Melbourne Graduate School of Education Language and Literacy Education

LALE 2009 Events

All seminars will be held in the Frank Tate Room, Ground Level, Alice Hoy Building between 1:00pm - 2:30pm. For further details about any of seminars listed above, please contact Emma Brimfield: e.brimfield@unimelb.edu.au

_____________________________________________________________________
16 October - Seminar: 'Families and literacy development in South Africa', Snoeks Desmond

Abstract:

Only 16% of young children in South Africa attend a registered early childhood development centre. Snoeks Desmond will present and discuss programmes aiming to support the 84%, especially those young children who are poor and vulnerable. Influences on the approach of one of the interventions, the Family Literacy Project, KwaZulu Natal, will be explored. It is hoped that there will be discussion with participants and suggestions for improving practice in the development of early literacy skills.

Biographical Note:

Snoeks Desmond has worked in the early childhood development sector in England and her home country, South Africa. She was for five years director of an ECD resource and training organisation serving rural communities, and for eight years was the founding director of the Family Literacy Project. She has presented papers on family literacy in South Africa and internationally and is co-editor of Family Literacy: Experiences from Africa and around the world (including Australia!). She is a member of a curriculum development team responsible for producing a programme for ECD practitioners; and has developed the national guidelines for child minders, and a programme for parents with low levels of literacy offered by the national department of Social Development.

Event Details:
This seminar will be held in the Frank Tate Room, Ground Floor, Alice Hoy Building.

Top

 

11 September - Seminar: 'Investigating IELTS exit score gains in higher education', Dr Kieran O'Loughlin & Sophie Arkoudis

Abstract:
A much under-researched issue in English-medium higher education is the extent to which international students for whom English is a second/additional language improve their proficiency in the language over the duration of their studies. This presentation describes a study (funded by IELTS Australia) which examined the improvement made by full-fee paying international students (N = 63) from a large faculty at a major Australian university on the academic version of the IELTS over the duration of their studies. Using official pre- and end-of-course IELTS results, student questionnaires as well as student and staff interviews, the study investigated the rate and nature of the improvement as well as the educational, personal and social factors influencing this improvement. A range of statistical analyses including Principal Components Analyses (PCA) and Ordinary Least Squares regression (OLS) regression were adopted to investigate the improvement in test scores. These findings showed that 1) the greatest average improvement was in Listening and Reading and the least average improvement was in Writing; 2) the average improvement on Listening, Reading and Writing (but not Speaking) was significantly correlated; 3) students with lower initial results in Listening, Reading and Writing tended to improve significantly more than students with higher initial results, 4) undergraduate students improved more than postgraduate students. The qualitative data from the questionnaires and interviews was analysed using positioning theory (Harré et al. 2009) in order to investigate the extent to which students’ agency and other factors influenced their English language development.

Biographical Note:

Kieran O’Loughlin is Senior Lecturer in TESOL in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

Sophie Arkoudis is Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education.

Event Details:
This seminar will be held in the Frank Tate Room, Ground Floor Alice Hoy Building.

 

Top

 

21 August - Seminar: '“It’s like stretching my brain”: Students’ Experiences and Achievements in Bilingual Education', Paul Molyneux and Renata Aliani

Abstract:
Students from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds are often denied the opportunity to fulfil their learning potential, in that the language resources they bring from their home and community backgrounds are frequently overlooked. Schools that implement bilingual education programs offer a way by which today’s students can become critically aware, multiliterate, multilingual learners. This presentation reports on an Early Career Researcher Grant project that investigated the learning experiences and outcomes of 68 bilingually-educated students at three primary schools in Melbourne. Data collected through individually administered questionnaires and focus group interviews were offset by analysis of students’ achievement against English standards and targets. The research findings reveal these students attach high levels of importance to becoming biliterate and express satisfaction with their abilities across the dimensions of language and literacy. These perspectives are supported by a range of assessment data: both national and local. Research findings suggest that bilingual – even multilingual – pedagogies potentially enhance students’ learning outcomes, their sense of personal identity, and their orientations to schooling.


Biographical Note:
Paul Molyneux lectures in Language and Literacy Education at the Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. His teaching and research interests centre on pedagogical arrangements that support the language and literacy development of linguistically and culturally diverse students. His PhD investigated bilingual education arrangements for students from immigrant and refugee backgrounds. Renata Aliani is a researcher in the Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. Renata has taught pre-service and postgraduate courses, and recently has undertaken research into languages provision and teacher education.

Event Details:
This seminar will be held in Room 332, Alice Hoy Building

Top

 

14 August - Seminar: 'Universitas 21: an opportunity of a professional lifetime', Associate Professor Kristina Love

Abstract:
The opportunities of U21 academic staff fellowships are enormous, though perhaps not as well advertised to academic staff as they could be. In this presentation Kristina will provide an overview of the U21 Academic Fellowships program, and report on her own experiences in 2009, when she was fortunate to win one such Fellowship. This allowed her to visit the Faculties of Education in five universities (Stanford, British Columbia, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen) in order to investigate global perspectives on teaching and learning about adolescent literacy in teacher education. As an educator in the Master of Teaching program, Kristina is challenged to prepare teacher candidates who can draw on rich and flexible repertoires of skills, resources and professional knowledge to meet the needs of the socially, culturally and linguistically diverse students in their secondary school classrooms. She met with educators who shared this challenge, exploring curriculum and research perspectives on the effective literacy practices required for adolescent student success in the 21st century. Kristina will discuss those outcomes from her fellowship program that may have wider relevance across the GSE and will be happy to answer questions about the U21 more generally.

Biographical Note:
Associate Professor Kristina Love is leader of the Language and Literacy Education (LALE) cluster and Assistant Dean Knowledge Transfer in the Graduate School of Education.


