Martin Cortazzi

Knowledge exchange: a review and research agenda for environmental management

There is increasing emphasis on the need for effective ways of sharing knowledge to enhance environmental management and sustainability. Knowledge exchange (KE) are processes that generate, share and/or use knowledge through various methods appropriate to the context, purpose, and participants involved. KE includes concepts such as sharing, generation, coproduction, comanagement, and brokerage of knowledge. This paper elicits the expert knowledge of academics involved in research and practice of KE from different disciplines and backgrounds to review research themes, identify gaps and questions, and develop a research agenda for furthering understanding about KE. Results include 80 research questions prefaced by a review of research themes. Key conclusions are: (1) there is a diverse range of questions relating to KE that require attention; (2) there is a particular need for research on understanding the process of KE and how KE can be evaluated; and (3) given the strong interdependency of research questions, an integrated approach to understanding KE is required. To improve understanding of KE, action research methodologies and embedding evaluation as a normal part of KE research and practice need to be encouraged. This will foster more adaptive approaches to learning about KE and enhance effectiveness of environmental management.

English Language Teaching in China: A Bridge to the Future

Abstract In this paper, the authors outline the development of ELT in the PRC in the last 10 years or so as seen in the wider context of educational reform in the country and the new direction towards quality education. Despite the influence of communicative language teaching and other language teaching approaches from outside the country, ELT in China has retained some of its essentially “Chinese characteristics”. As for the future of ELT in the PRC, the authors feel that, given the growing importance of English and the enormous energy and enthusiasm in the PRC for learning the language in both the formal and informal contexts, ELT will continue to flourish. After all, for many individuals and for the country itself, English is a bridge to the future.

Narrative Learning, EAL and Metacognitive Development.

This paper elaborates some aspects of narrative learning—defined here as learning to tell stories and learning from, about and through narratives—in the context of primary‐age pupils who use English as an Additional Language (EAL). The paper introduces some principles to support their language development in classroom interaction. We argue that linguistically orientated research on metacognitive strategy development is not necessarily readily applied to EAL learners. After presenting a background on narrative, narrative development and social aspects of telling stories, we introduce an approach to narrative development which encourages a cycle telling and retelling of stories which provides EAL learners with layered opportunities for developing the metacognitive features of planning, remembering, understanding and reflecting on storytelling. This is enabled through the use of written ‘keywords’, which are used in conjunction with ‘story maps’ (which outline the narrative structure and content) together with classroom photos. While the focus of the paper is on EAL learners, the visual approach described here can be used with narrative (or factual information) for many other young children and has been used by speech and language therapists to develop specific aspects of language for speech and language impaired children.

Language choices and ‘blind shadows’: investigating interviews with Chinese participants

This article shows the importance of the language chosen for research interviewing when more than one language could be used. It does so through the context of research with Chinese speakers published in English. The article has two research aims: first, to investigate research reports regarding how they deal with the issue of language choice. Second, it presents and discusses the procedure and results of seven pairs of interviews with Chinese interviewees, in order to investigate empirically the issue of language choice. The first interviews were conducted in English (by a native speaker of English); second, ‘blind shadow’ interviews were then conducted in Chinese (by a native speaker of Chinese) using Chinese translations of the same questions with the same participants. Results show numerous differences in the quality of the data obtained depending upon the choice of language for interviewing. These results arguably apply to languages other than Chinese; this is indicated within a framework of scenarios for language choices for research interviewing, and through recommendations for researchers.

More than a Journey: ‘Learning’ in the Metaphors of Chinese Students and Teachers

In this chapter we aim to get an inside picture of learning from the perspectives of Chinese participants by analysing large numbers of metaphors given by students and teachers in China. Our analysis leads to a complex cultural model of learning but here we focus particularly on one strand of this, which is that ‘learning is a journey’. We ask the research question of how Chinese university students represent learning in terms of metaphors and we investigate the major example of how learning is envisaged as a journey, its nature and features, and about the necessary qualities needed to succeed in learning. We show how the picture presented by university teachers in China complements that of students.

