Rebekah Gordon | Michigan State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Rebekah Gordon

Multilingual Matters eBooks, Dec 31, 2022

ProQuest (Dissertation), 2022

This arts-based inquiry explores historical and contemporary configurations of state-sponsored tr... more This arts-based inquiry explores historical and contemporary configurations of state-sponsored transnational teachers, or those who teach overseas in programs that are financially and/or programmatically supported by their home government. In the U.S., some examples of state-sponsored transnational teaching programs include the Peace Corps, the Fulbright Specialist Program, and the English Language Fellow Program. Standing on feminist grounding, I draw upon maternal concepts from the field of mother(hood) studies to frame my exploration and to interrogate and disrupt the patriarchal systems in which state-sponsored transnational teaching is situated. More specifically, I extend a/r/tographic methodology to include my identifications and embodied perspectives as a mother-artist-researcher-teacher. My proposed methodology of m/a/r/tography affords me the opportunity to think intergenerationally about the ways that orientations, collective body memory, family histories, and national legacies relevant to state-sponsored transnational teaching are passed down. By using epistolary narrative and creative non-fiction, I reflect on my own experiences as a mother, as a daughter, and as a former state-sponsored transnational teacher who labored for her motherland. To analyze these personal experiences, I adopt a diffractive approach in which these experiences are viewed through one another as well as through additional sources of data, including interviews with other state-sponsored transnational teachers, letters from my mother, photographs and images, poetry, film, children’s literature, and other forms of scholarship. The use of a diverse and wide-ranging set of scholarship is an attempt to not only spark creative connections between seemingly disparate sources of data but also inspire more accessible and humanizing ways of doing research and re-imagining (teacher) education that welcomes processes of re/dis/orientation.

Philosophical Mentoring in Qualitative Research, 2022

Linguistic Portfolios, 2013

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Repository at St. Cloud State Univ... more This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Repository at St. Cloud State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Linguistic

Language and Intercultural Communication, 2020

ABSTRACT Naming practices are inextricably linked to cultural values and social norms. Among Chin... more ABSTRACT Naming practices are inextricably linked to cultural values and social norms. Among Chinese English language learners, naming practices have been the focus of studies in both domestic and transnational contexts; however, teachers of Chinese as a foreign language have been largely overlooked. This case study seeks to address this gap by investigating the naming and addressing practices of two transnational Chinese teachers working in the U.S. to further understanding of interculturality and transculturality as constructs affecting pragmatic decisions related to upholding or circumventing normative practices in formal online instruction.

Most second language learners express a desire to sound more native-like. While this may be diffi... more Most second language learners express a desire to sound more native-like. While this may be difficult to achieve phonetically, it is possible to help language learners make more appropriate lexical choices. One such way to do this is through the use of collocations. Collocations can be defined as two or more words that frequently occur together. Collocations are natural choices for native speakers of a language, but must be explicitly taught to second language learners. Recently, a variety of publishers have made specific collocations dictionaries available to language learners. Language programs are quickly adopting these materials, but what do students and teachers think about using them? This study is aimed at finding out more about the attitudes and behaviors surrounding collocations dictionaries and their use. Over ninety university ESL students and ten university ESL teachers were surveyed regarding these issues. One-on-one follow-up interviews were conducted with seven students and three teachers to gain further insight. The findings of this study reveal some interesting trends: even though the collocations dictionary was a required course material, many students and teachers reported never using it, both students’ and teachers’ level of perceived usefulness of collocations dictionaries did not match their reported use, students reported that they would be more likely to use collocations dictionaries if their teachers required them to do so more frequently, teachers would be more likely to use collocations dictionaries in their teaching if they received more training and ideas about how to incorporate them into their curriculum, and most students and teachers would prefer an electronic collocations dictionary. Overall, these results indicate that a collocations dictionary should not be implemented into a program without first taking into consideration the needs and preferences of both students and teachers.

Language and Intercultural Communication, 2020

Naming practices are inextricably linked to cultural values and social norms. Among Chinese Engli... more Naming practices are inextricably linked to cultural values and social norms. Among Chinese English language learners, naming practices have been the focus of studies in both domestic and transnational contexts; however, teachers of Chinese as a foreign language have been largely overlooked. This case study seeks to address this gap by investigating the naming and addressing practices of two transnational Chinese teachers working in the U.S. to further understanding of interculturality and transculturality as constructs affecting pragmatic decisions related to upholding or circumventing normative practices in formal online instruction.

