Literatura científica selecionada sobre o tema "Second language acquisition ; English language – Study and teaching (Elementary) – Foreign speakers"

The significance of language as a science in the educational sector has continued to play a critical role in terms of teaching and learning. However, due to inequalities exposed severely by the Covid-19 pandemic, the teaching of English as the second language acquisition to foreign speakers; is adversely affected. Therefore, the use of transformative methodology as the teaching strategy is explored to determine the most suitable methodology of teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study utilizes Participatory Action Research as the approach to explore the efficacy of transformative methodology; this approach is embedded in the paradigmatic principles of constructivism as the lens of qualitative methodology. Besides, the data is analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis post the generation of it using observations and semi-structured interviews (free attitudinal interviews). The paper demonstrates the prospects of using transformative methodology as the appropriate use of pedagogical strategy for English as the second language acquisition, it also suggests efficient but costly measures required to be implemented by the universities for the use of the transformative methodology.

The purpose of this study was to propose a neurodidactic model for the development of primary communication skills in 1st year students of English as a Foreign Language at the University of Pamplona. Conceptually, the variables were supported upon relevant educational theories, language acquisition theoretical constructs and recent neuroeducational tenets. This was a descriptive, explanatory field, and projective research, which used a non-experimental cross-sectional design. 102 students formed the population, while the sample was randomly and representatively conformed by 62 individuals. The data collection instrument consisted of a modified Likert scale survey with 45 items. As for the reliability and validity, they were determined by expert judgment, discriminant analysis by item, as well as Cronbach's α reliability coefficient of 0.873 for the first and through a pilot test of 20 individuals; the second being a coefficient of 0.880. The results indicated an averagely high didactic methodology against a very high neurodidactic methodology, obtaining a relationship between the two approaches that endorses the implementation of brain-based strategies to enhance the learning of a foreign language.

In a multiple-session training study, native English speakers learned foreign Dutch vocabulary items that mapped to English either in a one-to-one way (translation-unambiguous) or in a one-to-many way (translation-ambiguous), such that two Dutch words corresponded to a single English translation. Critically, these two translation-ambiguous Dutch words were taught on consecutive trials in the same session, or were presented separately, such that each word was taught in a separate session. Translation-ambiguous words were produced and recognized substantially less accurately than translation-unambiguous words on tests administered one and three weeks after training. An ambiguity advantage emerged, however, in a free-recall test. Interestingly, teaching both translations together led to superior performance over teaching them in separate sessions, in which case the translation learned first enjoyed a considerable advantage over that learned second. These findings underscore the importance of order of acquisition in second-language vocabulary learning, and have practical implications for language instruction.

Abstract Empirical findings in Second Language Acquisition suggest that the basic structure of German declarative sentences, described in terms of topological fields, poses certain challenges to learners of German as a foreign language. The problem of multiple prefield elements, resulting in ungrammatical verb-third sentences, figures most prominently in the literature. While the so-called V2 constraint is usually treated as a purely formal feature of German syntax both in the empirical as well as in the pedagogical literature, the present paper adopts a usage-based perspective, viewing language as an inventory of form-function mappings. Basic functions of prefield elements have already been identified in research on textual grammar and information structure. This paper presents results from a pilot study with Japanese elementary learners of German as a foreign language, where the form-function mapping of German prefield elements was explicitly taught following the guidelines of an approach called Concept-Based Instruction. The findings indicate that, with a focus on the function-function mapping, it is in fact possible to explicitly teach these rather abstract regularities of German to beginning learners. The participants’ language production exhibits a prefield variation pattern similar to that of L1 German speakers; at the same time the learners produce very few ungrammatical verb-third sentences.

By reviewing the literature on the development of English language teaching methods in the last three decades, it is obvious that the idea of using the first language (L1) in the second language (L2) classroom has always been controversial. The history of language pedagogy and the role of the first language in foreign language learning generate debates in English as a foreign language. The teaching of English as a foreign language is growing every day in Iran, and as a result, the need for informing the best policy is getting more urgent. The principal intent of the current study, that investigates the use of L1 in the English classroom, is to determine teachers, students and policymakers’ beliefs and attitudes towards the use of L1 in L2 classroom. The L1, in this case, is Farsi language and all the participants are native speakers of Farsi. One hundred and fifty students of the English Language Department at the elementary level at Tehran Institute of Technology are the participants of the study. They are all female and in their late teens or early twenties. The students and the teachers were surveyed by questionnaires and the researcher observed 10 classes and interviewed 3 teachers and 3 policymakers. The information gathered from the questionnaire was submitted to SPSS for analyzing the data, and the information gathered from the interview. Class observation check-list was used to triangulate the findings of the questionnaire. The results of this study indicate that teachers and students have different attitudes towards using L1 in the EFL classes. While students have a positive attitude, teachers have a negative attitude. The main reason mentioned by students for not being against the limited use of Farsi in their English class is that they believe using Farsi even in a limited sense can help them to understand difficult concepts. However, teachers believe in an English-only policy to be more exposed to the English language. Another finding of this study is that the functions of using Farsi by students or teachers in EFL classroom are: for explaining difficult parts, for managing the classroom, for explaining exam instructions, for explaining the two language differences, for checking comprehension, for seeking help from others, for joking with others, for making students relaxed and for presenting the meaning of new words. Given these findings, to match the student’s and teachers’/policymakers’ ideas about using L1 at the elementary level, an EFL teaching methodology that considers the use of Farsi, even in a limited way, is suggested.

In Nigeria, much attention has been given to the teaching and learning of grammatical forms and sound sequences with emphasis on their accuracy and correctness (linguistic competence). This has reflected in the selection of course syllabi, curriculum, instructional materials and methods in our classrooms. A lot studies have been carried out by scholars on the non-native speakers’ use and acquisition of linguistic action patterns in a second language. Though such studies, dubbed interlanguage pragmatics, have all been carried out in Europe and America with focus on speakers of English as a Foreign language (EFL). This area of enquiry has not been adequately explored in Africa in general or Nigerian L2 learners of English as the focus. Thus, little or seldom attention has been given to pragmatics and appropriateness in language use (Communicative competence). This study is therefore, a consciousness - raising effort to highlight the relevance and advantages of teaching pragmatics and the development of pragmatics awareness in our classrooms. This is against the backdrop of the fact that the linguistic competence of most learners of English as a second language is not usually at par with their pragmatic competence. This study foregrounds the need for L2 learners of English to develop a concomitant degree of pragmatic awareness in the use of the language. They must learn how to combine form, meaning, force and context. They need, for example, to learn how to say what they want to say with the required formality or politeness, directness or indirectness, e t c, as required by a given situation or sometimes, to even keep quiet and still communicate intention. The study, domesticating the findings of some current researches in instructed pragmatics, discussed and suggested some classroom activities that could be adopted as part of the methods of teaching pragmatics, and by so doing, highlighted the enormous advantages and usefulness of teaching pragmatics and acquiring pragmatic competence in Nigeria’s L2 classrooms.

The present article involves an empirical psycholinguistic study aimed at examining syntactic complexity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) by early balanced Bosnian/Swedish bilingual EFL learners. 15 early balanced bilingual Bosnian/Swedish EFL learners were recruited for the study and matched with their respective control groups of intermediate EFL learners (15 speakers of Bosnian as their first language (L1) and 15 speakers of Swedish as their L1). The experimental task involved an unprepared writing assignment in English about the most significant invention of the 20th century. The corpus of the participants’ written assignments was analysed in L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer and SPSS software programs respectively. Data analysis involved measures of syntactical complexity. It has been found that the participants’ written assignments are characterised by statistically significant number of T-units scores in comparison with the Swedish L1 monolingual controls. These findings are further presented and discussed in the article. References Ahmadian, M. J., & Tavakoli, M. (2011). The effects of simultaneous use of careful onlineplanning and task repetition on accuracy, complexity, and fluency in EFL learners’ oralproduction. Language Teaching Research, 15(1), 35-59. Alotaibi, A. M. (2016). Examining the Learnability of English Relative Clauses: Evidencefrom Kuwaiti EFL Learners. English Language Teaching, 9(2), 57. Bardovi-Harlig, K., & Bofman, T. (1989). Attainment of syntactic and morphologicalaccuracy by advanced language learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11(01),17-34. Byrnes, H. (2009). Emergent L2 German writing ability in a curricular context: Alongitudinal study of grammatical metaphor. Linguistics and Education, 20(1), 50–66. Ben-Zeev, S. (1977). The influence of bilingualism on cognitive strategy and cognitivedevelopment. Child Development, 48(3), 1009–1018. Bialystok, E. (1988). Levels of bilingualism and levels of linguistic awareness.Developmental Psychology, 24, 560–567. Bialystok, E., Majumder, S., & Martin, M.M. (2003). Developing phonological awareness:Is there a bilingual advantage? Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 27–44. Cenoz, J. (1998). Beyond bilingualism: multilingualism and multilingual education.Clevedon, England Multilingual Matters Cenoz, J. & Valencia, J. (1992). The role of bilingualism in foreign language acquisition:Learning English in the Basque country. Journal of Multilingual and MulticulturalDevelopment Cummins, J. (2000). Language, Power, and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in theCrossfire. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Daiute, C.A. (1981). Psycholinguistic Foundations of the Writing Process. Research in theTeaching of English, 15, 1, 5–22 Dekydtspotter, L., & Renaud, C. (2014). On second language processing and grammaticaldevelopment: The parser in second language acquisition. Linguistic Approaches toBilingualism, 4(2), 131–165. Gaies, S. J. (1979). Linguistic input in formal second language learning: The issues ofsyntactic gradation and readability in ESL materials. TESOL quarterly, 41–50. Gaies, S. J. (1980). T-unit analysis in second language research: Applications, problemsand limitations. TESOL quarterly, 53–60. Grodner, D., Gibson, E., & Tunstall, S. (2002). Syntactic complexity in ambiguityresolution. Journal of Memory and Language, 46(2), 267–295. Grosjean, F. (2008). Studying Bilinguals. Journal of linguistics, 45, 3, 715–719. Herdina, P, & Jessner U. (2000). The dynamics of third language acquisition. In J. Cenozand U. Jessner (eds) English in Europe: The Acquisition of a Third Language, (pp. 84–98).Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Ho-Peng, L. (1983). Using T-unit measures to assess writing proficiency of university ESLstudents. RELC Journal, 14(2), 35–43. Hunt, K. (1965). Grammatical structures written at three grade levels. NCTE Researchreport, 3. Champaign, IL. Hunt, K. W. (1970). Syntactic maturity in schoolchildren and adults. Monographs of thesociety for research in child development, 35(1), iii–67. Inoue, C. (2016). A comparative study of the variables used to measure syntacticcomplexity and accuracy in task-based research. The Language Learning Journal, 1–19. Iwashita, N. (2006). Syntactic complexity measures and their relation to oral proficiency inJapanese as a foreign language. Language Assessment Quarterly: An InternationalJournal, 3(2), 151–169. Kapranov, O. (2015). Self-Evaluation of Speech Fluency in English as a Second Languageby Korean Exchange Students Studying in Sweden. In L. Szymanski & M. Kuczynski(eds.) Language, Thought and Education: Exploring Networks. (pp. 61–77). Zielona Gora:Oficyna Wydawnicza Uniwersytetu Zielenogorskiego. Kapranov, O. (2013). Beginner Students’ Speech Fluency in a Second LanguageCompared across Two Contexts of Acquisition. In E. Piechurska-Kuciel & E. SzymanskaCzaplak (eds.) Language in Cognition and Affect (pp.81-95). Berlin: Springer. Kobayashi, H., & Rinnert, C. (1992). Effects of First Language on Second LanguageWriting: Translation versus Direct Composition. Language Learning, 42(2), 183–209. Lambert, W.E. (1974). Culture and language as factors in learning and education. Culturalfactors in learning and education. Bellingham, WA: Fifth Western WashingtonSymposium on Learning. Lu, X. (2010). Automatic analysis of syntactic complexity in second language writing,International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 15(4), 474–496. Macnamara, B. N., & Conway, A. R. (2014). Novel evidence in support of the bilingualadvantage: Influences of task demands and experience on cognitive control and workingmemory. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 21(2), 520–525. Molnár, T. (2011). Second language versus third language acquisition: A comparison ofthe English lexical competence of monolingual and bilingual students. Toronto WorkingPapers in Linguistics, 33(1). Navés, T., Torras, M. R., & Celaya, M. L. (2003). Long-term effects of an earlier start: Ananalysis of EFL written production. Eurosla yearbook, 3(1), 103–129. Norbert, F. (2012). Bilingual competence and bilingual proficiency in child development.Massachusetts: MIT Press. Ortega, L. (2003). Syntactic complexity measures and their relationship to L2 proficiency:A research synthesis of college‐level L2 writing. Applied linguistics, 24(4), 492–518. Shaw, P., & Liu, E. T. K. (1998). What develops in the development of second-languagewriting?. Applied linguistics, 19(2), 225–254. Slavoff, G.R. & Johnson, J. S. (1995). The effects of age and the rate of learning a secondanguage. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 17 (1), 1–16. Sotillo, S. M. (2000). Discourse functions and syntactic complexity in synchronous andasynchronous communication. Language Learning & Technology, 4(1), 82–119. Weissberg, B. (2000). Developmental relationships in the acquisition of English syntax:writing vs. speech. Learning and Instruction 10, 37–53. Wolfe-Quintero, K., Inagaki, S, & Kim, H-Y. (1998). Second Language Development inWriting: Measures of Fluency, Accuracy and Complexity Honolulu: University of Hawai'i,Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center. Wolff, D. (2000). Second language writing: a few remarks on psycholinguistic andinstructional issues. Bergische Universita¨t Gesamthochschule Wuppertal: Wuppertal,Germany. Xiaofei, L. (2010). L2 Syntactical Complexity Analyzer. Software program. Yau, M. S., & Belanger, J. (1984). The Influence Mode on the Syntactic Complexity ofEFL Students at Three Grade Levels. TESL Canada Journal, 2(1), 65–77. Youn, S. J. (2014). Measuring syntactic complexity in L2 pragmatic production:Investigating relationships among pragmatics, grammar, and proficiency. System, 42, 270–287.

The last 2016 issue of Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching includes six papers, five of which are reports of original research projects and one is a conceptual piece. The initial two contributions are concerned with different aspects of pragmatics, both with respect to the teaching of this subsystem and the process of its acquisition. In the first of these, Andrew D. Cohen addresses the crucial issue of how native and non-native teachers of second and foreign languages deal with sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic features in their classes. He reports the findings of an online survey of 113 teachers of different additional languages from across the world, which demonstrated that while there exist many similarities between the native and non-native instructors, the former are often at an advantage, although they by no means confine themselves to reliance on their intuition. In the second, Qiong Li undertakes a synthesis of 26 original longitudinal research studies on naturalistic pragmatic development in adult learners with the purpose of identifying patterns of variation in the acquisition of pragmatic features and providing potential explanations for the occurrence of such variation. The analysis showed that there are differences in the rate of development of various aspects of pragmatics (e.g., speech acts vs. lexical features), which can be accounted for in terms of factors related to the target language (e.g., the frequency of the feature in the input), the situation (e.g., social status) and the learner (e.g., initial knowledge about the target feature). The following two papers shift the emphasis to the role of individual factors in the process of second language acquisition, more specifically the contributions of motivation and willingness to communicate (WTC). Ali Al-Hoorie reports the results of a survey study conducted among 311 young Arabic adult learners of English as a foreign language, providing evidence, somewhat in contrast to much previous research, that achievement in second language learning is a function of implicit attitudes to L2 speakers and L2 learning experience rather than the ought-to self or attachment to the L1 group, with such constructs as the ideal L2 self or intended effort being unrelated to success. The study by Mystkowska-Wiertelak investigated fluctuations in WTC of advanced learners of English during seven conversation classes which she taught over the period of one semester. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data gathered by means of self-assessment girds, interviews, questionnaires and detailed lesson plans indicated that WTC was indeed in a state of flux, both within single lessons and over time, with such changes being attributed to an intricate interplay of contextual and individual factors. The last two contributions focus on the role of critical thinking in foreign language learning. Jelena Bobkina and Svetlana Stefanova present a model of teaching critical thinking skills with the help of literature, arguing that such skills can be fostered through encouraging critical reader response to fictional work embedded in social phenomena as well as illustrating how this model can be applied to classroom practice. In the last paper, Paweł Sobkowiak underscores the interdependence of critical thinking and the development of intercultural competence, discussing the findings of a study of 20 coursebooks used in the Polish contexts and concluding that activities used in these coursebooks fall short of achieving either goal. As always, I am confident that all of the papers included in the present issue will provide food for thought to the readers and serve as a springboard for future empirical investigations that will help us better understand the exceedingly complex processes of second language learning and teaching.

