Education Commons^™

Contributors

International Education

List of Contributors; Guidelines for Contributors; Index.

Editorial Comments, Xiaodan Huang

International Education

Editorial Comments from guest editor Xiaodan Huang of Shawnee State University.

Teacher's Discoursal Strategies In Providing Positive Feedback To Student Responses: A Study Of Four English Immersion Teachers In People's Republic Of China, Miao Pei

International Education

This paper investigates the discoursal strategies of four teachers in providing feedback to student responses in English classrooms in Xi’an, People’s Republic of China. The findings indicate that the teachers provide positive feedback for students English learning in various ways, including using the most common strategies such as accepting, encouraging, and repeating, as well as the strategies of extending and prompting. This study indicates that these strategies are beneficial to the students’ linguistic and cognitive development because they provide comprehensible input and require English-speaking on the part of students. Although some of the strategies appear to be common among teachers …

The Development Of Academic Language Proficiency: Challenges For Middle School Immersion In Hong Kong And Xi'an, Stella Kong, Philip Hoare

International Education

This paper investigates the development of academic language proficiency through immersion in middle school programmes in Hong Kong and Xi’an. The study reveals that in both contexts students have exposure to complex academic language through teacher talk and textbooks; however, there is not sufficient support for students’ academic language use in writing. The paper discusses the possible causes and suggests how students can be helped to develop better academic language proficiency in these immersion contexts.

The Roles Of Motivation, Affective Attitudes, And Willingness To Communicate Among Chinese Students In Early English Immersion Programs, Ellen Knell, Yanping Chi

International Education

Early English immersion in China has been studied from many angles, but no research to date has investigated affective variables, which may have a profound relevance to successful English acquisition. The present study examines the roles of motivation, attitudes towards learning English, willingness to communicate, perceived competence, language anxiety, and parental support among upper primary immersion and nonimmersion students. Results indicate that immersion students used in this study had significantly higher levels of willingness to communicate and perceived competence and exhibited less language anxiety than their nonimmersion peers. In addition, willingness to communicate and perceived competence were the strongest predictors …

Phonological Awareness And Listening Comprehension Among Chinese English-Immersion Students, Miao Li, Liying Cheng, John R. Kirby

International Education

This study investigates the relationship between English listening comprehension and English and Chinese phonological awareness (PA), and the cross-linguistic transfer of PA in 48 Grade 2 and 47 Grade 4 Chinese English-immersion students. The results of the study indicate a correlation between English PA and English listening comprehension. English listening comprehension had a significant effect on English PA in both grades; this effect is evident after considering Chinese PA, but only in Grade 4. A similar pattern is found for the effect of English PA on English listening comprehension. Only weak evidence exists pertaining to a connection between cross-linguistic transfer …

Impact Of Immersion Teaching On English Sociopragmatic Awareness Of Chinese Kindergarten Children: A Polite Study, Lei Zhang, Rong Yan

International Education

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of an early partial immersion program as compared to a non-immersion program on English sociopragmatic awareness among Chinese kindergarten children six years of age. Of the 128 children who participated in the experiment involving the use of politeness perception tasks, half received three years of English immersion instruction and the other half were non-immersion children. The results indicate that compared with non-immersion teaching, the immersion instruction was found to be more effective in developing children’s English sociopragmatic awareness in terms of tasks that involve request strategies as opposed to reply …

Content-Language Integrated Second Langauge Instruction: Curriculum And The Ccuei Context, Mary Barbara Trube

International Education

This paper examines the content-language integrated (CLI) second language (L2) education offered by the CCUEI Research Collaborative in China. It explores how CCUEI-developed curriculum refl ects the theoretical foundations of an immersion experiment and how the research-based theoretical foundations of CLI L2 have been applied in practice. It presents best practices for L2 instruction that have emerged supporting the notions that content-area classes provide natural environments for L2 education and content-based language teaching motivates English language learners.

