School of Language and Culture

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http://hdl.handle.net/10292/554
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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Now showing 1 - 5 of 75
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    Designing for Diversity in Aotearoa / New Zealand Chinese Language Classrooms
    (SAGE Publications, 2023-04-18) Qi, GY; Sun, SYH; Carvalho, L
    There 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.
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    Teaching and Testing Perception of Word Stress: Many Shades of Perception
    (Iowa State University Digital Press, 2022-09-19) Couper, G
    The 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.
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    Bilingual 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.
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    A Conceptual Approach to Teaching L2 Pronunciation: Perception of Word Stress
    (TESL-EJ Publications, ) Couper, G
    Research has demonstrated that pronunciation teaching can be effective, but there have been very few classroom-based studies that have focused on the perception aspect of pronunciation. This article explains the theory and practical application of a conceptual approach and reports on its impact on perception of English word stress. The quasi-experimental study (N=18) involved four fifty-minute lessons on stress in two-syllable words in a high-intermediate ESL class. The experimental (n=10) group was tested pre, post (mid-semester) and delayed (end-semester) and the comparison (n=8) group was tested twice before receiving the instruction in the second half of the semester and being tested again. In line with a conceptual approach, the innovative testing method used moves beyond traditional identification tasks in an attempt to measure changes in participants' conceptual understandings. The tests showed large and significant gains in perception, which were retained eight weeks later. The comparison group made no gains, but after instruction improved on a par with the experimental group. This study presents an effective way of teaching pronunciation concepts, supported by theory, that also leads to improvements in perception. It informs and provides a template for both teachers and researchers who may want to replicate the study.
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    Collaboration and Creativity During a Global Pandemic
    (Conference of Interpreter Trainers, 2020-12-21) Major, G; Crezee, I
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