English As An Additional Language Teachers Research Articles

Working together: why language policies of international schools must evolve to incorporate collaborative strategies between EAL and the mainstream

This article arises from a research study that aimed to contribute to a better understanding of the essential nature of collaborative relationships between English as an Additional Language (EAL) and mainstream subject teachers at an international secondary school in Ukraine. The research focuses on how EAL teachers support EAL learners in the mainstream classroom through collaborative practices. The article draws on qualitative data from interviews and field notes with Language & Literature, Science and EAL teachers. The interviews investigated how EAL and mainstream collaboration help support EAL learners in the mainstream classroom, and which co-planning strategies most effectively encourage collaboration, as well as EAL and mainstream teachers’ views and experiences about co-planning and working collaboratively. Arising from these data, discussion focuses on the disconnect between collaboration in theory and in practice. The article concludes that although effective collaborative strategies often exist, school language policies need to include scheduled collaborative planning time between EAL and the mainstream, and that professional development for mainstream teachers should be led by EAL teachers in order to foster more balanced content and language classroom teaching.

What do New Zealand teachers and principals perceive is happening for English as an additional language students with the changing architecture of New Zealand schools?

ABSTRACT This paper explores the perceptions of New Zealand teachers and principals about how English as an additional language (EAL) students are faring in the profound changes to the architectural design of school building structures. A national online survey was sent to teachers, middle management and principals in schools and provided qualitative responses to gage the perceptions of participants. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight teachers at four primary schools. The perceptions of these key people provide a range of lenses to better understand the interplay between EAL students’ learning, physical classroom environments and culturally inclusive pedagogical practices. The study found that the innovative architectural design of classrooms may benefit EAL students when the following factors are taken into consideration: (i) peer teaching and student collaboration, (ii) teacher support for EAL students, (iii) classroom noise, and (iv) teachers’ perceptions of EAL students’ personality/cultural traits.

Synecdochising student identities: EAL teachers' positioning of adult EAL students in Australia

PurposeAdult student identities within EAL (English as an Additional Language) classrooms have often been positioned as static, homogenised and exoticised within scholarly literature. Within such positioning, teachers have embraced pedagogical practices which classify students by country of origin and represent student identities within binaries of Self and the Other, limiting these students' identity positionings for adoption within the EAL classroom. As a result, students are often rendered voiceless by essentialist discourses on culture and identity in the classroom that serve to replicate and reinforce dominant societal discourses and strengthen existing institutional power structures.Design/methodology/approachBy drawing on a postcolonial theoretical framework comprising theories of race, identity, power, representation, synecdoche and Third Space, this paper interrogates current literature to understand the complex multidimensional and dynamic cultural identities of adult EAL students.FindingsThis paper reveals that adult EAL students are still being oversimplified within the classroom, not just disadvantaging students and institutions, but also hindering multicultural pedagogies.Originality/valueThis paper suggests that teachers require opportunities for critical reflection incorporated within a critical pedagogy in decolonised classrooms that can not only build respectful and equitable awareness of their students' cultural identities and educational and historical backgrounds but provide important implications for effective pedagogical practices.

The Other Third Culture Kids: EAL Learners' Views On Self‐Identity, Home Culture, And Community In International Schools

This article aims to develop a better understanding of the dynamic identity of third culture kids (TCKs) who study English as an additional language (EAL) in an international secondary school in Ukraine. The research focuses on the internal forces of home culture and self‐perceived identities as well as the external forces of the school community and the classroom that influence EAL learners in their language acquisition. The article draws on qualitative data from interviews with individual EAL learners. The interviews investigated how EAL learners see themselves in terms of an EAL identity, how social status and community influence EAL learners, and how the home language and culture are influential in the language classroom. As a result of these data, the discussion focuses on the disconnect between the internal and the external forces that TCK EAL learners experience. The article concludes that more integrated collaboration between EAL and mainstream teachers would foster greater understanding of the internal forces and cultural capital TCK EAL learners bring with them to ensure more effective language learning in the external force of the language classroom. The authors conclude with recommendations for further steps.

EAL Instructors’ Attitudes towards Game-based Learning Adoption in Education: An Exploration of Obstacles

The objective of the current study is to explore teachers’ attitudes towards obstacles in game-based learning (GBL) in English as an additional language (EAL) context. The study used a survey with open-ended questions and interviews to collect data. The survey data was gathered from eight university EAL teachers. Four of the survey respondents participated in interviews to explore the obstacles to using GBL. The qualitative data was analyzed through thematic analysis and description. As a result of the analysis of open-ended questions and interview data, three themes associated with the obstacles of GBL namely, lack of time, lack of resources, and students’ preferences emerged. The implication of the study is that teachers acknowledge the benefits of GBL, but they need support for further professional development.

