Chapter 1 introduces the aims and objectives of the study. It is followed by an analysis of the present situation at the Hanoi Foreign Language Teachers College and the problems encountered by teachers and administrators in ensuring the maximum efficiency of the EFL programme. The Report continues by asking a number of pertinent questions about the methodology and techniques used in the teaching of reading. This, in turn, is linked with theoretical considerations which the writer examines at some length taking into account numerous issues about language processing, cognition, expectation and motivation, comprehending, discourse analysis, text cohesion and so on. Attention is then focused on the reader and the environment in which he operates. In addition the reading lesson comes under scrutiny and procedures, as well as material selection and teaching systems are discussed. Finally the writer attempts to make suggestions to his colleagues in the EFL field based on his own experience and convictions.

Like any other genre of literature, poetry straddles two provinces. It can be considered to be one of the arts or one of the humanities. When viewed as the former, it consists essentially of a piece of verbal art. When regarded as the latter, it is the expression of human values and experiences. Taking into account a real EFL situation in China, this field study is intended to offer an integrated approach for experiencing English through poetry. This approach is actually a mixture, a combination of two parental models - the linguistic and critical. Since its key objective is to assist Chinese EFL students to advance their target language performance, it will inevitably focus on investigating the operation of language in various literary communication components, such as lexical choice, placement, polysemy, and association in a poetic context. Nevertheless, it will also attempt to help the students develop their literary appreciation by reading poetry with critical scrutiny of the message it aims to convey. As a whole, through close examination of poetic diction and function, it is supposed not only to heighten the students' awareness of the "magic power" of words, but also to increase their sensibility to the human condition and aesthetic elements which are part of the poets' artistry.

n/a

The present field study report comprises two major components: 1. the theories of autonomy and self-directed learning and the analysis of needs and reasons for increasing student autonomy. 2. some practical issues concerning acquisition of autonomy in E.F.L. learning. The modernization of China requires a high level of education of the whole nation. But because of the large population and limited educational facilities, the formal educational institutions cannot meet the needs of the country. To solve the problem, self-directed learning (S.D.L.) is recommended and encouraged by the government. Although S.D.L. is considered to be a practical way to cope with the situation, the problem is that most people do not know how to undertake independent study. The reason is that the dominance of traditional pedagogy in Chinese formal education leads to passive and dependent school learning which suppresses students' potential to become autonomous in their learning. Therefore, after leaving school, they are not capable of continuing their learning by themselves. In order to deal with the problems in traditional Chinese teaching, the significance of increasing student autonomy needs to be fully recognized in the Chinese educational context, and self-directed learning should be introduced to formal educational institutions. Some practical issues must be considered in undertaking S.D.L. in the E.F.L. context. First, the role of the teacher needs to be redefined. The teacher will primarily act as a counsellor and facilitator who will guide the students in their learning, and secondarily as a resource for content information. Secondly, S.D.L. materials need to be prepared. These materials will not only help to improve the students' language competence but also encourage them to learn how to learn. This study discusses the types and sources of materials and suggests certain criteria and procedures for selecting and producing these materials. Thirdly, self-assessment is a central and crucial feature of S.D.L. In autonomous learning, it is the learner's responsibility to assess his own progress. In order to take this responsibility he needs to acquire self-assessment skills. Some techniques of self-assessment are introduced. Finally, in considering how to provide the learners with an effective learning environment, this study puts forward suggestions for establishing a self-study center. Some language skills and learning activities which can be practised in the center are also described.

