This paper presents a general comparison of Japanese and American communication patterns and includes 30 dialogue lessons which focus on differences in communication patterns between the two nations to be used as oral communication teaching materials for Japanese learners of English.There are four striking contrasts in common personality and cultural norms between Japan and the United States, namely, introversion vs. extroversion, hierarchism vs. egalitarianism, collectivism vs. individualism, and nonverbalism vs. verbalism. The differences in common personality and cultural norms effect behavioral and psychological differences, which in turn cause differences in communication patterns between the two nations. A comparative study of communication patterns, then, makes it possible to speculate on the probable occurrence of misunderstanding and miscommunication in cross-cultural communicative interactions, and finally, provides a firm basis for the development of oral communication teaching materials with attention to cultural relativism for Japanese learners of English.

This thesis examines several possible contributions and limitations of John Dewey's Progressive educational theory towards creating an effective program for improving the teaching of oral English courses in Japanese high schools. / In particular, the study attempts a critical examination of Dewey's theory of Instrumentalism as a standpoint from which it continues to contribute to the retrogressive state of contemporary Japanese pedagogical orientation. In so doing, the thesis attempts to elicit, find speculative guidance in, and occasionally utilize in the clarification process, critical evaluations of Japan's university entrance examination system. / The aspects of Dewey's theory which are considered as conducive to the above goal are: his approach to the relationship between educator and student, teaching techniques, and his research in the realm of education as it applies to meeting the needs of society. It is put forth that although Dewey's ideology in these areas has actually contributed to pedagogical dilemma which may impede the compulsory teaching of English conversation in Japanese high schools, such a contribution must be considered en route to reaching an accurate solution. / It is contended that the cognitive-linguistic theory of Jerome Bruner is required as a viewpoint which serves to supplement, ameliorate and to assimilate Dewey's proposals in order to clearly elaborate a method by which Japanese adolescents may fluently express their hopes for participating in global ecology.

The study examines to what extent and under what conditions incidental L2 vocabulary acquisition through reading occurs. The all-male subjects were 144 grade seven ESL learners at a French-language high school in Montreal. They were previously placed into 5 groups, ranging from beginner to bilingual, according to their English language ability as assessed by the school's English placement test. To study the extent of incidental acquisition through reading, a Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation, 1990) was administered to determine students' initial vocabulary knowledge which indicated that this knowledge correlated with their group placement level, and that the majority of the subjects were proficient at the 2000-word frequency level. A story having a vocabulary difficulty at this level, as analyzed by two computer programs, was chosen and a pretest and posttest were developed in the same format as Nation's test using words from the story. Two weeks after the pretest, the students heard the story on tape while following along with the written text. Posttests were administered 48 hours after the treatment. Further conditions were examined in post hoc analyses on the effects of contextual richness and number of appearances of a word. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The aim of this Portfolio is to provide insight into some characteristics of I lungarian learners of English, and to use this as evidence in pointing out the need for a change in current teacher education practices in the preparation of English teachers. The Portfolio comprises two projects. Project `A, ' Ihingal-ia» t ieivs about Native Eiiglislr , Sppeakiiig Insiniclors, explores the positive and negative experiences of Hungarian learners with native English speaking instructors. With the help of qualitative research and analysis the learners' needs and expectations are highlighted. Project `B, ' The L inguaage Leariii, ig SIralegie Used by Ilungariarl Learners of English, investigates the learning strategies of I lungariann learners and their general approach to learning. From the qualitative analysis of the data particular features emerge which have not been documented in the literature before. The research results point out those features of the learner which prevailing teacher education models do not prepare novice teachers for. The portfolio is based on I lungarian experience but an international relevance is also demonstrated. The two projects are each placed in the wider context of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), and thus they provide evidence that besides preserving some universally valid elements of teacher education models, it is necessary to find ways of catering for particular local needs. Instead of imposing the values and beliefs represented by Anglo-American teacher education approaches, textbooks or methods, there are local, context-specific features which have to also be taken account of. At a time when English is primarily used for international communication, teachers can only be prepared in a training program which, instead of the present Anglo-American cultural dominance, adopts an intercultural approach. The final section of the portfolio outlines the possible elements of such a culture-sensitive teacher education model for teaching English as a foreign language.

This research investigated the effect of teaching text organisation on reading in English second language to schoolgirls. All subjects underwent a training programme of five one-hour sessions on consecutive school days. The experimental group were trained in the use and recognition of top-level organisation as a reading strategy, based on work done by Bartlett (1978) and Carrell (1985). The control group were trained in unrelated grammar exercises. A pre-test was administered to each group before their programme began. Post-test 1 was administered immediately after the training was completed, and Post-test 2, three weeks later. These tests required a written recall of two passages once they had been read, and an answer to a question on their organisation. The null hypotheses stated that the experimental group's training in the use and recognition of top-level organisation as a reading strategy would make no difference in their ability to read and recall information or to recognise and use top-level organisation in their recalls. For the quantity of information recalled, no differences were found in the Pre-test and Post-test 1; a statistically significant difference was found in Post-test 2 in favour of the experimental group. For the quality of information recalled, the control group remembered more top-level idea units in the Pre-test; there was no difference in Post-test 1; the experimental group did better in three out of five levels in Post-test 2. There was no difference in the Pretest in either group's use of the passage's top-level organisation to structure recalls, but the experimental group did better in both post-tests. The control group did better in the Pre-test in recognising the passage's top-level organisation, but the experimental group did better in both post-tests. The null hypotheses were rejected as the experimental training made a difference, although this difference only became apparent three weeks later, and not immediately after the training. The experimental group's nullifying the control group's Pre-test advantage in Post-test 1 and surpassing it in Post-test 2, powerfully supports Bartlett's and Carrell's findings that teaching the strategy did make a difference and that this effect could be maintained over three weeks

