Fossilization, the stagnation of second language (L2) learning despite propitious conditions, is an inescapable reality for virtually all L2 learners. The study presented in this dissertation has endeavored to contribute to our current understanding of fossilization by examining, both longitudinally and cross-sectionally, persistent errors in the writing of adult learners of academic English for whom Spanish is a first language (L1). The theoretical framework is the Selective Fossilization Hypothesis (SFH), introduced by Han in 2009, which offers an extrapolative and explanatory framework for analyzing persistent errors in the developing grammars of L2 learners. This research was conducted in two parts. Part I consisted of a cross-sectional investigation of 60 English language learners (ELLs) grouped into three proficiency levels: low intermediate, high intermediate, and advanced. Part II was a longitudinal case study that followed two ELLs over a period of 28 and 56 months, respectively. For both parts of the study, naturalistic data consisting of college placement, diagnostic, and exit essays were collected at the research site, a large community college in the Northeastern United States, and analyzed quantitatively. Descriptive statistics were computed to identify persistent errors in the participants’ writing. Following that, the longitudinal data were subjected to further analysis, revealing robust evidence of selective fossilization both among and within the target subsystems of English articles, prepositions, and number, and offering empirical support for the SFH. These findings have some implications for second language research and practice. By providing evidence of selective fossilization, they may help challenge earlier conceptualizations of fossilization as a global phenomenon, and, by extension, the myth of the ‘fossilized’ (‘unteachable’) learner. Additionally, they contribute to extant research on the developing academic writing of post-secondary learners, a population and genre largely underrepresented in the L2 research. Finally, by offering empirical support for selective fossilization and the SFH, they provide L2 practitioners with the means to predict and explain learner errors, enabling them to set more realistic learning goals and achieve more successful outcomes.

Numerous studies since the 1960s have demonstrated that peer tutoring between two students is an effective teaching practice across populations and academic content areas. However, there has been limited research on peer tutoring beyond the traditional dyad format. We analyze variations of peer tutoring in a series of studies in a 3rd grade general education classroom. During the first study, we compared dyad and group peer tutoring structures for spelling acquisition with 14 participants across 2 experiments. We found that the majority of the students mastered novel words with fewer learn units during peer tutoring in dyads (i.e., lower learn units-to-criterion). However, scores on spelling post-assessments were higher following group peer tutoring conditions. Findings suggest that peer tutoring in a group may be more effective when considering post-assessment accuracy. In the second study we analyzed the effects of peer tutoring with Equivalence Based Instruction (EBI) on inference making, specifically, the emergence of eight 3-member fraction-percentage classes with 8 participants across 2 experiments. We found that participants acquired both baseline training relations during peer tutoring EBI: one directly as a tutee and one indirectly as a tutor. Following peer tutoring EBI, all participants derived the remaining 4 relations. Once participants had formed equivalence classes, they could also sort fraction stimuli, which demonstrated transfer of function. Additionally, we noted that it may be important for instructors to consider response effort for training relations when designing instruction for peer tutoring EBI due to possible adverse effects on student behaviors. Our findings suggest novel and effective means in designing pedagogy to increase learn units, select effective tutoring formats, and plan for inference making in general education classrooms.

"Teaching reading to girls and boys with different levels of ability and various backgrounds is a challenging task for any teacher to face. This task becomes even more difficult when the class is composed of pupils in two grades under the same teacher. The purpose of this experiment is to show the need for, and the benefits derived from, group instruction in teaching reading to a first and second grade, in the same room, under the same teacher"--Chapter 1. / Advisor: Robert C. Moon, Major Professor. / "A Paper." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Includes bibliographical references.

Input—that is, meaningful samples of the target language to which learners are exposed—is generally considered the most essential condition for second language (L2) development. Theoretical and empirical research on this key construct, however, remains scarce. To date, the field’s understanding of input has mostly been fragmentary and shallow. Crucial questions, such as what input characteristics make it indispensable for mastering any linguistic construction, are partially addressed, at best. This study sought to advance a holistic conceptualization of input in empirical research via the theoretical lens of L2 input robustness from the Selective Fossilization Hypothesis (Han, 2009, 2013, 2014). Specifically, the distributional characteristics of the simple present and present progressive in a beginner-to-advanced English as a Second or Foreign Language textbook corpus were identified using form-function analysis. Input robustness was assessed as a function of the range and types of each target construction’s mappings of form, meaning, and function (FMF) in context (“input variability”) and the frequency distribution of those mappings (“input frequency”). A mathematical model was custom-built to simulate increasing magnitudes of input variability. Insights regarding each construction’s variability and frequency were then integrated for extrapolation through a novel application of the input robustness formula. The study found that specifying distributional characteristics with FMF descriptors (e.g., one form encoding multiple meanings in multiple contexts) provided objective benchmarks for cross-construction comparisons. Moreover, the most robust textbook datasets for both constructions consistently ranked as the top two lowest in variability and the top two highest in frequency. Furthermore, the less context-dependent the FMF mappings exemplified are, the less variable a target construction would become, and vice versa. Finally, both the simple present and present progressive were determined to be “quite robust” (i.e., somewhat invariable and somewhat infrequent) in the textbook corpus, despite differences in magnitude. Overall, these findings suggest that the input robustness approach leads to a more holistic understanding of input. Conceptually, this input robustness study addressed how a target construction’s FMF consistency and frequency distribution are intricately connected in the input. Methodologically, the study demonstrated how those intricacies can be integrated into falsifiable terms for further interpretation.

