A Critical Ethnography of 'Westerners' Teaching English in China

A Critical Ethnography of 'Westerners' Teaching English in China PDF Author: Phiona Stanley
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415656222
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Western 'teachers', many of whom would not be considered teachers elsewhere, teach English in public and private education in China. This book sheds light on their experiences, the effect they have on education and on students' perceptions of 'the West'.

A Critical Ethnography of 'Westerners' Teaching English in China

A Critical Ethnography of 'Westerners' Teaching English in China PDF Author: Phiona Stanley
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135135681
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Tens of thousands of Western ‘teachers’, many of whom would not be considered teachers elsewhere, are employed to teach English in public and private education in China. Little has previously been known, except anecdotally, about their experiences, about the effect they have on education in the context, or on students’ perceptions of ‘the West’ that result from this contact. This book is an ethnographic study of Westerners’ lived experiences teaching English in Shanghai, China. It is based on three years of groundbreaking research into the pre-service training, classroom practices, personal identities and motives, and local socially constructed roles of a group of ‘backpacker teachers’ from the UK, the USA and Canada. It is a study that goes beyond the classroom, addressing broader questions about the sociology, and politics, of transnational education and China’s evolving relationship with the outside world.

Exploring Innovative Pedagogy in the Teaching and Learning of Chinese as a Foreign Language

Exploring Innovative Pedagogy in the Teaching and Learning of Chinese as a Foreign Language PDF Author: Robyn Moloney
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 981287772X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Teachers of Chinese as a foreign language in many international contexts are searching for pedagogic solutions to promote effective learning. Models of innovative and successful approaches are urgently needed. This volume presents a collection of compelling and empirically rich research studies that showcases innovative developments in the practice of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The studies focus on three interrelated areas: learners, teachers, and applications of new technologies. Specifically, the studies explore methods for fostering learner-centred classrooms, autonomous learners, intercultural learning, the role of teacher views and identities, the nature of a ‘middle ground’ approach, and technologies that accommodate the unique aspects of the Chinese language, with new options for mobile and interactive learners. Providing both inspiration and practical models for language practitioners and researchers, it offers a vital resource for teachers’ professional development, and for pre-service teacher education.

Voluntourism and Language Learning/Teaching

Voluntourism and Language Learning/Teaching PDF Author: Larissa Semiramis Schedel
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031408136
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
This edited volume extends current voluntourism theorizing by critically examining the intersections among various forms of work-leisure travel and language learning/teaching. The book’s contributors investigate volunteer tourism and its cognates such as working holidaymaking, international internships, and gap year labor, as discursive fields in which powerful ideas about language(s), their speakers, and pedagogical practices are propagated worldwide. The various authors’ chapters shed light on the hegemony of global English, the social consequences of linguistic commodification and neoliberal rationalities, the ways in which speaker identity positions can alter the exchange value of languages, and how language competencies are tied to power in the labor market, among related topics. This volume will be of interest to readers in Applied Linguistics, Critical Sociolinguistics, Educational and Linguistic Anthropology, Tourism and Leisure Studies, Migration and Mobility Studies, and Language Teaching and Learning.

Teacher Agency and Policy Response in English Language Teaching

Teacher Agency and Policy Response in English Language Teaching PDF Author: Patrick C. L. Ng
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317295811
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
The role of English in the global arena has prompted official language-in-education policy makers to adopt language education policies to enable its citizens to be proficient in English and to access knowledge. Local educational contexts in different countries have implemented English education in their own ways with different pedagogical goals, motivations, features and pedagogies. While much of the research cited in English language planning policy has focused on macro level language policy and planning, there is an increasing interest in micro planning, in particular teacher agency in policy response. Individual teacher agency is a multifaceted amalgam, not only of teachers’ individual histories, professional training, personal values and instructional beliefs, but also of how these interact with local interpretations and appropriations of policy. Teacher Agency and Policy Response in English Language Teaching examines the agency of the teacher in negotiating educational reforms and policy changes at the local and national levels. Chapters in the book include: English language teaching in China: teacher agency in response to curricular innovations Incorporating academic skills into EFL curriculum: teacher agency in response to global mobility challenge Teacher agency, the native/nonnative dichotomy, and "English Classes in English" in Japanese high Schools Teacher-designed high stakes English language testing: washback and impact This book will appeal to researcher across all sectors of education, in particular key stakeholders in curriculum and language planning. Those interested in the latest development of English language teaching will also find this book a valuable resource.

