This thesis is concerned with foreign language learning and teaching. The initial aim of the thesis is to examine Gardner's (1985) model to find out whether this model is applicable to English foreign language learning (EFL) in Kuwait. The purpose is to determine the extent to which previous research findings can be generalised to a sample of University students in EFL courses in Kuwait. The thesis comprises three integrated background literature reviews: approaches to foreign language teaching and their implication for TEFL in Kuwait; 'CALL': (Computer Assisted Language Learning); and the role of the attitude, motivation and anxiety in foreign language learning. Two pieces of research are reported with two contrasting methodologies: a survey questionnaire, and an ethnographic approach examining the effectiveness of CALL. The research was conducted on Kuwait University undergraduates enrolled in English courses offered by the English Language Centre at Kuwait University during the 1992-1993 academic year. First, the research focuses on the inter-relationships between attitude, motivation, anxiety and achievement in the English language. Second, the research identifies the methods of teaching, instructional materials, class activities and appropriate teacher roles that students most prefer. Third, the research introduces new instructional materials via the use of computer programs in an EFL class. The effect of Computer Assisted Language Learning on students' motivation toward learning English as a foreign language, students' feeling of anxiety in the English class and their achievement in the foreign language are each examined by classroom observation and interviews. The results of the research show that: (1) in general, students appear to have a strong motivation to learn English; express a definite degree of preference toward English and native speakers of English, and lack feelings of anxiety. (2) The more a student is exposed to the English language through being in an English medium College, visiting and staying in an English speaking country and watching English programmes on T.V., the more a student needs the English language either for present studies or for future career, the more motivated to learning English and more positive attitudes towards the language are apparent. (3) Students' ability in English has a significant relationship with a variety of factors investigated: the higher the student's ability in English, the greater the motivation to learn English, the more favourable is the student's attitudes toward the English language and the less anxiety the student's experiences in the English class. (4) 'CALL' enhances students' motivation to learn the foreign language, lowers their anxieties and improves their achievement in the English language. The thesis concludes with an integration of theory and research, and makes a series of recommendations about developments in EFL in Kuwait University.

This study investigates expatriate English teachers’ cross-cultural adjustment in Taiwan. Cross-cultural adjustment theories and the differences between Chinese and Western culture are reviewed. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected in order to develop the framework for the study. The process was examined across three facets of adjustment: general, working and interaction with host nation. The study was based on the framework of Black, Mendenhall and Oddou (1991) and develops an empirical cross-cultural adjustment model for native English- speaking expatriates who work in Taiwan as English teachers. The framework was successfully implemented by means of questionnaire and interview data and a literature review. The key findings of this study are: 1. Expatriate English teachers’ job satisfaction, age, previous crosscultural experience and their motivation for or purpose in coming to Taiwan are the key factors which affect their intention to stay in Taiwan. 2. Expatriate English teachers’ Mandarin or Taiwanese language ability has significant effects on their daily activities and social life outside work in terms of general adjustment. 3. Cross-cultural training for expatriate teachers could improve their living conditions in Taiwan in terms of general adjustment. 4. Expatriate teachers who possessed an undergraduate degree had more difficulties in their relationship with school management. 5. The total time expatriate teachers had spent living in Taiwan had some effect on their job satisfaction and adjustment in relation to interacting with the Taiwanese. Based on the empirical findings of this study, some recommendations for language education institutions and Westerners who are working or planning to work as English teachers in Taiwan are as follows: 1. Those who are planning to go to Taiwan to work as English teachers should receive some cross-cultural training and gain basic Mandarin or Taiwanese language skills before departure. An undergraduate degree is the basic qualification but an English teaching certificate or higher degree is strongly recommended. 2. English language education institutions should offer expatriate teachers cross-cultural training which includes basic local language skills, general information about living and working in Taiwan and the differences in the education system, teaching methodology and management style between Taiwanese and Western cultures. 3. When recruiting expatriate teachers, it is recommended that English language education institutions should avoid those who are including a trip to Taiwan as part of wider Asian travel and who are likely to stay in Taiwan for a relatively short time.

Föreliggande litteraturstudie undersöker elevers och lärares attityder till användningen av digitala verktyg i grundskolans engelskundervisning. Genom databassökningar med avgränsningar säkerställdes det insamlade materialets tillförlitlighet och relevans för forskningsområdet. Materialet analyserades tematiskt. Resultatet indikerar att det finns både likheter och skillnader i elevers och lärares attityder till digitala enheters användning i grundskolans engelskundervisning. Bland likheterna finns en upplevd ökning av motivation hos elever, mer lustfylld undervisning, och tekniska problem i undervisningen. Däremot har elever och lärare skilda attityder gällande elevers produktivitet i klassrummet och effektiviteten hos digitala enheter jämfört med läroböcker. Lärare verkar vara överens om att användningen av digitala enheter i undervisningen är positivt, medan elevers attityder i frågan varierar. Slutligen indikerar resultatet även att det finns en oro bland en del lärare att implementera digitala enheter i engelskundervisningen på grund av egna otillräckliga förkunskaper.

