Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Explores the applicability of cognitive writing theories in a language immersion program at the elementary school level.

This study explored the relationship between the use of motivational strategies by Albanian and Japanese teachers and the observed and reported motivation of missionaries at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Provo, Utah. The aim of this study was to collect baseline data about the motivational strategies already employed by teachers in the Albanian and Japanese areas of the MTC and to explore the relationship that the teachers' use of these strategies has with the motivation of the respective missionaries. The data for this study was collected from seven teachers and 28 learners during a series of observations using a modified version of the Motivation Orientation of Language Teaching (MOLT), a classroom observation instrument developed by Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008). The MOLT is used to record the observable motivated behavior of learners as well as the motivational practices of the teachers according to Dörnyei's (2001) foreign language classroom motivational strategy framework. Each participating class was observed using the MOLT three times during the missionaries' nine-week stay in the MTC. The data from the observations was supplemented with teacher and learner surveys administered during the first and final weeks of the study period. Not only was this study useful for collecting valuable information about teaching practice at the MTC, but it also adds a new dimension to the empirical research that has been done in motivation in second language acquisition by expanding the research to English speakers being taught in foreign languages, whereas most research had been focused in ESL and EFL contexts. It is the first study to combine surveys with an observation component in target languages other than English. The results of this study support previous findings that teacher use of motivational strategies does indeed correlate significantly with learner motivation.

With radical social change and educational reform taking place in China since 1976, the English teaching system there has been changing accordingly. The Chinese Traditional Method (CTM) is giving way to the Western Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach. This research is a study of both Chinese and expatriate English teachers who are involved in classrooms and affected by reforms. The goal of this research study is to identify the extent to which Chinese and expatriate English teachers use CLT in China, to discover the possible factors that prevent them from using CLT and to explore an English teaching method that may fit into the Chinese setting. The finding shows that both Chinese teachers and Americans used the CLT approach in their teaching. As for the extent to which they use CLT, overall variation between the two groups is not as obvious as variation within groups. Both Chinese and American teachers have encountered obstacles in introducing CLT. Recommendations were offered for teachers, students, and administrators.

Portuguese enrollments have been on a continuous rise at universities in the United States. Due to this increase it is important that teachers and department administrators understand what the motivations of Portuguese students are. This study reports on the findings of a survey conducted with lower-level Portuguese students at Brigham Young University regarding their motivations to study the language and compares these motivations with those of students of French, German, Italian, and Spanish. In addition, the study reports on students' perspectives on Portuguese in contrast to their perspectives on these other four European languages. Other issues considered include Portuguese students' native and foreign language backgrounds, their motivation to further pursue the study of Portuguese in the future, and their interest in two different varieties of the language, Brazilian and European Portuguese. Results revealed that only for Portuguese students were career plans the main motivation to study the language. Most Portuguese students already spoke Spanish fluently, either as a native or foreign language, and were also greatly motivated by the similarity between the two languages. Many Portuguese students were interested in pursuing their language studies in the future. Students reported being very interested in Brazilian Portuguese, but minimally interested in the European variety. Portuguese students' perceptions of the language were for the most part more positive than their perceptions of French, German, Italian, and Spanish, whereas non-Portuguese students' perceptions of Portuguese were mostly less positive than their perceptions of these other four European languages. Based on Portuguese and non-Portuguese students' responses to the survey questions, the study gives recommendations to promote the study of Portuguese as a foreign language at the post-secondary level.

The current study is a collection of three publishable articles addressing a similar theme. Each article is an examination into the role textbooks play in Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms and, specifically, a look at textbooks as an element in the classroom environment, their relationship to pressures from high-stakes exams, and an exploration into any paradigms about the nature of EFL learning they may be explicitly or implicitly promoting through their content and methodologies. The first article, a grounded theory look at underlying methodologies and ideologies in common Chinese textbooks, reveals that there may be competing paradigms promoted by different texts that could be sending conflicting messages about the nature of EFL study. The second article, a critical discourse analysis of textbooks as items of cultural discourse, finds that subtle wording and structure in common textbooks could be reinforcing ideologies of the dominant paradigm about English study. The third and final article again uses grounded theory to compare the content of a common textbook series to passages from the national college entrance exam and to goals of the national syllabus to suggest that while in several aspects, the textbook series is in harmony with stated educational standards, there are certain ways in which the textbook and the exam seem to be misaligned in their goals and structure.

