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Posts
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portfolio
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publications
Contextualization and authenticity in TBLT: Voices from Chinese classrooms
Published in Language Teaching Research, 2017
In view of ongoing debates about the future of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in contexts of English as a foreign language (EFL), we present a detailed case study of teacher beliefs and practices regarding TBLT conducted in a secondary school in mainland China with a long history of communicative and task-based teaching approaches. We used a mixed-methods approach to gather a broad range of triangulated data, combining individual interviews, material analysis and observations coded using a novel task-focused version of the scheme ‘Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching’ (COLT). Quantitative and qualitative findings revealed positive beliefs about TBLT principles in general, reflecting strong institutional support for communicative teaching. However, there was marked variability between beliefs and practices in using tasks, especially with beginner-level learners. Most teachers demonstrated an intrinsic lack of confidence in using tasks as more than a communicative ‘add-on’ to standard form-focused teaching. We argue that this demonstrates a need for building teacher autonomy, in implementing TBLT, even in supportive settings, to support successful authentic contextualizing TBLT principles in different EFL contexts.
Recommended citation: Chen, Q & Wright, C. (2017). "Contextualization and authenticity in TBLT: Voices from Chinese classrooms." Language Teaching Research. 21(4). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362168816639985
Language policy in the internationalisation of Higher Education in Anglophone countries: The interplay between language policy as ‘text’, ‘discourse’ and ‘practice’
Published in Applied Linguistics Review, 2020
In order to better compete in an increasing neoliberalised education system, many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have developed an internationalisation strategy that aims at incorporating an intercultural and global dimension into curricula and learning environments for all. This internationalisation agenda raises important language policy issues that are often side-lined in the UK and other Anglophone countries where an English monolingual ethos prevails. Centrally, the question arises indeed as to whether internationalisation processes have an impact on HEIs’ language policies in Anglophone countries. This paper takes the case of a Russell Group University in the UK and focuses on two masters programmes that attract annually a ‘multilingual elite’ (Barakos and Selleck 2019). It examines the institution’s language policy adopted at the levels of ‘texts’, ‘discourses’ and ‘practices’ (Bonacina-Pugh 2012), using a critical discourse analysis of policy documents and a conversation analysis of classroom in- teractions. We argue that language policy is at the core of HEIs’ internationalisa- tion processes even in Anglophone countries and that, methodologically, the articulation of findings from critical discourse and conversational analyses rep- resents a step forward in the field of language policy.
Recommended citation: Bonacina-pugh, F., Barakos, E., & Chen, Q. (2020). "Language policy in the internationalisation of Higher Education in Anglophone countries : The interplay between language policy as ‘ text ’ , ‘ discourse ’ and ‘ practice ’." Applied Linguistics Review. ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2019-0148
Speakership, recipiency and the interactional space: Cases of “Next-speaker self-selects” in multiparty university student meetings
Published in Journal of Pragmatics, 2021
This paper addresses the pragmatics of meeting interactions by focusing on a locally managed turn-taking system in a recurring meeting activity that is yet to be examined, namely, roundtable update discussion. In these activities, a meeting chair appoints primary speakership to each participant to give an update on recent work, during which non-chair, non-primary co-participants may contribute ideas and raise questions. By examining a collection of four cases of one specific turn-taking practicev, namely, next speaker self- selection, this study illustrates: 1) how the static, seated interactional space affords a non-chair, non-primary participant various multimodal resources in pursuing and con- structing his/her self-selecting actions, and 2) how co-participants mobilise the multi- modal resources that are made available by the physical seating arrangements in the local ecologies of the activity, to carry out mutual monitoring and orientation in accordance with their emerging roles. Particularly, this study explores the systematicity of partici- pants’ mobilisation of multimodal resources by revealing the hierarchical order of gaze/ head movements, upper torso and gesture when deployed in side-by-side and face-to-face seating arrangements. Such an explication shed new lights on how visual access in- between incipient self-selecting speakers and current speakers is exploited as a publicly-available resource to contextualise the operation of turn-taking.
Recommended citation: Chen, Q. & Brandt, A. (2020). "Speakership, recipiency and the interactional space: Cases of “Next-speaker self-selects” in multiparty university student meetings" Journal of Pragmatics. 180, 54–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.04.012
Spotlights on ‘practiced language policy’ in the internationalised university (book chapter)
Published in Meaningful Teaching Interaction at the Internationalised University: From Research to Impact, 2021
Universities in the UK are often adopting ‘internationalisation strategies’ to adapt to the continuous transnational movements of staff and students. As a result, multilingualism is now a key characteristic of higher education in the UK. However, UK universities being traditionally shaped by English monolingual discourses and English as a medium of instruction, little is known as to whether the ethnolinguistic diversity of staff and students is reflected in daily teaching and learning activities. This paper takes the case of two taught Masters programmes in a UK university where there is a high percentage of international students, especially from mainland China. As part of a larger project on the investigation of language policy in the multilingual university (Bonacina-Pugh, Barakos and Chen, 2020), this study aims to shed light on the ‘practiced’ language policy (Bonacina-Pugh, 2012, 2020) observed in a corpus of audio-recorded classroom interaction. Taking a Conversation Analytic approach with a focus on language choice acts and shifts of participation frameworks conducted by teacher and students in classroom interaction, our study reveals how languages other than English (e.g., Mandarin) were used and legitimised by a ‘practiced’ language policy developed at the local level of the classroom and supports students’ learning.
