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- Andersson, Ingrid, et al.
(author)
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Language and space in a multilingual undergraduate physics classroom in Rwanda
- 2011
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In: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. - : Routledge. - 1367-0050 .- 1747-7522. ; 14:6, s. 751-764
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This case study examines how a lecturer and a group of students adjust to a request for English-only medium of instruction in tertiary education. The study draws on sociocultural theories considering context and language use as tools for meaning making. Goffman's theories of stage setting and footing are used to analyse how the lecturer positions himself in relation to language use. The findings show that in the observed session the lecturer used code-switching as a tool to extend students’ academic literacy. Further, we found that he in most cases assigned different classroom spaces to different languages. Hence, English as the targeted language of instruction was used when the lecturer was standing at the board, the official teaching space, whereas French, a previously accepted language, was used in a semi-official space closer to the students. Kinyarwanda, the lecturer's and students’ first language, is not permitted as a medium of instruction, but was used when the lecturer was close to the students. We label this a personal space, where the lecturer changed code in order to improve interaction and students’ understanding. Such code-switching has cultural and historical traditions and is viewed in this study as a strategy to avoid misunderstandings and allow more equitable learning opportunities.
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- Andersson, Ingrid, et al.
(author)
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Negotiating meaning in multilingual group work : A case study of higher education in Rwanda
- 2013
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In: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. - : Routledge. - 1367-0050 .- 1747-7522. ; 16:4, s. 436-450
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper, we investigate how students handle the linguistic diversity they are exposed to during group-work sessions at a university in Rwanda. The data consist of five audio-recorded group-work sessions initiated by a lecturer in a management course. The data were analysed drawing on theories relating to code-switching and learning in multilingual settings. Our findings show that active use of multiple languages, although time consuming, has great potential to facilitate learning, thus emphasizing the complementarities rather than exclusion of languages used in Rwanda.
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4. |
- aus der Wieschen, Maria Vanessa, et al.
(author)
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Divergent language choices and maintenance of intersubjectivity : the case of Danish EFL young learners
- 2021
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In: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. - : Routledge. - 1367-0050 .- 1747-7522. ; 24:1, s. 107-123
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The role of students’ first language(s) in foreign language classrooms has been hotly debated in the last decades. Although this line of research has advanced our understanding of language choice in the L2 classroom, it has mostly dealt with adolescent and adult learners. From a contextual perspective, then, more micro-analytic research that focuses on language choice at the primary school level is needed. Against this background, this paper presents a case study of a Danish third-grade English as a foreign language classroom, in which a pattern of divergent language choices has been observed: the teacher consistently uses English, whereas the learners almost exclusively speak Danish, which might entail trouble in maintaining intersubjectivity and a joint pedagogical focus. Using Conversation Analysis methodology, we found two sequential formats that help ensure student understanding and thus maintain intersubjectivity: (1) learner translations and reformulations for peer support in expansion sequences, and (2) expansions initiated by students requesting information or clarification that display partial or no understanding. We argue that the sense-making practices co-constructed in this classroom context are possible because the teacher encourages shared multilingual meaning-making practices. This research has implications for teaching EFL to young learners, and classroom language policies.
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- Belancic, Kristina, et al.
(author)
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Discourses of functional bilingualism in the Sami curriculum in Sweden
- 2020
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In: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1367-0050 .- 1747-7522. ; 23:5, s. 601-616
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Sami are Indigenous languages spoken by the Sami people in the northern parts of Scandinavia and Russia. All Sami languages are endangered because of historically aggressive assimilation policies. Currently Sami communities are working actively with language revitalisation processes. This article examines pupils’ access to knowledge in and about Sami languages and functional bilingualism in Sami and Swedish within the curriculum for the Sami schools in Sweden. Through a multifaceted lens of functional linguistic analysis, Bloom’s revised taxonomy of knowledge types and processes, and Bernstein’s concepts of vertical and horizontal discourse we examine the learning outcomes in the Sami and Swedish syllabi. The findings show an unequal balance between the two languages with the Sami syllabus containing fewer knowledge types, cognitive processes, verb processes, a stronger focus on oracy, and a stronger horizontal discourse than the Swedish syllabus. We conclude that the discourses about functional bilingualism that underpin these policy documents is contradictory and does not support Sami to be a fully functional language for all domains of society.
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6. |
- Benson, Carol, et al.
(author)
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Empowerment of bilingual education professionals : the training of trainers programme for educators in multilingual settings in southern Africa (ToTSA) 2002-2005
- 2010
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In: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1367-0050 .- 1747-7522. ; 13:3, s. 371-394
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article describes a South Africa-based training programme in multilingual education for African educators and assesses its potentially transformative effects on participants. Based on a range of data collected during four course runs, as well as an e-mail survey of past participants, the authors explore how the programme has supported educators in promoting mother tongue-based schooling in multilingual African contexts. There is also a discussion of principal challenges involved in delivering a course that balances theory, ideology and practical knowledge. The authors conclude with implications for similar courses to positively impact educational practice in multilingual settings.
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7. |
- Boyd, Sally, 1949, et al.
(author)
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Adult monolingual policy becomes children's bilingual practice: code-alternation among children and staff in an English-medium preschool in Sweden
- 2016
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In: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1367-0050 .- 1747-7522. ; 19:6, s. 631-648
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Parents, teachers and institutions often attempt to implement monolingual policies in bilingual settings, believing that they thereby facilitate children’s bilingual development. Children, however, often have their own communicative agendas. In this study, we investigate how the twofold language policy of an English-medium preschool in Sweden is put into practice in everyday interaction. The results show that children (aged 3–4) develop a broader range of code alternation practices than the staff uses in their interaction with the children. The paper analyses several examples of spontaneous interaction either between staff and children, or among children playing with each other in the preschool. We show how the preschool’s English language profile in practice becomes a bilingual policy, which encourages children not only to acquire English and Swedish in the preschool, but also to learn different ways to manage their bilingualism in the school context.
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8. |
- Bylund, Emanuel, et al.
(author)
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Motion event categorisation in a nativised variety of South African English
- 2015
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In: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1367-0050 .- 1747-7522. ; 18:5, s. 588-601
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The present study seeks to expand the current focus on acquisition situations in linguistic relativity research by exploring the effects of nativisation (the process by which a L2 is acquired as a L1) on language-specific cognitive behaviour. Categorisation preferences of goal-oriented motion events were investigated in South African speakers who learnt English as a L1 from caregivers who spoke English as a L2 and Afrikaans as a L1. The aim of the study was to establish whether the categorisation patterns found in the nativised English variety: (1) resemble patterns of L2 speakers of English with Afrikaans as a L1, (2) resemble patterns of L1 English speakers of a non-nativised English variety and (3) do not pattern with either of the above, but instead exhibit a distinct behaviour. It was found that simultaneous, functional bilinguals (Afrikaans and nativised English) patterned with L1 Afrikaans speakers, but the extent to which they did so was modulated by their frequency of use of Afrikaans. Functionally monolingual speakers of nativised English, on the other hand, patterned with L1 speakers of British English. This suggests that bilingualism, rather than nativisation, was a reliable predictor of event categorisation preferences.
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9. |
- Bylund, Emanuel, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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The role of heritage language instruction for first language proficiency : a psycholinguistic perspective
- 2012
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In: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1367-0050 .- 1747-7522. ; 15:5, s. 593-609
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study investigates the effects of weekly heritage language (HL) classes on first language (L1) proficiency in speakers who arrived in the second language (L2)-dominant setting before the onset of puberty. Two groups of L1 Spanish – L2 Swedish bilingual high school students living in Sweden participated in the study. One group currently attended HL classes once a week, whereas the other group was no longer doing so. The two groups did not differ with regard to the total number of years of HL class attendance, age of arrival in Sweden, length of residence or degree of L1 contact. Results from a grammaticality judgement test and a cloze test showed that the group that currently attended HL classes outperformed the non-attending group. Using a framework that emphasises heightened attrition susceptibility among speakers who lost contact with the L1-dominant setting before puberty, the study suggests that HL classes function as a factor that, all other things being equal, may counterweigh attrition susceptibility. Moreover, it is suggested that the effects of HL classes on L1 proficiency are short term rather than long term. That is to say, once attendance ceases the counterweighing effect is less visible.
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10. |
- Camenzuli, Rebecca, et al.
(author)
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Collective teachers' beliefs about multilingualism in Maltese primary education
- 2023
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In: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1367-0050 .- 1747-7522. ; 26:4, s. 379-394
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Traditionally bilingual Maltese school populations are increasingly linguistically diverse, due to intensified migration flows. To shed light on central issues to be addressed by policy makers, school administrators, researchers and teacher trainers, collective beliefs of Maltese primary school teachers regarding their conceptual understanding and pedagogical actions concerning multilingualism are investigated. Through the application of Q methodology and focus group interviews, data from twenty-one in-service teachers from six different colleges were collected. Using inverted factor analysis, three factors were extracted for each of the components (understanding and pedagogy). Detailed narratives for each group of collective teachers' beliefs were described and supplemented with teachers' validating comments. Findings indicate that having a positive understanding of multilingualism does not necessarily imply positive pedagogical beliefs and vice versa. In Malta's inherently bilingual education system, teachers tend to accept and welcome children's languages in their classrooms and encourage the learning of additional languages. However, possibly due to a lack of adequate training on the subject, there is scepticism regarding whether and how to effectively draw on multilingualism in the classroom. Additionally, the need arises for more teacher autonomy and agency to make decisions regarding classroom language practices, and for a more comprehensive Maltese national language education policy.
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