The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of normal instruction supplemented by the computer-assisted instruction English program Grammar Game on achievement and attitude scores of vocational-technical students in Thailand. The experimental design was a 2 x 2 factorial ANOVA design. One hundred seventy-eight students at the Lanna Polytechnical College in Thailand were randomly selected from the population of 10 classrooms. Four classes were intact groups, with two classes randomly assigned to the experimental groups which received Lecture/CAI and the other two as control groups which received Lecture. The 89 students in each group were divided into high- and low- ability, based on their previous English scores. Subjects received treatment for nine weeks. Pre-test and post-test instruments on achievement and attitude were administered to both groups. The Statistical Analysis System (SAS), and the General Linear Model (GLM) package computer program yielded the MANOVA results. Based on data analysis, the findings were as follows: (1) There was a significant difference between the students in a Lecture/CAI English program and the students in a Lecture English program when they were compared simultaneously on the achievement and attitude scores, F(l, 176) = 18.97, p < .05. (2) There was no significant interaction between the types of teaching methods and levels of ability when achievement was used as the dependent variable, F(l, 174) = .48, p > .05. (3) There was no significant interaction between the types of teaching methods and levels of ability when attitude was used as the dependent variable, F(l, 174) = .06, p > .05. The conclusion was that normal instruction supplemented by CAI improved achievement and attitude scores. On the other hand, the effect of two types of methods on achievement remained the same for high- and low-ability students and so did the effect of two types of methods on attitude. Future research should examine different CAI software packages, CAI within a full year, the effects of ability on achievement and attitude, background knowledge, more levels of independent variables, characteristics of an effective CAI program, and a case study with larger population in Thailand.

Beginning with Plato's expulsion of the poets in the Republic, this dissertation ' looks at the often hostile, yet also symbiotic, relationship between·poetry and philosophy. Aristotle's 'response' to Plato is regarded as a significant origin of literary theory. Nietzsche's critique of Western philosophy as being an attempt to suppress its own metaphoricity, leads to a revaluation of truth and consequently of the privileging of philosophy over poetry. Post-structuralism sometimes overemphasizes this constitutive force of metaphoricity, at the expense of conceptual modes. However, Derrida's notion of philosophy as play retains a balance between concept and metaphor: there is no attempt to transcendentally ground philosophy, but neither is it reduced to a merely metaphorical discourse. Finally, Wittgenstein's notion of meaning as determined by use can help us distinguish pragmatically between poetry and philosophy by looking at the contexts in which they function. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Linguistics)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006-08-17Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:30:36Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 bassetti_mz_me_sjrp.pdf: 1008347 bytes, checksum: 72c5a9b087a0569e9df7120760d97563 (MD5) / Este trabalho, de caráter etnográfico com características de intervenção, teve o objetivo de observar como se dá a prática de ensino da gramática de uma professora de LI em um contexto de escola Municipal de EF e, com base na análise do modo de ensinar gramática dessa professora, buscou-se apontar os pressupostos e crenças que norteiam sua prática (utilizando como referência, autores como PAJARES, 1992; BROWN, 1994; RICHARDS e LOCKHART, 1994; WOODS, 1996). Partindo desse levantamento, foi observada ainda sua reação e a de seus alunos a uma proposta de ensino de gramática por meio de atividades voltadas para a comunicação. A pesquisa foi realizada em duas etapas. A primeira teve o objetivo de caracterizar o contexto, os participantes e mapear suas expectativas acerca das aulas de LI, assim como suas crenças acerca do ensino da gramática pedagógica da LI. Na segunda etapa, aplicou-se a proposta pedagógica e observou-se a reação dos participantes e sua avaliação à tal proposta. Para tanto, os principais procedimentos utilizados foram o diário de pesquisa produzido pela pesquisadora, entrevista semi-estruturada, questionários, gravações das aulas em áudio e vídeo, sessão de discussão (sobre os construtos teóricos), logs e sessões de visionamento. A análise dos dados sugeriu que as crenças da professora expressam um ensino com tendências tradicionais, calcado em suas experiências pessoais anteriores e influenciadoras diretas das crenças dos alunos acerca do tópico abordado (a gramática da LI). Além disso, ao analisar-se a reação e a avaliação dos participantes à proposta, observou-se uma nítida importância do livro didático neste contexto sob investigação e embora houvesse certo receio no uso de uma nova abordagem, a professora participante apresentou indícios de reflexão e preocupação com questões concernentes a sua prática de ensino e seu aperfeiçoamento profissional. / This research study has an ethnographical character with characteristics of intervention. It aimed at observing how an English teacher teaches the English grammar in a Municipal school. Based on the analysis of this teacher's grammar teaching practice, this study tried to point out the assumptions and beliefs that guide such practice (using as reference, authors such as PAJARES, 1992; BROWN, 1994; RICHARDS and LOCKHART, 1994; WOODS, 1996). From this information, both the teacher's and her students' reactions to a proposal of grammar teaching through communicative activities were observed. The research was had two phases. The first aimed at characterizing the context and the participants, and mapping their expectations concerning the English language classes, as well as their beliefs concerning the teaching of the English pedagogical grammar. In the second phase, the pedagogical proposal was applied and the participants' reactions and evaluation to such proposal were observed. For doing so, the main procedures used for data collection were the research diary written by the researcher, a semi-structured interview, questionnaires, audio and video recordings, discussion session (about theory), logs and viewing sessions. The analysis of the data suggested that the teacher's beliefs express a way of teaching with traditional tendencies, based on her previous personal experiences and influencing directly the students' beliefs concerning the topic under study (the English language grammar). Moreover, when analyzing the participants' reactions and evaluation of the proposal, a clear importance of the course book was observed and although there was a certain fear in the use of a new approach, the participant teacher showed evidences of reflection and preoccupation with matters concerning her teaching practice and her professional improvement.

