This study focuses on possible approaches that can be undertaken at university to prepare undergraduate students with English language communicative competence required at the workplace. In exploring how English is taught at a university and whether English education met the needs of business, the main concern of this study is how materials design and teacher education can support learners to develop the skills to communicate effectively in the Vietnamese workplace. The purpose of the study was to (1) learn about the reality of English in the workplace to see what graduates’ needs at the workplace are, (2) undertake observational study at a university to see how needs were being met and (3) explore how minor interventions influence teachers and their English teaching practice. The study employed a qualitative research methodology. The data collection methods employed were observations and interviews and a survey was undertaken. This is also to provide the basis for the reliability of studies and the validation of findings in terms of their accuracy, checking for bias in research methods and the development of research instruments. The data from these three resources was analysed through discourse analysis in order to address the analytic issues and the concern for an ‘in-depth’ focus on people’s activities of a qualitative research. There were two main stages of research in the study. In the companies stage, the results reveal that meaningful conversations that required graduates at the workplace are often absent in language classroom and teaching materials. This raises the importance of achieving balance between transactional and relational talk in language teaching materials. It also raises the importance of communicative language teaching at university that can support in various aspects of discourse. In the university stage of the research, the findings disclose that this was not an environment necessarily conducive to supplying the workplace with suitably communicatively competent graduates. There were various problems identified concerning teacher’s contextual realization, their questioning and their use of CLT activities that did not stimulate communication. By contrast, traditional teaching methods were noted, including the patterns of teacher fronted, form focused practice, with few student-student interactions. Importantly, the analyses of the results indicate that action research can help to bring improvement of teachers’ teaching practice. Though limited in number, considerable positive changes made by the teachers were identified. These changes were primarily in terms of materials adaptation and the number of classroom interactions. The other significant finding was that teachers understanding of the study’s interventions had a positive impact on their practice. They also showed their positive attitude towards the changes and were pleased to engage more students through adopting these changes. Based on the findings of the study, major issues are identified. The study’s findings have implications for materials development, teacher development and school management. The research also reveals the importance of conducting a needs analysis for stakeholders. Finally, the study’s limitations, together with recommendations for further research based on authentic transcripts/materials of workplace talk, or further interventions, observations and feedback in terms of teachers’ process in engaging action research, are discussed.

College English reform is one of the main elements in the drive to improve the quality of higher education in China so that it meets the country’s social and economic needs. This thesis focuses on three key aspects of the reforms: the new emphasis on speaking skills and communicative competence; the new learner-centred teaching model; and the influence (or washback effect) of the reformed College English Test. The research investigates the responses of teachers and students to the reforms and the factors influencing their attitudes. The aim is to contribute towards a fuller understanding of the impact of the reforms and generate recommendations for making them more effective. The research consists of a case study of one of the 180 pilot centres for College English reform in China. A mixed methodology has been adopted, combining both quantitative and qualitative research. The data are drawn from 20 hours of observation of classroom teaching, 397 questionnaires (46 completed by teachers and 351 by students) and 15 in-depth interviews (13 with students and two with teachers). Since the university under investigation offers an International English course (ITE) to some students as an alternative to College English (CE), both courses have been studied. This comparative element has proved important, since in many ways ITE has been more successful than CE in responding to the New Teaching Requirements. As a snapshot of the response to the College English reforms at a particular Chinese university at a particular moment in time, this research provides fresh insights into the obstacles facing attempts to develop students’ speaking skills, the continuing influence of textbooks and exams on teachers’ practice and students’ attitudes, the reluctance of many students to become autonomous learners, and the continuing assumption that it is the teacher’s task to control all key aspects of the learning process.

This thesis analyzes the experiences, perceptions and views of a group of newly graduated teachers in post-conflict Tripoli, Libya. The focus of the study was on the first year teachers of English as a foreign language EFL and the aim was to gain an insight into those teachers‘ experiences and the contextual factors that shaped them. The present study adopts communities of practice (CoP) as the conceptual framework for exploring the newly graduated teachers‘ experience and perceptions in post-conflict Libya. In particular, the study attempts to identify the elements within CoP: mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire to allow me to interpret the data. The data for the study come from three main sources: (a) semi-structured interviews with eleven teachers, (b) two expert teachers, (c) three headteachers, (d) the manager of the Education Development Centre and (e) focus group interviews with three inspection office managers and (f) documentary analysis. The results suggested that the newly graduated teachers‘ experiences in the context of the study are influenced by several factors that interact together to make these experiences unique and a contextually situated phenomenon. These factors are: (a) the conflict, which has diminished the opportunities for integration, learning, and establishing relationships so that any CoP was precluded from existence, b) the social restriction, (c) personal characteristics, (d) the discrepancies between their teacher preparation programmes and the requirements of teaching. Within each of these broad categories, there are also sub-categories such as age barrier, the impact of the conflict which further demonstrates the complexity of this situation and how this shapes the development of teachers. The thesis finishes by recommending that further research is needed conducted to explore the experiences of newly graduated teachers in other parts of the country to obtain a clear picture of this category of teachers. A reform of teacher education programme in this context will contribute to the development of these teachers. Formal training sponsored by the government would be the means through which these teachers can be trained and developed in the absence of any professional communities due to the reasons mentioned earlier.

