This study examined the motivation for learning English, the amount of contact with English, and length of residence in the target language area that affects Korean graduate students’ English pragmatic skills studying at Texas A&M University in the U.S. The study attempted to account for differential pragmatic development among 50 graduate-level Korean students in a target speech community in regards to functions of their level of motivation, amount of contact with English, as well as length of residence in the target language community. Compared to other studies of second-language acquisition (SLA) which have examined variation among individuals with respect to L2 language learning for quite some time, there has been relatively little inquiry into how second language learners acquire L2 pragmatics and which factors affect learners’ acquisition of L2 pragmatics. Based on the need for more research on the individual difference factors that affect developmental outcomes in L2 pragmatics, the following research questions were investigated: 1) How are differences in the Korean ESL learners’ degree of motivation related with their achievement of pragmatic competence? 2) How is the reported amount of contact with English related with the Korean ESL learners’ pragmatic competence? 3) How are differences in the Korean ESL learners’ length of residence related with their achievement of pragmatic competence? 4) To what extent does student motivation relate to the likelihood of pursuing contact with English? The data for the present study were collected using three types of elicitation instruments: a written background questionnaire, a discourse completion test, and the mini- Attitude/Motivation Test Battery. Analyses in the present study proceeded in three stages: descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients, and multiple regressions. The findings of the study provided that (a) the levels of motivation examined demonstrated a positive and moderate relationship to the Korean ESL learners’ L2 pragmatic competence; (b) overall, the amount of L2 contact appeared to have only a weak and insignificant impact on the participants’ pragmatic competence; (c) despite (b), one exception was that productive, more interactive type of language contact moderately influenced the participants’ level of pragmatic competence; (d) the participants’ length of residence moderately influenced the participants’ level of pragmatic competence; and (e) the participants’ level of motivation moderately affected their likelihood of pursuing contact with English.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gather the perspectives of English as a Second Language (ESL) students to determine their views regarding content delivery and assessments in their content’ specific classes. This case study is based on the concept that students’ perspectives should be considered when planning content delivery and assessments for ESL students at Constitution College (pseudonym), a 4-year college in South Florida. ESL college students receive content and assessments in the same manner as native English - speaking students at Constitution College after completing an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program. Even after this program, some still had trouble with reading comprehension. For students to be successful in their content-specific classes, they must understand the subject matter. Individual interviews were used to gather the perspectives of 13 ESL college students enrolled in EAP courses, selected through purposeful sampling. The questions related to connections between content delivery, assessments, and academic struggles in content-specific classes. As data were collected, they were organized according to recurring themes, common patterns, and categories. The findings suggested that colleges need to ensure that instructors are fully prepared to provide quality instruction during EAP courses for ESL students. If this suggestion is enacted, these ESL students will also benefit as they will be able to use English for academic and social mobility change. The findings will also provide information specific to Constitution College that will add to the body of knowledge regarding the perspectives of ESL college students in the United States.

The primary purpose of this study was to explore conversational repair strategies employed by elementary level ESL students in their classroom. This study investigated repair strategies that were employed by ESL students and determined if there were differences in the usage of repair strategies by class types and grade levels. This study examined how elementary ESL students’ repair strategies dealt with communication breakdown in their ESL classroom from a conversation analysis perspective. The data were collected from five participants who were in two different types of ESL classes: (1) instruction centered class; and (2) language related game-playing class. In order to investigate the variable of grade levels, first and second grade students’ ESL class and third and fourth grade students’ tutoring class were chosen. Twenty-four class hours were observed with a video camera. The data were transcribed following the transcription conventions of conversation analysis. The results derived from the study were following; 1. In this study the elementary ESL students used nine types of repair strategies. They were: 1) unspecified, 2) interrogatives, 3) (partial) repeat, 4) partial repeat plus question word, 5) understanding check, 6) requests for repetition, 7) request for definition, translation or explanation, 8) correction, and 9) nonverbal strategies. The elementary ESL students used understanding check and partial repeat more frequently. 2. The findings indicated that both class types and grade levels influenced the types and distribution of the students’ repair strategies. 3. Instruction class produced more amounts of conversational repair than game-playing class. However, in both types of classes, first/second grade students employed understanding check the most frequently, and third/fourth grade students partial repeat the most. 4. In the first/second grade students’ repair practices, understanding check was observed in the teacher’s direction. In the third/fourth grade students’ repair practices, however, understanding check was observed in the content of instruction. Request for repetition and request definition, translation, or explanation were not observed in the first/second grade students’ class but used in the third/fourth grade students’ class. 5. Students’ decisions on the types and frequency of their repair strategies were influenced by their familiarity with the native speakers.

