Confirmation Congratulations to our Graduate Researchers
Congratulations to the following LALE Graduate Researchers whose candidatures were recently confirmed:
Exploring Chinese character teaching in Australian schools: What shapes Chinese language teachers’ pedagogical practice in teaching characters among young L2 learners?
Xinning Mao (PhD)
The teaching of Chinese as a second language is increasing exponentially, with larger cohorts of young learners studying the language. While the unique logographic forms of Chinese characters have attracted many second language (L2) learners to start learning Chinese, their linguistic features – the integration of phonological, orthographic and semantic information – pose great challenge for L2 learners in memorising and developing literacy skills (Orton & Scrimgeour, 2019). Most research into pedagogy has focused on adult L2 or first language learners of Chinese, with a significant gap in research with young L2 learners. Through multiple case studies in four primary Chinese programs in Victoria, this study aims to investigate pedagogical approaches in teaching characters to young L2 and to identify influencing factors, at macro-, meso-, and micro- levels, that shape, hinder and support pedagogy and the teaching of characters to young learners.
Exploring multilingual students’ meaning-making resources in academic literacy practices
Melissa Slamet (PhD)
In Anglophone university contexts where English is the dominant language, multilingual students’ academic literacy practices are often described as ‘lacking’ or ‘problematic’. The importance of recognising multilingual students’ meaning-making practices as resourceful is highlighted in the literature which investigates diverse learning resources (e.g., linguistic, semiotic, or knowledge resources). This case study, set within a graduate coursework subject at an Australian university, aims to address two gaps in the literature. First, this study aims to make visible how different (human and nonhuman) meaning-making resources are used in multilingual students’ academic literacy practices. Second, this study aims to analyse how interactions between meaning-making resources, people, and spaces shape opportunities for language and literacy learning as well as students’ perceptions as ‘resourceful’ multilinguals. By addressing these gaps, this study aims to reveal the hidden complexity of multilingual students’ academic literacy practices, transforming deficit views to a more accurate and nuanced understanding of their meaning-making resources.
The Role of Mediation in S-STTEP: A VSCT Approach to Self-Directed Growth
Kristofer Sapoetra (DEd)
Mediation as a Vygotskian sociocultural concept in Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE) is often performed based on human-to-human interaction. However, as suggested by van Lier in 1996, development can also be self-mediated through learners’ access to “inner resources”, drawing on their own experience and existing knowledge to grow oneself. This research aims to investigate the role of mediation in self-study as an alternative professional development approach in SLTE. A particular focus is placed on Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices (S-STTEP) and how by having a deliberate mediational intention can further enhance this framework.
Using cultural-historical activity theory to investigate teacher agency in content and language integrated classrooms
Jian Liang (Vincent) (PhD)
Content and Language Integrated Learning, or CLIL, involves learning a new language alongside new content from other non-language areas of the curriculum. However, despite a significant body of research showing that CLIL and similar additive bilingual models positively impact both language and academic outcomes (Baker, 2006; Dalton-Puffer, 2008), mainstream school structures typically separate the teaching of languages from other subject areas (Liddicoat et al., 2018).
Theoretical in focus and building on notions of agency as “the socioculturally mediated capacity to act” (Ahearn, 2001, p. 112), this research project brings together Pappa et al.’s (2019) tripartite account of teacher agency—pedagogical (inside classrooms), relational (inside schools), and professional (outside schools)—with cultural-historical activity theory (Engeström, 1999) to offer a holistic analytic construct that examines agency across all three planes, by situating language teacher practice as a sociocultural activity (Cross, 2010). This contribution not only recognises teachers as agentic professionals (Freeman & Johnson, 1998; Johnson & Golombek, 2016) but also enables a better understanding of the knowledge teachers need to enact CLIL theory in practice.
Congratulations Xinning, Melissa, Kris, and Vincent on this achievement. We look forward to your future research outcomes.