Tag Archives: language

Best practices for supporting rapid language acquisition


Written by - Elena Kapshutar, Canada

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Introduction

Rapid progress in additional or foreign language learning, especially among adult learners, is often portrayed as rare or even accidental (Birdsong, 1999; Lengyel & Singleton, 1995). Some individuals appear to acquire a new language with surprising ease, while others struggle despite equal or greater effort. From a teaching perspective, however, this phenomenon is neither mysterious nor dependent on innate talent. Rapid acquisition occurs when learners engage with language in consistent, structured, and cognitively challenging ways, in other words, in conditions that educators can design and sustain.

Over fifteen years of working with adult learners, international students, professional language users, and teacher trainees, I have observed recurring patterns that accelerate progress. Six interconnected practices appear consistently effective: balancing extensive and intensive input;  Continue Reading →

Categories:
EAL, ESL, Language
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The linguistic competition and other sports


Written by - Diana Lombardi, Canada

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Fencing

The linguistic competition is what I like to refer to as fencing. The first round of fencing commences, and you are speared by the sword of your competitor. That sword is the primary language and the secondary language. In this case, English represents your sword that failed to draw in time. Your opponent wins, and the primary language scores a point. Your secondary language stood no chance, and you had no time to make contact with your opponent. The question is, how do we defend ourselves from this situation? And how can we use our own sword in such a way that it overtakes our opponent? There is overwhelming evidence that both languages in a bilingual’s repertoire are always active to some extent,  Continue Reading →

Categories:
ESL, Other, Reflection
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The language I love or my love language?


Written by - Kanika Verma, Canada

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कोस-कोस पर बदले पानी, चार कोस पर वाणी (Kos-kos par badle paani, chaar kos par vaani). The English translation of this famous Hindi idiom is: In India, the taste of water changes after every mile & language after every four miles. This rhyming poetic aphorism reflects the diversity of languages and dialects in India (Narayan, 2017), where citizens experience multilingualism almost unconsciously in their daily lives. I was born and raised in India, a country of 22 scheduled languages with official status (not including English), around 400 languages spoken by a million or more people each (Gopinath, 2023), and thousands of recognized dialects and identified mother tongues. Most children are multilingual before beginning primary school,  Continue Reading →

Categories:
culture, Identity, Language
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Spotlight — Shahriar Mirshahidi


Written by - An interview with Shahriar Mirshahidi

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Congratulations! You received the OCAD University Employee Equity Award. Talk to us a bit about that award and what it means to you.

I am deeply honored to receive the 2023 Employee Equity Award for my work as an English Language Learning Specialist at OCAD University’s English for Art & Design Program and the Writing & Learning Centre. This award highlights the importance of fostering an equitable, diverse, and inclusive learning and work environment, a mission I am passionately dedicated to. My commitment lies in empowering racialized and multilingual students by providing them with an equitable pedagogical space through amplifying their unique resources and knowledges. I advocate for translingual approaches to teaching English as an Additional Language and creating more accessible curricula that cater to multilingual students’ needs to ensure their success.  Continue Reading →

Categories:
communication, culture, Curriculum, EAL, EAP, ESL, Interview, Journal, Language, Research, Speaking, Spotlight
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An ESL immigrant teacher’s insight into languages


Written by - Lana F. Zeaiter, McGill University, Canada

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As a recent immigrant to Canada, I involuntarily find myself in between-situations, driven by a set of choices that diverge me away while preserving bits and pieces of my natural habitus (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977). As a native speaker of Arabic and an ESL teacher who mainly spoke English and French back home, I never realized how liberating it is to be given the choice to use Arabic, my mother tongue, until that choice was no longer an option. When I was still in Lebanon, I barely used Arabic, except with family and friends. Despite being one of the most complex languages to learn globally (Wahba et al., 2014), speaking Arabic is considered unprestigious in Lebanon. The Lebanese context clearly distinguishes between standard and prestigious languages.  Continue Reading →

Categories:
culture, ESL, Experiential, Identity, Language, Reflection, Teaching
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Critical literacy and counter-narratives: Disrupting power and enhancing inclusivity in the LINC classroom


Written by - Abir Hammoudi, OISE, University of Toronto, Canada

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Many immigrants come to Canada not understanding the long and complex history it has with its Indigenous people, colonization, residential school system, and the impact of this on Indigenous communities. As a result, many newcomers learn negative stereotypes about Indigenous people because of their representation in the media and literature. Therefore, there is a pressing need to educate ourselves and Canadian newcomers about the true Canadian history. It is important to examine it from different angles and a “need to learn to read again the exhibition of the world, to see the display of the civilized and the primitive” (Willinsky, 1998, p. 86) as history topics have only ever been taught from one point of view of the majority group.  Continue Reading →

Categories:
culture, Curriculum, ESL, Literacy, Materials, pedagogy, Research, Teaching, TED
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English as a lingua franca: Reverting the school system back to a monolingual ideology—Why it’s dangerous and how to move toward a plurilingual ideology


Written by - By Ivana Stanisavljevic, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, Canada

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Introduction
English is the most widely spoken language in the world. It is the most commonly taught, learned, and used L2 worldwide. English is sought out as a valuable commodity. Parents want their children to learn it because of potential job and personal gains, and people worldwide seek to learn it for these exact reasons. It reigns supreme within the seemingly invisible pyramid of languages. English is king. As a lingua franca, it is the dominant language of international business, science, and technology (Lüdi et al., 2010, p. 57). Whatever the context, the rule of thumb seems to be, “When in doubt or when in a communicative bind, resort to speaking English.” Tourists who visit foreign countries can rest assured that they will be understood if they have knowledge of English.  Continue Reading →

Categories:
ESL, lingua franca, Plurilingualism, Uncategorised
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