The aim of the project is to:

• provide opportunities for trainee teachers to learn from, and work with, effective teachers and practitioners on the teaching, learning and assessment of EAL pupils
• provide excellent modelling of professional practice, and
• help trainees to plan for, and support, progress in EAL through, for example, subjects and main stream teaching, one to one tuition and small group teaching.

http://www.naldic.org.uk/eal-advocacy/eal-news-summary/nn081111

I am currently leading one of the projects (The Secondary School EAL Project) at Goldsmiths, University of London linked with 3 mainstream secondary schools and 2 complementary schools.

The Secondary School EAL Project aims to build stronger links between the teaching of English, Languages and EAL to develop the knowledge and professional practice of trainees and teachers in preparing them to work with the range of EAL learners in their classes. There is a focus on language development for EAL learners at KS3 and this was initiated by a whole day cross-curricular session as part of the university-based course in January 2012. In this session, trainees were given the opportunity to discuss the pedagogy of their own subject and raise questions about the teaching of language from different perspectives as a first, additional, and foreign language.

Schools’ involvement in the project will lead to greater awareness of exactly how to monitor, support and assess EAL learners’ language development within the curriculum and lead to a more coherent approach towards language and literacy support for these pupils. In creating conversations across these disciplines, teachers will be able to develop a more comprehensive language pedagogy for all pupils, but particularly EAL learners. This project also aims to enable schools to develop identification processes that are more inclusive of gifted and talented EAL learners and recognise pupils that use effective language learning strategies.

I will report on the project in a later blog and share some of the key findings from the Secondary School EAL Project.

1. Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, Cardiff University, 23 – 24 June, 2011

http://www.caerdydd.ac.uk/encap//newsandevents/events/conferences/alapp/alapp2011detailprog.pdf

This was the first interdisciplinary conference for applied linguistics and there was an interesting range of papers from researchers working in varied fields such as health, law, religion and education. Some researchers employed multimodal analysis and showed how video footage could reveal the situational complexity of habituated practices. For example, in his plenary session, Rick Iedema (University of Technology Sydney, Australia) looked at Designing the cross-professional interface: The ambulance-to-emergency communication protocol. Other papers included research into interpreter strategies and modes of interpreting in court and investigated complex ethical challenges in terms of disclosure and ‘the interviewee’s right to lie!’ (Isabella Perez). In looking at the cross-institutional communication of research, Simon Pardoe raised questions about how applied linguists can contribute to the dissemination of research in a paper Collaborating in the cross-institutional communication of research insight: the challenge of informing reflective practice. A fascinating area of research that was presented at the conference was a paper investigating gendered identities in the National Assembly for Wales (Sylvia Shaw). There was also some interesting research analysing classroom discourse and the role of teaching assistants (Julia Radford).

In conversation at the conference I discovered a useful resource available to educators working in the field of language and literacy – Literacies for Learning (Simon Pardoe and Roz Ivanic):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Literacies-Learning-Further-Education-booklet/dp/1862202001

2. New Methods for New Literacies, University of Sheffield, 8 – 9 July, 2011

http://www.shef.ac.uk/content/1/c6/10/78/15/poster2011.pdf

This was an excellent conference that brought together researchers who are carrying out key work in the field of new literacies. One of the plenary speakers (Bronwyn Williams, University of Louisville) discussed The World on Your Screen: Literacy and Popular Culture in a Networked World and David Barton (University of Lancaster) spoke about Ways of researching the internet in a mobile world. In these discussions there was a move away from talking about boundaries to talking about the flow of languages and learning and a view of literacies that aid, impede, shape and interrupt global flows. A paper was presented on a multiliteracies pedagogy for teacher professional development in Bangladesh (Christopher Walsh, Open University) and Margaret Mackay (University of Alberta) drew fascinating connections between old and new literacies in her paper on an auto-bibliographic project.