With the rise of bilingual and multilingual approaches to teaching a second/foreign language, an overwhelming majority of second language acquisition (SLA) researchers have emphasized the important role of the use of mother tongue (L1) in a second language (L2) class and have argued that the use of L2 positively contributes to the cognitive development of students. However, what aspect of L1 should be used in an L2 class have not been specified explicitly. This study set out to investigate the extent to which teachers believe in the efficacy of the use of L1 metalanguage and the extent to which they use it in their classes in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context of Qatar. The second aim was to assess students’ beliefs regarding the extent to which the use of L1 metalanguage in an L2 class facilitated their learning process. Most importantly, the study aimed to investigate whether there was a discrepancy between students’ expectations and teachers’ agendas regarding the use of L1 metalanguage in L2 classrooms. The hypothesis that underpinned this study was that the use of L1 metalanguage to explain structural concepts in L2 contributed to crosslinguistic and metalinguistic awareness. The study adopted a qualitative approach; two questionnaires were developed, one for students and one for teachers. The questionnaire consisted of 5-point Likert scale statements and questions. Twenty-six undergraduate students and eight teachers participated in the study. The students’ proficiency level in English was elementary. The teachers were recruited on the basis of their native Arabic language proficiency. The findings suggested that both teachers and students viewed the use of Arabic in their English classes positively, and that no substantial discrepancy was observed between the students and the teachers over the issue of the use of Arabic in class. A minor discrepancy was that whereas the teachers were inclined to use Arabic slightly more for the teaching of grammar than the teaching of vocabulary, the students believed that the use of Arabic for learning vocabulary was more beneficial to their learning than it was for learning grammar.

This article underlines the importance of learning grammatical rules of the Latvian language for Latvian as a second or foreign language. In fact, grammar is one of the four components of communicative competence: linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence. Aside from rules and tables, there are more effective and engaging ways to teach and learn grammar. One of them is through educational games. When language learners can apply grammar and use it in a fun way, there is a better chance that they will retain it all. They will be able to practice and internalize grammar phenomena extensively rather than just learning a collection of rules superficially. Not all games can be considered educational. It is important to recognize the purpose of a grammar game. The authors propose to consider several principles that can foster effective learning and improve student outcomes when teaching Latvian grammar to non-native speakers (both language minorities as well as foreigners): - consider the influence of students’ mother tongue, - offer wide selection of contemporary spoken grammar and vocabulary, - teach phases instead or separate words, - consider different learning styles to aid student learning (Auditory, Visual, and Kinesthetic Learning Styles), - utilize (or adopt) speech therapy methods. The authors present educational games for teaching such Latvian grammar phenomena as noun-adjective agreement, verb conjugation, use of prepositions, forming the comparative degree of adjectives, and more. Grammar games for learning English do not only motivate, they also promote the idea of competition, thus increasing learner attention, memory, as well as speaking, listening and cooperation skills. Games are beneficial for any age groups. They can be used with young learners who study Latvian as their first language, as well as Latvian as a second or foreign language students learning Latvian in preschools, schools and other educational institutions. The process of language acquisition starts in the first year of a child’s life and, in some cases, continues through their lifetime. The first language or native language, also known as a mother tongue, is the language children learn first from their parents. In the modern world, it is common that a person’s first language differs from the official language of their homeland. Under the circumstances, children must acquire two languages in the very first years of their lives. The representatives of ethnic minorities in Latvia study Latvian as a second language. This means that Latvian is not their first language; it is the official language of the state, the compulsory language to study. Latvian as a second language is being taught in minority-language schools across Latvia. It was traditionally believed that there is a prominent difference between second language acquisition and foreign language learning process. Therefore, different teaching principles and methods are applied. But in recent years, these fields have come closer together.

The purpose of this project is to help promote elementary English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students' reading comprehension. The project investigates the co-teaching model and its implementation in the Taiwanese English class. Curriculum and lesson plans are included.

This project serves as a resource to help teachers understand and meet the educational needs of second-language learners by promoting their metalinguistic awareness through peer response in writing in elementary English as a foreign language.

How to improve the skill of speaking English is a major challenge for English learners in Taiwan nowadays. This project focuses on issues of pronunciation as the starting point to examine the problems of learning English, and issues of identity transformation in the language-learning process. Then it addresses the concept of enunciation as a way to facilitate English learners to establish their confidence in, and ownership of, the target language. This project is designed not only for discussing issues of improving the teaching and learning of English pronunciation, but also for explicating how students can gain their own voices and define their subjectivity during their English-learning process.

