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Freeman, Keri. "Investigating First Year Undergraduate EAL Students' Academic Literacy Experiences." Thesis, Griffith University, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/377655.
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Australian universities have become places where students from diverse backgrounds and cultures come together to pursue tertiary education. This study contributes to current understandings of how universities have responded to their now diverse student body, and adds insight into curricula and classroom practices which might better accommodate learners who have English as an Additional Language (EAL). While issues surrounding EAL students have been examined and discussed for two decades, Lea and Street (2006), Leask (2013), and Wingate (2015) contend that university pedagogies and practices are yet to adequately cater for students from diverse backgrounds. In particular, disciplinary pedagogies tend to be dominated by assumptions that EAL students’ linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds are deficits, which limit their capacity to adapt to Australian tertiary learning environments. Accordingly, research which focuses on first year EAL students’ academic expectations and experiences is critical so that Australian universities can enhance current pedagogies which guide curricula and classroom practices.
This study employed Lea and Street’s (1998) academic literacies approach to examine how first year undergraduate EAL students from a range of educational and cultural backgrounds, and fields of study, mediated their first year at an English-speaking university. The study investigated participants’ academic expectations, academic socialisation, and academic literacies, including their experiences constructing new student identities, and engaging with teachers and peers. Such research is important to provide evidence of best practice strategies to support EAL students’ literacy and learning, and foster a sense of belonging. This study also examined participants’ academic reading, a fundamental aspect of academic literacy which has been under researched (Hill & Meo, 2015; Wingate, 2015). Three research questions guided the study: Research Question 1 investigated participants’ expectations of their new learning environment; Research Question 2 examined how the students mediated their academic socialisation; and Research Question 3 investigated what factors enabled and constrained participants’ academic literacies.
The primary research method was a multiple case study approach in which eight units of analysis were embedded within the research setting, a university in South East Queensland. The study employed a three phase explanatory qualitative and quantitative research design. A self-administered questionnaire with a convenience sample size of 159 first year EAL students was implemented in Phase I. The questionnaire examined respondents’ expectations of academic conventions and skills, academic reading, and engagement with teachers and peers. The survey data were analysed using SPSS software to generate descriptive statistics. The findings informed the qualitative case study inquiry. Phase II was the first stage of the multiple case studies. Eight case study participants were recruited through purposive sampling. Phase II examined participants’ academic socialisation experiences. Data was collected through weekly structured interviews, and course document analysis. In Phase III, semi-structured interviews investigated participants’ classroom experiences, student identities, and academic relationships with teachers and peers. The case study data were analysed using thematic analysis, which involved an iterative process of reading, rereading, and coding the data into themes related to the issues under investigation.
The multiple sources of data revealed that participants’ expectations and experiences were homogenous, despite their diverse backgrounds. This suggests that first year EAL students share similar literacy and learning needs. Participants demonstrated an understanding of disciplinary literacy practices and conventions. They expected to enhance their language, academic, and intercultural communication skills, with the help of course teachers. They believed it was important to feel a sense of belonging in their new academic community, and engage with domestic peers. However, these expectations were largely unfulfilled. The findings also showed that EAL students often underestimate the reality of course reading demands. Nevertheless, participants demonstrated positive student identities by adapting and extending their literacy practices to successfully mediate disciplinary requirements. They read strategically by engaging with academic texts they believed were relevant to their literacy and learning. Participants’ academic achievements indicated that their linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds did not hinder their capability to engage in their courses and complete assessment tasks. This suggests that the prevailing perception about EAL students’ cultural and educational backgrounds being barriers to learning is misguided.
However, the participants’ academic literacies were hindered when they encountered classroom learning environments which did not incorporate language and literacy instruction, constructive feedback on assessments, or peer engagement. There was also little evidence that courses applied reading pedagogies. These challenges, in particular the lack of classroom engagement with domestic peers, negatively affected their sense of belonging in their new academic community. The study findings reveal a disparity between EAL students’ classroom experiences, and best practice first year and internationalisation strategies recommended in the literature (e.g., Lea & Street, 2006; Leask, 2013; Wingate, 2015). A noteworthy finding is that the teaching practices which help EAL students’ communicative confidence and learning require little effort. That is, when teachers show interest, and facilitate cross-cultural classroom interactions, there is a positive impact on students’ feelings of belonging. The implication is teachers are in the best position to provide supportive and inclusive classroom learning environments that fulfilThesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School Educ & Professional St
Arts, Education and Law
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Wilbur, Amea. "Creating inclusive EAL classrooms : how LINC instructors understand and mitigate barriers, for students who have experienced trauma." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/54601.
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This study explores the assumptions and understandings that English as an Additional Language (EAL) teachers bring to teaching students who they believe have experienced trauma. The instructors in this study teach in a Canadian federally funded program called Language Instruction Program for Newcomers (LINC). The research is informed by the critical literacy work of Paulo Freire, particularly his critique of the banking model of education and his work on dialogue and praxis. The work of Freire is considered in relation to larger conversations about social justice. The research draws on participatory action research. The study illustrates the complex and contradictory understanding that instructors have about trauma and the dilemmas they face in supporting students affected by trauma in a government-funded EAL program for newcomers. First, this project describes the multiple barriers students and instructors face in trying to create inclusive classrooms. Second, it demonstrates that instructors bring a variety of experiences, techniques and processes to support students who have experienced trauma. Third, it shows that for EAL programs to be responsive to the whole student requires a shift away from neo-liberal policy and practice. What is needed is a rethinking of current Professional Development (PD) practices, and active engagement through communities of practice are needed to enable EAL instructors to create more inclusive EAL education, particularly for students who have experienced trauma. This research contributes to the discussion on trauma and learning within government-funded EAL programs, specifically in relation to adult immigrants.Education, Faculty of
Educational Studies (EDST), Department of
Graduate
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Hunma, Aditi. "The exploration of a performative space to nurture EAL international students' writer identities at a South African university." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11494.
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Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.
This study is located within the internalisation context at the University of Cape Town (UCT). As an internationalising university, UCT aims among other things to promote the ideals of 'Equity and Institutional culture' for all its students (UCT policy on internationalisation, 2009). The reality on the ground suggests that this may unwittingly reproduce the centre-periphery divide which characterises global knowledge transactions, within UCT's own institutional structures especially for students from developing African nations, the focus here being on Southern African Development Community (SADC) nations. The tension brought about at the institutional level may be partly due to the lack of specific support structures for international students, and partly due to the latter's misguided perceptions of the faculties' expectations. I argue that gradually, this tension begins to permeate students' texts, their production strategies and motivations.
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Condra, Annaloiuse. "Playing with culture : a case study of popular theatre with first-year cross border EAL students in a UK university." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.673798.
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This arts-based qualitative study uses the Popular Theatre method of drama in a manner that encourages play, experimentation and reflection with cross border English-as-an-Additional Language (EAL) students in a UK university. This Participatory Action Research case study was driven by these students' reflections and explorations of their cultural experiences. This was a deliberate move away from the traditional use of drama in E~L classrooms where drama activities have been employed to reinforce language learning in an exchange format. This research is theoretically framed by the Popular Theatre method (which is informed by the writing of Augusto Boal). In the course of the project, students were able to trouble-shoot and practise problem-solving together, 'playing' with their real-lives. From this 'playing', and reflection on my own experience as a drama teacher and international student, I generated a series of scripted ethnodrama scenes. This ethnodrama reveals and breathes life into the findings from this research. The first is the examination of the differentiating characteristics of a group I am identifying as solo-nationals. These are students who are the singular person from their country of origin. The second is the inadequacy of the structure of induction programmes, such as those current in many HE Is, as a one-size-fits-all event. As a researcher I critically examine the ethnodrama and offer scenes for use in the EAL classroom or induction programmes to both represent students' experiences and provide a template for further exploration of individual experience. Further, I reflect on and evaluate what can be learned from this study about the uses and effectiveness of drama as a learning tool in this context.
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Bangeni, Abongwe. "Language attitudes, genre and culture capital : a case study of EAL students' access to a foundation course in the Humanities at UCT." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13876.
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Bibliography: leaves 72-75.This dissertation explores the extent to which language and genre can be used to facilitate access for a group of first year students who have English as an additional language in the Humanities at the University of Cape Town enrolled in a foundation course. The use of the genre of the praise poem in the curriculum is used as a case study to address how the cultural capital that this group of students bring with them can be validated, the main aim being to facilitate access to the curriculum. In exploring students' attitudes to language and genre, data were collected mainly through the use of two questionnaires and interviews, where a qualitative analysis was done by drawing up the main themes which emerged and exploring the implications of these themes for the research question. The questionnaires aimed at identifying students' language preferences for academic writing (the choice being between their respective primary languages and English). The second questionnaire addresses the genre issue more closely by extending the question to include students' attitudes towards praise poetry while the first questionnaire asks about language preference in general. The second part of the research process deals with interviews, which I conducted with three of the students. The interviews were conducted with the aim of addressing the issues that emerged from the questionnaires; issues that I felt needed to be explored further in an interview context.
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Wroots, Rachel Geraldine. "What can the literacy narrative accounts of EAL students tell us about their transition from high school to university-based academic practices?" Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7952.
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Bibliography: leaves 89-95.The study explores the usefulness of literacy narratives as a tool in academic writing for revealing the perceptions and values EAL students' place on their academic writing identities. The literacy narratives highlight the multiple identities that students bring with them to the act of writing and are shaped by the questions, Who am I? Where am I going? Where do I come from? These questions probe the writers' perceptions of past, present and future academic writer identities and shifts of identity over a period of time and differences between first and third year students. In my analytical approach, I recognise the fact that writing is a social act whereby we say something about ourselves, and use it actively to affirm those values, beliefs and practices which we want to sustain, and to resist those values, beliefs and practices which we do not value (Clark and Ivanic1997).
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Glader, Oscar. "The Impact of Extramural English on Students and Teachers : A systematic literature review." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-105007.
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Sweden is seen as a successful adopter of English as an additional language (EAL) and the country is a frontrunner in the globalization of the English language. Much of the success could be attributed to the large presence of English in Swedish society. Additionally, EAL learners are acquiring the English language out-of-school to a larger extent, often referred to as Extramural English (EE). Therefore, it is important to investigate how EE affects learners, teachers and discuss how it can change education. This has been done by evaluating the current state of research through a systematic literature review. It was found that learners engage in a variety of EE activities, with playing online games and watching movies being the activities with the most English exposure. Learners engage in these activities mostly out of their own interests or because of other socially driven motives. EE affects their opinion of English and could have negative effects on their attitude towards school English. Teachers are aware of the gap between EE and school English and try to integrate activities similar to EE activities in class. However, it is a challenge to find authentic material that fits a large number of learners’ interests. In conclusion, there is a need for more research that could point to a clear cause-and-effect relationship between EE and high proficiency in English. This thesis also calls on teachers, principals, and school leaders to prepare to change education if EE becomes a more widespread phenomenon.
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Ambe, Martina Bi. "Exploring first-year Students’ Voice and Subjectivity in Academic Writing at a University in South Africa." University of the Western Cape, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/7300.
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Magister Educationis - MEdLiteracy development in South African higher education is increasingly challenged by several issues in dialogue and language of tuition. Despite the widening of access to South African universities, research shows that a large majority of entry-level university students are still failing in their chosen programme of studies. Almost all universities in the democratic South Africa incorporate academic development programs in first-year modules as an awareness raising attempt to scaffold novice students into the vocabulary of their various disciplines. However, these development programs sometimes fail to address the language needs of some of the students who have had more than seven years of schooling in their first languages (IsiXhosa and Afrikaans). My study seeks to explore how additional language IsiXhosa and Afrikaans students understand and construct written knowledge in one literacy development course using English medium of instruction. I further explore lecturers’ and tutors’ perspectives of the demand of sounding a scholarly voice in academic writing by entry-level students in their new roles as scholars in the University of the Western Cape (UWC).Literature indicated gaps when it comes to students’ and lectures’ perceptions on the construction of voice in academic writing in a language that the students are not comfortable in.
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Barwell, Richard A. "The development of a discursive psychology approach to investigate the participation of students with English as an additional language (EAL) in writing and solving arithmetic word problems with peers." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/a01bd43c-1a99-4789-947a-3d9ac67f9e87.
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Harison, Rosemary. ""It's my think" exploring critical literacy with low level EAL students : a thesis submitted to Auckland University of Technology in partial fulfilment of the degree of Master of Arts in Applied Language Studies, 2008." Click here to access this resource online, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10292/737.
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Hagemeyer, Caroline de Araújo Pupo. "The role of teacher-student interaction in the process of reading engagement of EFL adolescent students." Florianópolis, SC, 2005. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/102631.
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Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-graduação em InglêsMade available in DSpace on 2013-07-16T01:28:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 225456.pdf: 3711303 bytes, checksum: b5ec4b8cdace20a5427879c5a7833b44 (MD5)
O propósito deste trabalho é analisar a prática dos professores de inglês a fim de investigar como ela está relacionada à motivação dos alunos para a leitura. A prática do professor é discutida em termos dos procedimentos pedagógicos utilizados e do feedback dado aos alunos. Três professores e sessenta e sete alunos de escolas públicas e privadas de Guarapuava, Paraná, Brasil, participaram deste estudo. Os dados foram coletados através de um questionário aplicado a três professores de Inglês, gravações em vídeo das aulas dos três professores, e um questionário administrado aos alunos que participaram das aulas observadas. Os resultados demonstraram que a motivação é um construto multi-dimensional. Ainda que não seja possível identificar todos os seus componentes e a relação entre eles (Dörnyei, 2001), alguns fatores que podem influenciar a motivação dos alunos para a leitura foram reconhecidos, tais como: motivação intrínseca e extrínseca, auto-eficácia, medo de falhar, 'scaffolding', interação social e tipo de textos e atividades. Os resultados mostraram que os professores adotaram procedimentos diferentes para engajar os alunos no processo da leitura. Embora estes procedimentos tenham gerado motivação, alguns deles não foram suficientes para manter o interesse dos alunos ao longo da aula. Além disso, o feedback negativo fornecido pelos professores influenciou negativamente a motivação dos alunos. Entretanto, o relacionamento construído com os alunos foi fundamental para o estabelecimento de uma atmosfera agradável na sala de aula, sendo uma das condições essenciais para a geração da motivação.
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Sardo, Claudia Estima. "An EFL student-generated syllabus." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFSC, 1993. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/157786.
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Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e ExpressãoMade available in DSpace on 2016-01-08T18:04:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 95701.pdf: 2994303 bytes, checksum: d8e166a784bc3aa673478453bde9c7cd (MD5) Previous issue date: 1993
Na área de estudos da aquisição de uma segunda língua, os pesquisadores têm discutido a respeito dos insumos linguísticos sob duas pespectivas: do tipo e seu efeito na aprendizagem. Quanto ao tipo de insumos, a literatura tem abordado, entre outros aspectos, o discurso do professor, a fala modificada, o maternales, livros texto e matérias de ensino autênticos. A relação entre insumos que são gerados espontaneamente pelos alunos. O objetivo deste estudo é observar o insumo gerado por um grupo de alunos quando aprende inglês através do método comunitário. Os dados indicam que os alunos deram pouca atenção à expansão do vocabulário e à análise gramatical de estruturas. O método mostrou-se estimulante para a aprendizagem e os resultados mostram que o grupo estava pronto para assumir as suas próprias responsabilidades na criação dos insumos necessários para a aprendizagem.
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Yasar, Engin. "University Preparatory Class Efl Students'." Master's thesis, METU, 2005. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/2/12606818/index.pdf.
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This study aims to investigate university preparatory class students&rsquoattitudes towards the assessment system by which they are evaluated and alternative assessment before and after the implementation of the electronic portfolio, their attitudes towards the electronic portfolio before and after keeping it for two months, their suggestions about improving the electronic portfolio and how keeping the electronic portfolio affects their computer literacy. For this purpose, 19 intermediate level EFL students in the Department of Basic English, METU were chosen as subjects. For this study, data were collected by administering two questionnaires before and after the implementation, conducting informal interviews with the students and keeping a diary in order to record teacher reflection. Then, the data collected through these data collection tools have been analysed. Finally, the results are discussed in order to interpret students&rsquo
attitudes towards the current assessment system at DBE, alternative assessment tools and the electronic portfolio. The findings of this study indicated that although the students are not completely dissatisfied with the current assessment used at DBE, their attitude towards alternative assessment tools, portfolio, and electronic portfolio was also positive before the implementation and keeping the electronic portfolio for two months made their attitudes towards these assessment tools even more positive. In addition, some of the students indicated that using both traditional and alternative assessment tools may reflect better assessment of their performance.
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Gramegna, Lorenza. "Problems of coherence in EFL students' compositions." Normal, Ill. : Illinois State University, 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=1432770671&SrchMode=2&sid=2&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1216228802&clientId=43838.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2007.Title from title page screen, viewed on July 16, 2008. Dissertation Committee: K. Aaron Smith, Janice Neuleib, Ronald Strickland. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 253-265) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Gregory, Debra Jane. "The Preferred Learning Styles of Greek EFL Students and Greek EFL Teachers." PDXScholar, 1994. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4836.
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The purpose of this study was to identify the preferred learning styles of Greek EFL students and teachers in Greece. The learning styles examined were visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, group and individual. The study was conducted at a private English language school in Piraeus, Greece. Ninety-two Greek EFL students (33 male and 59 female) ranging in age from 13 to 22, and 11 Greek EFL teachers (3 male and 8 female) ranging in age from 22 to 52 constitute the sample. The study used the self-reporting learning style questionnaire that Reid (1987) developed to measure the preferred learning style preferences of ESL students in the U.S., and is a partial replication of Reid's study. The instrument was used to determine the major, minor and negligible preferred learning styles of Greek EFL students and teachers. Data from the learning style questionnaires were analyzed using paired t-tests, unpaired t-tests, single-factor and two-factor ANOVAs. Statistical analysis indicated kinesthetic learning as a major learning style for students, and visual, kinesthetic and tactile learning as major learning style preferences for teachers. No negligible learning styles were reported for either group. Students tended to prefer teacher-centered learning styles (visual, auditory and individual learning) slightly more than student-centered learning styles (kinesthetic, tactile and group learning). Furthermore, teachers tended to prefer student-centered learning styles slightly more than teacher-centered learning styles. Data from both groups (teachers and students) suggested interaction effects for age and gender. The results of this study raise questions concerning the reliability of Reid's instrument. Neither subject groups in this study, nor subjects in Hoffner's (1991) or Pia's (1989~ studies, identify negligible learning styles on the part of the subjects. This raises questions related to the reliability of Reid's instrument. It suggests that further study needs to be conducted in measuring learning style preferences in culture specific studies.
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Uztosun, Mehmet Sercan. "The role of student negotiation in improving the speaking ability of Turkish university EFL students : an action research study." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/10728.
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Teaching speaking is an area of language education which is frequently neglected in English classes in Turkey. This dissertation reports on an action research study designed to address this problem. The study involved data collection through interviews, questionnaires, and observations, as a way of eliciting students’ views as a means to improve speaking classes and to outline the impact of student negotiation on students’ classroom participation and performance. The research, conducted in the ELT Department at a university in Turkey, comprised three different stages. In the first reconnaissance phase, initial data were collected to understand the classroom context. This informed the second stage, comprising eight weekly-based interventions that involved planning, action, observation and reflection, in which students were given a voice and classroom activities were designed accordingly. In the third stage, the final data were collected to understand the effectiveness of student negotiation. According to the findings, students wanted more opportunities to practise spoken language in class. Student negotiation allowed for the design of classes according to students’ needs and wants, with students becoming more motivated to engage in classroom activities. This led to the development of more positive attitudes towards speaking classes, and more positive perceptions of their speaking ability were reported at the end of the term, together with increased classroom participation, greater willingness to communicate, higher self-esteem, and lower levels of anxiety. The findings also suggested that student negotiation is likely to impact on students’ and teachers’ professional development. The study has a number of implications for both the teaching of speaking and for research: it demonstrates the significance of student engagement in classroom activities, made possible through designing activities which take into account students’ views and perceptions. Student negotiation and attention to students’ needs and wants would appear to promote a high level of student participation, increased motivation and more positive attitudes towards speaking classes. Further research studies, and specifically, more action research, should be conducted in Turkey to generate practical implications to improve classroom practice.
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Mantina, A. Y. "To the problem engineering students' intercultural EFL communication." Thesis, Sumy State University, 2015. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/40611.
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Cultural features of different nations make more urgent the problem of cultural identity and cultural differences. The cultural diversity of modern humanity is increased and nations try to preserve and develop their cultural identity.
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Johansson, Jonna, and Marie Nilsson. "Feedback as Formative Assessment on EFL Students’ Writing." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle (LS), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-35605.
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Providing feedback on students’ written tasks is a common aspect in today’s classrooms. Feedback affects students’ written language learning by either enhancing it or hindering it, depending on what, how and when it is given. The purpose of this degree project is to research how teachers perceive students’ writing process, how they give feedback on students’ written tasks in a primary EFL classroom, and the reasons behind their chosen strategies. Semi-structured interviews with two English teachers teaching years 4-6 were used as a method for this study. To support and analyse the data from the interviews, this project contains an overview of the fields of written language learning, formative assessment, effective formative feedback and writing as a process using literature and previous research. The literature and research show that teaching writing in a foreign language should focus on enhancing students’ interest in writing by supporting their curiosity and willingness to become writers. This can be done by focusing on content of a text instead of grammar or spelling, as this does not support young learners in their writing process. Teachers therefore need to provide feedback on aspects such as content, coherence and structure and give students information on how they can proceed in and improve a task. That is when the feedback will have the most positive effect on students’ learning. Further, the process-based approach of writing is argued to be beneficial for students’ learning as it encourages students to take an active part in their writing process. The major conclusions of this study are that the two teachers prefer to give informal and oral selective feedback on students’ writing tasks during the task. They give feedback once or twice on a task and often in the middle, to scaffold a progression. However, this is not in alignment with process-based writing. The study also shows that the two teachers are not aware of the theories underpinning writing as a process. Instead, they are well trained in ways of formative assessment and scaffolding language learning, but not the process-based approach of writing.
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Lucena, Maria Inez Probst. "Processing input : an investigation into brazilian efl students." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFSC, 1998. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/77783.