Introduction Of English Immersion In China: A Transplant With Modifications, Haiyan Qiang, Linda S. Siegel

International Education

This article presents an overview of replicating the French immersion model used in Canada to English immersion programs in China. It provides the Chinese context of this program highlighting the importance of English education and the defect of traditional English teaching and learning. The paper explains the borrowable features of the French immersion model which account for the attraction to the Chinese reformers. With a focused discussion on the differences between the traditional and immersion English teaching approaches, the paper argues that, to sustain an effective transplanted English immersion program, necessary modifications must be made to respond to the social …

Contributors, Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon

International Education

List of Contributors and Guidelines for Contributors.

Editorial Comments, Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon

International Education

Editorial Comments.

Do Foreign Language Learning, Cognitive, And Affective Variables Differ As A Function Of Exceptionality Status And Gender?, Sherry Mee Bell, R. Steve Mccallum

International Education

Relationships between foreign language learning and four characteristics— anxiety, aptitude, attitudes and attributions for success—were investigated for 95 students enrolled in introductory level Spanish classes at a large, southeastern university in the United States. Examination grades resulted in significantly positive correlation with an aptitude measure and significantly negative correlation with luck attributions for foreign language success (p < .05). Students identified as gifted tended to score higher than those with learning disabilities on exams, though not significantly higher, perhaps as a result of the small sample size and highly variable performance of the gifted students (p < .05). In addition, the gifted students reported less anxiety (p < .04). Females reported higher anxiety (p < .001) than males though they earned (non-significantly) higher scores (than males) on exams (p > .05). Modern Language Aptitude Test Part IV and luck attributions significantly predicted exam grades within a multiple regression analysis. In a second multiple regression analysis, only effort and ability attributions significantly predicted anxiety. Results underscore the importance of understanding and addressing both cognitive …

The Importance Of Context For Teaching Controversial Issues In International Settings, Thomas Misco

International Education

This article explores the underlying and epiphenomenal manifestations of milieus and contexts that serve to control and undermine, or provide pathways to, the discussion of controversial issues in classrooms. Given the importance of teaching and discussing controversial issues, as an essential lever for democratic citizenship education, I draw on two empirical case studies in Korea and Latvia. These cases suggest a variety of implications for teacher education programs and education policy makers, both domestically and abroad, including the need for teachers to develop a clear rationale for teaching controversial issues; understand their role as mediator of the larger normative mandate …

Learning About Aging In Hong Kong Through A Linked Service Learning Project, Alicia Skinner Cook, Christine A. Fruhauf

International Education

With the goal of enhancing knowledge and skills related to cross-cultural aging, a linked service learning project was implemented through a partnership with an elderly community center in Hong Kong. The project linked Semester at Sea (SAS) study abroad students with gerontology students at Colorado State University through collaborative service learning activities. SAS students served as English tutors to older adults in Hong Kong. Gerontology students helped SAS students prepare for their service learning activity by creating instructional materials specific to aging in Hong Kong. The project evaluation demonstrated that all groups benefited from their involvement. SAS students reported positive …

The One-Child Policy And Privatization Of Education In China, Guangyu Tan

International Education

China’s one-child policy is one of the most significant, yet controversial, programs of planned fertility. While the focus of the controversy is on the nature of the policy (for example, whether the policy is humane, or whether it violates the basic human rights of individual freedom), the impact of such population control program on China’s educational policy and practices is understudied. Moreover, the relationship between the one-child policy and the privatization of K-12 education in China remains insufficiently understood. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to address this gap in the literature and to explore the impact of one-child …

Creating Culturally Relevant Instructional Materials: A Swaziland Case Study, Connie Titone, Emily C. Plummer, Melissa A. Kielar

International Education

In the field of English language learning, research proves that culturally relevant reading materials improve students’ language acquisition, learning motivation, self-esteem, and identity formation. Since English is the language of instruction in many distant countries, such as Swaziland, even when English is not the native language of those countries, how can native English speakers most easily produce and expand the reach of culturally relevant materials for foreign settings that require English materials? In a study involving undergraduate university students, the researchers investigate the extent to which individuals recognize and demonstrate the importance of cultural context and relevance when creating their …

