ERIC Number: EJ1150274
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0958-8221
EISSN: N/A
Exploring the Fluid Online Identities of Language Teachers and Adolescent Language Learners
del Rosal, Karla; Conry, Jillian; Wu, Sumei
Computer Assisted Language Learning, v30 n5 p390-408 2017
Due to demographic changes, there is a growing number of adolescent students who learn in classrooms in which their teacher and peers come from cultural and linguistic backgrounds that are different from theirs. In these diverse classrooms, teachers need to be able to facilitate language learning spaces that are welcoming for all children, regardless of their backgrounds. Considering this need, the purpose of this study is to examine how 11 teachers, acting as language mentors of 11 high school English learners, demonstrated intercultural communication and cultural responsiveness during their participation in a 10-week telecollaboration project. To this end, online interactions and the teacher mentors' weekly reflection journals were analyzed. From these analyses, three highly productive relationships were selected and their interactions were analyzed to better understand teachers' approaches to intercultural communication and cultural responsiveness and the role that the identities of teachers and students displayed in both processes. The study findings show that teachers who displayed an online identity as friends or as joint learners offered student mentees the opportunity to lead the conversation, to be recognized as they wanted to be recognized online, and to participate in learning tasks that reflected and engaged them. This study highlights the different needs of adolescent English learners, the complexity of their identities, and the importance of English teachers' dispositions to be humble and open to learn about both.
Descriptors: Language Teachers, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Self Concept, Intercultural Communication, Cultural Awareness, Role, Computer Mediated Communication, High School Students, Secondary School Students, Teacher Student Relationship, English (Second Language), Cultural Differences, Mentors, Diaries, Teacher Attitudes, Task Analysis, Teacher Education, Case Studies, Urban Universities, Masters Programs, Program Descriptions, Culturally Relevant Education, Teaching Methods
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A