Content uploaded by Dilin Liu
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Dilin Liu on May 22, 2017
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Diversity in the Classroom
Abstract
While second language teachers may have been slow to recognize the depth of diversity in their classrooms, they (unlike their peers in general education) have never been able to avoid diversity. Indeed, diversity is the only constant feature of the ESL classroom. Because of its importance, L2 specialists have actively attempted not only to discover and
describe all of the different ways in which L2 students bring diversity to the classroom
but also to find best teaching practices to effectively address all of the diversities
identified.
... Diversity is the inherent property of ELT as our language learners come from diverse linguistic, cultural, social, and socio-economic backgrounds (Liu & Nelson 2018). These learners bring to the classrooms their linguistic and cultural capital, knowledge traditions, worldviews, ideologies, preferred learning cultures and strategies, and learning experiences and histories, illustrating how permeable the ELT classroom walls are. ...
In this article, I offer my observations of the epistemological shifts that have taken place in the TESOL discipline as a result of the inexorable forces of globalisation. Specifically, the article highlights how the multicultural, multilingual, and multimodal nature of communication in the 21st century has disrupted various assumptions on how English is conceptualised, learned, and taught, prompting a shift in disciplinary discourses from a modernist to postmodernist orientation. Readers will gain insights into how the TESOL discipline is increasingly aligning itself with discourses that endorse inclusive plurality, emphasize processes and practices, recognize the role of everyday contexts, promote situated pedagogy, and advocate agency-giving.
... Assignment 1 is an awareness raising task where teachers critically reflect on diversity within their classrooms. A course learning guide written by the lecturer summarizing the literature on diversity, key readings (e.g., Alton-Lee 2005; Krish et al. 2010;Liu and Nelson 2017;Nguyen and Dang 2020), a wider reference list on different aspects of diversity, and guided videos from the lecturer talking through the material and assignment requirements are provided via an online learning platform. ...
The critical education practice described in this chapter comes from the postgraduate course Advanced TESOL for Diverse Learners and Contexts, which forms part of Massey University’s Master of Applied Linguistics (TESOL) in Aotearoa New Zealand. This qualification is designed for experienced teachers seeking further professional development to enhance their teaching practice and classroom decision-making. Teachers may be based in Aotearoa New Zealand or anywhere around the globe, with most opting to take the qualification part-time and online alongside their existing teaching roles. A diverse range of teaching roles are common, e.g., working with migrant and refugee students in classrooms where English is the medium of instruction, adult migrant and refugee learners, international students at higher or tertiary education institutions where English is the medium of instruction, or in international settings where English is taught as a second or foreign language.
... It can be concluded that diversity in all its forms -ethnic, cultural, linguistic, affective, sex-gender and many others-is an intrinsic property of the teaching of foreign languages in general and of English in particular (Liu & Nelson, 2017). Still, this conceptual belief, heavily supported by theory and research and widely spread among professionals, doesn't seem to be an effective reality at schools: at least in the case of English as a foreign language classrooms, the reality (re)presented and communicated continues to be rather uniform and colonial (Pérez et al., 2021). ...
The urge to turn the teaching of English as a foreign language into an inclusive and diverse space has recently become greater. For a few decades now, it has been highlighted the need for learners to develop not only their communicative competence, but also the intercultural one. However, the gap between these abstract expectations and specific teaching practices shows how much renovation is still a necessity. Understanding interculturality in its broadest sense, the article aims to evidence the little importance masculinities have been given in gender-critical educational research into foreign language teaching. To do so, a theoretical presentation of such concepts is carried out, as they are key to identify the related discourses that can be found in the world of English language teaching. As a conclusion, it suggests the assumption of these analytical categories in order to complement intercultural approaches, thus favouring diversity in English-teaching contexts for speakers of other languages. Finally, a list of possible themes as specific variables of upcoming empirical analysis is also proposed.
... Con lo dicho hasta aquí, parece evidente que la diversidad en todos sus sentidosétnica, cultural, lingüística, afectivo-sexogenérica y tantas otras-es una propiedad esencial de la enseñanza de lenguas adicionales en general y del inglés en particular (Liu y Nelson, 2017). A pesar de ello, este avance teórico ampliamente respaldado, con muchos años de difusión a sus espaldas, no parece haberse materializado plenamente en la realidad de las aulas que, a pesar de todo, siguen manifestando una evidente carencia de diversidad, al menos, en las aulas de inglés como lengua adicional (Pérez et al., 2021). ...
La vigilancia sobre los cuerpos de las personas trans en contextos urbanos es continua. Sin embargo, considero que se pueden construir espacios de resistencia en el medio natural, y que las experiencias al aire libre pueden ayudar a crear resiliencia para superar problemas relacionados con el ser trans que puedan darse en las ciudades. El presente artículo desarrolla la idea de que la naturaleza ofrece un espacio menos generizado para las personas trans, pudiendo escapar de procesos de autovigilancia y sentirnos más libres en nuestra expresión e identidad de género. Asimismo, realizar actividades al aire libre nos empodera a las personas trans en nuestros cuerpos. Partiendo desde las metodologías feministas y queer, y teniendo en cuenta la fluidez y el dinamismo de nuestras experiencias de vida, combiné el uso de la autoetnografía con entrevistas semiestructuradas en profundidad realizadas a cinco personas trans. Posteriormente, estas experiencias se pusieron en conversación con las teorías. La naturaleza fue descrita como un espacio donde se juzga menos, y un lugar donde es posible ser nosotres mismes. También se presentó como un lugar donde escapar de las normatividades de género del contexto urbano que, como argumento, nos está dañando. El aire libre es también un espacio seguro para las personas trans, y desmapear estas contrageografías busca reclamar nuestro espacio en él.
... Diversity is an inherent property of second language education (Liu & Nelson, 2018). For decades, English language teaching (ELT) scholars and researchers have made endless calls to incorporate into our classroom practices a legitimate recognition of various forms of diversity found in the society such as language, culture, gender, race, and economic (e.g. ...
This edited book provides professionals in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) with a situated and culturally-responsive account of diversity and inclusion in English language education, from primary to higher education and in a wide range of settings. The volume focuses on three overlapping areas: interculturality, special education needs, and gender. The chapters in each section seek to help readers reflect on the opportunities and challenges of diversity as a step towards inclusive practices, and raise awareness of critical topics across the curriculum and beyond by engaging in wider social issues. This book will be of interest to language teachers and teacher trainers, as well as scholars working in applied linguistics, higher education, intercultural studies, and related fields.
Darío Luis Banegas is a Lecturer in TESOL in the University of Strathclyde and an Associate Fellow with the University of Warwick, UK. His main teaching and research interests are CLIL, action research, and initial English language teacher education.
Griselda Beacon is a Lecturer in Literature at Universidad de Buenos Aires and at several teacher training colleges in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A NILE (Norwich Institute for Language Education) trainer in the UK, she has an MA in Literature from Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany. Her interests include literature and intercultural education.
Mercedes Pérez Berbain is a former Lecturer in Teaching Practice at Joaquin V. Gonzalez College of Education, Argentina. She holds an MA in Education from Oxford Brookes University, UK and is involved in CPD (ESSARP, OUP, Pilgrims). Her main interests include teaching young learners and teacher development.
... Diversity is an inherent property of second language education (Liu & Nelson, 2018). For decades, English language teaching (ELT) scholars and researchers have made endless calls to incorporate into our classroom practices a legitimate recognition of various forms of diversity found in the society such as language, culture, gender, race, and economic (e.g. ...
This chapter describes the result of changes made to year one undergraduate programmes to be all inclusive at one English medium instruction (EMI) institution within China. Recognising the similarities in the skills and techniques used to teach students the language and successful study skills, and students with dyslexia, this chapter draws on both a multi-sensory and a technology led approach. It highlights how compulsory (credit-bearing) English for academic purposes (EAP) modules, and associated teaching techniques, have been adapted to take into account issues related to students with dyslexia, enabling them to perform on an equal footing with other students. The positive impacts on progression rates for EAP modules, as well as migration of the teaching techniques into degree content classes are also highlighted, emphasising the wider impact on learning and teaching within the university and beyond.
... If we take any classroom, the group will be diverse even when we think they all share the same socioeconomic background or belong to the same age group or race. Diversity is an inherent characteristic of any group (Liu & Nelson, 2017). They may stand together driven by a common denominator, but their individual selves will bear differences that contribute to the group dynamics in multi-faceted ways. ...
