Listening is typically the first language skill to develop in first language (L1) users and has been recognized as a basic and fundamental tool for communication. Despite the importance of listening, aural abilities are often taken for granted, and many people overlook their dependency on listening and the complexities that combine to enable this multi-faceted skill. When second language (L2) students are learning their new language, listening is crucial, as it provides access to oral input and facilitates social interaction. Yet L2 students find listening challenging, and L2 teachers often lack sufficient pedagogy to help learners develop listening abilities that they can use in and beyond the classroom. In an effort to provide a pedagogic alternative to more traditional and limited L2 listening instruction, this thesis investigated the viability of listening strategy instruction (LSI) over three semesters at a private university in Japan through a qualitative action research (AR) intervention. An LSI program was planned and implemented with six classes over the course of three AR phases. Two teachers used the LSI with 121 learners throughout the project. Following each AR phase, student and teacher perceptions of the methodology were investigated via questionnaires and interviews, which were primary data collection methods. Secondary research methods (class observations, pre/post-semester test scores, and a research journal) supplemented the primary methods. Data were analyzed and triangulated for emerging themes related to participants’ perceptions of LSI and the viability thereof. These data showed consistent positive perceptions of LSI on the parts of both learners and teachers, although some aspects of LSI required additional refinement. This project provided insights on LSI specific to the university context in Japan and also produced principles for LSI program planning and implementation that can inform the broader L2 education community.

This study examined the impact of Content-based language instruction on primary EFL young learners in Taiwan in terms of learning motivation and language development. It investigated how content-based language instruction, impacts on learners' learning motivation, language attitude, classroom anxiety, and language development. The impetus of the present study was motivated by the growing population attending private institutions for better language instruction in Taiwan and research indicating that language is more effectively learnt when the target language is in authentic use. Content-based language instruction has been widely implemented as a L2 instruction approach in North America and Europe since the 1980's, after the Success of the innovative French immersion programme in Quebec, Canada in 1965. Numerous studies have shown impressive results on learners' L2 development while learning other subjects by using their L2 (Swain, 1982, Chamot, 1985, O'Malley, 1987, Brinton, 1989, Akunal, 1992). This teaching approach has proved to be effective for developing learners' functional language fluency, academic achievement and is thought to be motivating. This study employed, a case study design. English proficiency was measured using Pienemann's Rapid Profile (1988, 2001) and self-assessments; motivation and anxiety were examined using questionnaires, teachers' interviews, and video recordings conducted in a private bilingual primary grade 1 class. Results showed that although leavers tend to participate more actively in subject-learning classes than language input classes and have benefited from the programme in terms of language development, many subjects showed higher classroom anxiety in the post-course questionnaire. Further, the results also showed a strong positive correlation between learning motivation and classroom anxiety after learners had undergone six weeks of Content-based language instruction.

In Scotland, modern foreign language (MFL) learning is declining. This thesis provides a new perspective on this issue by investigating the nature and effectiveness of MFL governance from national to school level. I examine politico-educational rationales for MFL, layers, structures and elements of meso- and macro-level governance, the balance between structure and agency, the impact of powerful individuals on a small system and the extent of cooperation and contention among governing individuals and groups. Using a mixed research approach, triangulating findings drawn from existing research, official documents and evaluation reports with statistical findings on MFL qualifications, teaching and attainment and with the outcomes of questionnaires and interviews involving key/elite governance actors, I analyse macro- and meso-level educational governance in Scotland and its effectiveness. I employ Governance Theory to test my findings on the nature and effectiveness of governance. I find that MFL governance in Scotland operates within a complex, layered, asymmetric, politico-educational system with linkages of varying effectiveness. Governance has been well motivated but inconsistently successful, having suffered significant difficulties through a combination of inconsistent vision and planning, variable practice, lack of follow-through, political flux and the unforeseen interaction of initiatives. The vision(s) for MFLs experienced varying interpretation by ministers, civil servants, national agencies, local education authorities, headteachers and teachers, thus contributing to the limited success experienced in twenty-one attempts to improve MFL learning in fifty years. Success/failure of previous initiatives has not generally influenced subsequent iterations as governance actors have taken limited account of research, evaluation or previous outcomes. MFL governance has also failed to consistently engage key stakeholders, is intermittently subject to significant agency by elite actors and has suffered significant losses of leadership/support capacity as a result of local and national political change. This study identifies trends, issues and factors of use to those engaged in language learning policy, development and implementation across the UK and in the wider Anglophone world.

This study examines the contribution of the practicum to student teacher learning and investigates the factors hindering or facilitating such learning in a pre-service English language teacher education context in Turkey. For the purposes of the study, student teacher learning is defined as a change in student teachers’ stated cognitions and teaching practices. Adopting a sociocultural perspective to learning, it is assumed that any learning that takes place would be mediated by the socialisation of the student teachers into the practicum context. Qualitative longitudinal research was conducted into five cases of student teachers situated within their supervision triads through classroom observations, semi-structured and video stimulated interviews. Drawn from narrative and thematic analysis of the data, the findings show that during the practicum, the student teachers gained basic instructional skills, recognised tensions between the ideals promoted by the teacher education programme and the realities of the classrooms, strove mainly to survive the assessed practicum and to develop a perception of themselves as teachers. While the student teachers benefited from practising teaching in real language classrooms, the main factors impeding their learning were limited access to teaching, the absence of constructive feedback and the lack of communication among the partners who were involved in the organisation and implementation of the practicum. The opportunities created for student teacher learning were influenced not only by the local institutional factors but also wider social, cultural contextual factors. Further analysis of the data has led to the generation of a model of student teacher learning during the practicum. The major contribution of this study is to uncover the pivotal role of practicum context in affording opportunities for student teacher learning and to explicitly demonstrate the collective impact of the multidimensional factors on such learning. The findings of the study have direct implications for the design of English language teacher education practices, and also offer suggestions for further research into pre-service student teacher learning.

Modern languages students who are training to be languages teachers not only have to learn the craft of the profession but are also under constant pressure to maintain their foreign language skills, especially as they have to put their language competence under the close scrutiny of their mentors and university tutors in the challenging environment of the classroom. This study is a three-year investigation of PGCE modern foreign languages students, their attempts to reactivate lapsed language skills and a tutor-led guided learning initiative to offer a targeted language support programme. The study of language attrition (De Bot and Stoessel, 2000; Hansen, 2001; Meara, 2004) has proved particularly fruitful as a theoretical underpinning to the research. Data on language loss and relearning were gathered by means of a reflective log undertaken by PGCE languages students. These formed the basis of a guided learning initiative that took place in a university School of Education. Students were encouraged to reflect on the process of language attrition and to identify strategies that allowed successful language regeneration. The aim of this initiative was to improve the reactivation of lapsed language skills, to encourage reflection on the process of metalearning and to help students to develop into more confident and competent teachers. Following six months of guided learning, there was an indication that overall gains in grammatical knowledge were limited while there was an improvement in vocabulary. The greatest gains were demonstrated by those students who successfully integrated their language learning activities with their professional training and showed a commitment to maintaining their language skills on a regular and consistent basis. It is recognised that the guided learning initiative has had an impact on practice and the way tutors perceive their role in supporting students' professional and subject knowledge development. The findings will inform the future delivery of the programme.

This thesis aims to develop a rigorous user-centred methodological framework for the design of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) systems which make use of hypermedia technology. The quality of CALL systems has been called into question in terms of both technical and pedagogical effectiveness. Many of the deficiencies of current systems can be attributed to an insufficient consideration of the needs of users in their development and to the lack of an explicit educational philosophy guiding their design. Accordingly, the current research has built a user-centred and theory-based prototyping (UTP) framework, which focused on the development of a practical usercentred methodology to achieve both technical and pedagogical quality. In this research, a case study has been carried out to develop a CALL system for teaching English listening skills. The role of the case study is to demonstrate that the UTP approach can produce high quality systems. The present case study consisted of three cycles of the prototyping process including three formative user workshops. The first cycle of the prototyping process mainly investigated user control and user satisfaction. The second cycle was performed to see whether mixed user-control is more effective, and to explore a sub-system for linguistic help. Then, the key issue of the effectiveness of a more proactive help system was investigated as the final prototyping step. The prototypes were evaluated through a series of user workshops. The results from the user workshops showed how important it is not to base the design of CALL simply on intuitive or theoretical principles, but that a blend of theory plus rigorous user-centered empiricism is essential. The workshops confirmed the benefits of taking such an approach, and have shown the contribution that tools and methods from HCI can make designing hypermedia-based CALL systems that will be optimal in terms of usability and educational effectiveness.

The context of this study was located within a single mainstream secondary school. Its focus was to explore the potential links between secondary school students labelled as being at risk of permanent exclusion and semantic and/or pragmatic language difficulties. Given the impact that exclusions can have on students in later life, it is important that students are provided with support that addresses all of their needs, rather than just behavioural interventions, so that they are given the best opportunities for success. A multi-method approach to assessment was utilised within this thesis, including standardised assessment, teacher reports and interactive assessment, which incorporate elements drawn from the work of Vygotsky (1962), Piaget (1975) and Feuerstein (1983). This research was conducted with five participants aged between 12 and 14, who were identified as being at risk of school exclusion. This thesis highlighted that students, who were identified as being difficult to teach and therefore at risk of permanent exclusion, experienced some difficulties with their semantic and pragmatic elements of language. The results indicated that the participants had varying profiles of strengths and difficulties. As such, providing profiles of language ability, rather than a single language score, enabled information to be extracted which would inform educational practices and interventions. The product of this thesis was a model of language assessment for use by Educational Psychologists which derived from the multi-method approach to understanding and assessing language skills. The implications of this research for Educational Psychologists and schools were discussed. Possible areas of future research in this area were also identified.

Attribution theory has deserved increasing attention over the last fifteen years as far as foreign language (FL) learning is concerned. Several studies have been conducted with the purpose of relating students' perceptions of success and failure in FL learning to the students' age, gender, perceived level of success, and language studied. The fact that learners' perceptions of success and failure in foreign language learning can be influenced by their own culture is an idea put forward in the 19805 and that has recently been explored in studies on attribution theory. However, these studies did not involve thorough research of the 'cultures' investigated, being therefore simply based on assumptions about the nations' cultural traits, resulting on scientifically inconsistent findings, mainly due to stereotyping. Considering culture as a set of habits, values and beliefs shared by a group of people and construed by them over time in interaction with each other and the environment surrounding them, leading to similar patterns of behaviour, the purpose of this study is to show how students' cultural characteristics may influence the attributions they present for their successes and failures in learning English as a foreign language. It also attempted to identify differences between the way attributions are classified by learners in relation to their dimensions and the way researchers have classified these attributions, to see whether learners' success and failure attributions differed depending on learners' degree of exposure to other cultures, cultural orientation and age, and if these learners' attributions differed from their teachers'. The study took place in a public and a private university in Luanda, capital of Angola (a West African country), with 366 learners and their English teachers. Learners were involved in three different forms of inquiry: focus groups (conducted to uncover cultural parameters that described learners' culture), questionnaires (aimed at confirming these cultural factors and relate them to attributions for success and failure), and interviews. Data findings were analysed from a social constructivist perspective. A mixed methods approach to data analysis was carried out, starting with a qualitative analysis (through constant comparative analysis and grounded theory), followed by quantitative analysis using principal component analysis ~ (to identify significant factors) and logistic regression (to determine to what extent each factor predicted the occurrence of the attributions mentioned). Results, from all the data gathering methods were brought together. These suggest that the most frequently mentioned attributions and the way these were classified as internal/external. controllable/uncontrollable, stable/changeable by respondents differed from the results presented in previous studies conducted in different cultural contexts. A relationship between some of the attributions mentioned by Angolan learners and characteristics of learners' context was established. This relationship was especially observed in relation to new categories of attributions mentioned, the frequency with which specific attributions were mentioned (especially attributions that were part of initial models of attribution theory), and the lack of difference in attributions mentioned by teachers from the public institution for their learners' successes and failures and these learners' attributions. Implications for teachers and learners are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate literary reading processes of L2 learners within a pedagogical framework. Theories of foregrounding and literariness were central to the study, offering the possibility to magnify the reading processes framed within literary conventions; literariness in the text; and 'learner-reader's' individual style of reading. Four research questions were designed to address this purpose: (1) Are foregrounded features in literary texts common to all 'learner-readers', regardless of level of expertise or experience in literature? (2) Which processes can be identified while engaging with 'on-line' and 'off-line' reading? (3) What patterns and differences can be noted in 'learner- readers' vis-a-vis foregrounded features noticed and their interpretation? (4) What reading styles do 'learner-readers' prefer? Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were adopted. Twenty L2 'learner-readers', aged seventeen to twenty years, participated in the study. Three decontextualised literary texts were selected as material for reading tasks and a stylistics analysis of the texts determined the salient textual and narrative foregrounding features. Data collection followed a triangulation method, including 'on-line' and 'off-line' modes of responses to the texts; this was organised through metacognitive techniques: think aloud and recall protocols. A rich corpus of participants' responses was observed and patterns in the reading processes were identified, coded and categorised. Findings demonstrated that first attention to foregrounding revealed similarities between the younger and older group of 'learner-readers', with minimal differences in 'frequency of selection'. An analysis of their responses revealed a set of dominant patterns in their reading processes. Some differences emerged: the older group displayed more confidence, engaged in higher cognitive processes and consisted of more efficient readers. These conclusions highlight the necessity for further investigation of reading processes in young adult learners; they offer support to teaching methodologies and assessment of literary competence.

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