Now showing 1 - 10 of 74
  • Publication
    Open Access
    Multicultural texts in contexts: Comparing the use of multicultural texts in the literature classroom in the United States and Singapore
    (2008-07)
    The need to bring culturally relevant material into English Literature classrooms has long been considered important from academic and intellectual as well as societal and personal perspectives. More recently, scholarship and educational policies are encouraging the use of "multicultural" texts that reflect the polyphony of voices in the world as being culturally relevant, and having the potential to engage students in fertile discussion about their identity and the world around them.
    This paper takes a close look at scholarship, research, policy and practice in the U.S. and Singapore in the last 20 years, and gives insights into how practice is being contextualized in both countries. While certain terminology seem to be the same, close examination of the data show that there are notable differences in scholarship, policy, and practice in both countries. Particularly important to this discussion is the notion of what counts as "multicultural" and how that has impacted upon curriculum choice and instruction.
      161  413
  • Publication
    Open Access
    Report on the reading habits of bilingual children in Singapore 2021
    (National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University (NIE NTU), Singapore, 2021) ; ;
    Leisure reading has been consistently shown to be closely related to children's success during school years and beyond (Iyengar & Ball, 2007; Sullivan & Brown, 2015). Research has also shown that good reading habits can lead to better reading achievement (Clark & De Zoysa, 2011, PIRLS, 2006, 2011, 2016). In light of the proven benefits of leisure reading, language curricula in many education systems, including Singapore, are paying increasing attention to nurture children's love for reading, and large-scale national surveys have been carried out to understand how children practise and perceive reading. The bulk of extant research, however, fail to take account of the potential heterogeneity of participants' language backgrounds, instead focusing exclusively on English or on the schooling language of the research setting (e.g., Loh & Sun, 2018a; National Endowment for the Arts, 2007; Rutherford, Merga, & Singleton, 2018; Zasacka, 2014). Relatively little research has taken a holistic approach to examine bilingual children's reading habits and preferences in their two languages concurrently. Building on an ongoing SUG project, the proposed study aims to conduct a mixed methods study to better understand Singaporean bilingual children's reading habits and preferences in English and their respective Mother Tongue languages. Results from the survey will not only provide important and timely understanding of how bilingual children in Singapore practise leisure reading in their two languages, but also contribute to the knowledge base for designing and evaluating reading programmes as well as tracking down changes in bilingual children's reading habits and preferences.
      494  546
  • Publication
    Open Access
    Making space in the library: Considerations for design and furniture choices to support student wellbeing
    (School Library Association of Victoria, 2023)

    Chin Ee Loh, Associate Professor and Deputy Head (Research) at the English Language and Literature Academic Group at the National Institute of Education of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, explores the ways the library space can support reading, student wellbeing and learning.

      48  16
  • Publication
    Metadata only
    Print matters: How physical books still matter in a digital world
    (School Library Association of Victoria, 2023)
    With the improvement in reading technology and greater access to devices, the perennial question that haunts policymakers and educators is whether print is still relevant in today’s educational context. Furthermore, with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 study reporting that teens read less and enjoy reading less compared to previous cohorts, it is vital to consider whether print or digital books can better engage our students in reading for pleasure (OECD, 2019).In this article, I explain why print still matters and how it matters to cultivate students’ reading for pleasure.
      9
  • Publication
    Open Access
    Reading the word and the world: Critically and culturally reflexive conversations in the LangLit classroom
    (2010-02)
    Reading does not merely consist of decoding the written word or language; rather, it is preceded and intertwined with knowledge of the world. Language and reality are dynamically interconnected. The understanding attained by a critical reading of a text implies perceiving the relationship between text and context. (Freire & Macedo, 1987, p. 29)
    This chapter discusses how literature can be used in the langlit classroom towards learning about language and the world. Literary texts are rich sources for conversations about culturally relevant issues (Applebee, 1996), and if well-chosen, can become discursive spaces for thinking and talking about what is critical and meaningful in today’s world. I argue that literary texts are rich sources for learning how to read the word and the world (Freire, 1991; Freire & Macedo, 1987), and that it is important to teach students to read in what I term a critically and culturally reflexive manner. I then use Tan Hwee Hwee’s (2007) Mid-Autumn, a short story from Island Voices: A Collection of Short Stories from Singapore (Poon & Sim, 2007) to illustrate how awareness of language and worldviews can provide a framework for thinking about the use of literature in the language classroom.
      172  538
  • Publication
    Embargo
    Not just reading the romance at: Adolescent girls’ reading Korean Manhwa
    (Taylor & Francis, 2024) ;
    Nur Fitri Shazwini Rosli
    ;
    Maya Ziqing Krishnan
    Portable mobile technologies and high-speed access to the internet has led to the development of new online-first reading materials such as Korean Manhwa or webtoons, designed for quick consumption on mobile devices. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 11 adolescent girls aged 14 to 15 years old, this study examines why and how adolescents read Manhwa, especially romances. Findings show that these girls read for entertainment and to escape from reality. Strong visual aesthetics, relatable characters and engaging storylines, driven by technological infrastructures encouraging continual engagement, support these adolescents’ immersion in online storyworlds. Their engagement with these texts allowed the girls as readers to discover self as reader and person, negotiating multifaceted aspects of their working, moral and romantic lives as they envision present and future possibilities.
      74  11
  • Publication
    Open Access
    Cultural capital, habitus and reading futures: Middle-class adolescent students’ cultivation of reading dispositions in Singapore
    (Taylor & Francis, 2020) ;
    The acquisition of cultural capital can only be understood in the light of the formation of habitus, including the socialisation process, and in the context of the field in which any such capital has value. Yet, the relation between cultural capital and habitus is seldom discussed in research. Drawing on the data from focus groups with 96 students and a survey of 5,779 students from six Singapore secondary schools, we analyze how reading as a form of cultural capital is distributed among High-SES, Mid-SES and Low-SES students in Singapore. We show how middle-class practices of intensive immersion in school-valued reading practices is a form of habitus that prepare some students better than others for engaged reading. The findings highlight how reading as a form of cultural capital is operationalized through students’ familial habitus and argues that making visible familial habitus provides insights for transforming institutional habitus for students’ reading futures.
    WOS© Citations 20Scopus© Citations 26  300  1357
  • Publication
    Restricted
    Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment System (CoDiAS) for Singapore’s secondary schools: Toward individualized learning and assessment in language education
    (Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore, 2023) ;
    To date, several computerized diagnostic systems have been developed. These systems are limited in their feedback delivery and assessment scopes as well as in the delivery of remedial programs. For example, the Diagnostic English Language Needs Assessment (DELNA) developed by the University of Auckland and the Diagnostic English Language Assessment (DELA) designed by the University of Melbourne function primarily like placement tests where feedback is delivered to the learners but the tests aim to place students in different language learning programs (of course, one could argue that this is the treatment that follows the diagnosis, albeit not highly differentiated at the individual level.). Similarly, the Diagnostic English Language Tracking Assessment (DELTA) designed by Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Diagnostic Language Assessment (DIALANG) produced by Lancaster University provide feedback to learners but without specifying skill mastery profiles, differentiated remedial programs, or actionable plans (Harding, Alderson, & Brunfaut, 2015). These systems are also limited by their inability to provide fine-grained information on learners’ growth over time.
      17  51