Acknowledging a paucity of publications, which problematise how diversity may be crystallised in English language teaching (ELT), this chapter introduces the theme of the volume Diversity in ELT, grounded in contemporary educational underpinnings, mostly sociocultural theory and critical pedagogy. It advocates for the right for all to access a wider range of intercultural practices and for inclusion to accommodate cultural practices, special education needs, and gender in English language teaching. The chapter summarises the 15 chapters in the volume, informed accounts related to interculturality, special education needs, and gender in different formal education levels, which are grounded in context-responsive pedagogies from across the wide spectrum of diversity in English language teaching.
Linguistic and cultural diversity and the dominance of English have shaped educational responses to languages and language-in-education policies in Aotearoa New Zealand (Qi GY (2021) Early Mandarin Chinese learning and language-in-education policy and planning in Oceania. In: Zein S, Coady MR (eds) Early language learning policy in the twenty-first century: an international perspective, Springer International Publishing. pp 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76251-3_4). Despite being seen as superdiverse (Harvey S (2013) Revisiting the idea of a national languages policy for New Zealand: how relevant are the issues today? The TESOLANZ J, 21, 1–13; Terruhn J, Spoonley P (2020) Multilingual realities/monolingual ideologies: connecting the dots between schools’ language practices and international student Well-being. Transit: J Transient Migr, 4(2), 183–201. https://doi.org/10.1386/tjtm_00021_1), Aotearoa New Zealand remains to acknowledge English as the language of economic well-being along with other ‘international languages’ (de Bres J (2015) The hierarchy of minority languages in New Zealand. J Multiling Multicult Deve, 36(7), 677–693. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2015.1009465). Promoting ‘international languages’ in Learning Languages as an optional subject area in the New Zealand Curriculum has demonstrated goodwill, benefiting all students from learning another language (Ministry of Education (1993) The New Zealand curriculum framework: Te marautanga o Aotearoa. Learning Media). However, its aligned achievement standards emphasise second language communication and fail to embrace (super)diversity as a reality that has confronted teachers with pedagogical challenges. This chapter reports a study engaging language teachers interested in exploring pedagogical approaches to cater for (super)diversity in practice. Three secondary teachers of Japanese and Spanish languages joined me, the language teacher educator and researcher, in facilitating an online community of practice in 2021. The teachers perceived culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) differently and as the potential for multilingualism/multiculturalism in second language classrooms. Their developing understandings of CRP according to local contexts are discussed, and a professional development model is developed to support future endeavours for language teacher development in the pluralistic society.
Although several studies have addressed intercultural language teaching, there seems to be a dearth of research in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, specifically focusing on its critical aspects. To address this gap, this chapter reports on a study investigating the non-native language teachers’ beliefs about critical intercultural language teaching (CICLT) and their actual critical intercultural practices in their language classrooms. Data collection was done in two phases, through questionnaire administration and class observations. To explore the language teachers’ perceptions of CICLT, 219 teachers participated in the first phase by filling out a 20-item CICLT questionnaire. In the second phase, 40 class sessions from 20 teachers were randomly observed using an observation checklist to obtain a clearer picture of the teachers’ practices of CICLT. The findings indicated a mismatch between the teachers’ beliefs and pedagogical practices. Although the majority of teachers were favourably disposed toward CICLT in their responses to the questionnaire items, class observations revealed that this positivity was not necessarily manifested in their instruction. The findings of this study have implications for educators, policy makers, and practitioners regarding the significance of CICLT. As such, they call for more attention to the content of teacher education programs to raise teachers’ awareness and enhance their ability to adopt a more critical perspective.
In der Sommerschule des BMBWF (Juli 2020) versuchten Studierende der Primarstufe in Österreich, bildungssprachliche Kompetenzen der Kinder zu stärken. Mit einem online-Fragebogen für Tirol wurden sie zu Motivation und Feedback der Kinder, Diversität und Sprachförderaktivitäten befragt (N = 42). Eine qualitative Inhaltsanalyse ergab, dass dieses Lehr/Lern-Format größtenteils sehr gewinnbringend genutzt wurde und eine ganzheitliche Unterstützung der Kinder ermöglichte. Eingrenzend muss betont werden, dass das Gelingen lokal von gezielter Vorbereitung, passendem Material und dem persönlichen Einsatz der Studierenden, ihrem Wissen und Können sowie den konkreten Rahmenbedingungen vor Ort abhängt, jedoch die sich pandemiebedingt vergrößernden Bildungsunterschiede nicht ausgleichen kann.
