Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

A Research-Based Approach For Teaching Written Apologies To English For Academic Purposes Learners, Lisa Leopold

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

This article describes a research-based approach for teaching written personal, corporate, and public apologies to advanced English language learners. Following an explicit-inductive approach, the proposed lessons incorporate authentic input, metapragmatic explanation, noticing activities, corpus-based exercises, and empirically based research findings, all of which have been shown to enhance learners’ sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic competence. Learners apply research findings to analyze authentic apologies, revise them for greater sincerity, and use a corpus to expand the range of expressions for apologizing. The pedagogical activities expand the scope of written pragmatics instruction which has been relatively under-represented in the field of pragmatics.

English-For-Teaching In Higher Education: Discourse Functions And Language Exemplars, Eun-Young Julia Kim

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

Increasingly more colleges and universities in non-English speaking countries are requiring instructors to teach in English. Although existing research addresses various issues related to using English as a medium of instruction in higher education, few studies have specifically addressed how to provide language scaffolding to college instructors who are asked to teach their subjects in English for the first time. The study builds on Freeman et al.’s (2015) discourse functions for English-for-teaching and presents a refined functional framework to suit college-level classes. It provides authentic language samples to help instructors prepare to teach in English based on the analysis of …

A Tesol Service Learning Program In Rural Michigan: An Innovative Approach To Preparing Pre-Service Teachers, April M. Burke, Sarah Case, Caitlin Hamstra

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

Central Michigan University offers a TESOL service learning course that provides pre-service teachers the opportunity to apply their understanding of course content while addressing the needs of school-aged and adult emergent multilinguals. An innovative aspect of the course is that it provides clinical experiences, prior to student teaching, at the university’s English Language Institute and at multiple sites within a rural K-12 school district. To contribute to an understanding of how to prepare pre-service teachers while supporting emergent multilinguals in rural communities, the authors describe the development and research basis of the course, discuss the benefits of the course and …

Workplace English As Professional Development: The Uw-Madison Model, Karen Parrillo

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

University human resources departments dedicate themselves to providing relevant professional development to their institutions’ employees. However, few of these departments consider the language learning needs of employees who are nonnative English speakers. This paper introduces the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison)’s unique approach to meeting the English language learning needs of employees through its Cultural Linguistic Services (CLS) department within the Office of Human Resources (OHR). The CLS Workplace English Program features the development of contextualized learning materials, active participation of employees’ supervisors, dynamic scheduling, and on-the-job practice with authentic communicative tasks. The collaboration between CLS/OHR and other UW-Madison departments has …

Real Boys Don't Do Language And Literacy--Or Do They?, Christen M. Pearson

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

Over the past several decades, there has been a decline in boys’ achievement, along with documentation of increasing struggles in language (both first and second) and literacy acquisition (Carr & Pauwels, 2006). To address this problem, gender differences have been looked at through the lens of socially and culturally constructed identity (Kindlon & Thompson, 2000; Pollack, 1998); however, emerging neurolinguistic research supports biological determinism, with evidence of strong biological (sex) differences in brain structure and function that impact language and learning (Bonomo, 2010; Gurian, 1996; Sax, 2005). This paper first provides an overview of current brain-based research on sex differences, …

The Quest For Respect: Esl Faculty And Programs In U.S. Higher Education, Ildiko Porter-Szucs

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

Relying on data from two nationwide surveys, this study examines the status of ESL programs in primarily U.S. higher educational settings as perceived by professionals in such programs. The focus is on the perceived lack of recognition and on measures taken against it. Survey respondents make suggestions for increasing the field’s visibility and respect on campus through interdepartmental outreach, policy and curricular initiatives, marketing, publishing/presenting, and academic as well as non-academic initiatives involving students.

Empowering Teachers With The Tools Of Linguistics: A Review Of Razfar And Rumenapp's Applying Linguistics In The Classroom: A Sociocultural Approach, Lindsay Vecchio

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

Book Review

Applying Linguistics in the Classroom: A Sociocultural Approach, A. Razfar & J.C. Rumenapp. Routledge: New York (2014).