English Language-Mediated Settings and Educational Inequalities

Language Education Policy Agendas in the South Pacific
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-76577-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 238 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 513 g

Reihe: Routledge Research in Language Education

In this book, Goundar explores how educational inequalities are responsible for the way students perform in English language-mediated school settings. He seeks to establish an explicit connection between language testing and educational inequalities at the higher education level.

With its focus on higher education, this research is a fresh reminder of the need to continuously revisit and unsettle inequalities that are embedded in education systems. In the South Pacific context, this study reveals the current issues, including medium of instruction challenges, lack of teaching and learning resources, teacher shortages, and language barriers. Goundar’s research seeks new answers to the problem of academic English language skills faced by undergraduate students. Since English is a second language for the majority of students in Fiji and as the quality of education varies between urban and rural schools, this cumulatively impacts students’ acquisition of English skills, and, consequently, their university performance. The important questions posed and addressed in this book are as follows:

- What are the language implications of colonisation on education in the South Pacific? What resources and learning opportunities are provided in schools to promote equal access to education content for students from non-English-speaking backgrounds?

- How do students from different schooling backgrounds in Fiji cope with an English language-mediated university learning environment?

- Do educational inequalities manifest in the performance of students from all schooling backgrounds, or are they confined to specific sociocultural zones?

Drawing on a unique dataset from a context in the Global South, this book provides new insights for a more holistic approach to examining academic language proficiency and the use of language testing.

English Language-mediated Settings and Educational Inequalities: Language Education Policy Agendas in the South Pacific is suitable for postgraduate students in language policy and planning, multilingual language policies for schools, medium of instruction studies, and language testing, and South Pacific studies.

Zielgruppe

Academic and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Goundar, Prashneel Ravisan

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Fremdsprachenerwerb und -didaktik
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Lehrerausbildung, Unterricht & Didaktik Allgemeine Didaktik Literatur, Deutsch, Fremdsprachen (Unterricht & Didaktik)

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Situating Language Complexities in Pluralistic Fiji 2 Educational Inequalities in Former South Pacific Colonies 3 Historical Overview of Language Testing Frameworks 4 Research Methods and Procedures 5 The CEFR at Play in Fiji 6 Unpacking Educational Inequalities from a Multilingual Context 6 Crafting the Way Forward

Über Autor(innen)

Prashneel Ravisan Goundar is a graduate research academic based at the University of New England. His research interests span applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and education linguistics. His publications include Pursuing Divinity in Paradise (2020), Writing and Publishing in Fiji (2018), and In Simple Words (2017).