Researching Language in Schools and Communities

Researching Language in Schools and Communities

Author: Len Unsworth

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2005-11-17

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9780826478719

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Researching Language in Schools and Communities is designed for those who intend to carry out and / or study research in children's language development, teaching English as a second language, children's literature, casual conversation, social class and language variation, classroom discourse, reading processes, teaching writing, literacy and curriculum area learning, critical literacies and related areas. The contributors are among the foremost researchers in these fields. In this book they introduce approaches to help investigate such areas in applied langauge research using systemic functional linguistics (SFL). A key purpose of this text is to facilitate the further engagement of language researchers with SFL perspectives, encouraging more collaborative transdisciplinary work across different fields of study and theoretical approaches in projects of mutual concern. The first two chapters outline the key aspects of SFL descriptions of the relationships between language and social context and the inter-related descriptions of text structures and grammatical systems. This provides sufficient background to enable those coming new to SFL to make productive, critical use of the research reviewed, studies described and advice on project design provided in the following chapters. Nevertheless, the book is an introductory resource and particular attention has been paid throughout to the extensive provision of clear references to more elaborated accounts of the important issues discussed.


Language and Cultural Practices in Communities and Schools

Language and Cultural Practices in Communities and Schools

Author: Inmaculada M. García-Sánchez

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-09-09

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 0429943776

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Drawing on sociocultural theories of learning, this book examines how the everyday language practices and cultural funds of knowledge of youth from non-dominant or minoritized groups can be used as centerpoints for classroom learning in ways that help all students both to sustain and expand their cultural and linguistic repertoires while developing skills that are valued in formal schooling. Bringing together a group of ethnographically grounded scholars working in diverse local contexts, this volume identifies how these language practices and cultural funds of knowledge can be used as generative points of continuity and productively expanded on in schools for successful and inclusive learning. Ideal for students and researchers in teaching, learning, language education, literacy, and multicultural education, as well as teachers at all stages of their career, this book contributes to research on culturally and linguistically sustaining practices by offering original teaching methods and a range of ways of connecting cultural competencies to learning across subject matters and disciplines.


Dialects in Schools and Communities

Dialects in Schools and Communities

Author: Carolyn Temple Adger

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-05-22

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1135554870

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This book describes dialect differences in American English and their impact on education and everyday life. It explores some of the major issues that confront educational practitioners and suggests what practitioners can do to recognize students’ language abilities, support their language development, and expand their knowledge about dialects. Topics addressed include: *popular concerns about the nature of language variation; *characteristic structures of different dialects; *various interactive patterns characteristic of social groups; *the school impacts of dialect differences in speaking, writing, and reading, including questions about teaching Standard English; and *the value of dialect education in schools to enable students to understand dialects as natural and normal language phenomena. Changes in the Second Edition: In this edition the authors reconsider and expand their discussion of many of the issues addressed in the first edition and in other of their earlier works, taking into account especially the research on dialects and publications for audiences beyond linguistics that have appeared since the first edition. This edition is offered as an updated report on the state of language variation and education in the United States. Dialects in Schools and Communities is rooted in questions that have arisen in workshops, surveys, classes, discussion groups, and conversations with practitioners and teacher educators. It is thus intended to address important needs in a range of educational and related service fields. As an overview of current empirical research, it synthesizes current understandings and provides key references—in this sense it is a kind of translation and interpretation in which the authors’ goal is to bring together the practical concerns of educators and the vantage point of sociolinguistics. No background in linguistics or sociolinguistics is assumed on the part of the reader. This volume is intended for teacher interns and practicing teachers in elementary and secondary schools; early childhood specialists; specialists in reading and writing; speech/language pathologists; special education teachers; and students in various language specialties.


Communities of Practice in Language Research

Communities of Practice in Language Research

Author: Brian Walter King

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-06-05

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1000008002

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Communities of Practice in Language Research provides an up-to-date and critical introduction to the community of practice framework and how this can be applied to language research. Critiquing and offering alternative suggestions for the ways in which researchers frame research participants as members of communities of practice, with the goal of inspiring use of the Community of Practice (CofP) model in new areas of research, this book: engages in extended critical analysis of past research as well as questioning recent applications and suggesting limitations incorporates instructive examples from multiple fields, including Sociolinguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, Critical Discourse Studies, Language Teaching & Learning, Literacy Studies, and a trailblazing section on Language & Digital Media brings up-to-date the key questions and concerns around the Communities of Practice model, debunking myths and re-emphasising ongoing challenges. Communities of Practice in Language Research is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying research methods or undertaking research projects in those areas.


