This volume is the second of a series deepening the research understanding and academic study of Language Arts, as an English-language teaching paradigm. Previously used extensively in native-speaking countries, Language Arts has been taken up in the past decade in many parts of Asia. Language Arts uses intrinsically motivating materials such as literature, drama and popular culture to help students develop mastery of written and spoken language and text-types. In recent years, Language Arts has embraced media and multiliteracies, as well as critical and creative thinking, intercultural sensitivity, civics and ethics. This volume offers a breadth of topics, which embody methodologically sophisticated and contemporary language arts research. These include multimodal analysis, virtual environments, the use of comics, anime and film in second language teaching, and learners’ experiences of drama and literary tourism. The use of literature and the arts in humanist education has a long history within Europe. It was traditionally appreciated for its ability to instil ethics and finer sensibilities and teach leadership. But the traditional program was marred by its function in inculcating and preserving elitist, high-culture voices, texts and values. The post-colonial incarnation of Language Arts has been informed by critical and linguistic theory, helping it to embrace a popular scope, and include a wide array of authentic social and media texts. The movement of English-language teaching beyond native-speaker shores has given rise to a vibrant variety of World Englishes, whose literary and media works are now represented within Language Arts. The explosion of media over the past few decades has given rise to an increasing array of media to use in language teaching. These trends invite scholarly analysis, and this is clearly reflected in the chapters in this volume. Linguistics has long had a connection to, and a natural role to play in, analysing the creative verbal and visual arts. As a paradigm, Language Arts now takes an inclusive view of the continuum of spoken, written and performed languages and texts. Cutting edge Language Arts research is now also supported through the new journal Language Arts and Linguistics (Taylor and Francis).

This volume is the first of a series contributing to the academic study of Language Arts, as an English-language teaching paradigm. Language Arts has been widely used in native English-speaking countries including Australia and New Zealand. Its recent adoption into the second-language teaching curriculum in Hong Kong, as well as similar initiatives within secondary and tertiary education in mainland China, enhances its interest to scholars studying second-language teaching and learning in Asian contexts. This book offers many papers and discussions of interest to teachers, language professionals, scholars and administrators. Its chapters explore current topics in Language Arts research including trends in the rapprochment of stylistics and linguistics, teaching approaches and learning outcomes. At the same time, they offer diverse theoretical and methodological aproaches, of interest to the practitioner and policy-maker as well as the researcher. The value of this volume lies particularly in strengthening the theoretical and methodological foundations of Language Arts. The use of literature and the arts in humanist education has a long history within Europe, being traditionally appreciated for its ability to transform leaders, instill finer sensibilities and question social ills. In its postcolonial incarnations, as the traditional subject areas were informed by critical and linguistic theories, language arts subject areas were less often used, as they were understood to offer opportunities to analyse their functions as apology for leaders, coopting the young, and pacifying dissent but less often used to teach second language skills. Language Arts curricula arising since the 1980s have increasingly embraced authentic voices, styles and genres. Contemporary Language Arts curricula use literature to teach reading-based and communication skills, in conjunction with critical and creative thinking. The movement of English-language education beyond native English shores has placed Language Arts into a World Englishes frame, and therefore its curricula have included the teaching ethics, civics and intercultural sensitivity. The explosion of media and digital communications of the 1990s led to the adoption of media literacy as a crucial Language Arts skill. As digital innovations continue to impact the teaching of English, Language Arts has adopted multiliteracies. These developments are represented in the papers included in this volume.

This book, comprising two parts, is concerned with both the science and the art of foreign language teaching, with a particular, but not exclusive, focus on Asia. Under the theme of “Theoretical foundation and research”, Part 1 of this book informs the readers about recent efforts in theoretical and empirical research which have had an impact on foreign language teaching or promise to yield results that will shape its future. These studies, not just from the domain of foreign language teaching but also its primary feeder disciplines of linguistics and second language acquisition, offer the necessary theoretical and conceptual foundation for both current and future research and practice. As its theme “Classroom practice and evaluation studies” suggests, Part 2 focuses on new and innovative developments in curricular and classroom practice, all built upon insights from research in the above-mentioned disciplines and poised to become standard practices. These projects include qualitative and quantitative evaluation studies which have yielded insightful data for the refinement and continued development of the projects and their underlying theoretical concepts.

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Give today’s fifth grade students the tools they need to excel on the New York State English Language Arts Test! This book offers opportunities for both guided and independent practice to prepare students for the standardized assessment. Educators can incorporate these meaningful, rigorous practice exercises into daily learning to expand students’ knowledge and set them up for 21st century success. • Boost confidence and reduce testing anxiety by using practice tests to improve student performance • Ensure students are comfortable with a range of question formats, various genres of texts, and higher-level questions • Prepare students for tests measuring NYS Next Generation Learning Standards • Use the full answer key to identify learning gaps and review grammar, reading, and writing skills

This edited volume explores how success is conceptualized and represented in texts for young people in Asia. The essays in this collection examine how success for children relates to education, family, gender, race, class, community, and the nation. It answers the following questions: How is success for children represented in literature, cinema, and popular media? In what ways are these images grounded in the historical, political, and cultural contexts in which they are produced and consumed? How does childhood agency influence ideas about success in Asia? Highlighting the similarities and differences in how success is defined for children and young adults in Japan, South Korea, People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India, this volume argues that success is an important keyword in the literary and cultural study of childhood in Asia.

The narrowing of English language education curriculum in many contexts has negatively impacted classroom teaching and learning. High-stakes standardized testing, scripted curricula, and the commodification of English have converged to challenge socially meaningful classroom literacy instruction that promotes holistic development. Although in different ways, these factors have shaped the teaching of English as both first and second language. How can English educators respond? This book argues that the first step is to take account of the broader policy, political and cultural landscape and to identify the key constraints affecting teachers, students and parents. These will set the broad parameters for developing local pedagogic approaches, while still recognizing the constraints that actively push against them. Using Singapore English language teaching as a case study, this book illustrates how this process can unfold, and how media literacy principles were vernacularized to design English classroom pedagogies that stretched the bounds of what is acceptable and possible in the local context.