For decades, the majority of educational research has been preoccupied with understanding as a product—as various “learning achievements” and “subject mastery” to be measured and subsequently represented as statistics or test scores. This preoccupation is also observed in the field of second language education, whose attention has focused on how the outcome of language acquisition can be improved at a curriculum or activity level. However, what is equally important, and yet largely underexplored, is understanding as a process: how understanding is achieved and facilitated in and through classroom interaction. To fill this research gap, this study respecifies understanding as a social and interactional phenomenon and investigates how it is enabled, managed, and restored in the adult ESL classroom in situ. Data comprise 27 hours of video- and audio-taped classroom interaction collected from two research sites serving adult ESL learners: an academic ESL program and a community-based ESL program located on the East Coast of the United States. Participants were two experienced teachers with over two decades of teaching experiences and 20 students with low to intermediate English proficiency. Data were analyzed within the conversation analytic framework. Findings include three teacher practices concerning understanding-in-interaction. First, teachers can facilitate students’ understanding of grammatical errors by an embodied repair practice that I called “finger syntax.” By counting syntactic elements on fingers on display, the teacher can scaffold learners’ understanding of the location of the error, the nature of the error, and even the method of repair. Finger syntax can be deployed to initiate learner self-repair or demonstrate other-corrections. Second, teachers can answer students’ language-related questions by doing more than answering or doing approximate answering. In attending to both the what and the why, doing more than answering helps learners develop a principled understanding of a grammatical item. Doing approximate answering, on the other hand, is shown to be less responsive to students’ understanding troubles. In the absence of an agreement of what an ambiguous question actually asks, the teacher’s response deviates from students’ learning concerns to varying degrees. Lastly, teachers can respond to trouble-laden learner contributions that result in a (potential) breach of intersubjectivity in a stepwise fashion. Specifically, their displays of understanding can be leveraged as a springboard for form-focused work, enabling a stepwise entry into linguistic feedback carefully aligned to meaning that a learner has struggled to articulate. Findings thus contribute to research on repair and corrections, on responses to learner questions, and on understanding-in-interaction in the context of the language classroom.

This study examines how large scale assessments like the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), developed for students proficient in academic English, may not produce reliable and valid outcomes for academically vulnerable students, namely English Language Learners (ELLs). This mixed-methods study was conducted to uncover differences between the old and new mathematics sections of the SAT, to see if differences in mathematical performance correlate to language abilities by looking at students’ approach, and to explore teacher perceptions, attitudes, and pedagogical practice in the instruction of English learners. The study took place in a New Jersey school district. Seventy-eight students of varying language proficiencies were administered an old and new SAT-Mathematics (SAT-M) section. After scores were statistically analyzed, fifteen students were purposefully chosen to be interviewed. For a more comprehensive view of scores, students were asked to think out loud as they completed selected test items and answer questions pertaining to their background, problem-solving methodology, misconceptions, and limitations. Similarly, nine teachers were given a survey and the exams to pinpoint difficult questions, explain why students struggle, identify what English learners’ needs are, and describe how the needs are met. Qualitative data revealed that students’ performance was a reflection of mathematical and/or language challenges, or lack of exposure to certain mathematical concepts. Additionally, test structure and time constraints had confounding effects on student performance. Even though a variety of cognitive processes were observed, they seemed more aligned to a student’s academic track rather than linguistic abilities. With ELLs usually consigned to lower track mathematics classes, the interconnectedness of class, language, and expectations remains critical. Teachers’ responses reveal their pessimism in overcoming students’ language access barrier and low sense of mathematical efficacy. Teachers’ efforts to provide a more equitable education to ELLs reveal tensions between reform curriculum and equity. Findings of this study contribute to the discussion on factors that may lead to the marginalization of ELLs on national assessments. The results have important implications for test construction and challenges the conceptualization of what “language” is and what being “college and career” ready means.

Bibliography: pages 78-90. / There is evidence that many primary school teachers of English Second Language (EL2) are inadequately equipped to teach reading comprehension skills. They test their pupils on literal, at the expense of inferential, reading skills. This investigation therefore sought to test the literal and inferential reading comprehension skills of a group of Afrikaans-speaking EL2 teacher trainees and to design a reading comprehension programme which would improve their thinking skills over a period of nine months. The students were also instructed in a programmed reading course (the SRA Reading Laboratory) to determine its efficacy in improving their thinking skills. A further objective was to establish whether a programmed reading course or the author's cognitive reading development programme benefitted high-status (proficient in English) more than low-status (less proficient) EL2 students and what effects the two different programmes would exert on their reading comprehension skills a year after formal instruction in reading comprehension ceased. It was found that specific sequences of the two different instructional programmes were associated with significant changes in the students' reading comprehension scores. It was also found that, while high-status students benefitted sooner from the author's cognitive reading comprehension programme, that approach was also ultimately beneficial for low-status students. It is suggested that cognitive reading development programmes be implemented at primary, secondary and tertiary institutions where language skills and levels of meaningful reading need to be raised.

Thesis (Ph.D.(Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / The purpose of this study was to explore the challenges encountered by teachers in teaching reading to EFAL learners in rural schools. This is based on the fact that reading is a fundamental skill upon which all formal education depends. In view of this, a child who does not learn reading early enough is doom to underperform in their academic pursuits. Thus, any child who doesn’t learn to read early and well would not easily master the other literacy skills and is unlikely to ever perform well in school or in life. However, teaching reading to English first additional language learners comes with a lot of challenges. To this effect, Sentsho (2000) argues that many teachers are not perfect in that regard and this imperfectness impacts negatively on the outcomes which is on the learners (child). If the teachers are incapable of using basic structures correctly, or if his/her pronunciation is so bad that the words are incomprehensible, he/she would not be able to teach the spoken language competently. Among the main challenges identified in the literature review, the lack of teaching skills, remuneration, lack of resources, overcrowded classrooms are the major challenges encountered by the teachers. The study is located in the interpretive paradigm which sought to explore teachers’ experiences and their views. The experiences and the qualifications of teachers were taken into consideration during the empirical study when the interviews, seminar and the observations were conducted. Qualitative research approach was adopted in the study with the intentions of finding as much detail as possible using a case study design. Participants for this study were teachers who teach English first additional language at rural schools in the Seshego Circuit in Polokwane, Limpopo. The empirical investigation revealed that teachers did not have necessary skills and expertise to teach reading to EFAL learners. They knew less about the approaches to teaching reading and that reading was treated as a separate entity from speaking and writing. The conditions that they found themselves were appalling due to lack of motivation and support from the Department of Education, overcrowding in classrooms, lack of resources, socio-economic status etc. and how these factors impact negatively on the teaching of reading. Also important to note was the fact that the teachers did not receive any form of in-service training at their respective schools in relation to the teaching of reading. The investigation concluded that the teachers were qualified and had enough experience in teaching English but not reading per se.

The present study analyzed the language in the script of the bilingual play Mi Vida Gitana `My Gypsy Life' (Malán, 2006) in order to better understand issues relating to codeswitching (CS). The analysis was done from a structural and a functional perspective and utilized various models developed by renowned CS scholars. For the structural analysis, I utilized concepts and ideas put forth in the three-tiered typology created by Muysken (2000) and the Matrix Language Frame model developed by Myers-Scotton (1993). The results of this portion of the study showed that some form of CS, whether occurring between turns or within turns, was observed in 78% of all turns. With regard to CS types and elements most commonly observed in the data, the alternation of clauses and the insertion and alternation of nouns and noun phrases were the predominant phenomena occurring in the script. I used Myers-Scotton's (1993) Markedness Model and Gumperz's (1982) functions of conversational CS to guide the functional analysis conducted during this study. The results arising from this portion of the analysis showed that CS served an important function in terms of character development. Marked and unmarked CS helped create different characters and likely assisted audiences in understanding those characters. The data analyzed also showed that CS served a purpose with regard to the communication of the message to diverse audiences. The use of reiterations and conjunctions were determined to be important CS strategies that contributed to making the story accessible to bilingual as well as monolingual audiences. The results of this study are in line with previous research that has documented the types of structures found in English-Spanish CS and some of the functions served by this phenomenon. The implications of the study provide additional support for the recognition of CS as a possible factor in the language acquisition process and suggest that language educators acknowledge its occurrence and utilize it to further develop learners' language skills.

The purpose of this study was to examine script effects of the Chinese Language on Chinese ESL/EFL students· reading strategies, in comparison to those employed by ESL students from alphabetic orthographic backgrounds.