The research in this dissertation is the first attempt in Hungary to reveal language learners' language proficiency in the public education sector through a vocabulary size test as an alternative method. Based on the assessment of vocabulary in learners' coursebooks, the analyses of teacher talk and the answers in learners' informal strategy questionnaire reveal the possible sources through which the learners' can get an access to new vocabulary and also what they do themselves in order to acquire new words in- and outside of the classroom. The results of this research can prove that even the Hungarian language learners' English language knowledge can be at a considerably good level. The starting point for the research was that both language teachers and students have been evaluating the Hungarian learners' English language knowledge as insufficient, despite the relatively many English classes in the public education. This negative assumption has been supported by the data of Eurostat (2009) statistics, which says that the Hungarians are the last ones in Europe concerning their foreign language knowledge. There has also been guessing that the Hungarian learners' English knowledge does not meet the international standards and like this it is falling behind foreign students' English language knowledge. The results show objectively how Hungarian learners' knowledge compares with other learners in other countries from the point of view of English as a foreign language. The current dissertation is hoped to be a substantial contribution to the field of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Hungary, in particular, and to the field of second language vocabulary acquisition, in general.

The case studies offered in this ethnography describe the learning experiences of 13 second and third grade students, six girls and seven boys, living in a medium-sizemidwestern town in the United States, who are taught Spanish as a foreign language once a week in 30 minute sessions during the 1995-6 school year. None of the children had any prior exposure to Spanish nor any additional exposure to Spanish outside the class I taught.The research investigates several areas of individual variety, including motivation, learning style, approach to vocabulary learning, classroom behavior, expectations, and listening and pronunciation skills.The study also investigates the impact of age and gender, as well as associations between the individuals' basic skills and L2 learning success.In addition, the study documents the teacher's experiences, observations, and insights during these classroom sessions. The researcher functioned as a participant-observer by teaching, recording, transcribing, and analyzing.The material for this study comes from hours of classroom teaching which were video- and audio-taped and from careful notes. The tapes and notes were transcribed and analyzed for patterns of learning behavior.A large number of observations resulted from this indepth study. One of the main findings of the study was that classroom management, emotional climate, and peer group influence are very closely interconnected. Learning was strongly related to cooperativeness and supportiveness in the two groups of girls but not seem to be so with the boys. There was no conclusive evidence that any one personality trait was more important than another in the long run. Overall scores on the CTBS were positively related to success in second language learning and were not negatively affected from one year to the next from the time taken out to study Spanish. There was no one area in the CTBS battery that could successfully predict foreign language aptitude; the best predictor seemed to be overall classroom success. Learning a foreign language was not particularly easy or automatic with this group; however, they did seem to have an aptitude and a willingness for repeating unfamiliar sounds.
Department of English

This project addresses writing instruction by teaching journal writing, interactive writing, and poetry instruction to Koreans in the English-as-a-foreign language situation. Writing and indentity construction and writing conferences are also addressed. The curriculum is designed for EFL teachers in Korea at the target-teaching level grades 3-6.

Thesis (MEd (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016.
This research study was aimed at exploring and describing the teaching and learning strategies for language support to isiXhosa speaking learners in Grade One. There are a number of challenges related to teaching in a multi-linguistic classroom. This study highlights some of the current challenges experienced in the Metro East Education District of the Western Cape. In an attempt to resolve these problems, guidelines were given for effective dissemination strategies to support second/third language speaking learners. A gap in the literature on descriptions of current support provided to learners within the theoretical framework of the ecological systems theory was identified. This research therefore intends to fill this gap in the literature. Support to IsiXhosa learners who receive education in a second/third language in the South African context is especially unclear. A qualitative research approach supported by the exploratory, descriptive and contextual research designs was employed. The sample was selected from Grade One teachers from schools in different socio-economic areas in the Western Cape who provided education to IsiXhosa learners who receive education in a second/third language. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings provide a clear description of the challenges experienced by the learner and the teacher, current strategies that are employed by teachers, as well as resources and support utilised by teachers. Conclusions were made in terms of the ecological systems theory. Based on the findings, a number of recommendations were made regarding teaching and learning strategies for language support to Grade One IsiXhosa learners who receive education in a second/third language.

In Japan, English education in elementary schools is still in the process of innovation. The purpose of this project is to seek the most appropriate and effective way for elementary-level students to acquire listening skills in a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) environment.