Language values and bilingual classroom discourse in Tanzanian secondary schools

Classroom Language Use in Hong Kong's Reformed English-Medium Stream

“…Although students in the EMI stream are judged to be capable of learning effectively in a second language, the interviews revealed that many students found the transition from CMI primary schooling to supposedly full immersion in English in Form 1 a daunting and at times bewildering experience. As is often the case in second language immersion programmes in Canada (Johnson & Swain, 1994) and English-medium schools in postcolonial contexts (Neke, 2005;Rubagumya, 1994), the fundamental problem lies in the fact that many students lack the requisite L2 proficiency to understand their teachers. Most of the interviewees reported that their principal source of difficulty, particularly in the early months of the transition to EMI schooling (which one student described as 'torture'), was mastering a large number of new subject-related terms (e.g.…”

“…As educational considerations were hardly paramount in MOI decision-making, it is perhaps not surprising that the dominant theme of studies of English-medium instruction (EMI) in postcolonial Africa and Asia is one of dissatisfaction with the quality of classroom instruction and interaction. Particular problems revealed by such studies include the prevalence of an uninspiring transmissional approach to teaching, a lack of student participation and engagement in learning activities, and an excessive reliance on memorisation (Bunyi, 2005;Martin, 2003;Neke, 2005;Rubagumya, 1994). Faced with the task of implementing an evidently unworkable policy, teachers in many postcolonial EMI contexts have of necessity evolved various pragmatic strategies to cope with the problems associated with teaching content subjects in a language over which their students have imperfect control.…”

Desafios discursivos em Português como meio de instrução nas aulas de Ciências Naturais em Moçambique

“…A comunicação é um fator crucial e determinante no ensino-aprendizagem que permite medir a qualidade do ambiente do ensino-aprendizagem nas aulas (Chimbutane, 2011). As evidências dos contextos pós-coloniais ilustram que a transição de L1 à L2 suscita problemas de comunicação e de interação entre o professor e os alunos no processo de ensino-aprendizagem (Rubagumya, 1994;Bunyi, 1997;Martin, 1999;Wedin, 2009). Muitos estudiosos procuraram compreender como se desenvolve o ensino-aprendizagem em contextos em que os alunos transitam de L1 à L2.…”

“…Os estudos mostram que os alunos são interativos e participativos nas aulas lecionadas em L1 (Alidou e Brock-Utne, 2006;Brock-Utne, 2007;Chimbutane, 2011). Porém, os alunos não participam muito menos interagem nas aulas lecionadas em Português porque não possuem a proficiência linguística e acadêmica em L2 promovida como meio de instrução (Cleghorn, 1992;Rubagumya, 1994;Bunyi 1997;Martin, 1999;Heugh, 2006). Os níveis de "Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills" (BICS) e de "Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency" (CALP) dos alunos em L2 condicionam sobremaneira os níveis de interação e de participação nos processos de desenvolvimento da aprendizagem (Cummins, 1979;1981).…”

Multilingualism in Educational Contexts: Ideologies and Identities

“…Another frequent observation is that even when codeswitching is observed, it may serve to relegate the minority language to peripheral status. That is, the majority language is used for serious academic work, and the minority language is used for off‐task discussion, or at most instructional support talk (Pease‐Alvarez and Winsler 1994; Rubagumya 1994; Canagrajah 1995; Martin‐Jones and Saxena 1995, 1996; Arthur 1996; Pennington 1999; Grima 2000; Martin 2003; Palmer 2007). As noted above, such patterns of codeswitching, when analyzed in terms of conversational structure, show that a change in code may be used to structure conversation.…”