In classrooms all over the world, there are students who fear the attention of both teachers and peers alike. Anxiety is a cause for such fears and in foreign language classrooms it can be prevalent. Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is a concept developed by Horwitz et al (1986) to describe the unique anxiety that arises in a foreign language learning situation. Anxious students are less prone to use their target language and feel less motivated in their language studies, both of which have a negative effect on their learning. The aim of this study was to measure and compare anxiety levels among Swedish lower and upper secondary school students, identify major sources of anxiety and gain understanding of individuals’ perception of foreign language anxiety. 49 subjects from two classes participated in the study. Their anxiety was measured with the foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS) developed by Horwitz et al (1986). Interviews were used to gain insight into the subjects’ perception of foreign language anxiety. The results showed that a majority of the subjects were anxious and that students in the lower secondary school class were more anxious than the upper secondary school class. The identified major sources of anxiety were teacher-induced anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and general anxiety. / I klassrum över hela världen finns det elever som är rädda för både lärarens och sina klasskamraters uppmärksamhet. Nervositet är en orsak till en sådan rädsla och kan vara vanligt i främmandespråkklassrum. Språkängslan inför främmande språk är ett begrepp utvecklat av Horwitz m. fl. (1986) för att beskriva den unika nervositet som uppstår vid lärande av främmande språk. Nervösa elever är mindre benägna att använda språket de lär sig och känner sig mindre motiverade att lära sig och båda sakerna har en negativ effekt på deras inlärning. Syftet med studien var att mäta och jämföra nervositetsnivåer bland svenska högstadie- och gymnasieelever, identifiera de största källorna till nervositet och få förståelse för elevers uppfattning av nervositet. 49 elever från två klasser deltog i studien. Deras nervositet mättes med skalan för språknervositet i samband med undervisning i främmande språk, utvecklad av Horwitz m fl (1986). Intervjuer användes för att få insikt i deltagarnas uppfattning om språknervositet inför främmande språk. Resultatet visade att en majoritet av deltagarna led av språknervositet och att högstadieeleverna i högre grad var nervösa än gymnasieeleverna. De största källorna till nervositet som identifierades var lärarorsakad nervositet, rädsla för negativt omdöme och generell nervositet.

As the English language holds the status of a Lingua Franca, being able to master it has become necessary in our globalised society. In Sweden, the English subject has been assigned a place along with Swedish and Mathematics as a core subject. However, of these three subjects, only English does not have specified knowledge requirements at the end of third grade. This has led to the start of English instruction varying around the nation. This thesis investigates the factors involved in the decision-making processes regarding the start of English instruction and what attitudes lower primary school teachers have regarding the age at which the English instruction should start. An empirical study was carried out by interviewing a few stakeholders in the context of schools and sending out questionnaires to lower primary school teachers. The results indicate that a large majority of the participants were in favour for early English instruction, as according to many of them, an early start results almost exclusively in advantages for the young children. However, the results also imply that the English subject, in some cases, might be less prioritised, due to the lack of specified knowledge requirements. Based on these results, further research on how different schools interpret these non-specified knowledge requirements is suggested. / <p>Engelska</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:45:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thais Marchezoni da Silva.pdf: 3119851 bytes, checksum: 07b6547aaff57d6da20ea0ee7cc9e7c1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work aims at questioning the graduation of professionals in Curso de Letras, São Paulo - Brazil, who teach English as a foreign language (EFL) to children from 6 to 10 years old. To begin with, we considered legal texts and studies from well-known researchers which sustain our judgment about the existence of peculiarities towards the processes of teaching that age group, therefore the importance of that course provides didactic-pedagogical disciplines about child development. In order to understand and analyze the experience of teachers of English, who teach children, we applied a questionnaire which included questions about: their graduation, teaching materials, the classes, the child as a learner, among others. Based on information we obtained, we present considerations which will hopefully make agencies in charge of the country's education and teachers of English aware of some implications at teaching that language to children due to shortcomings in these professionals' graduation. / O presente trabalho visa à análise da formação do profissional de Letras atuante como professor(a) de inglês para crianças entre 6 e 10 anos de idade. Num primeiro momento da pesquisa, examinamos textos legais, estudos de teóricos e pesquisadores que sustentaram nosso julgamento de que há peculiaridades em relação ao processo de ensino-aprendizagem da faixa etária em questão, por isso a importância de o Curso de Letras oferecer disciplinas didático-pedagógicas específicas sobre o desenvolvimento infantil. A fim de conhecer e analisar a experiência docente de professores de inglês, que lecionam para crianças, aplicamos um questionário que consta de perguntas relacionadas: à formação, ao material didático, às aulas, à criança como aprendiz, dentre outras. Com base nas informações obtidas apresentamos algumas considerações que, esperamos, contribuam para conscientizar os órgãos responsáveis e professores de inglês a respeito de possíveis implicações no ensino do idioma para crianças devido às carências na formação deste profissional.

