Unveiling quality language education insights: LEA Newsletter Jun 2023 Edition

Greetings on the LEA Newsletter Jun 2023!

I am excited to welcome you to another inspiring edition of our monthly newsletter! We know how much dedication and passion you bring to your mission of empowering students and shaping future effective communicators. That’s why I want to ensure that you are well-supported to equip yourself professionally with resources, and methods to keep your classroom thriving.

I finally found pockets of time in June – you may not believe but yes, during my vacation trip – to update the glossary of terms found in the resources section of LEA’s website. This will definitely become a quarterly exercise, so that many of us who just need a quick definition of terms can refer to this resource as we navigate the world of linguistic terms. Yeah, some of us just dislike jargons but they are sometimes the necessary evil to expedite communication and discussion. In any case, you can bookmark this page and come back often.

Other than the glossary, I have also launched another page – blogs. You might be wondering – don’t we already read the blog of LEA? Yup, this page provides a list of top recommended blogs that we may also want to follow – those that focus on certain niche areas relevant to language education. While they are not specifically designed for language educators, we can still draw wisdom from their perspectives that can impact on our own practices. So, why not just take a look now?

Most excitingly, I have also started a Miniseries this month that aim to disambiguate definitions of key terms for language educators. In the course of our professional work, we would inevitably stumble upon an array of specialised terms in theoretical and applied linguistics. Depending on our backgrounds and experiences, we interpret these terms with an air of presumed universality. However, upon closer examination, it becomes evident that certain terms bear a degree of controversy, as linguists ascribe nuanced meanings within the variegated contexts they inhabit. This is why the current Miniseries “Decoding Definitions” can be your next must go-to before reading more articles that engage such terms.

For this month, I have published 2 articles under this Miniseries. In the first article, I tackled the challenge in differentiating between “first language” and “second language”. On first thought, we may not readily understand that both terms can be conflated with one another. One is “first”, and one is “second” – how alike can they become? I approached the differentiation through 5 dimensions: acquisition context, sequence, proficiency level, frequency of use, and positioning in education. After reading, you might realise that the difference may not be that clean and we do need to analyse a certain discourse to understand which dimension has been used for definition in the given context.

My second article looks at the difference between “second language” and “foreign language”. I used to think that both are pretty different – educational discourses that engaged both terms in Singapore make a very clear distinction between both terms. However, having critically read many academic articles and socialise with linguists from different regions, I realised that distinction is also not to be taken for granted. As such, I talked about the difference through 3 obvious perspectives that we tend to overlook – although that is within the caveat that we choose to differentiate them.

Before I end off, I will just like to share: in my last newsletter, I told all of you that I’d be going on an overseas vacation during the Mid-year break in Singapore. We went to Japan, and I must say it was a blast – a cultural immersion for my family who was there for the first time, and also a powerful experience of language learning. Leveraging examples from the trip, I will be working on an article soon that talks about the benefits and tips for language immersion trips. Do look out for it in the next newsletter, or follow LEA’s social media pages below to receive the latest updates with every post or thought.

Thank you for your continued support and dedication to the field of language education. My trip reminded me that “breaks and reflections are not intensive activities saved for a long vacation”. I hope you do schedule in such sessions in between your daily schedule throughout the academic year while we continue to make a difference in the lives of our learners through language education.

Warm Regards,
Chin Yew KIEU
Founder, Language Educators Assemble