Conference Agenda

In language courses, a near-standard variant and pronunciation is often used, whereas in everyday life in the everyday environment of learners, different variants of the majority language (in this case German) must be heard and decoded, whereby phoneme perception and differentiation play an essential role not only for the initial acquisition of German, but also for linguistic interaction in later phases, so that decoding problems on the part of speakers and listeners can be reduced.
Methods such as "before, during and after listening" are used in lessons (Field 2008:30), but these say nothing about the actual decoding ability of the participants, instead focussing on the typical "questions about the text" and rather testing general (prior) knowledge or global understanding.
It is forgotten that the context is only useful if the listeners can already decode precisely everything that has been said up to that point (cf. Field 2008: 136).
It is important to practise phoneme perception, i.e. decoding, with the participants right from the start so that the correct understanding of the individual sounds and thus the entire utterance is achieved.
The importance of reliable phonological representation for the phonological processing of L2 input provides a basis for the other skills that follow in the acquisition process; listening comprehension is closely linked to speaking and also plays an important role in the later acquisition of reading skills (cf. Boada & Pennington 2006)
However, it is not only the ability to decode when listening that is important, but first and foremost the connection between perception and production: what is not heard cannot be reproduced (Dieling 1994).
The aim is to investigate how (and whether) the phonemes of German (in the dialect-standard continuum) can be perceived (unaltered) or not, depending on the language(s) of origin of the participants.
In addition, the sounds of the participants' languages of origin should be analysed in order to investigate whether German phonemes that are also known to them in a similar form from their languages of origin can also be decoded and differentiated more precisely.
This would enable a more differentiated view of the sound perception of German, which would also allow the linguistic approaches to German to be taken into account.
It is expected that, in addition to general approaches to the sound perception of German that are given for learners of different first languages, it will also be possible to describe indications of learning success with regard to the perception of German phonemes or learning obstacles in this area that are related to the first languages.
It is assumed that if phonemes are already known from the learner's language inventory and occur in the language to be learnt, they are more likely to be perceived and articulated correctly.

People on the move frequently spend months or even years in the condition of “waiting” (Conlon 2011) in so-called “transit countries” on the periphery of Europe, such as Serbia and Bulgaria (Panayotova & Petrova 2020; Galijas 2019; Lukic 2016; Kogovsek Salamon 2016). This happens mostly due to political aspirations to limit immigration from Africa and the Middle East, the totality of which can be conceptualised as „geopolitical whiteness“ (Rexhepi 2023).The Balkans, which have historically been crucial to European bordering processes along ethnic and religious lines, are still an important site for border-making and identity-construction in the present day (ibid.: 7). These processes have sharpened following the most recent forced migration movement from Ukraine (Açit 2022). Arguably, one of the most fortified borders runs right through the heart of the Balkan peninsula, demarcating the inside and the outside of the European Union. This reality results in highly different legal frameworks regarding migration. Regulations such as the Dublin Regulation[1], which apply in Bulgaria but not in Serbia, lead to different reception conditions and different strategies employed by forced migrants. These in turn impact aims, requirements and provisions regarding language education programmes.

It has been established that civil society actors are crucial for adaptation processes of forced migrants (Galera et al. 2018; Spencer & Delvino 2018; Stock 2017; Van Dyk, Dauling & Haubner 2015), and states rely on civil society to provide necessary services (Tietje et al. 2021; Lorey 2012). This is even more pronounced in transit countries (Norman 2019: 43). In Serbia and Bulgaria there are currently no public programmes for language education as part of public migration policy, as opposed to most EU states at the core of Europe (Simpson & Whiteside 2015). Instead, adult education programmes are facultative and offered exclusively by civil society organisations. Due to historical developments and the aforementioned geopolitical positions the civil society organisations working in the field of forced migration vary widely between Serbia and Bulgaria. In Serbia the landscape is comprised mostly by local NGOs, many of which are rooted in the humanitarian crisis following the Yugoslav wars in the 90s, while in Bulgaria global NGOs such as Caritas or the Red Cross are most relevant. This project explores how ideologies about language(s) are governing discursive practices in spaces of civil society organised adult language education courses and how they can affect participants’. Specifically, the project combines a micro-analysis of communicative practices in different language classrooms (see: Heller 2015; Kern et al. 2015) with extensive analysis of interview data generated in conversation with teachers, learners and programme managers. In accordance with the principles of critical ethnography (Madison 2005), the aim is to map the language related rules and norms in the classroom, as well as the (self-)positioning of participants within the community of practice. Exploring Bourdieu’s sociolinguistic concepts of (il-)legitimate speech (see e.g.: Bourdieu 2017) and more recent perspectives on “raciolinguistic ideology” (like Rosa & Flores 2015) and “linguicism” (Dirim 2010), the project aspires to show discursive practices reinforcing and/or contesting linguistic stigmatization and racialised perceptions of the self and others.

[1] Council Regulation (EU) No 604/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013, Official Journal of the European Union L180/31

Argumentative writing is a critical genre that involves justifying and supporting a position on an issue or topic with reliable evidence. They aim to persuade the audience by providing logical reasons for a belief or idea. Studies have shown that students often struggle to write rebuttal paragraphs and maintain an academic tone while developing their argumentative essays (Ozfidan& Mitchell, 2020).

Marzano's teaching strategies are known to have a significant impact on student learning, especially when they are well organised, systematically applied and properly assessed in class (Akdeniz, 2016; Marzano, 2003).

Marzano's nine strategies include setting goals and providing feedback, reinforcing effort and providing recognition, cooperative learning, homework and exercises, questions, hints and advance organisers, summaries and notes, recognising similarities and differences, creating and testing hypotheses, and using non-linguistic representations (Marzano et al., 2007).

These strategies, based on research on effective teaching, have been widely studied in the United States, but not in the Kazakh context, particularly in the area of teaching argumentative writing. This study aims to fill this gap and potentially extend the application of Marzano’s strategies to other educational contexts.

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of Marzano's instructional strategies in enhancing the writing skills of students in 11th grade English and 8th grade Kazakh language courses. By focusing on argumentative essay writing, the research seeks to understand how these strategies can improve students' writing abilities in different language contexts.

Objectives:

1. To evaluate the improvement in argumentative essay writing skills in English and Kazakh language classes after applying Marzano's instructional strategies.
2. To identify the challenges faced by students of varying proficiency levels (A, B, and C) in writing argumentative essays in both languages.
3. To assess changes in students' perceptions and difficulties regarding argumentative essay writing before and after the intervention

Within higher education, it is acknowledged that a sense of belonging is paramount to student engagement which ultimately impacts student success (Thomas, 2012; Kahu et. al. 2022). More recently, the concept of ‘mattering’ (Flett, 2018; Gravett, 2021) as an aspect of belonging has come to the fore, focusing on students’ sense of personal value to staff and peers rather than simply a sense of fitting in with a group. Diminished sense of ‘belonging’ has been linked to poorer academic outcomes for racially minoritized students than for white students in the UK (HEFCE, 2015; Millward, 2021). In addition, post-92 universities seek to provide a transformational learning experience to enable social mobility and increase access, participation and success amongst minoritized, marginalised and non-traditional students, but what exactly does it mean to belong and transform, and how do racially minoritized students make-meaning of these concepts in their learning context?

This study focuses on the lived experiences of racially minoritized undergraduate students within a post-92 Business School in the south-east of England. Exploring the immediate and extended environment of students’ lived experiences through their own photographs and metaphorical interpretations of these, factors which hinder or enable a sense of belonging and/ or transforming are examined and discussed.

Employing an arts-based methodology with reference to decolonising methodologies (Tuhiwai Smith, 2012) and Critical Race Theory, the study uses photo-elicitation and collage as methods to access deeper reflections on experience and situations which may go unnoticed or be dismissed (Hughes & Giles, 2010), thereby ‘making the invisible visible’ (Samatar et. al., 2021 p4). Through the creation of metaphors, and participants’ own interpretations of these, whiteness and patterns of oppression and resistance are identified using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun and Clark, 2006 & 2022; Terry and Hayfield, 2020).

Whilst the research is contextually situated and conducted in the year post-Covid, the findings will have relevance to all universities looking beyond the headline statistics on ethnicity degree awarding gaps and drop-out rates to understand the lived experiences of students othered as ‘non-white’ in European higher education systems.