Increasing contact between China and English-speaking countries in recent years calls for competent language workers to fulfil various communication tasks. To meet this need, it is of great importance and urgency for the Chinese EFL teaching profession to be conscious of the existing problem of communicative incompetence of Chinese EFL learners and to strive for ways and means of reducing it. This study was undertaken as an exploratory study of this problem. As recognised by many now, linguistic competence alone is not sufficient for a successful foreign language learner, one needs to acquire communicative competence as well. In this study, a historical overview of the theory of communicative competence is provided. Following it is a detailed description of a survey which aimed to measure several areas of communicative competence of Chinese learners of English and to find out existing problems. Possible causal factors of those problems are also discussed and are categorised into two groups: communicative interference and weaknesses in the present curriculum, teaching methodology and teaching materials. Finally, implications of this study are examined and tentative suggestions are made in the hope that more and more Chinese EFL teachers will respond to the problem and search for ways to bring about effective learning.

Linguistic competence is a person's knowledge of the forms of a language. This knowledge is not sufficient for communication because communication involves a knowledge of appropriate ways to use the language, that is, when to say what to whom. A part of this total capacity which may be termed 'social competence' is the knowledge and ability to create and maintain a harmonious atmosphere in social interaction. � Social competence is acquired as a person grows up in a given society, learning to play different roles. In social interaction, social competence enables a person to live up to the expectations of these roles, and to act in such a way as to satisfy the interests of others in exchange for satisfaction of his own. One of the individual's interests in interaction is 'face': a desire for freedom from imposition and for appreciation. The preservation of a harmonious atmosphere in social interaction largely depends on how well the interactants preserve their own and each other's face. Certain speech acts are intrinsically face threatening, so mitigating strategies must be used to redress these acts. Owing to the differences in social values and personal relations in different societies, Chinese speakers of English may not perceive the threat to face involved in doing certain acts in the same way that English native speakers would perceive it. As a result, they may unwittingly threaten native speakers' face. Moreover, Chinese speakers may not be able to use mitigating strategies appropriately and may therefore be unable to maintain the desired harmonious atmosphere in interaction with native speakers of English. Therefore, in addition to learning the forms of English language, Chinese speakers should be encouraged to develop social competence, by learning the target language culture and by practising the appropriate polite strategies in social interaction.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), within a constructivist learning environment, on the achievement of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and on their attitudes toward learning EFL. The study was conducted over two phases. In Phase I, the study examined the students’ attitudes toward EFL learning and their satisfaction with their achievement and learning outcomes in language learning. Data were collected through a motivational and attitudinal survey of 215 students. The survey was adapted from Gardner’s Attitude/Motivation Test Battery and intended to examine Saudi freshmen students’ attitudes toward learning EFL using the audio-lingual and grammar-translation methods, and traditional teaching aids in the classroom. Seventeen students from the subjects who completed the survey participated in semi-structured interviews to discuss in detail their concerns and suggestions about the current EFL teaching method. The findings of Phase I confirmed the study hypothesis about the students’ negative attitudes toward learning EFL, i.e. that these attitudes were caused largely by the didactic teacher-centred teaching approach and the limited teaching aids. In Phase II, 30 students were selected for the treatment group to study an EFL course (Eng 101) using computers, the Internet and collaborative activities within a communicative language teaching (CLT) framework. The CALL course for the treatment group included selected episodes from the English for All (EFA) online course, three Web-based collaborative projects, and PowerPoint lessons designed for the course. Another group of 36 students was selected for the control group, which had the same course taught using traditional teaching aids and the grammar-translation teaching method. The study was conducted over a 16-week semester, during which both groups were taught using distinct teaching methods and different teaching aids. By the end of the term, both groups’ achievements were examined using two tests: the Cambridge Key English Test (KET), and the course-specific test designed by the Department of Languages at the students’ university. The attitudes of the treatment group were also examined at the end of the study, using a questionnaire, interviews with all of the subjects, and the observational notes collected during the treatment. The findings of the study indicated that the CALL course, using the new constructivist and technology-based approach, had a strong impact on the subjects’ attitudes and motivation toward learning EFL. As to the subjects’ language achievement, the treatment group significantly outperformed the control group. These findings have provided a strong support for the effectiveness of implementing constructivism and CLT in a technology-enhanced learning environment for foreign language teaching and learning. The results of the study imply that it is necessary to take practical steps to move from passive learning approaches and limited use of teaching aids towards a more learner-centred approach incorporating computer and modern digital technologies. The findings clearly showed that such change resulted in better learning outcomes in the Saudi contexts and in other contexts that follow similar EFL teaching practices.