The aim of this study was to see if a deliberately creative approach in an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) class would have any impact on the students’ EFL learning in terms of more varied vocabulary use, more original written texts, more implementation of story elements (such as a story goal, obstacle, character motive) and increased motivation leading to enhanced activity and attention.      An empirical method was adopted in connection in which two Swedish upper-secondary school classes of a vocational program participated. One class was exposed to a regular teaching method (RTM) while the other class was exposed to a creative study design (CSD). During a four week period the students were assigned to write a short story and received instructions on different story elements (story goal, obstacle and character motivation). The RTM was based on how the class’s ordinary teacher would have taught. The CSD was uniquely created for this study and included several techniques and recommendations from scholars in the field of creativity.      The results showed that the students exposed to the CSD implemented the story elements to a somewhat higher degree, used a slightly more varied vocabulary, wrote more creative stories, and showed more attention and activity than the students exposed to the RTM. However, more extensive studies would be needed to confirm these results and allow generalizations about the possible benefits the CSD has as opposed to the RTM when it comes to EFL learning.

Engelska som skolämne behöver bemöta eleverna på ett motiverande sätt och ha ett innehåll som främjar elevernas språkförmågor så att de kan bli trygga språkanvändare på engelska i framtiden. Forskning anser att läsning är en grundläggande nyckel för att skaffa ny kunskap. Genom att använda bilderböcker i språkundervisning som ett undervisningsinstrument kan elevernas upplevelse och motivation främjas, vilket vidare kan påverka deras framtidaanvändande av målspråket. Syftet med denna studie är, för det första, att undersöka elevers upplevelse av att läraren använder bilderböcker i engelskundervisning och för det andra hur eleverna då upplever sin motivation till att lära sig engelska språket genom dessa. I studien utgår vi ifrån två frågeställningar: 1) Hur eleverna upplever engelskundervisningen genom att läraren använder engelska bilderböcker i den? 2) Hur eleverna upplever att deras motivation till att lära sig engelska språket påverkas genom att läraren använder engelska bilderböcker i undervisningen? Studien utgår ifrån en kvalitativ metod och en fenomenografisk teori där vi valt att samla indata genom semistrukturerade fokusgruppsintervjuer. Urvalet till studien var 7 elever som har erfarit engelskundervisning där läraren har använt engelska bilderböcker i närtid. Under studiens genomförande gick eleverna i en årskurs tre och var mellan 9 till 10 år. Analysarbetet av den insamlade data vi erhållit har utgått ifrån fenomenografiskt ramverk, vilket fokuserar på elevernas egna personliga upplevelser av fenomenet. Utifrån en fenomenografisk analysmodell i sju steg har elevernas utsagor delats in i tre övergripande beskrivningskategorier. I resultatet urskiljs tre beskrivningskategorier såsom: elevernas upplevelse, deras upplevelse av motivation och deras vision kopplat till engelskundervisning där läraren använt engelska bilderböcker. Resultatet visar att eleverna upplever klassrumsmiljön som lugnande och inspirerande när läraren använder engelska bilderböcker i engelskundervisning. De upplever att de motiveras av intresseväckande händelser i bilderboken, men också bokens rika bilder och väl avvägda text. Dessutom visar resultatet att eleverna har utvecklat en vilja och ett självförtroende att läsa en bilderbok på engelska på egen hand.

This study addresses issues of English as a foreign language (EFL) practice in the attainment-oriented context at the tertiary level. Referring to the widespread use of testing as an instrument for the enhancement of teaching quality, the study stresses the importance of teachers’ epistemological beliefs and other contextual factors to mediate teacher’s pedagogical decision-making. Four EFL teachers at Air Force colleges in Taiwan were selected to participate in the present research. The EFL teachers’ beliefs were collected by semi-structured interviews, and actual classroom practices were analyzed through a taxonomy of teachers’ questions, a taxonomy of teachers’ corrective feedback and Communicative Orientation Language Teaching (COLT) scheme analysis. The evidence of this case study generated four archetypal patterns of washback based on aligned or oppositional beliefs and its contexts. The study concludes that test designers’ expectations to use a test to innovate the curriculum do not always produce the desired results. Education reform that requires pedagogical changes of practitioners but fails to provide re-attribution training and sufficient resources to effect belief changes will likely yield resistance and pressure. Finally, implications of four archetypes of washback on the teaching of English are presented in order to sustain the successful testing, teaching, and learning.

