The Skillmax Program was launched by the New South Wales State Government at the end of 1988 as a result of concern about the underutilisation of the skills of overseas qualified and experienced immigrants in the labour force. The program is administered by the NSW Adult Migrant English Service. The aim of this study is to evaluate how well the Skillmax Program is achieving its aim of assisting non-English speaking background immigrants to maximise the use of their overseas experience and skills within the NSW labour market. The main source of data for the evaluation was a questionnaire distributed to all students who had studied in the program from July, 1993 to June, 1994. Those in the final program intake surveyed had just completed courses, those in the first intake surveyed had completed courses nine months previously. The questionnaire was sent to 458 ex-students in August, 1994 and 217 questionnaires were returned. Additional data was obtained from a literature search, a survey distributed to Skillmax program staff and a focus group meeting of the Skillmax Program's teachers, educational and vocational counsellor and program manager. Key research findings are: 71.9% of all respondents had found employment since enrolling in the Skillmax Program and 67.7% were still employed when the study was conducted; 84.9% of those respondents who had completed or partially completed courses ending from six to nine months before the study was conducted had found employment and 78.5% were still employed when the study was conducted; 66.7% of those respondents in employment had found employment at the same occupational level as in their countries of birth; 52% of all respondents were either unemployed (28.1%) or underemployed (23.9%); 85.9% of those respondents in employment considered that the Skillmax Program had contributed significantly to their success in finding employment. The study compares the findings of the current study to those from a previous Skillmax Program evaluation concluded in 1992 (Mograby & Eddie, The Skillmax Program Evaluation Report, 1992). Employment outcomes of participants in the current study are significantly better than those in the previous study. The study argues that improvements in employment outcomes can primarily be attributed to program improvements made since the 1992 evaluation. The study concludes that the Skillmax Program is achieving its aims. Recommendations for program improvement and future directions for the program are made.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / The Thai government has proposed education reform programs to be competitive with its neighbours and globally. One major policy is to improve competency in English. Thailand has a long history of importing approaches for teaching English from western countries. For a complex variety of reasons the structural-based approaches have been the most influential ones on both teachers and bureaucrats. While these approaches enable Thais to communicate at the basic level, emphasising spoken language, they do not provide systematic guidance to write extended texts effectively. Thai educators have tended to import approaches literally without adequately researching the practicality and suitability of them. This thesis is an attempt to explore whether it is possible to adapt a recently evolved, western 'genre-based' approach to the teaching of English in Thailand. The research focuses on factual English writing because it is highly valued in government, commerce and industry. English and Thai rhetorical patterns differ significantly so students need to write their texts to meet English readers' expectations. To achieve this, students need to be taught to write explicitly. Soundly based in Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the genre-based approach teaches writing at whole text, paragraph and clause levels. It is concerned with realising appropriate generic structure for the different social communication tasks. This approach has the potential to improve Thai students' writing ability. The research project was primarily an ethnographic-case study that was carried out with the co-operation of 45 third year English major students for 14 weeks (from October, 1997 to February, 1998) at the Department of Foreign Languages, Khon Kaen University in northeast Thailand. It is centred on the Exposition genre because some Thai educators had noted that it was one of the most neglected in the Thai educational system, but one of the most valuable genres in western culture. The research outcomes showed that the genre-based approach had a significant positive impact on students' factual writing, showing gains in the control of generic structure and language features of the Exposition. Nevertheless, the research suggests that for the genre-based approach to be successfully implemented in a foreign language context such as Thai, a number of modifications are necessary. The genre-based approach provides students with insights into cultural expectations of writing in English and has the potential to contribute to the policy goals of the Thai government for the upgrading of English teaching and also contribute to its wish of achieving the education refonn agenda.

Australia has been striving to increase the number of international full fee paying students at its universities and as a result, foundation studies programs (FSPs) have been developed to ensure that these students have the best chance of succeeding at said universities. These programs comprise many elements. Some, like History of Ideas and Western Literature, provide foreign students with the educational background expected of all students pursuing tertiary studies in western universities. Others, like English for Academic Purposes (EN) provide the everyday skills needed for success at university. This trend raises the question: Are current EAP courses meeting the academic needs of international students when it comes to succeeding at university? And, if they are not, what can be done to these EAP courses? Traditionally, decisions about student needs (needs analysis) have been left to the teachers and researchers in the field. However, this study looks at a relatively new way of evaluating the success of EAP courses: It asks the students themselves what has or has not been helpful about their EAP course with regard to their university studies.

While various studies have investigated the effectiveness of certain types of error treatment methods, there has been little linguistic research conducted to examine how actual language teachers have been dealing with L2 learners’ written errors. The current research was designed to investigate the types of written errors ESL teachers corrected and the types of error treatment methods they used to correct those errors in the context of Bond University on the Cold Coast. Moreover, it was intended to highlight the relationship between the literature and actual practice in terms of error treatment of written work. In this study, sixty-six students’ written texts corrected by nine different teachers were collected and examined. The teachers’ treatment of the learner errors found in each sample were identified and classified according to their features. The findings from both quantitative and qualitative data on the patterns of error treatment were analysed, and following this, various comparisons were made. The results of the study indicated that despite the current trend of language teaching, error treatment was frequently provided by the teachers in the ESL classrooms. Moreover, the teachers constantly corrected the deviations of local aspects of the language, which did not seriously influence the intelligibility. In addition, the results of the study also demonstrated that the teachers used both explicit types and implicit types of correction methods in a hybrid manner, and they altered their mode of correction depending on the types of errors. They tended to provide explicit correction for wrong vocabulary and sentence construction errors whereas other surface features, such as grammatical and mechanical errors were generally highlighted with implicit correction, especially with correction codes. The findings of this study suggest that increasing the use of less-time consuming error treatment methods for rule-governed lexical errors and educating learners to be able to carry out self-correction could reduce the teachers’ burden of written error treatment. Moreover, constant information exchange would allow the teachers to revise, refine and change their ways to deal with errors. Until clear effectiveness of certain patterns of error treatment is proven by further studies, these suggestions could be made in order to maximise the benefits of the teachers’ treatment of written errors.

Form-focused instruction makes up an important part of the literature on second language acquisition research. Current approaches to second language instruction have called for an integration of message-focused and form-focused instruction in the L2 classroom. At the same time, a growing interest is the pedagogical applications of form-focused research, which proposes a means of addressing form in the classroom using various instructional options, some of which involve incidental and pre-planned focus on form.This study examined the nature and occurrence of pre-planned and incidental focus on form in two secondary school ESOL classrooms, and what thinking underlay the two teachers' practices in choosing a particular option. The study reports on the methods and approaches that two teachers employed in the context of their own ESOL classrooms, in which form-focused instruction occurred, and explored the extent to which different levels of experience influenced the instructional decisions of two ESOL teachers.The results showed that there was a considerable amount of attention to form in lessons that purported to be 'communicative' and certainly were so. It also became clear that in these classes, a focus-on-form was not just a reactive phenomenon, it was also proactive since the students played an important part in both initiating and responding focus on form episodes. Much of the focus on form that arose was triggered by a problem in using English accurately, not by a problem in communication. That means that, although the lessons were 'communicative', the students regularly paid attention to language for its own sake.It is suggested that both pedagogy and teacher education/development may benefit from a perspective in which both good and not-so-good practice is seen as cognitive and reflective activity.

Errata pasted on back end-papers. Bibliography: leaves 255-260. Aspects of teacher-student power relationship (TSPR) were studied in an Australian ESL (English as a second language) study centre and an Indonesian EFL (English as a foreign language) counterpart to investigate the relevance of the power sharing concept in different contexts of second language learning. The study employed non-experimental methodology in collecting data using interviews, questionnaires and classroom observation. The findings contribute insight into the contextual factors worthy of consideration in applying modern approaches to ELT in different settings of teaching and learning, and support the establishment of student autonomy as the central goal in learning and communicative competence in L2 pedagogy.

Thesis (MEd)--University of Stellenbosch, 1994. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In 1986 a new English Second Language syllabus for the Junior and Senior Secondary Course was introduced in the Cape· Province. The overall aim of the syllabus is communicative competence and it advocates a communicative approach (CA) to teaching English Second Language. At the inception of the communicative approach most teachers were i~rnorant of what it comprised and this study undertook to determine whether teachers understood what Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was and if they applied it in their teaching. At first the demands of society and how this had influenced language teaching through the ages was investigated. Communicative competence was demanded at different stages in history and it is at these different stages where the CA has its roots. Many of the principles of the CA, it was discovered, had been applied by teachers and theorists many centuries ago. Teachers and theorists who teach language for communication see language in a different light. Language and its unique properties are investigated, and with an emphasis · on language as communication. Different ways of using language to communicate are investigated and questions like ''Where does meaning reside? What are the kinds of meaning?" and "How can we control meaning?" are discussed. Prior to the introduction of the CA, second language teaching had been devoted to mastery of structures. However, with the new insights gained about language and meaning, the focus shifted to meaning in coherent discourse rather than on discrete forms. With the shift in focus teachers also had to adjust their teaching to meet the demands. At this stage a brief discussion of the CA and the essentials of a communicative curriculum is provided. The comparison between traditional and communicative approaches is made. An account of CLT methodology is given, including exploration of communicative competence. Many practical examples of CLT are explained. In the empirical study a questionnaire was distributed to the ESL teachers at thirty schools in the Boland and Northern Suburbs of Cape Town. The aim of the research was to determine whether ESL teachers teach communicatively. The findings of the study were that teachers who were trained before 1986 and those trained subsequently have a limited view of the CA. Consequently they cannot apply it to their teaching and seem to revert to a structural interpretation of the syllabus. This study then, confirms that teachers do not have a full understanding of what the CA comprises and consequently teachers do not teach "communicatively". / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In 1986 is 'n nuwe Engels Tweede Taal sillabus vir die Junior en Senior Sekondere Kursus ingestel vir die Kaapprovinsie. Die oorhoofse doelstelling was kommunikatiewe bevoegdheid en dit stel voor 'n kommunikatiewe benadering (KB) in die onderrig van Engels Tweede Taal. Met die bekendstelling van die benadering was die meeste onderwysers onbewus daarvan studie onderneem om te bepaal of die kommunikatiewe taalonderrig behels en onderrig toegepas het. en is daar met hierdie onderwysers verstaan wat of hulle dit in hulle Eerstens is die eise van die gemeenskap en hoe van taal deur die eeue beinvloed het, bestudeer. bevoegdheid is op verskillende tye deur die dit die onderrig Kommunikatiewe loop van die geskiedenis vereis en dit is juis aan hierdie verskillende tye wat die kommunikatiewe benadering sy ontstaan te danke het. Dit is ontdek dat van die beginsels van die kommunikatiewe benadering al van vroee tye toegepas is deur onderwysers en teoriste. Onderwysers en teoriste wat taal onderrig vir kommunikasie sien taal in 'n ander lig. Taal en die unieke eienskappe daarvan word ondersoek en taal as kommunikasie word beklemtoon. Verskillende wyses waarop taal gebruik kan word om te kommunikeer word ondersoek en vrae soos: "Waar is betekenis gesetel? Wat is die soorte betekenis?" en "Hoe kan betekenis beheer word?" word bespreek. Voor die bekendstelling van die KB is taalonderrig beperk tot die bemeestering van taal strukture. Helaas, met die nuwe insigte wat verkry is van taal en betekenis het die klem verskuif na verb~ndhoudende diskoers eerder as op sinsontleding. Met die klemverskuiwing moes onderwysers ook hul onderrig aanpas om aan die eise te voldoen. 'n Bondige bespreking van die kommunikatiewe benadering en die voorvereistes van 'n kommunikatiewe kurrikulum word gegee. Daar word ook onderskeid getref tussen tradisionele en kommunikatiewe benaderings. 