The purpose of this study was to determine whether a task-oriented learning group approach to writing or a traditional, one-teacher, whole-class approach would be more effective in (1) teaching basic descriptive-narrative-expository writing skills to eleventh grade English students, and (2) producing a positive attitude change toward writing in these students.The experimental study was conducted from January to May, 1972, at Southside High School, Muncie, Indiana. Two existing classes of junior academic English students, 29 in the experimental group and 21 in the control group, were statistically equated by analysis of covariance because randomization was not possible.As preinstruction baselines of writing skills, the following measures were administered during the first week of the term: the better of two writing samples; the STEP Writing Test, Form 2A; and the Cooperative English Test, English Expression, Form 2A. The Lorge-Thorndike I. Q. scores were readily available as concomitant variables. Preinstruction attitudes were measured by the Tovatt-Miller "Composition and Literature Inventory."From January to May, 1972, both experimental and control groups were instructed in the English VI course designated by the Muncie Community Schools, the major emphases for which included American literature, and composition including description, narration, and exposition. Only the experimental group was instructed by means of the task-oriented learning group designs structured by the writer at the prewriting, writing, and evaluation stages of composition. These required students to interact with one another in the completion of tasks structured to pool information, divide responsibilities, and observe the responses of others. They included such techniques as brainstorming, role playing, generating original materials, and consensus seeking in the completion of writing tasks. The control group, meanwhile, wrote the same assignments and studied the same literature in traditional fashion.At the close of the instruction phase, alternate forms the the STEP Writing Test and Cooperative English Test, English Expression, were administered, two samples of essays were collected, and the same form of the Tovatt-Miller "Composition and Literature Inventory" was given. Efforts were made to control the writer, rater, and assignment variables; themes were judged by two qualified and trained raters.Conclusions of the analysis of covariance for theme of the obtained F ratios was statistically significant. Chi square analysis of the attitude measure revealed that only one variable, Meaningful-Meaningless, approached significance in registering a primarily negative shift in the control group. It was impossible on the basis of these analyses to conclude and test criterion measures at the .05 level were that none that either the task-oriented learning group approach or the traditional approach was better or poorer than the other in increasing writing ability or improving attitudes toward writing.Scores for both groups were also compared to norm tables for both the STEP Writing Test and the Cooperative English Test, English Expression section. In both of these comparisons, the experimental group showed larger mean gains in achievement than those recorded in baseline normative tables in the technical manuals for the standardized tests. The experimental group was also higher than the control group.Observed mean gains for theme ratings also favored the experimental group over the control group.The chi square analysis data also indicated that a larger proportion of the experimental group changed to favorable attitudes than did the control group, though both groups became more positive in attitude toward writing during instruction.While the task-oriented learning group approach to teaching narrative-descriptive-expository writing cannot be interpreted as having a differential effect on writing skills or change to more favorable attitudes, these findings recommend it as an effective alternative to the traditional classroom approach.

The literature on the Ph.D. and on the preparation of college teachers reveals a century-long criticism of the Ph.D. as preparation for college teaching. Elements both within and without the profession of’ English have called for more attention to be paid to preparation for college teaching. The profession itself is undecided as to what preparation for the college teaching of English should involve. Thus, the problem dealt with in this study is the following: What do college teachers of English need to know and be able to do as teachers? The goal of this study is to answer the question and to use the resulting information as the basis for a course on Teaching College English.When developing a course or a program of professional training, there are, basically, two sources of information to draw from: (1) what people do when performing the task or job you wish to prepare others to do, and (2) what experts in the area call for. Since no single information source is adequate by itself, both are drawn from. Thus, a job analysis was done to determine what college teachers of English teaching predominantly lower division English, actually do as teachers. Likewise, a content analysis of the books and articles on teaching college English was done to course on Teaching College English.The purpose of the job analysis was two-fold: (1) to construct a comprehensive list of the tasks performed by college teachers of English in their capacities as instructors, and (2) to determine which of these tasks the prospective college teacher of English can best learn to do with the assistance of preservice training.Fifteen faculty members and fifteen doctoral students at two Indiana Institutions were queried regarding the frequency, difficulty, importance, and desirability for training of twenty-nine tasks. Scores assigned to answers permitted ranking the tasks from highest to lowest.The purpose of the content analysis was (1) to identify what those who write about the preparation of college teachers of English believe they need to know and be able to do as teachers, (2) to classify beliefs, and (3) to rank them in order of the frequency of their appearance.Assertions dealing with what is done for, during, and because of instructional contact were recorded, grouped under twenty-one headings. The groups were then ranked according to the number of assertions in them. The data from both the job analysis and the content determine what is most often recommended for inclusion in a analysis was used as the basis for a course on Teaching College English which was developed using an instructional systems approach.

