This dissertation seo out to investigate if use of visually symbolic representations in addition to the more traditional written methods of the key elements 9theme, setting, characterisation) of a short story would support South African ESL learners to grow in their interpretation and appreciation and appreciation of English literary texts. The assertion was that using a multimodal (verbal-visual) transmediated interpretation of the key elements (theme, setting, characterisation)of a short story might afford ESL learners a "deeper reading" (inferential comprehension and appreciation) of a literary text, and that the learners could also be supported to grow in their interpretation and appreciation of English literature. The research findings of the literary analysis project revealed that ESL learners with a "satisfactory" English proficiency can be supported by using transmediation to engage them in rich interpretations of literary genres to realise their interpretations linguistically in written academic eesays. / English Studies / M. A.

This was a qualitative study that used the procedures of case study design while incorporating ethnographic techniques of interviewing and non-participant observation in classrooms with six selected students, six teachers, and eight interviews of selected administrators and staff members in one middle school in a large Texas urban school district. The purpose of this study was to understand the educational experiences and perceptions of selected immigrant students and their mainstream teachers. Following the method of case study design, the educational experiences of English Language Learner (ELL) students were examined in the naturally occurring context of the school and the classroom. Because the goal of case studies is to understand a given phenomenon from the perceptions of the participants (referred to as “emic” perspective) all participants were interviewed in-depth in order to understand their unique perceptions. The study took place during a five-month period in the spring of 2002. Data were analyzed concurrently during data collection and were framed by Geneva Gay's (2000) characteristics of culturally responsive teaching. The findings and interpretation of data are divided into three parts that encompass the results of the five research questions that guided this study. Part one presents the teachers' perceptions and addresses the themes that arose from research questions one and two: what are teachers' perceptions of the academic problems facing (ELL) students as they enter the mainstream classroom? What instructional practices do regular teachers use to meet the academic needs of students? Part two presents the students' perceptions and addresses the findings from research questions three and four: what are (ELL) students' perceptions of the academic challenges facing them in the mainstream classroom? What are the ELL students' perceptions of the instructional practices used by mainstream teachers to meet their academic needs? Part three addresses the fifth research question that guided this study: What administrative policies and procedures are in place in the school and district to meet the educational needs of ELL students?

This study explores storybook illustrations in learning word meanings among English learners in a university intensive language program. The impact of children’s literature on the comprehension and vocabulary development of second language children is well-documented. However, the use of the literature with adults still needs to be researched. Therefore, a mixed-method study was designed (1) to investigate whether readers who read an authentic illustrated story differed from those who read the same story without illustrations; and (2) to learn more about the readers’ process of learning words from storybook illustrations. Results suggest that illustrations play an important role in both comprehending the text and learning individual words, however issues related to the accessibility of the text and readers’ ability to use context should also be taken into consideration. The findings support prior research that the benefits of learning from context take time to become robust. The study suggests that illustrated storybooks provide a rich context for adults to infer word meanings and recommends children’s literature as an alternative source of reading in programs serving adult English learners.

