ABSTRACT

This ethnography examines how teachers interpret and enact language-in-education policies in an adult ESL classroom in the United States, where students simultaneously received job training as Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs). We draw on postmodern and interpretive lenses from the ethnography of communication, considering how workforce-oriented language policies impact teachers’ agency during speech events when classroom participants discuss the meanings of unknown words. We assert that during talk about word meanings (semantics), models of social identity formed, sometimes in conflict with the sociocognitive complexities of second language acquisition. Findings indicate that the meanings of polysemous words were narrowed solely to the immediate healthcare context, and that instructional time often focused on teaching lexis common on multiple-choice tests, preparing students for their final CNA examination. Implications for teachers and policy makers are discussed, including the potentially equalizing applications of polysemic research within workforce language instructional models.

摘要

该民族志研究了美国成人 ESL 课堂中教师如何解释和制定语言教育政策，学生同时接受了认证护士助理 (CNA) 的职业培训。我们利用传播民族志的后现代和解释性视角，考虑在课堂参与者讨论未知词的含义时，以劳动力为导向的语言政策如何影响教师在演讲活动中的能动性。我们断言，在谈论词义（语义）期间，形成了社会身份模型，有时与第二语言习得的社会认知复杂性相冲突。调查结果表明，多义词的含义仅限于直接的医疗保健上下文，那个教学时间通常集中在教授多项选择测试中常见的词汇，让学生为他们的最终 CNA 考试做准备。讨论了对教师和政策制定者的影响，包括多义词研究在劳动力语言教学模型中的潜在均衡应用。