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Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e ExpressãoMade available in DSpace on 2012-10-17T07:28:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0Bitstream added on 2016-01-09T01:07:44Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 149134.pdf: 5190658 bytes, checksum: 97a216e695858d9dcc4d7231a494f0c6 (MD5)
Baseados na psicologia e na perspectiva de processamento de input, pesquisadores têm tentado obter informações sobre a relação que existe entre o input e os processos cognitivos dos aprendizes. A principal afirmação dentro dessa perspectiva é que, uma vez que o ser humano não tem uma capacidade ilimitada de atenção, é dificil atender a todo o input ao mesmo tempo. Van Patten (1990) investigou a divisão da atenção do aprendiz entre conteúdo e aspectos formais da língua e verificou que a atenção ao primeiro compete com a atenção ao segundo. O presente estudo teve como objetivo investigar, através da replicação do estudo de Van Patten (1990), se alunos brasileiros de inglês como língua estrangeira apresentavam um desempenho diferente do constatado no experimento original. Os resultados fornecem evidência de que atender ao conteúdo e às formas gramaticais foi mais dificil do que atender somente ao conteúdo ou ao conteúdo e a um item lexical e que somente os alunos em níveis mais avançados puderam atender mais facilmente à forma sem afetar a compreensão do conteúdo. Abstract : Much research in second/ foreign language (L2) acquisition field has been carried out on the way learners process input in an attempt to determine how second/ foreign languages are best learned. Based on cognitive psychology and within an input processing perspective, researchers have been seeking to obtain information about the relationship between input and learners' cognitive processes. The main claim within this perspective is that since humans do not have unlin-úted supplies of attention, it is difficult to attend to everything in the input at the same time. Van Patten (1990) investigated the relationship between learners' attention to the meaning and to the formal features of the language input and found that focusing on meaning competes with focusing on form, and that only when comprehension as a skill is automatized can learners simultaneously attend to form without loss of information. The purpose of the present study was to investigate, through the replication of Van Patten's (1990) study, whether Brazilian EFL students at the secondary school levei perform in different ways when they are asked to attend to both form and meaning in listening tasks. The participants in this study were 71 Brazilian secondary school students enrolled in EFL classes at Colégio de Aplicação, a public high-school linked to the Federal University of Santa Catarina. The experiment followed the same general procederes used by Van Patten. Students at three different levels of competence listened to recorded passages. At each levei students were divided into four different groups and each group was expected to carry out a slightly different task. Thus, in each task learners were expected to pay attention to different things: In Task I, only to the content; in Task II, to the content and to the key lexical item Einstein; in Task III, to the content and to the definite article the, and in Task IV, to the content and to the past verb morpheme -ed. Subjects were to demonstrate their attention to target items by placing an X on their papers every time they heard an occurrence. They were asked to write freely in Portuguese, everything they remembered from the passages and their performance in each task was assessed in terms of the number of idea units recalled. Results provided evidence that attention to content and grammatical forms was more difficult than attention to only content or content plus a lexical item, and only the more advanced learners showed that they could more easily focus on form without affecting comprehension. The results of the present study reinforce Van Patten's claims that learners' attention during input processing is focused first on meaning and that only when comprehension as a skill becomes automatic, learners' are more able to detect grammatical items while detecting information without negatively affecting comprehension.
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Pereira, Claudia Maria. "Acquisition of morphological rules by EFL brazilian students." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFSC, 1994. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/111357.
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Johansson, Therese. "Teaching material in the EFL classroom : teachers' and students' perspectives." Thesis, Växjö University, School of Humanities, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vxu:diva-764.
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The principal aim of this essay was to study why some teachers at upper secondary school choose to work with alternative material in the English classroom, whereas others choose a combination of alternative material and coursebooks. The investigation further deals with how alternative material is used. What students think about various kinds of material and whether they are encouraged to influence the choice of material has been considered as well. The method used was interviews with three teachers and six students.
The results of the study showed that all three teachers agreed that coursebooks should not be the only teaching material used in the classroom; they believed that the use of course-books alone would be boring and not very stimulating for the students. Coursebooks combined with alternative material were considered to work very well as teachers and students benefit from the advantages of both. Furthermore, alternative material would be used more if it were not such a time-consuming business for the teachers. Concerning how the three teachers made alternative material, practise varied. One teacher for who mainly used alternative material and also made it herself, had many different sources, whereas the other two teachers mostly used books and movies. Regarding the students, their requests of teaching material varied. The majority however preferred either alternative material or a combination with coursebooks. They also declared that they are encouraged to influence the choice of material.
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Johnson, Amy Mae. "Faculty and EAL Student Perceptions of Writing Purposes and Challenges in the Business Major." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2017. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6683.
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Over the last 50 years, research has explored the writing assignment types and purposes found in undergraduate courses, including discipline-specific writing for the business major, which is one of the most popular fields of study for international students in the U.S. Many studies have explored faculty perceptions of writing challenges students exhibit when writing for business; however, few studies have compared both faculty and student perceptions of student writing challenges. The purpose of this study was to investigate business faculty perceptions of the writing challenges exhibited by students for whom English is a second or additional language (EAL) compared to EAL perceptions of their own writing challenges. This study utilized parallel surveys distributed to faculty and students in Accounting, Finance, and Management in one undergraduate business school. Students self-selected as being a native English speaker (NES), an EAL, or having more than one primary language (multilingual or ML). Results of the study indicated statistically significant differences across faculty, EAL, and ML perceptions of developing arguments as an important purpose of business writing. No statistically significant differences were found, however, across all three populations in regards to perceptions of the student challenges of business writing.
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Johnston, Nicole R. "Understanding the information literacy experiences of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2014. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/71386/3/Nicole_Johnston_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis investigated the information literacy experiences of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students in a higher education institution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Phenomenography was used to investigate how EFL students' 'used information to learn' (ie. information literacy). The study revealed that EFL students' experienced information literacy across four categories and had varying experiences of information and learning. The research also showed that EFL students' faced a number of challenges and barriers due to language that impacted on their experiences of reading, understanding, accessing and translating information.
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Hirose, Koji. "Effects of text structure instruction on Japanese EFL students." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28619.
Full textAbstract:
An instructional approach to replace the traditional Yakudoku method is required for the instruction of text comprehension. The traditional Yakudoku method focuses on the translation of English into Japanese in a single sentence, which disturbs the flow of text comprehension and results in a loss of meaning. One way to resolve this may direct students’ attention to the whole text through the learning of text structure. While the effect of text structure instruction has been exhibited in the L1 context, little empirical research has examined the effectiveness of the teaching of text structure for the Japanese students. The present study investigated the effects of the teaching of text structure. A mixed methods design was employed with an emphasis on a quantitative approach. Instruction was given to college students over a total of seven lessons. Reading comprehension tests, recall tests, and questionnaires were used as data collection methods, complemented by interviews. The results showed that the intervention could strongly improve the participants’ reading comprehension. Especially, the lower group benefited greatly from the intervention. Recall data collected from all the participants did not indicate a significant increase in the comparison organisation although the extracted participants significantly increased the amount of information. No significant increase was produced in the problem/solution organisation while the lower experimental participants produced a light increase. The intervention modestly altered students’ identification of the two types of the comparison and problem/solution organisation, especially for the lower experimental participants. The results also indicated that at the onset, more than half of the participants lacked the knowledge of text structure. Through the intervention, the number of experimental participants who could identify the rhetorical organisation rose. These results suggest that the teaching of text structure is effective for students with low reading ability to read expository text.
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Nikonova, E., А. Pronina, and J. Muzzarelli. "The problem of understanding written texts (EFL engineering students)." Thesis, Sumy State University, 2015. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/39134.
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Красуля, Алла Вікторівна, Алла Викторовна Красуля, and Alla Viktorivna Krasulia. "Developing EFL Students’ Speaking Skills: 21-Day Vlog Challenge." Thesis, National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” FL, 2021. https://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/83724.
Full textAbstract:
The EFL classroom has been changing over time. Technologies are transforming the way we teach and learn. Meaningful use of EdTech is essential in the times of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic worldwide that is causing a big transition from face-to-face on-campus teaching to online classes. The present study aimed to replicate an authentic real-life experience, foster students’ creativity, and self-regulation, and increase their desire to speak and communicate.
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Ahlner, Boel, and Thorsén Emma Henriksson. "Students’ acceptance to teacher interventions in the EFL classroom." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Lärarutbildningen (LUT), 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-31836.
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The aim of this paper is to investigate EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students’ acceptance of teacher interventions to disruptive behavior in the classroom. As a method, qualitative research was conducted, including a collection of qualitative and quantitative data through a questionnaire, as well as a qualitative analysis. The respondents to the questionnaire were grade 7-9 students, located in the southern part of Sweden. The results indicate that the two interventions which both research and the study’s participants accepted, were Shorter recess and Quiet reprimand. Further, the interventions which research and the respondents somewhat agreed on, were Ignore, Stare, Approach and Parents/principal. Lastly, the two interventions which research and the participants disagreed on, were Stop it and Other room. There is a need for more research on students’ acceptance of interventions; therefore, we recommend future researchers to investigate it further.
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Wisaijorn, Patareeya, and n/a. "Teaching reading comprehension to Thai EFL students: Reciprocal Teaching Procedure." University of Canberra. Professional Communication, 2003. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20050802.140230.
Full textAbstract:
The main purpose of this study was to examine the effects of strategy training
in small group work on the reading comprehension of academic
texts in English by Thai English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students.
The strategy-training used was the Reciprocal Teaching Procedure (RTF)
which focused on the four reading comprehension strategies: predicting,
clarifying, questioning and summarizing.
The research study was an experimental one using a single group design.
The participants were thirty-four first year students enrolled in the English
for Academic Purposes (EAP) program at a tertiary institution in the
northeastern part of Thailand. Both quantitative and qualitative research
methods were used. The pre-, post- and follow-up reading tests were
employed for quantitative analysis. The students' performances were
analyzed for statistically significant differences immediately at the end of
the ten-week training and in the follow-up test eight weeks after the
training. Qualitative data were collected from students' pre-, post- and
follow-up questionnaires, checklists and journals, teacher's checklists and
journal, and independent observer's checklists and field notes.
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Kamil, Intissar Sami Abdul-Hafid. "Perceptions of Kuwaiti EFL student-teachers towards EFL writing and methods of teaching and learning EFL writing." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/3203.
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This thesis focuses on the perceptions of Kuwaiti EFL student-teachers to methods of teaching and learning EFL writing in Kuwait, and the extent to which their perceptions of EFL writing may be affected by these methods. It draws on the finding of ten interviews with student-teachers from one of the higher educational colleges in Kuwait. Students were asked to describe how they perceive EFL writing and methods of teaching and learning practices in their EFL writing classrooms. They were invited to discuss the nature of their teachers’ role in their classrooms and assess the extent to which that role enhanced or undermined their attitudes to EFL writing. Students discussed how they felt about EFL writing and their teaching practices. They discussed ways in which their perceptions of EFL writing could be enhanced and explained how their teaching practices influenced their views of themselves as writers. In the literature, there are no theories for L2 writing to date and L2 researchers have tended to assume that the models of L1 would apply equally to L2 writers, with appropriate modifications. This, it is argued, is not necessarily the case as cultural and language differences between L1 and L2 create difficulties that are not accounted for by L1 research, as L2 writers use their identity and their way of making meaning when they write in L2. The study addresses the gap in L2 writing literature, and more research is needed to understand how to support L2 writers in achieving writing fluency. This research suggests that change is needed in pedagogical practices in the teaching of EFL writing. EFL writing teachers in this study demonstrated little awareness, both of how to acknowledge their students’ out-of-school experiencs of writing and of writing as a social practice. The study recommends that the teaching of writing takes more account of the ‘writing process’ approach, with attention given to pre-writing activities and to revision processes, and that more attention is paid to genres in writing, as socially-constructed forms of meaning-making. It also recommends that teacher feedback is developed to be more purposeful and formative. Writing needs implicit learning and intensive practice and it cannot be acquired like speaking. Through learning EFL learners will be more familier with the structure of EFL language and they will understand how use this structure to acheive different social purposes in particular context of use. Well-rained EFL writing teachers will have the ability to help EFL learners write more efficiently. Thus, this research suggests that the students’ pre-service training programme and teachers’ in-service professional developmental programme for EFL writing need to be seriously improved to cope with the social needs of their students, the needs of their society and the needs of developing education internationally. EFL writing needs to be viewed as a vital communicative medium and students should be taught in a way that helps them interact with others by that medium. This research recommends further studies to explore methods of teaching and learning EFL writing and EFL in general to develop a strong voice in debate, to listen to the voice of EFL students, to enhance the methods of teaching practices, and to increase students’ self-efficacy in their ability to be efficient in their EFL writing in particular, and EFL in general.
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Inouye, Mark Toshio. "Parental perceptions of the special education delivery system in Eau Claire, Wisconsin." Online version, 2000. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2000/2000inouyem.pdf.
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Guo, I.-Chun. "An investigation into classroom student-student interaction in a British EFL setting." Thesis, University of Kent, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.498842.
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Liang, Mei-Ya. "Interaction in EFL online classes how Web-facilitated instruction influences EFL university students' reading and learning /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2006. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3215226.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Language Education, 2006.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1257. Advisers: Larry Mikulecky; Curtis J. Bonk. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 19, 2007)."
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Azuma, Masumi. "Metaphorical competence in an EFL context : the mental lexicon and metaphorical competence of Japanese EFL students." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2004. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11894/.
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This thesis on metaphor and metaphor study covers theoretical and practical issues in the past and the present both in the occidental and oriental worlds. Metaphor in rhetoric, cognitive and applied linguistics is described briefly, mostly as a theoretical issue. It states that metaphor was treated as part of rhetoric in the past, however, recently it has developed more broadly into a facet of human cognition. As a practical issue, professional studies assessing metaphorical competence are highlighted, which inform the measurement of metaphorical competence of Japanese learners of English (Japanese EFL students, hereafter). The author developed her original measurement instruments (tests and evaluations of metaphorical competence) to assess the receptive and productive metaphorical abilities of Japanese EFL students. The tests aims to measure Japanese EFL students' metaphorical competence and discover the answers to what factors affect their comprehension and use of English metaphorical expressions and what kinds of metaphorical expressions are salient or opaque for them. This study showed that the Japanese EFL students' receptive ability was better than their productive ability. It further indicated that the size of their mental lexicons, the elasticity of their linguistic ability, the degree of semantic expansion, and their cognitive flexibility (e.g. analogical reasoning, mapping and networking) were important factors affecting their ability to handle metaphorical expressions. Another important discovery was that L1 transfer might play an ambivalent role. As for the salience and opacity of metaphorical expressions, the degree of clarity of expressions was an important element. For example, the expressions with images easy to visualise were the easiest for the Japanese EFL students to understand and use metaphorically. The highly conventional idioms involving metaphorical meanings were problematic for them to understand and especially to use.
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Dourado, Maura Regina da Silva. "Tracing two efl student writers' sense of authorship /." Florianópolis, SC, 1999. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/81322.
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Tese (Doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão.Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-19T01:49:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0Bitstream added on 2016-01-09T01:54:28Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 150513.pdf: 12209817 bytes, checksum: d72c16db3e0569e0f6a5ad863834fa8e (MD5)
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Al-Harbi, Bader Ibrahim. "An investigation into dictionary use by Saudi tertiary EFL students." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/4278.
