Global ETD Search

11	Ensuring the Context Validity of English Reading Tests for Academic Purposes (EAP) in Oman Al Ismaili, Anwar A.S. January 2015 (has links) Students entering academic programmes are frequently overwhelmed by the demand for extensive reading and comprehension of information derived from multiple and contrasting sources. This entails both careful and expeditious reading. The latter has been generally neglected in research and has not been the focus of many tests. Both types of reading were investigated in this study through a validation process of the summative English reading test for academic purposes taken at the end of the Foundation Programme in Oman. In particular, context validity was established through focusing on the interaction between the linguistic demands and task setting parameters and also the cognitive processes through which the students engaged with the test tasks. To establish the context validity of the test, this study adopted Khalifa and Weir’s (2009) model which not only embraced the complex and multi-componential nature of reading but also provided a workable validation framework. A multi-strategy approach was adopted. A natural experiment utilising Verbal Protocol Analysis captured the cognitive processes through which students engaged in reading. Automated analysis software and opinions of expert judges were used to compare test passages with text extracts drawn from first year academic courses. Correlation tests and factor analysis revealed these cognitive processes and established the robustness of the Khalifa and Weir (2009) model, which was thus validated in a second language context. Passages in the foundation tests were found to be generally representative of academic texts although certain features such as abstractness were under-represented. / Government of the Sultanate of Oman, represented by the Ministry of Manpower Assessment Context validity Second language (L2) Reading Validation English for academic purposes (EAP) Cognitive processes Task setting Careful reading Expeditious reading Oman
12	Discourse Itineraries in an EAP Classroom: A Collaborative Critical Literacy Praxis Chun, Christian Wai 28 February 2011 (has links) This classroom ethnography documents the developing critical literacy pedagogy of an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructor over the course of several terms. My research, which involved extensive collaboration with the EAP instructor, explores how specific classroom practices and discourses are enacted and mediated through dialogic intertextualities, material objects, and social actions that frame representations about language, literacy, and what Lefebvre (1988) called “le quotidien” – the everyday, and how these affect the students’ meaning-making potential in specific ways. It also traces the contours (and detours) of the instructor’s classroom practices after the researcher’s mediation in the form of collaborative inquiries on functional grammar and critical literacy, and the effects of these classroom practices on making meaning in her EAP classes. I consider several issues from an integrated theory and practice perspective. Because of an urgent need to understand the students’ practices and epistemologies as they engage in ever newer forms of multimodal text productions, I contend that EAP classroom practices must be reshaped to facilitate more (inter)active engagements of the multimodal texts that saturate students’ lives, both inside the class and outside. Related to this, I highlight in my classroom data what actually counts as the ‘critical’ or the ‘uncritical’ in this EAP classroom and argue why these distinctions matter. Lastly, I suggest ways in which the role of a critical multiliteracies education in EAP can meet the pragmatic needs of both students and teachers. My research contributes to a much-needed dialogue between critically oriented researchers and practitioners in the field of TESOL/Applied Linguistics by bridging the gap between theory and practice. The lessons learned from this collaborative classroom praxis point to concrete ways to help EAP teachers and students utilize their meaning-making potential. This involves equipping them with an expanded social semiotic tool-kit that can enable them to not only meet their immediate academic needs, but also help create a more active and possibly transformative role in the social constructions of discourse, language, and society. This doctoral dissertation has implications for those who are involved in EAP teaching and research, curriculum planning, teacher training, and student needs assessment. English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Critical pedagogy critical literacy globalization neoliberalism multiliteracies multimodality functional grammar social semiotics classroom ethnography Critical applied linguistics systemic functional linguistics collaborative research action research academic literacies curriculum studies identity academic discourse critical discourse analysis (CDA) mediated discourse analysis (MDA) intertextuality multimodal discourse analysis 0727 0745
