Music Generated Narratives: Elaborating the Da Capo Interview Technique

This paper shows how we played researcher-selected extracts of music to participants in “the Da Capo technique,” to elicit narratives of their learning experiences. Previously, we used music alongside other techniques in an interview about learning; here we explore the Da Capo technique as a standalone technique to study its potential for narrative recall. To do this, we played 10 one-minute long extracts of classical music (five “Western” and five “Chinese”) to 20 participants (10 “Western” and 10 “Chinese”). After hearing each piece, participants were asked if the music recalled for them any experiences of learning. When it did so, we explored this further in dialogue and narrative recall. As expected, some narratives related to experiences of studying, academic success, and of particular times and places associated with learning. However, in many cases the music elicited narratives of learning which, surprisingly and in multiple dimensions, related to physical learning, culture, the family, and particular emotions such as sympathy, and of aspects of character, such as optimism and honesty. We provide details of using the technique, where particular music elicited learning experiences and where they did not. We provide further evidence of the value of using music either as a stand-alone method in the qualitative researcher’s toolkit, or as an additional and complementary tool. We discuss the merits, limitations, and potential applications of the Da Capo technique

Shifts in environmental literacy in multilingual contexts : the Lebanese case

This paper draws attention to the print environment in streets and shops in multilingual contexts. It applies a cultural framework to examine multilingual signs in Lebanon to show that they reflect a number of global and local changes in environmental literacy. It argues that these are important to educators because they are part of wider notions of literacy from which students may learn, even peripherally. The paper gives examples of slips and slides between Arabic, French and English to show that potentially environmental literacy can be a double-edged visible model of languages in relatively permanent public forms; it suggests the validity of multilingualism but presents erroneous or inappropriate examples -to learners. However. teachers can encourage learners to observe such language processes in scripts and signs in the local street environment as part of raising critical language awareness.peer-reviewe

Good teachers: visions of values and virtues in university student metaphors

Good teachers in university education embody combinations of continuity and change. In the first part here, university teaching is considered in Western philosophies and educational discourse to suggest teacher characteristics and meta-functions, but this article proposes wider internationalised dialogues within humanities which crucially take student views into account. In the second part, we analyse a database of 863 metaphors about teachers given by 439 university students in Malaysia, adopting a socio-cultural approach based on cognitive linguistics. This elicited metaphor analysis explores student views of “good” teachers expressed in such metaphors as “a good teacher is a burning candle” or “a piece of chalk”. Our analysis of metaphor entailments reveals meta-functions and virtues of good teachers which though absent in some official discourses, cohere with the educational philosophy of part one: they include cognitive, social/cultural, affective, moral/spiritual and aesthetic meta-functions. These emphasise the purposes of what teachers “do” and the character of what teachers “are”, as models for what students “do” and what they “become”. This gives challenging insights for teachers (and students) to self-cultivate virtues if these participant visions are taken seriously for learner-centred approaches to humanities in new balances of continuity and change

Holistic views of language learning in metaphoric conceptualizations

For effective language teaching and teacher professional development, the ability of language teachers to reflect on their own personal conceptions of “language learning” and how their learners’ conceptions and expectations may differ from their own is crucial. Student conceptions of learning may be quite different from influential concepts and theories derived from the psychology of language learning or second language acquisition (e.g., Cook 2016; Ellis & Shintani 2014; Mitchell et al. 2019; van Patten et al. 2020). In particular, notions of learning and teaching inspired by Western SLA research and popular methodologies may contrast with “cultures of learning” in other parts of the world, which have their own preferred ways of learning, sets of expectations, experiences, and preferred patterns of classroom engagement (Jin & Cortazzi 2019). As we have argued in previous work, recognition that the conceptualization and enactment of learning and teaching are culturally variable generates the need for learning-centered approaches (e.g., Cortazzi & Jin 1996, 2002; Jin & Cortazzi 1998, 2019) in which emphasis is placed on learning from and consciously extending repertoires of cultural ways of learning

Metaphorical Conceptualizations of Language: Networks of Meanings and Meta-functions

This paper employs the innovative method of Elicited Metaphor Analysis to present original research in Malaysia into students’ metaphors for ‘language’. We summarize reasons why language and first/ second language learning are centrally important in education, and show patterned features of language metaphors in proverbs and in teacher talk about literacy. These may be one strand of student socialization into language-literacy conceptions. We then report our study of 408 university students in Malaysia who gave 977 metaphors for ‘language’. Using a socio-cultural extension of conceptual metaphor theory from cognitive linguistics, we analyse these data into thematic clusters and metaphor networks of meanings. In student voices, this presents a surprisingly rich picture of language and shows evidence of linguistic meta-functions: student metaphors for language can be seen not only cognitively with affective and socio-cultural meta-functions, but also with moral-spiritual and aesthetic functions. These meta-functions accord with some educational theories. To show wider insider metaphor perspectives we cite our research with ‘teacher’ and ‘learning’ metaphors in Malaysia, and ‘language’ findings from China, Iran, Lebanon and the UK. The metaphor meanings and meta-functions broaden our conception of language as a medium of learning with strong implications for the teaching of languages and literacy

The Doctoral Viva: Questions for, with and to Candidates (or supervisors)

This paper presents questions within a consideration of the nature of doctoral viva examinations from an international viewpoint. We argue that preparation for the viva should begin early - certainly not just immediately after the thesis submission. Key viva questions can be used in a preparatory process with supervisors over time to develop candidates’ thesis thinking and research capability. The paper gives guidance and advice for candidates (and for supervisors to help candidates) about how to prepare practically for the viva. More importantly this should help them to enter the mindset of examiners. This enables candidates to enter fully into discussion of a thesis confidently and enthusiastically, to share their research thinking in a focussed manner which takes broad issues into account. In a detailed Appendix, we share a repertoire of 60 examples of generic viva questions which are commonly asked in many international contexts, together with guidance about answers in brackets. Using these iteratively with supervisor help, candidates are encouraged to generate their own specific questions as part of a formative research process. Viva preparation guided by key questions can begin early as an inherent part of the research-and-writing process: questions are first for candidates, then developed with candidates, and then finally in a viva put to candidates. The questions are a framework for supervisors, too, who are often examiners themselves