This study investigates how the relationship between nationalism and language learning is manifested in discourse at an English language classroom facilitated in Nogales Sonora along the Mexico/US border. Employing ethnographically-sensitive critical discourse analysis, this study contributes to the fields of English Language Teaching (ELT), Border Studies, and Nationalism Studies by introducing three analytical terms that provide a means to document the social construction of nation-states (termed herein as imagined national communities of practice). The three terms are (1) nationalist practices, which refers to social practice that presupposes nationalist principles, (2) nationalist border practices, which refers to discerning self/other along nationalist lines, and (3) nationalist standard practices, which refers to the articulation of nationalist standards of language and subjectivity. The students attending the class under analysis comprise a unique population in that they are adults who occupy positions of economic and social privilege in the Nogales Sonora community because of their management-level employment at maquila factories. Reflecting their status, the students are invested in nationalist practices of border and standard in order to align themselves with nation-state institutions and to distance themselves from cultural and linguistic liminality (e.g., Mexican-American, paisano, code-switching, and Spanglish) characteristic of border regions. The classroom under observation upheld nationalist borders and standards, with important consequences. First, nationalist notions of border led classroom participants to disavow the bilingual language use that was clearly necessary for successful classroom operations, despite an English immersion classroom policy. Second, nationalist practices established the local classroom space as indexically linked to an imagined American community of practice, understood by students to be authentically monolingual, monocultural, and distinct from Mexico. Association with--but not full incorporation into--this particular understanding of the American nation-state is advantageous to students for maintaining their elevated social and economic positioning in the local Nogales Sonora community. Thus, this classroom serves as a site of nationalist border reproduction and the reinforcement of hierarchies of privilege. The study encourages teacher reflection on what nationalism can mean to formal language learning contexts and suggests directions for re-aligning classroom practice to approaches that embrace multilingual realities of language learning contexts.

<p>This thesis compared science teaching and learning in English and isiXhosa in the Intermediate Phase (Grades 4-6) in two primary schools in the Western Cape. It explored the effects of using learners' home language (isiXhosa) and second language (English) as languages of learning and teaching science. The study is part of a broader project called the Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa (LOITASA). The study was conceived against the background of English as a means of social, economic and educational advancement, and the marginalization of African languages in education.</p>

Die zum Fremdsprachenerwerb wesentliche Vermittlung interkultureller Kommunikationskompetenzen wird in den verfügbaren Lehrplänen in Manitoba für Deutsch als Fremdsprache vorausgesetzt. Eine Umfrage unter den Deutschlehrern sowie repräsentative Interviews zeigen, dass interkulturelle Kommunikationskompetenzen in der Praxis oft nicht ihrem Wichtigkeitsgrad entsprechend in den Unterricht integriert werden. Der Erfolg des DaF-Programms in Manitoba hängt dementsprechend von der Sensibilisierung der Lehrer sowie einer Reform und Modernisierung von erforderlichen Prüfungsmöglichkeiten und Qualitätssicherung der Vermittlungsinhalte ab.

This investigation reports on a study that explores the views of students, teachers and parents about the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach in learning English as a second language in Bangladesh. This study focuses on the improvement of English language outcomes in Bangladesh. Though compulsory for fifteen years of schooling, public examination results indicate that students perform poorly in English. This research is conducted at the secondary schools in Bangladesh where English is compulsory because of its global nature as the second or foreign language. Mainstream students learning English using the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach are facing many challenges. The study employs a mixed methods approach which includes qualitative interviews, semi-structured focus group interviews and observations; and quantitative data involved achievement tests to find gaps between oral and written attainment, in order to determine the effectiveness of CLT developing language skills to communicate in and outside the classrooms. ESL learners in Bangladesh have been using CLT for nearly two decades, but the attainments are not satisfactory particularly in oral language (listening and speaking) compared to written language (reading and writing). Four schools (two high and two low achievement) were selected from two divisional cities according to the public examination results. Five students, all English subject teachers and five parents from each school were invited randomly to participate. Findings indicated a confirmation of the gap between oral and written language achievements and highlighted that CLT is not working effectively to develop communicative competence to the learners. The participants identified several factors causing this. Among these were large class sizes (number of students), an extensive curriculum, insufficient class time (duration), an inappropriate examination system, excessive teacher workload, lack of parent awareness of CLT, and negative relationships between home and school. All of these factors impact on the effectiveness of CLT in Bangladesh. All participants agreed that CLT as an approach is better than other approaches used in Bangladesh to develop English language learning, but the varied interpretation and implementation (practice) makes it less effective. Therefore, they suggested some issues for local and national level policy makers that could enhance the CLT practice in Bangladesh.