“Very easy, it’s an English class, therefore they should not rely on a French text”

Abstract In the context of additional language (AL) learning, teachers need to focus on the development of language proficiency as well as on high-level literacy skills, for example, comprehending and evaluating information and creating new meaning. From a plurilingual perspective, AL learners’ first language (L1) is conceputalised as a useful tool in the development of target language proficiency; however, limited information exists concerning AL teachers’ beliefs towards the use of the L1 for high-level literacy instruction despite its potential utility for complex skill development. The aim of the present exploratory study was to examine the beliefs of in-service teachers of English as an additional language (EAL) working in the Quebec primary and secondary school system in francophone Canada regarding plurilingual approaches for classroom literacy practices and to uncover the factors that influence their beliefs. An online survey was distributed to in-service EAL teachers (N = 57) working in the province of Quebec, Canada. Findings suggest that teachers believe that it is most beneficial to adopt a monolingual lens to literacy instruction, a belief that denies learners’ use of their L1 and this, in a bilingual country. Implications for teacher education programs that challenge a monolingual lens are explored.

Understanding EAL: International Secondary School Teachers’ Experiences and Attitudes in Ukraine and Eastern Europe

This article highlights the need to understand mainstream international secondary school teachers’ attitudes to and experiences of accommodating English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners, and what current collaborative relationships there are between mainstream and EAL teachers in terms of co-teaching and co-planning. The article draws on data collected from a questionnaire sent to secondary teachers at an international school in a major city in Ukraine and to other international schools that offer International Baccalaureate programmes in Eastern Europe. The questionnaire investigated English language training in education, attitudes to EAL in mainstream subjects and participants’ collaboration with EAL teachers. Further follow-up qualitative data collected from a focus group in the school in Ukraine investigated the topics of competencies, responsibilities and collaboration with respect to EAL in the mainstream classroom. Building on this data, the discussion ultimately focuses on the challenges for mainstream teachers and how collaboration with EAL teachers is often confused and lacks definition in terms of current practice and ways forward. Recommendations for next steps of research are made.

Considering the benefits of research participation: insights from a study of adult EAL educators


 
 
 Despite the professional learning benefits that may be realised through participation in research, many institutions and teachers are reluctant to get involved. They (correctly) anticipate that it will require some time, effort, and commitment. They may understand that research is important for improving education practices but more direct and immediate value for them and, importantly, how to gain it may not be obvious. To address this issue, we report a part of a six-month study that used institutional ethnography as the method of inquiry. We present and analyse three generative episodes that we observed and experienced in the context of our research collaboration with the participants at one adult community-based English as an Additional Language (EAL) institution in Melbourne (Australia). These episodes provide important insights into the ways in which our participants were proactive in realising the benefits of participating in the research. The participating teachers brought research and practice into regular dialogue and strategically utilised our partnership for their professional learning. We conclude by discussing some practical strategies for EAL institutions, teachers, and researchers who want to unlock and maximise the learning potential of research partnerships.
 
 

Exploring teachers’ relational agency in content–language teacher collaboration in secondary science education in Australia

The mainstreaming of English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) education necessitates collaboration between EAL teachers and content teachers to support EAL students’ learning in content areas. A question left open is how EAL and content teachers exercise relational agency through professional dialogue and collaborative practices. The current paper examined this question through the concept of relational agency grounded in sociocultural theory. Data include group interviews with and self-recorded collaborative conversations between an EAL teacher and a science teacher in planning and delivering science content in an Australian secondary school. Findings reveal professional dialogue and collaborative practices created mediational spaces for them to exercise relational agency. They actively worked together on a complex problem and shared motive, built and utilised common knowledge, and drew on relational expertise in responding to the demands of enhancing EAL students’ learning of language and content in the science classroom. Findings have implications for promoting teacher agency and quality collaboration.

