Department of Languages, Literature & Linguistics

This chapter examines the pedagogical potential of immersive social virtual worlds (SVWs) in language teaching and learning. Recognizing the language learning affordances of immersive virtual environments, this research examines a study analyzing the beliefs and practices of ‘Karelia Kondor', an avatar-learner and teacher of languages with a decade of diverse experiences in Second Life (SL), one of the first widely used SVWs. Findings highlight the relevance of a hyper-immersive and emotionally engaging conceptual model informing language teaching approaches within these rapidly evolving environments. When supported pedagogically, the activities illustrated demonstrate the potential of these immersive approaches to create communities of practice and affinity spaces by fostering investment and autonomy in the language learning process through shared target language experiences. The chapter concludes with a summary of pedagogical insights to inform the use of these hyper-immersive...

This article shares pedagogical insights from a qualitative study examining the use of immersive social virtual worlds (SVWs) in language teaching and learning. Recognizing the language learning affordances of immersive virtual environments, this research examines the beliefs and practices of ‘Karelia Kondor,' an avatar-learner and teacher of languages with a decade of diverse experiences in Second Life (SL), one of the first widely used SVWs. Findings highlight the relevance of a hyper-immersive and emotionally engaging conceptual model informing language teaching approaches within these rapidly evolving environments. When supported pedagogically, the activities illustrated demonstrate the potential of these immersive approaches to create communities of practice and affinity spaces by fostering investment and autonomy in the language learning process through shared target language experiences. The article will conclude with a summary of pedagogical insights leveraging the affor...

The paper addresses how the notion of English as an international language (EIL) is reflected and how the culture of EIL is represented in an English education television program in South Korea. The English education channel that the program is broadcasted on is run by the Korean government and is established to support public English education. The paper examines the cultural representations of EIL embedded in the TV program through the lens of critical discourse analysis. The analysis of 26 episodes reveals that the program attempts to incorporate learners’ voices, culture, interests, and current global issues in various forms. The program also reflects the notion of multiliteracies through the use of various genres, texts, technological tools, two different languages, and various linguistic varieties. However, the dominance in the cultural and linguistic representations and intercultural interactions tend to reproduce unequal power relations between languages and cultures with re...

Despite the South Korean government’s recent policy interventions to accommodate the emerging social and classroom reality that has increasingly become multicultural, few guidelines have been provided for multicultural education practice at the local and municipal levels in South Korea (Henceforth, Korea). In particular, investigations focusing on newcomer adolescents’ linguistic and cultural identities are scarce. In this light, this doctoral inquiry investigates how multicultural students, their languages and cultures are reflected in Korean society and schools and especially, how newcomer adolescents’ linguistic and cultural identities are negotiated in terms of their own success in Korea. 8 multicultural education policies and 27 news media publications as well as the narratives of 7 students and 6 educators from two high schools are analyzed through Fairclough’s (1992, 2003) critical discourse analysis. Based on the analysis, the discourses of diversity embedded in the nation-s...

This editorial provides a brief introduction of the two new English co-editors of the CJNSE, Dr. Kirk Perris and James Corcoran, a positioning of graduate students as central in the expansion of educational research, and a brief description of two research studies, four position papers, and one literature review contained in this issue.

This editorial outlines the growing pressure on PhD students (emerging scholars) to publish articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as some of these scholars' writing for publication challenges in the field of Education. The editor suggests how the Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education (CJNSE) attempts to mitigate these writing for publication challenges through its mentored peer review process, and provides some suggestions to emerging scholars for overcoming these challenges.

This PPT provides information about a bilingual workshop offered for emerging scholars at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) conference in May 2015. The slides outline the role of the journal in mentoring emerging scholars' writing for publication and provide some tips for scholars seeking to publish in the field of Education.

Building on an piece I wrote for Contact in 2009 and linking to a presentation I will give at the TESL Ontario conference in November, this article outlines a research or evidence- based argument for (re) conceptualizing language teaching and learning and, in doing so, maximizing our plurilinguistic resources when teaching ESL. I hope that this article challenges readers to reflect upon how such a plurilinguistic conceptualization of language teaching and learning relates to their context-specific English language teaching (ELT) policies and practices.