In this article we critically evaluate the case made by proponents of academic language (AL) that AL is functionally necessary for schooling due to specific functional advantages of AL. We consider three examples of AL introduced by AL proponents in order to show (1) that AL proponents have been too quick to accept the ALH, (2) that functional…

The work of L.S. Vygotsky was popularised in the West between two great waves of educational thought: constructivism and cognitivism. Reception was therefore colored by three metaphors introduced by Jerome Bruner: 'construction', 'scaffolding' and 'narrative'. Narratives were to be characterized by features we call SELF: Subjects, Expectancy and…

Bridging home literacy practices and school has been a key theme for many New Literacy Studies researchers, yet there is no clear consensus on the impact of multiple or new literacies in K-12 classrooms. American classrooms remain book-centric. Multiple literacies represent a fundamental paradigm shift in the ways we understand and enact literacy…

In this paper, I examine the textmaking potentials of the popular cultural resources of professional wrestling, including its modes of textual expression, as performed by Kyle, a boy in the middle years of elementary school. Kyle remixed wrestling, and its performative affordances, style and textmaking potentials across time and space. Using a…

English language is a fast-growing and popular subject at A level, but the majority of qualified secondary teachers in the UK have subject expertise and backgrounds in literature. This paper reports on interviews with seven secondary English teachers who discuss the strategies they used when taking on the responsibility of A-level English language…

This paper reflects on the state of educational language policy two decades into a post-Apartheid South Africa caught between official multilingualism and English. The focus is on the national language-in-education policy (LiEP) that advocates additive bi/multilingualism, and a provincial counterpart, the language transformation plan (LTP). Using…

From the cognitive perspective of embodiment and relying mostly on the powerful and revealing tool of metaphor, we approach the issue of education in the Obama administration's discourse trying to unveil the ideological preferences hidden behind the use of the different metaphors. It is assumed that this body of metaphors will contribute to the…

In this article, we examine the relationship between classroom talk, teacher-student roles and paradigms for literacy and learning in two ninth-grade English Language Arts classes. Our goal was to understand how these roles and practices socialized students into norms for academic language and literacy as they read and wrote poetry in preparation…

Foreign language learning and science teaching can both be seen as examples of Davydov's "ascent to the concrete", because they begin from abstract definitions and proceed in the direction of concrete use. The microgenetic lessons that enable these ontogenetic processes can also be seen as examples of "ascent of the concrete" because they involve,…

This paper analyses data from a curriculum intervention project designed to introduce new forms of discussion, seen as educationally effective, into the primary classroom. While the introduction of talk as an aid to learning is premised on a social approach to learning, such interventions are often evaluated in terms of cognitive benefits and…

This paper seeks to explore, by studying their personal stories, how Hong Kong secondary school teachers make sense of who and what they are in difficult situations, especially when such situations arise as a consequence of their being a part of the institution of education. Teachers' conceptual mappings of self will be investigated via their…

In a study of beliefs and construction of knowledge, undergraduate and graduate education students responded to open- ended statements and a list of similes describing what teachers, students, and classrooms were like. Results suggests that the simile list responses were valid reflections of the subjects' personal metaphors. (32 references)…

Mathematics is commonly seen as a discipline with no place for linguistic ambiguity. In this paper, the treatment of ambiguity in two data extracts is critically examined. Analysis draws on two contrasting models of the nature of mathematics and mathematical language. The formal model sees meaning as fixed and relating to language relatively…