Sinking or swimming in the New Zealand mainstream: Four young Asian learners in a new languaculture

New Zealand schools are increasingly diverse in terms of language and culture, and many immigrant school children are faced with the ‘languacultural’ (Agar, 1994) challenge of learning not only a new language but a new culture of learning – to learn new classroom interaction skills (Barnard, 2005) as a route from Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills to Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (Cummins 1981, 2000). This paper explores the challenges by referring to four young Asian learners in an upper primary school classroom (Barnard 2002, 2003, 2007). Brief profiles of each of these children are given and then transcript data of their classroom interactions are presented and interpreted. In conclusion, questions are raised about the respective responsibilities of teachers and school and parents and students, to ensure that new immigrant learners swim rather than sink in the mainstrea

Isolated learners from diverse language backgrounds in the mainstream primary classroom: A sociocultural perspective

This paper focuses on the linguistic and cultural (‘languaculture’, Agar, 1994) challenges faced by learners from diverse language backgrounds (DLB) in New Zealand schools. It describes the typical learning context in primary classrooms terms of interactional, instructional, and cognitive dimensions. It then presents vignettes of four DLB learners and explains their relative competence in terms of Cummin’s (1981) distinction between BICS and CALP (Basic Interactional Communication Skills and Cognitive-Academic Language Proficiency). It goes on to discuss the extent to which such proficiency is the result of linguistic and cultural distance, and how that distance might be bridged by applying key constructs from sociocultural theory, and the implementation of Individual Languaculture Plans for DLB learners. The paper concludes with discussing the issue of where responsibility lies for coping with the challenges face by DLB learners

Negative vaccine voices in Swedish social media

Vaccinations are one of the most significant interventions to public health, but vaccine hesitancy creates concerns for a portion of the population in many countries, including Sweden. Since discussions on vaccine hesitancy are often taken on social networking sites, data from Swedish social media are used to study and quantify the sentiment among the discussants on the vaccination-or-not topic during phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of all the posts analyzed a majority showed a stronger negative sentiment, prevailing throughout the whole of the examined period, with some spikes or jumps due to the occurrence of certain vaccine-related events distinguishable in the results. Sentiment analysis can be a valuable tool to track public opinions regarding the use, efficacy, safety, and importance of vaccination

Gender Influences on the Use of Mandarin Varieties in Taiwan

Gender plays an important role in language use. Many gender patterns in language have been found by linguists. For example, women tend to use more standard language than men, and women seem to be the ones who lead language change. Various theories have tried to explain these gender patterns, such as overt prestige vs. covert prestige of language, the linguistic market, density and multiplexity of networks, and so on. This paper applies these theories and explanations to the three Mandarin varieties in Taiwan: Standard Mandarin, Taiwanese Mandarin, and Taiwan-guoyu. These three Mandarin varieties have different social values in Taiwan. This paper examines the interaction between gender and the use of these three Mandarin varieties. To answer the research questions 1) what is people’s attitude toward a certain gender’s language use, and 2) what is the motivation of different genders’ language use, two hypotheses were formed. First, women will receive more negative responses than men when using the vernacular variety Taiwan-guoyu. Second, women need to use the more standard varieties, either Standard Mandarin or Taiwanese Mandarin, to have different types of advantages. This study was conducted with a mixed methodology—half quantitative and half qualitative. The quantitative data was collected through the matched-guise technique and was analyzed by the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) in SPSS, and the qualitative part was collected through interviews. The quantitative and qualitative data both support these two hypotheses. Women who use Taiwan-guoyu receive even more negative responses than men, and language use is a more important form of capital for women than for men because women need to use language to present their persona and to gain various types of advantages

CHINESE LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE IN A HERITAGE LANGUAGE SCHOOL

Research shows that heritage language (HL) maintenance benefits both the individual and society, and that HL schools have a great impact on HL development. This study investigates the effectiveness of a HL program in supporting students to maintain their first language. I conducted a mixed methods research in a weekend Chinese HL school in a community in southwestern Ontario, utilizing various methods, such as questionnaires, focus group interviews, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observations to explore this issue. The results revealed that many students in the Chinese school held a positive attitude towards maintaining their HL. This school presented a place for students to learn their heritage language and culture. However, limitations such as lack of sufficient certified and qualified language teachers, lack o f appropriate textbooks, teaching material and curriculum guidelines, as well as time and space restrictions impeded the quality o f instruction and success o f the program. More support is required to make the HL program more effectiv

Multiple Cultures, Multiple Literacies, and Collective Agencies: Chinese and Pakistani Immigrants’ Perceptions of Family Literacy Support

Challenging the deficit view of immigrant families’ roles in family literacy support, this study is situated in the multiliteracies theoretical framework, which celebrates marginalized, yet diverse, literacy practices in immigrant families. This study used semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions to map diverse family literacy practices in Chinese and Pakistani families. It explores whether and how available educational institutions have been inclusive of immigrant families’ multiple cultures and multiple literacies. Adopting a bottom-up advocacy approach, this study also invites Chinese and Pakistani families to envision family literacy programs by themselves. It brings to light immigrant families’ potential collective agencies in effecting changes to enable more inclusive family literacy programs in the culturally and linguistically diverse context of Canada. Cet article défit la vision négative du rôle des familles d’immigrés dans le support de la littératie familiale. L’étude se situe dans le cadre conceptuel des multi-littératies qui supportent des pratiques de littératie marginalisées mais néanmoins très diverses dans des familles d’immigrés. La méthodologie d’entrevues semi structurées et de groupes de discussions utilisée a permis de décrire les différentes pratiques de littératie adoptées dans des familles chinoises et pakistanaises. Cette étude cherche également à explorer si les institutions éducatives ont pris en compte les différentes cultures et littératies des familles, et dans le cas positif, comment cette prise en compte s’est effectuée. L’analyse vise aussi à inviter les familles chinoises et pakistanaises à créer leurs propres programmes de littératie en utilisant une approche de soutien ascendant. Les résultats montrent un potentiel collectif d’agentivité qui pourrait engendrer la création de plus de programmes de littératie familiaux dans le contexte multiculturel et multilinguistique du Canada

The interactions of ‘Mandarin as a second language’ teachers in Content and Language Integrated Learning classrooms

The goal of this research was to investigate the process of Child Second Language Acquisition in Mandarin as a Second Language classrooms by employing a Content and Language Integrated Learning approach in Australia. Teachers’ interactions and students’ responses to these interactions during the class were examined. The findings show that teachers’ interactions facilitate Second Language Acquisition by using various strategies, meanwhile, the students’ responses display various patterns to support their second language learning