Using Multicultural Literature as a Tool for Multicultural Education in Teacher Education Juli-Anna Aerila


Comprehensive and Integrated Learning of Chinese Characters for Writing and Reading



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Comprehensive and Integrated Learning of Chinese Characters for Writing and Reading

Tse Shek Kam
Abstract: For centuries, the traditional ways teachers have been using to teach Chinese Language include the following: repeated copying of Chinese characters; and rote memorization of character strokes and elements. In contrast with such ‘bottom-up’ ways learning without understanding, this study seeks to address with a ‘top-down’ approach by having learners integrate an understanding between oracy and writing.
Children are first introduced to nursery rhymes, watching clips of the meaning portrayed, listening to the words used and how they are employed and spoken in context. Sentence syntax is introduced without any special emphasis as part of how the meaning and sense of the words are presented. How the words correspond with the written characters and how they are written is then taught to the children. This approach differs markedly from the traditional approach, and focuses on teaching learners to recognize and write the words they are able to articulate orally (Tse, 2006). A learner’s mental lexicon is gradually acquired as clusters of commonly-used and encountered words are learnt and verbalized. As network clusters in their mental lexicon accumulate, young learners increasingly discover how to recognize and write the actual characters involved, in meaningful context, making learning a unitary and integrated process.
The present study looked at the learning of Chinese characters by Hong Kong Primary 1-2 students, aged 6-8, presented with characters within semantic networks that illustrate and emphasize the meaning of the words featured. Multiple sources of evidence about the impact of this approach on children’s learning were systematically collected. The analysis involved comparing pre-and post-test scores to examine the children’s knowledge and skills before and after learning. Interviews with teachers and lesson observations were conducted.
It is found that all learners had improved their interest in learning Chinese characters. Comprehensive and integrated learning of Chinese characters led to active learning of reading and writing. Children became more efficient language learners and knew much more about the semantics, phonology and graphics of Chinese characters than did peers taught in control classes by conventional methods. They also proved to be able to start writing earlier than their peers in control groups. This effective method can be applied to other languages.
Keywords: Chinese character learning; instruction of Chinese character learning; language teaching for preschooler; semantic network; mental lexicon

A Direction of Language Education in Relation to New Education Policy in Korea Emphasizing Character Education

Hyokyung Kang
Abstract: In social and cultural context of Confucianism, Korean society has traditionally emphasized ‘education’. This has contributed to achievement of rapid economic development. On the other hand, the excessive enthusiasm for education is one of major causes of serious social troubles(Lee, 2013).

In this atmosphere, the new Korean education policy(2011 revised curriculum) claims to stand for 'character' as one of core competencies in future society. The Korean education policy recognizes and highlights that core competencies required in the 21st century are competencies to develop relationships with others, to understand and recognize the differences among one another and to live together. Ethnic and linguistic diversity in the classrooms and society has increased interest in understanding and embracing the differences with one another.

In this case, the essential thing is ‘language’. The places in all of life are involved with language. Korea traditionally has regarded a language use as one of the most important thing to form people’s character. This tradition is reflected in the new Korean education policy. And many Korean education researchers consider that ‘Sang-saeng(相生:to live together) communication’ is alternative vision in Korean language education(Choe, 2004; Yeong Hwan Choi, 2006; Choi In-Ja, 2006; Min, 2008, Park, 2012). The conception of ‘Sang-Saeng communication’ utility is similar with a win-win in language utility(Choe, 2004).

One of these contents is about Korean adolescents’ cant and slang. The goal of this study is to establish the directions of language education about this, especially in the perspective of grammar education. In order to draw a conclusion, firstly this study analyzes the effect and limitation of this recent trend of researches in Korean language education. Secondly, it analyzes the educational effectiveness and validity by comparing the foregoing educational researches and the actual state and needs of the adolescents about language.

