<p> English Learners (ELs) are one of the fastest growing student populations across the country and in the State of Maryland. In tandem with the growth of this diverse student group has been increasing accountability for public schools to ensure academic success for all students. Annual reports of school progress reveal persistent achievement gaps between English speaking students and ELs. This study investigated the relationship between the beliefs and expectations of school leaders and the academic success of English Learners. </p><p> A correlational causal comparative, quantitative study was conducted using principal perception survey data and Maryland State assessment data. Principals' perceptions were not found to be good predictors in reducing the achievement gap between English Learners and English proficient students on state assessments. However, a statistically significant relationship was found between school practices and a change in the mathematics achievement gap. Also, principal training was found to have a significant positive relationship to school practices. </p><p> These findings, along with survey perception data, underscore the need for targeted professional development for school leaders to combat systemic practices and beliefs that may contribute to the achievement gap between language minorities and their monolingual counterparts. The results may be useful to State leaders as they consider certification requirements for school administrators. </p><p> District policies that restrict research and suppressed assessment data served as limitations to this study. Further investigation into principals' perceptions and an assessment of principal adequacy to close the achievement gap is warranted by State education leaders.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to reveal the perceptions of ESL teachers regarding the use of digital storytelling in the classroom. The study examined the attitudes, beliefs, and opinions/feelings of teachers and identified their concerns about digital story telling production as part of their curricula. </p><p> Teachers&rsquo; perceptions were examined in this qualitative phenomenological study in order to get comprehensive descriptions. Strategies for data collection included questionnaires, interviews, and reflective essays. Interviews had a semi-structured format with participants being interviewed individually. Participation was voluntary, and all participants had completed at least one digital storytelling project with their students. </p><p> Three teachers participated in this study. Once all interviews were transcribed, categories were identified, relationships were established, and interpretations were made. Results indicated that participants held positive views towards the use of digital storytelling because of the creative nature of projects and the motivation that accompanied students&rsquo; desire to complete polished products. Finally, results showed that the incorporation of educational technology in general was important for all three teachers because students were able to develop language skills while incorporating much needed 21st century digital literacy skills. </p><p> The implications of these results were that all three teachers felt that educational programs did not do a good job of preparing teachers to help students meet the challenges of a new digital world. Furthermore, all three teachers expressed having similar lack of resources although this seemed to be more of an issue at the public-school level than at the university level. </p><p> Some recommendations would be that this study be extended to include other geographical regions to see if teachers are experiencing the same challenges. Expanding the study to include other areas would present a more complete picture of how digital storytelling is being used in educational settings. It is also recommended to examine students&rsquo; perceptions of digital storytelling to see if their perceptions mirror those of their instructors. Finally, these recommendations could affect the kinds of training teachers receive in educational programs and ultimately affect the decision to include a digital storytelling project as part of the curriculum.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this grounded theory research study was to better understand the experiences of emergent bilingual Cape Verdean Middle School students as they navigate internal and external borderlands. This study was conducted in an urban middle school in New England. Nine female, emergent bilingual Cape Verdean middle school students participated in this study. This study was also completed with the assistance of the school district&rsquo;s middle school language acquisition coach. The participants contributed to student surveys, focus group discussions, participant observations and member checking. All data was analyzed using coding and grounded theory, which lead to development of theoretical constructs. </p><p> This study documents some EB students&rsquo; experiences and feelings pertaining to language, as well as their cultural, social, and linguistic identities while they navigate different linguistic and social worlds. In addition, this study documents how ideologies of linguistic superiority in different worlds or spaces can affect EB students&rsquo; sense of identity and connections to others. The evidence provided in this study is useful to help teachers, administrators, and anyone else involved in education to better understand some realities and challenges many EB students face, as well as how facing these challenges and differences can affect student&rsquo;s sense of self, linguistic, and cultural identities. This study concludes that it is necessary for schools to work from a to create linguistic democracies. </p><p>

