Diverse Linguistic Backgrounds Research Articles

Literacy Practices among Tertiary Students in the Western Cape, South Africa

Language and critically thinking play a major role in academic performance. In multilingual contexts, multiple factors account for the way Second Language (L2) learners make sense of the academic texts they read. The students’ multilingual and multicultural diversity impacts on their interpretation of academic texts. This article is derived from a work with mixed method but focuses on qualitative design. This article qualitatively analyses how L2 students read and interpret academic texts in South African Universities. Members of a study group were interviewed both as a group and individually. In the end, students’ study practices towards academic literacy reveals translanguaging as one strategy of interpreting academic. One argument is that most African Universities have English as a medium of instructions whereas the students are often from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This diversity tends to influence the way students read and interpret academic texts.

Using Business English as a Lingua Franca for Written and Spoken Communication: Challenges Encountered by Thai Human Resources Professionals in An American Multinational Company

Unquestionably, English is a medium for international communication, particularly in multinational companies (MNCs). In this regard, professionals who work in MNCs, including human resources (HR), inevitably encounter challenges in using English in the workplace environment where people are from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This study attempts to examine how Thai HR professionals perceived the role of business English as the lingua franca (BELF) and how they faced the challenges in using English for workplace communication. This survey study employed a mixed-methods approach for data collection. A questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview were developed to collect the data. Thirty-nine Thai HR professionals at an American oil and gas subsidiary in the Bangkok metropolitan area were purposively selected. Data collected from both instruments were analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis, respectively. Our data analysis demonstrates that most of the respondents had a positive attitude about using BELF in their organisation. However, it was necessary for them to be aware of their interactants’ diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds and to effectively use BELF and avoid serious mistakes in their written and spoken communication. In summary, this study reveals that the Thai HR professionals understood the BELF concept and faced more difficulties in spoken communication tasks (e.g., press briefings and business negotiations) in comparison to written tasks. The findings can be beneficial for educators and HR trainers in terms of awareness of intercultural business communication and guidance for developing BELF-oriented courses for university students, graduates and HR professionals. Keywords: Business English as a lingua franca; spoken communication; written communication; communication challenges; Thai HR professionals

Communication and governance in a linguistically diverse human settlement in South Africa

Background: Integrated human settlement initiatives are aimed at altering the apartheid housing patterns of the old South Africa that kept people of different races and languages apart.Aim: This article investigated how community leaders and municipal officials interact with their integrated constituencies to determine if the language(s) of communication used are unifying and are conducive for public participation in decision-making.Setting: The study was conducted at the eThekwini region in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) in South Africa where isiZulu, an African language, is dominant in terms of the number of speakers, but English has prestige as a lingua franca.Method: The study was qualitative in that 15 participants were interviewed on their experiences, observations and perceptions of languages of communication usage in their integrated human settlement. The settlement was used as a case study and the participants were purposefully selected.Results: The findings indicated that isiZulu dominates as the preferred language of communication at meetings and in written documents where it is often presented alongside English. There were speakers of other languages that were not happy with the dominance of isiZulu.Conclusion: The dominant use of isiZulu bodes well for the promotion of African languages as they have in the past not been given the official status they deserve. However, its dominance in a multilingual environment it has the potential to make other community members feel linguistically discriminated against.Contribution: The study undertakes an interdisciplinary approach to provide a deeper understanding on the role of language in the governance of multilingual societies. It raises an awareness on the importance of finding a balance between using the dominant community language and recognising other languages to ensure full participation of all immaterial of diverse linguistic backgrounds.

What does translanguaging-for-equity really involve? An interactional analysis of a 9th grade English class

Abstract While much research on translanguaging is in bilingual and heritage language classrooms, it is under-researched in K-12 English-medium education. To better understand translanguaging in this context, this study applied interactional sociolinguistics, including analytical categories adapted from Conversation-for-Learning (Kasper and Kim, 2015; Kim, 2019), to a ninth grade English class in Honolulu with students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. The study examined interactional sequences as students did literary analysis of novels and poetry over 13 weeks. These sequences involved appropriation of others’ lexical phrases, collaborative word searches, miscommunication repair, and knowledge checks. Translanguaging, when it occurred, indicated joint meaning-making across linguistic asymmetries, and was not only a means of thinking aloud using an integrated language repertoire, but a form of helping peers as students signaled to each other to adopt language, teach them something, or work through a problem together, creating opportunities to learn. These findings suggest that equity hinges not only on allowing students to learn using their whole linguistic repertoires but on social and ethical dispositions made apparent through interactional analyses.

