Forum: Literature and Language Awareness: Using Literature to Achieve CEFR Outcomes

This article sets out to explore why literature (used in this article to mean poetry, plays, short stories or novels) is often a marginalised resource in EFL classrooms, even though the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR) suggests it should have a role in the classroom. It first reports on the results of a questionnaire investigating English teachers’ attitudes towards using literature in the classroom. After a discussion of these results, it explores some ways in which the use of literature can be linked to CEFR outcomes in a practical teaching framework which teachers can apply to literature they choose to teach

Literature in English as a tool for teaching English as a second language in Nigerian schools

The use of literature in the English language classroom has gained some grounds and is enjoying a number of revivals for a number of reasons. The role of literature in the English language classroom has been reassessed and many view literary texts as providing rich linguistic input, effective stimuli for students to express themselves, and a potential source of learner motivation. This paper therefore examined the use of literature as a commendable tool for teaching the English language. It also examined the concept of literature, language, the relationship between language and literature, the reasons for its teaching and learning in the English language classroom. Ways of overcoming the challenges, and approaches to using literature in teaching English language are also considered.Key Words: English as a Second Language, literature in Englis

Translanguaging and Multilingual Picturebooks : Gloria Anzaldúa’s Friends from the Other Side / Amigos Del Otro Lado

nglish language teaching (ELT) is overcoming its monolingual character with students increasingly bringing additional languages to the classroom. Closely related to this, there is a growing awareness of the fact that students’ experiences with multilingualism are a valuable resource which should also be harnessed in language classrooms. Even if English is the language of instruction, the learners’ home languages, other languages and language varieties spoken in the school and personal environments, all influence their learning process and the formation of cultural identities. This paper looks critically at the traditional concept of the monolingual language classroom and explores the potential of multilingual literature which supports the learners’ second language development while, at the same time, raising their awareness of multilingualism and developing their plurilingual literacies. The English-Spanish children’s book Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del Otro Lado (1995) by American writer and Chicana cultural theorist Gloria Anzaldúa serves as an example of how working with multilingual literature can enrich the English learning experience of children from different age groups.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Graphic Novels as Tools for a Modern English Classroom

English teachers today often face the difficult job of providing engaging lessons to a highly diverse group of students. Teachers must teach English as a New Language students, struggling readers, and even advanced readers, sometimes in the same classroom. One way to achieve this goal is to use graphic novels in the classroom. This project reviews available literature to determine what sort of success graphic novels have seen in the classroom, why graphic novels are not used more frequently in the classroom, and how graphic novels might be best utilized in the secondary English classroom. Following the literature review is a comprehensive unit plan for Art Spiegleman’s Maus I in a 9-10 ELA classroom

Movement and Action: Action-Based learning in the Classroom

The purpose of this literature review is to explain what action-based learning is, how does action-based-learning fit within the classroom, and what are the effects it has on English Language learners and students who are placed in academic support programs in the classroom. The hope of this literature review is to gain more knowledge about what is action-based learning and to gain insight on how educators can effectively implement action-based learning within their classrooms. After analyzing the literature on this topic, the results of the analysis determined the effectiveness of action-based learning within the classroom on English Language Learners and students who are placed in academic support programs by increasing their on-task behavior, understanding abstract ideas, and improving English Language Learners acquisition to English

The educational effectiveness of bilingual education

Bilingual education is the use of the native tongue to instruct limited Englishspeaking children. The authors read studies of bilingual education from the earliest period of this literature to the most recent. Of the 300 program evaluations read, only 72 (25%) were methodologically acceptable - that is, they had a treatment and control group and a statistical control for pre-treatment differences where groups were not randomly assigned. Virtually all of the studies in the United States were of elementary or junior high school students and Spanish speakers; The few studies conducted outside the United States were almost all in Canada. The research evidence indicates that, on standardized achievement tests, transitional bilingual education (TBE) is better than regular classroom instruction in only 22% of the methodologically acceptable studies when the outcome is reading, 7% of the studies when the outcome is language, and 9% of the studies when the outcome is math. TBE is never better than structured immersion, a special program for limited English proficient children where the children are in a self-contained classroom composed solely of English learners, but the instruction is in English at a pace they can understand. Thus, the research evidence does not support transitional bilingual education as a superior form of instruction for limited English proficient children

