The Chinese are the largest ethnic minority in Canada. As a group, they are well-known for not being able to speak fluent English, including those well-educated individuals who immigrated to Canada mainly in the 2000s. There is a rich literature in applied linguistics about immigrants’ second language learning. Nevertheless, studies on second language practice of this particular group of well-educated Chinese immigrants are lacking. This enquiry is aimed at exploring the reasons why well-educated professional Chinese immigrants, who constitute a large portion of the Chinese population in Canada, do not put more effort into improving their English after settling down there, even though a better level of proficiency can bring apparent benefits to their economic and social success in the new host country. Nineteen well-educated professional Chinese immigrants took part in in-depth interviews, the sole method of data collection of this exploratory study which has a conceptual framework capitalizing on such concepts as motivation/demotivation, value, capital, investment, community and identity. The findings reveal that the principal reason for a dearth of efforts is that they do not deem such efforts very necessary and worthwhile. The contribution of this study to knowledge lies in the conceptualization of non-investment, which complements the existing notion of investment by incorporating into it motivational/demotivational factors that the latter dismisses, and which addresses the issue as to what resources an individual depends on when making investment decisions. In addition, this concept is also a contribution to the under-researched area of demotivation. The immigration of well-educated Chinese professionals to Canada is one of the trends in human migration on the global scale which is a part of globalization. Therefore, the comprehension of the rationale behind their second language practice is significant to the applied linguists who work in the realm of globalization.

Idioms play an important role in language acquisition but learners do not have sufficient time to learn all of them. Therefore, learners need to focus on the most frequently occurring idioms, which can be determined by corpus searches. Building off previous corpus studies, this study generated a comprehensive list of English idioms by combining lists from several sources and developed a methodology for organizing and sorting idioms within the list. In total, over 27,000 idiom forms were amalgamated and a portion of the list was compiled, which featured 2,697 core idioms and 5,559 variant idiom forms. It was found that over 35% of idioms varied structurally and thirteen types of idiom variation were highlighted. Additionally, issues concerning idiom boundaries were investigated. These results are congruent with previous findings which show that variation is a commonly occurring element of idioms. Furthermore, specific problematic elements for future corpus searches and English language learners are identified.

Anxiety in the language classroom is an important issue because it affects student performance (Woodrow, 2006). The majority of research conducted has focused on anxiety or apprehension that language learners experience in a foreign language classroom, including students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Only a few studies have been done, however, that address the needs of learners experiencing anxiety in an ESL setting. Data were gathered from 179 students attending a university sponsored intensive English program using a modified version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986) and focus groups. Initial scores on the FLCAS were obtained via student survey responses. In addition to the survey results, students also identified additional factors affecting their anxiety in the ESL classrooms in the areas of student beliefs (Price, 1991) and communication with peers. Furthermore, statistically significant results were found when comparing the students' first language (L1) with the survey results. Different types and levels of anxiety were shown to occur for Spanish and Portuguese students as well as Chinese, Korean, and Japanese students. The data gathered from the focus groups and open-ended questions provided clarity too to the overall scores obtained on the FLCAS.

This thesis project details research conducted and the method employed to create a tool for acquiring the technical vocabulary from the Utah Driver Handbook. Technical terms were compiled into a vocabulary tool for English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. ESL programs within the state have noted the need for materials to help learners acquire this vocabulary. The tool will assist ESL learners preparing for the written driving exam by reinforcing the vocabulary through various iterations, including flash cards, simplified definitions, and an L1 gloss. Learners preparing for the exam will be able to study difficult vocabulary terms using the tool. The tool includes flashcards containing definitions and images, a list of terms with simplified learner definitions, and a list of terms in English with their Spanish equivalent. The tool was created with the intent of providing learners with the ability to revisit difficult terms in a number of ways (i.e. Quizlet, images, simplified definitions, and an L1 gloss). The intended outcome of this research is that the tool will be useful to ESL learners preparing for the written driving exam and be made applicable to learners in other settings.

