Published Article / The contribution argues that there is a renewed interest by mainly Afrikaans and English speaking South Africans in learning another indigenous South African language. This came about as a direct result of the changed official language policy, elevating all the indigenous Bantu languages to that of being official. It is further argued that many individuals interested in learning a new language, do not have the time or the inclination to do so in a formal classroom context. Access to a computer has increased dramatically in the last two decades, and hence e-learning becomes a viable option in this regard. The contribution argues that computer-assisted language learning (CALL) can very sensibly complement and even substitute the language teacher. Some existing computer-assisted language courses aimed at learning Xhosa are briefly explored, and finally the attention is turned to the particular challenges experienced in developing an interactive multimedia Xhosa acquisition course within the Multitaal framework.

This doctoral study explores the museum as site and resource for language learning by adult migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision has emerged over the past decade in museums across the UK and elsewhere within an increasing emphasis on informal adult learning programs. While there has been extensive research on second language acquisition, museum learning and social inclusion separately, there have been few studies that have investigated language learning in the context of museums, and even fewer studies that have sought to understand the benefits of language learning in museums for this target group of learners and how it might relate to the concept of inclusion. The study is centred around an ethnography that addresses these gaps in the literature and which examined three primary questions: (a) what are the target learners’ experiences of social inclusion and exclusion post-migration, and its interface with their English language abilities? (b) what are learners’ perceptions of the impact of participating in ESOL in museums in terms of exclusion and inclusion?, and (c) what occurs in interaction during ESOL in museums? In collaboration with City of Edinburgh Council Museums and Galleries Service, a cohort of 14 adult ESOL learners were studied over a 5-month ESOL course held in the City’s Museums and Galleries. In-depth time-series interviews were conducted with participants over the 5-month period. Narrative analysis (Labov & Waletzky, 1967; Riessman, 1993) of interviews examined narrative trajectories within case and across cases, mapping experiences post migration, in and beyond museums. In order to investigate the affordances of dialogue in museums, conversational interaction was observed and recorded during the 11 weekly museum visits. Conversation analysis (Leinhardt & Knutson, 2004; Markee, 2000) examined what occurred in talk, focusing on interaction between interlocutors, its function and content. Drawing on a social theory that conceptualizes language as symbolic power (Bourdieu, 1977, 1989, 1991) and identities as constructed and reflexive (Block, 2007b; Giddens, 1991; Norton, 2000), analysis indicates that the experience of migration provoked deficit conceptions of self as participants negotiated their new social milieu through English language. Access to opportunities to engage in English are mediated both by institutional forces, e.g. social space afforded in institutional contexts, and perceptions of self. Analysis of dialogue in museums shows participants positioning themselves and being positioned as ‘knowers’, where primacy was given to collaborative meaning making about museum displays, objects and artefacts in conversational interaction. Analyses of interviews indicate shifts in identity trajectories from deficit to competent views of self through participation in ESOL in museums. These findings suggest a cumulative effect of micro-interactions on identities constructed in dialogue and point to the critical role which learning in museums and other informal environments can have in terms of providing social space within which to engage in positive dialogue that both challenges isolation and exclusion and helps foster increasing confidence and competence in the target language alongside feelings of inclusion for the majority of participants in the research.

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In the variation of English for Occupational Purposes, ESP is usually considered to be culture-free. This thesis investigates, as an example, a vocational ESP program in Saudi Arabia to establish, first, what cultural values might be present in the course materials, and second, how the ESP programme relates to the school system in which workers have been educated. The study proposes that there is a cultural content even in what appears to be a culture-free ESP program, and that this cultural content is expected to provide the non-native target population learners with values and thinking abilities that are different from those that are in the receiving environment. The study shows how an ESP program can have a Western cultural perspective that provides Western values and thinking abilities and general / basic education. The thesis consists of six chapters and a general introduction. The Introduction discusses the significance of ESP, the general view that it is 'culture-free', and the importance of analysing an example ESP program to see if this is the case. Chapter One presents an account of ESP, its definition, nature, development, and key issues in the field of its syllabus design and significance in its various fields, with focus on the significance of ESP having a common core component. Chapter Two presents an account of the literature on the concepts of socialisation and culture, its definition, nature, relation with language, learning, and significance in foreign language teaching (FLT), English language teaching (ELT), and specifically in ESP. Chapter Three introduces Saudi Arabia, with a brief account of its socio- cultural aspects, religion, educational system, and the significance of English language teaching in it. It also has a section about the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) which represents the environment of Western cultural learning in the ESP program, namely Vocational English Language Training (VELT).

This thesis explores the impact of peer feedback on two secondary level classrooms studying English as a foreign language in Taiwan. The effectiveness of teacher-led feedback has consistently been the focus of the relevant literature but relatively fewer studies have experimentally investigated the impact of peer-led feedback on learning. This research is based on the belief that the investigation of the process of peer-led feedback, as well as the effectiveness of peer-led correction, will enhance our understanding of learners’ communicative interactions. These data will allow us the opportunity to provide suggestions for successful second/foreign language learning. This study was conducted following a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design involving a variety of data collection and analysis techniques. Observations of peer-peer dialogues taken from a Year 7 and a Year 8 class were analysed using content analysis, in order to classify the types of peer feedback provided by the Year 7 and Year 8 learners. Pre-and post-measures, including English speaking tests, questionnaires, and checklists, were examined with non-parametric statistical tests used to explore any changes in relation to the learners’ speaking development after the quasi-experiment. Key findings included frequency and distribution of seven types of peer feedback, as used by the Year 7 and Year 8 learners, and the statistical results that revealed the differences between the pre-and post-measures. Among the seven types of peer feedback (translation, confirmation, completion, explicit indication, explicit correction, explanation and recasts), explicit correction and translation were the two techniques used most frequently by the learners. Post-test results indicated an improvement in the learners’ speaking performance. The results of pre- and post-questionnaires and pre- and post-checklists showed different levels of change in the learners’ self-evaluation of their own ability to speak English, as well as their attitudes towards corrective feedback. These results allow us to gain insight into the nature of peer interaction in communicative speaking activities as well as learners’ motives behind their feedback behaviours. Additionally, the results shed light on learners’ opinions towards corrective feedback that they received or provided in peer interaction. Further, the results yield a deepened understanding of impacts of peer feedback on L2 development by examining changes in learners’ speaking performance, self-confidence in speaking English and self-evaluation of their own ability to speak English after a peer-led correction treatment. In conclusion, the study suggests that adolescent learners are willing and able to provide each other with feedback in peer interaction. The feedback that they delivered successfully helps their peers to attend to form and has positive impacts on their peers’ English- speaking performance. Moreover, the study provides explanations for learners’ preference for certain types of feedback techniques, which hopefully helps to tackle the mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations of corrective feedback in the L2 classrooms.

The purpose of the study is to examine how the Spanish teachers in secondary schools consider culture and intercultural competencies. This study also makes use of a sociocultural perspective that is in relation with the intercultural perspective and puts its mark in the study. To support our research we used the qualitative method, specifically, the semi-structured interview. Five Spanish language faculty members stemming from various areas of the country were interviewed. As a result of the questions presented we were able to conclude that teaching Spanish and Latin American culture is a fundamental objective in Spanish language classes. Another aspect that is worth highlighting in the data analysis is the importance of intercultural education in order to avoid misunderstandings, stereotypes, and cultural prejudices. In order to obtain this objective it is necessary that the language teacher apply different resources, strategies, and materials that will help activate and motivate students' learning, comprehension and interactions with other cultures.