Top

 

31 July - Seminar: 'Time's dark, resistless stream', Associate Professor Ray Misson

Abstract:
While there has been much opposition to critical literacy (as it is misunderstood) in the press and public debate over recent years, in many ways it remains the most promising foundation on which the future of English teaching can be built. However, critical literacy constantly needs to be rethought to respond to present concerns and student needs. This paper will argue that the critical-creative imagination is fundamental to the study of English by looking at the place of writing in critical literacy, and consider how well the National Curriculum measures up in these terms.

Biographical Note:
Associate Professor Ray Misson is Deputy Dean and Director, Learning and Teaching in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. His main area of research interest centres on the significance of cultural studies for classroom practice, particularly in terms of producing socially aware readings of texts in English and literacy classrooms. He has published extensively on popular culture, critical literacy, sexuality studies, narrative, and the place of creativity and imagination in a socially critical curriculum. Critical Literacy and the Aesthetic: Transforming the English Classroom, written in collaboration with Wendy Morgan, was published by NCTE in the USA in 2006.


Top

 

30 May - LALE Research Higher Degree Student Day

Language and Literacy Education is holding its first Research Higher Degree Student Day on Saturday May 30 to enable all of its RHD students to present their research findings to date and receive feedback from peers and academic staff. All research higher degree students will make a presentation of between 15-25 minutes, with time allowed for questions, in sessions of 30 minutes duration.

Students at an early stage of their research will be concentrating on communicating the focus of the study, the methods and approaches and the theoretical framework organising the research.  Students whose research is more advanced will report on data gathering and analysis and interpretations arising from the work.  
 
The main intention of the day is to give students an opportunity to make a semi-public presentation of their research and therefore to make an effort to communicate ideas and issues beyond the immediate audience of supervisors and other collaborators.
 
All RHD students must provide a title, abstract (200-300 words) and a brief bio (3-4 sentences).
 
Please send these to Emma Brimfield (e.brimfield@unimelb.edu.au) by Friday 8 May.

Top

 

15 May - Seminar: 'Bilingual Education Programme in Sri Lanka Effective strategies to reach desired objectives,' Dr Prasad Sethunga (University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka)

Abstract:
The Bilingual Education Programme (BLEP) was introduced to the secondary school level as part of the National Amity Schools Project (NASP) by the Sri Lankan Government in 2002. The two major aims of this program were to empower the students with English in order to make them suitable for the job market and enhance harmony between the two major ethnic groups using English as the “common link language”. Under the BLEP at the secondary level classes a few selected subjects are taught in the English Medium while the rest of the subjects are taught in either Sinhala or Tamil. BLEP students should be in the same class with the other students who are studying in the Sinhala or Tamil Medium and separate from them only for the subjects that are taught in the English medium. At this seminar the presenter intends to talk on issues and problems of the BLEP based on the preliminary findings of the ongoing collaborative study which has been conducted since 2008. The Final aim of the study is to propose effective strategies as constructive ways forward for the implementation of BlEP.

Biographical Note:
Dr Sethunga is Head of the Department of Education, Faculty of Arts and the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

Top

 

3 April - Seminar: 'Give Way: Multiculturalism Approaching The Superhighway,' Dr Francesca Primerano

Abstract:
The discourse of multiculturalism in Australia has not made an easy transition into the online world and the information superhighway. This paper presents a critical analysis of multicultural policy in Australia; while it acknowledges some of its achievements, it will foreground one of its more recent shortcomings in dealing with the provision of online information. This paper argues that while the rhetoric framing the electronic delivery of information suggests inclusiveness, the recognition of different cultural and linguistic needs and an enhancement in ‘community participation,’ closer analysis reveals a less than ideal picture. The paper concludes that if there is a genuine desire for an inclusive online culture, then greater consideration needs to be given to the design and delivery of online information and products.

Biographical Note:
Dr Francesca Primerano is currently working as a website consultant. Her PhD examined online technologies and multiculturalism in Australia and was awarded the Isi Leibler award for its interdisciplinary approach. She has presented her research at various forums, including Stanford University’s Centre for the Study of Language and Information, Google and e-Bay. Francesca has also worked on various arts events in Australia and abroad; she has an active interest in fostering cultural exchange programs, encompassing the visual arts, film, theatre and multimedia.

Top

 

20 March - Seminar: 'Chinese Language Education in Australian Schools - Where to Now?, Dr Jane Orton

Abstract:
Since the Asian Studies Association of Australia’s Report on Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools was published 20 years ago showing the depth and breadth of Australia’s links to Asia, it has been publicly acknowledged that the country needs a solid pool of working people in a range of sectors who deeply understand at least one Asian country and can speak the language there well. Yet two decades on, and 7 years after closure of the NALSAS program, the Australian Government is still calling for school and university graduates with proficiency in Asian languages – this time, a modest if realistic 12% of the 2008 Grade 1 cohort in their Year 12, in 2020. This is only half the number sought in the earlier drive – but at present nationally, the total students of all languages at Year 12 is not even 14%.

Chinese is last on the list of the 6 most commonly taught school languages in the country, attracting little more than half the number who do German, one third the number who do French or Indonesian, and only a quarter of the number who do Japanese or Italian. Research undertaken in 2008*, however, shows that the main cause of the deficit is that 94% of Australia’s classroom learners who start Chinese give up before Year 11, and those who speak Chinese at home are not provided with appropriate language education and development. Recommendations for action to address the problem on a number of levels are proposed in the report.

Details of the state of Chinese language education in Australian schools will be presented, as well as recommendations for its improvement, and some interesting developments already under way since publication of the report will be reported.

 

top of page