Submitted by Cristiane Chim (cristiane.chim@ucpel.edu.br) on 2016-07-29T18:09:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação LIANE RÉGIO LUCAS.pdf: 2305410 bytes, checksum: e252ad81da17321e7c4b6c534f76b5c7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-29T18:09:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação LIANE RÉGIO LUCAS.pdf: 2305410 bytes, checksum: e252ad81da17321e7c4b6c534f76b5c7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-18 / This study aims to investigate the perception that Portuguese speakers, from the southern region of Brazil, have from different meanings conveyed by the intonation, arising from different prominences, of English negative imperative sentences. Concerning the prosodic characterization, there is the analysis of Phonological (ıs) and Intonation (Is) Phrases based on the theoretical framework of Prosodic Phonology of Nespor and Vogel (1986); it is proposed the analysis of the organization of Phonological Phrases when constituting English imperative sentences as Intonational Phrases. As for the intonation characterization, it is proposed to analyze the Fundamental Frequency values (F0) of the negative imperative sentences under the Intonational Phonology theory, from Ladd (1996, 2008). The research methodology included the collection of a corpus consisted of perception data of English negative imperative sentences, obtained from 30 learners of English, between 18-30 years old, from Pelotas/RS and its region, and from three proficiency levels of English: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. To certify the participants’ level, all of them took the Oxford Placement Test (Allan, 2004). Perception data were collected through a “judgment test”, in which stimulus were recorded by a native English speaker. The results were statistically analyzed in the SPSS software version 17.0, and the stimuli were subjected to acoustic analysis with the aid of the Praat software. The results showed great difficulty of English learners in identifying the meanings conveyed by negative imperative sentences, especially those of basic level, considering the prosodic level of the language, which was explained by the intonation of each type of sentence in accordance with the principles of Phonology Intonational as well as the organization of Phonological Phrases that make up the Intonation Phrase, in line with the precepts of Prosodic Theory. / A presente dissertação tem como objetivo investigar a percepção que falantes de língua portuguesa, da região do sul do Brasil, têm dos diferentes significados vinculados as entoações, decorrentes de proeminências diversas, das frases imperativas negativas do inglês. Na caracterização prosódica, tem-se a análise das Frases Fonológicas (ıs) e Entoacionais (Is), embasada no arcabouço teórico da Fonologia Prosódica, de Nespor e Vogel (1986); propõe-se a análise da organização das Frases Fonológicas na constituição das frases imperativas do inglês como Frases Entoacionais. Quanto à caracterização entoacional, propõe-se a análise dos valores de Frequência Fundamental (F0) das frases imperativas negativas, à luz da Fonologia Entoacional, de Ladd (1996, 2008). A metodologia da pesquisa contou com a coleta de um corpus constituído por dados de percepção das frases imperativas negativas do inglês, obtidos de 30 aprendizes de inglês, entre 18-30 anos, naturais de Pelotas/RS e região, de três níveis de proficiência em inglês: Básico, Intermediário e Avançado. Para a certificação do nível dos aprendizes, todos os participantes do estudo realizaram o Oxford Placement Test (ALLAN, 2004). Os dados de percepção foram coletados por meio de um teste classificado como “teste de julgamento”, com estímulos gravados por falante nativo de inglês. Os resultados foram analisados estatisticamente no software IBM SPSS versão 17.0, e os estímulos foram submetidos à uma análise acústica com o auxílio do software Praat. Os resultados apontaram grande dificuldade dos aprendizes de inglês na identificação dos significados veiculados por frases imperativas negativas, especialmente aqueles de nível elementar, ao considerar-se o nível prosódico da língua, o que foi explicado pelo contorno entoacional de cada tipo de frase, em conformidade com os preceitos da Fonologia Entoacional, bem como pela organização das Frases Fonológicas que compõem a Frase Entoacional, em consonância com os preceitos da Teoria Prosódica.

This thesis discusses the impact of economic globalisation on Thai higher education and society. Thailand's severe economic crisis in the second half of 1997 through 1998 has led to education reform at all levels. Since the crisis, Thailand has been focusing on the development of its human potential and creativity and enhancing the capability of communities, societies and the nation as a whole. The education system of Thailand is being redirected away from nation-building objectives towards 'human capital' creation; education is seen as a form of economic investment. Thailand, like its industrialising neighbours in Southeast Asia and close Western neighbours, is striving to adjust to the pressures of economic globalisation. As a result, Thailand's higher education system is undergoing significant intellectual and strategic reorientation to meet the demands of the modern global economy. Urged by government and employers to produce graduates with more globally relevant knowledge and skills, Thai universities are attempting to redefine their relevance with increased emphasis on proficiency in English. This imperative explains the expansion of full-fee English-medium education and the emergence of government policies encouraging the internationalisation of curricula. Since the mid-1990s, successive Thai governments have paid some attention to the concept of internationalisation but have yet to produce a clear statement of what internationalisation means in the Thai context. Thailand's internationalisation policy, such as it is, aims to cultivate a globally skilled workforce and has directly encouraged the establishment of English-medium business graduate programs, branded as 'international' at a number of leading universities in Bangkok. This thesis examines concerns as to the level of English proficiency achieved by students passing through these programs and questions the appropriateness of the term 'international' for programs, many of which appear to be cloned from business studies degrees offered in major native English-speaking countries. While government policies assert the need to reform education at all levels, both the idea and the parameters of 'internationalisation' remain ill-defined. Consequently, this thesis maps out the scope of internationalisation in education from a global and a local Thai perspective to present a more integrated framework for analysing the implications of the policies. The approach taken presents a multilayered and holistic reading of significant economic and cultural change taking place in Thailand through the lens of higher education reforms and public debates about globalisation and education. More specifically, this thesis examines internationalisation of Thai higher education as an aspect of globalisation and 'global' practice at the 'local' level, observable in the policies, statements, actions and intentions expressed by political leaders, government officials, university administrators, teachers, students and employers. Significantly, Thai cultural characteristics have a profound impact on these key acto rs' attitudes towards practice of international education, particularly in the cross-cultural teaching and learning settings. This thesis argues that a more holistic and integrated approach to internationalisation across all related policy domains is needed if the country is to more effectively respond to the challenges of a globalising world.