Teachers’ collaboration-mediated practices in meeting the needs of refugee EAL students in the Victorian secondary science classroom

AbstractThis paper examines the collaborative practices of an English as an additional language (EAL) teacher and a content area teacher in meeting the needs of refugee students in a secondary science classroom. The study is based in Victoria, Australia. Drawing on a sociocultural perspective on mediated teacher work, the study gathered qualitative data primarily through two group interviews with the teachers in the middle and at the end of the school term. A secondary source of data includes relevant documents namely teaching materials, students’ work, and teachers’ notes. Content analysis of data shows two broad collaborative practices, including joint lesson planning and resources development and joint teaching. These collaborative practices were found to create structured mediational spaces that enabled them to effectively work together to meet the needs of refugee EAL students in their class. The study generates implications for content and EAL teachers in collaboratively addressing the needs of refugees in mainstream classrooms and for school leadership in supporting EAL and content teachers in this process.

Individualized Learning in Context: Constructivists’ Teaching Philosophy of Academic Writing for EAL Learners

The prominent role of teaching philosophy statements is on the rise because they mirror broad skillsets and the expertise of doctoral or master’s program graduates (Merkel, 2020). This paper presents our philosophy of education, of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and of teaching academic writing for English as an Additional Language (EAL) students. First, it is maintained that in education, knowledge is individually and socially constructed (Piaget, 1970; Vygotsky, 1981). In light of the constructivists’ educational philosophy, it is argued that the EAL teachers need to possess knowledge in cognate disciplines to mediate the EAL students’ construction of their individualized linguistic and intercultural knowledge in dynamic, specific learning contexts. Finally, innovative pedagogical suggestions for what to cover and how to deliver the second language (L2) academic writing class with EAL students are offered.

The bottom line: Are idioms used in English academic speech and writing?

Many researchers with English as an additional language (EAL), as well as EAL teachers and students, believe that idioms are not used in English academic speech or writing. By 'idiom', they usually mean an expression that is figurative, opaque, multiword, largely fixed, and institutionalised, in keeping with traditional EAL textbook definitions. By contrast, researchers addressing multiword expressions in academic corpora have frequently used the term 'idiom' very broadly, resulting in lists that include lexical bundles and other types of collocation, rather than more traditional idioms.This study identifies all the traditional, textbook-type idioms in the British Academic Spoken English (BASE) corpus, examines the range of texts in which they appear, then compares their frequency to the same idioms used in the Oxford Corpus of Academic English (OCAE). The resulting list of 545 idioms, 56 of which appear in four or more BASE texts and 43 of which appear at least 100 times in OCAE, can be used confidently by EAL writers and teachers to enrich their own and their students’ English academic speech and writing.

What happens in your country? Teacher constructions of adult EAL students’ cultural identities

In a multicultural and settler society such as Australia, perceptions of the cultures and identities of students in the adult EAL classroom may have a significant impact on their language learning experiences. This paper reports on a study investigating how teachers of adult English as an Additional Language (EAL) students in Victoria, Australia, understand their students’ cultural identities, how they speak about their students’ language learning and how they perceive the challenges and opportunities that their students face in the learning process. Recent literature highlights the complexity of culture and identity in the adult EAL classroom, and has identified normalisation of stereotyped characteristics of language learners. Semi-structured interviews with three experienced EAL teachers were conducted, and a phenomenological framework was applied for the qualitative data analysis. The themes that emerged suggest that the teachers had a limited and even superficial understanding of their students’ cultural identities. Cultural stereotyping was evident when describing their students’ language learning experiences, and also when describing the challenges and opportunities that students have in their learning. The implications of these for the students’ additional language development are discussed.

Negotiating contradictions in developing teacher identity during the EAL practicum in Australia

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on how Maria (pseudonym), a non-native English speaker (NNES) and preservice teacher (PST) of English as an additional language (EAL), developed her professional identity during the practicum in an Australian secondary school. Drawing on activity theory, the study identified contradictions in Maria’s practicum activity and examined how Maria’s professional identity developed through her negotiation of the contradictions. Data included interviews with Maria before, during and after the practicum, her reflections, an interview with her school mentor (Ms Davies, pseudonym), and relevant documents. The findings reveal that Maria experienced contradictions between her multiple identities of NNES, student, becoming teacher, and classroom teacher, between her mentor’s teaching approach and that of her own, and between her practice and rules. The findings provide implications for researching teacher identity and supporting preservice EAL teachers in developing productive teacher identities during the practicum.