Service-learning is the merging of academic work with real-life community service activities that encourages students to reflect and think critically about their experiences. Although service-learning has been used in various disciplines, it has not been used extensively with English language learners. However, it offers ESL (English as a Second Language) students the possibility of expanding their potentials beyond the four walls of the classroom. This multiple-case study examined the unique perspectives of six adult ESL students from five different countries. Data collection consisted of the students' written work (journals, reflections papers, and projects) and semi-structured interviews. By offering ESL students opportunities to provide a service to others in authentic English-speaking environments, these students gained communicative competence and developed confidence in themselves. Although the participants were nervous about working in the community initially, they overcame their anxiety by using various strategies and realized that they do have the ability to communicate successfully with English speakers in the "real world," and they possess valuable skills that they can offer to the community. Additional benefits to the students included increasing their knowledge of American culture and history, developing a higher level of motivation, and forming connections to other human beings. Challenges included overcoming fear and feelings of incompetence and sustaining the same levels of confidence and fluency, once the service-learning project and the semester were over.

Students who are learning English as a second language (ESL) have lower performance on mathematics problems based in language than students who are fully fluent in English. Students’ performance on word-based mathematics problems is directly related to their English reading comprehension and language fluency (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Brown, 2005; Hofstetter, 2003). This places students who are not fully fluent in English at a disadvantage in the mathematics classroom. Students’ self-efficacy beliefs also impacts their mathematics performance and motivation. The self-efficacy of students who are not fluent in English may be negatively impacted by their struggle with language. For this exploratory study, image-based mathematics problems were created to communicate problem solving questions with pictures instead of language or computational symbols. This problem format was investigated as a potential alternative to word-based or computation-based problems. Grade 6 students registered in ESL level 2, ESL level 4, and not registered in ESL, completed a mathematics task with four computation problems, four language-based problems, and four image-based problems. During a follow-up interview, students’ solution strategies and thought processes were explored further. The results of this study indicated that the inclusion of wordless mathematics problems, such as image-based problems, assisted some of the students who were learning basic English interpersonal communication skills. As nonroutine problems, image-based mathematics also encouraged complex thought and mathematics understanding. Students in ESL Level 2 demonstrated higher self-efficacy beliefs on image-based problems than word problems.

An important question in the field of reading development is whether models of reading, which apply largely to monolingual English (L1) learners, also apply to English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. The pursuit of such an inquiry is critical to the development of empirically valid models of reading in ESL populations. This study investigated the nature and determinants of the developmental pathways of reading comprehension in ESL (N=153) and L1 learners (N=593) from the fourth to the seventh grade. Two research questions guided the research: (1) How similar are ESL learners to L1 learners in their reading comprehension growth trajectories? (2) How similar are ESL learners to L1 learners in the determinants of their reading comprehension growth trajectories? The following basic processes of reading comprehension were examined: phonological awareness, pseudoword decoding, word identification, reading fluency, and syntactic awareness. Using latent growth modeling, the study found that ESL learners were identical to L1 learners in the functional form (both showed linear growth), slope or rate of growth, intra-individual variability, and linguistic determinants, of their reading comprehension growth trajectories. However, they were weaker than L1 learners in their reading comprehension skill levels. These results provide compelling support for the applicability of L1 models of reading comprehension for ESL learners, and help shape an emergent conceptualization of reading comprehension development for ESL learners.