Metaphor is fundamental to how language systems develop over time and the way they are structured. Sylvia Plath wrote a poem entitled ‘Metaphors’ that is structured with 9 syllables in each line, 9 lines, and 9 metaphors. The poem draws on many different images of pregnancy and starts with these lines:

‘I’m a riddle in nine syllables,

An elephant, a ponderous house,

A melon strolling on two tendrils’.

Metaphors make our thoughts more interesting, but they also structure our perceptions and understanding. In a recent visit to an East London school a class of 12 – 13 year olds were studying extended metaphor and at the end of the lesson one of the girls showed her understanding of the current political climate. She came up with this metaphor:

Education is a tree which at some point in its life will be cut.

Researchers have argued that everyday language is rich in metaphor. Lynne Cameron (1999) in a chapter on operationalising ‘metaphor’ for applied linguistic research looks into applied linguistic metaphor theory.

Metaphor is viewed in terms of ‘language in use’ and there is a focus on how language is interconnected with thought and action. In this type of metaphor research, the language users become an important part of the overall picture and interpretation.

A useful text to refer back to is Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). The authors give the example of a conceptual metaphor such as ‘argument is war’ and give examples from everyday language such as ‘he shot down all of my arguments’. They then imagine a culture where an argument is viewed as a dance and all the different imagery that this would produce.

Metaphor is a rich area of study in language and culture and the work of applied linguists.

Teacher education is also under revision and the Schools White Paper 2010 outlines a range of proposals. It is interesting to compare these proposals with the earlier ‘Green Paper on Teacher Education’ (2000) that recognises the importance of educational research and Masters Level study within initial teacher education and partnership between schools and universities.

NALDIC (National Association of Language Development in the Curriculum) has issued a response to the Schools White Paper. There is a growing fear that the expertise of academics in the field of Applied Linguistics will be lost to teachers if there is a major shift to training in schools. In the section on ‘Teaching and Leadership’ it is noted that ‘EAL is a specialist subject within the field of applied linguistics. This means that to enter the profession should require academic study and qualification at higher education level’.

There is need for education reform in England to focus on language policies and practices for EAL learners, in line with developments across many other countries in Europe.

As a result of presenting a paper at this international conference, I was commissioned to write an article for the Linguist ‘Siblings: help or hindrance?’ The Linguist, Vol. 43, No. 2, April-May 2004: http://linguistonline.co.uk/

The research opened up new ground on exactly how siblings shift the language balance in the home and build bridges or barriers to language acquisition. In an article for the international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, I presented further aspects of the study. I looked at whether parents are able to promote both languages due to cross-cultural experiences of siblings in the home and community and if there are additional issues where there is a single parent with the minority language. The article is entitled ‘How do siblings shape the language environment in bilingual families?’ International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Vol. 12, Issue 6, 2009’ and details can be accessed at this website.

An exciting new book has just been published in this area of research. It raises many questions about bilingual siblings’ language usage and draws on data from over 100 international families. In the reviews of the book it is described as a ‘must-read for anyone interested in bilingual and multilingual families’ and praised for its significance in ‘highlighting an under-researched area of bilingualism research’.  The book Bilingual Siblings (2011) is written by Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert who independently researches bilingual families and their language patterns. I first met Suzanne at the symposium on bilingualism in Vigo (2002) after giving my paper on bilingual siblings and so it is great to see that she has written this insightful and informative book on the subject. Details of her book can be found here.

This year there is an exciting new development in the area of applied linguistics with the relaunch of this journal as the Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice. The new title for the journal aims to illustrate the expansion and development in the field of applied linguistics from a mainly educational base (although this will remain a strong focus) to research and practice in other professional areas such as journalism, healthcare, counselling, business translating and interpreting. This new journal will actively promote and critique applied linguistics as professional practice and encourage debate around key themes and methodological approaches. You can access the site for the new journal.

The first interdisciplinary conference for ‘Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice’ will be held at Cardiff University (23 – 24 June, 2011). There is a special focus on ‘cross-boundary collaboration and translation of research findings to ensure impact’. The details of the conference can be found at this website.

This is an inaugural conference linking with the relaunch of the applied linguistics journal as the Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice.