Sandra G. Kouritzin

Immigrant Mothers Redefine Access to ESL classes: Contradiction and Ambivalence

Studies examining the accessibility of ESL classes for adults have tended to look at factors such as time, resource, economic, or geographic constraints, thereby conflating access with availability. This article argues that access is a much more complex notion, one perhaps more personal, and less amenable to solution, than previously assumed. Access needs to be understood within and against the socially constructed identities and roles of the learners. Through five individual stories, examples drawn from life-history interviews with nineteen non-English-speaking immigrant mothers of schoolchildren, I explore how a variety of themes related to ambivalence and contradiction have complicated their access to English-language classes, following which I suggest some tentative implications for education and research.

A Mother's Tongue

* This commentary significantly departs from the standard written form for contributions to The Forum over the years (i.e., 1992-1999). While commenting on one aspect of TESOL that is of particular professional and personal interest to me-the development and maintenance of minority Lls during childhood second language acquisition (e.g., Kouritzin, 1999, in press)-I present an argument for the importance of continued use of the familial heritage language by referring to documented accounts of my own experiences as the (White) mother of (biracial) Japanese-speaking children. I hope to augment the academic arguments in favour of bilingual education and heritage language maintenance with a more intense, lived, personal one. My husband and I wish to ensure that our children grow up bilingual-speaking, reading, and writing not only English but also their other heritage language, Japanese. The reasons for this imperative are threefold:

The British Columbia Literature 12 Curriculum and I: A Soliloquy.

Abstract A critique of the prescribed Literature 12 curriculum for British Columbia teachers, this article is a life-history narrative juxtaposed against my own literary education, examining how my lived experiences were reflected and reinforced in the Literature 12 curriculum, and in the literary canons of both high school and university English teaching—and vice versa. After first introducing the curriculum documents and the required textbook for the teaching of Literature 12, this article then deconstructs the curriculum objectives and the canon, pointing out that the study of English literature, as traditionally conceived in high schools and universities, reinforces Eurocentrism, racism, elitism, and, particularly for the purposes of this article, misogyny. It concludes by reminding teachers that some students bring experiences of oppression with them to the classroom, and that it is therefore our responsibility to challenge the norms present in the literary canon.

Mothering across colour lines: decisions and dilemmas of white birth mothers of mixed-race children

ABSTRACT Conceptions of identity in multilingual multicultural societies still seem to be dominated by the perception that human beings are born into social locations and categories of ethnicity that are pre-existing. This fails to acknowledge the current reality for the progeny of interracial marriages, who may find themselves belonging neither to their fathers nor to their mothers social location. While a strong emerging literature in hybridity considers the complexities of race and ethnicity for those born into these positions, little literature exists that examines the role of parents, particularly white, dominant culture mothers, who must help their children negotiate a path they have not trod. This paper examines the role of white birth mothers of non-white children in terms of their language, culture, and education decisions, illuminating whether and how they were able to help their children develop respect for and facility with the two languages, two cultures, and two worldviews they live within, while also documenting their struggles to do so.

Interpreting the Interactions of the "Other": Constructing Aboriginal Cultures in Conversations at and About School

Abstract The extant literature suggests that the high rates of educational failure for aboriginal schoolchildren result from differences in the home and school interaction patterns. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the micro structures of classroom discursive interactions, and to examine those within and against the macro structures of discourse in the wider aboriginal community, and the discourses of the dominant cultures of Canada. One particular interaction, a conversational sequence, is recorded and analyzed from various cultural perspectives. Deconstructing these perspectives in terms of language and power relationships, the author suggests that, in urban classrooms, the cultural differences may be ideological constructions that serve the interests of both the aboriginal culture(s) and the dominant cultures of Canada.

WHEN “HISTORY” HAPPENS TO RESEARCH: A TALE OF ONE PROJECT, TWO RESEARCHERS, AND THREE COUNTRIES IN A TIME OF GLOBAL CRISIS

In this article, we have examined how historical events shape the research process, even when research is carefully planned and rigorously executed. Through an examination of our experiences conducting international data collection during a three ‐ year SSHRC funded period in which the War on Terrorism and the War in Iraq began, we suggest that social context affects all aspects of every research project, from planning, to funding, to data collection, analysis, and dissemination. History, particularly significant world events, should be re ‐ examined and redefined so that it is no longer understood as a variable that affects poorly planned research, but rather as an integral part of the research design and process. Key words: international education, mixed methods, foreign language Dans cet article, les auteurs examinent comment les evenements historiques transforment le processus de recherche, meme lorsque la recherche est soigneusement planifiee et rigoureusement executee. Par le biais d ʹ une recherche subventionnee par le CRSH et au cours de laquelle commenca la guerre au terrorisme et la guerre en Irak, les auteurs font un examen de leur propre experience de la collecte de donnees internationales, faite durant une periode de trois ans. Ils suggerent que le contexte social influence tous les aspects de la recherche, de la planification jusqu ʹ aux resultats, de la collecte des donnees a leur analyse et a leur diffusion. Ils affirment que l ʹ histoire devrait etre reexaminee et redefinie de telle maniere qu ʹ elle ne soit plus consideree comme une variable mais plutot comme une partie integrante du plan directeur de la recherche et de son contenu. Mots cles: education internationale, methodes mixtes, langue etrangere

Toward a non-extractive research ethics for transcultural, translingual research: perspectives from the coloniser and the colonised

ABSTRACT It is widely acknowledged that research ethics is a controversial notion in cross-linguistic, crosscultural research. We suggest that most ethical issues in research arise from four major issues: (1) ethics is not adequately defined, theoretically or practically; (2) researchers have failed to make a distinction in the types of communities they study; (3) insider research versus outsider research has been insufficiently considered; and (4) consent has been mistaken for consensus. Failure to adequately deal with these issues has rendered research ethics in applied linguistics extractive rather than non-extractive. Therefore, several principles, including the intent and integrity of the researcher, the concept of a social hostage, and the inclusion of non-human knowledges are all discussed as they relate to the development of a non-extractive research ethics in applied linguistics.

QUESTIONNAIRES IN SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH: CONSTRUCTION, ADMINISTRATION, AND PROCESSING

QUESTIONNAIRES IN SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH: CONSTRUCTION, ADMINISTRATION, AND PROCESSING. Zoltan Dornyei . Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2003. Pp. viii + 156.

Face[t]s of First Language Loss

37.50 cloth,

An International Comparison of Socially Constructed Language Learning Motivation and Beliefs

22.50 paper. In the introduction to this volume, Dornyei suggests that, although questionnaires are frequently employed by second language researchers, “there does not seem to be sufficient awareness in the profession about the theory of questionnaire design and processing” (p. 1). Looking to the various branches of research in the social sciences, such as psychometrics, social psychology, and sociology, Dornyei notes that many of the questionnaires in second language research fail to meet the standards for reliability and validity because the researchers are apparently unfamiliar with the principles of questionnaire construction, administration, and processing. This book is intended to be a practical, easily understood guide for researchers to use when working with self-administered pencil-and-paper questionnaires. It achieves this aim.