'n Kommunikatiewe taalonderrig-metodologie word voorsien en kommunikatiewe bevoegdheid word ook bespreek. praktiese voorbeelde verduidelik. van kommunikatiewe taalonderrig Baie word In die empiriese studie Engels Tweede Taal in is 'n vraelys aan die onderwysers van dertig hoer skole van die Boland en Noordelike voorstede van Kaapstad gestuur. Die doel van die studie was om te bepaal of Engels tweede taal onderwysers kommunikatief onderrig. Die bevindinge van die studie was dat be ide onderwysers wat voor 1986 opgelei is en daarna, 'n beperkte siening van die kommunikatiewe benadering het. Gevolglik kan hulle nie die benadering toepas nie en wil dit voorkom of hulle 'n strukturele vertolking van die sillabus volg. Die studie bevestig dus dat onderwysers nie die kommunikatiewe benadering ten volle verstaan nie en gevolglik kan die onderwysers nie kommunikatief onderrig nie.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As the number of Asian students studying English abroad continues to increase, there is a growing need for language learning programs that help students to increase their English proficiency in the most effective way possible. Studies have shown that exposure alone is not sufficient for improving proficiency. The question is: “Can a second language (L2) learner truly learn the target language if they do not like the people who speak it?” Schumman’s (1978) acculturation theory proposes that the degree to which a learner integrates into the target culture through decreasing their social and psychological distance from it will determine the degree to which they learn the target language. Central to this process is the learner’s attitude toward the target language and the target culture. By fostering positive attitudes toward the target language and culture, can we aid L2 students in transforming the L2 input that they receive while studying abroad into meaningful intake through which they can, in turn, achieve greater proficiency in the L2? This thesis explores the above questions through a research study investigating the relationship between attitude toward the target language and target culture, and L2 proficiency; amount of L2 input and L2 proficiency; and amount of L2 input and attitude toward the target language and target culture. A small-scale study was conducted with Korean L2 English students studying abroad in the USA. Ten participants completed a language background questionnaire, an attitude questionnaire, and an English proficiency test. The data collected via these instruments were analysed to determine if any correlations exist between the above-mentioned three sets of variables. Results showed no correlations between attitude and L2 proficiency. However, descriptive analysis showed a clear positive correlation to exist between several L2 input variables and L2 proficiency, and between L2 input and attitudes toward the target language. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Namate die aantal Asiese studente wat Engels oorsee studeer toeneem, styg die behoefte aan taalonderrig-programme wat studente help om hulle Engelse vaardigheid op die mees effektiewe wyse moontlik te ontwikkel. Studies toon dat blootstelling op sigself nie voldoende is vir die bevordering van taalvaardigheid nie. Die vraag is: “Kan tweedetaal- (T2-) leerders werklik ’n teikentaal aanleer indien hulle nie hou van die sprekers van daardie taal nie?” Schumman (1978) se akkulturasie-teorie stel voor dat die mate waartoe leerders hulself in die teikenkultuur integreer deur hulle sosiale en psigologiese afstand daarvan te verminder, bepalend is van die mate waartoe hulle die teikentaal sal aanleer. Sentraal tot hierdie proses is die leerders se houding teenoor die teikentaal en die teikenkultuur. Deur positiewe houdings teenoor die teikentaal en -kultuur onder T2-studente te bevorder, kan ons hulle help om die T2-toevoer wat hulle tydens oorsese studies ontvang te omskep in sinvolle T2-inname wat verhoogde T2-vaardigheid tot gevolg kan hê? Hierdie tesis verken die bostaande vrae op grond van ’n navorsingstudie wat ondersoek doen na die verhouding tussen T2-vaardigheid en houding teenoor die teikentaal en -kultuur; hoeveelheid T2-toevoer en T2-vaardigheid; en hoeveelheid T2-toevoer en houding teenoor die teikentaal en -kultuur. ’n Kleinskaal-studie is uitgevoer met Koreaanse T2-Engelssprekers aan’t studeer in Amerika. Tien deelnemers het elk ’n taalagtergrond-vraelys, ’n houding-vraelys en ’n Engels-vaardigheidstoets voltooi. Die data wat deur middel van hierdie instrumente ingesamel is, is geanaliseer ten einde vas te stel of daar enige korrelasies bestaan tussen die bogenoemde drie stelle veranderlikes. Resultate toon geen korrelasies tussen houdings en T2-vaardigheid nie, maar beskrywende analise dui wel op ’n duidelike positiewe korrelasie tussen verskeie T2-toevoer-veranderlikes en T2-vaardigheid, asook tussen T2- toevoer en houdings teenoor die teikentaal.

Orientador: Sandra Mari Kaneko Marques / Banca: Ana Cristina Biondo Salomão / Banca: Sandra Regina Buttros Gattolin de Paula / Resumo: O objetivo desta pesquisa foi investigar as crenças da pesquisadora enquanto professora a respeito do uso da tradução em sala de aula de inglês para fins específicos, e discutir como essas crenças se relacionavam com sua prática pedagógica. Os instrumentos de pesquisa utilizados foram: questionários semiestruturados para alunos do curso, diários reflexivos da professora-pesquisadora, atividades e avaliações dos alunos e o conteúdo proposto para tal curso. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que as crenças da professora tratavam-se sobre o uso da tradução oral de palavras (ou o uso da língua materna); sobre o uso do dicionário durante as avaliações ser prejudicial aos alunos, uma vez que perderiam tempo para realizar a prova; e sobre as estratégias de leitura servirem como ferramentas de tradução dos textos acadêmicos vistos durante o curso. A partir de leituras sobre tradução pedagógica e sobre ensino de línguas para fins específicos, foi possível identificar crenças por parte da professora, as quais foram reconstruídas ao longo da pesquisa, e permitiram uma reflexão crítica acerca da prática pedagógica. Concluímos ser importante para professores em formação e em início de carreira ter contato com teorias sobre crenças de professores para que possam refletir sobre seu trabalho a fim de aprimorar o ensino e aprendizagem de língua estrangeira. / Abstract: The aim of this research was investigate the researcher's beliefs while teacher about the usage of translation on English for specific purposes course, and discuss how these beliefs are related to her pedagogical practice. The instruments used on this research were: semi structured questionnaire for the students of the course, reflective diaries of the teacher, the activities and evaluations of the students and the course syllabus. The results obtained indicate that the teacher's beliefs concerned the usage of oral translation of words (or the mother tongue); the use of dictionaries during the evaluations were adverse to the students, once they would lose time to complete the test; and the reading strategies would work as tools to translate the academic texts seen in classroom. From reading about pedagogical translation and the teaching languages for specific purposes, it was possible to identify these beliefs from the teacher, which were rebuilt along the research, and they allowed critical reflection about the pedagogical practice. We concluded that it is important for teachers in training and early career have contact with theories about teachers' beliefs so that they can reflect about their work in order to improve the teaching and learning process of a foreign language. / Mestre

Orientador: Sandra Mari Kaneko-Marques / Banca: Ana Cristina Biondo Salomão / Banca: Cláudia Jotto Kawachi Furlan / Resumo: Este trabalho objetivou investigar um curso de Inglês para Fins Específicos de um Centro de Ensino de Línguas de uma universidade pública do estado de São Paulo. O estudo visou detectar possíveis causas das dificuldades enfrentadas pelos seus participantes. O curso abordava as habilidades de leitura, interpretação e tradução de textos de diversas áreas, baseando-se nos cursos de graduação que a instituição oferece. A metodologia empregada foi conduzida pelo Estudo de Caso (NUNAN, 1992), Análise de Conteúdo (BAUER, 2007), juntamente com a pesquisa qualitativa (LARSEN-FREEMAN; LONG, 1991). A pesquisa foi realizada com base nos conceitos de Vieira-Abrahão (2006) e Bauer (2007), sendo conduzida na seguinte ordem: coleta de dados dos alunos participantes; organização e categorização dos dados coletados; análise qualitativa, para designar as causas mais comuns de dificuldades, assim como a indicação de alunos que apresentam problemas para realização de tais atividades. Apesar das análises apontarem o bom desempenho dos alunos no aproveitamento geral do curso, identificamos que a ausência dos participantes ao longo do curso, o baixo número de atividades extras executadas, as crenças dos alunos, a pouca dedicação ao estudo de determinados tópicos, e o uso da língua materna foram as causas de algumas dificuldades identificadas. Tecemos comentários sobre os encaminhamentos para futuros cursos, as lacunas identificadas nesta investigação, as possíveis contribuições para a área, bem como... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This work aimed to investigate an English for Specific Purposes course of a Language Teaching Center of a public university in the state of Sao Paulo. The study intended to detect possible causes of difficulties faced by its participants. The course dealt with the skills of reading, interpreting and translating texts from several areas, based on the undergraduate courses offered by the institution. The methodology used in this investigation was done by the Case Study (NUNAN, 1992), Content Analysis (BAUER, 2007), along with qualitative research (LARSEN-FREEMAN; LONG, 1991). The research was performed based on the concepts of Vieira-Abrahão (2006) and Bauer (2007), being conducted in the following order: data collection of the participating students; organization and categorization of data collected; qualitative analysis, to designate the most common causes of difficulties, as well as the indication of students who presented problems to carry out such activities. Although the analyzes indicate the students' good performance in the general use of the course, we identified that the absence of the participants during the course, the low number of extra activities performed, the lack of the study of certain topics, and the usage of the mother tongue were the causes of some of the problems identified. In the end, we made comments about the referrals for future courses, the gaps identified in this research, the possible contributions to the area, as well as the referrals and themes that appeared and that can be explored in other studies. / Mestre