The primary purpose of this study was to explore conversational repair strategies employed by elementary level ESL students in their classroom. This study investigated repair strategies that were employed by ESL students and determined if there were differences in the usage of repair strategies by class types and grade levels. This study examined how elementary ESL students’ repair strategies dealt with communication breakdown in their ESL classroom from a conversation analysis perspective. The data were collected from five participants who were in two different types of ESL classes: (1) instruction centered class; and (2) language related game-playing class. In order to investigate the variable of grade levels, first and second grade students’ ESL class and third and fourth grade students’ tutoring class were chosen. Twenty-four class hours were observed with a video camera. The data were transcribed following the transcription conventions of conversation analysis. The results derived from the study were following; 1. In this study the elementary ESL students used nine types of repair strategies. They were: 1) unspecified, 2) interrogatives, 3) (partial) repeat, 4) partial repeat plus question word, 5) understanding check, 6) requests for repetition, 7) request for definition, translation or explanation, 8) correction, and 9) nonverbal strategies. The elementary ESL students used understanding check and partial repeat more frequently. 2. The findings indicated that both class types and grade levels influenced the types and distribution of the students’ repair strategies. 3. Instruction class produced more amounts of conversational repair than game-playing class. However, in both types of classes, first/second grade students employed understanding check the most frequently, and third/fourth grade students partial repeat the most. 4. In the first/second grade students’ repair practices, understanding check was observed in the teacher’s direction. In the third/fourth grade students’ repair practices, however, understanding check was observed in the content of instruction. Request for repetition and request definition, translation, or explanation were not observed in the first/second grade students’ class but used in the third/fourth grade students’ class. 5. Students’ decisions on the types and frequency of their repair strategies were influenced by their familiarity with the native speakers.

Students who are learning English as a second language (ESL) have lower performance on mathematics problems based in language than students who are fully fluent in English. Students’ performance on word-based mathematics problems is directly related to their English reading comprehension and language fluency (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Brown, 2005; Hofstetter, 2003). This places students who are not fully fluent in English at a disadvantage in the mathematics classroom. Students’ self-efficacy beliefs also impacts their mathematics performance and motivation. The self-efficacy of students who are not fluent in English may be negatively impacted by their struggle with language. For this exploratory study, image-based mathematics problems were created to communicate problem solving questions with pictures instead of language or computational symbols. This problem format was investigated as a potential alternative to word-based or computation-based problems. Grade 6 students registered in ESL level 2, ESL level 4, and not registered in ESL, completed a mathematics task with four computation problems, four language-based problems, and four image-based problems. During a follow-up interview, students’ solution strategies and thought processes were explored further. The results of this study indicated that the inclusion of wordless mathematics problems, such as image-based problems, assisted some of the students who were learning basic English interpersonal communication skills. As nonroutine problems, image-based mathematics also encouraged complex thought and mathematics understanding. Students in ESL Level 2 demonstrated higher self-efficacy beliefs on image-based problems than word problems.

An important question in the field of reading development is whether models of reading, which apply largely to monolingual English (L1) learners, also apply to English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. The pursuit of such an inquiry is critical to the development of empirically valid models of reading in ESL populations. This study investigated the nature and determinants of the developmental pathways of reading comprehension in ESL (N=153) and L1 learners (N=593) from the fourth to the seventh grade. Two research questions guided the research: (1) How similar are ESL learners to L1 learners in their reading comprehension growth trajectories? (2) How similar are ESL learners to L1 learners in the determinants of their reading comprehension growth trajectories? The following basic processes of reading comprehension were examined: phonological awareness, pseudoword decoding, word identification, reading fluency, and syntactic awareness. Using latent growth modeling, the study found that ESL learners were identical to L1 learners in the functional form (both showed linear growth), slope or rate of growth, intra-individual variability, and linguistic determinants, of their reading comprehension growth trajectories. However, they were weaker than L1 learners in their reading comprehension skill levels. These results provide compelling support for the applicability of L1 models of reading comprehension for ESL learners, and help shape an emergent conceptualization of reading comprehension development for ESL learners.

Adopting a constructionist interpretive research approach, I investigated the phenomenon of motivation to learn English as a second language (ESL) in a sheltered, middle school, transitional class. I interviewed eight ESL students who were attending an ESL program in grades seven through nine. This process enabled me to distill the essence of which factors impacted the students’ motivation for second language acquisition (SLA). The literature does suggest that ESL students’ motivation to learn English may be influenced by numerous factors including, but not limited to: previous learning experiences, family perspectives on education, peer interaction, the classroom teacher, teaching strategies and procedures. The study occurred over a period of five months, from April 2012 to August 2012, and included data gathering and analysis.