Drawing on recent literacy studies, this thesis examines second language academic literacy development in Libyan higher education. A novel intervention programme focusing on academic writing through an action research approach was undertaken with a group of 30 undergraduate university students, majoring in English as a foreign language who were studying in a college of education at a university in the North West of Libya. The research was guided by five main aims: firstly, to explore Libyan higher education students’ perceptions regarding the influence of their socio-cultural and educational background, and the institutional context on their academic literacy development; secondly, to examine their views and thoughts about the concept of academic literacy and its development within their institution; thirdly, to apply the genre approach to teaching writing as an innovation in a Libyan context in order to raise participants’ awareness of how English academic literacy might be developed; fourthly, to employ action research to develop practice in order to improve teaching and learning L2 (Second Language) writing in a Libyan context; and finally, to contribute to building theory in the field of teaching English L2 academic literacy in higher education in Libya. The field work was conducted over six months, and to gather data for analysis, the study employed five tools of data collection: observation, using a teacher journal to monitor the students’ learning performance; students’ written feedback on sessions; samples of the students’ written work; a questionnaire and an interview administrated at the end of the intervention programme with further interviews a year after conducting the initial empirical research. Data analysis revealed inadequacies in the role of the wider socio-cultural environment for acquisition and practice of English reading and writing at school and also for the development of academic literacy in higher education. English is viewed as a school subject rather than a language and the concept of academic literacy is not familiar in a Libyan context so there are few opportunities for students to develop outside the classroom. The problems students encounter in language and in writing also revealed limitations in the teaching within Libyan institutions. Students who experienced the intervention programme appreciated the significance of English academic literacy and felt it should be promoted through individual and social awareness and within an educational environment which encourages its multifaceted nature, and the need for resources and a more participative pedagogical approach. Finally, this study suggests that the genre approach, as yet unfamiliar in Libya, might be helpful for students to improve their L2 writing capabilities and encourage awareness of academic literacy through learning by doing and through engagement with language as a holistic process. Action research, also unfamiliar in Libya, proved significant in professional and pedagogical development and in the creation of a more student-centred classroom in which students felt empowered to participate and to engage in the teaching and learning process.

This thesis reports an enquiry into Chinese primary and junior high school English teachers’ perceptions of, and responses to The Revised Curriculum (2011) for Full-time Compulsory Education. This document claims to hold a very different view of English teaching from pervious curricula, but this claim is largely unexplored. The research first aims to understand the challenges The Revised Curriculum (2011) poses for primary and junior high school teachers of English in the PRC. On the basis of this, the research also aims to understand teachers’ beliefs about The Revised Curriculum (2011) and what challenges they identify. Research into effective teaching gives a prominent role to teacher beliefs and knowledge not only about teaching, but also about changing any existing practices. Fullan (1993) argues that any educational reform ultimately relies on teachers, so their views and perceptions are pivotal to the success of The Revised Curriculum (2011). The study was conducted in two phases. Phase one involved a document content analysis of the 2001 and 2011 curricula to identify the changes aimed for in the 2011 curriculum and evaluates how these changes might affect teachers. In this phase of the research, a novel approach was taken to examine teachers' views of the Revised Curriculum (2011) through their activities on web forums in China. Their comments were sampled and analysed using NVivo to generate a map of their views and the relationships between them. The Phase one research showed that The Revised Curriculum (2011) is different from the 2001 version in some important ways. It foregrounds the humanistic value of student-centred teaching and learning, while giving teachers free choice of teaching method and a new role by contributing to curriculum development for the classes they teach from reflecting on the effectiveness of their methods and practices. Phase two of the research, based on the findings of Phase one, used written teacher questionnaire responses and semi-structured individual interviews in order to collect the views of a wider sample of teachers. This thesis reports the results and analysis of the teachers’ views and perceptions. The findings amplified the findings from the Phase one research and suggest that teachers have a range of concerns. The teachers in this study were uncertain about their new role; they were not clear about what a shift to student-centred teaching and learning implied. The teachers were also uncertain about the nature of reflection on their own practice and the possible accountability this reflection might entail. This study suggests these teachers were finding it challenging to understand the notion of the teacher as a professional who does not simply know and deliver the curriculum according to the new definition, but is seen as responsible for designing and creating the curriculum for their own particular students. This study also identifies an important tension between the published curriculum and the assessment system for English in China which, if left unresolved, is likely to leave teachers unable to meet the demands of both.

