Zohreh R. Eslami

Presentation of local and international culture in current international English-language teaching textbooks

The place of culture in teaching English as an international language (EIL) is a complex issue, given the diversity of contexts in which English is currently being used globally. Building on a sociocultural perspective that language use is open to negotiation and is context-dependent, this paper argues that the design and content of English-language teaching (ELT) textbooks should reflect the multiple perspectives inherent in EIL. Findings from an analysis of the cultural content of seven series of internationally distributed ELT textbooks are reported. Our study showed that even though cultural aspects were proportionally diverse in each textbook series, inner circle cultural content still dominates most of the textbooks. Furthermore, cultural presentation still largely remains at the traditional knowledge-oriented level and does not engage learners in deep levels of reflection. The findings are discussed in light of existing studies, and some recommendations for future textbook writers and classroom practice are suggested.

Understanding Why Students Drop Out of High School, According to Their Own Reports

Research on school dropout extends from early 20th-century pioneers until now, marking trends of causes and prevention. However, specific dropout causes reported by students from several nationally representative studies have never been examined together, which, if done, could lead to a better understanding of the dropout problem. Push, pull, and falling out factors provide a framework for understanding dropouts. Push factors include school-consequence on attendance or discipline. Pull factors include out-of-school enticements like jobs and family. Finally, falling out factors refer to disengagement in students not caused by school or outside pulling factors. Since 1966, most nationally representative studies depicted pull factors as ranking the highest. Also, administrators in one study corroborated pull out factors for younger dropouts, not older ones, while most recent research cites push factors as highest overall. One rationale for this change is a response to rising standards from No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which can be ultimately tested only by future dropout research.

Effect of Language Proficiency and Degree of Formal Training in Simultaneous Interpreting on Working Memory and Interpreting Performance: Evidence from Mandarin-English Speakers

The influence of second language proficiency and length of formal training in interpretation on simultaneous interpreting (SI) performance and working memory was examined in Mandarin–English student interpreters with one year (n = 11) or two years of formal training in interpretation (n = 9) and in 16 Mandarin–English untrained bilingual controls. SI performance was significantly better in Year 2 than in Year 1 student interpreters, and in Year 1 interpreters relative to bilingual controls. SI performance was also better in advanced L2 users and in high-memory span individuals, whether trained or not in SI. Both Year 1 and Year 2 students outperformed bilingual controls in L1 and L2 reading span. Although Year 2 students tended to show higher working memory span than Year 1 students, the difference was not significant. Finally, working memory span was higher in individuals with greater L2 proficiency. It is concluded that differences in language proficiency may underlie observed differences in both interpreting performance and working memory and that language processing skills (rather than working memory) may be enhanced by formal training in interpreting.

Core Strategies to Support English Language Learners

Abstract Reading and vocabulary instruction can serve as an instructional process to respond to English language learner (ELL) needs. The purpose of this review of literature was to determine whether reading and vocabulary instruction should be used as core strategies for supporting ELLs requiring interventions as a response to the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System. This review of the literature included peer-reviewed journals and other published studies.

An analysis of non-native English-speaking graduate teaching assistants’ online journal entries

There has been increasing acknowledgment of the need to pursue studies related to nonnative English-speaking (NNES) professionals. In the last 10 years, a number of studies have discussed the experiences of non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in different educational settings and situations. However, the experiences of the NNES graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) teaching predominantly monolingual, White, native English-speaking preservice teachers have not been researched. This paper presents the analysis of personal journal entries in the form of weblogs of three NNES GTAs. The study reports on the experiences shared by these NNES GTAs. Findings will consequently contribute to a better understanding of the experiences, mainly challenges, faced by the NNES GTAs and will be used to offer suggestions and recommendations to teacher education programs and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) educators to evaluate the sources of support the NNES GTAs receive before or during their teaching. The study will also signify the need for the inclusion of the issues related to cultural and linguistic diversity throughout the whole curriculum of preservice teacher education programs and not in just a few courses.