Linguistic Portfolios, 2013

This paper is the culmination of a vowel analysis project that examined the pronunciation of a no... more This paper is the culmination of a vowel analysis project that examined the pronunciation of a non-native speaker of English. Eleven vowels from Yuka, a native-Japanese speaker, were analyzed using the phonetic software, Praat, and were then compared to the pronunciation of
general American English females (data from Peterson and Barney, 1952). Differences between the pronunciations are highlighted in this paper. These differences may become areas of difficulty and unintelligibility for Yuka. The pedagogical implications of these differences are discussed and suggestions are made for Yuka and her language teachers.

Linguistic Portfolis, 2012

Prepositions are notoriously difficult for English Language Learners to master due to the sheer n... more Prepositions are notoriously difficult for English Language Learners to master due to the sheer number of them in the English language and their polysemous nature. Numerous analyses of the linguistic output of ELLs have revealed that prepositional errors of substitution, omission, and addition account for the majority of syntactic errors. Since prepositions present such an immense challenge for language learners, it is vital that teachers develop effective instructional methods. In this paper, we will analyze the traditional method of teaching prepositions, and evaluate alternative methods.

Linguistic Portfolios, 2014

Zambia is a landlocked country in south central Africa. While its only official language is Engli... more Zambia is a landlocked country in south central Africa. While its only official language is English, seven other languages are recognized as national languages. In addition, many other local languages are used. In education, however, not all Zambian languages are taught as subjects or used as mediums of instruction. This paper reviews the history of languages and their use in the educational system in Zambia. After considering what was done in the past, the current policies are examined. Finally, a Game Theory analysis is used to predict what kind of language of education policy would be most agreed upon in contemporary Zambia.

English Teaching Forum, 2016

This article describes the teaching practice of two senior high school English teachers, Yu Huang... more This article describes the teaching practice of two senior high school English teachers, Yu Huang and Yu Zhu. Their school is in Hezhang County--the No. 2 Middle School in the province of Guizhou. In China, most middle schools consist of six grades of students; the first three years are considered junior middle school and the latter three years are commonly referred to as senior middle school (or sometimes senior high school). Both Ms. Huang and Ms. Zhu are dedicated to helping their students build interest in the English language inside and outside the classroom. They work diligently to increase their students' confidence and give them access to more opportunities. For both of these women, communication and professional development are paramount to forming productive relationships with other teachers and the students--which leads to success in language learning. Both Ms. Huang and Ms. Zhu want their students to use English as a universal language to communicate and access more information and opportunities. They accomplish this goal by cooperating and by communicating openly with each other, their colleagues, and their students. Most importantly, they recognize the importance of professionalism and continuing education. Ms. Huang recently found out that she has been selected by the Chinese national government to participate in a summer exchange program at Georgetown University later this year. She plans to use this opportunity to strengthen her own skills as a teacher and then share them with others through teacher- training workshops. "My goal for this next year is to spread ideas to other teachers--first teachers in my school, and then in my county. I could be a trainer next year," said Ms. Huang.

Books by Rebekah Gordon

The Politics of Researching Multilingually, 2022

As classrooms worldwide become more culturally and linguistically diverse, education research cor... more As classrooms worldwide become more culturally and linguistically diverse, education research correspondingly involves more diverse classroom communities. Consequently, researchers are faced with decisions about how to navigate these multilingual settings. Holmes et al. (2013) use the term ‘researching multilingually’ to describe such methodological dimensions; furthermore, they acknowledge that ‘the complexities and possibilities of researching multilingually are not extensively covered in research training’ (p. 286).

This lack of preparation was apparent to me as a doctoral student in teacher education. In my research related to the experiences of transnational language teachers, I tried to be as reflexive as possible about the linguistic decisions I made throughout the research process. Since I chose to work with multilingual participants, I navigated ways we could communicate effectively and ethically. Drawing inspiration from García et al. (2017), I found it productive to consider my methodological decisions through a translanguaging pedagogy lens. This process allowed me to leverage the linguistic resources of my participants and confront my own perceived monolingualism.

In this chapter, after briefly reviewing the literature on translanguaging, I introduce a methodological framework based on two metaphors from García et al. (2017): the three-stranded rope and translanguaging corriente. Although these metaphors originally referred to teacher and student practices in multilingual classrooms, I discuss their applicability to researchers and the process of researching multilingually.

