learning across the curriculum; and provide strategies that develop metalinguistic awareness, facilitate communicative activities and scaffold learning through visual and contextual support. These strategies appear to benefit all pupils, including not only EAL pupils but also monolingual English-speaking pupils from traditionally disadvantaged backgrounds who lack the academic literacies to succeed in mainstream schooling.
