A comprehensive investigation of the medical students' English learning needs in the investigated context reveals that the medical students' English learning needs are perceived differently by different parties. As the students proceed in their academic study, their perceptions change from an initial need to pass examinations, to the need to acquire subject knowledge through English, and finally to the need to conduct academic activities, thus indicating the necessity to take a developmental view of their English learning needs and consider these needs in designing the ME course instead of imposing the course on students externally. The teachers of the medical college identify the medical students' English learning needs from the practical, academic, and utilitarian perspectives. They suggest implementing language policies that suit the students best according to the real needs in the Chinese contexts and the students' personal desires. But those in the collegial administrative posts tend to over-stress the importance of learning English despite the pre-dominantly resistant attitudes expressed by the students towards English learning. / Based on the findings of the research, the thesis argues for a renewed GBP-mediated expansive learning model to observe learning happening in the GBP framework. In spite of the inevitable weaknesses of the research, it seems clear that further research is essential in areas such as interscholastic needs analysis, genre-based medical English course development, and teacher collaboration. / In the various activity systems in which these parties mainly involved, English is perceived as an examination tool, a linguistic tool, or an administrative tool, hence we find contradictions at different levels. GBP was introduced into the ME class in the form of boundary-crossing actions between the researcher and the ME teacher. The GBP-mediated expansive learning has been explored in three observational dimensions: the vertical development as displayed by the medical students' reconceptualization of their object of English learning, namely their English learning needs; the horizontal development as displayed by the boundary-crossing learning of the ME teacher and the researcher; and the teacher and the students' concept formation of genre and GBP as an indication of developing both vertically and horizontally. / Resulting from the intervention instruction, new teaching/learning tools were formed, new values were attached to learning English, new understanding of the objects of the ME course were developed, and new identities emerged. The introduction of a new mediating tool (i.e. GBP) had led to changes in the other components of the ME class activity system and finally transformed it into a culturally more advanced one, with shared object perceived by all subjects, new conceptual tools (e.g. the new values of English learning), new quality of the subjects (i.e. enhanced ability in ME learning/teaching), and new responsibility towards learning (the division of labour). / The research was conducted in two stages in a medical college in China. The first stage involved critical analysis of medical students' English learning needs through questionnaire survey, classroom observations, focus group discussions, and interviews among medical students in different grades, teachers, and medical doctors (N =696). The second stage was an intervention case study with 46 first-year medical students, using GBP in their medical English class and collecting data through questionnaire surveys, classroom observations, focus discussions, and interviews. / This thesis borrows insights from various theoretical trends, including critical theories, activity theory, particularly expansive learning theory, and genre-based pedagogy (GBP), to formulate a triadic theoretical framework to explore possible improvements in the instruction of medical English (ME) in EFL (English as Foreign Language) contexts. The research aims at answering the key research question regarding the ways in which genre-based pedagogy, informed by critical needs analysis, transforms Medical English instruction and leads to expansive learning. There are three sub-questions that deal with the three-folded research purposes, namely investigation, critical analysis, and transformation, which comprise a unique way to conduct a critical needs analysis of medical students' English learning needs. / Yang, Miao. / Advisers: Evelyn Yee Fun Man; Icy Kit Bing Lee; Angel Mei Yi Lin. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 593-613). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

This thesis critiques A Statement on English for Australian Schools (1994) for what it does, and what it does not, say in respect of literature education. It argues the need to reconceptualise the way literature education is thought to benefit adolescent readers. The initial discussion identifies the issues which are raised in that document. This yields the need to redefine literature education as Human Literacy. It does so on the basis of a theoretical exploration of reader and text. Human Literacy is able to define reader response to show certain orientations which have either been left out, misunderstood or inadequately portrayed in A Statement. This thesis places Human Literacy within real world educational aims of homo economicus as well as homo sapiens sapiens. Such a context recognises liberal and utilitarian value positions, and is able to balance these in a manner which A Statement does not. In placing Human Literacy within educational philosophies of competing models of practice, literature education becomes nested within a more comprehensive understanding of education. Human Literacy provides a way by which educational value of literature is maximised. However, this projects a paradigm shift for A Statement, by identifying a liberal neglect through flawed assumptions, omissions, and contradictions. The presence of these in A Statement inhibit literature from working to best advantage. Human Literacy provides a more comprehensive way by which current theory is accommodated within an English curriculum / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

