This qualitative study sought to understand how access, or lack of access, to a local community college can affect the self-identity of immigrant students living in southeastern Pennsylvania (PA). The primary sources of data included formal and informal interviews. Interview transcriptions, field notes, and subsequent short essay responses from participants were the primary sources of data used in evaluating their experiences. A year was spent observing and interacting with participants in a variety of settings, at home or at a nearby restaurant. Data was analyzed using triangulation matrices, coding and constant comparison methods to generate categories showing patterns and relationships of meaning. A narrative inquiry that employs the use of counterstories gives voice to the human dignity of immigrant students in the United States and their right to be acknowledged as intelligent, capable human beings with the capacity to learn and pursue their goals. An unexpected finding in this study was how the immigrant student’s struggle is amplified by racism in the form of microaggressions from classmates and employers. / Educational Leadership / Accompanied by one .pdf file: Experiences of Immigrant Students.

The present study explores the use of discourse markers (DMs) in talk-in-interaction of Korean-English bilingual children and their monolingual peers in two languages. The corpus-driven analysis proposes a core meaning of the two DMs as signaling contextual divergence in two monolingual groups. Both similarities and differences coexist in the bilingual data. While the core meaning of well was contextual divergence, that of isscanha was of the cognitive thinking process. The bilingual children utilized the first language DM as an additional resource for their own interactional purposes, such as for searching words and reasoning. The statistical analyses revealed that bilingual children used both DMs in a similar frequency to both monolingual groups. In both monolingual and bilingual data, age affected the use of well but gender did not, and neither age nor gender affected the use of isscanha. Bilingual children's use of the English DM had a correlation with the length of exposure to school context. In addition, awareness of socio-cultural factors in the use of Korean DM appeared differently from that of their monolingual peers. The study uncovered that bilingual children developed interactional competence through the use of DMs in various natural interactions. / CITE/Language Arts

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) programs developed earlier for vocabulary acquisition employed mainly word-list pedagogy and could not present information in a real world context. Advancement in computer technology has triggered the development of multimedia CALL programs which can present information in different formats using graphics, sound, text, and video with links to other chunks of information. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two multimedia CALL programs on vocabulary acquisition. Participants were 86 intermediate level English as a second language (ESL) students. They were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups. Students in group one viewed a program with Motion Graphics and text. Students in group two viewed a program that had Still Graphics and text. Their task was to study ten names of hand and power tools. Both groups took the pretest, viewed the video of the tools, had an immediate posttest and a two-week delayed posttest.The results yielded no treatment effects. Further analysis revealed time effects but no interaction between treatment and time. Students who learned through Motion Graphics performed significantly better on the recall tests than those who learned through Still Graphics. Further research in this area involving the use of various graphic formats in a CALL environment is needed. / Ph. D.

Framväxten av artificiell intelligens (AI) och generativ AI har lett till lanseringen av AI-baserade chatbottar som OpenAI:s ChatGPT. Det är i stort sett fortfarande oklart vilken effekt användningen av dessa verktyg har på undervisning i engelska som främmande språk. Den empiriska undersökningen som presenteras i detta examensarbete har därför syftet att undersöka vilken effekt ChatGPT-feedback har i jämförelse med lärarfeedback på svenska gymnasieelevers komplexitet, korrekthet och flyt i skriftlig produktion på engelska. Ett ytterligare mål med denna studie var att undersöka om elevernas språkliga kompetens påverkar dessa effekter. Studien genomfördes genom att undersöka 56 gymnasielevers argumenterande texter före och efter feedback. Studiens resultat pekar på att båda feedbackmodaliteter har liknande effekt på elevernas komplexitet, korrekthet och flyt. Statistiskt signifikanta ökningar går att se i dimensionerna för korrekthet, lexikal komplexitet och flyt för båda feedbackmodliteter. För dimensionen syntaktisk komplexitet har endast ChatGPT gruppen nått en statistiskt signifikant ökning, och för korrekthet har Lärarfeedback haft en större effekt med statistiskt signifikanta ökningar inom alla fyra analytiska mått för dimensionen. Vidare visar studien att elever med lägre språklig kompetens gynnas mer av feedbacken än elever med högre språkliga kompetens. Studien belyser även behovet av att framtida forskning fokuserar på ChatGPT-feedbacks effekter på texters generella kommunikativa funktion för att bättre förstå vilka effekter AI-genererad feedback har på skriftlig produktion i engelska som främmande språk.

A breadth of research has revealed that English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers are positive towards technology integration in their classrooms (Sun & Mei, 2022) and are willing to develop their knowledge on ways to utilize technology (Nguyen, 2022). Nonetheless, there is limited information in terms of the impact of teachers’ past experiences and learning opportunities on how they implement technology in their teaching practices. Therefore, this research aims to expand on teachers’ perspectives, uses of technology, and their professional development with regard to technology. The research questions that guide this study are: 1) What are the perspectives of ESL/EFL teachers on technology integration in ESL/EFL classrooms? 2) How do ESL/EFL teachers utilize technology? 3) What factors influence ESL/EFL teachers’ past and ongoing development in technology enhanced language teaching? To address these research questions, this mixed-methods study employed online survey and interviews as the data collection instruments. Also, this research utilized thematic analysis to analyze the data from ten collegiate level ESL/EFL teachers. The participants of this study teach in two different countries: Turkey and the United States (U.S.), which increased the context-specific diversity of the data. Findings of this paper suggest that teachers have positive perspectives on technology integration in their classes and their practices of technology implementation vary depending on their teaching context and experiences. The findings also reveal that hands-on experiences and teacher collaboration have positive effects on teacher professional development with respect to technology. Along with the positive perspectives and various uses of technology, this study touches on drawbacks of technology such as student distraction, cheating/plagiarism, and other logistical difficulties. The research concludes with implications and recommendations for future research.

