No description available.

This mixed method study investigated the development of E.S.L. writers' skills in revision when scaffolded by peer reviewers, with Lev Vygotsky's social-interactionist theory as the framework. Repeated-measures ANCOVA analyzed scores of four essay projects (first drafts and revisions) evaluated by blind holistic readings with a pretest score as covariant. Participants came from existing sections at a state university in the South in which the instruction was the same. The experimental group wrote revisions based on peer feedback; the control group received instructor feedback. Qualitative data came from semi-structured interviews with participants. Neither group showed significant improvement (at .05) in revising. Interviews revealed participants’ perception that they had improved and also their preference for instructor feedback.

<p> <b>Purpose.</b> The purpose of this study was to understand and, using an assets lens, systematically describe the essence of the experiences of long-term English learners when acquiring proficiency in English. </p><p> <b>Methodology.</b> A phenomenological design was used to explore the experiences of long-term English learners when acquiring proficiency in English. The researcher interviewed a purposeful sampling of 5 adults who identified themselves to be long-term English learners as students. Patton&rsquo;s (2002) steps in phenomenological analysis including epoche, phenomenological reduction, bracketing, textural portrayal, and structural synthesis were used to analyze the data. Lincoln and Guba&rsquo;s (1985) process for validity and reliability were utilized to establish alternative constructs of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. Findings. Fifteen formulated meanings were constructed from the significant statements, and 5 themes emerged. The 5 themes were explained and supported with the significant statements from the interviews. Finally, the essence of the experiences of long-term English learners when acquiring proficiency in English was described. </p><p> <b>Conclusions.</b> The results of the study support the key themes associated with critical developmental assets that impacted the acquisition of English of LTELs. The key themes included family communication preferences and challenges, parental involvement in helping youth succeed in school, experiencing high expectations, developing achievement motivation, and engaging in learning. The findings of this phenomenological study offer districts support to implement programs that empower parents how to become effective advocates in their children&rsquo;s education. </p><p> <b>Recommendations.</b> This study was conducted with adults who identified themselves as LTELs. Further phenomenological research could be conducted to research the types and levels of parental involvement and the effects parental involvement has on the assets of achievement motivation and learning engagement. Additionally, a study could identify if Hispanic parents view their parental responsibilities and participation in the schooling of their children differently from mainstream America. Finally, future research could survey the developmental assets of ELs in middle school. As students become reclassified in middle school, research would identify the combination of assets in those students reclassified as compared with students who did not meet reclassification criteria within the same year.</p>

<p> Second language (L2) learners are usually given a limited amount of exposure to pragmatic instruction even though researchers have advocated the importance of teaching pragmatics in the classroom (Alc&oacute;n-Soler, 2008; Bardovi-Harlig, 1990; Cohen, 1996). One area that is discussed among researchers is learners&rsquo; proficiency and its effect on acquiring pragmatic competence. On one hand, researchers argue that learners need to have a high level of linguistic competence or proficiency in order to produce complex linguistic pragmatic functions. Researchers such as Codina-Espurz (2008) believe that there needs to be &ldquo;a certain degree of linguistic competence&rdquo; (p. 229) in order to gain pragmatic competence. In other words, lower L2 level learners may not find it beneficial to receive instruction since they lack the vocabulary to produce appropriate pragmatic responses. However, researchers have found that even having a high level of linguistic competence does not mean gaining complete native-like pragmatic competence (Bardovi-Harlig &amp; Hartford, 1990; Hill, 1997). On the other hand, researchers suggest that pedagogical intervention even at the beginning level is beneficial (Tateyama et al., 1997; Wildner-Bassett, 1994). </p><p> This study involves teaching pragmatic requests to adult English second language (ESL) learners of beginner and advanced intact classes at a non-profit organization called Meet Each Need with Dignity (MEND) in Pacoima, California. The study was of mixed methods, and data were collected using pre and posttests that included a written and oral role-play portion called a Discourse Completion Test (DCT), a Multiple-Choice assessment (MC), and a Background Questionnaire (BQ). Additionally, an interview and a delayed posttest were given three months later to one learner from each level to study the effect instruction had on their request development. Furthermore, this study wanted to find if pragmatic instruction had an effect on acquiring and producing appropriate responses to different request situations. </p><p> The results showed that learners from both levels improved after explicit pragmatic instruction and developed different types of request expressions and modification items after intervention. Learners in both levels were able to move toward more native-like production by increasing the amount of conventional expressions used; however, the advanced learners were able to use a wider variety of expressions and modifiers. Overall, the results showed that instruction affected learners&rsquo; awareness and ability to produce pragmatically appropriate responses in different sociopragmatic situations beneficially.</p>