Diversity, Adversity, and Inclusiveness: Student Experiences of a Linguistic Landscape

This study examines the display of languages on signs and how this has shaped student experiences of the linguistic landscape on campus. The research site is a Thai University that has conducted English medium of instruction (EMI). As a result of its English policy, the university has attracted students with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Two main questions are ‘What is the representation of languages on signs on campus?’ and ‘How have Thai and international students’ experiences been shaped by the linguistic landscape? Photos of linguistic tokens and semi-structured interviews were taken to gain insight into student experiences and perspectives. The analysis of 815 linguistic tokens revealed monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual signs. While Thai was the dominant language, English was indicated as a lingua franca on campus. The displays of different languages showed the diversity of university members. However, an adverse effect on international students was expressed when their language was solely displayed on signs. Although international students expressed opposition when their language was used in negative signs, bilingual and multilingual signs were generally well received by university members.

Diversity, Adversity, and Inclusiveness: Student Experiences of a Linguistic Landscape

This study examines the display of languages on signs and how this has shaped student experiences of the linguistic landscape on campus. The research site is a Thai University that has conducted English medium of instruction (EMI). As a result of its English policy, the university has attracted students with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Two main questions are ‘What is the representation of languages on signs on campus?’ and ‘How have Thai and international students’ experiences been shaped by the linguistic landscape? Photos of linguistic tokens and semi-structured interviews were taken to gain insight into student experiences and perspectives. The analysis of 815 linguistic tokens revealed monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual signs. While Thai was the dominant language, English was indicated as a lingua franca on campus. The displays of different languages showed the diversity of university members. However, an adverse effect on international students was expressed when their language was solely displayed on signs. Although international students expressed opposition when their language was used in negative signs, bilingual and multilingual signs were generally well received by university members.

Translanguaging Life Writing: Autobiography-Driven Writing Instruction

Deficiency-oriented attitudes are still common occurrences despite growing emphasis on linguistic and cultural diversity. Promoting inclusivity in learning, Herrera (2016) proposed “biography-driven instruction” emphasizing the power of students’ assets. Though her work was intended for young learners’ biliteracy, I argue that the tenets can be used as a framework for more equitable adult ESL instruction to build on learners’ “funds of knowledge” (Moll et al., 1992) and “cultural wealth” (Yosso, 2016). In this article, I theorize an “autobiography- driven instruction” approach where L2 writing instruction can foster inclusivity through life writing by acknowledging diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds as assets, drawing from rich lived experiences, and tapping into multi-competencies. Drawing from the work in translanguaging and life writing, this article problematizes the deficiency-based assumptions, argues for life writing practices, and provides a practical look into the theorized autobiography-driven instruction. I detail how this approach can help students take a more active role in their learning and inevitably leads to amplifying diverse voices and inclusivity in ESL by learners (1) choosing the content they write about, (2) practicing a variety of the life writing genres, and (3) sharing their personal stories to create empathy and build rapport.

Brief Report: An Exploratory Study of Young Dual Language Learners with Autism in a School-Based Intervention.

Due to core challenges in social communication experienced by many young children with autism, children on the spectrum who are also dual language learners (DLLs) may benefit from developmentally-appropriate language supports in school settings. The current study examined whether home language status moderated the effect of a play-based intervention, JASPER, delivered in the classroom, in children with autism. Fifty-nine preschool children with autism received JASPER over eight weeks. Children who received JASPER improved significantly more in their language skills from entry to exit than children in preschool as usual. Home language status moderated the effect of treatment on receptive language where children of diverse linguistic backgrounds made greater gains in receptive language.

