EFL teacher agency in mediating the socialisation of multilingual learners
Abstract: English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers are seemingly ideally placed to mediate the successful socialisation of multilingual learners into the new school environment for two major reasons. Firstly, as they have effective command of both L1 and L2 and often have experience of living abroad, they tend to exhibit higher levels of openness to new situations, empathy and understanding of the difficulties faced by multilingual learners. Secondly, the English class can itself be a platform for mutual understandi… Show more
Search citation statements
Paper Sections
Citation Types
Year Published
Publication Types
Relationship
Authors
Journals
Cited by 2 publications
References 24 publications
Ethnocultural empathy development of future language teachers through digital multiliteracy resources for low-literacy adult migrants
The increasingly digital and multicultural 21st-century society requires future teachers to be prepared for the changes and challenges they may encounter. Not only language and digital competences, but critical-thinking and problem-solving skills are needed. Moreover, well developed socio-affective abilities, empathy among them, are also key when dealing with others. This is even more relevant when teachers are to work with a non-mainstream population, such as adult migrants with low literacy levels, and to design student-centered curricula or activities. Empathy is a multifaceted process involving, among others, perception, intellection, affect and other sensory aspects of the lived experience. It has been argued that the first-person perspective-taking involved in empathic engagement must necessarily involve rational computation and cognitively mediated processing. Training future teachers in the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies is a means to integrate multimodal digital instruction and aggregate cognitive as well as socio-emotional features to the education of future language teachers.MethodA mixed-method pre-post study was conducted with 48 trainee teachers who participated in stand-alone digital multiliteracy interventions, in which they were encouraged to envisage themselves as future teachers of low-literate migrants. Policy documents such as the reference guide on Literacy and Second Language Learning for the Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants, journal articles, audiovisual resources as well as examples of existing educational materials aimed at the target audience, were made available to them on an online platform. In two separate studies, trainees were encouraged to collaboratively produce two different multimodal outputs. The Revised Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy was administered before and after the intervention, subjecting the data obtained to quantitative analysis. Qualitative data was also collected to gain a better understanding of the affective and cognitive processes experienced by the participants.ResultsSimple statistical analysis coupled with the comparison of means was used to respond to the research questions. Statistical hypothesis testing, including correlations and non-parametric statistics were used to analyze the relationship between each of the factors within the RSEE and the participants, considering the different interventions applied. Non-parametric tests (U-Mann Whitney) were used to compare the differences between the levels of ethnocultural empathy of the participants in the two studies. Significant differences were found in Factor 3 (Empathy) and Factor 5 (Anxiety) between the groups and their post-intervention results, with a p value of 0.053 and 0.038, respectively. The effect size r was calculated, obtaining a size effect of 0.625 for Factor 3 (Empathy) and 0.674 for Factor 5 (Anxiety). These results indicate that the significant differences and the size effect between both groups are large. U-Mann Whitney non-parametric analysis also revealed gender differences in Factor 3 (Empathy), showing females higher levels than males. Effect size r analysis showed a large size effect of 0.708 for Factor 3 (Empathy). The findings pertaining to gender-related differences in empathy levels confirm the conclusions drawn by previous studies. When contrasting study 1 and 2, statistical differences were also shown after the intervention for the ‘Anxiety and Lack of Multicultural Self-efficacy’ factor. The qualitative data analysis was carried out with Atlas.ti v.8, in order to isolate and categorize the broader themes and the most significant explanatory quotes extracted from the participants’ records and interviews. The results reveal the learning strategies that each group of learners applied to successfully complete the task at hand, as well as the participants’ deployment of their critical thinking skills and the awakening of a sense of awareness of their own professional competence development process.ConclusionThis study set out to compare how effective two digital multiliteracy interventions were in developing future language teachers’ ethnocultural empathy and cognitive abilities when appraising the educational needs of low-literacy migrants. Despite the small sample size, the study certainly adds to our understanding of the impact of multimodal tasks involving critical thinking skills on trainees’ cognitive and affective abilities. Besides, it expands the growing body of research that points to the desirability of embedding digitally-based content creation tasks in training curricula for future language teachers.