TELEGRAM APPLICATION AS A TOOL TO LEARN ENGLISH: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Utilizing technology is now essential to learn English both inside and outside of the classroom. The modern English classroom makes use of digital technology throughout the world. Digital tools have been used to enhance and facilitate language instruction and learning. This study focuses on the role of using the Telegram application in learning English. It discusses the integration of Telegram in the classroom in order to enhance learners’ English vocabulary and writing skills. In this paper, the researcher defined the term “Telegram”, elaborated on the use of Telegram in the language classroom, reviewed previous research on utilizing Telegram in improving language learning skills, and stated recommendations for the better use of Telegram to assist learners in improving their English. The literature review indicated that the effective use of Telegram enhances learners’ English vocabulary learning as well as writing skills. In addition, Telegram can positively influence the process of learning and meaningful interaction outside of the classroom

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in English Language Arts with a Focus on How to Make American Literature Culturally Sustaining and Relevant to Students of Color

This project analyzes the literature that is usually chosen in an English III classroom, which focuses on American literature, and specifically how these choices affect a classroom in a rural area. The literature that is chosen tends to lean towards authors that are white, middle-aged, and middle-class. This lens that teachers are using is limited to students with those experiences and those that can relate to being white, middle-aged, or middle-class. Rural areas often do not relate to this lens, and thus cannot relate to the literature that is provided in their English classrooms. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, which is a new theory in classroom management, encourages teachers to engage student’s backgrounds and cultures that they bring into the classroom. When using it to look specifically at English, this means that teachers must move past the white, middle-aged, middle-class lens they’ve been picking literature with and rather push to provide literature that relates to their students, especially when their students are students of color and/or are from a lower economic class. Using the theory of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, this project looks at how providing literature with a lens that differs from the students that are reading it could be limiting to the student’s abilities to engage with the class and maintain literacy in the long run. This project then offers different authors that could replace the literature that has been currently chosen, and how to approach the more culturally appropriate literature in the classroom

The social organization of mathematics classrooms and English language learners’ opportunities to participate

In this paper, I discuss the significance of classroom organization in English Language Learners’ (ELLs) opportunities to participate in mathematics classrooms through a review of relevant contemporary literature. In particular, I will focus on the following areas of classroom organization: language organization, instructional organization, and discourse organization. By highlighting the relationship between classroom organization and English language learners’ opportunities to participate in the mathematics classroom, I will provide insight into when and under which contexts ELLs are acknowledged (or not) with their existing resources

Classroom-based assessment of oral language proficiency of young ELLs in ESL contexts.

With increasing numbers of young English language learners (ELLs) entering schools in English-speaking countries, assessment of their English language proficiency has become important for screening, placement, and diagnostic purposes, as well as for ongoing formative and summative assessment. A key assessment event for many teachers in New Zealand schools, particularly those with large numbers of ELLs, is the twice-yearly ‘ELLP Assessment’, in which ELLs’ language skills are rated against descriptors in the English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP) (Ministry of Education, 2008). This assessment is high stakes because the results determine whether a school receives Ministry of Education funding for additional support of ELLs. As ELLs are placed in mainstream classrooms in New Zealand schools, it is important that mainstream teachers, who generally have no specialist training for working with ELLs, are equipped with strategies and tools for completing ELLP assessment effectively, in order to accurately assess ELLs’ language skills. For practicality, assessment strategies and tools also need to be appropriate for classroom-based assessment. This paper reviews the literature regards as being the use of, and issues associated with, classroom-ase oral language assessment of ELLs in ESL contexts. It then describes a number of guidelines, strategies, and tools from several English-speaking countries that have been designed to facilitate teacher assessment of ELLs’ oral language proficiency. Finally, the paper discusses the potential usefulness of these assessment guidelines or tools for teachers in the New Zealand context who are required to complete ELLP assessment