<p>Adverbial connectors join together sentences and units in a text to signal logical relations. Appropriately used, they can help the reader to make sense of the text. The usage of adverbial connectors can create problems for foreign language learners, and is often shown as under- , over- and misuse of connectors. In this study, a quantitative analysis of connector usage of advanced EFL learners’ and native speakers’ student writing is presented. For the current corpus-based study, three sub-corpora of the SUSEC (<em>Stockholm University Student English Corpus</em>) were chosen. The sample includes 164 linguistic essays from students at Stockholm University and 82 linguistic essays from students at King’s College in London. The analysis, where the learners’ connector usage is compared to that of native speakers, is based on 69 connectors. The results show that both the learners and the native speakers rely on a rather small set of these connectors in their writing. As a group, the advanced Swedish EFL learners underuse connectors in their written production. Additionally, the learners significantly overuse 12 and underuse 6 connectors. Similarities between the learners and the native speakers were found in the positioning of the connectors. Both groups prefer the most frequently used connectors in the medial position of a sentence, and prefer mostly the same set of connectors in the different positions of a sentence, although some differences in the positioning were also found. The findings create a basis for future research where a qualitative analysis of the connector usage could be carried out in order to increase knowledge of the interlanguage of the learners. The findings could also be used for pedagogical purposes.</p>

<p>Institution: Halmstad University/School of Teacher Education (LUT)</p><p>Course: C-level paper, 15 credits</p><p>Term: Spring 2010</p><p>Title: Two Sides of the Same Coin - A study of EFL-teachers knowledge regarding the divergences between British and American English; and the challenges which arise from having more than one accepted variety of English in EFL teaching.</p><p>Pages: 41</p><p>Writer: Linda Jensen</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to ascertain if Swedish EFL teachers have sufficient knowledge regarding the differences between BrE and AmE, the two major varieties of English. Furthermore, I aim to examine what challenges are created when two models of English, BrE and AmE, are accepted in upper secondary schools in Sweden.</p><p>Method: A quantitative web-based survey.Material: Questionnaire filled in by 59 EFL teachers in upper secondary schools in Halland, Sweden.</p><p>Main results: Upper secondary EFL teachers in Halland, Sweden do appear to have a basic knowledge of the differences between BrE and AmE and as such a majority placed themselves in the correct category. However, there is a lack of consistency and all the teachers mixed the two varieties to some extent. The challenges that arise from having two accepted varieties in Swedish schools are amongst other things the question of the consistency rule, dealing with the value system associated with British and American English and the question of whether Mid-Atlantic English should be accepted as a third educational standard.</p><p>Keywords: British English, American English, Mid-Atlantic English, divergence, EFL, consistency, challenges, value system.</p>

<p>The purpose of this essay is to investigate pupils’ attitudes towards spoken English and towards speaking in front of their friends, and how these attitudes appear to be related to their oral communication and communicative behaviour in the classroom. The material was collected by video taping two classes, a questionnaire in these two classes and by interviewing their teacher.</p><p>The results show that motivation and anxiety are psychological factors that play a significant role in the learning process. Attitudes, both towards the target language and towards their own production affect pupils’ willingness to communicate, and consequently their oral production in different tasks. The larger the group is, the more anxious they become. In order to motivate pupils, a variety of exercises is needed, where the topic is of great importance to awaken their interest for communication. The teacher also needs to circulate in the classroom to avoid a situation where pupils switch to their first language. Otherwise, pupils appear to code-switch as soon as an opportunity presents itself, which was observed in the analyses of recorded lessons.</p>