The following study investigates using fiction to create gender awareness and understanding in the ESL classroom. As stated by Skolverket (2013), all teaching is to embody a gender perspective. However, for many educators, this is a multifaceted and difficult subject to grasp. Even more intricate is how to implement gender awareness into teaching, and the demanded knowledge level on the subject is challenging. Therefore, most L2 teachers do not take advantage of the possibilities offered by using fiction to address gender consciousness and question norms. Consequently, this study proposes investigating how fiction creates gender awareness and understanding in the L2 classroom and what strategies teachers might use to better facilitate learning about gender using fiction. This paper presents a literature review and analysis of contemporary research implicating why teaching gender through fiction is important. Moreover, the research suggests how this can be taught in the classroom and in teacher training to enforce didactic confidence on sensitive subjects. The different findings for teaching gender through fiction in an ESL classroom expand students' metacognitive thinking and help develop an understanding of the power of social constructs. Fiction may be a significant tool for learning both language and cultural necessities in a global context. We conclude with a discussion of the studies' implications for the Swedish educational context, including what pedagogical considerations must be taken into account when implementing gender awareness teaching using fiction in the L2 classroom. Finally, the findings are discussed in relation to Butlers' theory on gender, Flavells' metacognitive strategies on reading, and Ruddell and Unraus' motivated meaning-constructions process theory.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil) in the Department of General Linguistics at the University Of Zululand, South Africa, 2017 / The study of ESL students’ experiences with literary texts generated a theoretical model accounting for the intricate relationships among some interwoven phenomena. The model was informed by the precepts of the systematic procedures of Strauss and Corbin (1990) and the attendant central phenomenon, causal conditions, contextual and intervening conditions, interactional strategies as well as the consequences. The central phenomenon that emerged focused on how ESL students interact with textual features such as language difficulty, lexical difficulty, and length of the text by employing strategies to bring about better text comprehensibility. The causal condition for the phenomenon is that some ESL students face lexical and general language difficulty when studying literary texts because of their relative lexical impoverishment. When students consult dictionaries to mediate lexical difficulty, reading fluency is adversely affected; and the condition is exacerbated by the length of the text which brings about loss of plot navigation whereby some readers forget parts of the plot due prolonged engagement in the context of available reading time. The context under which the phenomenon obtains is conspicuous in poetry in the form of authority of interpretation – a phenomenon which grapples with the quandary of orthodox interpretation as postulated either by the student or the assumed more knowledgeable other, the lecturer. The attendant property is that interpretation resonates as a positive higher level cognitive appeal to the more competent reader and a challenge or difficulty to the less competent reader. In the novel (as well as other genres) the manifestation of the phenomenon comes about during assessment where there is a lack shared outcomes or criterion referencing, which leads to unsatisfactory student performance. Students have to adopt interactional strategies to mediate the situation by relying on internet summaries and analyses. Other interactional strategies include relying on the lecturer’s decoding of the text, thereby expecting a banking pedagogy from the more knowledgeable other; relying on the peers’ decoding of a literary text; and shared or collaborative reading which leads to a convergence of different viewpoints and interpretations. These strategies are facilitated by the intervening conditions like the relevance of themes; the ability of the reader to relate to the text; the novel’s being laden with exploratory ideas; and the drama’s interactive nature. Conversely, they are constrained by such conditions as the effect of the heavy workload; drama’s barren exposition; internet summaries only treating peripheral content; and the discrepancy between lecturing and assessment styles. The interactional strategies have a positive and a negative bearing on the ESL readers’ engagement with literary texts. The positive consequences of relying on the internet summaries and analysis include the provision of an entry point to the text; creation of expectation and activation of the schemata; it also results in active reading for some readers, and it facilitates the reading of the long texts. Conversely, the practice is also considered to result in passive reading as it is no longer necessary for some readers to make conjectures; the discovery element is taken away hence the aesthetic value of the text dwindles; and it adversely affects the student-lecturer didactic relationship for ethical reasons. The strategy of relying on the lecturer and peers leads to dependency when they do not read texts on their own

A common pattern in teacher feedback to ESL writing is to provide students feedback on primarily grammar, often sidelining content (Ferris, 2003). This research is a second study of an original study done by Yi (2010) on a rhetoric revision log. This Rhetoric Revision Log (RRL) helped teachers and students track content errors in writing. This research further studies the success of the RRL with some minor changes made based on previous research results. Data consists of the Rhetoric Revision Log (RRL) given to 42 students in three different ESL writing classes at the same level with four different teachers. All students' pretests, posttests, response to surveys in regards to the use of the log, response to interviews in regards to the log, and the data on content-based needed revisions were analyzed. Teachers' responses in interviews were examined, as well, to draw conclusions about the efficacy of the log. Results show that the use of the RRL helped students reduce content errors in writing. Findings from student surveys and interviews indicate that a majority of students find the RRL beneficial, and teacher interviews provided positive feedback about the implementation of the log in ESL writing classes.

