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 …
Content-Based English Education In China: Students’ Experiences And Perspectives, Gulbahar Beckett, Fang Li
Dec 2011
Content-Based English Education In China: Students’ Experiences And Perspectives, Gulbahar Beckett, Fang Li
Gulbahar Beckett
This study explores undergraduate students’ experiences and perceptions of the
content-based EFL instruction at a northwestern Chinese university. It is one of the first
empirical studies of content-based EFL in China. Through a three-part open-ended questionnaire
administered with 34 undergraduate students majoring in finance, the study reveals
overwhelming support for this approach to EFL. Participants believed that learning English and
content knowledge simultaneously was helpful and that the spread of English in China can
benefit the nation and its people. The findings also indicate that some participants were critical of
the approach, stating that it is “shallow content teaching” and …
Academic English As A Second Language For Gaps, Gulbahar Beckett
Dec 2008
Academic English As A Second Language For Gaps, Gulbahar Beckett
Gulbahar Beckett
For decades, research has pointed to significant gaps between African American and White
student academic achievement. In this article, I critically discuss the literature on African
American student academic achievement from pedagogical, cultural, and sociolinguistic
perspectives. I then argue for a stronger linguistic and pedagogical approach to bridge the gap
and propose a curriculum idea that teachers may find useful should they decide to adopt this
approach.
Moderation, Modesty, Creativity, And Criticalness: A Chinese-American Medical Professor Speaks., Gulbahar Beckett, Jianhua Zhang
Dec 2005
Moderation, Modesty, Creativity, And Criticalness: A Chinese-American Medical Professor Speaks., Gulbahar Beckett, Jianhua Zhang
Gulbahar Beckett
The number of minority scholars in North American universities and
colleges has increased steadily since the 1980s (Harvey, 2003; U.S.
Department of Education, 2002). This has resulted in some publications
that explore various issues encountered by minority scholars in general
(e.g., Belcher & Conner, 2001; Braine, 1999; Kingston-Mann & Sieber,
2001) and female faculty in particular (Li, 2005; Liang, 2005; Lin et al., 2004;
Vargas, 2002). This body of work shows that minority faculty encounter various
challenges in their work. For example, Braine (1999) describes being
underappreciated as an English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor in the
United States, …
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 …
The Project Framework: A Tool For Language, Content, And Skills Integration, Tammy Slater, Gulbahar Beckett
Dec 2004
The Project Framework: A Tool For Language, Content, And Skills Integration, Tammy Slater, Gulbahar Beckett
Gulbahar Beckett
Project-based instruction is a valuable way to promote the simultaneous acquisition of language, content, and skills, provided that students in academic ESL classes can see the value of learning through projects, which the literature notes has not consistently been the case. This article introduces a methodological tool called ‘The Project Framework’, describes the research which tested it in an undergraduate university ESL classroom, and suggests how it can be used as a cultural tool to help socialize students into a new way of thinking about language and language learning. The Framework allows ESL students to see the value of project-based …
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 …
