Innovation and Leadership in English Language Teaching – serie

At its core, culturally responsive pedagogy represents a professional philosophy that is based on teachers' fundamental commitment to students' success. Authors Taylor and Sobel believe that teachers want to approach their teaching from the pivotal point that each of their students' lives matter. Working from a broad perspective of culture, the authors view culturally responsive teaching as a contextual and situational process for both teachers and students—all students—including those who are from a diversity of languages, cultures, racial/ethnic backgrounds, religions, economic resources, interests, abilities, and life experiences as well as students who are members of the society's 'mainstream' cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic background. Recognizing that teachers are conduits of culture regardless of what content they teach, the authors assert that when culture is coupled with pedagogy the result involves a complex and comprehensive mix of knowledge and skills for teachers to use to engage a diverse student population This book is intended as a guide and practical discussion for K-12 teachers who are committed to culturally responsive pedagogy and recognize the structural inequalities in society that are reflected in its schools. Such teachers acknowledge that schools have a history of failing to serve students who are outside of the 'mainstream' culture. For those teachers who recognize the sociopolitical nature of education and the role their own cultural background and privilege play in their work as a professional educator, they will find meaningful applications of research-based exemplars used to create and manage rigorous learning environments that maximize students' opportunities to learn.

English Language and the Medical Profession: Instructing and Assessing the Communication Skills of International Physicians is designed for a new context for English language teaching: the emerging, worldwide interest in English for medicine. The book offers a program for an English language curriculum that is specifically designed for the important and growing group of international medical professionals, with a focus on both instruction and assessment. International physicians in the United States now total more than 25 per cent of the physician workforce. Even subsequent to their passage of the clinical skills exam required for licensing and practice as physicians in U.S. hospitals, international physicians face communication challenges as first-year residents and may be referred to specialists for language and cultural issues. Advanced residents may face additional issues when they begin work as independent practitioners. This volume goes beyond existing texts in collecting the expertise of English language teaching and testing experts, medical residency supervisors, medical licensing, and exchange agencies in examining issues related to international physicians' performance as graduate students and doctors in hospitals and other settings. The contributors include specialists at the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates and doctors who supervise international medical residents as well as recognized ESP practitioners.

Language Program Leadership in a Changing World: An Ecological Model presents a comprehensive view of management and leadership in language programs as situated in a complex, globalized context with rapidly changing characteristics. The language program is described as an extensive ecology made up of many different types of interacting parts, which leaders of these programs must manage and balance with strong attention to context and to the future. The discussion emphasizes the complexity of the job of leading a language program and the many types of roles the leadership must fill in monitoring the program and its context for continuity and change and leading with an eye the future. The focus is on college and university English language programs, with discussion of the place they occupy within academia and in relation to other types of language programs (e.g. foreign language and English composition). The book is both practical and theoretical, offering case studies and overviews of 'nuts and bolts' issues of administration such as financial, data, and people management, in addition to an original model that problematizes and theorizes the language program based on notions of ecology and frames, a review of research, and suggestions for further research.

Service, Satisfaction and Climate: Perspectives on Management in English Language Teaching presents the results of research carried out in New Zealand to demonstrate the ways ELT can be conceptualized in terms of service and climate. Although ESL is a major worldwide service industry employing large numbers of professionals and serving millions of clients, it is an under-researched field and one that is under-represented in the management/business literature. This omission is particularly noticeable, given that ELT has its own particular themes, problems, and issues. For instance, ELT is an educational service, yet exists within a commercial context. Its clients are from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In many ELT contexts, the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the service providers are different from those of the clients. Thus, the service provision has a strong cross-cultural dimension. Yet the ELT sector is largely missing from the educational and the management literature. This book seeks to fill the gap through discussion of ELT as a service, issues surrounding ELT teachers as service providers, the work of ELT managers, client expectations and perceptions of ELT service, comparison of staff estimates and client ratings of service quality, and considerations of service milieu and climate in ELT centers.