Teaching grammar: Rethinking the approach

In this article Margaret Kettle examines grammar, its image problem and some new developments aimed at improving its teaching and learning in the TESOL classroom

"Thank you for a lovely day!" Contrastive thanking in textbooks for teaching English and Spanish as foreign languages

Thanking, as other speech acts such as apologizing or requesting,can be performed in numerous contexts and, for their analysis, many crucial variables must be taken into consideration (eg. social distance, gender, age,etc.), which often are difficult to control. Besides these variables, speech acts are carried out in different situations, taking into account the culture in which they are performed. For example, thanking might be performed after alighting a bus in the UK, the USA or Australia, but this might not necessarily happen in Spain. The aim of the study on which this paper is based, in to explore thanking contrastively in British English and in Peninsular Spanish from a pragmatic viewpoint,by looking at specific independent variables: the context and situation in which this speech act is performed, the relationship between the interlocutors who perform it, which includes social power and distance, and the reason for expressing gratitude. For the purpose of this investigation, a corpus of 128 textbooks (64 for each language) for the learning and teaching of Spanish and English as foreign languages was used. It is important to note that, although these corpora are built on prefabricated dialogues and these can be regarded as abstractions of reality, the communicative situations found in the textbooks are aimed at depicting exchanges and linguistic patterns representing what naturally occurs in real conversations in both cultures

The text, dead or alive: Expanding textual repertoires in the adult ESOL classroom

The paper explores the manner in which written texts are selected and used in the adult ESOL classroom. Taking a sociocultural view of the reading process and of the nature of text, it argues that ESOL students have potentially rich textual resources which are typically not acknowledged in the classroom: in particular, the textual options embodied by the published textbook or the worksheet do not do justice to the rich and diverse textual worlds which adult ESOL learners inhabit. Drawing on Goffman’s notion of ‘authoring’, the paper argues that ESOL students can be encouraged to reposition themselves as expert interpreters of classroom texts rather than passive consumers. Reading can be seen as the creation of new texts, as the interpreters rearticulate orthodox textual meaning to their own ends, in shared talk around the text. By way of illustration, two Adult ESOL classrooms are focused on which demonstrate contrasting ways in which texts are selected and exploited in the ESOL classroom. In addition, some views of students themselves are also discussed The paper concludes by proposing that classroom texts be seen by teachers and students as opportunities for textual authoring, where what is brought to texts is as important as any specific linguistic or content knowledge derived from them

Supportive discipline is here to stay : Texas high schools make headway against the school-to-prison pipeline

The discipline models employed in U.S. schools tend to swing back and forth like a slow pendulum. Following the tragic shootings at Columbine in 1999, districts around the U.S. began to employ policies now known as zero tolerance. By the middle of the 2000s decade, Texas school districts and state legislators — progressive and conservative alike — realized that zero tolerance no longer worked. Together, lawmakers, regional education service centers and school districts began to roll back zero tolerance. Gradually, educators implemented aa variety of supportive discipline methods across the state. By the time of the 2014 Federal letter from the civil rights offices in the Education and Justice Departments, Texas schools had already made great headway in reducing exclusionary discipline while simultaneously improving student behavior. Texas can be a model for other states. This is a 6800 word piece of longform journalism, written to be suitable for publication in a magazine such as Texas Monthly or The New YorkerJournalis

The Impunity Project of the Inter American Press Association: Final Summary Report 2003-2006

Evaluates the impact of the initiative's rapid response unit, which investigates attacks and provides legal assistance; advertising campaign to make cases visible; and training program to prevent future attacks. Includes case summaries

Utilizing Computer-Assisted Vocabulary Learning Tools in English Language Teaching: Examining In-Service Teachers' Perceptions of the Usability of Digital Flashcards

This study explores five in-service teachers' perceptions with regards to the technical and pedagogical usability of digital flashcards in English language teaching. All the teachers were enrolled in a one-year Masters of Art in English Language Teaching program at Coventry University and had previous teaching experience ranging from elementary to university level. The study adopted a quan?QUAL mixed-method research design, combining elements of surveys and case studies, to examine the factors that affected the teachers' perceptions in addition to how they view three specific websites: Cram, Quizlet, and StudyStack. Participants explored these websites and created sets of flashcards in a computer lab, then completed a survey and participated in a focus group interview. Findings suggest that although the teachers were willing to integrate digital flashcards in their future teaching, it is dependent on several factors, including: learners' age, the quality of graphics in the websites, and the teachers' prior experience as students on their MA program. Nonetheless, the “wow” factor seemed to influence their perceptions of the usability of these websites, which can either be extreme positive or negative initial reactions as a result of the websites' presentational scheme.</jats:p