As more international students who are not expert users of English come to the United States to study at university, the field of teaching English for Academic Purposes grows. There are many important skills these international students must learn to become successful university students in America, but writing for academic purposes is of particular importance for these students to join the academic conversation in their respective disciplines. Corpus research has identified the grammatical features which are frequently found in different registers, and from this work it is known which structures are important in different types of academic writing. Grammatical structures frequently found in the academic register must be taught to these university-bound students. However, many English Language Learners (ELLs) are infrequently using, or inaccurately using, some of these grammatical features in their writing when compared to L1 writers. This study focuses on three of those under-used, and/or inaccurately used structures: passive voice, reduced relative clauses, and modal would. At an Intensive English Language Program (IELP) in the Pacific Northwest, an experimental group of advanced ELLs were given extended instruction--extra time and practice--on these three features. The control group received the standard amount of time and practice students typically receive at this IELP. 25 essays from the experimental group and 44 essays from the control group were tagged for presence, accuracy, and appropriacy of the three grammatical features (passive voice, reduced relative clauses, and modal would). The experimental and control group essays were compared to see if the treatment instruction had a significant effect on the frequency, accuracy, and/or appropriacy of these features. Results from an independent t-test on the frequency of passive voice showed no significant difference between the experimental group essays and the control group essays. Results from a Mann-Whitney U test on the frequency of reduced relative clauses and modal would showed no significant difference between the two groups. In regard to accuracy and appropriacy, a Mann-Whitney U test found no significant difference between the experiment group and control group. The analysis of the two groups showed that students in the treatment group did use passive voice on average more than students in the control group, but it was not enough to be significantly different. The frequency of reduced relative clauses and modal would was low, yet accuracy and appropriacy of these features was very high for both groups. These findings reveal that different, or perhaps more focused, approaches must be taken beyond extra time and practice to increase ELLs' use of passive voice, reduced relative clauses, and modal would in their writing.

MEd (Educational Management) / Department of Educational Management / See the attached abstract below

Thesis (M. A. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / This study explores the handling of grammatical structures by the Limpopo Province (LP) English First Additional Language (EFAL) teachers in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase. The problem is that the majority of English language learners’ language proficiency and accuracy are not at an acceptable level. This problem also brings into close scrutiny, the quality of teaching and learning that takes place in English language classrooms, and in particular, the effectiveness of teaching grammar structures in EFAL. The research design was exploratory and the approach was qualitative. A selected number of EFAL FET grammar teachers and English Language Curriculum Advisors (ELCAs) in the LP participated in the study. The study was underpinned by an integration of Behaviourism, Mentalism, Cognitive, and Universal Grammar theories. The study findings indicate some learner language interlanguage and grammar permeability, as well as inadequate handling of grammar knowledge and grammar learning assessment.