Firstly, The concept of language awareness has been discussed for a long time. However, the grammar education of the prescriptive approaches about language use is still performed. For example, you should do like this or you are supposed to do something. The grammar education should cover why they choose those expressions and how they are able to satisfy their needs of expression by more socially acceptable language use. Secondly, the instrumental viewpoint of languages makes education focus on teaching how ‘the tool (language)’ is used more efficiently and effectively in order to be able to achieve their goal. However, language is about more than the tool. Learners ultimately need to be aware of the power of language and the world to be created by language.

Through these analyses, two directions of language education in relation to adolescents’ language use are the following. First, language education should deal with grammar education as a principle rather than as a rule like normative grammar. Second, language education should organize the tasks with the self-reflexive activities through language rather than the activities to analyze or to apply the language rule.

People use language in every moment of life. Therefore, the new flow of Korean language education that focuses on the language use to live together with our neighbors is valuable and worthy of development.
Keywords: Korean language education, character education, adolescents’ language characteristic, self-reflexive activities, grammar education as a principle.
References:

Choe, Hyeon Seob(2004), A Study on the Sang-Saeng Language Utility Theory as an Introduction, Journal of Korean Language Education 113, pp.27-78.

Choi, In-Ja(2006), A Study on the multi-layered Mechanism of Communication for the 'Sang-saeng' Communication Education, Journal of the Society of Korean Language and Literature 144, pp.393-418.

Lee, Woo Jin(2013), Confucianism, is it a Sinner or a Savior? - Education Fever and Cultivation Passion, journal of The Korean Society for History of Education 35(2), pp.19-39.

Min, Hyun Sik(2008), Application of Result of Korean Linguistics to the Future of Korean Language Education, Journal of Korean Language Education 126, pp.185-220.

Park, In Gee(2012), Seeking Educational and Cultural Assessment and Countermeasures for ‘A Phenomenon of Abusive Language’, Journal of Korean Speech Association 20, pp.101-139.

Bolitho, Rod et al.(2003), Ten questions about language awareness, ELT Journal 57(3), pp.251-259.

Yeong Hwan Choi(2006), The Research Focuses of Sang-Saeng Language, Journal of Korean Language Education 120, pp.249-285.



How did the Finnish language become a school subject?

Katri Karasma
Abstract: When Latin was the language of educated people, it was forbidden to speak mother tongue in the school. This was the principle in the 17th century. Not earlier than in the 19th century the prestige of the mother tongue began to rise. The mother tongue was practical. It began to displace the Latin language. The nationalistic romanticism directid the attention to the history and poetry of one´s own country.

In the beginning of the 19th century there were several attempts to get the Finnish language as a school subject. A movement called Fennofiilit (A. I. Arwidssonin, J. G. Linsén and E. K. Ehrström) wrote articles in the newspapers Mnemosyne and Åbo Morgonblad. They explained that the language and the nation are unseparably combined together. The students left a petition where they requested the grand duke for a post of a teacher in the Finnish language at the university. It was not approved.

Nikolai I accepted the Finnish language as a school subject 1841 in the boy schools of Hamina and Viipuri. Finland´s Senate hesitated two years, so the whole country got new school regulations (Gymnaasi- ja koulujärjestys) 1843. The Finnish language got two hours in a week. The decision was pleasant to Nikolai I, because the Russian language got more lessons (4-8 hours) and the Swedish language was dropped out.

The Finnish language was thought as a second language. The grammars were in Swedish and one in German. As a text book the pupils used Kalevala and they translated it into Swedish.

In the year 1856 the Finnish language became the language of instruction. Alexander II accepted new school regulations. J. V. Snellman had written in newspapers that the Finnish children cannot understand the instruction in secondary schools because it was given in a language they do not understand. The number of Finnish lessons varied in different grades 2-4 hours in a week. Since this time the Finnish lessons were like the instruction in the mother tongue. In school regulations since 1872 the name mother tongue (äidinkieli) was used.

Methodology is historical research, which considers curriculum changes. During the Russian rule Swedish language was dropped out when renewing but it was resumed later.


