Korean Transnational Students’ School Adjustment: An Ecological Perspective

This research explored Korean early study abroad students’ school adjustment in the U.S., as well as how their microsystems (family, peer, school) affect their experiences. To understand their experience, we posed two research questions: 1) What are Korean early study abroad students’ experience like in adjusting to American middle schools? and 2) How do these students’ microsystems (family, peer, and school) affect their experiences in the process of adjustment? Four Korean early study abroad students participated in a collective case study. Each student was interviewed three times and observed in both their content area and ESL classes. All students described tremendous challenges in adjusting to their new school in the U.S. Specifically, their challenges were pertaining to different aspects of learning experiences as well as school belonging. While their limited English proficiency was a primary factor in these challenges, a lack of support from their peers, parents, teachers and school also seemed to affect their school adjustment. Moreover, findings indicated disconnections among their microsystems, contributing to a lack of support in their school adjustment

Beyond Motivation

There have been many promises about the benefits of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in classrooms. The assumption underlying those benefits is that computers would be used in a student-centered and a constructivist learning approach, departing from a teacher-centered teaching approach. The uses of computers in the classroom, however, vary depending on the teachers' perceptions and expectations of computers. There is little known about the ESL/EFL teachers' teaching beliefs and perceptions about the role of computers in their classrooms. This study examined 10 ESL/EFL teachers who enrolled in both a teacher education program and an advanced certificate of educational technology program. The grounded theory method was employed to understand these teachers' perceptions of computers in their classrooms. For data collection, each participant was interviewed for 50 minutes. The findings suggested that these teachers' perceptions and expectations of computers favored their use as instructional tools. In spite of the recommendations in the literature of CALL, ESL/EFL teachers' perceptions of the role of computers are limited to a supplemental and instructional tool in their language classrooms. Furthermore, teachers' perceptions of CALL were still based on a teacher-centered teaching paradigm.</jats:p

Designing and Developing the Virtual English Adventure in Second Life

This chapter describes the process of design and development of the Virtual English Adventure in Second Life. The in-depth description and explanation of designing and developing the tasks and activities involved in the Virtual English Adventure project provides the scale and amount of time and effort required to utilize a virtual tool for educational purposes. The Virtual English Adventure is particularly designed for English teaching and learning. The virtual world configurations, such as level tests, teleporting, missions, e-learning, interaction, gaming, and learning-facilitators, are related to both learning theories and language teaching pedagogy. Based on our own experiences, there are some important recommendations for instructional designers and researchers to consider when they design and develop the educational use of a virtual world

EFL Teachers’ Spatial Construction of Linguistic Identities for Sustainable Development in Globalization

Grounded in Gidden’s space theory, this case study examines the construction of linguistic identity in Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers teaching in a major Chinese city with regard to their language-learning experiences and beliefs about the roles of English as a language within the context of globalization. The data were collected from semi-structured interviews with two Chinese EFL teachers and observations of their classrooms. The narrative and thematic analyses show how two Chinese EFL teachers came to have preferences for moving from the “periphery” to the “center” of a monolingual or multilingual foreign-language community in different ways. The findings not only reveal how English as a language relates to globalization, they also broaden our understanding of the complex formation of identity of the language teachers within a global context.</jats:p

Designing and Developing the Virtual English Adventure in Second Life

This chapter describes the process of design and development of the Virtual English Adventure in Second Life. The in-depth description and explanation of designing and developing the tasks and activities involved in the Virtual English Adventure project provides the scale and amount of time and effort required to utilize a virtual tool for educational purposes. The Virtual English Adventure is particularly designed for English teaching and learning. The virtual world configurations, such as level tests, teleporting, missions, e-learning, interaction, gaming, and learning-facilitators, are related to both learning theories and language teaching pedagogy. Based on our own experiences, there are some important recommendations for instructional designers and researchers to consider when they design and develop the educational use of a virtual world.</jats:p