We report on a study in which two primary school English Language teachers work with researchers to co-design a series of lessons to enhance student agency. 'Tinkering' through digital multimodal composing is used as a pedagogical approach. We reflect on the issues in balancing the student's agency with the teacher's role. Our study is guided by…

Existing studies are inconclusive about if and how children's stronger language can support target language instruction. This study analyzed 29 Malay language teachers' switching practices, reasons for switching, and perceptions of their Malay-English bilingual children's language preferences and needs, in Singaporean preschool classrooms. 5…

This article focuses on teaching critical literacy in the context of Singapore. It begins with a conceptualization of critical literacy as a stance oriented to questioning and challenging the often taken-for-granted meanings and assumptions found in "everyday" texts. It then discusses how this stance can be cultivated in students through…

This paper is about the questioning patterns of teachers in an early intervention reading program and the exceptions to this typical interactional pattern. Literacy experts recommend a rich diet of oral language for young learners of English literacy. Teachers offer this rich diet by creating an appropriate learning environment in the classroom…

"Jogi yuhak" (early study abroad) has become a prominent educational and linguistic investment strategy for middle-class Korean families to raise their children as global elites, allowing them to attain multilingual competence through transnational educational migration. Singapore, a newly emerging center of "jogi yuhak",…

To better comprehend how educational reforms and classroom practice interconnect, we need to understand the epistemic environments created for learning, as well as the pedagogical activities and the modes of classroom discourse related to these activities. This article examines how a particular innovation in English literacy, Strategies for…

Lesson transitions are important units for analysis not only for establishing the presence of group/pair work but also for examining the contextual conditions for small-group learning. Scholars have suggested that the "open" or "closed" contextual conditions set up through the teacher's use of language to introduce group/pair…

Research has demonstrated that popular culture often finds its way into classroom discourse, generally in the form of intertextual references that students make. As some scholars have shown, such allusions are often ignored. Even if they are validated, this does not happen in a systematic way that would exploit their full potential as a learning…

Classroom research has largely focused on an "instructional discourse" in local classroom contexts where teachers and students interact about subject knowledge. Few studies have been conducted, however, to examine "regulative discourse", which is the precondition for the transmission of subject knowledge. In this article,…

Effective teaching, among other things, can be seen as a series of orchestrated moves between different kinds and levels of knowledge, be they between personal, everyday and technical knowledge, between school knowledge and the world beyond, and between knowledge in different disciplines. This article is about bridging the gap between what…

To date, very few empirical studies can be found on primary, especially lower primary school pupils' use of language learner strategies. The few studies that exist often employ research techniques such as questionnaires and think-aloud protocols as studies on adults do. However, we know very little about whether the research methods commonly used…

The effects of attendance at linguistically and ethnically homogeneous schools on language motivation and ethnic attitude among preuniversity students learning English and Chinese in Singapore were investigated. Contrary to expectation, students from homogeneous secondary schools tended to be more positive in their ethnic attitude. (Contains 17…

Analyzes the two basal reader series used in the Singapore primary school for discrepancies in the treatment of male and female characters. Finds imbalances in the female/male ratio, in the amount of speech given to characters, and in role representation. (MG)

Examines the sociocultural context in Singapore to determine the existence of an examination culture there. Argues that an examination culture has important repercussions for the introduction and implementation of innovative practices into the education system. Examination focuses on the 1991 English-language syllabus and how the introduction of…

Describes and evaluates an undergraduate course in reading and writing across the curriculum at a university in Singapore, whose agenda was shaped by discourses on critical pedagogy and critical language awareness. Discusses the benefits and and limitations of a critical reading and writing program. (Author/VWL)