Judy Hunter

Language and literacy on the ground: disconnects between government policy and employer perspectives

Education to meet labour market demands and employer needs is a key priority in New Zealands education policy. Government agendas for language and literacy education align with global discourses that link economic productivity to quality control, standardisation and proceduralisation through close regulation and funding. Yet, the interviews reported on here, involving employers of migrants, show that employers accept a range of linguistic diversity and judge migrant employees in subjective, complex ways. These employers tend to see effective communication as embedded in the cultures and relationships of their workplaces. Yet, they also tend to form negative judgments about employees based on dominant policy discourses and popular images of migrants as Others. The implications challenge government policy but at the same time point to spaces for critical work on change.

Uncertain pathways: foundation skills tutors and marginalised students in neoliberal times

Abstract This article deals with the work of polytechnic tutors on adult foundation programmes and describes how their work has been affected by the current neoliberal climate in the education sector. Inclusive neoliberalism is characterised by heightened regulation, reduced support for the public sector and a greater requirement for individual responsibility. The push to improve skills to meet labour demand is promoted as addressing social needs. Policies devised to promote these neoliberal values have led to numerous and far-reaching changes in adult education. In this study 73 foundation skills educators drawn from 8 institutions were interviewed to gain their insights into the effects of these policies. The article discusses three types of detrimental effects: the growing distrust between teaching staff and management; unsettling changes to institutional policy and its effects on staffing issues; and threats to the professionalism of teaching staff, the delivery of foundation studies, and the students themselves. Finally, the article suggests alternative possibilities for addressing these issues.

Book review: Jan-Ola Östmanstman and Anna Solin (eds), Discourse and Responsibility in Professional SettingsÖstmanJan-OlaSolinAnna (eds), Discourse and Responsibility in Professional Settings, Sheffield; Bristol, CT: Equinox Publishing, 2016; vii + 310 pp., £19.99/US

The contributions of this book are multifaceted. Its theorizations of reactive tokens and recipiency are inspiring to conversation analysts. Its qualitative, context-based approach to reactive tokens provides a necessary complement to the popular quantitative approach. The explorations into the forms and functions of Mandarin reactive tokens and the factors conditioning their use contribute to Chinese conversation studies, and the similarity shown between Mandarin and English reactive tokens is also a contribution to comparative linguistics and intercultural communication studies. The highlight of the recipient’s role in conversation provides a good complement to speaker-oriented conversation analysis studies and provides insights into the interactional nature of human language. However, the book does have some limitations. The working definitions of some key concepts such as reactive tokens and recipiency should have been offered in the ‘data and approach’ chapter (Chapter 3) rather than in later chapters. The claims concerning the engagement function of reactive tokens in the very long (60 pages) Chapter 4 overlap the claims concerning the display of recipiency through the reactive tokens in Chapters 5 and 6. While qualitative analysis is a strength of this book, some of Xu’s claims appear as hasty oversimplifications in need of quantitative evidence. Nevertheless, this title is a useful resource for students and researchers of conversation analysis and intercultural communication. It also offers inspiration for teachers, directors, smart program developers and other practitioners for whom close attention to conversation feedback is relevant.

29.95 (pbk).

Aotearoa New Zealand’s adult literacy and numeracy education reforms, begun in 2001, have echoed those in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations. In New Zealand, they have resulted in two cornerstone developments: the Progressions and the Assessment Tool, both based on the international adult literacy surveys.

Critical Re-Visioning

providing a practical introduction to the analytic tools used by CDA practitioners. Though CDA has been developing fast, newcomers to this field often feel confused by its theoretical and methodological heterogeneity. Different scholars may attend to different linguistic phenomena by adopting and combining different theories. Therefore, beginners are in an awkward predicament, not knowing which features deserve attention and which theories can be employed, for the lack of a ready-made method to follow. Van Dijk (2001: 95) argues that he does not want to offer such an approach for people to follow because eclecticism is characteristic of CDA, which should integrate the best work from all disciplines, and that imitating and following others seldom leads to original ideas. He is right, to some extent. But we should also remember imitation may be the very basis of future development and creation. Case studies are one of the most prominent features of this book. In each chapter, after a theoretical introduction and exploration, case studies are provided to show how theories can be applied in real situations to expose hidden meanings. In addition, research into the interaction between text and image is really illuminating. I am impressed by the fact that the authors explain extremely complicated phenomena in such an accessible way, which shows their excellent understanding of the subject in question. The book also provides a good summary of some key works in CDA, highly facilitating readers’ understanding. However, Halliday’s social semiotic approach is only part of the CDA enterprise, although important and influential. Therefore, I look forward to more practical introductions to analytic tools inspired by other research traditions such as argumentation theory.