Emergent identity and dilemmatic spaces: pre-service teachers’ engagement with EAL collaboration

Integrationist policies that promote the mainstreaming of English language learners are well established in many English-speaking countries. This has led to the embedding of English as an additional language (EAL) methodology in teacher education, and also to the notion of collaboration between English language teachers and content area teachers. Teacher positioning is integral to the processes of collaboration, and in this article it is argued that both sociocultural identity constructs and the notion of dilemmatic spaces can be used jointly to explore this positioning. A framework that draws upon these two theoretical perspectives is discussed. It was developed to investigate pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) perceptions of collaboration with EAL teachers, and is applied to three secondary PSTs who were undertaking an EAL methodology course in an Australian university.

Managerialist vis-à-vis learning and development goals for EAL teachers: a case study of an in-service professional development provider

Under current Western neoliberal philosophy, promotion of efficiency and resolution of issues are typically expected to result from effective management. The education sector, too, has responded well to these expectations. Amongst such expectations, engagement in professional development activities (PDAs) by teachers of English as an additional language (EAL) is widely encouraged, considered to be essential, and usually conducted with a view to facilitate effective and effortless administration. As such, institutional offerings of PDAs driven by managerialist agendas generally tend to be ad hoc attempts to facilitate administrative decisions rather than opportunities for teachers’ lifelong learning and development. Under such circumstances, providers of in-service PDAs are faced with a conflicting dilemma – that of facilitating an effortless flow of administration and, at the same time, promoting teacher learning and development. We foreground one case of such dilemma surrounding the offering of PDAs derived as interview data from an experienced provider of in-service PDAs for EAL teachers.

The Impact of Canadian Social Discourses on L2 Writing Pedagogy in Ontario

This paper attempts to illustrate the impact of Canadian social, political, and academic discourses on second language writing pedagogy in Ontario schools. Building upon the views that regard teacher knowledge as teachers’ sociocultural interactions and lived experiences, and not merely intellectual capabilities gained within teacher preparation, this article proposes that the impact of dominant social discourses on classroom practice might be more profound than teachers’ creativity and initiative. This idea is demonstrated by examining the findings of a grounded theory study of frequently employed strategies that can deal with intercultural rhetoric in EAL (English as an additional language) academic writing. Guided by Foucauldian critical discourse analysis, this article approaches the experiences of five Ontario EAL teachers with intercultural rhetoric in order to show the significance of the influence of dominant Canadian social discourses on their practice. This report, in particular, explores possible connections between the popularity of strategies that employ students’ first languages in EAL academic writing and dominant social, political, and academic discourses in Canada over the past 50 years. This paper, finally, poses questions about the future of EAL writing pedagogy as anti-multiculturalism discourses gain more dominance in Canada.

Sites for Discussion, Citizenship Education and Pathbuilding: Challenging the Fear of Controversy in the Adult EAL Classroom

This paper explores an integrated approach to citizenship education through English-as-an-Additional Language (EAL) instruction for adults who are new immigrants to Canada. Teaching for citizenship and participation in Canadian democractic processes sometimes involves discussing non-consensual issues such as same-sex unions, human rights, and religious freedoms. The result is discussions that can be fraught with conflict and tension, posing challenges and feelings of unease for teachers and learners. Therefore, an integrated approach to citizenship education also requires considering theories on dialogue and communicative engagement. Following a discussion on issues of citizenship education for newcomers to Canada and the possibilities of an integrated citizenship program, this paper concludes with a brief exploration of the work of Gloria Anzaldua and Susan Bickford for inspiration on ways to engage with non-consensual issues that pose challenges for EAL learners and teachers.

Language, Ethnicity and the Mediation of Allegations of Racism: Negotiating Diversity and Sameness in Multilingual School Discourses

This paper looks at the construction of two bilingual English as an additional language (EAL) teachers' positionings during a two-day student staged protest against a perceived racist incident in a London secondary school. It examines how these bilingual teachers' ethnicity and language resources in Turkish and English are employed by the school to (re)produce a discourse of diversity which attempts to level out difference. It looks at how the bilingual EAL teachers manage their multiple roles within this institutional discourse through the foregrounding and backgrounding of ethnicity, language, knowledge production, and 'self' in several school contexts throughout the two-day event and beyond. The data for this study come from two student-produced texts. The first of these texts accuses the school of racism while the second, by a different group of students, refutes the claims made in the earlier text. Analysis is extended beyond these texts to look at the interactions which happen around them within the school community. Through an ethnography of communication, the paper shows how the bilingual teachers mediate, negotiate and action identification positionings towards and away from the dominant discourse of institutional sameness. It finds that these bilingual teachers both collude with and challenge this discourse.