<p>The California community college system is the largest in the country and is a crucial part of the higher education system. The ESL population within that system is a significant one in terms of size and needs. In order to successfully educate this population, the language-learning instruction must be appropriate, current, and effective. In today&rsquo;s technological world, that means it must incorporate the technologies of the modern world in which these community college ESL students live and work. While technology use in language learning and teaching has been the subject of many studies, the use of technologies by community college ESL faculty in credit courses has been less investigated. </p><p> The purpose of this study was to investigate technology use within community college credit ESL classes in three areas: (a) the best and most frequently used technologies, (b) the way technologies are used, and (c) the barriers to technology use. The methodology for the study was a modified electronic Delphi survey. Two rounds of the survey were conducted with a panel of experts in order to reach consensus on the areas under investigation. </p><p> The study revealed that: (a) the most frequently used technologies in the community college ESL classroom are desktop computers, ESL websites, the Internet, and smartphones; (b) technologies are being used in traditional ways; (c) technologies are being used to teach independent learning and collaboration, and to teach technological skills; (d) technologies are being used to support and enhance the learning environment; (e) the primary barriers to technology use in community college credit ESL courses are training, funding, and time, the State, students&rsquo; language abilities, and students&rsquo; technology abilities. These findings add to Dobransky&rsquo;s (2015) recent research on ESL in community colleges and the broader work of Kessler (2013) and Fuchs and Akbar (2013). </p><p> The findings of this study may be utilized as a call to further investigation on the practical applications of technology use that is or is not happening in community college ESL classrooms. It may also be utilized to inform and inspire new leadership at all levels within the community college system to set priorities and policies to eliminate barriers to technology use and to broaden technology use to go beyond on-site traditional uses. </p>

<p> Increasing numbers of English-language learners with limited or interrupted formal education are entering schools across the United States. This new trend is affecting school districts with new challenges as high school teachers of English speakers of other languages are not prepared to address the beginning literacy needs of students with limited or interrupted formal education. In addition, students with limited or interrupted formal education are encountering challenges in high school as they are simultaneously learning a new language and academic content in a new culture in addition to learning how to read and write for the first time in their lives. Moreover, additional challenges that arise with this group of students involve addressing their socioemotional and acculturation needs. </p><p> This qualitative study examined how high school teachers of English speakers of other languages in a small urban mid-Atlantic school district integrated social and academic English-development skills for students with limited or interrupted formal education. To accomplish this, the researcher collected data by conducting eight individual teacher interviews and six classroom observations. The researcher also gathered student background information, which included assessment scores that aided during the analysis of classroom observations. </p><p> Five general themes emerged from data analysis: (a) meeting the socioemotional needs of students with limited or interrupted formal education by building relationships, (b) differentiating instruction to meet the academic needs of students with limited or interrupted formal education, (c) meeting the beginning literacy needs of students with limited or interrupted formal education who have limited knowledge of literacy instruction, (d) lack of integration into the school culture and students creating their own community, and (e) the power of students&rsquo; native languages. The findings of this study will assist school districts across the United States to focus on the areas of needs to provide high-quality educational opportunities to students with limited or interrupted formal education. The gathered information will also contribute to enhance teaching practices that benefit the socioemotional, academic, and acculturation needs of this unique student population.</p><p>

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of two teaching strategies, memorization and improvisation, on ESL (English as a second language) students’ oral proficiency and how they perceived the strategies and the activities used in the classroom. Participants were 16-year-old nursing students in a Taiwan medical college. They had learned English for at least three and a half years before joining the study, but most of their previous learning was focused on reading and writing. They were divided into three groups, experiencing a memorization strategy, an improvisation strategy, and a strategy combining memorization and improvisation respectively. Data were collected from their oral pre-test and post-test, perception questionnaire, perception interview, college-wide satisfaction survey and in-class observation. Data were analysed in both quantitative and qualitative ways. The results showed that each of the strategies had significant positive effects on students’ oral acquisition, but the improvisation group performed significantly better than the memorization group, and the memorization group did better than the combination group. However, the satisfaction and perception surveys showed that participants preferred the combination strategy to the improvisation strategy, and the improvisation strategy was preferred to the memorization strategy. The finding also showed that participants’ initial oral language levels made no difference on the rate of oral improvement. The high-level and intermediate students demonstrated no difference in their preference for the two strategies, but the low-level students showed significant preference for the memorization strategy. In terms of the teaching activities, participants preferred task-based activities to discussion activities, and activities involving multiple people were preferred to monologues such as storytelling and news reports. Nevertheless, preference made no difference on participants’ oral improvement. Based upon the insight gained from this study, pedagogical implications and for teaching oral language were developed and suggestions for future research have been recommended.