Segueing from translanguaging pedagogy to translanguaging methodology, I describe a qualitative inquiry process which started as a project about classroom naming practices of transnational Chinese language teachers. Focusing on one participant with whom I met over a six-month period, I examine our linguistic choices and the ways we respond to each other by analyzing our interview conversations. I describe my methodological processes and share excerpts from our conversations in chronological order to highlight the importance of planning for translanguaging before data collection and also to acknowledge the time needed for fluid linguistic practices to become comfortable for both researcher and participant.

The chapter closes with a discussion of the implications and limitations of adopting a translanguaging-informed methodology in multilingual research protocols. Building upon the four pedagogical purposes for translanguaging (García et al., 2017), I propose four methodological purposes for translanguaging to support researchers and participants in multilingual settings. Rather than view cultural and linguistic diversity as a ‘problem to be solved’ (García et al., 2017: 118), I argue that researchers working in multilingual contexts should adopt a translanguaging stance during qualitative inquiry to embrace their own and their participants’ cultural and linguistic repertoires. A more flexible mindset regarding the use of linguistic resources may not only make a political statement about linguistic hegemony, power hierarchies and knowledge ownership in the research process but also aid in the co-construction of meaning and the building of rapport with participants.

Language Learning in Anglophone Countries, 2021

This chapter explores the sociopolitical implications of adopting multilingual pedagogies in teac... more This chapter explores the sociopolitical implications of adopting multilingual pedagogies in teacher education. More specifically, the authors draw on data from a qualitative inquiry of how racism manifested and was addressed and ignored within an online undergraduate ESL methodology course for pre-service teachers (PSTs). Classwork from PSTs and interviews with PSTs revealed that race was an uncomfortable topic that PSTs rarely underscored despite the inextricable link between language and race. Using white fragility as a guiding framework, the authors highlight how the predominantly White PSTs understood and perceived the course’s coverage of race. Considering the limited coverage of race in the course, the PSTs’ confusion with key terminology, and patterns of defensive behaviors in response to discussions on race, the chapter closes with suggestions of how to raise racial awareness in an effort to better implement the instruction of multilingual pedagogies in language methodology courses.

Multilingual Matters eBooks, Dec 31, 2022

ProQuest (Dissertation), 2022

This arts-based inquiry explores historical and contemporary configurations of state-sponsored tr... more This arts-based inquiry explores historical and contemporary configurations of state-sponsored transnational teachers, or those who teach overseas in programs that are financially and/or programmatically supported by their home government. In the U.S., some examples of state-sponsored transnational teaching programs include the Peace Corps, the Fulbright Specialist Program, and the English Language Fellow Program. Standing on feminist grounding, I draw upon maternal concepts from the field of mother(hood) studies to frame my exploration and to interrogate and disrupt the patriarchal systems in which state-sponsored transnational teaching is situated. More specifically, I extend a/r/tographic methodology to include my identifications and embodied perspectives as a mother-artist-researcher-teacher. My proposed methodology of m/a/r/tography affords me the opportunity to think intergenerationally about the ways that orientations, collective body memory, family histories, and national legacies relevant to state-sponsored transnational teaching are passed down. By using epistolary narrative and creative non-fiction, I reflect on my own experiences as a mother, as a daughter, and as a former state-sponsored transnational teacher who labored for her motherland. To analyze these personal experiences, I adopt a diffractive approach in which these experiences are viewed through one another as well as through additional sources of data, including interviews with other state-sponsored transnational teachers, letters from my mother, photographs and images, poetry, film, children’s literature, and other forms of scholarship. The use of a diverse and wide-ranging set of scholarship is an attempt to not only spark creative connections between seemingly disparate sources of data but also inspire more accessible and humanizing ways of doing research and re-imagining (teacher) education that welcomes processes of re/dis/orientation.

Philosophical Mentoring in Qualitative Research, 2022

Linguistic Portfolios, 2013

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Repository at St. Cloud State Univ... more This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Repository at St. Cloud State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Linguistic

Language and Intercultural Communication, 2020

ABSTRACT Naming practices are inextricably linked to cultural values and social norms. Among Chin... more ABSTRACT Naming practices are inextricably linked to cultural values and social norms. Among Chinese English language learners, naming practices have been the focus of studies in both domestic and transnational contexts; however, teachers of Chinese as a foreign language have been largely overlooked. This case study seeks to address this gap by investigating the naming and addressing practices of two transnational Chinese teachers working in the U.S. to further understanding of interculturality and transculturality as constructs affecting pragmatic decisions related to upholding or circumventing normative practices in formal online instruction.