This study investigates the use of English during English lessons in Years 5 and 6. In order to do that, three research questions were formulated. In order to collect material to answer these research questions, two methods of data collection were combined, namely observations and interviews. Two English teachers at a school in the Stockholm area were observed and interviewed. These observations and interviews helped to collect the material. The result showed that the Swedish language dominates during English lessons. The teachers reported to be determined to use a large amount of English during their lessons; however, it was clear from the observations that this was not the case in practice. The teachers justified their choice of language by stating that the latest research proves that the students should not devote most of their energy to understanding the language as they should instead focus on the tasks. In order to answer the third research question both the teachers were interviewed. They stated that they use different exercises to address the goals of the curriculum.

The primary aim of this study is to determine whether it is possible to standardize written feedback on L2 student writing for use in a computerised marking environment. It forms part of a bigger project aimed at enhancing the feedback process as a whole The study attempts to establish "best practice" with regards to feedback on writing, by establishing from the literature what works and what should be avoided. Also, an empirical study was launched to establish what lecturers focus on and what marking techniques they use. A set of randomly selected essays from the Tswana Learner English Corpus and the Afrikaans Learner English Corpus were sent to the English departments of different tertiary institutions across the country. The essays were marked by the English lecturers at the relevant institutions. The conclusion was that lecturers typically focus on surface structures, and use ineffective marking techniques. The best practice (and data from the empirical study) was then used to create a set of standardised feedback comments (tag set) that can be used in a specially programmed software package in which students submit their texts electronically. Lecturers can then mark the student essays on the computer, hopefully speeding up the process, while at the same time giving much more detailed feedback. In later stages of the bigger project, students will get individualized exercises based on the feedback, and there are experiments currently being run to try and automate certain pans of the marking process in order to take some strain off the lecturers when marking. The immense archiving abilities of the computer will also be utilized in order to create opportunities for longitudinal studies. The effectiveness of the feedback tag set was tested in comparison to the marking techniques used by the lecturers in the empirical study and a self-correcting exercise. The conclusion was that the feedback tag set is more effective than the other two techniques. but students seem to perform weak overall when it gets to the revision of cohesive devices and supporting arguments. I argue that students are not used to revising these features, since lecturers seldom (if ever) comment on the structural elements of texts. However, the experiment proves that standardization of written feedback is possible to an extent. The implications of the findings are discussed, and recommendations for further research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

Die zum Fremdsprachenerwerb wesentliche Vermittlung interkultureller Kommunikationskompetenzen wird in den verfügbaren Lehrplänen in Manitoba für Deutsch als Fremdsprache vorausgesetzt. Eine Umfrage unter den Deutschlehrern sowie repräsentative Interviews zeigen, dass interkulturelle Kommunikationskompetenzen in der Praxis oft nicht ihrem Wichtigkeitsgrad entsprechend in den Unterricht integriert werden. Der Erfolg des DaF-Programms in Manitoba hängt dementsprechend von der Sensibilisierung der Lehrer sowie einer Reform und Modernisierung von erforderlichen Prüfungsmöglichkeiten und Qualitätssicherung der Vermittlungsinhalte ab.