Det ingår i skolans uppgift att främja demokrati och mångfald och läromedlen spelar en viktig roll i detta arbete. Samtidigt visar forskning på att styrdokumenten för moderna språk har en tendens att hålla fast vid en konservativ kulturuppfattning som inte har anpassats tillräckligt till det globaliserade samhället. Hur påverkar detta kulturinnehållet i läromedlen? Vilken bild av de spanskspråkiga ländernas människor och kulturer kan eleverna tänkas få med sig efter att ha studerat spanska på gymnasienivå? Finns målspråksländernas kulturella mångfald representerad i läroböckerna i enlighet med ett demokratiskt förhållningssätt? Detta är några av de frågor jag söker svaren på i denna undersökning. / The aim of this essay is to explore the way Spanish-speaking cultures and peoples are presented in Upper Secondary language textbooks of Spanish. The study is carried out in the context of globalization and its effects on culture, identity and language teaching. Postcolonial theory and a constructivist perspective on culture provide the framework for the textual analysis which is divided into two main parts. The first part is a statistical overview of the geographical areas/countries of the Spanish-speaking world that are presented in the textbooks. The second part seeks to establish who, i.e. what type of individual, is representing the Spanish-speaking peoples in the texts. The concluding discussion revolves around whether the textbooks reflect a progressive multicultural approach, or if the colonial heritage of ethnocentrism still lingers in the view of culture conveyed.

This study aims to investigate Some English teachers’ beliefs concerning form and function in connection to their teaching. The investigation was carried out through qualitative in-depth interviews and classroom observations focusing on critical incidents. During the study, it became clear that all the participating teachers found that both form and function were important parts in their teaching of English as a second language (L2). Nevertheless it was interesting to notice that they had different ideas about which of the two concepts was the most important one when it comes to language learning. Some of the teachers emphasized the need to put stress on form, arguing that knowledge about form makes it possible for the learner to understand how the language is built, while some believed that too much focus on form might block the communicative competence and thus affect the function.

For students of English as a foreign language (EFL), a certain level of knowledge of vocabulary is required for successful communication to occur. Based on personal experiences in the classroom which have shown that students often lack language variation, accuracy, coherence and descriptiveness, this paper deals with the issue of teaching vocabulary in a more conscientious and focused way to help ensure that students will become more competent in using the language effectively. The Swedish curriculum for English, LGR11, is built up around the ideology known as communicative language teaching (CLT). This entails that as long as a learner is exposed to a foreign language, and has sufficient opportunities to use that language, the learning of the language will occur. The results of this paper suggest that we cannot only rely on a pure form of CLT for students to reach higher ability levels, but that a certain amount of focused vocabulary teaching, in context with classroom activities, is also necessary.

The purpose of this essay was to investigate how teachers’ assessments in the SwedishUpper Secondary School are affected by the national tests in English language courses.By conducting a qualitative investigation in the shape of interviews with six teachers, Iaimed to show how the teachers feel that their profession is affected by the nationaltesting, whether it is positive or negative. This was done whilst also examining thenational tests within the context of school-developmental theory and assessment theory.The Swedish School Inspectorate have shown repeatedly in reports that there is a greatdiscrepancy regarding how students are assessed on a school-to-school basis which issomething that they wish to inhibit, as the Swedish school-system encouragesequivalency-based assessment. The national tests also tend to add stress both due to theadditional workload that the teachers experience, but also for the students who feelpressured to perform well under difficult testing situations.Since national testing in English is an annual assessment in Sweden teachers arecontinuously exposed to an additional workload at the end of each school year, whilststill being expected to handle their regular workload. To investigate how teachers feelabout the national tests in regards to how they perform their final assessments cantherefore be of importance, as it can provide us with an additional viewpoint as toexplain how or why national testing is or is not working in its current state.The results of the study show that although teachers find the national tests helpful sinceit provides them with additional material for assessment, the stress and additionalworkload does not outweigh the positives. There is also a tendency expressed that thenational tests tend to confirm what previous material has already shown regardingstudents. One suggestion for how the national tests can be bettered is to centralizemarking, as that would allow teachers to focus on teaching rather than worry aboutmarking. Overall, the results therefore show a negative impact on the teachers’ work.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間・環境学) / 甲第23985号 / 人博第1037号 / 新制||人||244(附属図書館) / 2022||人博||1037(吉田南総合図書館) / 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻 / (主査)准教授 金丸 敏幸, 教授 柳瀬 陽介, 教授 STEWART Timothy William, 教授 田地野 彰 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM