This dissertation investigates an area of notorious difficulty for learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. Research from previous studies has indicated that phrasal verb learning may be more effective if a Cognitive Linguistic approach is adopted. However, the quantitative and qualitative research in this dissertation demonstrates that the approach, once integrated into a regular, classroom-based EFL programme, does not consistently yield significant learning gains. Further qualitative investigations highlighted the fact that the benefits of the approach have less to do with the Cognitive Linguistic explanations than with their compatibility with other learning strategies, such as employing imagery and grouping information. In addition, the approach is most suited to phrasal verbs that are already partially familiar to students. However, for other phrasal verbs the Cognitive Linguistic approach may even impede learning. In addition, the implications for phrasal verb pedagogy are then presented and discussed.

This dissertation investigates an area of notorious difficulty for learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. Research from previous studies has indicated that phrasal verb learning may be more effective if a Cognitive Linguistic approach is adopted. However, the quantitative and qualitative research in this dissertation demonstrates that the approach, once integrated into a regular, classroom-based EFL programme, does not consistently yield significant learning gains. Further qualitative investigations highlighted the fact that the benefits of the approach have less to do with the Cognitive Linguistic explanations than with their compatibility with other learning strategies, such as employing imagery and grouping information. In addition, the approach is most suited to phrasal verbs that are already partially familiar to students. However, for other phrasal verbs the Cognitive Linguistic approach may even impede learning. In addition, the implications for phrasal verb pedagogy are then presented and discussed.

This is a study of English language learning for adult immigrant students in Sweden, and how it affects their integration into society. The primary aim of this study is to highlight and analyze the problems that adult immigrant students face, based on teachers beliefs, when learning English in a foreign country, and is backed up by various secondary sources in the subject as well as data collected in qualitative face-to-face interviews with teachers from adult education centres designed to help immigrant learn the native language as well as English. The results show the teacher viewpoint on the learning problems, which stem from cultural, lexical and mental blockades. They are analyzed according to the research questions and theoretical concepts, and presented with an accompanying discussion that aims to inform of the reader of the current learning situations.

Each year a group of university students from English speaking countries go to Chile and work as volunteers under the National Volunteer Centre Program. The purpose of this case study is to examine how a group of novice volunteer teachers describe their experiences in a foreign country and how these experiences shape their understanding of teaching. Participants went through the process of open-ended questionnaires and one-on-one interviews of their experience. This study was sustained in the literature by the domains of volunteerism, English Language Teaching, and volunteerism and ELT, and a socio constructivist and experiential lens was adopted. Even though volunteer teaching abroad is an increasing worldwide trend, there are few studies that combine these areas, showing that the existing blend of volunteerism and English language teaching needs to be further examined. The analysis of the data showed that novice volunteer teachers experience five types of experiences when teaching English: language teaching experiences, language learning experiences, challenges, general experiences, and volunteering experiences. Novice teachers recalled their expectations before teaching and those were maintained, modified, or unfulfilled. Volunteers stated what teaching means to them after working in public schools, they were able to describe diverse language teaching experiences, and make recommendations to future volunteers.

This study investigated relationships between individual learner differences and the learning of two English structures that differed in their grammatical difficulty. Using a quasi-experimental design, 66 secondary-level learners of English as a foreign language from three intact classes were provided with four hours of instruction on two L2 structures –one considered relatively easy to learn (i.e., past progressive) and the other relatively difficult to learn (i.e. passive construction). The participants were pretested on their knowledge of both structures and posttested immediately after the instruction. Learners’ progress was measured via written grammaticality judgment tests (GJT) and oral production tasks (OPT). The instruments to measure individual learner differences included a computerized language aptitude test, an L1 metalinguistic awareness test, a motivation questionnaire, a backward digit span test, and a learner retrospection questionnaire. The results revealed that aptitude and motivation were the two variables that significantly contributed to learners’ gains with respect to the ‘passive’ and that L1 metalinguistic awareness explained significant variation in learners’ gains regarding the ‘past progressive’. These relationships were observed with learners’ performance on the written but not oral measures. A detailed analysis of the aptitude test components revealed that the grammatical inferencing subtask was significantly related to L2 gains on the ‘passive’ – again only with respect to learners’ performance on the written GJT. The results also revealed that learners with different aptitude profiles (i.e., low, medium, high) benefited differently from instruction on the two target features. High aptitude learners performed better than low aptitude learners on the ‘passive’ as measured by the GJT posttest. With respect to the ‘past progressive’ only learners in the medium aptitude profile group improved significantly on the written GJT. These findings confirm that language aptitude holds a role in language learning but that there are other factors (i.e., motivation and L1 metalinguistic awareness) that also contribute to L2 progress. These results also provide evidence from a classroom-based study that the grammatical difficulty of what is to be learned is a factor in determining what cognitive abilities L2 learners rely on in their efforts to learn a new language.

Children in Taiwan start their English classes in grade three. As they progress through the grades, they generally do not demonstrate high English proficiency. In addition, they also gradually lose their interest in learning English (“Education Minister,” 2009). To respond to the problem of achievement and motivation related to learning English, the Picture Word Inductive Model and Cooperative Learning were integrated as an alternative approach to the current instructional method in order to more effectively improve the Taiwanese elementary learners’ English literacy and highly motivate their interest in acquiring a foreign language. The focus of this study was to discover the participating teachers’ and students’ perspectives toward this new teaching approach and to understand the difficulties they encounter during the process of initiating and implementing an educational change. This eleven-month qualitative study involved three elementary English teachers and their 71 students from grades 4, 5 and 6 as participants. The data were collected through field notes from onsite classroom observations, teachers’ weekly reflective journals, in-class video recordings, and transcripts of teachers’ monthly meetings and personal interviews with the participants. Although one teacher and her students had to withdraw from the study because of intense pressure from school authorities and parents, the results of this study indicate that the remaining teachers and students highly recommended implementing this alternative approach in English classes and believed that this new way of teaching not only helped students become more autonomous and responsible for their own learning, but also provided them with more opportunities to interact with their peers. Although having doubts about this new approach at the beginning of the study and encountering difficulties during the process of implementation, the two teachers reported that their students’ English vocabulary had increased and they were able to compose meaningful English paragraphs as a result of this non-traditional strategy. The students also revealed that their motivation toward learning English had improved. Furthermore, the results show that support from school authorities and parents is essential to the initiation and maintenance of a change in education settings.

Children in Taiwan start their English classes in grade three. As they progress through the grades, they generally do not demonstrate high English proficiency. In addition, they also gradually lose their interest in learning English (“Education Minister,” 2009). To respond to the problem of achievement and motivation related to learning English, the Picture Word Inductive Model and Cooperative Learning were integrated as an alternative approach to the current instructional method in order to more effectively improve the Taiwanese elementary learners’ English literacy and highly motivate their interest in acquiring a foreign language. The focus of this study was to discover the participating teachers’ and students’ perspectives toward this new teaching approach and to understand the difficulties they encounter during the process of initiating and implementing an educational change. This eleven-month qualitative study involved three elementary English teachers and their 71 students from grades 4, 5 and 6 as participants. The data were collected through field notes from onsite classroom observations, teachers’ weekly reflective journals, in-class video recordings, and transcripts of teachers’ monthly meetings and personal interviews with the participants. Although one teacher and her students had to withdraw from the study because of intense pressure from school authorities and parents, the results of this study indicate that the remaining teachers and students highly recommended implementing this alternative approach in English classes and believed that this new way of teaching not only helped students become more autonomous and responsible for their own learning, but also provided them with more opportunities to interact with their peers. Although having doubts about this new approach at the beginning of the study and encountering difficulties during the process of implementation, the two teachers reported that their students’ English vocabulary had increased and they were able to compose meaningful English paragraphs as a result of this non-traditional strategy. The students also revealed that their motivation toward learning English had improved. Furthermore, the results show that support from school authorities and parents is essential to the initiation and maintenance of a change in education settings.

Originating in a curiosity of how literature is used in the EFL classroom, the aim for this study has been to examine if four teachers‟ purpose for, and procedure in, using literature in the EFL classroom concur with what is a useful method on the subject as demonstrated by a methodological model constructed from current research. For this study, a model of beneficial methods of using literature in the EFL class was constructed from selected current research. Because there is a lot of research in this area, there is no claim that this study includes all theories regarding the use of literature in the EFL classroom. Still, it was possible to construct a useful model of common and constructive methods of literature use in EFL education. The conclusion of this study is that the teachers‟ purpose when using literature in the EFL class varies with the different teachers. However, they do concur with that of the national syllabi and to some extent also to written research on the subject. Further on, the teachers do work both in accordance with, and opposite to, procedures that the methodological model establishes to be productive.

Cross-linguistic transfer has been found to exist, at different degrees, in the process of second/foreign language acquisition. Both the level of orthographic depth and the orthographic distance between L1 and L2 affect the rate of the word learning process in language acquisition. Compared to English, Chinese orthography encodes morphemes within and via characters, lacks inflectional affixation, and contains a significant number of compound words. Extensive morpho-syllabic characters may develop Chinese readers' morphological awareness, as well as their vocabulary. This study examined how Taiwanese children apply decoding skills they have developed in learning Chinese, while they read English words. The degrees of transfer from Chinese to English within a structural model of morphological awareness are examined and analyzed. In addition, moderation effects resulting from regional differences and the length of time spent learning English are also discussed. Students' morphological awareness is measured in six subtests which individually emphasize inflectional morphemes, derivational morphemes, and morphemes of compound words in Chinese and English, respectively. The results show that middle school students' Chinese morphological awareness facilitates their English morphological awareness development. These students also demonstrated the ability to detect morphemes in English, but only to a limited extent. They were skilled at decoding genuine compound words and were able to detect high frequency morphemes within pseudo-words. Their lengthy experience with morphologically complex characters and words in Chinese was most likely the major factor leading to such skill. Finally, in the development of English morphological awareness, the total length of time spent learning English and the length of formal English instruction experienced at the junior high school level were both found to positively correlate with the level of students' English morphological awareness, but not with the length of formal English instruction at the elementary school level. Such a discrepancy can be attributed to the current curriculum prevalent in elementary school which is only aimed at developing students' listening and speaking skills.

This study investigated perceptions of EFL learners towards the benefits and the challenges of keeping a portfolio. The study also examined the students