Human societies use a variety of semiotic modes for meaning construction.The ubiquity of images in today’s world,alone or in combination with other modes,makes competence with images or visual literacy a prerequisite...Human societies use a variety of semiotic modes for meaning construction.The ubiquity of images in today’s world,alone or in combination with other modes,makes competence with images or visual literacy a prerequisite of competence in life.Now identified as an essential literacy skill for 21st century learners in the digital age,visual literacy has been introduced into contemporary English curricula in a number of countries around the world.In China,the skill of viewing is added as one important component of language competence in National English Curriculum Standards for High School issued in 2017,thereby making the cultivation of visual literacy vital to secondary EFL education.This paper aims to present and discuss the current situation of visual literacy in secondary EFL education in China.It first provides an analysis of the ways of visual-verbal interplay for meaning construction in textbooks,and finds an uneven distribution of image-text relations in the current EFL textbooks,with a majority of images playing a supportive or illustrative role.Then it explicates the bi-dimensional three-level construct of visual literacy that is specified in the EFL curriculum,with which the subskills of visual literacy assessed in the latest large-scale EFL tests are compared,with a view to finding out the degree of correspondence between the subskills measured in the tests and the subskills expected in the curriculum.The result shows that only one dimension of reading visual texts is assessed,and the other dimension of writing visual texts is not evidenced.Finally suggestions are made for varied visual inputs,an expanded construct of visual literacy,and improvement of the washback effect of tests.展开更多
To uncover how different backgrounds influence teacher beliefs,a multiple case study was done to three pre-service and three in-service EFL teachers through semi-structured interviews.The results show that pre-service...To uncover how different backgrounds influence teacher beliefs,a multiple case study was done to three pre-service and three in-service EFL teachers through semi-structured interviews.The results show that pre-service and in-service teachers hold a general belief that while English exposure is important,the use of Chinese as the L1 is complementary.Nonetheless,teachers’rationale reflects influence from prior learning experience,teacher education and classroom practice.The findings provide implications for career development of EFL teachers.展开更多
Predominant research within Chinese academic contexts focusing on students’ L2 motivational factors remain rooted inlarge-scale research that does not draw a distinction between students from different regional group...Predominant research within Chinese academic contexts focusing on students’ L2 motivational factors remain rooted inlarge-scale research that does not draw a distinction between students from different regional groups within Chinese higher educa-tion. This research seeks to focus specifically on a less-studied group within the Chinese College English curriculum: vocationalstudents—especially vocational students studying within an educational institution in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing.This small-scale survey(n = 129) was conducted in College English classes to determine if the motivational factors of vocationalstudents remained aligned or distinct from those of their peers across Chinese higher education. Subsequent analysis from the sur-vey findings have shown that while gender differences remain manifested and are aligned with established trends and assumptionspertaining to L2 motivational factors within this context, more research is required to delve into the reasons and rationale behindthe choices made by vocational students in southwestern China within this particular survey instrument.展开更多
文摘Human societies use a variety of semiotic modes for meaning construction.The ubiquity of images in today’s world,alone or in combination with other modes,makes competence with images or visual literacy a prerequisite of competence in life.Now identified as an essential literacy skill for 21st century learners in the digital age,visual literacy has been introduced into contemporary English curricula in a number of countries around the world.In China,the skill of viewing is added as one important component of language competence in National English Curriculum Standards for High School issued in 2017,thereby making the cultivation of visual literacy vital to secondary EFL education.This paper aims to present and discuss the current situation of visual literacy in secondary EFL education in China.It first provides an analysis of the ways of visual-verbal interplay for meaning construction in textbooks,and finds an uneven distribution of image-text relations in the current EFL textbooks,with a majority of images playing a supportive or illustrative role.Then it explicates the bi-dimensional three-level construct of visual literacy that is specified in the EFL curriculum,with which the subskills of visual literacy assessed in the latest large-scale EFL tests are compared,with a view to finding out the degree of correspondence between the subskills measured in the tests and the subskills expected in the curriculum.The result shows that only one dimension of reading visual texts is assessed,and the other dimension of writing visual texts is not evidenced.Finally suggestions are made for varied visual inputs,an expanded construct of visual literacy,and improvement of the washback effect of tests.
文摘To uncover how different backgrounds influence teacher beliefs,a multiple case study was done to three pre-service and three in-service EFL teachers through semi-structured interviews.The results show that pre-service and in-service teachers hold a general belief that while English exposure is important,the use of Chinese as the L1 is complementary.Nonetheless,teachers’rationale reflects influence from prior learning experience,teacher education and classroom practice.The findings provide implications for career development of EFL teachers.
文摘Predominant research within Chinese academic contexts focusing on students’ L2 motivational factors remain rooted inlarge-scale research that does not draw a distinction between students from different regional groups within Chinese higher educa-tion. This research seeks to focus specifically on a less-studied group within the Chinese College English curriculum: vocationalstudents—especially vocational students studying within an educational institution in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing.This small-scale survey(n = 129) was conducted in College English classes to determine if the motivational factors of vocationalstudents remained aligned or distinct from those of their peers across Chinese higher education. Subsequent analysis from the sur-vey findings have shown that while gender differences remain manifested and are aligned with established trends and assumptionspertaining to L2 motivational factors within this context, more research is required to delve into the reasons and rationale behindthe choices made by vocational students in southwestern China within this particular survey instrument.