13	Discourse Itineraries in an EAP Classroom: A Collaborative Critical Literacy Praxis Chun, Christian Wai 28 February 2011 (has links) This classroom ethnography documents the developing critical literacy pedagogy of an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructor over the course of several terms. My research, which involved extensive collaboration with the EAP instructor, explores how specific classroom practices and discourses are enacted and mediated through dialogic intertextualities, material objects, and social actions that frame representations about language, literacy, and what Lefebvre (1988) called “le quotidien” – the everyday, and how these affect the students’ meaning-making potential in specific ways. It also traces the contours (and detours) of the instructor’s classroom practices after the researcher’s mediation in the form of collaborative inquiries on functional grammar and critical literacy, and the effects of these classroom practices on making meaning in her EAP classes. I consider several issues from an integrated theory and practice perspective. Because of an urgent need to understand the students’ practices and epistemologies as they engage in ever newer forms of multimodal text productions, I contend that EAP classroom practices must be reshaped to facilitate more (inter)active engagements of the multimodal texts that saturate students’ lives, both inside the class and outside. Related to this, I highlight in my classroom data what actually counts as the ‘critical’ or the ‘uncritical’ in this EAP classroom and argue why these distinctions matter. Lastly, I suggest ways in which the role of a critical multiliteracies education in EAP can meet the pragmatic needs of both students and teachers. My research contributes to a much-needed dialogue between critically oriented researchers and practitioners in the field of TESOL/Applied Linguistics by bridging the gap between theory and practice. The lessons learned from this collaborative classroom praxis point to concrete ways to help EAP teachers and students utilize their meaning-making potential. This involves equipping them with an expanded social semiotic tool-kit that can enable them to not only meet their immediate academic needs, but also help create a more active and possibly transformative role in the social constructions of discourse, language, and society. This doctoral dissertation has implications for those who are involved in EAP teaching and research, curriculum planning, teacher training, and student needs assessment. English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Critical pedagogy critical literacy globalization neoliberalism multiliteracies multimodality functional grammar social semiotics classroom ethnography Critical applied linguistics systemic functional linguistics collaborative research action research academic literacies curriculum studies identity academic discourse critical discourse analysis (CDA) mediated discourse analysis (MDA) intertextuality multimodal discourse analysis 0727 0745
14	An assessment of student's English vocabulary levels and an exploration of the vocabulary profile of teacher's spoken discourse in an international high school Creighton, Graham Robert 10 1900 (has links) In many international schools where English is the language of learning and teaching there are large percentages of students whose first language is not English. Many of these students may have low vocabulary levels which inhibits their chances of taking full advantage of their education. Low vocabulary levels can be a particular problem for students in mainstream classes where fluent English speaking teachers are using English to teach content areas of Mathematics, Science and History. Not only do students have to comprehend the low-frequency, academic and technical vocabulary pertaining to the subject, but they also need to know the higher frequency vocabulary that makes up general English usage. If students’ vocabulary levels fall too far below the vocabulary levels with which their teachers are speaking, then their chance of comprehending the topic is small, as is their chance of succeeding in their subjects. This study has two broad aims. Firstly, I have set out to assess the English vocabulary levels of students at an international school where English is the language of learning and teaching. The majority of students at this school do not have English as their first language. The second aim of this study is to explore the vocabulary profile of the teachers’ spoken discourse at the research school. By gaining a better understanding of the nature of teacher discourse – specifically the percentage of high, mid and low-frequency vocabulary, as well as academic vocabulary that they use – English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers will be in a stronger position to identify what the vocabulary learning task is and be able to assist students in reaching the vocabulary levels necessary to make sense of their lessons. This study revealed a large gap between the generally low vocabulary levels of ESL students and the vocabulary levels spoken by their teachers. As a result the need for explicit vocabulary instruction and learning is shown to be very important in English medium (international) schools, where there are large numbers of students whose first language is not English. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Applied Linguistics) English as a second language (ESL) First language (L1) General service vocabulary Academic vocabulary Technical vocabulary Word family High-frequency vocabulary Mid-frequency vocabulary Low-frequency vocabulary General service list (GSL) Academic word list (AWL) Content words Controlled productive vocabulary Formulaic sequences Function words Headword Lemma Word family Word frequency Technical vocabulary English for academic purposes (EAP) Incidental learning Intentioal learning Lexis Collocation Lexico-grammar Concordance Quantitative research Qualitative research Corpus-driven approach Corpus-based approach 428.1 Vocabulary -- Study and teaching English language -- Word frequency English language -- Study and teaching Communicative competence

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