Linguistic Justice

Linguistic Justice

Author: April Baker-Bell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-04-28

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 1351376705

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Bringing together theory, research, and practice to dismantle Anti-Black Linguistic Racism and white linguistic supremacy, this book provides ethnographic snapshots of how Black students navigate and negotiate their linguistic and racial identities across multiple contexts. By highlighting the counterstories of Black students, Baker-Bell demonstrates how traditional approaches to language education do not account for the emotional harm, internalized linguistic racism, or consequences these approaches have on Black students' sense of self and identity. This book presents Anti-Black Linguistic Racism as a framework that explicitly names and richly captures the linguistic violence, persecution, dehumanization, and marginalization Black Language-speakers endure when using their language in schools and in everyday life. To move toward Black linguistic liberation, Baker-Bell introduces a new way forward through Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy, a pedagogical approach that intentionally and unapologetically centers the linguistic, cultural, racial, intellectual, and self-confidence needs of Black students. This volume captures what Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy looks like in classrooms while simultaneously illustrating how theory, research, and practice can operate in tandem in pursuit of linguistic and racial justice. A crucial resource for educators, researchers, professors, and graduate students in language and literacy education, writing studies, sociology of education, sociolinguistics, and critical pedagogy, this book features a range of multimodal examples and practices through instructional maps, charts, artwork, and stories that reflect the urgent need for antiracist language pedagogies in our current social and political climate.


Critical Perspectives on Education Policy and Schools, Families, and Communities

Critical Perspectives on Education Policy and Schools, Families, and Communities

Author: Sue Winton

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2020-03-01

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1641138815

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Critical Perspectives on Education Policy and Schools, Families, and Communities offers scholars, students, and practitioners important new knowledge about how current policies impact families, schools, and community partnerships. The book’s authors share a critical orientation towards policy and policy research and invite readers to think differently about what policy is, who policymakers are, and what policy can achieve. Their chapters discuss findings from research grounded in diverse theories, including institutional ethnography, critical disability theory, and critical race theory. The authors encourage scholars of family, school, and community partnerships to ask who benefits from policies (and who loses) and how proposed reforms maintain or disrupt existing relations of power. The chapters present original research on a broad range of policies at the local, state/provincial, and national levels in Canada and the USA. Some authors look closely at the enactment of specific district policies, including a school district’s language translation policy and a policy to create local advisory bodies as part of decentralization efforts. Other chapters reveal the often unacknowledged yet necessary work parents do to meet their children’s needs and enable schools to operate. A few chapters focus on challenges and paradoxes of including families and community members in policymaking processes, including a case where parents demonstrated a preference for a policy that research demonstrates can be detrimental to their children’s future education opportunities. Another set of chapters emphasizes the centrality of policy texts and how language influences the educational experiences and engagement of students and their families. Each chapter concludes with a discussion of implications of the research for educators, families, and other community partners.


Doing Research within Communities

Doing Research within Communities

Author: Kerry Taylor-Leech

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-14

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1317242335

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Doing Research within Communities provides real-life examples of field research projects in language and education, offering an overview of research processes and solutions to the common challenges faced by researchers in the field. This unique book contains personal research narratives from sixteen different and varied fieldwork projects, providing advice and guidance to the reader through example rather than instruction and enabling the reader to discover connections with the storyteller and gain insights into their own research journey. This book: provides advice, practical guidance and support for engaging with a community as a research site; covers the real-life theoretical, ethical and practical issues faced by researchers, such as language choice in multilingual communities, and the insider/outsider status of the researcher; discusses challenges posed by a variety of mono- and multilingual settings, from remote island communities to large urban areas; includes research from across the Asia-Pacific area, including Australia, New Zealand and East Timor, and also the US. Doing Research within Communities is essential reading for early career researchers and graduate students undertaking fieldwork within communities.


Community and Heritage Languages Schools Transforming Education

Community and Heritage Languages Schools Transforming Education

Author: Ken Cruickshank

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-11-14

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1000965872

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This edited book offers a new look at community and heritage languages schools around the world, providing a comprehensive and nuanced portrait of language education and cultural understanding in and beyond school contexts. Covering research and practice, the contributors survey the global landscape of community and heritage language schools and explore new developments in the field to understand the challenges the schools face and discuss the impact they have on their students and surrounding communities. Chapters address key topics including language development, academic achievement, professional development, learner identity and agency, online learning and teaching disruptions. Contributors highlight learners’ voices throughout, with special attention to overlooked minority language communities and Indigenous voices. Through this wealth of thorough and insightful analysis, the contributors of this book position students of community/heritage languages schools as citizens of a plurilingual world who are central to global change. Abounding with original research, innovative ideas and cutting-edge teaching practices, this book is ideal for courses on multilingualism and language and culture.


Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Author: Nancy H. Hornberger

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 9401145350

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This volume seeks to enable language and education practitioners and researchers to get a sense of the range of issues being pursued in language and education research and the array of methods employed to do so. It focuses on language and education in relation to society, variation, culture, and interaction. Its unity of purpose and outlook with regard to the central role of language as both vehicle and mediator of educational processes and to the need for continued and deepening research into the limits and possibilities that implies is most impressive.