This mixed-methods study concerns the teaching of CLIL to students in mainstream secondary schools in Catalonia. English proficiency levels among school students remain persistently low throughout Spain compared to other European countries, despite policies to lower the age at which pupils start to learn English and increase the time they spend in lessons. Given the limited space in the curriculum in Catalonia, which already has the challenge of teaching two official languages, CLIL has increasingly been viewed as a solution to bolster English competence. This study therefore sets out to explore interaction and discourse in CLIL and L1 secondary science classrooms to find out how teachers were able to achieve their CLIL learning aims, while comparing teaching strategies and pupil participation in CLIL and L1 learning environments. Qualitative methods (questionnaires and interviews) were used to measure student and teacher perceptions of CLIL, while a combination of qualitative and quantitative measures were employed to analyse transcripts from 20 hours of recorded lessons. The results show that teachers used a greater range of tasks in the CLIL lessons to scaffold learning, engage students and encourage participation. Learning was more visual and hands on in the CLIL classrooms, whereas in the L1 lessons it could feature long stretches of teacher talk with few student-centred activities. However, student participation was low in the CLIL lessons. Students struggled to ask and answer questions in English, and teachers were unable, and often reluctant, to employ strategies to get students speaking, for example, through the use of ELT-style speaking activities. The research also revealed high rates of L1 use, both to communicate within the CLIL lessons and to teach entire lessons on the course. This reflects the teachers’ view that the science took precedence over language learning and that their aim was to teach the same amount and depth of science content in the CLIL lessons as they would expect to teach when using students’ L1.

This study arises from two contextualised problems faced by the students at the Faculty of Applied Sciences (FAS) of a small university in Sri Lanka. These problems are: students’ lecture comprehension difficulties and limited oral language proficiency in their second language (i.e. English). The ideas developed in this study are based on the argument that dialogic lecturer-student interaction, which enables students to take a more active role in discussions compared to the use of recitation scripts (questions-answers-evaluations) developed in non-dialogic interactions, is likely to be beneficial for students’ content and language development. Although there have been studies at primary level, there has so far been little research into dialogic interaction in tertiary-level L1 Science classes, and none yet carried out in the L2 context. Therefore, this study investigates the extent of dialogic interaction practised at FAS, in conjunction with a thorough consideration of the factors that influence interaction between lecturers and students. This study, involving 30 students and 4 lecturers, was undertaken as a pioneer study in this context in Asia by analysing L2 lectures given at FAS. Data were collected from lecturer and student questionnaires, lecturer interviews, student group interviews, observations of 24 lectures and audio recordings. Of the observed lectures, a total of 12 from Biotechnology, Animal Physiology, Physics and Statistics were transcribed verbatim and analysed using an analytical framework, which was especially designed to analyse the FAS lecture discourse. This framework was also used to locate these lectures on a scale from monologic to dialogic. The study revealed the complexity of the perception-practice dynamic, and the multi-faceted sub-set of factors which influenced students' and lecturers’ behaviour in class, and their perception of that behaviour. Students’ lecture comprehension problems and classroom interaction were influenced by their language proficiency, though the students considered the lecturers’ lecture delivery style to be more important than their own language proficiency. In this study it was revealed that a culturally embedded behaviour perpetuated by senior students, known as ragging (a kind of bullying), restricted the classroom interaction of the students. In terms of lecture delivery style, of all the observed lectures only two contained some interactional episodes in addition to monologic segments, while the others were found to be highly or mostly monologic. Students were also found not to be cooperating with lecturers in classroom interaction, despite stating a preference for learning through interaction. The students asked only very few questions in all the observed lectures, and answered in a limited number of lectures. The lecturers asked more knowledge testing questions than any other kind, while there were only a few concept development questions – the type which can help develop dialogic interaction. Overall, this investigation, which demonstrates the importance of combining studies of perception with detailed analysis of the discourse itself, indicates limited lecturer-student interaction as well as a clear lack of dialogic interaction in English-medium Science lectures at this particular university. In addition, it is argued that the innovative analytical framework designed to analyse the lectures delivered in the English Medium Instruction (EMI) context of the present study can be useful for other lectures which are commonly delivered as monologic in both L1 and L2 contexts. Finally, it also stresses the importance of investigating the influence of cultural and behavioural factors, such as ragging, on classroom learning.

