Baburhan Uzum

Inhibitory Control, Working Memory and L2 Interaction

This study considers how second language (L2) learners’ working memory capacities and their abilities to inhibit interfering information relate to their success at learning from conversational interaction. Participants were given a reading span task in English and a Stroop test in English, their first language, and in Italian (L2), and participated in an interactive picture description task in Italian in which they were provided feedback on grammatical gender and number. In addition, the learners completed pretests and posttests. Learners were divided into two groups based on how much they learned from an interactive task. Working memory and inhibition scores were examined for each group. The results showed that the major contributing factor to learning gains was L2 Stroop test scores.

Uncovering the layers of foreign language teacher socialization: A qualitative case study of Fulbright language teaching assistants

This qualitative case study explored how a novice language teacher negotiated her pedagogical beliefs and practices during her socialization into a foreign cultural and educational context. The focal participant was an Uzbek language teacher at a university in the USA. Using a language socialization theoretical framework, data were drawn from multiple sources such as interviews, video-recorded classroom observations, and classroom materials. The findings indicate that biographical factors (e.g. the teacher’s personal history, experience as a learner), contextual factors (e.g. interactions with students and institutional resources), and dialogic factors (e.g. the teacher’s knowledge of theories of teaching and learning) guided the process of socialization. The teacher was able to transform her beliefs and practices by negotiating the tensions, dilemmas, concerns, and questions across her biography, current teaching context, and theoretical knowledge of teaching and learning.

Glocal Experiences in Your Own Backyard: Teacher Candidates Developing Understanding of Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice

In this study, we report on the developing intercultural competence of 48 preservice teachers, as they engaged in a glocal field experience with English-language learners (ELLs) at a middle school in Texas, U.S.A. All the preservice teachers were female, White, in their early 20s, and monolingual, native English speakers which is similar to the demographics of public school teachers in the U.S. The middle school is located in a high poverty area with a history of poor academic outcomes for ELLs. Preservice teachers collaborated with content area teachers to create and deliver lessons that targeted critical learning objectives identified by content area teachers. The data consisted of interviews with preservice teachers before and after the field experience, triangulated with the journal entries and lesson plans they wrote during the process. Using a qualitative case study methodology, we explored preservice teachers’ growing understanding of ELLs and their language and academic needs. Preservice teachers’ perceptions of ELLs appeared to transform a result of the field experience. A majority of the preservice teachers initially conceptualized ELLs as having limited English proficiency and limited intellectual capacity. Throughout the experience, they developed a refined understanding of the diversity of students’ language proficiency and that low levels of language proficiency were not indicative of low intelligence. Furthermore, patience was strategized to include specific strategies to support ELLs’ language and content development. As a result of this experience, preservice teachers made progress toward building intercultural competence and understanding the challenges and affordances of working with ELLs.

Inclusive and exclusive uses of we in four American textbooks for multicultural teacher education

This study analyses four American multicultural teacher education textbooks for instances of inclusive and exclusive representations through the use of first person plural pronouns (i.e. we, us, our, ours). Positioning theory is used as a theoretical framework to examine the textbook authors’ uses of first person plural pronouns and to understand how these pronouns perform reflexive and interactive positioning and fluidly (re)negotiate and (re)delineate the borders between ‘self’ and ‘other.’ The findings suggest that first person plural pronouns are used extensively in the focal textbooks to refer to such groups as authors, Americans, humans, teachers, and teacher educators. Expressing differing levels of ambiguity in interpretation, these pronouns play significant roles in the discursive representations of inclusivity and exclusivity across topics of multicultural education. This study implicates that language teachers should use criticality and reflexivity when approaching exclusionary discourses and representations that neglect the particularities of individuals from different cultures.