The number of students participating in online-based instruction has grown steadily over the past decade as improvements in Internet availability, speed, and bandwidth have enabled students from around the world to enroll in online courses rather than participate in onsite traditional college courses. Online courses have also provided educational opportunities for language learners that are more convenient and cost effective. With the growth occurring in online instruction, it is critical to ask about the effectiveness of online English language learning. Even though this type of instructional medium has been available for more than a decade, there has been little empirical research documenting the linguistic changes of English language learners as most research has focused on curriculum development or the structure of such courses (Moore and Kearsly, 2005 & Vai & Sosulski, 2011). Moreover, online language courses that have evaluated language development have focused on skills such as reading, writing, and listening (Blake, 2008). In order to investigate the benefits of English language courses taught completely online and the oral fluency gains that learners make within such a course, this study analyzed audio samples produced by intermediate level ESL students during the initial and final speaking tasks of the course. Instruction utilized asynchronous and synchronous interactions between the teacher, tutor, and fellow students. Results showed that fluency features for learners did change over the course of 14 weeks of instruction, and that learners valued the interaction that they had with tutors and faculty during the course.

This ethnographic study was undertaken in order to examine the problem of many of our E.S.L. students' slowed academic progress in high school. The study found culture shock and culture conflict, low self-esteem and poor motivation, established learning styles and unsuitable teaching techniques, personal and societal identity confusion to be factors preventing such students from achieving their full potential.

Because of its ambiguous function and usage, silence is a major source of intercultural miscommunication, which frequently leads to negative judgments, and breeds stereotypes. Grounded in a cross-cultural and interactive framework, I conducted a five-month descriptive qualitative study, which explored silence perceptions among Chinese, Korean, Russian, Colombian and Iranian ESL speakers, and Canadian native-speakers of English (NS). Multiple perspectives were investigated using stimulated recall, in a context of intercultural mentoring sessions and interviews. Eight ESL 'silence producer' participants were asked to explain their silence use, and their interpretations were compared with the functions attributed to these silences by other participants, one from the same cultural background as the 'silence producer', and a NS. Participants' silence perceptions were described, and most negatively-interpreted silences were identified. Analysis revealed intra-cultural acrimony, that high language proficiency perceptions increase negative silence attributions, cross-cultural differences in attitudes towards fillers, and the systematic silencing of ESL speakers.

Little is known about writing development among English as a second language (ESL) and monolingual children. The “simple view of reading” (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Juel 1988) and “component” models (Joshi & Aaron, 2000) were used as theoretical frameworks in this investigation of story writing development of ESL and monolingual children from grades 4 to 6. This longitudinal study (a) compared the narratives composed by ESLs and monolinguals and (b) examined the nature of the language, cognitive, and reading variables that predict writing in these groups. Reading and writing skills were conceptualized in terms of lower order, word-level components, and higher order, text-level components. The study involved 57 monolinguals and 121 ESLs from various language backgrounds, who had attended English speaking schools since grade 1. Based on the Test of Written Language (TOWL, Hammill & Larsen, 1996) three aspects of narrative writing were analyzed: writing mechanics, writing syntax, and overall story quality. Monolinguals and ESLs were similar on the cognitive, linguistic, word- and text-level reading and writing measures, but ESL performance was lower on vocabulary and reading comprehension across all three grades. Narrative writing in monolinguals and ESLs alike was predicted by syntactic skills, word-level skills (decoding and spelling) and text-comprehension. Nonverbal reasoning and phonological processing significantly predicted writing performance for monolinguals only. Overall, writing mechanics, writing syntax, and story quality all grew significantly across grades. However, only story quality demonstrated significantly different patterns of growth across students, but this difference was not explained by any of the predictors. Importantly, despite having weaker vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, ESLs’ narratives did not differ from monolinguals on mechanics, syntax, and overall story quality. The findings have implications for assessment and instruction of writing in both groups, provide additional evidence that reading comprehension and writing skills share common underlying processes, and suggest that skills that determine reading success can be used to flag possible writing weaknesses in both groups. Despite the effect of L2 status on vocabulary and reading comprehension, ESLs demonstrated similar narrative writing skills to monolingual peers.

