Overworked And Stressed Teachers Under Market Economy: Case Study In Northwest China, Gulbahar Beckett, Juanjuan Zhao
May 2016
Overworked And Stressed Teachers Under Market Economy: Case Study In Northwest China, Gulbahar Beckett, Juanjuan Zhao
Gulbahar Beckett
This chapter is based on a case study conducted in Xisheng (pseudonym promised to the participants for anonymity purposes) in Northwest China to explore teachers’ perspectives on teaching under the market economy system. The original plan was to study local indigenous teachers, but that was not possible due to political sensitivity of the region at the time of data collection. As a result, we interviewed mostly Han teachers, including as many local indigenous teachers as possible. We think that the study is still useful as it was the first study of its kind and that it was informative regarding the …
Project-Based Chinese As A Foreign Language Instruction: A Teacher Research Approach, Gulbahar Beckett
Dec 2013
Project-Based Chinese As A Foreign Language Instruction: A Teacher Research Approach, Gulbahar Beckett
Gulbahar Beckett
This study implements and evaluates an action research project carried out by a teacher in a U.S. high school, where two classes of students studied Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) through project-based instruction (PBI) over an academic year. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of PBI in teaching CFL by eliciting students' and the teacher's experiences and perceptions of PBI. Data collected included student interviews, surveys, project products, classroom observations, and teacher journals. The findings suggest that PBI is an effective approach to teaching and learning of language, culture, and other skills simultaneously. PBI was …
A Critical Analysis Of English Language Teaching In Today’S Market Economy In China, Yan Guo, Gulbahar Beckett
Dec 2011
A Critical Analysis Of English Language Teaching In Today’S Market Economy In China, Yan Guo, Gulbahar Beckett
Gulbahar Beckett
Since its open-door policy in 1978, China began a transfonnation fi·om planned
economy to market economy, for which English became an essential requirement.
TI1e Chinese govemrnent sees promoting English language leaming as paramount
in the nation's attempt to become competitive in the global market (Cai, 2006).
Such an emphasis on English resulted in various English language cmricular
refonns, which were strongly influenced by the forces of economic globalization,
as the nation attempted to shape its educational systems to provide the necessruy
skills for a growing global economy. However, we ru·gue that the increasing
dominru1ce of English language is contributing to …
The Hegemony Of English As A Global Language, Gulbahar Beckett, Yan Guo
Dec 2007
The Hegemony Of English As A Global Language, Gulbahar Beckett, Yan Guo
Gulbahar Beckett
English, the first language of about 400 million people in Britain, the United States
and the Commonwealth, has become the dominant global language of
communication, business, aviation, entertainment, diplomacy, and the Internet. As
such, an estimated number of over a billion people speak it as their second or
foreign language. These second- and foreign-language speakers of English include
millions of migrant and immigrant English as a Second Language (ESL) schoolage
students (see Faltis, 2006) and over 560,000 international ESL university
students in the United States (Open Doors, 2006) and over 137,000 in Canada
(OECD, 2003). About a billion others in …
What Contributes To Asian Model Minority Academic Success? An Ecological Perspective, Gulbahar Beckett
Dec 2006
What Contributes To Asian Model Minority Academic Success? An Ecological Perspective, Gulbahar Beckett
Gulbahar Beckett
Asians in America are perceived to be model minorities and Asian American students are believed to be exceptional educational achievers. Some believe this is a model minority phenomenon that needs to be demystified as it is a stereotype detrimental to Asian American students social and psychological well-being. Some attribute Asian-American student academic achievement to factors such as parents' and students' attitudes and actions toward schoolwork, economic and ethnic status, human and social capital, family structure, community organization, and cultural and linguistic patterns. Others attribute it to factors such as self-perception, school expectations and organization, students cultural and background knowledge, and …
Reconstructing Culture And Identity In The Academy: Asian Female Scholars Theorizing Their Experiences, Guofang Li, Gulbahar Beckett
Dec 2005
Reconstructing Culture And Identity In The Academy: Asian Female Scholars Theorizing Their Experiences, Guofang Li, Gulbahar Beckett
Gulbahar Beckett
T his book project began over a coffee break at the American Educational
Research Association in Seattle several years ago when we
shared our own experiences and excitement as new faculty members
trying to establish ourselves in the familiar yet strange academy. The academy
was familiar to us because we were the apprentices of the academy for
many years and we had learned the once unfamiliar discourses. Both of us
were happy with our academic positions and were fortunate to have very
supportive colleagues. Yet both of us felt we were "strangers" at times. After
all, as Asian, foreign-born, and …
Content-Based Esl Writing Curriculum: A Language Socialization Model, Gulbahar Beckett, Virginia Gonzalez, Heather Schwartz
Dec 2003
Content-Based Esl Writing Curriculum: A Language Socialization Model, Gulbahar Beckett, Virginia Gonzalez, Heather Schwartz
Gulbahar Beckett
In this paper, we propose a content-based, advanced level adjunct English as a Second Language (ESL) instructional approach for writing from a language socialization theoretical framework using basic principles of systemic functional linguistics (Halliday, 1994) and sociocultural theory of learning (Vygotsky, 1986). We emphasize an ESL curriculum that stimulates ESL students to learn domain specific knowledge, to develop cognitive and meta-cognitive learning and thinking processes, and to learn rhetorically and lexico-pragmatically appropriate writing (Raimes, 1983). We provide a complete review of the theoretical principles derived from research based on integrative curriculum for second language (L2) students. We explain how an …