There is awareness and concern in Japan that the process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in the school system does not produce students who can communicate in the target language. This is especially true of communication in the spoken mode. Attempts have been made to move towards more communicative language teaching, despite constraints such as large class size, compulsory use of structurally-organized textbooks, and grammar-based university entrance examinations. However, such attempts do not seem to have been particularly successful. The purpose of this study is to suggest modifications to the teaching of English in upper secondary schools in Japan which could enable students to develop their communicative competence and also to consider implications for the assessment of spoken communication. Chapter I describes the scope and background of the study. Chapter II looks at the teaching of English in upper secondary schools in Japan, discussing aspects such as the place of English in the total school curriculum and constraints on the introduction of spoken communicative activities. Chapter III discusses the theory and practice of the Communicative Approach to Language Teaching in the English teaching context in Japan. Chapter IV offers suggestions for incorporating spoken communication in English lessons at upper secondary school level. In Chapter V, the problem of assessing oral communicative performance is considered in practical terms. The final chapter highlights major constraints and points to recent developments which may give an impetus to a move towards more communicative teaching of English as a foreign language in Japanese schools. It is intended that this Study Report will provide guidelines for the feasible introduction of spoken communicative activities in large classes at upper secondary level and that it will offer practical suggestions for assessing students' performance in such activities.

The demands imposed on teachers who are L2 speakers of English, in the Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL) have had far-reaching consequences. In these situations, the consequences are compounded when the teacher is a L3 speaker of English teaching English to students who are predominantly L2/L3 speakers. Such consequences were explicitly stated in a number of reports, reviews and observations (Elley, 1979; Chamberlain, 1987; Laws and Horsley, 1988; The Ministerial Taskforce, 1989) and others. Issues relating to quality of education and quality of English teaching were frequently addressed and questioned. The author's experience as a teacher of English, Head of the English Department at Titikaveka College and English Adviser for secondary schools led to a growing concern and need to delve into these problems at both the primary and secondary levels. In the absence of research in this important area, the author sought to conduct investigation in four schools. The author was further motivated to conduct research as a result of a number of recent changes within the education system. Major concerns were firstly, the introduction of the Grade 6 National Examination in 1991; secondly, the change-over from the South Pacific English Option paper to a full New Zealand English paper in the New Zealand School Certificate (NZSC) Examination in 1989; and finally, the introduction of the New Zealand Bursary Examination in 1992. The question foremost in the author's mind was how adequately were the schools equipped to implement such changes given an array of major constraints. In this study, it is hypothesised that, most of the problems related to TESL in the Cook Islands stem primarily, and mainly from the poor quality of teachers in the classroom. This does not deny the existence of problems which emanate from other factors which impact on TESL, such as the language policy and curriculum, the adequacy or inadequacy of teaching resources, and whether indeed they are appropriate and the kinds of teaching methods which prevail. These are all acknowledged as contributing factors. The argument presented in this study, is that, while these are contributing factors, they are considered not as important as the teacher factor. The thrust of this thesis recognises the teacher as the most important classroom resource, the "key" factor which ultimately determines the quality and indeed the success or failure of an education system. This is true in the particular context of the Cook islands where teaching-learning resources, by its broadest definition, are very limited. In terms of the quality of the teacher's resourcefulness, this in turn is determined by his/her level of education and the kind of training received. Underlying the thesis presented is the contention that if the teacher is well-educated and highly-trained, then teaching and learning for the child make the possibility of attaining Level IV, the highest stage in Beeby's paradigm more likely. That is, teaching which stresses meaning and understanding, problem solving and creativity and the catering of individual differences (Beeby 1966: 72). Needless to say, the converse is more likely to happen, where and when teachers have had very limited education, inadequate and inappropriate training. In accordance with the purpose as outlined in Chapter 1, this study comprises 6 chapters and a conclusion. Chapter 1 discusses the nature of the problem from a number of interrelated dimensions, which have to varying degrees impacted on the teaching of ESL in the Cook Islands. The chapter concludes by stressing the purpose and relevance of the study in terms of educational, economic and social significance. Chapter 2 reviews and discusses, from a historical perspective, the literature as it relates firstly to the teaching of English in the Pacific but more specifically the teaching of English in the Cook Islands. The chapter then discusses the theoretical development and research in the teaching and learning of ESL in an attempt to arrive at a theoretical framework. Chapter 3 presents the research instruments and procedures used to gather and analyse the data. In the main, office sources, classroom observations, questionnaires and interviews formed the basis for eliciting data. Chapter 4 draws together the major findings of the study. The limited size of the sample placed some restrictions on the analysis of results derived from this study. Nevertheless, the analysis identified some significant trends upon which conclusions can be drawn. The last two chapters, Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 deal with the interpretative aspects of the study with the intention of arriving at valid recommendations to the problems identified. In summary, the study found that the teacher in the Cook Islands context is the key factor in the process of teaching and learning of ESL. When the teacher is well-educated and adequately trained, then the possibility of quality teaching and meaningful learning becomes a reality for the student.