<p></p><p>This paper focuses on listening materials used in English language teaching in Sweden, especially in respect to the concept of global English. Global English could briefly be described as the linguistic, cultural, politic, and economic influence of English in the world. This influence concerns two aspects of English, namely the usage of English as a lingua franca in international communications, as well as the great range of English varieties that are used today. The purpose of this research is to study how varied listening materials are and how, when and why they are used in the classrooms. I conducted a two-part investigation to study these matters. The first part of the investigation focuses on teachers’ usage of listening materials and is based on a questionnaire handed out to five teachers. I found that the teachers varied much in their usage of listening materials. In the second part of the investigation I compare the listening materials provided by two Swedish textbooks on English, one from 1994 and one from 2003. Here I focus on the speakers’ varieties, rate of delivery, and instructions given for listening exercises. I found that both books featured a majority of speakers from the British Isles and America, and very few non-native speakers. The more recent book featured a larger degree of varieties outside the areas of Britain and the USA, as well as a larger degree of American English when dividing the varieties by the time these were spoken. RP (Received Pronunciation) and GA (General American) were also less dominating in the textbook from 2003. The rate of delivery was generally slower in the older textbook. The results from this investigation suggest that some changes seem to have occurred between the publishing of the two books. However, a focus on English as a lingua franca, where the aim is proficiency in efficient cross cultural communication rather than in the English spoken by native speakers,  does not seem to have influenced the textbooks studied here. It is difficult to appreciate whether or not changes like these have taken hold in Swedish classrooms, as teachers use many different listening materials and in many different ways.</p><p> </p>

In 1999, Texas Legislature mandated the Student Success Initiative to ensure all eighth grade students are on grade level in reading and mathematics. Although progress is evident, the achievement gap for English language learners remains. The purpose of this case study was to explore effective school practices that lead to closing the achievement gap. This qualitative study applies the two core functions of leadership for exercising influence and providing direction to answer the research question: How do the core functions of school leadership practices for implementing the Student Success Initiative requirements vary between English language learners and non-English language learners in high and low-performing middle schools? The comparison between the high-performing school and low-performing school brought forth key findings and identifies school practices for supporting secondary English language learners. The key findings for exercising influence on teachers were: 1) Effective school practices that influence teacher knowledge on how to identify students and their needs include: a) conducts a needs assessment.; b) analyze data; c) create differentiated ESL programs, d) place diverse groups of ELLs in differentiated ESL programs. 2) Effective school practices to influence teachers how to intervene include: a) accept teacher input and follow through on requests when planning interventions, b) target intervention needs; c) create differentiated interventions. 3) Effective school practices to influence teachers how to monitor include: a) analyze multiple types of data, b) measure student reading growth; c) measure student language proficiency, d) conduct walkthroughs to observe students. The key findings for providing direction to teachers established the following practices: 4) Effective school practices to provide direction to identify students and their needs include, a) develop and implement a school wide intervention plan, b) create a master schedule to implement differentiated ESL programs; c) model how to disaggregate data, d) develop and implement an individual plan for ELLs. 5) Effective school practices to provide direction to intervene include: a) assign ESL teacher to intervention groups, b) use data to drive intervention planning, c) measure growth in language and literacy, d) provide daily interventions, e) integrate language and literacy interventions in lessons. 6) Effective school practices to provide direction to teachers for monitoring include: a) measure growth of literacy and language development, b) triangulate multiple types of data, c) review intervention lessons during walkthroughs, e) provide daily interventions specific to student needs. / text

Recent research suggests that the college-going trajectories of English language learners (ELLs) may be improved by focusing on their academic abilities rather than their English limitations; that ELLs are capable of high-track, college preparatory coursework. Most research draws on feedback or observations of current high school students. This qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews to elicit retrospective perspectives of three Latina college students placed in English as a second language (ESL) during high school. These three former ELLs were able to navigate from ESL courses to higher-track, advanced placement (AP) courses, which prepared them for college. Results suggest that relatively short times spent in ESL may positively influence ELLs’ access to college preparatory coursework and integration with native English speaking (NES) peers who possess college-going social capital. Results also suggest that ELLs’ perceptions of teachers’ high expectations and college-going assistance may provide important social capital facilitating ELLs’ access to higher-tracks and college. / text

Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.