Little is known about writing development among English as a second language (ESL) and monolingual children. The “simple view of reading” (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Juel 1988) and “component” models (Joshi & Aaron, 2000) were used as theoretical frameworks in this investigation of story writing development of ESL and monolingual children from grades 4 to 6. This longitudinal study (a) compared the narratives composed by ESLs and monolinguals and (b) examined the nature of the language, cognitive, and reading variables that predict writing in these groups. Reading and writing skills were conceptualized in terms of lower order, word-level components, and higher order, text-level components. The study involved 57 monolinguals and 121 ESLs from various language backgrounds, who had attended English speaking schools since grade 1. Based on the Test of Written Language (TOWL, Hammill & Larsen, 1996) three aspects of narrative writing were analyzed: writing mechanics, writing syntax, and overall story quality. Monolinguals and ESLs were similar on the cognitive, linguistic, word- and text-level reading and writing measures, but ESL performance was lower on vocabulary and reading comprehension across all three grades. Narrative writing in monolinguals and ESLs alike was predicted by syntactic skills, word-level skills (decoding and spelling) and text-comprehension. Nonverbal reasoning and phonological processing significantly predicted writing performance for monolinguals only. Overall, writing mechanics, writing syntax, and story quality all grew significantly across grades. However, only story quality demonstrated significantly different patterns of growth across students, but this difference was not explained by any of the predictors. Importantly, despite having weaker vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, ESLs’ narratives did not differ from monolinguals on mechanics, syntax, and overall story quality. The findings have implications for assessment and instruction of writing in both groups, provide additional evidence that reading comprehension and writing skills share common underlying processes, and suggest that skills that determine reading success can be used to flag possible writing weaknesses in both groups. Despite the effect of L2 status on vocabulary and reading comprehension, ESLs demonstrated similar narrative writing skills to monolingual peers.

Increasing numbers of English language learners (ELLs) and diminishing services for those students is resulting in mainstream teachers across the United States taking on the responsibility of teaching ELLs. This demands the preparation of all teachers to teach ELLs. Yet adequate preparation of these educators depends on insight into the beliefs that preservice teachers carry with them to the classroom. These beliefs are critical in their impact on teacher behavior and teacher expectations of ELLs. Remarkably, what preservice teachers believe about ELL issues is overlooked in research. The purpose of the present study was to look beyond these previously explored paths of ESL, bilingual, multicultural, and foreign language education to discover preservice Pre-K through 8th grade mainstream teachers’ beliefs about language learning in order to better inform future teacher preparation programs. The research questions used to accomplish the purpose of this study focused on what beliefs pre-service teachers at Texas A&M University hold regarding second language learning and teaching before ESL coursework, how those beliefs change after ESL coursework, and what variables influence these pre-service teachers’ beliefs about English language learning and teaching? A total of 354 individuals participated in the study. They were involved in ESL coursework during their participation in the study. The data were collected from August of 2006 to May of 2007. This study had a mixed method design. The research instruments included a Likert-scale questionnaire and focus group interviews. The interviews were analyzed according to the constant-comparative method. The questionnaires were analyzed based descriptive statistics, paired sample t-tests, and hierarchical multiple regression. Major findings of the study include that before ESL coursework, preservice teachers largely undervalued ELLs’ L1, yet they were aware of ELLs in mainstream environments and positive about ELLs themselves. Coursework was found to be effective in that after ESL coursework there was an obvious shift toward greater alignment in beliefs with principles of ESL education. Interviews underscored the role of field experience, teacher educators and ESL courses in impacting belief change.