Ethnocultural empathy development of future language teachers through digital multiliteracy resources for low-literacy adult migrants
The increasingly digital and multicultural 21st-century society requires future teachers to be prepared for the changes and challenges they may encounter. Not only language and digital competences, but critical-thinking and problem-solving skills are needed. Moreover, well developed socio-affective abilities, empathy among them, are also key when dealing with others. This is even more relevant when teachers are to work with a non-mainstream population, such as adult migrants with low literacy levels, and to design student-centered curricula or activities. Empathy is a multifaceted process involving, among others, perception, intellection, affect and other sensory aspects of the lived experience. It has been argued that the first-person perspective-taking involved in empathic engagement must necessarily involve rational computation and cognitively mediated processing. Training future teachers in the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies is a means to integrate multimodal digital instruction and aggregate cognitive as well as socio-emotional features to the education of future language teachers.MethodA mixed-method pre-post study was conducted with 48 trainee teachers who participated in stand-alone digital multiliteracy interventions, in which they were encouraged to envisage themselves as future teachers of low-literate migrants. Policy documents such as the reference guide on Literacy and Second Language Learning for the Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants, journal articles, audiovisual resources as well as examples of existing educational materials aimed at the target audience, were made available to them on an online platform. In two separate studies, trainees were encouraged to collaboratively produce two different multimodal outputs. The Revised Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy was administered before and after the intervention, subjecting the data obtained to quantitative analysis. Qualitative data was also collected to gain a better understanding of the affective and cognitive processes experienced by the participants.ResultsSimple statistical analysis coupled with the comparison of means was used to respond to the research questions. Statistical hypothesis testing, including correlations and non-parametric statistics were used to analyze the relationship between each of the factors within the RSEE and the participants, considering the different interventions applied. Non-parametric tests (U-Mann Whitney) were used to compare the differences between the levels of ethnocultural empathy of the participants in the two studies. Significant differences were found in Factor 3 (Empathy) and Factor 5 (Anxiety) between the groups and their post-intervention results, with a p value of 0.053 and 0.038, respectively. The effect size r was calculated, obtaining a size effect of 0.625 for Factor 3 (Empathy) and 0.674 for Factor 5 (Anxiety). These results indicate that the significant differences and the size effect between both groups are large. U-Mann Whitney non-parametric analysis also revealed gender differences in Factor 3 (Empathy), showing females higher levels than males. Effect size r analysis showed a large size effect of 0.708 for Factor 3 (Empathy). The findings pertaining to gender-related differences in empathy levels confirm the conclusions drawn by previous studies. When contrasting study 1 and 2, statistical differences were also shown after the intervention for the ‘Anxiety and Lack of Multicultural Self-efficacy’ factor. The qualitative data analysis was carried out with Atlas.ti v.8, in order to isolate and categorize the broader themes and the most significant explanatory quotes extracted from the participants’ records and interviews. The results reveal the learning strategies that each group of learners applied to successfully complete the task at hand, as well as the participants’ deployment of their critical thinking skills and the awakening of a sense of awareness of their own professional competence development process.ConclusionThis study set out to compare how effective two digital multiliteracy interventions were in developing future language teachers’ ethnocultural empathy and cognitive abilities when appraising the educational needs of low-literacy migrants. Despite the small sample size, the study certainly adds to our understanding of the impact of multimodal tasks involving critical thinking skills on trainees’ cognitive and affective abilities. Besides, it expands the growing body of research that points to the desirability of embedding digitally-based content creation tasks in training curricula for future language teachers.
Mapping Australian Culture and Society in the Animated Series Bluey—The Use of Audiovisual Material in Early EFL Learning
Bluey stands as the current pinnacle in children’s television series, lauded and adorned with multiple accolades for its educational and social merits. It stands out for its portrayal of childhood social learning within familial settings, offering a realistic depiction of everyday challenges. In addition, Bluey is based on the everyday life of Australian society, clearly reflecting the country’s customs, social values, and natural environments, making it an invaluable resource for enriching the cultural learning of the English language and culture from an Australian point of view, an issue that is rarely addressed in the specialist literature. Thus, this study seeks to identify the cultural and societal facets of Australia depicted in it, with the aim of assessing its pedagogical value in teaching English to non-native learners within the context of primary education. Thirty evaluators analyzed the 52 episodes of the first season of Bluey, endeavoring to identify elements across nine thematic areas. To mitigate variances among evaluators, elements were verified only if agreement was reached by at least three evaluators. In total, evaluators identified 3327 elements representing Australian culture, comprising these categories: (1) Childhood; (2) Devices; (3) Lifestyles; (4) Food; (5) Language; (6) Sports; (7) Animals; (8) Nature; and (9) Places. A total of 1223 elements received verification by the requisite number of evaluators. The resulting catalog of Australia-specific elements per episode serves as a valuable tool in selecting the most instructive episodes for English-language and Australian cultural education for non-natives. This compilation facilitates a nuanced approach to teaching English, rooted in the diverse and culturally rich Australian context, thus breaking away from strictly British and American cultural associations and embracing a broader linguistic and cultural landscape.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
Contact Info
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Product
Resources
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.