Keywords: Curriculum (school order) research, language politics, a new scool subject
References

Hanho, T. J. 1955. Suomen oppikoululaitoksen historia 2. 1809-1872. (The history of

Finlands secondary school 2. 1809-1872.) Helsinki: WSOY.

Karasma, Katri. 2013. Miten oppiaineeksi tulo mahdollistui? (How was it possible to become a school subject?) Aikakauskirja Äidinkielen opetustiede (Journal of Mother

tongue Education), 42, 2-4. www.aidinkielenopetustieteenseurary.com

Karasma, Katri. 2014. Aapisesta ylioppilaskokeeseen. Äidinkielen opetuksen historia. (From ABCbook to matriculation examination. The history of mother tongue.) Äidinkielen Opetustieteen Seuran tutkimuksia. (Publications from the Society of the

Teaching Science of Mother Tongue.)

Keisariillisen Majesteetin Armollinen Gymnaasi- ja Koulu-järjestys Suomen Ssoruhtinaanmaalle. Annettu Helsinginkaupungissa 6 p Marraskuuta 1843. 1844. Helsinki: J. Simeliuksen Perillisten tykönä.

Thavenius, Jan. 1981. Modersmål och fadersarv. Svenskämnets traditioner i historien och

nuet. Stockholm:Symposion Bokförlag.

van de Ven, Piet-Hein. 1989. Modersmålsundervisningen i Västeuropa. Några historiska

översikter. Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap 18, 4, 19-35.



Reading professionally - what does it mean to become a Professional reader within the academicstudy of literature.

Erik Karlsson
Abstract: My thesis will focus on “professional readers”, meaning those who study literature within the academic system. I will follow a group of students during their first year of studying Comparative Literature. Though studies of the reading of literature have become more common in recent years, we still know little about how this group of readers actually understand their reading of literature. I hope to make a contribution in this regard.

My study is part of the project "The Dialectics of Immersion – on Professional and Everyday Reading Practices in the new Media Landscape” which consists of four studies, each looking at what we might call "passionate readers” from a different angle. We try to apprehend relationships and boundaries between reading as it is practiced within and outside academia. The material ranges from private reading circles and “Mass Literature Events” to my study of students of Comparative Literature.


Materials:
The material for the thesis (material is currently being collected) consists of qualitative data, including interviews with students at several points in their education, interviews with a number of teachers and ethnographic observational studies in lecture rooms at the university. Various types of written material is also included, such as texts produced by the students (papers, exams), material provided as hand-outs from the teachers, and texts made available to students through the university’s digital educational platform.
Research Methods:
Although the exact methods still are being drawn up, I do have a preliminary understanding of what my methods will be. The methods can very broadly be divided into two categories:

1: A collection of conventional ethnographic methods, such as observations and interviews.

2: The other category concerns my way of understanding and analyzing the data. I am contemplating using some form of socio-material theory such as Actor Network Theory (ANT) as a way of including the “materiality” of reading into the study, a perspective that has been overlooked in many recent educational studies. The objective is to rethink the way educational studies generally has dealt with the concept of agency.
Keywords: Literature Didactics, Qualitative Studies, Reading Reception, Ethnography, Actor Network Theory

Studying students’ dialogic practices for developing their critical literacy: a case study

Eleni Katsarou
Abstract: The research started the last school-year (2013-14) when the L1 teachers of an Experimental Junior High-school in Crete observed certain dysfunctions in group projects, when the students had to work as a team. In their group discussions, they could not collaborate, as they could not organize a full argument nor make use of an idea of a peer-student to develop it further and co-construct collective knowledge. The teachers with two university researchers formed a research-group to study the present students’ dialogic practices (in what degree do they display quality in dialogue: are difference and disagreement viewed as opportunities, do they challenge/ problematize the answers, are they open to new understandings), and then plan and implement teaching interventions that could improve their dialogic practices.

