The edited volume Conversation Analytic Perspectives on English Language Learning, Teaching and Testing in Global Contexts is out! With Peter Sayer and Taiane Malabarba, I have a chapter in it, ‘Teaching English in marginalized contexts: Constructing relevance in an EFL classroom in Rural Southern Mexico’. Check out the publisher’s blog post about the volume.
schooling
AAA 2018 panel honors Elinor Ochs
This year at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association I had the pleasure and privilege of participating in a panel in honor of my doctoral advisor, Elinor Ochs. The panel, ‘Experiencing Language: The Contributions of Elinor Ochs to Anthropology’, examined five areas in anthropology that have been inspired by Elinor’s’ work: ethnography of language acquisition across cultures (Amy Paugh), language socialization in educational contexts (Kathy Howard and me), language in ethnic and racial social contexts (Patricia Baquedano-López), autism and communication studies (Laura Sterponi and Wendy Klein), and family and ethics (Tamar Kremer-Sadlik). Bill Hanks and Judith Irvine were the chairs, and Elinor was the discussant.
Ohio TESOL 2018 poster presentation
Jackie Ridley and Somin Kim will present a poster on the Expanding Repertoires of Practice project at the Ohio TESOL 2018 Conference. The theme this year is Breaking Through Language Barriers: Success Across Content. Our goal is to communicate to practitioners and researchers the power and potential of science education that is hands-on, multimodal, and driven by children’s curiosity, particularly in superdiverse preschool classrooms like those we have studied in Central Ohio.
Session at ASTE with Mandy McCormick Smith
With my co-author Mandy McCormick Smith, I will present the experiential session ‘Preparing early childhood educators to make science learning meaningful for dual language learners in preschool contexts’ at the 2017 Meeting of the Association for Science Teacher Education. Our session focuses on preparing early childhood educators to make science learning meaningful for preschool children who speak many languages. Participants will interact with preschool science concepts through the pre-k learning cycle for science with emphasis on incorporating linguistically responsive approaches through thematic learning.
AAA 2016 paper
Today at the 115th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, my advisee Sirad Shirdon is presenting our paper ‘The co- and re-construction of classroom competence in a Somali-centric Kindergarten’. We are part of the panel Language Socialization in Classrooms: Culture, Interaction, and Development, organized by Matthew Burdelski and Kathryn Howard and invited by the Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group (ACYIG). The panel previews an volume edited by Matt and Kathy, to be published by Cambridge.
Navigating Languages, Literacies, and Identities
The edited volume Navigating Languages, Literacies and Identities: Religion in Young Lives has come out! Edited by Vally Lytra, Dinah Volk, and Eve Gregory, the volume showcases innovative research at the interface of religion and multilingualism, with an analytical focus on religion in children and adolescents’ everyday lives and experiences. I have a chapter on my research in northern Cameroon and Central Ohio.
Fulbright follow-up at Utrecht U
I am in Utrecht for 2 weeks, a follow-up to my Fulbright at Utrecht University in AY 2015-16. I will give a lecture and lead discussion groups in the course ‘Youth, Education & Society 02: Global Perspectives’, a core course in the Masters program Youth, Education & Society. My host and lead instructor of the course is Professor Mariette de Haan.
Talk at Leiden University Centre for Linguistics
Today I give a talk for the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. The talk, ‘Moving across languages and learning traditions’, will be in 16:00 – 17:00 in Eyckhof 3/005. I will present my research on the social and cultural patterning of language learning in three multilingual African communities. In the late 1990s I was a visiting scholar in African Languages and Linguistics at Leiden University, and I am excited to see old friends and hear about the exciting work they are doing now.
Talk at International Institute for Social Studies
On Jauary 22nd, I will give a talk at the International Institute for Social Studies in The Hague (part of Erasmus University Rotterdam). In this talk, ‘Leveraging Qur’anic schooling for Western-style educational goals‘, I discuss how the role of Qur’anic schools in advancing national and international development goals for education has shifted over time, and I consider the notion of ‘leveraging’ in development work, i.e., the use of existing social structures and practices in/of the community to achieve international cooperation and aid goals.
Sirad Shirdon awarded Hancock scholarship
My advisee Sirad Shirdon has been awarded a scholarship from the Dr. Charles R. Hancock Graduate Scholarship Fund in Urban Education. She will use the scholarship for her research on Kindergarten readiness among Somali children in Central Ohio. Sirad plans to take an ethnographically informed approach to the study of parent, school, and community understandings of Kindergarten readiness and how these understandings are enacted in practice. This study will build on Sirad’s work on my longitudinal study of language and literacy socialization and development among Somali immigrant-refugee children in the early elementary grades.