Most second language learners express a desire to sound more native-like. While this may be diffi... more Most second language learners express a desire to sound more native-like. While this may be difficult to achieve phonetically, it is possible to help language learners make more appropriate lexical choices. One such way to do this is through the use of collocations. Collocations can be defined as two or more words that frequently occur together. Collocations are natural choices for native speakers of a language, but must be explicitly taught to second language learners. Recently, a variety of publishers have made specific collocations dictionaries available to language learners. Language programs are quickly adopting these materials, but what do students and teachers think about using them? This study is aimed at finding out more about the attitudes and behaviors surrounding collocations dictionaries and their use. Over ninety university ESL students and ten university ESL teachers were surveyed regarding these issues. One-on-one follow-up interviews were conducted with seven students and three teachers to gain further insight. The findings of this study reveal some interesting trends: even though the collocations dictionary was a required course material, many students and teachers reported never using it, both students’ and teachers’ level of perceived usefulness of collocations dictionaries did not match their reported use, students reported that they would be more likely to use collocations dictionaries if their teachers required them to do so more frequently, teachers would be more likely to use collocations dictionaries in their teaching if they received more training and ideas about how to incorporate them into their curriculum, and most students and teachers would prefer an electronic collocations dictionary. Overall, these results indicate that a collocations dictionary should not be implemented into a program without first taking into consideration the needs and preferences of both students and teachers.

Language and Intercultural Communication, 2020

Naming practices are inextricably linked to cultural values and social norms. Among Chinese Engli... more Naming practices are inextricably linked to cultural values and social norms. Among Chinese English language learners, naming practices have been the focus of studies in both domestic and transnational contexts; however, teachers of Chinese as a foreign language have been largely overlooked. This case study seeks to address this gap by investigating the naming and addressing practices of two transnational Chinese teachers working in the U.S. to further understanding of interculturality and transculturality as constructs affecting pragmatic decisions related to upholding or circumventing normative practices in formal online instruction.

Linguistic Portfolios, 2013

This paper is the culmination of a vowel analysis project that examined the pronunciation of a no... more This paper is the culmination of a vowel analysis project that examined the pronunciation of a non-native speaker of English. Eleven vowels from Yuka, a native-Japanese speaker, were analyzed using the phonetic software, Praat, and were then compared to the pronunciation of
general American English females (data from Peterson and Barney, 1952). Differences between the pronunciations are highlighted in this paper. These differences may become areas of difficulty and unintelligibility for Yuka. The pedagogical implications of these differences are discussed and suggestions are made for Yuka and her language teachers.

Linguistic Portfolis, 2012

Prepositions are notoriously difficult for English Language Learners to master due to the sheer n... more Prepositions are notoriously difficult for English Language Learners to master due to the sheer number of them in the English language and their polysemous nature. Numerous analyses of the linguistic output of ELLs have revealed that prepositional errors of substitution, omission, and addition account for the majority of syntactic errors. Since prepositions present such an immense challenge for language learners, it is vital that teachers develop effective instructional methods. In this paper, we will analyze the traditional method of teaching prepositions, and evaluate alternative methods.

Linguistic Portfolios, 2014

Zambia is a landlocked country in south central Africa. While its only official language is Engli... more Zambia is a landlocked country in south central Africa. While its only official language is English, seven other languages are recognized as national languages. In addition, many other local languages are used. In education, however, not all Zambian languages are taught as subjects or used as mediums of instruction. This paper reviews the history of languages and their use in the educational system in Zambia. After considering what was done in the past, the current policies are examined. Finally, a Game Theory analysis is used to predict what kind of language of education policy would be most agreed upon in contemporary Zambia.