Attrition among students in online courses worldwide is well-documented at the undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels. However, little is yet known about the reason for attrition among in-service teachers in online training. Online education aims to provide access to education for the masses, but with higher attrition rates, it may be viewed as less effective than traditional education. This study explored factors that influenced attrition and persistence among teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in an online teacher training environment. Tinto's Community of Inquiry framework and Short, Williams, and Christie's Social Presence Model provided the conceptual framework for this qualitative case study to address the research question. Six participants in Latin America from 4 online courses, selected through criterion and convenience sampling, participated in the study. Data sources included online questionnaires, personal narratives, and a focus group interview. Each data set was analyzed using open coding to identify emerging themes, selective coding for purposes of analysis, and finally axial coding to confirm overarching themes. Findings indicate that social, teacher, and cognitive presence are key to engagement in online learning and persistence, while lack of such presences can demotivate and lead to attrition. Thus, it is important to design online training that fosters all 3 types of presence. Results also included recommendations for designing more engaging online teacher training curricula. This study contributes to positive social change by providing online course designers with a deeper understanding of factors which influence attrition and persistence.

The purpose of this study was to determine perceptions of students, teachers and parents concerning English-medium instruction and their perceptions of English as a foreign language. The research design of the study comprised a nation-wide questionnaire survey and individual interviews. The sample for the survey consisted of 982 students, 383 teachers and 988 parents in 42 Anatolian high schools across 32 provinces in Turkey selected using statified and criterion sampling. The participants of the interviews were six students, four teachers and four parents. Two distinct instruments were used for data collection / a survey questionnaire containing five-point Likert scales and open-ended questions / and a semi-structured interview schedule. To analyze quantitative data, descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and bivariate correlations were conducted. The qualitative data of the interviews and open-ended questions were analyzed via content analysis. Results indicated that students, teachers and parents do not favor English-medium instruction at secondary education. Regardless of their position on English-medium instruction, participants underscored problems of implementation of English-medium instruction at Anatolian high schools. A positive correleation was found between perceptions of English and perceptions of English-medium instruction for each group. Results also showed that all groups perceive English positively as a foreign language, and support the teaching and learning of English. According to students&amp / #8217 / and teachers&amp / #8217 / perceptions, English-medium instruction influences the instructional process in math and science in Anatolian high schools, and poses problems particularly in the learning of the subject matter.

This study investigates two vocabulary exercises where the participant students receive an assigned set of words to put into sentences, one being a more traditional written exercise, the other being an exercise where students make a vlog using the assigned words. Two upper secondary school classes in Sweden participated in the experiment, including responding to a Likert attitude questionnaire. The hypothesis used in this paper is derived of Pegrum’s third category, of higher integration between school and everyday life, and that this would lead to better results for the students who completed the vlogging exercise. The two participating classes were each divided into two group halves, and each group half received one written exercise and one vlogging exercise – consequently each class half acted as a control group for the other half. The responses gathered were divided into three categories, ‘Correct’, ‘Undetermined’, and ‘Failed’. The results disprove that the vlogging exercise offers a significant improvement over the traditional written exercise, and thusly confirms the No Significant Difference phenomenon.

This study investigates which English variety teachers in Sweden learned, which they use now and whether this has changed over time. The study included the two major varieties of English, namely British English and American English.  The hypothesis for this paper is that British English will have played an important part in the teachers’ schooling but American English will have had a strong influence in their day-to-day lives and will likely have hanged how they use English. Data was collected in the form of questionnaires filled in by 294 teachers who teach English at primary, secondary and upper secondary schools in Sweden.  The results support the thesis of the paper that teachers mainly learned British English at school while American English becomes more common for teachers under the age of 40. However, the majority of participants were found to use a variety which has features of both British and American English - it is referred to as Mid-Atlantic English in this paper.

This thesis deals with the issue of teaching continuing beginners in adult EFL classes. It focuses on the description of factors that may influence the learning stagnation among these learners, and it attempts to ascertain the extent to which these factors take effect. Consequently, the thesis aims to characterize Czech continuing beginners as an independent group of learners and to provide scientific evidence which could clarify the assumptions, underlying the continuing-beginner concept. Lastly, but importantly, the thesis also intends to instigate further research in the field. The subject was investigated from the perspective of available pedagogical, andragogcial and psychological literature. Accordingly, four major factors, which may be at the root of continuing-beginner phenomenon, were identified: a mismatch between learning and teaching styles, insufficient study motivation, hindrances to learning and learning disabilities. These four areas were further focused on in a questionnaire survey, using rating scales to determine the importance of the individual areas. The study worked with three hypotheses. Firstly, continuing beginners were expected to report difficulties in at least two of the established areas. Secondly, it was presupposed that the rate of learning disabilities would be somewhat...

Anyone who has been learning a new language knows the feeling of anxiety when facedwith the task to use it in the classroom and in real life. Foreign Language Anxiety isconcept developed by Horwitz et al. (1986) to describe and measure this specific form ofanxiety. In this study, the anxiety levels of a class of Chinese senior middle schoolstudents taking an English class have been measured. The levels were measuredaccording to the Foreign Language Anxiety Scale, developed by Horwitz et al. (1986). 59informants participated in the study. The data were analysed to find which factors invokethe most anxiety. To gather qualitative data and gain further insight, two sets of groupinterviews were performed. The results show that a majority of the students suffer fromanxiety in class. Teacher-generated anxiety seems to be the most provoking factoraccording to the analysis. / Alla som har studerat ett främmande språk känner igen den ängslan man upplever närspråket ska användas i klassrummet eller i en autentisk situation. Språkängslan införfrämmande språk är ett begrepp som utvecklats av Horwitz et al. (1986) för att beskrivaoch mäta den här specifika formen av ängslan. I den här studien har nivån av ängslan ien kinesisk högstadieklass som studerar engelska mätts. Nivån har mätts i enlighet medskalan för språkängslan i samband med undervisning i främmande språk (författarensöversättning) utvecklad av Horwitz et al. (1986). 59 informanter deltog i studien. Datananalyserades för att se vilka faktorer som framkallar mest ängslan. För att samlakvalitativ data och få djupare insyn genomfördes också två gruppintervjuer. Resultatetvisar att en majoritet av studenterna lider av ängslan i klassrummet. Lärargenereradängslan är den mest bidragande faktorn enligt analysen.

Research on self-efficacy has been a productive field and abundant research has shown that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs influence teachers’ actions and performances and thus affect students’ learning outcomes. However, there is a lack of literature on EFL teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and even less research was set in Chinese EFL contexts. On the one hand, this study was conducted to provide a general picture of the current status of EFL teachers’ perceived English proficiency, self-rated self-efficacy beliefs and self-reported teaching practices in terms of some demographic perspectives; On the other hand, it aimed to explore the correlations among Chinese primary EFL teachers’ perceived English proficiency, self-efficacy beliefs and teaching practices. The quantitative study surveyed 217 in-service primary EFL teachers. The descriptive results showed that: (1) EFL teachers varied in perceived English proficiency in terms of age, years of teaching experience and college major; (2) age and teaching experience did while college major didn’t make a difference for EFL teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs; (3) the surveyed EFL teachers, in general, had a greater preference to communication-oriented language teaching (COLT) than form-oriented language teaching (FOLT). The results from the correlational statistics showed that: (1) perceived English proficiency (PEP), on the whole, had a significant predictive effect on self-efficacy beliefs (SEB). It was striking that among the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) of English language, speaking had the most significant predictive effect on self-efficacy beliefs; (2) EFL teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs (SEB) had a predictive effect on COLT practices whereas not on FOLT practices; (3) The mediation model of showing the causal impacts of PEP (through SEB) on COLT was tested. i.e. Chinese primary EFL teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs played a complete mediating role between perceived English proficiency and communication-oriented language teaching. The findings of the present study added on the compelling evidence that self-efficacy beliefs matter in the realm of primary EFL teaching in China. In light of these findings, implications were generated to primary EFL teacher education and in-service EFL teacher training programs, such as courses related to improving English proficiency, especially speaking skills, should be offered for non-English major EFL teachers; training courses related to improving self-efficacy beliefs, especially on classroom management strategies, and the recommended communicative-oriented language teaching practices should be offered to pre-service and inexperienced in-service EFL teachers.