The ultimate goal of the research is to formulate a teaching proposal for developing students’ critical literacy through improving their dialogic practices. Critical literacy is seen here as social practice and is socio-culturally situated (Barton, Hamilton & Ivanic 2000; Baynham 1995), as a set of socially organised practices in which basic skills for decoding and encoding connect to all aspects of an individual’s and community’s sense of social identity and capacity (Fairclough 1989; Gee 1996; Muspratt, Luke & Freebody 1997). The improvement of students’ dialogic practices presupposes the development of their “critical language awareness” (Fairclough, 1992) which could be achieved through focusing on the political, historical and social nature of language, as a necessary condition for students’ emancipation. For this purpose, and after students’ deficits in discussion are detected (through their transcribed dialogues in groups), we test in practice new ways that give students opportunity to challenge the dominant representations which are very common in their discussions, to get rid of the domination of the “good student” who simply reproduces the dominant school patterns, to stand critically against the meanings of the social world constructed during L1 teaching and to create an argument that can enhance their collective thinking and develop further their collective knowledge. The implementation of the interventions in the classroom is monitored by the researchers and the participant teachers through observation and transcription of the students’ dialogues that then will be analysed and give certain results.


Keywords: students’ dialogic practices, critical literacy, students’ team-work.
References:

Barton, D., Hamilton, M., & Ivanic, R. (Eds.). (2000). Situated literacies: Reading and writing in context. London: Routledge.

Baynham, M. (1995). Literacy Practices. London: Longman.

Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. London: Longman.

Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. London: Polity Press.

Gee, J.P. (1996). Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in discourses. London: Taylor Francis.

Muspratt, S., Luke, A., & Freebody, P. (1997). Constructing critical literacies. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

Renewing the aims and the contents of literacy instruction in L1 – coeducation between teacher students of mother tongue and ICT in Finland

Merja Kauppinen
Abstract: The use of ICT is not especially widespread in Finnish schools despite the campaigns, projects and in-service teacher education programmes which aim to increase the utilization of ICT in instruction (Ilomäki 2008; Taalas et al. 2008). The significant changes in textual spaces, e.g., in digital literacy practices, require teachers and teacher educators to update their literacy beliefs, values, and classroom practices (Miller 2007). Experiences of the pedagogical use of ICT already during teacher studies are crucial because they can strengthen motivation (Schunck & Usher 2011) and generate technology-integrating collaborative working (Llewellynn-Jones, Agombar & Deane 2011).

In Finland, we have rethought the academic literacies, especially digital and innovative literacy skills, in teacher education (Kiili, Kauppinen & Laurinen 2013) and developed a model of coeducation by means of which L1 teacher students can develop their technological-pedagogical knowledge during their studies. Within just four academic years (2011–15) L1 teacher students have reformed L1 instruction with the support of ICT students. These teacher students have together planned, carried out and evaluated learning projects in different school forms as part of their teaching practices.

This study covers 20 ICT-supported L1 learning projects. The data consist of the reports teacher students have produced on completion of their projects and subsequent evaluative group discussions. The data are analyzed using qualitative content analyses. The research questions are as follows:

- Which aims or content areas of L1 do the teacher students support via ICT? Why just these areas?

- What kind of technological resources is used in L1 instruction?

- What are the purposes of ICT-based literacy learning?

- What, on the one hand, are the benefits and, on the other, the disadvantages of using ICT in L1 instruction according to the teacher students?

- What kind of demands does ICT and L1 coeducation produce?


The preliminary findings show that L1 teacher students are willing to create technology-supported learning practices in diverse content areas of mother tongue and literature. The main purpose of ICT use is to increase the agency of pupils in their learning processes. Also, according to teacher students, creativity and innovative literacy skills in learning are crucial.
Keywords: literacy instruction, ICT-based learning, coeducation, teacher education, L1 instruction
References:

Ilomäki, L. 2008. The effects of ICT in school. Teachers’ and students’ perspectives. Ann. Univ. Turkuensis B 314. University of Turku.