Langauge Of Instruction: Unlocking Effectiveness Of Education And Sustainable Development In Sub-Saharan Africa, Natasha Truong

International Education

The choice of the language of instruction in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a fundamental educational issue with ramifi cations for educational access and effectiveness and ultimately national development. Indigenous SSA languages have suffered devaluation in colonial and post-colonial SSA education, and this devaluation alienates the majority of SSA people, thus preventing them from participating in their own economic and political growth. Developmental policies that neglect to utilize local people’s talents and knowledge are failed policies. The language of instruction, specifi cally the use of the fi rst or native language (L1) as the medium of instruction, is the key to …

Remembering Things We’Ve Never Done: Memory’S Daughters And The Literary Experience, William C. Johnson

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Memory, essential in creative writing, inspires us to weave literary reading into the narrative of personal experience and to seek, through recollection, our psychic wholeness.

A Medical Humanities Course: A Pertinent Pause On The Medical Beat, Kathleen Welch

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This article summarizes the findings of one ethnographic study and demonstrates that, by emphasizing self- reflection and discussion, an interdisciplinary literature and medicine course provides medical students a brief but important, time for retrospection.

Writing Awareness, Gwen Gorzelsky

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The author argues that, by practicing embodied, metaphoric ethnography, educators can revise their roles in classroom social systems and so pursue the goals of critical pedagogy.

In The Name Of The Spirit, Lynn Briggs, Fred Schunter, Ray Melvin

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The authors argue that naming experiences "spiritual" is important to an expanded understanding of goals, struggles, and success in their writing center practice.

New Locations For Discursive Agency: The Story Of Anandamai Ma, Mary Ann Cain

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This paper aims to relocate our relationship to modes of knowledge that fall outside of Western rationalism and conceptual thought by relocating our understanding of agency through the figure of Anandamai Ma, a 20th century Hindu "saint.

Front Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Editor's message.

Jaepl, Vol. 19, Winter 2013-2014, Joona Smitherman Trapp, Brad Peters

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Essays

Peter Elbow - Using Careless Speech for Careful, Well-Crafted Writing - Whatever Its Style

Keith Rhodes & Monica M. Robinson - Sheep in Wolves' Clothing: How Composition's Social Construction Reinstates Expressivist Solipsism (And Even Current-Traditional Conservatism)

Bradley Smith - The Journey Metaphor's Entailments for Framing Learning

Sarah Hochstetler - A Teacher's Terminal Illness in the Secondary Classroom: The Effects of Disclosure

Anna O. Soter - It's (Not) Just a Figure of Speech: Rescuing a Metaphor

Amy L. Eva, Carrie A. Bemis, Marie F. Quist, & Bill Hollands - The Power of the Poetic Lens: Why Teachers Need to Read …

A Teacher’S Terminal Illness In The Secondary Classroom: The Effects Of Disclosure, Sarah Hochstetler

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

How does it affect learning when cancer becomes the prevailing metaphor through which students see their teacher?

It’S (Not) Just A Figure Of Speech: Rescuing Metaphor, Anna O. Soter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Look for ways that students can study metaphor in everyday language, rather than confine its study to poetry.

Sheep In Wolves’ Clothing: How Composition’S Social Construction Reinstates Expressivist Solipsism (And Even Current-Traditional Conservatism), Keith Rhodes, Monica M. Robinson

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Reframing the theory of social construction from Romantic/ Classic perspectives yields surprising insights about writing studies.

The Power Of The Poetic Lens: Why Teachers Need To Read Poems Together, Amy L. Eva, Carrie A. Bemis, Marie F. Quist, Bill Hollands

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Poetry reading circles can become the means for new (and experienced) teachers to reflect on their professional growth.

Thoughts On Teaching As A Practice Of Love, Sharon Marshall

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Approaching classroom diversity from a Nichiren Buddhist perspective guides students toward a “value-creating education.”

Fear Not The Trunchbull: How Teaching From A Humorous Outlook Supports Transformative Learning, Kathleen J. Cassity

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Empirical and historical evidence suggest that humor is a key tool for discovering ways in which learning can become transformative.