Academic literature on the topic 'English language English language Education Distance education'

The purpose of this study is to explore the viability of an international distance English-language program in the development of language and cultural proficiency. Students participated in tests at the beginning and at the end of the course to determine how well they developed both language and cultural proficiencies. The measures included (a) the computer-administered Oral Proficiency Interview (OPIc) from theAmerican Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), (b) ACTFL-aligned assessments of reading, listening, grammar, and vocabulary skills, and (c) the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS). In addition, course activities surveys provided additional information about student perceptions of course activities. Participants in this study came from various countries as they prepared to attend a U.S. university in Hawaii.The distance learning program fostered language proficiency through various learning activities, with an emphasis on synchronous dialogue over video chat technologies. In addition to English-language proficiency, the program sought to help students learn to effectively communicate with students from other cultures. Cross-cultural proficiency was fostered through cross-cultural dialogue with tutors, teachers, and other students. Students showed improvement in speaking, listening, vocabulary, and grammar. However, on average, students did not show an improvement in reading proficiency. Students reported that dialogue with tutors and teachers was among the most helpful activities in learning English. Students showed some improvement in cultural proficiency. However, this improvement was not universal across all measures of cultural proficiency. Students reported that certain activities—particularly dialogue with tutors and other students—as helpful in developing cross-cultural proficiencies.This study also investigated the relationship between language proficiency and cultural proficiency. Results were mixed. With a few exceptions, cultural proficiency did not predict a student’s language proficiency at the beginning of the course, during the course, or at the end of the course.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007.<br>Typescript. "This study incorporated data from a 14-week pilot ODE course that the American English Institute (AEI) in the Linguistics Department at the University of Oregon (UO) offered fall 2006. Participants included 49 EFL educators living in 15 different developing countries in the Muslim world"--P. 6. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-175). Also available online in Scholars' Bank; and in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010.<br>Title from screen (viewed on July 19, 2010). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Thomas A. Upton, Julie A. Belz, M. Catherine Beck. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-106).

Although there is significant research surrounding online foreign language education, there are still questions on whether the outcomes are comparable to those obtained in the traditional face-to-face classroom. This study examined four classes, two online and two face-to-face, where students took the second course of a 6-level program of English as a Second Language at El Bosque University in Colombia. The International Test of English Proficiency (iTEP) was administered to students before classes started in order to establish a baseline, and then again after the courses finished. This test evaluates English language proficiency per skill: speaking, listening, reading, writing and also presents an overall proficiency score and level. Variables such as socioeconomic strata, students’ age, instructors, previous experience with online courses, course completion, student satisfaction and attendance and time on course were also examined. Because not all online students completed all content of the course within the timeframe given, special attention was given to this variable. Results indicate that when comparing the scores of only the online students who completed all the content of the course with those of their face-to-face counterparts, there are no statistically significant differences in the outcomes of any of the four skills nor there is a difference in the overall scores; however this brings up the issue of time investment as it seems to vary based upon instructional method. A qualitative component was used to support the findings in this study. This component included instructors’ interviews, an end-of-course qualitative survey and class observations.

CAVALCANTE, Emanuelle Sales. Atividades de produção oral em língua inglesa na EaD: um estudo na licenciatura à distância de letras inglês da Universidade Federal do Ceará. 2015. 102f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Letras Vernáculas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Linguística, Fortaleza (CE), 2015.<br>Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-03-28T12:50:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_escavalcante.pdf: 2644144 bytes, checksum: 112db419b512741f3fa3926f05e48f4c (MD5)<br>Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-03-28T14:31:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_escavalcante.pdf: 2644144 bytes, checksum: 112db419b512741f3fa3926f05e48f4c (MD5)<br>Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-28T14:31:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_escavalcante.pdf: 2644144 bytes, checksum: 112db419b512741f3fa3926f05e48f4c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015<br>This thesis aims at evaluating oral activities presented in online oral comprehension and production courses from the Universidade Federal do Ceará’s English Letters Course, trying to identify whether 1) Communicative Approach Principles, 2) Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching Principles and 2) L2 Acquisition/Instruction Principles are part of the pedagogical practices of these activities and, therefore, are able to develop the oral production skill in its prospective teachers of English. This research, which is inserted in the field of Applied Linguistics, characterized as exploratory and descriptive, was based mainly on reflections by Brown (2000, 2001) and Ellis (2003,2005). In order to do this research, we elaborated a checklist to evaluate the oral activities presented in two courses: LING 3A: Compreensão e produção Oral and LING 4A: Compreensão e Produção Oral. The results has shown that the general characteristics of Communicative Aproach, L2 Acquisition/Instruction and Task Based Language Teaching and Learning principles are presented in the activities, nevetherless, the last one seems to be the stronger principle. Since then, these activities may have the potential to develop the oral production skills on English Letter’s Course’s prospective teachers of English. However, we have identified the activities proposed in both analyzed courses are mainly controlled or semicontrolled, and do not provide many opportunities for spontaneous speech. They are also in lower rate when compared to other types of activities presented in the courses. In conclusion, we have verified that there is a need of more spontaneous oral activities in distance education courses, specially in those which aims at developing oral skills, since speech is a crutial tool in second language teachers’ pedagogy.<br>Esta dissertação objetiva avaliar as atividades de produção oral presentes nas disciplinas online de compreensão e produção oral da Licenciatura a distância de Letras Inglês da Universidade Federal do Ceará, buscando identificar se 1) princípios da abordagem comunicativa, 2) princípios do ensino de línguas baseado em tarefas e 3) princípios do aquisição/ instrução de L2 fazem parte do embasamento didático-pedagógico das atividades de produção oral destas disciplinas, e portanto podem ter o potencial de desenvolver a habilidade de produção oral dos professores em formação. Esta pesquisa, que está inserida na linha de Linguística Aplicada, caracteriza-se como exploratória e descritiva e fundamenta-se nas reflexões acerca do processo de ensino-aprendizagem e aquisição de segunda língua principalmente de Brown (2000,2001) e Ellis (2003, 2005). Para realizarmos a pesquisa, elaboramos um instrumento de avaliação (checklist), que foi utilizado para a avaliação dos princípios presentes nas atividades online. Os resultados mostraram que as atividades, no geral, têm características significativas de todos os princípios que nos propusemos a observar, com destaque dos princípios do Ensino Baseado em Tarefas (ELLIS, 2003), podendo ter, portanto, o potencial de desenvolver a habilidade de produção oral dos professores em formação. No entanto, observamos que a maioria das atividades de produção oral propostas nas disciplinas analisadas são, em sua maioria, controladas ou semicontroladas, e que a quantidade de atividades de produção oral é inferior se comparada às outras atividades propostas nas disciplinas. Como conclusão, verificou-se que há a necessidade de que mais atividades de produção oral espontânea sejam propostas, em disciplinas de cursos a distância, principalmente naquelas que visam o desenvolvimento desta habilidade, uma vez que, a fala é um instrumento imprescindível e fundamental para prática dos professores de línguas.