English Teaching Forum, 2016

This article describes the teaching practice of two senior high school English teachers, Yu Huang... more This article describes the teaching practice of two senior high school English teachers, Yu Huang and Yu Zhu. Their school is in Hezhang County--the No. 2 Middle School in the province of Guizhou. In China, most middle schools consist of six grades of students; the first three years are considered junior middle school and the latter three years are commonly referred to as senior middle school (or sometimes senior high school). Both Ms. Huang and Ms. Zhu are dedicated to helping their students build interest in the English language inside and outside the classroom. They work diligently to increase their students' confidence and give them access to more opportunities. For both of these women, communication and professional development are paramount to forming productive relationships with other teachers and the students--which leads to success in language learning. Both Ms. Huang and Ms. Zhu want their students to use English as a universal language to communicate and access more information and opportunities. They accomplish this goal by cooperating and by communicating openly with each other, their colleagues, and their students. Most importantly, they recognize the importance of professionalism and continuing education. Ms. Huang recently found out that she has been selected by the Chinese national government to participate in a summer exchange program at Georgetown University later this year. She plans to use this opportunity to strengthen her own skills as a teacher and then share them with others through teacher- training workshops. "My goal for this next year is to spread ideas to other teachers--first teachers in my school, and then in my county. I could be a trainer next year," said Ms. Huang.

The Politics of Researching Multilingually, 2022

As classrooms worldwide become more culturally and linguistically diverse, education research cor... more As classrooms worldwide become more culturally and linguistically diverse, education research correspondingly involves more diverse classroom communities. Consequently, researchers are faced with decisions about how to navigate these multilingual settings. Holmes et al. (2013) use the term ‘researching multilingually’ to describe such methodological dimensions; furthermore, they acknowledge that ‘the complexities and possibilities of researching multilingually are not extensively covered in research training’ (p. 286).

This lack of preparation was apparent to me as a doctoral student in teacher education. In my research related to the experiences of transnational language teachers, I tried to be as reflexive as possible about the linguistic decisions I made throughout the research process. Since I chose to work with multilingual participants, I navigated ways we could communicate effectively and ethically. Drawing inspiration from García et al. (2017), I found it productive to consider my methodological decisions through a translanguaging pedagogy lens. This process allowed me to leverage the linguistic resources of my participants and confront my own perceived monolingualism.

In this chapter, after briefly reviewing the literature on translanguaging, I introduce a methodological framework based on two metaphors from García et al. (2017): the three-stranded rope and translanguaging corriente. Although these metaphors originally referred to teacher and student practices in multilingual classrooms, I discuss their applicability to researchers and the process of researching multilingually.

Segueing from translanguaging pedagogy to translanguaging methodology, I describe a qualitative inquiry process which started as a project about classroom naming practices of transnational Chinese language teachers. Focusing on one participant with whom I met over a six-month period, I examine our linguistic choices and the ways we respond to each other by analyzing our interview conversations. I describe my methodological processes and share excerpts from our conversations in chronological order to highlight the importance of planning for translanguaging before data collection and also to acknowledge the time needed for fluid linguistic practices to become comfortable for both researcher and participant.

The chapter closes with a discussion of the implications and limitations of adopting a translanguaging-informed methodology in multilingual research protocols. Building upon the four pedagogical purposes for translanguaging (García et al., 2017), I propose four methodological purposes for translanguaging to support researchers and participants in multilingual settings. Rather than view cultural and linguistic diversity as a ‘problem to be solved’ (García et al., 2017: 118), I argue that researchers working in multilingual contexts should adopt a translanguaging stance during qualitative inquiry to embrace their own and their participants’ cultural and linguistic repertoires. A more flexible mindset regarding the use of linguistic resources may not only make a political statement about linguistic hegemony, power hierarchies and knowledge ownership in the research process but also aid in the co-construction of meaning and the building of rapport with participants.

Language Learning in Anglophone Countries, 2021

This chapter explores the sociopolitical implications of adopting multilingual pedagogies in teac... more This chapter explores the sociopolitical implications of adopting multilingual pedagogies in teacher education. More specifically, the authors draw on data from a qualitative inquiry of how racism manifested and was addressed and ignored within an online undergraduate ESL methodology course for pre-service teachers (PSTs). Classwork from PSTs and interviews with PSTs revealed that race was an uncomfortable topic that PSTs rarely underscored despite the inextricable link between language and race. Using white fragility as a guiding framework, the authors highlight how the predominantly White PSTs understood and perceived the course’s coverage of race. Considering the limited coverage of race in the course, the PSTs’ confusion with key terminology, and patterns of defensive behaviors in response to discussions on race, the chapter closes with suggestions of how to raise racial awareness in an effort to better implement the instruction of multilingual pedagogies in language methodology courses.