Das deutsche Bildungssystem ist noch weit davon entfernt, Inklusion im Schulalltag und im Schulunterricht flächendeckend umzusetzen. Dies ist jedoch eine Verpflichtung, die Deutschland mit dem Beitritt zur Behindertenrechtskonvention eingegangen ist. Die Realisierung einer inklusiven Schulentwicklung gestaltet sich schwierig, da die in der Inklusion erfolgreichen Schulen es einerseits nicht schaffen, den notwendigen Bedarf aufzufangen und es andererseits auch nur in bedingtem Maße gelingt, ihr Wissen und ihre Praxiserfahrungen über Inklusion weiterzugeben. Zugleich zeigt sich im Schulalltag die Notwendigkeit eines Abbaus von Barrieren sowie einer Verbesserung der Lernsituation. Debatten über die Anerkennung der heterogenen Rahmenbedingungen und damit über die Umsetzung eines inklusionspädagogischen Ansatzes dürfen nicht nur theoretisch geführt werden. In dem Beitrag werden daher konkrete Möglichkeiten für den Fremdsprachenunterricht und Gute-Praxis-Beispiele aufgezeigt. Auch wenn ohne Frage umfangreichere finanzielle Mittel für eine Inklusionsumsetzung Voraussetzung wären, wird dabei sichtbar, dass adäquates Handeln und ein entsprechender Wille aus Verwaltung-, Schulleiter-, Lehrer- und Schülerperspektive schon vieles bewegen kann. Es wird aufgezeigt, welche Probleme und Herausforderungen sich in einer inklusiven Praxis ergeben können. / Inclusive education in foreign language teaching: Implementation and examples of best practice The German education system is still far from implementing the concept of inclusive education in its schools and classrooms. However, this is a commitment Germany made when signing the CRPD. The implementation is rather difficult because on the one hand successful schools that exist already all over Germany are not able to serve the needs, and on the other hand, they have only limited resources to pass on their knowledge and practical experience of an inclusive approach. It is important to reduce barriers in everyday school practice and improve the learning situation now. Debates on the recognition of a heterogeneous learning group and thus on the implementation of an inclusive pedagogical approach must not only take place hypothetically. In this paper, therefore, will be presented specific ways as well as best practices of teaching foreign languages in an inclusive education system. Although greater financial resources for implementing inclusive education in schools are necessary, an adequate attitude of the administration, the school headmaster, the teachers and also of the students as well as their voluntary to act accordingly can already change a lot. Problems and challenges that may arise however in an inclusive education practice will also be presented.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a group of Chinese students made meaning of their collaborative learning experiences as they engaged in creating a supportive dialogical environment in an Intensive English Reading class. The class utilized dialogue as inquiry along with activities that facilitated communication to approach the learning process. These activities included: pre-class writing, in-class presentations, after-class reflections, and small group online discussions. Students and teacher engaged one another in questioning and responding that implemented a process of reflective dialogue about texts and knowledge of language. Thirty sophomore English major students participated in this study, ten of whom were randomly selected for final participation. Data sources consisted of transcriptions from phenomenological interviews, student weekly and final written reflections, and researcher’s field notes. Analysis of these data yielded four themes: relationship, confidence, engagement, and change. That the four themes overlap suggests that they mutually reinforce one another to make students’ learning experiences collaborative. Results indicate that creating a socially, affectively, and pedagogically-supported dialogical environment promotes students’ communication with others as well as creative and reflective doing and thinking. The results have implications for foreign language teachers, educators, and researchers interested in performing action research in their practice.

本研究旨在探討用溝通式教學法所編寫之教科書對高中英文教師教學實務之影響，並試圖了解高中英文教師教學實務是否符合教育部頒布的高中英文教學要領。 本研究以問卷調查方式進行，對象為大高雄地區(高雄縣市)21所高中的254位高中英文教師，共計回收問卷205份，回收率為80.7%。問卷內容改編自Littlewood (1981)溝通模式及教育部頒布的高中英文教學要領。 本研究主要結果摘要如下： 1. 部份符合溝通式教學法的項目為授課語言、文法教學、課堂時間分配及溝通式活動等四項。 2. 多數高中老師花最多課堂時間在講授課程，練習活動次之，最少時間於英文說寫活動。 3. 多數高中老師的課堂活動主要為溝通前之練習，而非溝通式活動。 4. 老師的教學實務包括聽力、口說、閱讀及寫作較符合溝通式教學法之精神。 5. 和男性教師相較之下，女性教師的教學較符合高中英文教學要領且和溝通式教學法有正相關。此外，和未修過TESOL教師相較之下，修過TESOL之教師的教學也和溝通式教學法有正相關。 根據問卷調查結果，本研究最後提供相關建議以供參考。 / The major purpose of this study is to know how English teachers conduct teaching activities concerning four skills in their classes with CLT-based textbooks. In spite of the popularity and prevalence of CLT approach, it is by no means applied and practiced without any impediments or constraints. In actual teaching practice, there exist a variety of differences for senior high school English teachers when conducting teaching activities with CLT-based textbooks. In this study, the focus will be on senior high school English teachers’ teaching practices with CLT-based textbooks in greater Kaohsiung area. In addition, the consistency of teachers’ classroom practices and the Instruction Guidelines is examined as well. The 254 participants selected in this study were English teachers from 21 different senior high schools in greater Kaohsiung area. 205 questionnaires were collected from the targeted 254 respondents, yielding a return rate of 80.7%. The questions in the questionnaires were mainly adapted from the communicativeness model of Littlewood (1981) and the Instruction Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education. The major findings are summarized as follows: 1. Instruction language, grammar teaching, classroom time for PPP and the communicativeness of activities conformed only partially to the creed of CLT. 2. Senior high school English teachers spent most of the classroom time for presentation, less time for practice, and least time for production. 3. Most teachers’ classroom activities were mainly pre-communicative activities, instead of communicative ones. 4. Teachers’ teaching practices, including listening, speaking, reading and writing, are consistent with the core of CLT. 5. Female senior high school teachers conform more to the Instruction Guidelines and correlated more positively in classroom practices than male teachers. Besides gender, teachers who had taken TESOL-related courses before correlated more positively in classroom practices than those who did not. Based on the findings, some suggestions have been made for pedagogical implications and further studies. The limitations of the study are mentioned as well.