The aim of this study is to investigate how some teachers use classic literature in the ESL classroom. It is a qualitative study based on interviews with six teachers, all of them at upper secondary school.The classic literature of the English-speaking world has done much in shaping Western society as we know it, and thus it is important for the students of English as a second language to have at least some knowledge of the literature of the past. The syllabuses for English B and C also require it.My findings were that the teachers interviewed all saw classic texts as very important but challenging. Therefore, the texts introduced must suit the needs and interests of the students. There is also a language barrier to consider. However, classic texts can also be introduced through the use of films.Key words: English as a foreign language, classic literature, teacher views and attitudes, teacher experience

This study examines the effects of single word modification on the perceived comprehension of individual sentences. A test was created by randomly selecting sentences from a college level American history textbook. Each sentence was analyzed using Nation's Range program, and the lowest frequency verbs were selected for modification. Each target verb was simplified (replaced with a higher frequency equivalent) or elaborated (left in the sentence, but followed by a parenthetical definition). Subjects received both treatment types and unmodified control items in a fifty-sentence test. Each sentence was rated by the subjects, as it was read, according to the amount of information the subject felt they comprehended. Results indicated no statistically significant difference in the comprehension ratings for simplified, elaborated or unmodified items. However, some trends were evident, indicating the possibility of effects that might become apparent with further study.

Research has demonstrated the need for both teachers and students to find appropriate types of feedback for meaning-level (content) issues for English as a second langauge (ESL) writing (Kepner, 1991). The current study examines the use of a content revision log (where students monitor their revisions in such content issues as organization, paragraph development and use of topic sentences). Adding to the effect of applying the content revision log, the effect of holding conferences was also examined in the hope that referencing the content revision log during a conference session would bring the most positive results. There were three types of treatment, and the subjects included 3 teachers and 79 students. All of the student subjects' pre- and post- tests, the recorded numbers of content-based needed revisions on the content revision log, and both students and teachers' answers on an attitudes assessment survey were examined. The study found a significant effect on overall writing improvement for the combination of the content revision log and conference feedback compared to the use of the content revision log itself which in turn was better than the results found for the control group. The log + conference group demonstrated the greatest improvement for both types of data: the degree of progress between the pre- and post- tests and the decreasing rates of revision marks on the content revision log. In addition, the log + conferences group had greater numbers of more treatable content issue categories, followed by the log group, lastly the control group. Finally, the results of surveys reflect most students and teachers' preference toward the use of the log or conferences.

A quantitative study was conducted to determine if the amount of formulaic language influenced ESL teachers' perceptions (n=102) of non-native writing skill, as evidenced by composite and sub-scale scores on the ESL Composition Profile (Jacobs et al., 1981). Formulaic language was operationalized as 25 three-word strings sampled from the writing sub-list of the Academic Formulas List (Simpson-Vlach & Ellis, 2010) and further validated as frequent in the Michigan Corpus of Upper Level Student Papers. The target formulaic sequences were divided into three experimental groups representing a low, mid, and high amount of formulaic language. Four advanced non-native writers generated argumentative, timed writing samples that incorporated the target sequences. The writing samples were then assembled into data collection packets and distributed at eight Intensive English Programs across the southeastern United States. A repeated measures ANOVA indicated that there was a significant difference in composite score (p < .05) between the control and three experimental conditions; however, the essays that incorporated 16 and 25 formulaic sequences scored significantly lower than those with zero or eight target sequences. When the amount of syntactical and semantic errors were strictly controlled for, the composite scores also fell between the control and experimental conditions, but the decrease in score was not significant (p > .05). The content, organization, vocabulary, language, and mechanics sub-scales were also compared using a repeated measures MANOVA. In content, organization, and language, the control and low essays outscored the mid and high conditions (p < .05). For the vocabulary sub-scale, the control and low condition were not significantly different, but the control essays only outperformed the mid level essays. The low essays outperformed both the mid and high essays. In terms of mechanics, there was only a significant difference between the low and mid level essays. The results of the MANOVA were consistent when the amount of syntactic and semantic errors were controlled. Implications for teaching suggest that the Academic Formulas List would not benefit academically-oriented L2 learners preparing to enter a university. While corpus tools are valuable in helping teachers, material writers, and publishers improve vocabulary instruction in the English classroom, not all statistically salient lexical combinations are important for non-native writers to master and incorporate in their academic discourse.

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