There has been increasing interest in research on creating word lists in the past decade with more than 60 separate lists being published along with Nation’s (2016) timely Making and Using Word Lists for Language Learning and Testing. However, this focus on word lists has primarily been on creating them and has not necessarily extended to looking at how they are actually used. In order to help answer the question of how these lists are utilized in practice, this exploratory, interpretive study based on interviews with teachers and assessment/curriculum developers looks at how word lists are used at five tertiary English foundation programs in the United Arab Emirates. The main findings include the following. Insufficient vocabulary knowledge was deemed one of the most significant problems that students faced. Additionally, word lists played a role in all five of the institutions represented in the study, and the Common European Framework (CEFR) was used in conjunction with vocabulary frequency lists to help set expected vocabulary learning in some programs. Furthermore, teacher intuition was used to modify lists in three of the five programs and online applications were used in all five programs. The thesis explores a number of areas in depth including: how vocabulary lists are being used in the programs, the use of the AWL in this context and potential problems related to this, the role of teacher intuition in the customization of lists, the role of CEFR related frameworks in these programs, the use of computer applications to assist with list vocabulary acquisition, what the selected vocabulary acquisition activities tell us about beliefs about vocabulary teaching and learning, and some final comments about utilizing a list. One of the key findings was the development of a novel framework for categorizing the use of word lists into four general areas: course planning, teaching and learning, assessment and materials development with sub-categories for each. This framework and the related examples could be utilized to evaluate the suitability of specific lists and to help set developmental targets for the process of adopting a new list and transforming it into something that could be used to direct and support vocabulary teaching and learning. It could also be developed further as more examples of practice emerge in different contexts and hopefully set the stage for more development about how vocabulary lists are used.

Los pilares de la universidad son la docencia, la investigación y la extensión. Esta última intenta fortalecer el vínculo entre la universidad y la comunidad toda. El Programa de Extensión Universitaria para Adultos Mayores (PEUAM) de la Universidad Nacional de Villa María (Córdoba, Argentina) propone promover el aprendizaje continuo en la vida adulta y ayudar a establecer vínculos sociales. En el PEUAM pueden participar personas mayores de 50 años interesadas en los distintos talleres propuestos. En el marco de dicho programa, siendo docentes de los niveles de inglés, aplicamos juegos en nuestras clases de forma sistemática a lo largo de los ciclos lectivos. Y hoy podemos afirmar que los juegos en la enseñanza con adultos mayores son mucho más que un elemento lúdico. Tras encuestas realizadas a los alumnos, verdaderos protagonistas del proyecto, llegamos a la conclusión de que con la implementación de juegos en el aprendizaje, sin dejar de ser adulto, el adulto vuelve a sentirse niño y trabaja de manera activa en la resolución de actividades. Al aprender en un clima agradable, los adultos se atreven a utilizar el idioma extranjero con mayor espontaneidad, logran reforzar y aumentar su autoconfianza, compartir estilos de aprendizaje, favoreciendo el crecimiento personal.

This study aims at investigating teaching of idioms by means of illustrations and teaching of idioms by means of definitions. The informants of the experiment are learners of English in a Swedish high school. The 58 informants of this experiment were tested on a total of 19 idioms. These idioms were carefully chosen in order to make sure that they would not already be known by the informants. Another key factor while choosing the idioms was the possibility to find appropriate illustrations for these idioms. The chosen illustrations depict either the literal or the metaphorical meaning of the idioms. The informants were administered one pre-test and two post-tests (short- and long-term retention tests) to measure the retention rate. The pre-test was used to check if both groups had similar knowledge of the selected idioms and therefore could be comparable. The results of this experiment show that students taught by the use of illustrations had a better short- and long-term retention rate than students taught only by the use of definitions. In both the short- and long-term retention test, informants taught by the use of illustrations outperformed informants taught through definition by more than 10%. This study therefore indicates that the use of illustrations while teaching should not be neglected by teachers and can be a powerful tool to enhance students’ retention of chosen items such as vocabulary or idioms.