The relationship between bilingual experience and the development of morphological and morpho-syntactic awareness: a cross-linguistic study of classroom discourse

This study aims to examine the relationship between bilingual experience and childrens development of morphological and morpho-syntactic awareness. To capture both universal and language-specific bilingual effects, the study included four groups of participants: English-speaking children from a general education programme, Spanish-speaking and English-speaking children from a Spanish–English dual-language programme, and Chinese-speaking children from a Chinese–English dual-language programme. Findings from the analyses of teacher talk and measures of morphological and morpho-syntactic awareness show that certain aspects of morphological awareness, such as the ability to decipher derived words, were likely to be affected by both instruction and cross-language transfer, while others, such as cognate awareness, appeared to develop through mere exposure to two languages despite the absence of explicit instruction. Furthermore, morpho-syntactic awareness was mostly enhanced through greater emphasis on explicit instruction of morpho-syntactic knowledge; such effect was moderated by the syntactic complexity of teacher talk. These findings suggest that instead of typological distances of the languages, a constellation of factors uniquely characterises bilingual classroom experiences. The linguistic complexity of teacher talk and instructional emphasis may influence childrens development of morphological and morpho-syntactic awareness.

Online communication and students’ pragmatic choices in English

Abstract This study examined the opening and closing sequences of requestive e–mails written by 66 native English speaking (NES) students and 34 Iranian (NNES) students sent to a faculty member in an American university. Three hundred requestive e–mails from NES students and NNES students sent to a professor were collected over six semesters and were analyzed for the cultural and social variation that exists in e–mail communication. Students’ choices of opening and closing strategies were examined with respect to different interpersonal styles of politeness (solidarity vs. deference). Quantitative and qualitative findings revealed that solidarity and deference towards the professor were expressed differently in the e–mails of NES students and NNES students.

ZPD-activated languaging and collaborative L2 writing

Recent second/foreign language (L2) research has witnessed the application of sociocultural tenets to L2 classrooms. This study aimed to probe whether Iranian L2 learners’ engagement in ZPD-activated collaborative dialogue, or ‘languaging’, mediates their learning process and, specifically, their appropriate use of metadiscourse to address content, organisation and audience issues in writing. English-as-a-foreign-language-writing classes at two universities were assigned to four different instructional conditions, namely, ZPD-activated collaborative, ZPD-free collaborative, fine-tuned L2-input provision and prevalent teacher-fronted approaches. The data comprised metadiscourse-oriented writing test scores, weekly writings and audio-recorded in-class collaborative dialogues of the ZPD groups. The results demonstrated the ZPD-activated collaborative writing approach significantly facilitated the learners’ appropriate use of metadiscourse. Complementary interpretative analysis of the ZPD participants’ metadiscourse-related episodes showed that the initially-other-regulated (undistributed) writing tasks became progressively reciprocal with less-skilled peers displaying microgenetic use of L2 metadiscourse resources and dynamically assuming more participatory roles in regulating the writing tasks. The findings suggest engagement in ZPD-activated ‘languaging’ is crucial to shaping opportunities for L2 learners’ microgenetic learning and to their longer term cognitive development. In sum, the application of sociocultural tenets and notions has shown to be highly fruitful in explaining the social genesis of L2 development as a higher order psychological functioning.

Latino English Language Learners’ Writing During Literacy-Enriched Block Play

Although growing numbers of young English language learners (ELLs) from low-income homes enroll in U.S. schools, there remains a lack of research on how they respond to common school literacy practices including a literacy-enriched play. This exploratory study aims to examine the writing behaviors of six kindergarteners in their classrooms literacy-enriched block center. The results were varied since all children engaged in different types and frequencies of writing. However, most ELLs responded positively to the intervention and practiced their emergent writing skills. Therefore, literacy-enriched play centers can benefit early childhood classrooms serving culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse students.

Changing Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Linguistic Diversity by Introducing a World Englishes Perspective

There is little argument that English has become the international language, but there is a widening debate over the variety of English that is most acceptable. Should there be only one Standard English, and if so, which variety (from the United Kingdom, North America, or another standard)? Or, should a number of varieties of English (Englishes) be considered legitimate for use globally? As stated by Kubota (2001), the World Englishes (WEs) paradigm challenges the homogenous viewpoint of English and offers a heterogeneous perspective.