Cultivators, cows and computers: Chinese learners’ metaphors of teachers

This chapter presents a model of the teacher in China. The model is constructed by examining Chinese learners’ ideal expectations of teachers through a study of the metaphors they use to characterise teachers. Broadly, we adopt the Lakoff approach to conceptual metaphors but with a cultural focus. Two main data sources are used to analyse Chinese metaphors for teacher: traditional sayings and texts in the Confucian heritage which have had a continuing influence on Chinese educational values, and nearly 3000 metaphors elicited from 496 university students in China. From resulting networks of interrelated metaphors and learners’ interpretations we construct a cultural model of the Chinese teacher. This should be of interest to those teachers internationally who work with Chinese students and to Chinese (or other) students themselves, as a means to raise comparative educational awareness and reflect on teacher– student expectations and roles in China or elsewhere. The model highlights the roles of knowledge, cultivation and morality — and unexpectedly the role of sacrifice — but these and other key features characterising the teacher in Chinese cultures have particular resonances of networks of meanings located in cultural contexts. The chapter includes quite a few quoted metaphors, including those of cultivators, cows and computers which give insights into Chinese learners’ appreciation of teachers.

Researching Chinese Learners

China has the largest education system and the largest number of learners of English. Chinese students form the largest single group of international learners in many countries. However, there are few international studies of how Chinese students learn and adapt to other learning cultures. This book focuses on three themes related to Chinese learners the teaching and learning of English in Chinese classrooms intercultural adaptation of Chinese learners in international educational contexts the application of a range of research approaches and innovative methodologies The authors, from Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the UK, present original research with Chinese learners in higher education which provides a rich and wide international context for understanding social, cultural and academic issues related to Chinese students. The book should be of interest to researchers, teachers and postgraduate students in applied linguistics and English teaching, intercultural adaptation and international education.

Different Waves Crashing into Different Coastlines? Mainland Chinese Learners doing Postgraduate Dissertations in the UK

This chapter focuses on the process of learners from China completing their postgraduate master’s dissertations in Britain and on the accounts given by the students and their supervisors of change during this process. This is an important topic as the dissertation is the culmination of their programme and a very high-stakes assessment; it means the difference between receiving an MSc or a Diploma. The answers to research questions here could help future learners and supervisors. To explain the analogy used in the title of the chapter, the 45 learners in the study are described as ‘different waves’ because despite having many common experiences and backgrounds, there was much variation in their dissertation processes: the processes differ in ‘size, shape and movement’ as waves differ. The waves ‘crash’ into ‘different coastlines’; this is an analogy to describe their meetings with their supervisors in the study and the individual nature of the process of completing their dissertations. Most supervisors were British but others could be considered international, that is, they came from different countries originally: this is one marker of the internationalization of UK universities. The act of ‘crashing into’ is a metaphor for a synergy of learning since the ‘different waves’ move into and adapt to, and are finally shaped by, the ‘different coastlines’ they crash into.

Introduction: Contexts for Researching Chinese Learners

This book has a broad focus on three themes related to Chinese learners: teaching and learning in classrooms in China, the intercultural adaptation of Chinese learners in international contexts of education, and the application of a range of research approaches and methodologies. These themes are discussed and illustrated below. The book should be of interest to those concerned with issues in teaching and learning in higher education, specifically in education in China and of Chinese students internationally; to students and teachers in applied linguistics and language learning, to those concerned with intercultural adaptation and how internationalization affects learners and teachers; and to researchers and students involved in the application and combination of different research approaches and methods, including some more innovative methods, to studies of learners. The book is also relevant to those with an interest in comparative education, since teaching and learning in China is implicitly compared with that found in other countries in many chapters.

Introduction: Research and Levels of Intercultural Learning

Intercultural learning is about how we come to understand other cultures and our own through interaction, how we learn and communicate in cultural contexts, and how we learn culturally. Intercultural learning is vital in current contexts of international, multicultural and social diversity in which all of us increasingly need to interact with members of different cultural communities. We can easily imagine this will be even more the case in the future in globalized educational contexts, with imperatives related to technologies, demographics, economies and businesses, peace, individual and collective self-awareness and ethics (see Martin & Nakayama, 2009). Intercultural learning may be seen as a positive development or as a daunting challenge, yet it might also be empowering for participants — learning whatever we are learning in better ways. To modify a comment made in English for us by a Dutch student, ‘Culture is a magnet: it can attract you or repel you. Intercultural learning is an electromagnet: It combines both positive and negative forces in movement to drive a powerful motor.