Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms: New Dilemmas for Teachers

As the makeup of populations change, the mixing of ethnic and racial cultures expands. With it come new challenges for teachers who increasingly face students from vastly different cultural perspectives and different native languages. This is no less true in Australia than in other western countries. This book examines the impacts of language acquisition, language policy, and cultural diversity on real life classroom experiences, offering analysis and prescriptions for improving teacher performance in multicultural and multi-language settings. While the context is Australian, the approaches outlined have applicability in other countries as well. Distributed in the US by UTP Distribution. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Jennifer Miller is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University where she teaches postgraduate TESOL courses. Her research and publications are in the areas of language acquisition and identity, the sociocultural framing of language pedagogy, and teacher? s work. Her book, Audible Difference: ESL and social identity (Multilingual Matters, 2003) explores the politics of speaking and identity for immigrant students in Australian high schools. Her current research concerns low literacy refugee students in the high school mainstream, and preservice teachers from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Alex Kostogriz is Associate Professor in TESOL in the School of Education, Deakin University. He has published widely on issues of professional practice and ethics of English language educators, teacher professional identity and learning, transcultural literacy and pedagogy of Thirdspace. He has co-edited Dimensions of Professional Learning (2007), special issues of Mind, Culture & Activity and English Teaching: Practice & Critique on learning in multicultural conditions.

Margaret Gearon is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. She specialises in language teacher education at both preservice and inservice levels, curriculum and assessment in foreign and community (heritage) languages, and bilingual education. Her research interests are in immersion education, code-switching in the foreign language classroom, and how the knowledge and beliefs of preservice languages teachers are manifested in their classroom practices. She is currently project director for the design of a teacher training course for community languages teachers in Australia.