The purpose of the experimental study was to determine whether the university student in an experimental group which does teacher-guided revision and rewriting of an essay achieves greater skill in later composition performance than the student in a control group which corrects an essay's mechanical and grammatical errors with the aid of a handbook and does not revise nor rewrite.This research was designed to answer the following questions:1. To what extent will students who are taught to revise and rewrite become editors?2. To what extent will students who are taught to revise and rewrite become accurate proofreaders?3. To what extent will students who are taught to revise and rewrite improve their composition skills in both the areas of editing and proofreading?The subjects of this research experiment were students enrolled in freshman composition at a state university. The twenty-six students in the control group and the twenty-five students in the experimental group were found to be comparable in educational background, age, race, sex, class standing, future career choices, and English ability.The control and experimental groups were taught alike with the exception of the lessons dealing with revision and rewriting. During these lessons members of the experimental group did teacher-guided revision of their corrected themes and were taught to makerevision a process of editing rather than just proofreading. In contrast, members of the. control group were asked to make an out-of-class correction sheet of only the mechanical and grammatical errors in each of their themes; they were not asked to revise themes 1, 3, 5, and 7, but rather wrote themes 2, 4, a process of proofreading. Both groups discussed revision, even though only the experimental group did an actual revision.In order to measure the results of this experiment, compositions written by the experimental and control classes at the beginning and end of the experiment were analyzed. The compositions were coded, mixed, and scored by four evaluators using an eight-category essay evaluation form and working independently of each other.After individual gains were tabulated for each student, the mean of each groups' gains was found for each of the three sections of the essay evaluation form: proofreading, editing, and total composition. The t-test was then applied to the three sets of means to determine the significance of the difference between them. It was found that there was no significant difference. However, since both groups had made gains between their beginning and end-of-term essays, the t-test for the hypothesized value of a single mean was then applied to the three sets of means. The gains made by both groups in each of the areas were significant at the .001 level.The main conclusion of this study was that there is no assurance that a student who writes four themes and revises and rewrites each into a new theme will improve his composition6, and 8 on four new topics. They were taught to make revision skills any more than one who writes eight themes on eight different topics and makes a correction sheet for each -- at least if each group is taught to revise and rewrite. Another conclusion of the study was that editing skills evidently are learned in some way other than through revising and rewriting.The conclusions implied that after teaching the steps necessary for revision, a teacher can assign an out-of-class correction sheet rather than have students do a complete revision in class. Another implication was that if students discuss revision techniques, and then either make a correction sheet or do a complete revision, rewriting is not necessary. It seemed possible that further research might show that if students discuss revision techniques and perceive their problems, they may not need to make a correction sheet or an actual revision. If comprehension of revision is achieved, the actual writing out of what they have comprehended may be irrelevant.

Educational and feminist researchers as well as philosophers and psychologist claim that women are not receiving the same university education as men. Studies show that males receive more praise and more attention in the classroom through the university. As a result, female students feel alienated from much of their educational experiences. Likewise, minority students also report feeling estranged in the university claiming that their previous experiences are undervalued.Freshman composition classes are designed to acquaint in-coming students with the discourse needed in order to succeed in college. Likewise, the Basis Writing Courses at Ball State University are designed to help underprepared students gain confidence and practice in their writing abilities. Teachers' written comments upon essay drafts are a major means of communication between the students and professors.This study was designed to determine whether or not instructors teaching in the Ball State University Basic Writing courses in the Fall Semester of 1992 gave responses on essays which were significantly different relative to the students' gender and/or race. In other words, did male students receive different editing and revisional advice than did female or non-Caucasian students? Did male students receive more praise and encouragement than did female or non-Caucasian students? Is there unconscious gender or racial bias exhibited in the basic writing classrooms at Ball State University as evidenced by instructors' written comments?? Contrary to the multi-vocal chorus proclaiming existing bias, this study found such bias did not exist at the significant Alpha level of .05, yet trends towards such bias did emerge. White males were slightly favored both in the amount of praise and the amount of advice offered on essay drafts. The careful selection of the Basic Writing faculty may have contributed to the lack of bias found at a significant level. As a secondary issue, it was also found that instructors were unaware of the extent of their direct editing habits. This overediting may result from the portfolio nature of the course where outside readers are involved in course assessment / Department of English

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students who were subjected to a teaching-learning pattern consisting of practices that evidenced self-determination and to a learning environment consisting of attitudes that governed their actions in dealing with each other and the practices employed would be able to develop compositions of their own that met cooperatively developed criteria for organization and clarity.

The objective of the present research is to explore the present state of EFL (English as a foreign language) in Korean culture which is assumed to be different from that of English speaking countries, and to investigate learners' attitudes toward needs and motivation for the English language. Since it seems to be recognised that language and culture are inseparable, EFL in the Korean cultural context might reflect its own typical aspects. Chapter 1 deals with problems in EFL in Korea, and the relationship between foreign language acquisition and cultural background. The meaning of culture and its importance in a foreign language learning and teaching is elaborated. Chapter 2 reflects the characteristics of Korean culture, with an account of her history, education system and national policy of EFL. Current implementation of English language teaching at Korean universities, with its developmental history, is presented with evidences obtained from previous research. Chapter 3 reviews the theoretical literature on needs, attitudes, interest, anxiety and motivation in foreign/second language learning, since they are recognised as central to foreign language acquisition. Research studies on these variables are introduced, compared with each other and critically discussed. In Chapter 4, research questions and hypotheses are drawn, based on the theoretical framework reviewed in Chapter 3. The research design (sampling, methods of and procedures for data-collection) is elaborated. Chapter 5 begins with a description of data-interpretation methods employed in the study. Data obtained from these instruments were statistically analysed through a computer programme `SPSS'. The findings of the research are presented, followed by a discussion of the results. In Chapter 6, more detailed profiles of analysis than those given in Chapter 5 are presented. Particularly, item-by-item comparison is made between the college students' and graduates' questionnaires. Chapter 7, as a closing chapter of the present research, reviews the foregoing chapters and derives conclusions, suggesting implications for further research. Key implications arising from the research are: priority for teaching EFL from intercultural perspectives, and (so far as learners are concerned) to tolerating the new approaches to teaching that are required.

