Cheung, Yin Ling

Most of the existing studies on academic writing were conducted in ESL/EFL university settings. Further research targeted at other educational settings such as primary schools, which are quite different from the university settings previously studied, for students in different stages of their studies, will advance our understanding of student writing broadly. In 2016, the Journal of Second Language Writing will devote an entire issue to English language writing in elementary classrooms across contexts, calling for studies to address the difficulties that young students face in their learning, as well as the kind of support they do or should receive during classes. Therefore, research that investigates how English language writing is taught in primary school classrooms, outside of EFL/ESL contexts, is of much current interest, but sufficient existing knowledge is still lacking. The present study will fill this research gap identified. A further rationale for understanding the teaching of English language writing at the primary school level is that existing studies in Singapore do not explicate the effect of explicit writing instruction on primary school students in genres other than argumentative essays. To the best of our knowledge, there have been only two studies (Koh, 2002; Neo, 2004) that yielded empirical data on the English language writing of primary school children in Singapore. The proposed research will contribute to addressing these observations raised specifically for the weaker learners. A starting point of the proposed research is to analyse and document how primary English language teachers in Singapore teach writing in traditional writing classes. In particular, we seek to understand how different genres of writing are taught in English language writing classes in a Singapore primary school. Extensive classroom observation data will be collected to support this analysis. Another goal of the proposed research is to design and implement a writing programme based on a socio-cognitive approach. We will test the advantages of this approach relative to the traditional teaching methods, by identifying and understanding how it may impact the quality of writing produced by underachievers in the primary school. Based on the classroom observation data collected about the traditional teaching methods, we will design and implement writing tasks for the intervention programme that are relevant to the students' lives and socio-cultural environment. The results will yield findings that are likely generalizable across English language writing classrooms, thereby helping students who are struggling generally with the learning of writing and compositions.

The paper draws on two drama series in Asia and demonstrates that stu-dying issues related to gender roles and equality through popular historical Asian drama series is both challenging and fruitful. The present study not only illustrates the complexity involved in studying gender roles and gender equality, but also su-ggests several teaching pedagogies. Looking at gender roles and equality from a his-torical perspective and employing a comparative analysis of the past and present can help students assess whether gender roles and equality have remained the same or evolved in the Asian context. Critical literacy enables the broadening of perspectives when taking into consideration the gender roles adopted by the various characters to survive in the complex world. Critical literacy, pedagogies of affect as well as pe-dagogies of invitation and transformation can be utilized to examine how performing assigned gender roles can result in favouritism, which may in turn lead to atrocities. The implications of the study may be applicable to contexts outside Asia.

Besides enhancing Persian academic reading, in an English only research world, Persian academic stakeholders have to master English and/or Persian academic writing to disseminate findings globally to members of different disciplinary communities through Persian and English language as a lingua franca. This chapter uses the method of qualitative meta-synthesis of 40 empirical studies specifically on academic writing in Persian in refereed journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings published during the period of 2005–2020. An inductive approach to thematic analysis synthesizes (a) the theoretical models for researching Academic Persian in academic writing and (b) the similarities and differences between academic writers from Persian and English for different disciplines. Theoretically and pedagogically, the findings from the comparisons and the systematic content analysis following Sandelowski et al. (Res Nurs Health 20:365–371. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098-240X(199708)20:4<365

This chapter synthesizes eighteen reflections on language teacher identity research through the analytic framework of pragmatistic, critical, hermeneutic and phenomenological approaches and perspectives. These eighteen applied linguistics scholars from Spain, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Austria, Slovakia, New Zealand, Brazil, Columbia, Iceland, Finland, South Korea, Japan, China and Singapore examine the substance of second language teacher identity research on a topic that has witnessed an exponential growth of interest among ELT / TESOL researchers from the applied linguists’ perspective. In reflecting on one’s identity as a language teacher/applied linguist through the framework of four approaches and perspectives, the chapter covers the following areas: definition of language teacher identity, the impact of social, cultural, and political factors in influencing the construction of teacher identity, the relevance of second language teacher identity in one’s specialized field, and future directions for teacher identity research in various specializations in applied linguistics. This chapter will inform second language teachers, teacher educators and researchers not only in Asia, but also globally, of second language teacher identity as a dynamic concept that can be changed and developed, subject to cultural, social, contextual, and political situations.

Through a qualitative meta-synthesis literature review, this chapter examines how non-native language teacher identity across different theoretical conceptions and developmental stages, both novice and experienced, and at elementary, secondary, and university levels, are negotiated through a qualitative meta-synthesis of 35 refereed book chapters and research papers published in international refereed journals between 2004 and 2019. The first half of the chapter examines theories and conceptual foundations that have guided existing research on non-native language teacher identity across different developmental stages to link to issues related to intersections of non-native English language teacher (NNEST) identity and language teaching. The second half of the chapter looks at the application of findings in terms of advocacy issues and pedagogical practices for non-native English teachers and future research to inform English language teachers, teacher-educators, and researchers across elementary, secondary, and university settings.

This research investigates how elementary teachers mediate the learning of writing through a socio-cognitive approach. The study reveals how in effective instructions for writing development, teachers can build narrative knowledge in a socio-cognitive approach through these types of instructional scaffolding: explicit outcomes and expectations, modelling, bridging, contextualizing, schema building, re-presenting text and developing metacognition. The study also illustrates through examples, the use of the instructional scaffolding functions by two teachers mediating between students’ current knowledge levels in writing in English and the requisite expert understandings of the narrative genre in actual classroom practice. The adapted instructional scaffolding functions proposed in this article enrich the field of learning and teaching of writing by providing a means for teachers to mediate the learning of writing. The study also highlights the value of qualitative interpretive approaches in contributing to the domain of pedagogical approaches in writing for elementary students.