Towards language-aware pedagogy? experiences of students in multilingual Finnish schools

Curricular reform requires Finnish schools to be language aware and promote instruction that builds on students’ linguistic resources. However, knowledge about students’ experiences related thereto remains scarce. To create understanding about linguistic integration in increasingly multilingual schools, this study quantitatively explores the relationship between lower secondary school students’ (aged 13–16, N = 409) experiences and their linguistic backgrounds from three perspectives: (i) pedagogical practices, (ii) first language(s), and (iii) participating in academic-language situations. Theoretically, the study follows a sociocultural understanding of operationalising scaffolding within a learner’s zone of proximal development, valuing multilingualism as a resource, and identifying the demands of academic language. The data were collected at two multilingual schools via a survey. The findings reveal questions about the implementation of the language-aware curriculum requirement in schools. The experiences of students with diverse linguistic backgrounds differ, and thus, multilingual schools should pay specific attention to translating language awareness into pedagogical practices. The results further suggest that if activating learners via co-constructing, negotiating, and reformulating knowledge is helpful for emergent learners of Finnish, finding novel strategies to transform language and pedagogical understandings for sociocultural applications could help students overcome linguistic boundaries.

The role of bilingual discussion prompts in shared E-book reading

This randomized controlled trial study examined the effects of bilingual discussion prompts with feedback within a multimedia interactive e-book on parent-child shared reading for young English language learners aged 3–7 in China. Sixty-four parent-child pairs read a multimedia English storybook with bilingual discussion prompts in the treatment condition, and forty-three pairs read the same multimedia storybook without discussion prompts. After reading the storybook twice, children in the discussion-prompt group outperformed the control group on story comprehension and retelling measures. However, children in both groups showed comparable gains in English vocabulary. According to our qualitative analysis of parent-child responses on discussion pages, when parents follow the question-response-evaluate-feedback flow of the discussion sessions, they tend to practice dialogic reading strategies and scaffold children's learning naturally and effectively without explicit training. With the learning facilitation from both the storybook and parents, children received more comprehensible input, produced more English output, and became active storytellers instead of passive learners. Moreover, the e-book with a built-in questioning avatar established children's parasocial relationship with the story characters. These findings suggest an exciting potential for multimedia interactive e-books, powered by bilingual discussion prompts, as an effective educational tool for families from diverse linguistic backgrounds.

Multiple perspectives on group work in a multilingual context

Abstract Group assignments are widely used in higher education for a range of educational reasons. Although there is a large body of research on the merits of group work and factors that may contribute to successful group work, less is known about students’ and teachers’ perspectives, particularly when groups are composed of students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. The current qualitative study investigated students’ and teachers’ perspectives on group assignments in a Master of Applied Linguistics program offered by a leading research university in Australia. The program has predominantly English as an additional language (EAL) students. Teachers and students in four graduate subjects that involved group assignments were interviewed for their views and reflections. Analysis of the interview data revealed similarities and differences in perspectives in five main areas – group work benefits and challenges, group formation and assessment, and the need for pre-implementation training. The findings highlight the need for teachers to promote open discussion about the purposes and merits of group work, both pedagogical and social.

Learning to Teach English in the Multilingual Classroom Utilizing the Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures

Positioned in a specific curriculum context, yet universal in its rationale, this paper illustrates how over the course of one term, student teachers experiment with designing and teaching language learning activities that foster plurilingual competence of young learners of English, while following the Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures. It presents two practical teaching examples (one for primary and one for secondary school level) not only to showcase the great learning and motivational potential of pluralistic tasks employed in L3 English classrooms but also to bear testimony to the creativity and plentiful resources today’s pre-service language teachers themselves bring into their multilingual classrooms if encouraged and opened up to such a practice. Based on the FREPA descriptors, the paper evaluates the developed teaching material to discuss implications for pre- and in-service training of teachers working with young learners of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

"Going Mobile"-increasing the reach of parent-mediated intervention for toddlers with ASD via group-based and virtual delivery.

Evidence supports early intervention for toddlers with ASD, but barriers to access remain, including system costs, workforce constraints, and a range of family socio-demographic factors. An urgent need exists for innovative models that maximize resource efficiency and promote widespread timely access. We examined uptake and outcomes from 82 families participating in a parent-mediated intervention comprising group-based learning and individual coaching, delivered either in-person (n = 45) or virtually (n = 37). Parents from diverse linguistic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds gained intervention skills and toddlers evidenced significant social-communication gains. Few differences emerged across socio-demographic factors or delivery conditions. Findings highlight the feasibility, acceptability, and promise of group-based learning when combined with individual coaching, with added potential to increase program reach via virtual delivery.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10803-022-05554-7.

School Nurses' Language Needs When Caring for Students from Limited English Proficiency Households.

The number of school-aged students with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds is increasing across the United States. This survey identifies strategies school nurses use for communicating to families with limited English proficiency and describes recommendations to improve language needs. The online survey was completed by K-12 school nurses and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Among the 52 participants, only 23% (n = 12) indicated that resources they were currently using to interpret health information always met their language needs, with the most common resource described as school personnel who can speak the language needed for interpretation. To improve communication, most (73%; n = 38) participants described preferences for in-person resources and estimated that if on-demand interpreter resources were readily available, they would use on-demand resources for approximately 3.6 hours per week. By improving linguistic and cultural competencies among students and families with limited English proficiency, school nurses can improve student health outcomes.

Community perspectives on addressing and responding to HIV-testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) among African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) people in Ontario, Canada

BackgroundThe African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) population of Ontario, Canada is comprised of individuals with diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds and experiences; some of whom have resided in Canada for many generations, and others who have migrated in recent decades. Even though the ACB population represents less than 3.5% of the Canadian population, this group accounts for 21.7% of all new HIV infections. It is well-documented that ACB populations, compared to the general population, experience multi-level barriers to accessing appropriate and responsive HIV services. In this paper, we present qualitative findings on the ACB population’s experiences with HIV-testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and obtain their perspectives on how to improve access.MethodsWe conducted twelve Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), within a two-day World Café event and used socio-ecological framework and community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches to guide this work. We meaningfully engaged ACB community members in discussions to identify barriers and facilitators to HIV testing, PEP and PrEP and how these may be addressed. The FGDs were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis guided data interpretation. Credibility of data was established through data validation strategies such as external audit and peer-debriefing.ResultsOur analyses revealed multi-level barriers that explain why ACB community members do not access HIV testing, PEP and PrEP. Fear, health beliefs, stigma and lack of information, were among the most frequently cited individual- and community-level barriers to care. Health system barriers included lack of provider awareness, issues related to cultural sensitivity and confidentiality, cost, and racism in the health care system. Participants identified multi-level strategies to address the HIV needs including community-based educational, health system and innovative inter-sectoral strategies.ConclusionCBPR, co-led by community members, is an important strategy for identifying the multi-level individual, interpersonal, community, institutional and structural factors that increase HIV vulnerability in ACB communities, notably anti-Black systemic racism. Study findings suggest the need for targeted community-based strategies and strategies aimed at reducing health system barriers to testing and care.

Language Entropy Relates to Behavioral and Pupil Indices of Executive Control in Young Adult Bilinguals.

IntroductionIt has been proposed that bilinguals’ language use patterns are differentially associated with executive control. To further examine this, the present study relates the social diversity of bilingual language use to performance on a color-shape switching task (CSST) in a group of bilingual university students with diverse linguistic backgrounds. Crucially, this study used language entropy as a measure of bilinguals’ language use patterns. This continuous measure reflects a spectrum of language use in a variety of social contexts, ranging from compartmentalized use to fully integrated use.MethodsLanguage entropy for university and non-university contexts was calculated from questionnaire data on language use. Reaction times (RTs) were measured to calculate global RT and switching and mixing costs on the CSST, representing conflict monitoring, mental set shifting, and goal maintenance, respectively. In addition, this study innovatively recorded a potentially more sensitive measure of set shifting abilities, namely, pupil size during task performance.ResultsHigher university entropy was related to slower global RT. Neither university entropy nor non-university entropy were associated with switching costs as manifested in RTs. However, bilinguals with more compartmentalized language use in non-university contexts showed a larger difference in pupil dilation for switch trials in comparison with non-switch trials. Mixing costs in RTs were reduced for bilinguals with higher diversity of language use in non-university contexts. No such effects were found for university entropy.DiscussionThese results point to the social diversity of bilinguals’ language use as being associated with executive control, but the direction of the effects may depend on social context (university vs. non-university). Importantly, the results also suggest that some of these effects may only be detected by using more sensitive measures, such as pupil dilation. The paper discusses theoretical and practical implications regarding the language entropy measure and the cognitive effects of bilingual experiences more generally, as well as how methodological choices can advance our understanding of these effects.

The University of Pittsburgh English Language Institute Corpus (PELIC)

Abstract This report introduces the University of Pittsburgh English Language Institute Corpus (PELIC; Juffs et al., 2020), a publicly available 4.2-million-word learner corpus of written texts. Collected over seven years in the University of Pittsburgh’s Intensive English Program, these texts were produced by more than 1,100 students with diverse linguistic backgrounds and proficiency levels. Unlike most learner corpora which are cross-sectional, PELIC is longitudinal, offering greater opportunities for tracking development in a natural classroom setting. This potential is illustrated in an overview of the research conducted to date with these data. The report also provides a description of PELIC’s creation and contents, including how the texts have been managed to facilitate natural language processing. Overall, the corpus contributes to the field of learner corpus research by adding to the pool of freely and publicly available learner corpora, supplemented by a useful set of Python tools and tutorials for accessing these data.

What's in a name? Address practices in Swedish residential care facilities

Encountering residents living with dementia who come from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds is a common aspect of everyday life in residential care homes. These facilities may have systems of address that differ from those used in residents' respective cultures of origin. Residents' forms of address are elements of identity established in accordance with their life histories. The aim of this article is to investigate empirically the role of address forms for residents and care-providing staff in multilingual residential settings. The findings rely on observational and interactional data as well as interviews. The observational and interactional data includes 23 participants, consisting of five residents and 18 members of care-providing staff. The interviews consist of informal conversations and a corpus based on open-ended interviews with 21 staff members and five residents in two residential homes in Sweden. On the one hand, the findings indicate that addressing the residents with their first name is a prevalent address practice by the staff. They also displayed 20 additional types of address practices. On the other hand, these practices, which are chosen with the best of intentions, often seem to be inconsistent with the residents' preferred address forms. These data lend support to the large body of gerontological literature arguing that sensitivity to the life histories of residents, here the established forms of address, is vital to sustaining their identity.

Postgraduate Students’ Perceptions of Support Services Rendered by a Distance Learning Institution

Postgraduate studies are generally draining for most students because of the high rigour and cognitive demands required. They are even more arduous for students in a distance-learning context as most of them are full-time employees and lack enough time for their studies. Consequently, they tend to have low success rates due to a lack of required academic and research skills, low English proficiency, and inadequate student support. Underpinned by Simpson's student support model, this research adopted a qualitative approach and a focus group technique to probe nine Ethiopian doctoral students about their perceptions of the support provided by the University of South Africa (Unisa). From a thematic analysis of the themes that recurred, the findings revealed that despite the challenges, most students appreciated the support provided, particularly by supervisors who guided them efficiently and gave them feedback promptly. To improve graduation rates, it is recommended that supervisors be trained in effective supervision and support of students from diverse linguistic and educational backgrounds.

Using Spelling Error Analyses to Examine Individual Differences in German Students From Diverse Linguistic Backgrounds: A Latent Class Approach

The current study examined German spelling errors among students with German as their first language (L1) and those with German as their second language (L2) in Grades 3–4 (elementary school students; n = 127) and Grades 5–7 (secondary school students; n = 379). Five hundred and six students participated in the study. We performed two separate latent class analyses on elementary and secondary school students. Results indicate that elementary school students can be categorized as good (Class 1), consonant error dominant (Class 2), or poor (Class 3) spellers. However, secondary students can be categorized as addition and sequence error dominant (Class 1), substitution and omission error dominant (Class 2), or poor (Class 3) spellers. The three-step multinomial logistic regression analyses suggested that decoding was associated with the highest chances of being poor spellers in both elementary and secondary schools. Speaking German as L1 or L2 was a significant predictor of heterogeneities in secondary, but not elementary, school students. Polish L1 secondary students had the highest possibility of being poor spellers. The results suggest heterogeneities of student profiles. In addition, special attention should be given to secondary school students with the Polish L1 background in their spelling struggles associated with German orthography.