Teachers of English to speakers of other languages have often incorporated humor in the curriculum, yet a recent computer search revealed that there were no empirical studies which have shown that curricular humor enhances English language learning. The three specific questions of the thesis are: does the use of curricular humor 1) improve memory/recall, 2) improve over-all English proficiency, and 3) result in the subjects' having more positive attitudes towards Americans, and if so, does a more positive attitude correlate with improved memory/proficiency?

Currently there is a national policy debate on the issue of appropriate educational programs for language minority students. This study addresses the issue at the state level, asking: Are ESL/bilingual education policies in Oregon school districts providing equal educational opportunity for language minority students? The purpose of the study is to document ESL/bilingual policies in Oregon school districts, and to analyze them in terms of their contribution to equality of educational opportunity. Policy analysis serves as the theoretical framework for the study because of its potential as a synthesizing paradigm for studies in educational administration. The Policy Process Model (Heflin, 1981), incorporates three stages: (a) policy formulation, (b) policy implementation, and (c) policy impact. The research questions correspond to these three stages, and seek to analyze policy in eight areas pertinent to ESL/bilingual education. (1) Identification and assessment; (2) Instructional programs; (3) Primary language usage; (4) Exiting and mainstreaming; (5) Recognition of minority group cultures; (6) Parental involvement; (7) Personnel requirements; (8) Program evaluation. Survey research was chosen as an efficient method of gathering data from a large number of subjects throughout a widespread geographical area. The design of the survey instrument included an analysis of legal and theoretical bases for educating language minority students, expert input, and field testing. The entire population of 305 Oregon school districts was surveyed. A 93.8 percent response rate was obtained. The analysis of data produced the following conclusions: (1) There is a large and growing population of limited-English proficient (LEP) students in Oregon schools. Although most districts provide some type of programs for LEPs, district policy is rarely mentioned as the reason for doing so. (2) Implementation varies widely from district to district, in the absence of clear statewide standards for effective education for language minority students. (3) Only nine percent of districts reporting LEP students implement ESL/bilingual policies that apparently are in complete compliance with federal and state laws. (4) Only two percent implement policies that concur with basic principles for educating language minority students. (5) A district's level of compliance with the laws and concurrence with basic principles do not correlate with district size; rather with numbers or percentages of LEP students in the district.

The purpose of this study is to determine if a correlation exists between the degree of acculturation and achievement in English, reading and math of English as a Second Language (ESL) students in grades 2 to 5. This study is intended to provide insights about the acculturating ESL student, and suggests how educators can best meet students' needs.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the self-perceptions of effective non-native English speaking teachers (non-NESTs) of English as a Second Language (ESL) regarding their teaching behaviors. The study also sought to discover the relationship between effective non-NEST perceptions of their teaching behaviors and stereotypes for those behaviors. It further sought to define what experiences have contributed to their non-conformation if their perceptions do not fit the negative stereotypes of teaching behaviors of non-NESTs.

An abstract of the thesis of José Luis Perea-Hernández for the Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages presented February 11, 2010. Title: Teacher Evaluation of Item Formats for an English Language Proficiency Assessment. Language testing plays a significant role in the collection of systematic information about English Language Learners' ability and progress in K-12 public schools in Oregon. Therefore, the following thesis reports on a process of the development of this assessment as I was at some point one of the members in the test development team and then drew upon teachers' opinions and judgments to compensate for a gap in this process. For instance, despite the fact that Oregon item-writers produced test items in summer 2004, they identified some deficiencies as they followed the process. Therefore, the need of more examples of item formats in order to develop better items, a proper identification of materials for reading and listening and mainly the lack of detailed item test specifications was imminent. Unfortunately, item writers did not posses a guiding document that would allow them to generate items. The item writing process was not `spec-driven'. Hence, these drawbacks in this test (larger project), provide the basis and rationale for this thesis. Thus, the aim of the present study was to identify what item formats worked best based on professional teacher judgment. Then, once identified these were used to detect what items could potentially be reverse-engineered into specifications for future studies or developmental stages of this assessment. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to analyze through professional teacher-judgment the suitability of item formats, test items and the construct in a way that would be helpful for future item-writing sessions, but most importantly to the better understanding of teachers devising items for this test. Teachers determined what items and item formats were more suitable in a testing situation for the diverse English language learners according to their relationship to the construct of the test, practicality, cognitive level, appropriateness, and similar tasks as used in classroom instruction. Finally, the outcomes based on teacher feedback allowed the required data to establish a process to reverse-engineer test items and item formats into item test specifications. Thus, based on this feedback a more systematic process was illustrated to demonstrate how item formats can be the basis to reverse-engineer item test specifications.