No description available.

<p> Elementary English language learners lack sufficient English fluency to achieve grade level writing outcomes on state required writing tests. Pre-write strategies incorporating drawings, visual literacy, non-linguistic representations, thinking techniques, and collaboration could be beneficial to help English language learners generate language supports necessary for developing writing fluency in English. The central questions for this study were to determine if drawing as a pre-write activity, and social collaboration, are effective strategies for improving writing achievement for young second language writers. The purpose of this quantitative pretest/ posttest design with four control groups and four treatment groups was to explore how the socio-cultural and visual strategy of prewrite drawing changes the writing outcomes of grade school English language learners. In this experimental study, outcomes of a pre-write visualization strategy were explored for eight fifth grade classes of English language learner students in English language development classes in Northeast Georgia. The data revealed there was no evidence that pre-write drawing treatment had an effect on the GADOE posttests when compared to the control group <i>F</i>(1,5) = 0.00, p = 0.9742). Additionally, there was no evidence that the pre-write drawing treatment had an effect on the Total WIDA posttests when compared to the control group <i>F</i>(1,5) = 0.15, p = 0.7152). Interactions of the treatment and the pretest score covariate were found to be statistically significant (p >0.05) in every case. Although statistically insignificant, the findings indirectly validate concerns among ESL educators and mainstream teachers of ELs in regard to L2 writing. The implications of the study findings indicate a need for continued research in second language writing outcomes of grade school English learners.</p>

<p> Students' and teachers' attitudes towards an English language teaching approach play an important role for its implementation success or failure. This study measured Pakistani government school students' and teachers' attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Grammar Translation (GT). Two separate survey instruments were used to assess students' and teachers' attitudes. Data were collected from students and teachers at two government secondary schools located in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan. A total of 204 students (102 females and 102 males) and 13 teachers (five females and eight males) participated in this present study. Overall, both students and teachers showed favorable attitudes towards CLT. In contrast, both the teachers and students showed either less favorable attitudes or a neutral stance towards GT. Finally, this study suggests that policy makers consider adopting or adapting CLT to teach English in the aforementioned schools. Recommendations for future research are also suggested.</p>

<p> Languages can be categorized in terms of topic prominence or subject prominence. English is characterized as subject prominent while languages such as Chinese are considered topic prominent in structure. In subject prominence, the subject must always have a direct relationship, in terms of meaning with the verb, and the subject performs the action or exists in the state named by the verb. This is not the case in a topic prominent system, where the subject may be missing altogether (Li and Thompson 1981). Crucial to this study will be a comparison of word order and pragmatics between English and Chinese with their respective systems. Chinese learners of English have been observed to unknowingly "map" their Chinese discourse structure onto English sentences to fit this pattern (L1 function to L2 form) resulting in what has been called a "pseudo passive" construction (Han 2000). An example of a pseudo-passive would be: <i>New cars must keep inside.</i> This study will attempt to demonstrate that these pseudo passives are indeed an indication of transfer of L1 function to L2 form and that they persist in interlanguage even at advanced stages of proficiency. Appropriate pedagogical considerations will then be discussed.</p>

No description available.

No description available.