Language, Twitter and Academic Conferences

Using Twitter during academic conferences is a way of engaging and connecting an audience inherently multicultural by the nature of scientific collaboration. English is expected to be the lingua franca bridging the communication and integration between native speakers of different mother tongues. However, little research has been done to support this assumption. In this paper we analyzed how integrated language communities are by analyzing the scholars' tweets used in 26 Computer Science conferences over a time span of five years. We found that although English is the most popular language used to tweet during conferences, a significant proportion of people also tweet in other languages. In addition, people who tweet solely in English interact mostly within the same group (English monolinguals), while people who speak other languages tend to show a more diverse interaction with other lingua groups. Finally, we also found that the people who interact with other Twitter users show a more diverse language distribution, while people who do not interact mostly post tweets in a single language. These results suggest a relation between the number of languages a user speaks, which can affect the interaction dynamics of online communities.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, submitted to ACM Hypertext and Social Media 201

The use of critical thinking skills among university ESL students

This research was undertaken to measure the critical thinking ability of university ESL students and to determine the relationship between critical thinking ability and the (1) English language ability; (2) fields of study (or major); and (3) academic performance. The Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (CCTTX) developed by Ennis and Millman (1985) was used to determine the students’ critical thinking level and a questionnaire was administered to obtain other relevant data i.e. students’ English language ability, fields of study and academic performance. The respondents involved in the study were two hundred and sixty-one public university students in Pahang. The students’ CCTTX were marked and scores were given. Association between students’ critical thinking ability and English language ability, fields of study and academic performance were analysed via one-way analysis of variance using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version X (SPSS-X). The findings revealed that the overall scores obtained by the students in CCTTX test were low. There was a significant difference in the critical thinking scores with the students’ language ability. However, there were no significant differences recorded between the students’ CCTTX scores and their fields of study and academic performance. The implications of the findings for the English Language Curriculum were elaborated and relevant recommendations were made

Education and Achievement: A Focus on Latino "Immigrant" Children

Describes the Institute for Teaching English Language Learners' comprehensive program to boost English language learners' academic achievement by optimizing the environment, supporting teachers, increasing learning opportunities, and engaging families

Highly Qualified Teachers

One of the key features of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 is a requirement that all teachers in core academic areas be “highly qualified” before the 2005-2006 school year. Even more quickly, by the end of the 2002-2003 school year, all newly hired teachers in Title I schools had to be highly qualified. The core academic areas— which must be taught by a “highly qualified” teacher—are English, reading or language arts, math, science, arts and foreign language, economics, geography, civics or government, and history. Teachers of special education and English language learner students are not required to be “highly qualified” unless they are teaching these core courses. The question, however, concerning many teachers, administrators, and parents is—what does “highly qualified” mean? This brief provides a background for NCLB’s “highly qualified” teachers, defines “highly qualified,” and summarizes the actions taken by the State of Arkansas to ensure a “highly qualified” teacher will be in every classroom by the end of the 2005-2006 academic year

Speaking Turkish in Belgian primary schools: teacher beliefs versus effective consequences

In this mixed-method study, we explore teachers’ beliefs concerning the use of the Turkish language by Turkish children in Belgian primary schools, and we compare these findings with the effective consequences of language maintenance. The qualitative analyses revealed thatteachers have very negative views about the use of the Turkish language, as they believe that speaking the mother tongue is detrimental to academic achievement. These adverse teacher beliefs are not only shaped by the assimilationist policy context in Belgium, but they are also (re)produced and reinforced by interactions between teachers and the Turkish middle-class. Nevertheless, the quantitative analyses with a data of 435 Turkish pupils in 48 schools have shown that there is no evidence that speaking Turkish, at home or at school, harms pupils’ academic achievement. However, the negative school culture about the Turkish language causes feelings of rejection and reduces the sense of school belonging for pupils who speak Turkish more frequently at schoo

Approaches to teaching writing

About the book: Student academic writing is at the heart of teaching and learning in higher education. Students are assessed largely by what they write, and need to learn both general academic conventions as well as disciplinary writing requirements in order to be successful in higher education. Teaching Academic Writing is a 'toolkit' designed to help higher education lecturers and tutors teach writing to their students. Containing a range of diverse teaching strategies, the book offers both practical activities to help students develop their writing abilities and guidelines to help lecturers and tutors think in more depth about the assessment tasks they set and the feedback they give to students. The authors explore a wide variety of text types, from essays and reflective diaries to research projects and laboratory reports. The book draws on recent research in the fields of academic literacy, second language learning, and linguistics. It is grounded in recent developments such as the increasing diversity of the student body, the use of the Internet, electronic tuition, and issues related to distance learning in an era of increasing globalisation. Written by experienced teachers of writing, language, and linguistics, Teaching Academic Writing will be of interest to anyone involved in teaching academic writing in higher education

Reflecting on our own learning: incorporating diverse worldviews into teaching and learning activities.

CONTEXT The teacher’s experience is frequently overlooked as a source of useful data on teaching practice. Nelson (2003, p. 85) points out that “every class is potentially an experiment from which the data are either discarded or never gathered.” This paper presents two academics’ reflections on the impact of their training in te reo Maori and tikanga Maori on their teaching activities. PURPOSE To reflect on academics’ learning of Maori language and culture in order to design teaching and learning activities that incorporate Maori language and the Maori worldview. APPROACH The paper uses three of Brookfield’s (1998) four lenses of reflection on teaching practice. RESULTS The first academic considered it was important to enable students to adequately explore the worldviews of the diverse stakeholders they will design products for in future and to test students on their understanding of these in order to satisfy cultural aspects of the graduate profile outcomes. The second academic found benefits of the use of Maori language in class in creating an atmosphere reflective of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Each academic found something to learn from the other’s work. CONCLUSIONS Adding the Maori language and worldview enables the classroom to better reflect New Zealand’s bi-cultural environment and student projects to better meet the needs of diverse stakeholder groups, and also explicitly addresses the cultural aspects of the graduate profile