This case study was explored to determine effective error-correction/feedback methods for two ESL Korean children's writing (recounting task) in terms of accuracy, fluency and attitudes. Three different error-correction methods - written comments focusing on meaning by researcher (Case1), direct and global error-correction focusing on form by researcher (Case2) and self-directed error-correction using check lists by subjects (Case 3) - were applied over a period of 7 months. Thirty pieces of recount writing per subject were collected (10 pieces per case) and analysed by structured criteria of fluency and accuracy. Through participant observation, the subjects' changing attitudes were recorded in notes and video tapes. The results of the analysis showed that for Subject B, who was 7 years old and a more advanced writer of English than Subject A, self-directed error-correction using check lists (Case 3) was the most effective method in relation to both fluency and accuracy as well as attitude. Yet, for Subject A who was 5 years old and an early beginner in her writing, Case 1 seemed to be more effective in terms of fluency and attitude and Case 3 was likely to be more effective in terms of accuracy. In discussion, the method of error correction / feedback, the issue of ownership in children's writing including errorcorrection and the necessity of process writing were highlighted in the light of the whole context of the case study.

This study attempts to explore and to understand the use of computers in English language classrooms, in a Malaysian context. This qualitative study aims to investigate and understand the use of computers in English language classes in a secondary Smart School in Malaysia by examining the teaching situations and the types of activities carried out in the classroom. In order to understand the factors related to computer use, teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the use of computers in English lessons were investigated. Using the perspectives from social constructivism, this study examines, this study also looks into classroom interactions to examine the English language learning opportunities for students. A combination of procedures was used for data collection. The data were collected using classroom observations, interviews, field-notes, document, learning diaries and classroom interaction transcripts. The data were analyzed using multiple analyses. This study use thematic analysis as one of the analysis method to examine the interviews, and observations field notes. This study shows that computers in the classroom can be beneficial as tools for facilitating learning English. This study also suggests that in order for the integration of computers in education to be a success the education system needs to be changed or to be adjusted. This study helps to explain the complexity of using computers in the teaching of English as a Second Language in order to fulfil the objectives of the English syllabus and the English curriculum in a Malaysian secondary school. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1229801 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2006