Writing for an academic purpose is not an easy skill to master, whether for a native English speaker (L1) or an English language learner (ELL). In order to better prepare ELL students for success in mainstream content courses at the university level, more must be known about the characteristics of student writing in the local context of an intensive English program. This information can be used to inform ELL writing instructors of which linguistic features to target so that their students produce writing that sounds appropriate for the academic written register. Two corpora of 30 research essays each were compiled, one of L1 student writing done in various departments at Portland State University, and the other of ELL writing produced in an advanced writing course in Portland State University's Intensive English Language Program. The corpora were compared for the frequencies of 13 linguistic features which had been previously found in significantly different frequencies in L1 and ELL essays (Hinkel, 2002). The tokens of each feature in each essay were counted, and the frequency rate was calculated in each case. The results of the Mann-Whitney U test found 6 features with significantly different frequency rates between the two corpora. The following features were more frequent in L1 essays than in ELL essays: modal would, perfect aspect, passive voice, reduced adjective clause, and it-cleft. In addition, the type/token ratio was found be significantly higher in L1 essays than in ELL essays. An analysis of how each of the significant features was used in the context of ELL and L1 essays revealed the following: Both student groups were still acquiring the appropriate use of modal would; the majority of students in both groups did not utilize it-clefts; the lower type/token ratio in ELL essays meant that these students used a more limited vocabulary than did L1 students; and ELL students were still acquiring the accurate and appropriate uses of perfect aspect, passive voice, and reduced adjective clauses, whereas L1 students used these features grammatically and for the standard uses. To apply these findings to the ELL writing classroom, instructors should help students raise their awareness of these six features in their own academic writing by leading students in identifying grammatical and ungrammatical uses of these features and providing practice in differentiating between uses which are standard to the register of academic writing and uses which are appropriate only in conversation. Two sample activities are included to illustrate how to implement these recommendations.

The study is a comparative analysis of conceptual metaphors in English and Shona. The objectives of this study were: to compare the metaphorical expressions of English and Shona in the same or similar domains in order to establish on the one hand whether there are similarities and/or differences cross-linguistically and cross-culturally in the metaphorical construal of reality between these two languages and on the other hand, to establish what the underlying motivation is for the similarities and the differences between these two unrelated languages. The thesis also explores the reasons for the similarities in terms of particular assumptions underlying conceptual metaphors, that is, embodiment and ecological motivations. / Linguistics / D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

Research has shown that the extent of students' vocabulary in the language of learning and teaching, as an important component of overall language proficiency, plays a crucial role in reading and academic success, whether students are studying through their mother tongue or not. This study compares the vocabulary size of Grade 7 English second language immersion students with that of their English mother tongue classmates, focusing primarily on receptive vocabulary. Two aspects of immersion that South African children may experience are identified: length and quality. It is assumed that the longer the immersion, and the richer the immersion environment, the more positive the effect on vocabulary size will be. Overall results suggest that length has a slightly stronger effect on receptive vocabulary size than quality, though both are generally positive, and that most immersion students are beginning to develop a basic receptive vocabulary size comparable with that of their English mother tongue peers. / Linguistics / (M.A. (Linguistics))

This thesis is a study of language use in English language classrooms in primary schools in Hungary. The focus of the study is on the use of the target language (English) and the mother tongue (Hungarian) by the teachers and the learners. The teachers are all Hungarian native speakers, with varying levels of competence and previous experience in communicative language teaching, and this presents a challenge to the adoption of a communicative approach to the teaching of English. The National Core Curriculum endorses the communicative approach, with the expectation that the target language will be used as much as possible. However, in practice, the mother tongue is widely used in these classrooms, both by the teachers and by the students. There is therefore a conflict between policy and practice: the policy is that the target language should be used wherever possible, whereas the practice is that the use of the target language is limited to predictable and routine contexts. It is this conflict which constitutes the central question which is addressed in this thesis: how do teachers resolve the conflict between what they are expected to do, and what they feel capable of doing. Data from classrooms and interviews were collected and analysed, using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The focus of the analysis was on the amount and function of the use of the mother tongue by the teachers. Comparisons were drawn between teachers of Grade 4 pupils who started to learn English in Grade 1 and those who started in Grade 4. This analysis is complemented by evidence concerning the teachers‘ beliefs and understandings about the pressures and constraints which affect their teaching of English to young learners. The results suggest that the possibility of communicative language teaching in these classrooms is constrained by various factors, including the limitations in the children‘s cognitive capabilities and the proficiency level of the children, and the teachers‘ preference for using their previous methods which included grammar, translation and memorisation; also by curriculum requirements such as the use of the textbook, and the necessity to prepare the children for examinations. The implications of these findings for curriculum development in foreign language teaching in other comparable contexts are discussed.