Cette thèse s’intéresse à la description didactique de la variation linguistique dans une approche à contraintes. En nous appuyant sur la Troisième Vague de l’étude de la variation (Eckert, 2012) et les Social Meaning Games (Burnett, 2017 ; sous presse), nous postulons que les contraintes stylistiques sont un sous-ensemble de contraintes pragmatiques. Cette approche nous permet d’envisager la variation dans une perspective fonctionnelle plutôt que normative et de décrire les variantes « non-standard » comme plus ou moins appropriées à une tâche plutôt que comme des déviations de la norme. Pour illustrer notre approche, nous l’appliquons à la description de la dislocation clitique à gauche en français. Nous proposons que la variation de la dislocation clitique à gauche avec les clivées et les constructions canoniques est contraintes par la structure informationnelle (Lambrecht, 1994), les relation d’ensembles partiellement ordonnés (Ward & Birner, 1991) et une stigmatisation stylistique dans les contextes formels (Zribi-Hertz, 1994). Nous suggérons que ces contraintes sont toutes de nature pragmatique et que leur interaction influe sur l’emploi de la dislocation clitique à gauche en français. Ces hypothèses sont testées empiriquement via une étude de corpus, une série de test de jugements d’acceptabilité et un test de Matched Guise. De plus, nous postulons que l’apprentissage des contraintes pragmatiques en langue étrangère dépend de leur enseignement explicite et l’exposition répétée à la construction dans des contextes acceptables. Suivant l’hypothèse de l’interface dynamique (Ellis, 2005), nous suggérons que l’apprentissage explicite des contraintes de la dislocation clitique à gauche dans le contexte de la classe de langue facilite leur apprentissage implicite lorsque les apprenant se retrouve dans une situation de communication avec des locuteurs natifs du français. Le rôle de l’exposition est exploré empiriquement en répliquant un test de jugements d’acceptabilité et le test de Matched Guise avec des participants non-natifs. Enfin, nos observations sont implémentées dans le discours didactique à l’aide de notions et d’une terminologie déjà employés dans les grammaires pédagogiques (Germain & Séguin, 1998). Les contraintes discursives de la dislocation clitique à gauche sont décrites via la distinction entre informations familières et nouvelles (Capelle & Gidon, 1999 ; Watorek, 1998). Les contraintes stylistiques sont décrites via la compétence de savoir-être et les registres sociolinguistiques (CECR, 2001). / The present dissertation deals with didactic description of linguistic variation in a constraint-based approach. In line with the Third Wave movement of variation studies (Eckert, 2012) and Social Meaning Games (Burnett, 2017; accepted), we argue that stylistic constraints are a subset of pragmatic constraints. This approach allows us to consider variation in a functional perspective rather than in a normative perspective and to describe “non-standard” variants as more or less appropriate to certain tasks rather than deviations from the norm. To illustrate our approach, we are applying it to the description of clitic left dislocation in French. We propose that the variation of clitic left dislocation with clefts and canonical construction is constrained by information structure (Lambrecht, 1994), Partially Ordered Set relations (Ward & Prince, 1991) and stylistic stigmatization in formal context (Zribi-Hertz, 1994). We claim that these constraints are all pragmatic in nature and that their interaction weight on the use of clitic left dislocation in French. These claims are tested empirically via a corpus studies, a series of acceptability judgment tests and a matched guise test. Furthermore, we argue that the learning of pragmatic constraints in foreign language is dependent of their explicit teaching and repeated expositions to the construction in felicitous contexts. Following the dynamic interface hypothesis (Ellis, 2005), we suggest that explicit learning of the constraints of clitic left dislocation in the context of the classroom facilitates their implicit learning when the learners find themselves in a situation of communication with French native speakers. The role of exposition is explored empirically by replicating an acceptability judgment test and the matched guise test with non-native participants. Finally, all of our observations are tentatively implemented to didactic discourse with the help of notions and a terminology already used in pedagogical grammars (Germain & Séguin, 1998). Discursive constraints of clitic left dislocation are described using the distinction between old and new information (Capelle & Gidon, 1999; Watorek, 1998). Stylistics constraints are described using existential competencies and sociolinguistics registers (European Framework, 2001).

This study examines Vietnamese language learning in New South Wales primary schools. Five major influences on Vietnamese language learning were studied: parents' competence in Vietnamese, parents' attitudes to Vietnamese language learning, parental involvement in their children's school, children's attitudes to Vietnamese language learning, and school factors such as teaching strategies and teacher qualities. The survey was conducted by means of questionnaires for children and parents, the Vietnamese language Basic Skills Tests, and interviews with teachers. A series of recommendations is offered to all those involved in teaching the Vietnamese language. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)