This study examines the washback effect of a final examination. Despite the general criticisms of a final examination for its negative influence on education, no empirical evidence was noted in the existing literature; rather some evidence for positive washback was found. The study was based on the assumption that the detrimental effect of a final exam is not inherent; whether the washback is negative or positive is dependent on the design of the exam. Furthermore, the power that the exam has to influence teaching and learning, if exploited properly, can make it work as an instrument for educational change. The context of the study was English language teaching and testing at school in Nepal. The washback effect of the School Leaving Certificate English exam, an exit exam based on prescribed textbooks in terms of its content and discrete-point approach in terms of its format, was examined. A new exam of reading, grammar, note-taking and writing based on the course objectives of the SLC English course in terms of its content, and integrative-communicative approach in terms of its format was designed to use as the criterion measure of the English proficiency of the students. The new exam was administered to school leavers and students of the previous year. The performance of the school leavers on the new exam was compared with their performance on the SLC English exam, and with the performance of the students of the previous year on the new exam. The results indicate that SLC English exam had a negative washback on the teaching and learning of the SLC English course because it failed to allow the students and the teacher to work for the course objectives of the SLC English. It was concluded that washback is an inherent quality of a final exam; people whose future is affected by the exam-results work for the exam regardless of the quality of the exam. Whether the washback is negative or positive is dependent on what the exam measures; if it is congruent with the sentiment and the purposes of the course objectives, it can achieve beneficial washback; if not it is bound to produce harmful washback. Innovations through the former type of exam would lead the teaching for the exam to be in accordance with it. The implications for language testing in general, and the Nepalese ELT situation in particular are presented. It is suggested that the SLC English exam should be replaced by an exam similar to the one used, in order to bring about change in the teaching of the SLC English course. Recommendations for further research are made.

This ethnographic multiple case study aims to examine the impact of creative drama on young EFL learners in South Korea. While working in the field for decades, I have observed the imbalance between the high demands from the public and the paucity of pedagogical and theoretical methods of EFL teaching for young learners. Therefore, I suggest the pedagogy of drama as an alternative EFL teaching method for children in view of the sociocultural and sociolinguistic axiom. In particular, I take Vygotsky’s notion into account, which underpins the social constructivists’ understanding of education. I embarked on the investigation by carefully selecting two case classrooms of children and one case group of teachers; accordingly, the three case studies were amalgamated and reviewed in depth in pursuit of the true knowledge of the context. In order to construct rigorous knowledge, I have followed the qualitative and non-positivist paradigm of analysis by applying a hermeneutical interpretation of the context. In addition, I have adhered to the notion of bricolage, which stresses the researcher’s active role in the course of knowledge construction. The analysis uncovered that the pedagogy of drama enables EFL children to liberate themselves physically and emotionally, and hence promotes an autonomous social interaction that prompts frequent and meaningful oral language use. Moreover, the study indicates that EFL teachers are positively impacted by the pedagogy of drama in that they alter their pedagogical views to become more open, non-traditional and democratic. Thus, they begin to incorporate social interactional and communicative approaches in their EFL teaching. In addition, the analysis reveals that an adequate teacher’s role is a significant factor in enhancing meaningful context building and natural oral language use in EFL classrooms, in which children grow as authentic language users as well as autonomous social beings who convey their true voices.

This thesis reports on the factors that hinder the acquisition of the past verb forms in (past simple form, past progressive form, past perfect form) by Saudi learners of English. This study argues that Arabic and English share similar grammatical characteristics in the past verb forms. It also sheds light on the role of these similarities in facilitating the acquisition process of the targeted forms. This is a mixed-method study conducted on thirty-six Saudi EFL learners. The participants were assigned to two groups: group A (received treatment session about the past verb forms in English and highlighted their counterparts in Arabic) and group B (received treatment session about the past verb forms in English only). Three types of tasks were employed: multiple choice, gap-filling, and storytelling, and they were conducted at three periods: pre intervention, post intervention, and delayed test. A randomly-selected group was invited for stimulated recall interviews immediately after the delayed test. The interviews were conducted individually. The study answered two research questions and hypotheses: RQ1: To what extent does linking the similarities in the past verb forms between English and Arabic help Saudi EFL learners to acquire these forms? H1: Drawing the Saudi EFL learners’ attention to the similarities in the past verb forms between Arabic and English facilitates their acquisition. RQ2: Does L1 Arabic influence the choice of past verb forms in English for Saudi EFL learners? (a) What is the impact on explicit and implicit knowledge? (b) What is the impact on receptive and productive knowledge? H2: Saudi EFL learners consciously resort to their first language when they lack the correct past verb form in English. The results show that the intervention that highlighted the similarities in past verb forms between Arabic and English helped the participants to acquire the targeted forms. L1 has influence on the learners’ choice of forms, and they consciously resort to their first language. The results suggest that rising the awareness of Saudi EFL learners about the. The study suggests further research utilising a longitudinal QUAN-QUAL research paradigm.