Creating Classroom Communities of Learning International Case Studies and Perspectives

This is a collection of nine case studies of teachers and young learners in countries as widely separated as USA, Japan and Australia. In each chapter, classroom interaction is interpreted by different authors to illustrate how teachers and their students verbally co-construct culturally appropriate learning attitudes and behaviours. The collection reveals not only similarities and differences across cultural divides, but also how different perspectives can provide alternative and rich interpretations of teaching and learning.

Roger Barnard is a senior lecturer in applied linguistics at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He has spent many years working with language teachers of young learners in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.Professor María E. Torres-Guzmán is a professor in bilingual/multicultural education at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY. She has primarily focused on teacher development and cultural aspects of the education of language minority populations in the United States, Spain and elsewhere.