Hypertext versus Footnotes: High School English Learners’ Online Reading Recall

This study considers forty adolescent English Language Learners who read a passage online containing additional information available through either hypertext links or footnotes. Participants were attending a special high school for English learners at the time of the study. Two versions of the text were offered, one with hypertext and the other with footnotes, and participants were randomly assigned to the footnote or hypertext condition. Answers to multiple choice questions showed no significant difference between groups in recall of the reading under the two conditions, in contrast with an earlier study of learners in higher education settings whose recall of reading with hypertext was significantly lower than with footnotes. Learners’ ratings of perceived comprehensibility of the 2 texts was also not significantly different. Additional interpretive data came from focus group interviews involving all of the participants

Ideais e realidade: uma aula reservada para crianças autistas bilíngües = Ideals and reality: a self-contained class for bilingual autistic children

Este estudo qualitativo abordou as experiências de crianças bilíngües, selecionadas com desordem do espectro autista em uma sala de aula de Educação Infantil Especial Bilíngüe. Os dados incluíram observação ao vivo, gravações em vídeo e entrevistas com os funcionários e pais. Apesar da dedicação dos professores, dos funcionários e da família, os desafios incluíram limitações lingüísticas de clínicos gerais, uso inconsistente de espanhol e/ou inglês, falta de compreensão dos pais sobre a natureza do autismo e demanda irreal de funcionários. O ambiente da barulhenta sala de aula, às vezes refletia aprendizagem, que freqüentemente significava transtorno. A preparação profissional de professores também era inadequad

Socio-cultural and Educational Aspects of Multilingual Multicultural Learners and Communities

This volume of JMER represents a research-based consideration of several elements of language acquisition and use and seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of how multilingual learners acquire and apply their knowledge of language and culture

Everybody Does It: The Pragmatics and Perceptions of International Chinese Graduate Students and their American Peers Regarding Gossip

Integrating natural observation, interviews, and quantitative analysis, we used a mixed design to compare the socio-linguistic judgments of international Chinese students at a private University on the East Coast of the United States (US) with those of their native English-speaking peers regarding a critical incident involving gossip. Ninety-two participants evaluated alternative sociolinguistic strategies offered in addressing the incident on semantic differential scales. Judgments by each group regarding four alternative responses were surveyed and compared. Twenty participants, ten from each group, participated in semi-structured interviews. Themes were developed through a recursive process: interpretations were validated by a bilingual bicultural expert. Several distinctions in judgments emerged. The most preferred alternative to dealing with a group gossiping about a friend for Americans was to say honestly that it made them uncomfortable while Chinese participants preferred requesting a change in topic. Such contrasts were found to be representative of underlying sociocultural values for each group. Intercultural pragmatic distinctions such as these could lead to pragmatic failure and have the potential to interfere with the development of intercultural friendship among the members of the two groups. Implications for pedagogy and developing cross-cultural insight are offered

Native and Emergent Bilingual University-level English Speakers Reading Online: The Influence of Hypertext on Comprehension

Our study contributes to our understanding of Internet reading by Emergent Bilinguals (EB) and Native English speakers (NS) by investigating their recall of two Internet reading passages containing additional information available through either hypertext links or footnotes. Participants included 25 EB and 25 NS college students. Answers to cued recall questions were scored on the basis of the number of correctly recalled propositions (Kintsch, 1998). Additional interpretive data came from semi-structured interviews with four NS and four EB participants. Quantitative results showed that both groups of students recalled significantly more propositions with linear text than with hypertext. However, although descriptive statistics indicated that NS recalled more than EB, this difference did not reach significance. Interview and survey data confirmed that both NS and EB found the footnoted text easier to recall than the version containing hypertext. Interview themes included the impact of unfamiliar vocabulary and contrasting motives for accessing the links

Working-class women academics: Four socio-linguistic journeys

This study focuses on the linguistic and cultural challenges faced by four female academics from working-class backgrounds as they navigated the marginalized dialects of their working-class communities and the dominant discourse(s) and culture(s) of schools and universities. Through a series of open-ended ethnographic interviews, the authors explored the evolution and insights of each woman, as she considered how her socio-linguistic identities were formed within varied contexts and through multiple relationships. Salient themes derived from discussions and analyses included: (1) the influence female caregivers had on language development; (2) a moment of recognition for each woman that her native language or dialect conflicted with the Standard English used in academic settings; (3) the struggle to deal with aspects of difference including contrasting pragmatic systems; (4) gendered discourses and social norms of behaviour within working-class and academic communities; and (5) a recognition by each woman that she would always have to struggle to survive in the academic world. This paper concludes by considering approaches educators might utilize to foreground the marginalized dialects of working-class students and to add the unique richness of class-based sub-cultures to the curriculum. © 2009 Taylor & Francis

Adolescent ELLs Improve Their Academic English while Learning about the UN Online

This action research project aimed at evaluating and revising Actionthroughwords (ATW), an online course on language learning through content for high school English language learners. Our multifaceted purpose is to help English language learners in an English language arts class to enhance their academic English language and literacy, while learning online about the work of the UN for health and peace worldwide. A teacher and nineteen students in a public high school bilingual program acted as learner-consultants, with a shift of learners’ roles to one of authority and engagement. Using a mixed design, data came from questionnaires, classroom observation, and interviews with the teacher and eight of her students. All participants responded affirmatively to the ATW site and expressed appreciation not only for the content but also for focused activities to enhance vocabulary development and grammatical awareness. Results showed students’ view of the UN was somewhat positive to begin with and became more positive over time. Participants recommended revision of ATW to make content more accessible through scaffolding and first language support and to offer additional games and videos appropriate for teenagers’ interests and modes of learning. Differentiated instructional materials and strategies integrated with the school curriculum were also suggested for future implementation of the course