Learning to use prepositions in English as a second language (L2) has been widely acknowledged to pose significant difficulties to learners, especially within metaphorical contexts. Difficulties relate to the complex distributional patterns of prepositions in discourse, namely, the variety of collocations requiring their use, as well as cross-linguistic differences both at the structural and conceptual levels. Studies in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has thus far described learner usage of metaphorical prepositions as “errors”, without placing much detailed attention upon the lexical, conceptual and contextual nuances that may impinge on their uses. Furthermore, scarce attention to the value of learners’ semantic and conceptual patterns in preposition phrasal collocations has led to ineffective memorization-driven instruction. While it is acknowledged that prepositions are difficult for L2 learners, more or less difficulty in learning metaphorical collocations of prepositions within specific prepositional phrases has scarcely been researched, for which this study attempted to provide an initial understanding. This dissertation included a mixed methods and cross-sectional design, where instances of preposition use within two types of metaphorical constructions were explored by means of a semi-structured interview. Extents to which participants may have engaged in spatial thinking while using prepositions metaphorically were also explored through the design of a spatial priming task. The two types of metaphorical constructions focused upon in the study were prepositional phrases complementing the copula (PP-copula constructions) and prepositional phrases complementing prepositional verbs (PP-prepV constructions). Participants included learners of English with L1 Spanish ranging from low intermediate to advanced proficiencies, as well as English native speakers as a comparison group. From a syntax and semantics perspective, both PP-copula and PP-prepV constructions were be deemed to pose difficulties to learners, but to different extents and in relation to several phenomena such as knowledge of conventionality, potential metaphorical conceptualizations, and L1 influence. The study explored patterns and changes in metaphorical preposition use across groups within the two construction types of interest, illuminating trends in conventionality, as well as persistence and changes in metaphorical conceptualizations across proficiencies (“trajectories”). Interrelationships between L1 influence and the incorporation of L2 English patterns were identified in learners’ interlanguage collocations, and were compared across proficiencies. Additionally, potential relationships were explored between participants’ metaphorical preposition uses, and aspects of language experience collected by means of a language background questionnaire. Results suggest that metaphorical PP-prepV constructions tend to contribute more to learners’ repertoires of lexical collocations as proficiency increased compared to metaphorical PP-copula constructions. Conventionality in preposition use was observed to increase with proficiency, especially within metaphorical PP-prepV constructions. Linguistic and conceptual “trajectories” revealed that learners worked with networks of conventional and unconventional preposition collocations. Some unconventional collocations persisted across proficiencies in reference to specific abstract notions, while others shifted toward NS lexical and conceptual conventionality when referring to other abstract notions. The study also shed light on participants’ engagement in spatial thinking while processing prepositions in metaphorical contexts. The discussion highlights lexical and conceptual networks relative to particular abstract notions, as well as L1 and L2 influence in learners’ interlanguage collocations. This study could be relevant to language teachers in offering insight into patterns and changes in L2 learners’ metaphorical preposition use within specific domains of discourse. Findings could provide possible conceptual and lexical starting points among intermediate and advanced proficiencies in relation to specific prepositional phrase constructions, from which teachers could provide scaffolding to promote expansion of learners’ L2 lexical repertoires.

Task-based language teaching (TBLT), a research-informed pedagogy for fostering second language (L2) learning through functional language use, advocates the use of tasks for organizing instructional content and the sequencing of tasks based on task complexity. While the focus of much research has been on the complexity of speaking and writing tasks, to date, scant research has been directed at the impact of reading task complexity, especially when aimed at the learning of subject matter (i.e., content learning). With increasing numbers of multinational learner classrooms, the effectiveness of such instruction constitutes an ever more indispensable factor in all levels of education, exerting a profound impact on the lives of millions of L2 learners as well as on the cultivation of skilled bilingual and multilingual citizens capable of applying content area knowledge to tackle society’s wider challenges such as pandemics. Adopting a within-subject design, this dissertation zeroed in on a specific type of reading task—read to summarize—examining the degree to which the manipulation of reading task complexity affected L2 learners’ reading processes (i.e., attention allocation and depth of processing) and reading outcomes (i.e., content learning and language use). 30 international students enrolled in graduate programs in the U.S. were recruited to complete three read-to-summarize tasks online while their eye and mouse movements were recorded. Follow-up stimulated recall interviews based on the eye-tracking heatmaps and mouse-tracking recordings were conducted to probe depth of processing. Written summaries served as measures of content learning and language use; additionally, familiarity ratings and short-answer responses were included to gauge learning of main ideas and specific details, respectively. Screening and exit surveys were also administered to collect participants’ demographic information and task perception ratings. Data analyses were performed in Python 3.9 and R Studio 2021.9.1. Findings from the language use measures show that the most complex task, in general, elicited greater phrasal complexity and the least complex task engendered greater amounts of subordination and coordination. As for content learning, the task of medium complexity yielded more correct major and minor idea units. These findings collectively suggest that while the most complex task was more facilitative of advanced language use, the task of medium complexity was more conducive to content learning. Regarding the results of the process measures, more complex tasks generally led to longer dwell time and more fixation counts than less complex ones. However, when disaggregating the results, the high-performing group had shorter dwell time and produced more main ideas in the most complex task than its low-performing counterpart. Results from the interview data further reveal that the high-performing group strategically engaged in efficient higher- and lower-level processing, whereas the low-performing group tended to demonstrate inefficient lower-level processing. Furthermore, focused analyses of four participants uncover a great deal of individual variability both in online processing and in the resulting learning outcomes. These findings are discussed in relation to the comprehension and production processes as encapsulated within one pedagogic task; theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications are expounded.

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