Recommended citation: Chen, Q and Bonacina-Pugh, F. (2021). "Spotlights on the ’practiced language policy’ in the international university. " in Dippold, D. and Heron, M. (eds) in Meaningful Teaching Interaction at the Internationalised University: From Research to Impact. Routledge.
talks
How can Task-based Language Teaching be adapted in EFL contexts ? A case study in China
Published:
As we entered the ‘post-method’ era, a non-doctrinaire approach to the task-based method (TBLT) is increasingly supported, especially by voices from EFL contexts; it combines the context-free features of TBLT with contextual adaptations to local constraints and needs. Taking such a stance, the present case study seeks to uncover the actual teaching practice and teacher beliefs of a group of English teachers in a private secondary school in Zhejiang, China, where a communicative approach is encouraged. The study provides insights into teachers perceive and enact TBLT in local settings, and contributes to the under-developed area of classroom-based empirical studies on TBLT in mainland China.
Embodied Participation in University Student Meetings
Published:
Despite a large existing body of research on school and language classroom interactions, much more is yet to be discovered on how university students interact with each other and participate in learning in higher education contexts (Benwell & Stokoe 2002). To gain a fuller picture of how participation is organised by tutors and students in university small group teaching (SGT) talk and unfold the reflexive relationship between the on-going talk and the organisation of multi-party collaborative participation frameworks (Goodwin 2007), the present study analyses video/audio recordings of peer-group and tutor-led SGT sessions across disciplines in the 1,000,000-word (approx. 120 hours) corpus named NUCASE (Newcastle University Corpus of Academic Spoken English).
Exploring Embodied Interaction beyond Text
Published:
Undeniably, all human interaction is multimodal in nature and both vocal and bodily-visual elements are central to meaning-making. In recent decades, most corpus-based studies of language and communication have focused on linguistic analyses of texts (Adolphs & Carter, 2007). Further, although conversation analytic studies since the 1980s has addressed the importance of visual modalities (e.g. eye-gaze, gesture, body positioning) in social interaction, we still know little about their sequentiality and position in talk-in-interaction, especially ‘how different modalities play together to perform recognisable social practice’ (Mortensen, 2012).
Speaker Transitions and the Interactional Space: a Multimodal CA Analysis on University Student Meetings
Published:
Drawing upon video- and audio-recordings of group meetings conducted by architecture undergraduate students from the Newcastle University Corpus of Academic English (NUCASE) (Walsh, 2014), the current study aims at investigating the academic competences of university students to participate in multiparty group meetings. In particular, inspired by Kendon’s (1990) notion of transactional segment and Sacks and Schegloff’s (Sacks & Schegloff, 2002; Schegloff, 1998) idea of ‘body torque’ and ‘home position’, a sequential multimodal analysis was carried out to examine and compare cases of speaker transition in which speakers are seated at different positions around the squared desks, particularly to see how they manage to establish mutual orientation or enable mutual monitoring. It was shown that participants rely on different multimodal resources (e.g., body torque, inclination, gaze) available at different seating positions, and such resources were deployed to constitute, maintain or mobilise shared interactional space at different stages of their sequential actions.
Interactional Competence: What can we tell from collaborative speaker transitions in multiparty university student meetings?
Published:
The concept of interactional competence (IC) has been examined increasingly within the framework of CA (e.g., Kasper, 2009), especially beyond the boundaries of second/foreign language settings in the last decade (e.g., Hall, 2011; Okada, 2013). This extending body of research on IC has started to overlap with the growing body of research on multimodal L1 interaction (e.g., Ford & Stickle, 2012; Goodwin, 2007; Mondada, 2009), with a common interest on how multimodal resources are configured by participants to accomplish social actions collaboratively and co-ordinately. The present study lies at this intersection and attempts to provide both fields with empirical data from an educational and institutional setting, that is, university student group meetings. Drawing upon video- and audio-recordings ten hours of meetings of a group of naval architecture undergraduate students from the Newcastle University Corpus of Academic English (NUCASE) (Walsh, 2014), the current study aims at investigating the professional and academic IC(s) of university students to participate in multiparty group meetings.
Spotlights on the ‘practiced language policy’ in the international university: a case study of multilingual interaction in higher education
Published:
Higher Educational institutions in the UK, and universities in particular, are often adopting ‘internationalisation strategies’ to adapt to the continuous transnational movements of their staff and students. As a result, multilingualism is now a key characteristic of higher education in the UK. However, UK universities being traditionally shaped by English monolingual discourses and English as a medium of instruction, little is known as to whether the ethnolinguistic diversity of staff and students is reflected in day to day teaching and learning activities.
teaching
Teaching Assistant in Applied Linguistics and TESOL
postgraduate teaching, Newcastle University, School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, 2012
During 09.2012 - 06.2015, I worked as a Teaching Assistant contributing to the MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL programme at Newcastle University, and taught:
Associate Tutor in TESOL and Language Education
postgraduate teaching, University of Edinburgh, Moray House School of Education and Sports, 2019
I joined Moray House School of Education and Sports since 03.2019, contributing to the two postgraduate taught programmes of MSc TESOL and MSc Language Education, and have taught:
Visiting Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and TESOL
postgraduate teaching, Newcastle University, School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, 2020
I work as a dissertation supervisor contributing to the MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL programme, and am supervising various research topics including study abroad and language learner identity, L1 use in the language classroom, language teaching approaches, etc.