scholarly journals Balancing Competing Needs among Stakeholders: Lessons from the Self-access Language Learning Centre (SALL) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen)

2016 ◽  
pp. 46-55
Author(s):  
Kwan-yee Sarah Ng ◽  
Yang Gu
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Future Development ◽  
English Language ◽  
Private University ◽  
Business Administration ◽  
The Self ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Chinese University

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), referred to as ‘University’ or ‘CUHK(SZ)’ hereafter, is a newly established private university located in the Longgong District of Shenzhen, which is a special economic zone in the southern part of China. Its first batch of about 300 undergraduate freshmen, all majoring in Business Administration, commenced studies in September 2014. The Self-access Language Learning Centre (‘SALL’ or ‘the Centre’ hereafter), as a unit under the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS[1]), was put into trial operation from 6th March to 4th June 2015 to explore students’ needs and preferences in self-access English language learning. The purpose of this progress summary is to delineate and analyze the trial operation. It is divided into two major sections. The first section is a brief description of the 3-month trial operation and evaluation whereas the second section details recommendations for the future development of the SALL and other self-access centres also needing to address conflicting needs among stakeholders.

Investing in the future: Korean early English education as neoliberal management of youth

Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sohee Bae ◽  
Joseph Sung-Yul Park
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Education ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
The Self ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
The Future ◽  
Capital Development ◽  
Early English

AbstractThis paper examines how entrepreneurial visions of the future contribute to neoliberalism’s appropriation of language learning as a strategy for capital accumulation. Taking as an example South Korea’s heavy investment in children’s English language learning – commonly known as early English education (yeongeo jogi gyoyuk) – it discusses how affective conditions of anticipation (Adams, Murphy and Clarke. 2009. Anticipation: Technoscience, life, affect, temporality. Subjectivity 28(1). 246–265.) may serve as a basis for rationalizing the incorporation of language learning as an essential element of entrepreneurial visions of the self. Based on examples from the discourse of the Korean private English education market and ethnographic observations from early study abroad (jogi yuhak) families in Singapore, we show how the English language learning of young children in the Korean context was framed and justified as an investment in the future. We then discuss how parents’ hopes and fears about their children’s future played a major role in transforming English language learning into a matter of neoliberal anticipation. We conclude by considering how this affective orientation to the future inherent in early English education may serve as a juncture for critiquing the entrepreneurial vision of the self that underlies the logic of human capital development.

scholarly journals Assessment of English language Students' Preferences of the Methods of Teaching English in a Private Jordanian University

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 112
Author(s):  
Mohammad A. Qasaimeh ◽  
Al-Mothana Gasaymeh
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Private University ◽  
Learning Preferences ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Vital Importance

<p>For effective language learning and teaching, both learners' skills and assumptions should gain enough interest from their teachers. For the sake of that idea, students should have the opportunity to express their preferences regarding the ways of teaching and learning English language. Having in mind the idea that learners' preferences of the ways of teaching English language are vital importance their learning, we asked students at an English language department in a Jordanian private university to state their views on how they prefer to learn English. As a further step, teachers working at the same department with the same students were also asked to express their views regarding the extent of their awareness of their students' learning preferences. The data obtained uncovered significant results suggesting a need for a closer cooperation and collaboration among students and their teachers concerning how English language learning activities should be re-arranged and implemented in the classroom.</p>

scholarly journals The Merits of Using “EthnoQuest” as an English Language Learning Tool and a Medium of Cultural Transmission

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Fiona Creaser
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
English Language ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Private University ◽  
Student Feedback ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork

<p>This paper will focus on the experience of using the game 'EthnoQuest' as part of a content-based course at a small private university in Japan. 'EthnoQuest' is an interactive multimedia simulation for cultural anthropology fieldwork, and students enter the virtual environs of Amopan, a small Mexican village. The game is text based and two-dimensional and by comparison does not have any of the high quality graphics or adventure stimulating challenges of a commercial game. Nevertheless, I felt it was extremely beneficial to students taking ethnographic fieldwork courses as it opened up the field in a very accessible way. Two groups of students will be discussed; one group of students had very limited abilities in English and were very conscious of this fact. The second group, had advanced English skills and were able to use the simulations as a<br />stepping stone to fruitful discussions about topics such as bilingualism and cultural and religious beliefs. Students with lower levels of English were able to interact with villagers at their own pace creating a comfortable and safe study environment from which to improve their English skills and enhance their knowledge of a different culture. Four simulations from the game will be analysed for their language building skills and cultural content. Finally, student feedback and problems with the software will be discussed.</p>

Language Learning as Technology of the Self

2021 ◽  
pp. 80-99
Author(s):  
Joseph Sung-Yul Park
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The Self ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Development ◽  
English Fever

This chapter explores how the act of English language learning came to be framed as a moral project during the Korean English fever, focusing on the role that such aspects of morality played in rationalizing the social inequalities reproduced and exacerbated through the neoliberal promotion of English. Its analysis focuses on representation of successful learners of English in the conservative press, which frequently published stories of elite English language learners throughout the English fever. The chapter shows how these stories consistently downplayed the privileged provenance of the successful learners, and instead highlighted the extraordinary effort they put into learning English, presenting them as moral figures—ideal neoliberal subjects who immerse themselves in careful and ethical management of oneself. It is through such representations that English language learning came to reframed as a Foucauldian technology of the self, and a moral responsibility for neoliberal self-development.

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