Abstract in English in the chapter.
The relationship between the so-called cognitive style of field dependence/independence and second-language learning has been investigated in some twenty published studies. Findings from these investigations have subsequently been described in a number of influential, but largely uncritical, reviews. In this paper, it is contended that a critical review of the theoretical underpinnings, measurement instruments (embedded figures tests), and current status of the construct, leads to the inevitable conclusion that field dependence/independence does not have, and never has had, any relevance for second-language learning. The concept is shown to be theoretically flawed, and embedded figures tests are shown to be ability measures rather than style measures. Second-language studies are consequently appraised on the extent to which they indicate recognition of these fundamental considerations and how these are, or are not, reflected in their hypotheses.
East Asian and American causal reasoning differs significantly. East Asians understand behavior in terms of complex interactions between dispositions of the person or other object and contextual factors, whereas Americans often view social behavior primarily as the direct unfolding of dispositions. These culturally differing causal theories seem to be rooted in more pervasive, culture-specific mentalities in East Asia and the West. The Western mentality is analytic, focusing attention on the object, categorizing it by reference to its attributes, and ascribing causality based on rules about it. The East Asian mentality is holistic, focusing attention on the field in which the object is located and ascribing causality by reference to the relationship between the object and the field.
Throughout the short life of interlanguage pragmatics as a subdiscipline of second language research, it has been a virtually uncontested assumption that non-native speakers' comprehension and production of linguistic action is considerably influenced by their L1 pragmatic knowledge. The literature strongly supports this hypothesis. However, whereas there has been a lively controversy about the role of transfer in the traditional core areas of second language research (syntax, morphology, semantics), there has been little theoretical and methodological debate about transfer in interlanguage pragmatics.
As a contribution to such a debate, this article seeks to clarify the concept of pragmatic transfer, proposing as a basic distinction Leech/Thomas' dichotomy of sociopragmatics versus pragmalinguistics and presenting evidence for transfer at both levels. Evidence for purported pragmatic universals in speech act realization and for positive and negative pragmatic transfer is discussed. Further issues to be addressed include the conditions for pragmatic transfer (transferability), the interaction of transfer with non-structural factors (proficiency, length of residence, context of acquisition), and the effect of transfer on communicative outcomes. The article concludes by briefly considering some problems of research method in studies of pragmatic transfer.
Discusses how teachers can offer an inclusive setting for personal and academic growth by orchestrating group work to engage and develop unique learners. The article emphasizes that a focused whole-group discussion of working preferences affirms the presence and validity of diverse styles and maximizes the climate for learning in the classroom. (15 references) (Author/CK)
While approaching second language acquisition from a complex dynamic systems perspective makes a lot of intuitive sense, it is difficult for a number of reasons to operationalise such a dynamic approach in research terms. For example, the most common research paradigms in the social sciences tend to examine variables in relative isolation rather than as part of a system or network, and most established quantitative data analytical procedures (e.g. correlation analysis or structural equation modelling) are based on linear rather than nonlinear relationships. In this paper I will first summarise some of the main challenges of dynamic systems research in general and then present a concrete research template that can be applied to investigate instructed second language acquisition. This approach involves a special type of qualitative system modelling – ‘retrodictive qualitative modelling’ – that reverses the usual research direction by starting at the end – the system outcomes – and then tracing back to see why certain components of the system ended up with one outcome option and not another. By way of illustration I will provide examples from two classroom-oriented research projects in which the language classroom was taken to be the dynamic system, and the system outcome options were the various learner prototypes (e.g. motivated, laid back, passive) observed in the classroom.
It is important to appreciate how the battle between multiculturalist and individualist theories of education ahs shaped the pedagogical advice that some institutions of higher learning now give their instructors. In an important sense, that advice invites college and university teachers to pursue conflicting, irreconcilable goals in their teaching. By examining a particular North American example of such advice, I try to explain why the understandable attempt to accommodate both multiculturalism and individualism in the classroom inevitably makes for incoherent pedagogy.
This is a study concerning the basic perceptual learning style preferences (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile) and
preferences for group and individual learning of Armenian, African, Hispanic, Hmong, Korean, Mexican, and Anglo students in
American secondary schools. The results of the study reveal significant ethnic group and sex differences in their learning
style preferences, as well as students' achievement level differences.