The thesis opens with a discussion of what attitudes are, and develops with a review of studies of attitudes towards pronunciation error, attitudes towards foreign accents and perception of foreign-accented speakers. The empirical part of the thesis attempts to identify how native (British) and Finnish listeners of English react to and evaluate typical segmental features of mispronunciation in the English speech of Finnish men and women of various ages. Two experiments using modifications of the matched-guise technique were conducted, one to consider error evaluation and to establish a hierarchy of segmental mispronunciation, the other to examine speaker evaluation, the image of the speaker created by the mispronunciation. Recordings of Finnish-accented English were presented to male and female listeners of various ages, and reactions collected. Statistical analyses of the results were carried out and the following general conclusions were drawn: the English labiodental lenis fricative /v/ when mispronounced in the typical Finnish manner as a labiodental frictionless continuant [u] is not tolerated by native English listeners at all, though it is highly tolerated by Finnish-speaking listeners (and Swedish-speaking Finns) themselves; the degree of mispronunciation in Finnish-accented English seriously affects listeners' estimations of the speaker's age, bad mispronunciation prompting under-estimation of age and good pronunciation over-estimation; both Finnish-speaking listeners and English-speaking listeners have almost identical clear pre-set standards about what constitutes 'good' and 'bad' pronunciation; a Finnish speaker's phonemically 'better' and 'worse' pronunciation affects the image listeners have of the speaker, status/competence traits in particular being up-graded for better pronunciation, solidarity/benevolence traits remaining broadly unaffected, and Englishspeaking listeners generally being more positive towards the Finnish-accented speakers than compatriot Finns.

During the past decade, self-assessment has become a major research area; however, contradictory findings have been reported. This study investigated the effectiveness of self-assessment and examined some possible factors that might influence the accuracy of self-assessment. Participants were 32 English as a second language (ESL) graduate students and an experienced ESL teacher at McGill University. The student participants were divided into a control group and an experimental group while the researcher and the ESL teacher served as raters. Both quantitative and qualitative data were generated. The results indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group. Some possible causes of the differences or similarities between student and teacher assessors' rating were identified. The findings of this study provide evidence on the effectiveness of self-assessment and offer ESL students and teachers an alternative way to participate in the learning process and to assess the learning outcomes.

The purpose of this research is to further investigate the ongoing debate between the Dual Mechanism Model and the Connectionist Model of language processing by investigating how knowledge of second language (L2) inflectional morphology is represented and processed by learners of English. Specifically, do second language learners of English use the same Dual Mechanism Model that Prasada and Pinker (1993) have argued is a universally applicable model, or does the Connectionist Model of language processing better explain L2 learning and language processing? / The participants in this study were students in a Montreal area CEGEP. The instrument used to gather data was the Prasada and Pinker pseudo-verb list, with modifications suggested by Lee (1994) to create a revised list. Participants were asked to create past tense forms of pseudo verbs. In addition to this task, four participants were asked to do a simultaneous verbal think aloud, orally explaining their responses to the stimulus presented in the study. / The results of the studies indicate that English second language learners used both a rule based mechanism and an associative mechanism in the formation of both regular and irregular English verbs. This result provides support for the claims of the Connectionist model of past tense formation of English verbs, but also supports some of the claims of the Dual Mechanism Model. There are possible implications for the teaching and learning of English as a Second Language (ESL). This study also raises further research questions involving rule vs. associative learning in the teaching and learning of language. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Knowing how to promote oneself in written self-promotional genres is a vital, yet neglected, component of non-native speaker (NNS) communicative competence. / Focusing on the self-appraisal, I explore some of the impression management (IM) tactics and interpersonal metadiscourse (MD) markers used by writers to manage the impressions they give off. Of particular interest is the extent to which (a) patterns of self-presentation, and (b) language background (NS/NNS) contribute to the affective response of the reader. / The self-appraisals, collected from 41 students taking a required undergraduate writing course, were grouped according to the affective response of independent readers. Patterns of IM and MD use were compared across positive- and negative-affect groups, and across NSs and NNSs. / The findings reveal distinct differences between affect groups in patterns of IM and MD use. Interestingly, NS/NNS differences did not contribute to the affective response of the reader, thus challenging the assumption that NS linguistic form is requisite to pragmatic competence.