Volume 3, Number 1 (May 2004): Focus: The challenge of teaching English in a multilingual or monolingual context

Co-editors: Hilary Janks (University of Witswatersrand, South Africa) and Stephen May (School of Education, University of Waikato, New Zealand)

Rationale: The aim of this issue is to explore the relationship of the subject English, or literacy instruction where the target language and language of instruction is English, to context in terms of the linguistic and cultural diversity (or lack of) of a clientele. Such an exploration relates to some of the concerns raised by keynote speakers and paper presenters at the recent Language, Education and Diversity (LED) conference, held at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand (November, 2003) and chaired by Professor Stephen May, one of the co-editors of this issue. Part of the rationale of this issue is an assertion of the need to identify and value all students' customary linguistic practices as social, cultural and educational resources in the teaching and learning process. Such an assertion recognises the importance of languages to one's identity and does not presuppose that it is only the first-language (often monolingual) English speaker who has the unquestioned right to have this affirmed and normalised in the teaching and learning process.

View contents of issue