Kiili, C., Kauppinen, M. & Laurinen, L. 2013. University students as composers of a digital video. In T. Ley, M. Ruohonen, M. Laanpere, & A. Tatnall (eds.) Open and Social Technologies for Networked Learning. IFIP WG 3.4 International conference, OST 2012, Tallinn, Estonia, July/August 2012. Heidelberg: Springer, 131–140.

Llewellynn-Jones, C., Agombar, M. & Deane, M. 2011. Writing in the disciplines and learning technologists: Towards effective collaboration. In M. Deane & P. O’Neill (eds.) Writing in the disciplines. New York: Palgrave, 237–249.

Miller, S. M. 2007. English teacher learning for new times: Digital video composing as multimodal literacy practice. English Education 40 (1) 2007, 61–83.

Schunck, D. H & Usher, E. L. 2011. Assessing self-efficacy for self-regulated learning. In B. J. Zimmerman & D. H. Schunk (eds.) Handbook of Self- Regulation of Learning and Performance. NY: Routledge.

Taalas, P., Tarnanen, M., Kauppinen, M. & Pöyhönen, S. 2008. Media landscapes in school and in free time – two parallel realities? Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy 3 (4), 240–256.

Cognitive processes of outline-based writing and its educational implications

Hyeyoun Kim
Abstract: 1) Context & Aims

There have been two different perspectives with regard to managing outlines during writing. One perspective relates to a series of research that investigated the effectiveness of making an outline before text production (Kellogg, 1988, 1994; Piolat & Roussey, 1996; Ransdell & Levy, 1996; Olive & Kellogg, 2002). On the other hand, the second perspective questioned the effectiveness of an outline (Galbraith, 1996; Galbraith & Torrance, 2004) and proposed a dual-process hypothesis (Galbraith, 2009; Baaijen et al., 2014) to explain that not only explicit planning processes but also implicit text production processes can be effective for better writing. Based on these prepositions, this study aims to investigate the various aspects of so-called 'outline-based writing', which both perspectives have regarded as a homogeneous process. Thus, the research questions are as follows: How do writers think about making an outline before text production? How do writers change an outline into the main text?


2) Methods

The research design was mainly based on the qualitative research methodology, since this study has the intention of investigating and categorising the various outlining activities. 26 university students were engaged in this study and were charged with a writing task: writing an expository text after outlining for 30 minutes. They were also asked to write a questionnaire to compare their knowledge on outlining and their actual practice. Their writing processes were recorded as a video capture for the purpose of analysing the aspects of transition from the outline to the main text. Analysis was conducted by ATLAS.ti.


3) Issues to Discuss

The reason why this study is focussed on outlining is in line with the second perspective mentioned above, by both Galbraith (2009) and Baaijen et al. (2014). However, many student writers tended not to use their own outlines as expected, even in the case of an explicit request. This requires analysis for two reasons: for an investigation of the actual execution from outlining to text production, and for its educational practices.


Keywords: Writing, Outline, Preplanning, Cognitive processes in writing, Writing education

Working with literary concepts in youth novels. Upper secondary students deal with symbols in their group discussions.

Marie-Helene Klementsson
Abstract: My thesis is an empirical teacher-researcher study based upon the transcriptions from the tape-recorded group discussions in a class in a Swedish upper secondary school. The class consisted of 36 students which were divided into six groups. The group discussions were carried out without a teacher present but the students worked with text focused tasks and questions which I had prepared in advance. The first recordings, out of a total of 15 per group, were carried out in August 2011 and the last ones in May 2012. The novels the students read and then discussed were part of two literature projects namely Robinsonades and Teenage pregnancy.

In the first study I present the results of two groups’ discussions of the novel The Hungergames. The results show that different Joint Approaches were being used when the students worked with the novels and the designated tasks and questions to it. This study presents six of them.

The second study focuses on how the students in their discussions deal with literary concepts in terms of how they, through the concepts, talk about the novels they read. This study analyzes five of the groups’ conversations about symbols in the four youth novels they read and it will examine if or how the students’ dealing with the concept changes throughout the school year. This, the second article in my coming thesis, is what I will present at the workshop.



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