As a reader and as a teacher of introductory reading and writing courses, I am persuaded by the concept of a genuine authority in which all readers both value and seek to examine their early readings of texts. What I have come to regard as a pretended authority or mastery, on the other hand, is troubling to me as a teacher and reader. This more traditional way of reading and writing, in which readers seek to "find" an author's "meaning" and to communicate this meaning with an assured and knowing voice, has seemed in my experience as both an instructor and student to ignore or brush over the real complexity in both written texts and in the texts of students' and others' lives. In spite of my belief in the importance and efficacy of a questioning rather than a masterful authority, I sometimes, in my teaching and reading and writing, still search for and value what I perceive as author's meanings. I have encountered this tendency in many of my students, as well, and in many of my own past reading and writing teachers; tradition has deeply lodged in us the looming image of the Great Author, and the notion that we must master this author's meanings to be successful readers of their texts. Perhaps one of the most powerful dilemmas facing instructors of reading and writing courses--a dilemma which helps to shape this thesis--is that of fostering an authority based on self-valuing, self-conscious reading while at the same time communicating to readers that the texts we are reading can be as complex as the meanings we make of them. While the formal, institutionalized authority of authors must be challenged by all readers, these authors' genuine authority as writers--as makers of meaning like ourselves and our students--must be respected as we respect our own developing and individual authority. / Graduation date: 1994

Not available / text

This multiple case study (Merriam, 1988) examined the relationships between the life stories of six high school English teachers and the ways those teachers think about and practice writing instruction. Multiple interviews were conducted with each participant over a period of two months, during which the participants shared stories from their lives and talked about themselves as writing teachers. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, broken into story units, and analyzed using the constant comparative method (Strauss and Corbin 1990). Classroom observations and artifacts served as additional forms of data. The perspective that teachers' personal narratives can contribute to an understanding of the complex influences that help shape their beliefs about teaching and their resulting classroom practices was used to inform the analysis (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000; Goodson and Cole, 1993). Findings suggest that the participants frequently perpetuate or act against specific past writing experiences in educational settings by intentionally adopting or avoiding the practices themselves as part of an ongoing process of identity construction; the participants' beliefs about the essential nature of writing ability influence the ways they think about their students and interact with them during writing instruction; and the predominant themes in the participants' life stories are consistent with the professional teaching identities they construct in their classrooms. This study suggests a strong relationship between the life stories of high school English teachers and their beliefs and practices, which indicates a need for university-based teacher-educators involved in English education programs and inservice professional development to empower teachers to reflectively, intentionally, and effectively integrate the personal and the professional in writing instruction. / text

Integrates several learning approaches for teaching English to Taiwanese children at the elementary level (grades K-6). Develops children's biliteracy in the English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) context through various learning approaches that include, child-centered learning, mediated learning, socially situated learning, and task-based learning.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Adopting both qualitative and quantitative approaches with a strong element of triangulation, the present research aimed to investigate the issues of reticence and anxiety in oral English classroom-learning and testing situations at the tertiary level in Mainland China. / Following the ground work phase, the main study, which was divided into two phases, got underway. In the first phase, a 124-item survey was distributed to approximately 570 first-year undergraduate non-English majors at three different proficiency levels at Tsinghua University; 547 valid questionnaires were processed. In the second phase, three English language classes (one from each different proficiency group) were selected for the case study which continued for the full term: the students were required to write reflective journals with one entry per week for six consecutive weeks, the teachers were asked to observe and keep a weekly record of the students' reticence and anxiety in classroom activities during the whole term, the three classes were observed and video-taped twice, 7 students from each group and their teachers were invited for semi-structured interviews, and the final oral English test given to the students was observed and video-taped. / The large-scale survey was analyzed using SPSS 11.00---descriptive statistics, reliability, correlation, factor analysis, t-test, and ANOVA to examine students' self-reported reticence and anxiety and their relationships with other variables such as students' self-rated English proficiency. The journals, interviews, and observations were subjected to a thematic content analysis to explore students' reticence and anxiety during oral English lessons and tests, and identify factors underlying reticence and anxiety in oral English classroom-learning and testing situations as well as corresponding coping strategies adopted by the participants. / The major findings were: (1) a considerable number of students self-reported and were observed to be reticent and nervous during oral English lessons and tests. The more proficient students tended to be less reticent and anxious, (2) the more reticent student tended to be more anxious during oral English lessons and tests, (3) reticence and anxiety negatively affected students' performance in oral English, (4) student reticence and anxiety varied from activity to activity in the classroom and changed during both the term and final oral English test, (5) multiple factors contributed to student reticence and anxiety during oral English lessons and tests, (6) the majority of the participants felt helpless about student reticence and anxiety. Most teachers and students were not aware of how to effectively cope with them, and (7) reticence and anxiety interacted with each other in both situations. Based on these findings, certain pedagogical implications were discussed to reduce students' reticence and anxiety in oral English classroom-learning and testing situations, thus enhancing the teaching and learning of oral English in Mainland China. In addition to contributing to the overall literature of research on reticence and anxiety in Chinese and FL learning contexts, the present research revealed some areas for future research. / Liu Meihua. / "July 2005." / Adviser: Jane Jackson. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0167. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 336-360). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Wang, Yanyan. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 333-352). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese; Includes Chinese.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education