Empowering Students to Develop L2 Identity - Supplemental Online Lessons

As an immigrant, learning English is part of acculturating to the new culture. From this process, a new identity emerges in the context of the new language and culture. Currently, identity issues and intercultural competence are explicit objectives in language learning. The implications of neglecting identity formation in second language acquisition include vulnerability to culture shock, mental health issues, and the inability to thrive. The unique set of needs, motivations, and strengths of immigrant English language learners should inform language instruction design in order to achieve sustainable and equitable successful language learning and acculturation. Explicitly designing instruction that incorporates issues of identity into the curriculum effectively considers the students’ communicative goals and intercultural competence, and better prepares students to face the challenges of acculturative stress. The purpose of the field project is to provide instructors with supplemental online lessons that address issues of identity, to complement and enrich the classroom content and expand practices towards more learner-centered practices to provide more engaging and meaningful learning. The field project is composed of a series of supplemental lessons for an intermediate reading and writing level credit course at the community college level. Each lesson includes self- directed activities for the students to complete independently online. Also, each lesson is accompanied by a teacher guide to frame and integrate the lesson with the classroom practice, methods of assessment, and a reflection prompt to encourage the teacher’s reflective practice. As the needs of students change over time and in response to immigration and economic trends, the field of TESOL is evolving towards a more inclusive environment of the diverse background and experiences of the student and teacher population. Language learning has evolved from being a skill to be mastered to a tool for empowerment, and it is imperative to continue developing our teaching practices to best serve our students

Introduction: a Frame for the Discussion of Learning Cultures

In this chapter the authors identify a gap in research on culture in online learning and offer a frame for the discussion of the best-known frameworks available for cultural analysis outside the online world. They go on to describe the developments driving the need to problematize 'learning cultures' for the online world, such as the growth of multiculturality, the expansion of transnational e-learning and new media communication practices

Learning about Chinese-speaking cultures at a distance

This chapter focuses on the challenges posed by curriculum choices and pedagogical frameworks to the study of Languages of the Wider World in the UK. These languages reflect complex linguistic and cultural realities that do not fit into the traditional constraints of language education, which raises questions about the extent to which we can address the global and local dimensions of the target languages and cultures. I examine in particular the case of Chinese – a language family with multiple varieties and spoken by many communities in Asia and other parts of the globe – in the context of distance education. Issues surrounding language learning at a distance are discussed, as well as the role that teachers and technology play in supporting the development of language learners’ cultural awareness. While teachers can, in a face-to-face situation, exploit, expand and discuss cultural information, this possibility is very limited in distance learning. We will see how, at present, technology has taken on a major role in both formal and informal education, facilitating contact between learners and between learners and teachers (however distant they might be). For example, the Open University’s beginners’ Chinese course discussed here makes use of online forums to enable cultural interaction; initial examinations of these forums reveal the students to be diverse and mobile, and they also give us a sense of their cultural stances, and of the shapes of the beliefs, values and attitudes supported by their individual cultural backgrounds

Cohesion, commonality and creativity: youth work across borders

No abstract available

Influence of social networks on communication and culture

Má bakalářská práce je zaměřena na problematiku sociálních sítí a jejich vliv na dnešní společnost. Zabývá se jejich historií od prvotních pokusů až po nejnovější globální sociání sítě. Poté práce vysvětluje základní myšlenku vedoucí k vytvoření sociálních sítí i jejich charakteristické znaky. Dále nastiňuje problémy související se snadnou dostupností a nadměrným využíváním sociálních sítí, které následně ovlivňuje lidskou společnost. Práce se věnuje vlivu sociálních sítí na jazyk, mezilidskou komunikaci a kulturní adaptaci.My bachelor thesis is focused on issues with social networking services and their influence on modern society. It addresses their history from the very first attempts to create a social networking service to the modern global ones. Later the thesis provides an explanation of the creation of a social networking service and its characteristic traits. Furthermore it outlines problems connected with the availability and overuse of social networking services that are subsequently influencing the human society. The thesis also analyzes the influence of social networks on language, interpersonal communication and cultural adaptation.

Research report: Studying the religious socialization of Sikh and 'mixed-faith' youth in Britain: contexts and issues

Against a backdrop of phases of Sikh settlement in the UK, this article provides an overview of scholarship on UK Sikh communities. Attention turns to four ethnographic studies conducted by the author, two of which focused on unambiguously Sikh communities, and two of which challenge presuppositions of the boundedness of faith communities. Of these one was a study of two historically stigmatised caste-specific Punjabi communities; the other is currently examining the religious identity formation of young people in families in which only one parent is Sikh. Pointers and questions are identified that arise from these UK studies for researchers in mainland Europe. These include methodological considerations and encouragement to contribute to debates in the sociology of religion and to take account of Sikhs' increasing appearance in creative literature

Culturally Relevant Leisure Experiences as Predictors of Intercultural Sensitivity Among Study Abroad Students

Study abroad programs are promoted on the premise that they offer valuable cross-cultural experiences and provide students with desired 21st century skills including global awareness, cross-cultural communications, and intercultural sensitivity (IS); however, simply to send students abroad is not enough to ensure skill development. Rather, there is a need for intentional pedagogy. As Engle and Engle (2004) have suggested regarding IS, the most successful study abroad programs seem to include culturally relevant leisure within the host community. Moreover, the theoretical framework of Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity has suggested the importance of various culturally relevant leisure experiences in assisting students in progressing from the worldview of ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the relationship between participation in culturally relevant leisure during study abroad and IS. Findings suggest importance of leisure engagement in culturally relevant media during study abroad. Pedagogical implications will be discussed