Race and Ethnicity in English Language Teaching

Race and Ethnicity in English Language Teaching PDF Author: Christopher Joseph Jenks
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 1783098449
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
This book examines racism and racialized discourses in the ELT profession in South Korea. The book is informed by a number of different critical approaches to race and discourse, and the discussions contained in the chapters offer one way of exploring how the ELT profession can be understood from such perspectives. Observations made are based on the understanding that racism should not be viewed as individual acts of discrimination, but rather as a system of social structures. While the book is principally concerned with language teaching and learning in South Korea, the findings are situated in a wider discussion of race and ethnicity in the global ELT profession. The book makes the following argument: White normativity is an ideological commitment and a form of racialized discourse that comes from the social actions of those involved in the ELT profession; this normative model or ideal standard constructs a system of racial discrimination that is founded on White privilege, saviorism and neoliberalism. Drawing on a wide range of data sources, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in critically examining ELT.

Enacting English across Borders

Enacting English across Borders PDF Author: Raqib Chowdhury
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443867187
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
This book houses contemporary theoretical and empirical studies by emergent researchers and scholars in the disciplines of ELT, Applied Linguistics and TESOL who address several newly-emerged and emerging issues in the field from their own contexts (predominantly Asian settings). Each chapter, in its own unique way, challenges, unpacks and critiques existing misconceptions and pre-conceived assumptions of the use, learning and teaching of English in today’s fluid and globalised, postmodern era. While some contributors to the book have brought such issues to the forefront through a critical consideration of histories and policies, others have explored how English is enacted, practised, learned, and/or taught across a wide range of settings in order to further illustrate the various manifestations of the worldwide expansion of the language. Together the chapters of this book highlight the current discrepancies and inconsistencies in different areas of interest in the field of ELT, and provide carefully considered suggestions on how to address these issues.

World English(es) and the Multilingual Turn

World English(es) and the Multilingual Turn PDF Author: Annalisa Bonomo
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443869384
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
The recent multilingual turn involves various different implicit and explicit language policies, urging pressure and resistance with regard to the spread of English and its dominant relationships with other national languages. As such, this book considers the social value of communication as the basis of multilingualism and of the evolution of language systems. The data presented here show English as being in the middle of the double “listening” of cultural mediation and the imperfect “magnifying” glass of translation, with worldwide Standard English being but one of the many other related varieties which enjoy prestige on a large scale. These varieties may be identified according to different features which make the plural “world Englishes” an umbrella term with blurred edges. New approaches to dialects study have been developed in recent decades, and cartographic mapping has overlapped with the emergence of a new dialectology which deals with the description of language phenomena as complex concepts, where “complexity” provides a challenging framework for investigation and research of languages as dynamic systems made up of variables which mutually influence each other. Thus, dialectometry, dialectology and standardization become interesting tools for measuring linguistic differences, establishing language typologies and endorsing the systemic characteristics which can be formalized. Comprehensive and well-informed, this volume will appeal to anyone interested in the spread of English, from researchers and teachers to students, providing them with a greater understanding of some examples of world Englishes analysed under the light of complexity as a product of global society.

Critical Perspectives on Language Education

Critical Perspectives on Language Education PDF Author: Katie Dunworth
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319061852
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
The studies in this volume investigate how multilingual education involves a critical engagement with questions of identity and culture, and a movement towards new ways of being and belonging. It addresses previously under-explored issues, in particular the integration of theories like ‘thirdness’, and practices of language education and maintenance with relevance to the Asia-Pacific region. The analyses reveal the delicate balance of interests of all stakeholders and offer detailed insights into the reality of multilingual education, with specific examples of Chinese, English, Japanese and Tamil. In a globalised world, effective language education has become increasingly important, and the studies presented here have the potential to inform and advance evidence-based multilingual education through adding important dimensions of theoretical exploration and refreshing empirical resources.

Why English?

Why English? PDF Author: Pauline Bunce
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 1783095865
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
This book explores the ways and means by which English threatens the vitality and diversity of other languages and cultures in the modern world. Using the metaphor of the Hydra monster from ancient Greek mythology, it explores the use and misuse of English in a wide range of contexts, revealing how the dominance of English is being confronted and counteracted around the globe. The authors explore the language policy challenges for governments and education systems at all levels, and show how changing the role of English can lead to greater success in education for a larger proportion of children. Through personal accounts, poems, essays and case studies, the book calls for greater efforts to ensure the maintenance of the world’s linguistic and cultural diversity.