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The main purpose of this study was to investigate empirically the impacts of dictionary strategy instruction and exposure on the dictionary performance, perceptions of and attitudes towards dictionary use, and knowledge of dictionary strategy and use by tertiary students of English in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected by means of questionnaires, interviews, observation and students interview feedback. The study was carried out in two phases; phase I, in which 14 participants were chosen to carry out the interviews, and in which the questionnaire was conducted on 77 male students in the preparatory year at the College of Applied Health Science of Qassim University in Saudi Arabia; and phase II where four participants were chosen to carry out the training in dictionary use through a one-to-one tutorial mode. The data in the second phase were collected through observation and students interview feedback. The findings from phase I of the study indicated that the Saudi students did not have appropriate knowledge of their own dictionary. It revealed some instances of failing to take advantage of the potential of dictionary use for language learning and identified factors behind this ineffective use. It demonstrated how the teacher’s role was essential in this respect and could directly influence the process of dictionary implementation inside the classroom The results of phase II demonstrated that strategy training was effective in disseminating the knowledge and skills required of students in using their dictionaries to solve linguistic problems. More importantly, the results showed that the strategy training approach holds great potential for developing students' independence and that it moves them towards greater autonomy. Thus, it is recommended that training be provided to English language learners to optimise their use of this important tool. Finally, specific implications for both teaching and future research are identified.
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Vazquez, Alberto Mora. "EFL students' constructions of morality in a Mexican language centre." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.489240.
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The overall purpose of this thesis is to explore the students' constructions of morality in a language centre of a Mexican state university. In particular, this study seeks to explore the connections between school administration to the academic and non-academic needs of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. The thesis emphasises the importance of incorporating students' voices when constructing moral leadership practices in language school settings.
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Harison, Rosemary. "“It’s my think”: exploring critical literacy with low level EAL students." 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10292/737.
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This study explores the use of a critical literacy approach in a class of language learners who had low levels of literacy. The particular focus was on the teacher‟s role in the process and how she could implement this approach in such a way that the students would benefit. The study records the exploration of the relevant literature, the planning and implementation of the lesson, and her reflection on the process. The students had all arrived in New Zealand as refugees. They had limited English proficiency and were enrolled on a Training Programme at the Auckland University of Technology. The aim of this programme is to help students enter gainful employment or continue with their studies. To this end great emphasis is placed on students improving their English proficiency and entering the workforce or engaging in further study. Many of the texts employed in the classroom context underline the desirability and praiseworthiness of these goals. In this study 15 students drawn from a variety of sociocultural backgrounds were asked to deconstruct a text of a type often employed in the classroom and explore their reaction to it. Two experienced observers provided feedback on the lesson and the way in which it was implemented. The students worked in groups, where possible in their first language, and answered a series of questions on the text. They were also asked to write individual texts in response to the teaching text. The researcher then conducted interviews with the students which afforded them the opportunity to expand on and clarify these responses. The study concludes that classroom exercises such as these can be meaningful and empowering particularly when students assume the roles of narrators and advisors. However such lessons need to be carefully designed and structured if students are to gain real benefit from such as approach.
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Devlin, Katherine. "Creating our class story: a narrative inquiry into a mainstream grade one teacher's journey with EAL students." 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/8591.
Full textAbstract:
Diverse cultures continue to intersect on the school landscape in Manitoba. This autobiographical narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) documents 4 years of my experience as a Grade 1 elementary teacher working with an increasing number of English as an Additional Language (EAL) students. Between 2008 and 2011, I invited each class of students to engage in a collaborative writing project entitled Our Class Story where they shared their personal journeys to Grade 1. Drawing upon my field notes, journal entries, previous writings, and photographs, I tell four separate stories of my experience as this class project evolved over time with different groups of students. I then explore how working on Our Class Story shifted my teaching practice and beliefs about teaching EAL Early Years Learners.
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Cai, Mengyue. "Undergraduate EAL (English-as-an-Additional-Language) Students' Reported Use of Vocabulary Learning Strategies and its Relationship vis-à-vis Language Proficiency, Vocabulary Size, and Gender." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/5850.
Full textAbstract:
In the field of second language vocabulary learning, numerous studies had been done
to investigate language learners’ use of vocabulary learning strategies, as well as
relationships between the use of vocabulary learning strategies and other individual
variables (e.g., personality, intelligence, major, learning style, etc.). To fill the gap in the
literature reviewed, the present study examined the use of vocabulary learning strategies
reported by 95 Chinese undergraduate engineering students, and relationships between
the use of vocabulary learning strategies and three key variables, i.e., language
proficiency, vocabulary size, and gender.
Results of this study indicated: 1) With a reported frequency of overall vocabulary
learning strategies use of medium, Chinese undergraduate engineering students use
determination strategies most frequently, while social strategies the least. 2) There is a
negative relationship between the use of overall vocabulary learning strategies reported
by Chinese undergraduate engineering students and their language proficiency. In terms
of the use of the five categories of vocabulary learning strategies, determination,
cognitive, and metacognitive strategies are positively correlated to Chinese undergraduate
engineering students’ language proficiency. While social and memory strategies are
negatively correlated. On the level of individual vocabulary learning strategies, ten
individual vocabulary learning strategies are significantly correlated with language
proficiency. 3) Chinese undergraduate engineering students’ use of overall vocabulary
learning strategies and vocabulary size are positively correlated. In terms of the use of the
five categories of vocabulary learning strategies, social strategies is negatively correlated
with vocabulary size while the remaining four categories are positively correlated. On the
level of individual vocabulary learning strategies, significant correlations are identified
between the use of three individual vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary size. 4)
No significant difference is found between male and female Chinese undergraduate
engineering students on uses of overall vocabulary learning strategies, although male
Chinese undergraduate engineering students employ overall vocabulary learning
strategies more frequently than females. When analyzing the use of the five categories of
vocabulary learning strategies, male students employ social, memory, and cognitive
strategies more frequently than female students while female students employ
determination and metacognitive strategies more frequently. In terms of the gender
differences on the use of individual vocabulary learning strategies, female students
employ two individual vocabulary learning strategies more frequently than male students
at significant levels.
Findings of the present study illustrate Chinese undergraduate engineering students’
reported use of vocabulary learning strategies, as well as correlations between the use of
vocabulary learning strategies and language proficiency, vocabulary size, and gender. It
is recommended that English language teachers in China spending more time on
vocabulary learning strategies training and taking advantages of the individual
vocabulary learning strategies that can contribute to students’ language learning.Graduate
kellycai0913@gmail.com
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Neudorf, Jacquelyn Elizabeth. "Making it count: a narrative inquiry into one teacher's experiences supporting middle school EAL students." 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/30583.
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This autobiographical narrative inquiry explores the teaching, learning and leadership experiences of a middle school teacher in Manitoba. My early experiences as a classroom teacher reflect my uncertainty and unpreparedness of a teacher who struggled to meet the needs of the English as an Additional Language (EAL) students who entered my classroom. As the EAL student population increased within my middle school, I began the journey of a Masters program to seek knowledge in order to support my EAL students and to help guide my colleagues towards an inclusive environment. As I explored how my experiences as a graduate student had influenced my classroom practices, and then how my experiences as an EAL specialist and school leader had influenced the school community, five main themes emerged: The use of the iPad in a mainstream classroom, the use of effective instructional strategies, the role of culture in the classroom, co-teaching practices and collaboration in a Middle School setting. Through narrative inquiry I investigated these themes and discovered new pathways to support EAL students and guide my colleagues while moving toward a more inclusive classroom and school environment.
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Waye, Laurie. "Learning how to work with instructors of international EAL graduate students to better support their students' development of academic writing skills." Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/3000.
