As the 21st century brings in a revolutionary change in the way students study at schools and universities, technology continues to play a crucial role in helping students achieve more conceptual and practical knowled...As the 21st century brings in a revolutionary change in the way students study at schools and universities, technology continues to play a crucial role in helping students achieve more conceptual and practical knowledge of topics taught in classrooms. Students with special needs too are now able to study in a general classroom setting, access relevant technologies and use them for higher cognitive development, helping them integrate with their surroundings. However, existing literature shows that though multiple learning tools exist that do enhance learning in special needs students, they either cater to specific areas of development such as Mathematics and English, or that are targeted towards a specified category of studentswith special needs such as autism and cerebral palsy. Furthermore, despite multiple laws and regulations supporting the right to education launched by the UAE （United Arab Emirates） government for special needs students, there seems to exist a need to provide classrooms across the country with educational applications that have a universal approach particularly in the UAE in order to include students with almost any special needs. This paper looks closely at the existing literature and highlights this gap, especially in the UAE and proposes to develop such a tool based on existing learning concepts.展开更多
This paper reports on seven years of collaborative research with the Department for Education and Child Development. The longitudinal study examines the impact ofa multilingual literacy approach as it has been applied...This paper reports on seven years of collaborative research with the Department for Education and Child Development. The longitudinal study examines the impact ofa multilingual literacy approach as it has been applied in the teaching of French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish across 12 different schools in South Australia. The move to introduce the study of additional languages in Australian primary schools has yet to establish wide-ranging and on-going student engagement and often fails to progress students beyond simple pragmatic language use. It is argued that a new approach integrates languages in daily classroom literacy practices can redress this situation： a multilingual literacy approach. The theoretical framework that drives this approach draws from the notions of universality and transfer that are established in the literature. A critical realist paradigm provided a framework for integrating research methods： employing contingency theory and pragmatic methods of philosophy also ensured that values and hermeneutics were not sidelined in the explanation of the study＇s acts and outcomes. This longitudinal study demonstrates that when the aforementioned theoretical notions bridge the research-practice divide and are adopted into daily classroom teaching and learning activities, there is a qualitative and quantitative improvement in students＇ literacy learning展开更多
While the research agenda of classroom interaction has long been well established internationally, scholars in China have paid little empirical attention to these developments until recently. Furthermore, among the bo...While the research agenda of classroom interaction has long been well established internationally, scholars in China have paid little empirical attention to these developments until recently. Furthermore, among the body of work on the local classroom discourse, very few studies have focused on the secondary sectors. From the perspective of the sociocultural theory （SCT）, this article examines the classroom discourse of Chinese middle school English language teaching （ELT） by investigating teacher-student interaction. The transcribed classroom discourse of 8 teachers＇ reading lessons is qualitatively coded and quantitatively measured. The study draws on a descriptive system focusing on the teacher-led three-part initiation-response-feedback （IRF） structure. The research findings reveal that quite similar discourse patterns are found in the lessons sampled, with the initiation-response-evaluation （IRE） sequence dominating the EFL （English as a Foreign Language） classroom interaction investigated. Theoretically, the paper aims to place the SCT perspectives in the foreground. Pedagogically, it attempts to raise teacher-practitioners＇ levels of awareness of the use of teacher talk in EFL classroom interaction.展开更多
文摘As the 21st century brings in a revolutionary change in the way students study at schools and universities, technology continues to play a crucial role in helping students achieve more conceptual and practical knowledge of topics taught in classrooms. Students with special needs too are now able to study in a general classroom setting, access relevant technologies and use them for higher cognitive development, helping them integrate with their surroundings. However, existing literature shows that though multiple learning tools exist that do enhance learning in special needs students, they either cater to specific areas of development such as Mathematics and English, or that are targeted towards a specified category of studentswith special needs such as autism and cerebral palsy. Furthermore, despite multiple laws and regulations supporting the right to education launched by the UAE （United Arab Emirates） government for special needs students, there seems to exist a need to provide classrooms across the country with educational applications that have a universal approach particularly in the UAE in order to include students with almost any special needs. This paper looks closely at the existing literature and highlights this gap, especially in the UAE and proposes to develop such a tool based on existing learning concepts.
文摘This paper reports on seven years of collaborative research with the Department for Education and Child Development. The longitudinal study examines the impact ofa multilingual literacy approach as it has been applied in the teaching of French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish across 12 different schools in South Australia. The move to introduce the study of additional languages in Australian primary schools has yet to establish wide-ranging and on-going student engagement and often fails to progress students beyond simple pragmatic language use. It is argued that a new approach integrates languages in daily classroom literacy practices can redress this situation： a multilingual literacy approach. The theoretical framework that drives this approach draws from the notions of universality and transfer that are established in the literature. A critical realist paradigm provided a framework for integrating research methods： employing contingency theory and pragmatic methods of philosophy also ensured that values and hermeneutics were not sidelined in the explanation of the study＇s acts and outcomes. This longitudinal study demonstrates that when the aforementioned theoretical notions bridge the research-practice divide and are adopted into daily classroom teaching and learning activities, there is a qualitative and quantitative improvement in students＇ literacy learning
文摘While the research agenda of classroom interaction has long been well established internationally, scholars in China have paid little empirical attention to these developments until recently. Furthermore, among the body of work on the local classroom discourse, very few studies have focused on the secondary sectors. From the perspective of the sociocultural theory （SCT）, this article examines the classroom discourse of Chinese middle school English language teaching （ELT） by investigating teacher-student interaction. The transcribed classroom discourse of 8 teachers＇ reading lessons is qualitatively coded and quantitatively measured. The study draws on a descriptive system focusing on the teacher-led three-part initiation-response-feedback （IRF） structure. The research findings reveal that quite similar discourse patterns are found in the lessons sampled, with the initiation-response-evaluation （IRE） sequence dominating the EFL （English as a Foreign Language） classroom interaction investigated. Theoretically, the paper aims to place the SCT perspectives in the foreground. Pedagogically, it attempts to raise teacher-practitioners＇ levels of awareness of the use of teacher talk in EFL classroom interaction.