The aim of this thesis is to introduce the concept of cross-language mediation, which is well established in some countries abroad but is not widely used in the Czech environment, from various points of view. The work tries to show that cross-language mediation is an engaging, effective and interesting activity preparing the learners for real-life mediating situations employing both mother tongue and English. The work is enriching for its battery of mediation activities designed for the Czech context, mediation assessment criteria and a survey among Czech and foreign teachers summarizing their attitude towards mediation and its role in EFL lessons. KEYWORDS: cross-language mediation, translation, mother tongue in EFL teaching

Research in the field of multimedia has yielded principles for the design of effective multimedia instructional messages including Mayer's principles regarding voice. According to the voice principle, students learn more deeply when the narration in a multimedia lesson is spoken by a native voice rather than a non-native voice. The generalizability of the voice principle has been demonstrated when applied to multimedia users who are native speakers of the language used in narration. However, three out of four English users are non-native speakers of English, and the vast majority of verbal exchanges in English do not involve any native speakers of the language at all. By focusing on non-native users, the results of this study should clarify the applicability of the voice principle to a broader target audience. The study investigated whether the accent of the narrator in a multimedia tutorial affected participants' learning and attitudes toward the narrator. The independent variable of the study was narrator's accent with two levels: native accent and non-native shared accent. The dependent variables of the study were participants' learning and their attitudes toward the narrators. Sixty-five Chinese participants at a Midwestern university in the United States were randomly assigned to one of two groups in this experimental design. Data to test the dependent variables were collected through a learning achievement test and an attitude survey. Data analyses revealed that there was no significant difference in overall learning and recall level learning between the two accent groups. However, the group who heard the narration spoken with the native American English accent had significantly more positive attitudes toward their respective narrator than the group who heard the narration spoken with a non-native shared Chinese accent. The study qualifies the voice principle by establishing the limits of its generalizability to non-native English speakers. The study suggests to instructional designers that the use of a non-native shared accent should not affect students' learning negatively although it may affect their attitudes toward the speakers. In addition, the study helps assure non-native instructors that they can record their own voices to use in multimedia instruction as their non-native students will learn as effectively as with a native English accent.

The main aim of this research was to delve into the minds of English as a foreign language students and try to find the right amount of guidelines provided by the teacher and materials while using constructivism represented by communicative approach and Dogme methodologies. As these classes were individual, the teacher’s role was to adjust the amount of constructivism and independence according to the student’s preference, which was expressed during interviews in which they reflected on their learning journey. The study also examined if and how the students’ initial level and previous learning experience influenced their willingness and ability to take charge of their learning and direct it based on their needs, moving away from prepared curriculum in form of a textbook or as decided by the teacher.   The findings showed virtually no difference between students on different levels of proficiency and all students were able to deal with a high level of constructivism and effectively direct their learning. Their learning curve showed a notable improvement especially at the beginning; all of this while achieving their goals and especially feeling more confident about their abilities. Another conclusion is that their preference was towards spoken practice of new language in a personalized context of relevant topics, giving them the opportunity to build fluency, practice previous topics and learn new vocabulary at the same time.

This essay is a comparative analysis of the novels Pet Sematary and The Shining by Stephen King, where the empathy that the characters may invoke is analyzed. The focus lies on the children, mothers and fathers of the two families featured in the novels, who are analyzed in terms of Leake’s division of easy or difficult empathy. The essay also discusses the use of horror fiction in the EFL-classroom and how it may train students’ ability to empathize and motivate reluctant readers. The child characters mainly offer easy empathy since they experience negative emotions and victimization. The adult characters appear to be more nuanced, especially the two fathers who may invoke a combination of easy and difficult empathy through their change towards antagonists, or through their abusive behavior. Due to King’s complex characters, and suspenseful storytelling, it is possible that horror fiction of this kind can be used in the EFL-classroom to attract reluctant readers. As the students also come in contact with difficult empathy they can train their ability to understand and empathize with people who may act in ways that the students normally would disagree with. In that regard, it appears that horror fiction can have a pedagogical use in the EFL-classroom.