Full textAbstract:
As more students enter Canadian universities from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, supporting the development and transition of their academic writing skills through assignment and feedback design has become very important. Many of these students and their instructors identify academic writing as one of the students’ biggest problems in a Western university or college (Robertson, Line, Jones & Thomas, 2000; Yang, 1994; Zhu & Flaitz, 2005). Yet there is little support available for the instructors who work with these students (Dedrick & Watson, 2002). This study focuses on my interactions with three instructors in graduate programs that have a high proportion of international students who use English as an additional language (EAL). By weaving together action research and case study research, three themes became apparent: the instructors saw no clear distinction between the needs of EAL students and those who have English as a first language; the instructors were unclear about how to teach writing in their discipline; and, the instructors felt frustrated and overburdened by their workload.
I also learned how I, as a researcher and an educational developer, can better interact with instructors to ensure support at the level of assignment and feedback design. The first lesson is when interacting with others it is necessary to identify the lens that represents one’s institutional and cultural lens. Because I did not adequately identify and interrogate my lens, I gave in to my colonial impulse to direct the study and the participants. The second lesson is the space in which we two instructors – the person from a given discipline and the person who is an educational developer – come together as a kind of “contact zone” (Pratt, 1998). I had hoped that the instructors and I would come together as a kind of Venn diagram, with our knowledge overlapping in a neutral and fruitful way, but I learned that the space where we come together is fraught and vulnerable for both the participants and the researcher. The third lesson is that relationships, which traditionally are not highly valued in our workplace in higher education, are extremely important in order to foster dialogue, continue conversations, and allow for the necessary revisiting and development of our work together. The main recommendation stemming from this study is workplace training for administrative staff who are in educational development positions.
This study is important because there is little previous research in this area. As more Learning and Teaching Centres emerge at Canadian institutions, we must learn how to work effectively with instructors to affect curricular and assignment change. We must also question whether the kind of support a member of a Learning and Teaching Centre can provide is enough to affect this change, or whether other models, such as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and faculty mentoring, are essential in the development of the understanding of how to better support the development of the academic writing skills of international EAL students.
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"Identity and English Language Learning: The Case of Pakistani Elementary Students in Saskatoon." Thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2016-03-2464.
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The purpose of this thesis was to examine identity construction and language learning/use among newly immigrated Pakistani English as Additional Language (EAL) students attending an elementary school in Saskatoon. In recent years, increasing numbers of new immigrants to Canada have come from non-English speaking countries (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2011). For most of these new immigrants, English proficiency is seen as a crucial factor in their professional development and societal integration in an English-speaking host country like Canada. Some new immigrants who come from non-English speaking countries such as Pakistan encounter challenges in the host country, in spite of successful English training in the countries of origin. In the case of families from Pakistan who come to Canada under skilled immigrant categories, for instance, they assume that when they arrive in Canada, they can succeed in both their professional and social life in a foreign culture, given that they were educated in English in their home country. To their surprise, they most often face discrepancies between their expectations and reality after they immigrate to Canada.
This thesis examined the identity construction and language learning/ use of four Pakistani immigrant students at a Saskatoon elementary school. An ethnographic research approach was used to conduct this study. The study aimed to identify some of the challenges faced by Pakistani EAL students attempting to integrate into the Canadian schools, despite having good second language (L2) proficiency.
Findings from this study show that social categories such as race, religion, gender, and social class tend to influence processes of socialization in students, which in turn have effects on their identity construction and language learning/use. Just as English learning is never only about language, so is being judged as a competent and valued social being is never only about L2 competence (Norton, 2013). The study also shows how gaining “legitimacy” (Bourdiue, 1991) as a competent and valued social being is never just a matter of L2 competence even for EAL students with relatively high English proficiency (Bourdieu, 1987; Shin, 2012). EAL learning for these Pakistani immigrant students involves a complex process in which racial, religious, gender, and class identities are negotiated within a wide variety of social relationships. The thesis concludes with implications of this research for transformative EAL education in Canada.
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Castillo, Laura. "A journey beyond the classroom: a narrative inquiry into the settlement struggles of adult EAL students." 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/31066.
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Canada welcomes and supports refugees from all over the world. However, they encounter many struggles that force them to with withdraw from their English language classes. This Narrative Inquiry explores the lived experiences of two adult refugee students who could not continue with their English classes due to the hardships they encountered. Through research conversations I document their experiences in two narrative accounts, and read across them to find common threads. These common struggles include financial strains, employment, childcare, isolation and mental health. The findings point to the importance of further supporting refugee students in different ways. My recommendations are that ESL teachers develop lessons that include settlement, support services, and Canadian culture information. English language programs need to incorporate support services with professionals trained in ESL, and the different levels of government need to be part of the discussion on how to provide stronger supports through childcare, employment and information accessibility.February 2016
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Denchuk, Antoanela. "The role of language and academic literacy in the success of generation 1.5 students at two Canadian universities." 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/4325.
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In Canada, the generation 1.5 university student demographic is just beginning to become noteworthy of research. Several quantitative studies on the adjustment of the children of immigrants in university exist, but qualitative research is scarce. This thesis aimed to reveal the voices and experiences of nine generation 1.5 youth who experienced the university system in Canada. In addition, it aimed to survey the language and literacy programming at three Winnipeg post secondary institutions. Methodologically, multiple case study research design, supplemented by archival research analysis were used. The findings from in-depth interviews show that participants were challenged in meeting the demands of some tasks that required proficiency in CALP. The institutional programming survey showed that two of the institutions provide language programming for newcomers, while one of the three institutions does not appear to provide programming that supports the unique needs of ESL/EAL G1.5 students. Recommendations for improved educational services and further research are provided.
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Melo, Sandra Pacheco. "Winding pathways: supporting refugee students in high school a narrative inquiry into the experiences of one EAL teacher in Manitoba." 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/5085.
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The educational landscape for Manitoba has continued to shift with the arrival of many immigrants. In particular, there has been a noticeable increase in the numbers of refugee students in our schools who may have experienced interruptions in their education. Their presence in our schools brings unique challenges for teachers and school systems. This narrative inquiry explores my lived experiences as an English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher in a Manitoba high school working with refugee students who have had their learning interrupted due to a variety of reasons. I examine three main topics: the challenges and successes I have experienced while working with this particular group of EAL learners; how these experiences have impacted me in the past; and how they inform what I do now and in the future as I navigate through a new professional landscape. My goal is to provide readers with a firsthand account of what it is like to be an EAL teacher working with refugee students and some of the issues that have emerged as I worked and lived alongside these students in a Manitoba context. My hope is that this narrative inquiry will shed some light on how teachers might work with these students to help them succeed in high school.
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Hill, Carrie. "Exploring Mandarin-speaking English-as-an-additional-language graduate students’ academic reading strategies in three reading modes: paper, e-reading without hypertext, and e-reading with embedded hypertext." Thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/6684.
Full textAbstract:
In the field of English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) reading, numerous studies have investigated EAL learners’ employment of reading strategies, along with its potential relationships with other variables (e.g., language proficiency, major, and cultural background). The majority of existing findings have often failed to account for any internal processes or supplementary information about EAL strategic behaviour in academic reading.
This study investigated 26 Chinese EAL graduate students’ reading strategy use across three reading modes and any relationships between EAL reading strategy use and task performance. Data included video recordings of participants’ test performances, a post-task stimulated recall, and a post-task reading perception survey.
Results indicated that Chinese EAL graduate readers employed wide varieties of reading strategies, with cognitive strategies and social the most frequently and least frequently identified. Multivariate analysis showed statistically significant differences in strategy use within the cognitive category, indicating that EAL reading strategy use is complex, often employing several individual strategies at any time. Correlational analyses revealed no significant associations between overall strategy use and task performance. E-reading strategy use was positively correlated with task performances, but similar strategy employment on paper revealed dissimilar associations.
The main implication of this study is that EAL educators and researchers must be mindful that readers’ perceptions may influence modality preference; however, modality preference may not positively influence EAL reading performance.Graduate
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Gray, Heather Ann. "EFL traveler." 2000. http://pages.emerson.edu/students/heather_gray/efltraveler/index.html.
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Chen, Mei-lien, and 陳美璉. "Interlanguage Phonology of EFL Students." Thesis, 1999. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/51585840795286415353.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立高雄師範大學
英語學系
87
This thesis is concerned with the description and interpretation of second language speech produced by second-grade junior high school students in learning English. The description of their production is surveyed in terms of phonetic aspect, phonological rules, consonant clusters, and prosodic features (stress and intonation). What is more important, the attempt to discover and explain the characteristics of their second language speech are approached from a number of different perspectives: transfer from L1, developmental processes of the target language (English), and markedness relation from universal implication. Besides, the interaction of these factors with learners' interlanguage is also the major concern in this study The results of this study are investigated in the light of the segmental aspects, consonant cluster, and the prosodic aspect. In terms of segmental aspects, we conclude that the production of the subjects can be examined with reference to L1 transfer, English developmental sequences, sound misperception and the lack of English phonological knowledge. This indicates an important fact that L1 transfer is by no means the only factors operative in the learning of English. Besides, the interaction of L1 transfer and English developmental processes with the participants' interlanguage is also explored in this study. L1 transfer best predicts the difficulty of segment, while English developmental processes best account for the sound substitution for these difficult sounds. For example, L1 transfer is successful in predicting the participants' difficulty with the segment /T/, /Z/, and /D/, since they are absent from Mandarin. However, L1 transfer fails to account for the systematic substitutions for these difficult sounds. For instance, the participants tend to replace /T/ with /s/, /f/ or /d/. In this respect, English developmental sequences provide an insight into sound substitutions for /T/ in that English-speaking children also show the tendency to mispronounce /T/ as /s/, /f/, or /d/. In addition, L1 transfer is more likely to occur when L1 and L2 are similar, whereas English developmental processes are liable to occur when L1 and L2 are different. For instance, English segments /S, tS, dZ/ have the counterparts in Mandarin /t, tt, tt'/. Their phonological similarity induces the participants to establish correspondences between the target sound and their Mandarin counterparts and thereby to acquire them faster. By contrast, the segments /T, D, Z/ absent from Mandarin are acquired slowly and the acquisition of these segments are somewhat similar to English phonological development, since their sound substitutions for these segments can be found in the production of English-speaking children. Concerning consonant clusters, there are three important findings worth noting. First, cluster reduction and vowel epenthesis are two common strategies employed by the participants in producing English consonant clusters. Besides, it is observed that the subjects prefer cluster reduction to vowel epenthesis. Second, final consonant clusters are more subject to reduction than medial and initial ones. Third, the reduction of consonant clusters is not random, but shows a predictable pattern: The deletion of liquids takes priority over the omission of other consonants in clusters, followed by the deletion of stops. The top priority of the deletion of the liquids in clusters is accounted for by English developmental sequences. The tendency to delete the liquid in clusters is well documented in the acquisition of first language phonology of English. (cf. Locke, 1983; Stoel-Grammons & Dunn, 1985; Vihmen, 1996). In addition, Clements' Sonority Theory (1990) provide an insight into the reason why the deletion of the stop in the final clusters is the second strategy used by the participants. Regarding the prosodic aspect, most of the participants have difficulty with English intonation and English stress. In terms of grammatical constructions, we observe that the subjects perform better on yes-no questions than the other sentence patterns. It appears that some of the subjects notice and pay attention to the rising contour at the end of yes-no questions.
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Hsu, Yu-Chuan, and 許祐銓. "Teacher Written Feedback, Peer Feedback, and Teacher-Student Conferencing: Taiwanese EFL Students’ Attitudes and Perspectives." Thesis, 2013. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/89518585457198083312.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立中正大學
英語教學研究所
101
The purpose of this study is to examine Taiwanese EFL students’ attitudes and perspectives of feedback on writing. To achieve this aim, three research questions were designed. First, students’ general attitudes and perspectives of feedback on writing were explored. Second, students’ attitudes and perspectives on different feedback practices were investigated. Finally, students’ concerns on the focuses of different feedback practices they considered to be important were examined. A set of student questionnaires and an interview were designed as the major instruments. In total, 116 Taiwanese college composition class students from four public universities participated in the survey. Seven of the students also participated in the interviews. The results of the study revealed that students generally enjoyed receiving positive and encouraging feedback that focused on structure and organization, content and ideas, and rhetoric of their writings. Teacher-student conferencing was found to be the most favored and helpful practice, especially through individual conferencing. Teacher written feedback was found to be moderately perceived by the students. However, students still considered it useful and preferred a simultaneous use of marginal and end comments. In contrast, peer feedback was found to be the least favored and helpful practice. However, students acknowledged its benefits and would still be willing to receive peer feedback in the form of group peer review. Therefore, it is suggested that teachers should incorporate all three feedback practices in their writing classrooms because each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it is important for teachers to acknowledge their students’ needs and to make necessary adjustments in their feedback practices for optimum results.
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Lin, Wan-Ting, and 林琬婷. "Compliment Responses by EFL Graduate Students—A Case Study of EFL Graduate Students in Northern Taiwan." Thesis, 2011. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/h6bygc.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立臺灣科技大學
應用外語系
99
The aim of the present study is to investigate the compliment response strategies used among EFL graduate students in northern Taiwan. It has four goals: (1) to ascertain the most common compliment response strategies employed by the EFL graduate student participants; (2) to search for any differences that may exist between male and female EFL graduate students when using compliment response strategies; (3) to reveal whether a relationship exists between topics and gender with varying compliment response strategies; and (4) to investigate the perceptions on the part of the participants in relation to the use of compliment and compliment response strategies. The participants were 20 graduate students, half male and half female, selected from a university of science and technology in northern Taiwan. Two instruments were employed to collect data for the present study, one of which was an Oral Discourse Completion Task (oral DCT) in which 9 scenario questions were divided into three categories, appearance, ability and possessions. For each of the compliment scenarios, participants would hear the same compliment address twice from two different speakers, one male and one female, then make their responses. The other instrument used to collect data was a semi-structured interview, which consisted of specific and substantial questions that were determined beforehand. The elicited data from the oral DCT were analyzed based on Herbert’s (1990) taxonomy of compliment responses. Results indicated that EFL graduate students in northern Taiwan tend to use responses in the super category of Agreement to weaken the threats to the compliment addressers’ positive face wants as described by Brown and Levinson (1978; 1987). Results showed no significant differences between male and female speakers’ preference of response strategies. However, female graduate students seem to agree with the compliment addressers more often than male graduate students. This supports Holmes’s (1988) claim that females treat compliments as ways to uphold and create solidarity whereas males view compliments as assertion of praise. Moreover, when being complimented on different topics, male graduate students preferred Question, whereas female graduate students favored utilizing Comment acceptance when responding to compliments on appearance. The findings of the current study revealed that both male and female participants prefer to use Comment history when responding to compliments on possessions. Additionally, it was found that male graduate students, when being complimented on ability, tend to use Comment acceptance, but female graduate students are prone to employ Comment history. Results also suggested that most of the participants felt that responding to compliments is a difficult matter; however, these EFL graduate students reported that it is much easier to respond to compliments in Chinese than in English.