published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

This paper is a qualitative case study of a Korean first grade child. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of a first grade Korean child’s oral language interactions with teachers, parents, peers, and community members and to examine how a child’s oral language impacts his literacy learning in English. The data were collected over five months from three different settings: the school, the Korean Language School, and the home. Data methods were interviews, observations, field notes, surveys, audio and video recordings, documents, and informal assessments in Korean and English. Data analysis was based on the analytical categorization and the constant comparison analysis. The results of this study revealed that opportunities to engage in social interactions between a child and his teachers, parents, and peers through oral conversation contributed to the language and literacy learning of the child observed. The analysis of the data showed that literacy development in English was influenced by three factors: individual factors, home and school environmental factors, and community and cultural environmental factors. Individual factors were personal motivation, the first language effect, and background knowledge. Home and school environmental factors included parents’ support, peer group activity, and teacher’s role. Finally, community and cultural environmental factors were mass media and Korean culture and identity. The results of the study supported Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Bronfenbrenner’s ecology system theory that learning occurs through social interactions in cooperated groups and their environments. / Department of Elementary Education

"August 2003" / Bibliography: p. [1-29] / xii, 210, [166] p. : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This study examines engagement in English as a foreign language (EFL) literacy practices as opportunities for making meanings with texts and for learning English as a foreign language. The study also proposes practical implications for EFL instruction. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, Discipline of Linguistics, 2004

International students are often under considerable pressure from language barriers, culture shock, social isolation and lack of social support in American universities. Those stressors often discourage international students as ESL learners from practicing English with native students on campus. Based on Krashen & Terrell’s subconscious acquisition and conscious learning hypothesis, Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development , Cummins’ Basic Interpersonal Communication System (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), Horwitz’s language anxiety and Oxford’s indirect learning strategies , this study explores how international students and American students, respectively, perceive English Corner and whether English Corner could be an applicable out-of-class learning environment for international students to practice English and socialize with American students on American campuses. English Corner refers to regular meetings that English learners in Mainland China voluntarily organize in public places to practice spoken English. A survey was conducted on language learning strategies, socialization, acculturation, autonomy and English Corner among international students and native students at the University of North Texas. The questionnaires were adapted from Oxford and Nyikos’ study as to what variables affect choice of language learning strategies, Iheanacho’s study as to how international students use the Morris Library at the University of Delaware and their perception of library services and programs, and Battle’s study as to how information literacy instruction affects library anxiety among international students. The findings of this study may help American universities realize the importance of English Corner as one optimal intervention program for international students and American students. The support for English Corner may help international students improve their English learning, alleviate their language anxiety and create more opportunities for international students and native students to socialize with each other.

Analysis on most heavily overused and underused syntactic features shows that, when compared with native speakers, Hong Kong students favour the use of present tense, tentative style, simple noun phrase structure and explicit clause-relation marking in oral presentations. They prefer using present tense constructions, adopting pronouns for nominal functions and using an interactive tone in written essays. In both the learner speech data and the learner writing data, quite a number of the overused and underused syntactic features are closely related to the differences between speech and writing found in Biber (1988), hinting at Hong Kong students' inadequate sensitivity to mode differences in English. / Analysis on textual dimensions suggests that Hong Kong students' oral presentations differ from comparable native-speaker oral production by being more written-like in terms of the use of explicit/situation-dependent reference and the inclusion of abstract/non-abstract information. Hong Kong students' written essays deviate from comparable native-speaker written production by being more spoken-like in terms of the involved/informational focus and the use of explicit/situation-dependent reference. Moreover, both the learner speech data and the learner writing data bear some resemblance to common native-speaker genres in the opposite mode. / The present study clearly demonstrates that Hong Kong students have limited sensitivity to the conventional usage of syntactic features in spoken and written English. The teaching profession should help the students develop better sociolinguistic competence when teaching grammar, speaking and writing. Future research on second language acquisition should also focus more on the learners' sociolinguistic development so that second language learners' communicative ability can be better understood. / This thesis investigates Hong Kong secondary school students' sensitivity to differences between spoken and written English by examining their use of 67 syntactic features. A model specifying how native speakers vary their use of syntactic features across speech and writing, Biber (1988), has been adopted as the theoretical framework. Fifty-two oral presentations delivered by Form 6 students and 52 public examination essays written by Form 7 students, both of which total about 10,000 words, have been analysed. The students' performance is compared with native speakers' performance in similar spoken and written production on the level of syntactic features and the level of textual dimensions. / Chui, Sze Yan. / "December 2010." / Adviser: Gerald Nelson. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-266). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese; some appendixes also in Chinese.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

This project provides a background on English instruction in Korea and features a literature review that builds theoretical aspects of this project. This project also presents a model of communicative competence applied to the speaking process which incorporates the application of speaking strategies.

This thesis examines the results of a large-scale sociolinguistic study on the use of English in two universities in China. The aim of the thesis is to determine the sociolinguistic realities of the use of English in higher education in China. The universities were selected on the basis of their unique status in China’s higher education hierarchy. One university was a private institute reliant on student fees for its income, and the other a state-funded university under the supervision of the Chinese Ministry of Education. A sociolinguistic survey was conducted involving some 490 respondents at these universities between early 2012 and mid-2013. It was specifically aimed at describing the use of the English language in the formal education of students. The study reports on the status and functions of English at the universities, as well as the attitudes of various stakeholders towards English (and other languages). It also examines their beliefs about English. English is considered in a number of contexts: first, the context of language contact, of English alongside other languages and language varieties on the two university campuses; second, of English as part of the linguistic worlds of Chinese students who switch between languages in their daily lives, both in their education as well as their private lives; and third, of the spread and use of English in terms of the physical and virtual movement of people across spaces. The findings of the study indicate that the increasing use of English in the formal education at these universities is having an impact on the ways in which Chinese students are learning their course materials, and even more notably in the myriad ways these students are using multiple languages to negotiate their everyday lives. As university students in China become increasingly bilingual, their ability to move across spaces is shown to increase, both in the ‘real’ world, as well as in their Internet and entertainment lives. / Linguistics / D. Lit. et Phil. (Linguistics)