This study applied the latest developments in language testing validation theory to derive a core body of evidence that can contribute to the validation of a large-scale, high-stakes English as a Foreign Language (EFL) testing program in Japan. The testing program consists of a set of seven level-specific tests targeting different levels of proficiency. This core aspect of the program was selected as the main focus of this study. The socio-cognitive model of language test development and validation provided a coherent framework for the collection, analysis and interpretation of evidence. Three research questions targeted core elements of a validity argument identified in the literature on the socio-cognitive model. RQ 1 investigated the criterial contextual and cognitive features of tasks at different levels of proficiency, Expert judgment and automated analysis tools were used to analyze a large bank of items administered in operational tests across multiple years. RQ 2 addressed empirical item difficulty across the seven levels of proficiency. An innovative approach to vertical scaling was used to place previously administered items from all levels onto a single Rasch-based difficulty scale. RQ 3 used multiple standard-setting methods to investigate whether the seven levels could be meaningfully related to an external proficiency framework. In addition, the study identified three subsidiary goals: firstly, toevaluate the efficacy of applying international standards of best practice to a local context: secondly, to critically evaluate the model of validation; and thirdly, to generate insights directly applicable to operational quality assurance. The study provides evidence across all three research questions to support the claim that the seven levels in the program are distinct. At the same time, the results provide insights into how to strengthen explicit task specification to improve consistency across levels. This study is the largest application of the socio-cognitive model in terms of the amount of operational data analyzed, and thus makes a significant contribution to the ongoing study of validity theory in the context of language testing. While the study demonstrates the efficacy of the socio-cognitive model selected to drive the research design, it also provides recommendations for further refining the model, with implications for the theory and practice of language testing validation.

Information Technology (IT) has been integrated in many foreign-language classrooms for some decades now. However, one of the many questions related to IT at school is whether it is beneficial for students and, if yes, in what way. This study compares two different teaching approaches in the English classroom in a Swedish secondary school. A digital approach and a traditional approach were tested during some teaching sessions, where two groups of students were compared to gauge the possible influence of IT on performance. In addition, questionnaires were administered to the students in order to measure their opinion of IT use in general and whether they find it motivating in class. The results suggest that a digital approach can boost performance and create more positive attitudes among the students than the more traditional approach.

The aim of this research is to determine Japanese first-year university students’ attitudes to and motivation for learning English. A successful English-language education system is crucial for Japan, under great pressure to internationalise during her most prolonged recession ever. To help make the education system successful, knowledge of learners’ attitudes and motivation is essential. Chapter 1 discusses Japan as a stage for English-language education. Japan is identified as uniquely homogenous and insular. Internationalisation of industry and a drop in the college-age population forcing universities to compete for students are identified as recent phenomena driving reform in the English-language education system. Chapter 2 describes the roughly 130-year history of Japanese English-language education from first contact to the present day. Changes in the English-language education policies of successive Japanese governments are discussed through examination of the Ministry of Education ‘Course of Study’ guidelines. Chapter 3 surveys the theoretical literature on attitudes and motivation in foreign and second language learning. Significant and relevant empirical research from Japan and other countries is reviewed. Chapter 4 determines an approach to the main research question through a number of subsidiary questions, using the theoretical framework from Chapter 3. A detailed research design (methods, schedule, and data collection procedures) is drawn up and discussed. Chapter 5 presents and analyses the findings of the two questionnaires which form the main data collection method. The computer program SPSS is used in analysis. Chapter 6 presents and analyses the findings of the two group interviews and two individual interviews by categorising and descriptive explanation. Chapter 7, the final chapter, reviews the research process and answers the subsidiary and main research questions. Key themes are that Japanese students are highly motivated to learn English for communication, and that the English classes currently offered at universities do not meet the demands of Japanese students. These answers and themes are used as the basis for some recommendations for English-language education in Japan.

Denna kunskapsöversikt syftar till att sammanställa, analysera och presentera vad forskningen anser om att använda bilderböcker i undervisning av andraspråk i grundskolans tidigare år, alltså årskurserna 1 till 6 där eleverna är mellan 6-14 år. Med undervisning i andraspråk och andraspråksundervisning menar vi exempelvis engelskundervisning i det svenska skolsystemet som utgår ifrån svenska som modersmål och förstaspråk. Vidare är syftet att dedidaktiska för- och nackdelarna med bilderböcker kartläggs och att vi ska kunna reflektera över det sammanställda kunskapsfältet. Urvalet av artiklar samlades in genom en systematisk litteratursökning i olika databaser. Artiklarna är primärstudier med en spridning över olika delar av världen. Forskarna i våra utvalda studier använder antingen kvalitativ, kvantitativ eller blandade datainsamlingsmetoder. Den samlade forskningen som vi tagit del av visar ensamstämmighet kring den positiva effekten av att använda bilderböcker i undervisning av andra språk. De olika forskningsstudierna fokuserar på olika språkförmågor såsom ordinlärning, läsning och skrivning. Utöver dessa lyfts vikten av motivation som central del i samtliga studier. Studierna lyfter även fram behovet av ytterligare forskning inom fältet och belyser bristen på språklärarnas kompetens och lärarnas begränsade tid för att på ett strukturerat sätt använda bilderböcker i andraspråksundervisning.