School of Language and Culture
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The study of language, society and culture is at the core of the broad spectrum of knowledge known as the humanities. AUT's School of Language and Culture focuses on language in its widest sense — creative writing, English and its relationship with new media, translation and interpreting, international studies and the importance of intercultural competencies, discourse analysis and language teaching.
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- ItemIndigenising Infant and Toddler Pedagogy in Aotearoa New Zealand: A Samoan Pedagogical Framework for Pepe Meamea(The Early Childhood Team, Faculty of Education and Social Work, the University of Auckland, 2023-10-16) Matapo, Jacoba; Utumapu-McBride, Tafili; Tagoilelagi-Leota, Fa'asaulalaThis article presents findings and analysis of a two-year Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) study that involved cross-sector partnerships between Aoga Amata (Samoan early childhood centres) and English-medium early childhood education (ECE) centres. In the first year, the study engaged Samoan cultural experts, faiaoga (Samoan teachers), and Samoan researchers in the co-design and concep-tualisation of a Samoan pedagogical framework for teaching Samoan pepe meamea (infants and toddlers) in ECE in Aotearoa New Zealand. Six Aoga Amata (full immersion Samoan centres) co-designed the pepe meamea pedagogical framework in the first year. In the second year, English-medium ECE centres joined and partnered with Aoga Amata in cross-cultural mentoring relationships to employ the pepe meamea pedagogical framework to transform the way teachers work with Samoan infants and toddlers. The article presents the framework through five key ma’a tatāo (securing rocks/touchstones). This framework promotes the continuity of Samoan pepe meamea cultural wellbeing and belonging.
- ItemUsing Online Comments to Explore General Attitudes Towards Learning Mandarin Chinese as a Foreign Language in the UK(2023-07-05) Yu, ShanjiangDue to the impact of global English, theoretical research on the motivation of L2 learning in the past few decades has been dominated by studies involving learning English. Questions need to be asked as to what degree those results apply to the situation relating to other languages, especially non-European languages. Different from conventional studies, this explorative study sets out to investigate people's attitudes towards Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in the UK through public comments on a major media platform. Among the findings, the majority of comments are negative about CFL and the integrative/ intrinsic dimension is crucial. Language difficulty is not the main reason why people are not studying Chinese as it is widely believed. Among the specific factors, English being the global language is the biggest barrier. Based on this finding, it seems reasonable to argue that, for an emerging regional/ global language like Chinese, more attention should be given to integrative/ intrinsic motivation rather than instrumental benefit. Cultural and social-political factors are also discussed, and suggestions are made for more effective promotion of CFL as well as for other emerging languages.
- ItemDesigning for Diversity in Aotearoa / New Zealand Chinese Language Classrooms(SAGE Publications, 2023-04-18) Qi, GY; Sun, SYH; Carvalho, LThere has been an increased interest in teaching and learning Chinese language across many schools in Aotearoa / New Zealand (NZ). Chinese language teachers, particularly those new to the Aotearoa/NZ schools and education system, are confronted with (1) an educational environment that calls for learner-centred pedagogies and (2) an increasingly diverse classroom that requires these teachers to adopt pedagogical strategies that address and cater for diversity. In response to these needs, this article discusses a case study of a research-informed professional development (PD) workshop designed to support Chinese language teachers to (1) identify ways that diversity manifests in the Aotearoa/NZ classroom and (2) figure out how to design for learning whilst accounting for diversity in Aotearoa/NZ. The workshop promoted a discussion on diversity from an inclusive, heterogeneous perspective, and introduced teachers to contemporary conceptual ideas connected to ‘teaching-as-design’, and to the Activity-Centred Analysis and Design (ACAD) framework. Teachers (N = 19) were randomly assigned to groups of three to five. Groups were encouraged to collaborate on the design of learning tasks that incorporated TBLT (Task-Based Language Teaching) and addressed diversity in the classroom. Analysis of their design activities and produced artefacts reveals that teachers’ understanding of diversity comprised many characteristics, they held a positive attitude towards being responsive to diversity, and were able to experiment with new design concepts and ideas using the ACAD toolkit. In particular, teachers were able to successfully expand the design of their learning tasks to include social and material design elements to address learner diversity. Findings also reveal teachers’ emerging awareness of their dual role as facilitators and as teacher-designers.
- ItemTeaching and Testing Perception of Word Stress: Many Shades of Perception(Iowa State University Digital Press, 2022-09-19) Couper, GThe teaching and measurement of L2 learners' speech perception has generally focused on high variability phonetic training (HVPT) and phoneme identification tasks. However, it is also necessary to consider how the classroom teacher can assist with perception development. It is argued here that fundamentally,accurate perception requires understanding of the underlying phonological concepts and that once these concepts have been learned they can drive behaviour in both speech production and perception. Because there are many shades of understanding, it is of interest to go beyond a binary assessment of learners' perception. The results presented here are part of a larger project researching the teaching and evaluation of word-stress pronunciation that has been designed for replication. The first rendition found significant quantitative gains were made (Couper, 2022). However, this article discusses the qualitative aspects of the study, attempting to describe and interpret the various shades of conceptual understanding shown by the participants (N=18) and how this changed over time and after instruction. The implications for both researchers and teachers of a new way of testing perception, and the related classroom practices that this testing is designed to reflect, are explored.
- ItemBilingual Patient Navigator or Healthcare Interpreter: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter?(Taylor & Francis, 2019)A lot of studies have been conducted examining the roles of Patient Navigators in various healthcare settings. Little research is available to date on the roles of bilingual Patient Navigators. This article combines a comparative review of the literature around Patient Navigator roles with findings from a study examining the role of bilingual Patient Navigators at Seattle Children's Hospital.