Investment and Translanguaging: A Case of Nepalese Immigrant Women in Michigan

This research study investigated the learning and use of English by Nepali immigrant women from two theoretical perspectives: investment and translingualism. The research questions addressed what sort of investment the participants were making to learn English and to see how they used different translingual practices to co-construct their identity with both the target language and other transnational communities. Data were collected through questionnaires, observations, interviews, journal writings, and Facebook group chats. The key findings are that the Nepali immigrant women are not only motivated to improve their English but are also highly invested in doing so. They adopt different translingual negotiation strategies for the purpose of meaning-making among linguistically diverse groups of multilingual speakers. The study is significant for those connected to ESL classrooms composed of adult immigrants, as these immigrants constitute a substantial proportion of the US population

Common Topic, Similar Hope: Positioning of Chinese International Students Abroad

As the number of Chinese international students at higher education institutions continues to grow, relevant research on this topic is increasingly vital. A number of studies expose academic and social challenges impeding this population’s adjustment to university landscapes in Canada and the United Kingdom, yet few shed light on positive strategies used to successfully navigate students’ sojourns abroad, particularly in the United States. This case study provides an in-depth, detailed account of a Chinese international student’s first year at a large American university. Data collected from regular interviews, classroom observations, and instructor insights are analyzed through the lens of the Positioning theory to explore how a student strategically positions himself on the path toward realizing his goals and imagined community. Implications of this study advocate for a multifaceted, reflective approach to study abroad by students, faculty, and administrators

The Perception-Production Link in L2 Phonology

In a first or second language (L2), it is thought that in order to accurately produce a sound, one must be able to accurately distinguish that same sound in reception. This intuitive connection, called the perception-production link, also enjoys theoretical support from Flege’s (1995) Speech Learning Model and empirical support from a considerable number of experimental studies. However, reports of perception without production and production without perception present a challenge to the perception-production link. In this brief review, the perception-production link is explained and evidence supporting and challenging the link is summarized. Additionally, empirical research on the link is critically reviewed to highlight issues with research design and interpretation. Finally, the perception-production link’s current status in L2 research is discussed and directions for future research are presented

Book Review: Language and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms: A Practical Approach

Global migration has emerged over the last decade such that countries that have seen relatively few immigration issues have started struggling (as France, the United States, Great Britain, and Australia have) with various and diverse concerns related to immigration. For language teachers, the new reality of global migration is a challenge, especially if the language teachers have not experienced or prepared for classes with culturally and linguistically diverse students and the acculturation issues their families face. In Language and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms: A Practical Approach, Elizabeth Coelho addresses the needs of educators in schools where programs are developing plans for newcomers. She provides plenty of suggestions and advice with this book, which should be required for all school administrators, educational planners, and teachers of multicultural education

Textbook Review: Real Reading 1

Real Reading 1 is a beginner-level reading textbook for an adult English language classroom and is the first in a series of four textbooks designed to teach intensive reading skills and develop vocabulary. Each of its twelve units contain two thematically related chapters and target a specific reading skill, vocabulary skill, and vocabulary learning strategy. In addition to the structured units, four reading fluency practice activities are scattered throughout the book, with additional vocabulary practice activities for each unit at the end of the book. Drawing vocabulary from the General Service Word List, the Academic Word List, and the BillurogluNeufeld List, the textbook targets high-frequency words while also aiming for controlled vocabulary such that “95-98 percent of the words are likely to be known by a typical learner at each level” (p. viii). Nation and Cheung (2009) have found that such a degree of familiarity with a given text is the amount of comprehension necessary for unassisted reading. Cumulatively, Real Reading 1 is an accessible, research-based, and level-appropriate textbook to aid in beginner-level reading and vocabulary development, but it is not without its shortcomings

The Effects of Form-Focused Instruction on Implicit and Explicit Grammar Knowledge and Comprehension

This study investigates the impact of three types of focus-on-form instruction (FFI) on learners’ reading comprehension and their development of the English past unreal conditional. The study also investigates whether the learners’ grammar development is implicit or explicit in nature. Fifty-one intermediate-level ESL learners were distributed into three groups. Each group read passages with different levels of explicitness of the grammar form: in the first input flood (IF) group, a baseline or control group, nothing was added to the text. For the second, textual enhancement (TE) group, the forms were enlarged and in bold. For the third rule presentation (RP) group, metalanguage describing the past unreal conditional was added to the flooded and enhanced forms. After reading, the participants’ form noticing was measured through a selfcircling test; their reading comprehension was measured through a free-recall test. Timed and untimed grammaticality-judgment tests (GJTs) were used to measure form learning. One week later, a second (delayed) GJT test was administered to measure sustained form learning. When compared with the IF group, the RP group showed significantly higher results on the GJTs and significantly lower results on comprehension. The timed GJTs and noticing scores showed a significant inverse correlation with comprehension. These results lead to three suggestions. First, more explicitness leads to better development of implicit grammar knowledge. Second, less explicitness leads to more focus on meaning and concomitantly higher comprehension scores. Third, the effectiveness of FFI should be re-considered in light of this potential inverse (VanPatten, 1990) or trade-off (Barcroft, 2002) relationship between form and meaning

Stop Using That: Expressing Definiteness in Korean

Definiteness is visibly expressed by definite articles in English, but some languages such as Korean lack this morphological exponent. However, speakers of such languages still mark definiteness in different ways. In this proposal, we lay out a study that examines the (re)assembly required by L1-English L2-Korean learners where the formal feature of definiteness in the L1 has to be readjusted to indirect expressions in the L2. In particular, we propose to examine how L1-English learners distinctly interpret and produce the feature [definite] that has been coded overtly (demonstrative determiners) and covertly (word order change) in Korean. The participants’ use of demonstrative and word order will be examined by using elicited production tasks and forced-choice selection tasks. We predict that the participants will perform more accurately on the demonstratives. We further hope to gain insights into how much detection, mapping, and reassembly of the linguistic feature have progressed through the experiments

Graduate Teaching Communities of Practice: Fostering a Sense of Belonging and Professional Development for Graduate Students, by Graduate Students

Communities of Practice provide explicit formal recognition for teaching work and serve as a network of pedagogical resources. Communities of Practice create a safe space and a strengthened sense of community. Communities of Practice can be formed anywhere to meet any set of needs but always thrive with members’ agency and institutional support

Exploring How We Teach: Lived Experiences, Lessons, and Research about Graduate Instructors by Graduate Instructors

This book combines the knowledge of 30 graduate student instructors sharing about how they teach and how they’ve learned how to teach

The emergence of critical multilingual language awareness in teacher education: the role of experience and coursework

Pre-service and in-service teachers often struggle to enact pedagogical practices that sustain the diverse languages that multilingual and multicultural learners bring into the classroom. To better understand how we might be better able to foster greater awareness of multilingual learners’ existing language resources, we traced the development of a pre-service teacher’s critical awareness of language alongside the support she received from a novice teacher educator