La thèse actuelle propose un modèle interactif de capacité métalinguistique, de poésie et d'apprentissage des langues étrangères. Elle vise à examiner l'influence du cours d'anglais langue étrangère basé sur la poésie sur la capacité métaphonologique des élèves, et à explorer des relations entre leur capacité métaphonologique et les facteurs d'apprentissage tels que la pédagogie des enseignants, les stratégies d'apprentissage des langues des apprenants, l'exposition linguistique à l’anglais en dehors de la classe et les commentaires des élèves sur le cours d’anglais auquel on a intégré de la poésie. Deux études de cas visent à enquêter sur le développement de la capacité métaphonologique des élèves dans le cours d’anglais avec poésie, ainsi que les relations mentionnées ci-dessus. Une combinaison de méthodes quantitatives et de méthodes qualitatives est utilisée dans cette thèse. Les résultats de la quasi-expérience indiquent que la classe d'anglais prenant appui sur la poésie facilite le développement de la capacité métaphonologique des élèves dans une certaine mesure. La théorie de Bialystok (2001, 2012), la « noticing hypothesis » de Schmidt (Schmidt, 2010) et la poétique cognitive de Tsur (2008) sont utilisées pour analyser et expliquer les résultats des tests de capacité métaphonologique. / The present study proposes an interactive model of metalinguistic awareness, poetry and foreign language learning. It aims at examining the influence from poetry-embedded class of English as a foreign language on pupils’ phonological awareness, with considering the relations between their phonological awareness and the factors in ecological learning environment that includes teacher’s instruction, learners’ language learning strategies, linguistic exposure to English that learners receive outside of classroom, and pupils’ feedback on the poetry sequence. Two case studies are conducted to probe into the development of pupils’ phonological awareness in the context of poetry-embedment English class, as well as the relations mentioned above. A combination of quantitative methods and qualitative methods are employed in the current study. The results of quasi-experiment of phonological awareness indicate poetry-embedment English class globally facilitates the development of pupils’ phonological awareness to some extent. Bialystok’s theory (2001, 2012) Schmidt’s noticing hypothesis (Schmidt,2010), and Tsur’s cognitive poetics (2008) are employed to interpret the results of phonological awareness tests.

abstract: The present research study investigated the effects of 8 versions of a computer-based vocabulary learning program on receptive and productive knowledge levels of college students. The participants were 106 male and 103 female Korean EFL students from Kyungsung University and Kwandong University in Korea. Students who participated in versions of the vocabulary learning program with target-word based sentences as well as definitions tended to perform better on receptive and productive vocabulary assessments than those who participated in versions of the program with definitions of words only. Furthermore, results indicated that the difference in receptive scores from immediately after the program to one week later showed a higher drop-rate than the difference in productive scores. In addition, female learners performed receptively better than male learners in post and one-week delayed tests, but significant gender difference failed to occur for the productivity measure. Overall, these results emphasized the importance of productive vocabulary knowledge for better retention of English vocabulary words. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Technology 2013

abstract: This study investigated the effects of concurrent audio and equivalent onscreen text on the ability of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) to form associations between textual and aural forms of target vocabulary words. The study also looked at the effects of learner control over an audio sequence on the association of textual and aural forms of target words. Attitudes towards experimental treatments and reported level of cognitive load were also examined in the context of a computer-based multimedia instructional program. A total of 200 college students took part in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental conditions in a 2 x 3 factorial design with level of learner control (learner-controlled vs. not-learner-controlled) and format of presentation of information (audio + no text vs. audio + full text vs. audio + keyword text) as factors. The subjects completed a pretest, a posttest, cognitive load questions, and an attitude questionnaire. The results revealed the following findings: (a) groups in the audio + keyword text conditions outperformed those in the audio + no text and audio + full text conditions on text-sound association, (b) within the audio + keyword text conditions, the learner-controlled group outperformed the not-learner-controlled group on text-sound association, (c) within the learner-controlled conditions, the audio + keyword group outperformed the audio + no text and audio + full text groups on text-sound association, (d) a redundancy effect was not found for any treatment condition, and (e) overall, participants had positive attitudes towards the treatments. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed within the frameworks of cognitive load theory and cognitive theory of multimedia learning. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Technology 2014