Research has indicated accredited, U.S. higher education-governed intensive English programs (IEPs) often struggle financially due to a scarcity of resources (namely students) because of political and global economic factors and increased competition (ICEF Monitor, 2017; IIE, 2017; Ladika, 2018; Soppelsa, 2015). However, few IEPs advertise online language acquisition (OLA) courses despite the increase in online study methods at the higher education institutes governing the programs and its use by competitors. The purpose of this study was to determine the status and extent of OLA diffusion in U.S. IEPs, how IEP directors and faculty perceived OLA, and whether they perceived themselves to be the leaders in its diffusion. Drawing on Rogers’ (1962) diffusion of innovation framework to inform the instrument methodology, this study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional survey. The study used the Rasch measurement model (1960) as the framework informing the instrument’s design and analysis. All 249 executive directors and 2,492 faculty in the 249 accredited, higher education-governed IEPs were invited to participate in the study, and 328 directors and faculty from 121 IEPs opted to do so. Major findings revealed 40.5% had experimented with online courses within the last five years, and 24.8% offered it currently. The Winsteps dimensionality analysis showed each of the six innovation characteristics performed as a separate strand supporting the dimension of OLA adoption potential. The Wright map and item measures revealed respondents perceived OLA visibility (1.52 logits) as the most difficult-to-endorse characteristic followed by complexity (0.48 logits). The least challenging characteristic was articulated benefits (-0.39 logits), and the easiest item was technology confidence (-1.21 logits) followed by technology clusters (-0.65 logits). Regarding leadership in promoting OLA adoption, 53.2% of the sample claimed they were involved in its leadership at some level, and 31.1% reported leadership involvement at institutes currently lacking online English courses. This study suggests respondents found OLA to be beneficial for their IEP with articulable results. Cost and technology confidence were not viewed as prohibitive, but respondents lacked confidence that OLA would lead to increased enrollment. Because of the high level of OLA leadership in their IEP, the adoption of online language courses appears to be moving in an upward trajectory.

In the short history of online education research, researchers studying teacher experiences regularly relied on anecdotal examples or small samples. This research sought to support and enhance previous findings concerning the best practices in online education through a nationwide survey of online and blended course instructors. The survey inquired about demographics (such as age, race, and gender), professional position(i.e. tenured professor), institution, department, and their initial and current feelings about teaching online education. It questioned if the respondents studied online as students,what resources administrators provided, their audience, length of instructional experience, and personal behaviors such as blogging or using social media. It also asked what they would want administrators to know, all with the intent to verify current beliefs about the best practices, discover additional possibilities, and find practices,demographics, and behaviors that may be associated or correlated with positive or negative experiences in online education. The study did not acquire enough responses to make generalizable statistical conclusions to the population of online instructors at the top higher educational institutions of the United States, yet the findings supported many of the established best practices in online education: establishing teacher presence, choosing the best content, establishing supportive class communities with interactive social activities, using variety, communicating expectations with students, beginning with clearly defined learning outcomes, making the course materials easily accessible and navigable for students, and emulating the best classroom pedagogies while acknowledging and adjusting for the differences. It also revealed six primary factors the participants felt impacted their positive or negative experiences in online learning: (a) the instructor’s impressions that they/the course succeeded or failed; (b) the quality or lack thereof of student responses and learning; (c) the amount of interaction with students in the course; (d) the perceived availability or unavailability of effective, helpful, and timely support from the institution, colleagues, and IT/technical department; (e) the level of reliability, ease-of-use, and functionality of the LMS or software; and (f) the attitude of the instructor about the medium, including the freedom of design and creation;Additionally, it revealed some instructor concerns about fair compensation for time and effort, particularly when beginning online instruction.