The present study looked at the effects of a self-regulatory goal setting framework (WOOP) implemented in writing classes that were developed by Oettingen (2018) using Mental Contrasting and Implementation Intentions (MCII). The study examined English learners' development on self-reported self-regulation and proficiency levels in an Intensive English Program (IEP) in the United States over the course of two 14-week semesters. A total of 238 English Language Learners participated in the study and took the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ) where the scores were analyzed to determine development over time. The analysis showed no statistically significant differences. However, experimental group participants' self-reported self-regulation tended to increase over time, even if only slightly. The same 238 participants also took a Level Acquisition Test (LAT) to assess their productive proficiency levels. The scores were also compared to a control group to determine if their proficiency was affected when the framework was implemented in the class. Based on the proficiency results, there were statistically significant differences in the development by experimental and control groups that were compared over time. In summary, WOOP, the self-regulatory framework that used MCII, may not have led to statistically significant differences in self-regulation, but the majority of the experimental group participants tended to improve in self-regulation, suggesting WOOP may be beneficial to help ESL learners improve their self-regulation. This research suggests the potential and value of further research with MCII in ESL contexts, specifically with longitudinal implementation of the framework, clarifications and instructions to better assist teachers and students, and further consideration of qualitative data looking at interviews, comments, personal reactions.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether language aptitude and the use of language strategies predict pronunciation gains in second language (L2) acquisition. A second goal was to determine whether these factors differed depending on whether learning occurred in an English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) learning context. Eighty-six ESL students in the United States and one hundred EFL students in China were asked to take the Pimsleur language aptitude test. The top 15 or 16 and lowest 15 or 16 scorers on this test from each group were asked to complete a test of pronunciation proficiency and a pronunciation strategies inventory at the beginning and end of a 10-week speaking class in which they were enrolled. The pre and post pronunciation tests were rated and pronunciation proficiency gains in global foreign accent, fluency, comprehensibility and accuracy were compared to both Pimsleur test scores and use of pronunciation strategies before and after training. Results indicated that general language aptitude did not predict pronunciation gains regardless of type of setting (ESL or EFL), but that auditory aptitude may be linked to pronunciation proficiency. Analyses revealed that specific pronunciation strategies were strong predictors of pronunciation gain for comprehensibility and accuracy gains. The findings for this study suggest that pronunciation strategies seem to play a bigger role in pronunciation improvement than language aptitude and are effective in both ESL and EFL settings.

This thesis tests the hypothesis that a whole language approach to ESL (English As A Second Language) pronunciation with emphasis on suprasegementals through the use of linguistic mimicry is more effective than a focus on segmentals in improving native speakers perceptions of accent and comprehensibility of ESL students' pronunciation of English. The thesis is organized into seven chapters. Chapter 2 is a discussion of the factors that affect the degree of foreign accent in second language acquisition. Chapter 3 gives a background on current ESL pedagogy followed by a description of the linguistic mimicry approach used in this research in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 and 6 are discussion of Materials and Methods and Conclusions and Implications.

The purpose of this study is to examine pupils’ and teachers’ perspectives and use of language strategies when speaking English. Questions that will try to be answered are: What are the teachers’ thoughts about language strategies? In the subject English, which strategies do the pupils in 6th grade use? Which strategies to communicate are used most frequently by 6th graders when speaking English unprepared? To answer these questions, interviews with teachers were held. The pupils answered a survey and were observed while talking English. Earlier studies have showed that language learning strategies are an efficient tool for people learning a second language while overcoming their language skills shortcomings that might arise while communicating in a second language. This study concludes that language learning strategies have a significant part to play in the development of a communicative competence. The teachers emphasized the importance of a good learning environment, interaction and pupils’ awareness about the language learning process. The pupils reported that they used strategies such as paraphrasing and body language, which the observation later confirmed.

The current research utilised a modified cyclical model of tracking teachers' efficacy beliefs from their source through to their implementation in teaching strategies. Key inclusions to the model were four factors (personal efficacy, teaching efficacy, classroom management efficacy and outcome efficacy) of teacher efficacy and four contextual considerations (culture load, learning load, language load and cognitive load) in relation to teaching students who have ESL. Data were collected through three studies, ultilising both qualitative methodologies (focus groups, hypothetical teaching scenarios) and a quantitative methodology (researcher-generated survey). Results revealed a two-factor model of teacher efficacy (not a four-factor model) with the two factors being personal efficacy (general teaching abilities) and teaching efficacy (overcoming environmental factors such as home life). Culture load and language load were significant contextual considerations given to teaching students who have ESL. Results of the research suggested that specific teacher training needs to focus on how to adapt curriculum to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners, emphasising in particular why chosen strategies should be used. More training is needed which involves learning how to include parents and other community members as valuable resources in the learning processes of the classroom.