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This volume provides a comprehensive account of project-based language learning (PBLL) which showcases key theoretical approaches, empirical research, technological tools, and research-based frameworks to help further PBLL implementation and research. Taking its cue from the conclusions drawn from project-based learning more broadly, which point to the impact of project-based work on learning and development, discourse socialization, subject engagement, and collaborative skills, the book highlights how these discussions might be extended and enhanced within the context of language learning. The volume begins with discussions of philosophical and theoretical models of PBLL and is followed by ...
Fuelled by forces of globalization, China has gradually shifted from a centrally planned economy to a socialist market economy. Under the market economy China has experienced a massive and protracted economic boom. It is not clear however whether recent economic changes have brought the same miracle to education in China. Spotlight on China brings together established and emerging scholars from China and internationally in a dialogue about the profound social and economic transformation that has resulted from the market economy and its concomitant impact on education in China. The book covers a wide range of topics, including: • Market economy and curriculum reform• Teaching under China�...
Despite growing interest in L2 writing teachers, there is a dearth of published works that specifically delve into the nuances of the development of L2 writing teacher expertise. Informed by relevant foundational theory and empirical research, this book addresses this crucial gap in the understanding of expertise in L2 writing instruction. This book offers a holistic analysis of L2 writing instruction, serving as a valuable resource for those involved in the development of L2 writing teacher educators, as well as novice teachers striving to hone their skills in teaching L2 writing. It draws from a wide array of international perspectives on the conceptualization of L2 writing teacher expertise and research in this domain. Significantly, it is the first comprehensive work that places expertise in L2 writing instruction at the forefront. It will interest scholars in the disciplines of foreign and second language education, as well as postgraduate students and aspiring teachers.
This book is about the learner side of the teaching and learning equilibrium, centering on the educational experiences and perspectives of Chinese students in the United States. These students ranged from kindergarteners, adolescents, undergraduate, graduate, to adult learners, across the educational spectrum. Because Chinese students are the largest cohort among all international students in the U.S., and their prior educational experiences and perspectives in China are so different from those in the U.S., exploring who they are, what their learning experiences have been, and how their learning needs can be better met, may not only allow U.S. educators to teach them more effectively, but al...
This volume is a path-breaking contribution to the study of efforts of diaspora, indigenous, and minority groups, broadly defined, to use education (formal and informal) to sustain cultural continuity while grappling with the influences and demands of wider globalizing, nationalizing, or other homogenizing and assimilatory forces. Particular attention is given to groups that use educational elements other than second-language teaching alone in programs to sustain their particular cultural traditions. The focus of the book on cultural sustainability changes the nature of questions posed in multicultural education from those that address the opening of boundaries to issues of preserving bounda...
Linguistic complexity is one of the currently most hotly debated notions in linguistics. The essays in this volume reflect the intricacies of thinking about the complexity of languages and language varieties (here: of English) in three major contact-related fields of (and schools in) linguistics: creolistics, indigenization and nativization studies (i.e. in the realm of English linguistics, the “World Englishes” community), and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research: How can we adequately assess linguistic complexity? Should we be interested in absolute complexity or rather relative complexity? What is the extent to which language contact and/or (adult) language learning might lead t...
Language in academic settings, also referred to academic language, has gained attention in the field of second language learning owing to new understandings of the complexities of language inherent in learning academic content, and new efforts to assess English learners’ language proficiency in the context of school learning. The concept of academic language as distinct from social language has been in the academic literature since the mid-1950s, and surfaced as a major construct in the field of bilingual education in the 1980s. Many readers will be familiar with the ideas of BICS and CALP, first introduced by Jim Cummins in the 1980s. This book presents a critique of academic language as ...
Authors in this proposed collection approach issues like academic literacy, socialization, and professionalization from their individual positions as mentors and mentees involved with graduate study in the field of second language (L2) writing.
The introduction and tracking of reference to people or individuals, known as referential movement, is a central feature of coherence, and accounts for “about every third word of discourse”. Located at the intersection of pragmatics and grammar, reference is now proving a rich and enduring source of insight into second language development. The challenge for second language (L2) learners involves navigating the selection and positioning of reference in the target language, continually shifting and balancing the referential means used to maintain coherence, while remaining acutely sensitive to the discourse and social context. The present volume focuses on how L2 learners meet that challe...
This book argues that the current state of China requires an important paradigm shift in the way the party-state manages the country’s development, and goes on to assess the fitness of the party-state for implementing such a paradigm shift and the likelihood of the party-state bringing this about. It brings together an examination of the very latest situation in a range of key areas where current developments have the potential to undermine substantially the status quo, areas such as the recent economic crisis and the resulting economic slowdown, increasing labour unrest, mounting calls for social justice, worsening urban-rural disparity, the urgent need to implement social welfare programmes, the rise of civil society, and the impact of new media. Overall, the book provides a thorough appraisal of the difficulties which China currently faces.