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of errors in English usage, punctuation, and spelling made by grade 12 students in the two paragraphs that each student wrote on the June, 1953, English 40 (Language) University Entrance examination in British Columbia. The errors were classified within each of fourteen major categories. These categories were further divided to give a total of seventy-four classes. In order to record specific errors some of the seventy-four classes were further subdivided to increase the number of classes to 104, excluding spelling errors. Furthermore an attempt was made to discover a relationship between the incidence of errors in English and certain factors that possibly may have been associated with such errors. These factors were: the student's (a) intelligence (scholastic ability); (b) sex; (c) socioeconomic status as determined by the father's occupation; (d) interest in English as determined by the student's choice of major subjects; (e) choice of topics on which the student wrote his paragraphs, and (f) choice of high school program: University or General. Furthermore, in order to determine the extent to which the number of words in the paragraphs might have influenced the number of errors, this writer found a relationship between the number of errors students made and (a) the number of words written on the two paragraphs on the examination, and (b) the number of words written on (i) the expository paragraph and (ii) the descriptive or narrative paragraph. By discovering the extent of the relationship between errors made in the paragraphs and the marks that teachers gave to the paragraphs, this investigator attempted to find out the degree to which markers took into consideration mechanical errors in English. On examining 599 paragraphs written by 300 grade 12 students, this writer found the number of words written and errors in usage, punctuation, and spelling as summarized in the table below. (Tables omitted) Students wrote the mean number of words and made the mean number of errors as shown in the following table. (Tables omitted) When one considers the fourteen main categories of errors, he finds that spelling and punctuation account for slightly more than two-thirds of the errors. If four other categories (capitalization, the apostrophe, omissions, misuse of quotation marks) are added to the punctuation and spelling, one finds that non-usage errors account for nearly 80 per cent of the total number of errors. Those errors ranking 1-7 account for nearly 93 per cent of all errors. Ten kinds of errors in punctuation accounted for 89.9 per cent of all such errors. By applying appropriate statistical analyses, this investigator attempted to determine the relationship between errors and the elements mentioned in the first paragraph. The writer found that the coefficient of correlation between errors and scholastic ability was .304. On both paragraphs boys made a mean of 16.73 errors and girls 13.41; t was found to be 3.12. For 293 degrees of freedom t is 2.59 at the 1 per cent level or less. Consequently, for t = 3.12, the hypothesis of no difference in the means can be rejected. The writer found that students whose fathers were in the professional, semi-professional, and managerial vocations made a mean of 11.17 errors, and students whose fathers were in the skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled vocations made 14.8. For 98 degrees of freedom t is 1.984 at th 5 per cent level. But for the means just given t is 2.062. Therefore the hypothesis of no difference can be rejected. If choice of majors is used as a criterion of interest, students who are primarily interested in English make fewer errors than those who are not. The former made a mean of 12.61 errors on both paragraphs; the latter, 14.00. For 267 degrees of freedom t is 1.969 at the 5 per cent level of significance; therefore the hypothesis of no difference in the means can be rejected. Turning to a consideration of errors made by University Programme students and those made by General Programme students, one finds that the former made a mean of 12.35 errors; the latter, 17.55. For 287 degrees of freedom t is 2.592 at the 1 per cent level of significance. One can therefore reject with considerable confidence the hypothesis of no difference in the means. That the number of errors on a paragraph does not increase directly as the number of words written is shown by the fact that the coefficient of correlation between the number of errors and the number of words written is .574. Consequently the use of the paragraph as a unit on which to base the numbers of errors need not invalidate the statistical analyses and inferences previously made. Finally, examiners probably took errors into consideration when they marked the paragraphs as the coefficient of correlation between errors and the marks the examiners gave the paragraphs was - .202, which is significant at the 1 per cent level. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

This case history covers the progress of a pilot course for teaching English as an additional language to older people from the original concept to its evaluation and final acceptance for future implementation. A serious problem was observed to exist among the large number of older immigrants living in Canada who cannot speak or understand the English language. Many of these people had lived here for many years imprisoned in a 'language ghetto’ which allowed them to communicate only with those of their own race. The difficulties experienced by these individuals, as well as the impoverishment of Canadian culture engendered by their inability to communicate, constituted sufficient reason to explore the feasibility of designing a course to offer English language training specifically for them. A thorough study of all the current English language training courses in Vancouver, British Columbia, revealed a gap in the services available for this particular population. A review of the literature regarding learning and the older person disclosed nothing which might suggest that such an undertaking might prove abortive. The geographical locations -of ethnic populations who might be expected to register in such a course were charted, and a suitable community centre in which to hold the classes was selected. Promotional material was prepared and disseminated through mass media and other suitable outlets. The class was successfully launched and throughout its course careful records were kept including attendance, characteristics of participants, and anecdotes reflecting the acceptance of the course by those attending. The project firmly established the need for such courses for this group, and found that the overall format of the program was satisfactory and feasible. Recommendations for future courses were outlined, and an expansion of the pilot course was subsequently effectively implemented in Vancouver. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

While native speakers adjust their speech to accommodate non-native speakers on syntactic and prosodic levels, they also make adjustments on the level of discourse. It has been argued that these interactional adjustments are crucial to the promotion of language learning. A quasi-experimental, factorial study compared the frequencies of nine interactional features used in the speech of four ESL teachers as they taught beginner and advanced level adult classes. It was expected that teachers would change their use of each feature accordingly as students neared native proficiency. Nine two-way analyses of variance were employed to capture three sources of variation in the use of the interactional features: proficiency level, teacher and proficiency level by teacher interaction. As predicted, display questions and self-repetitions were used significantly less often with advanced students than with beginners. High variability in teacher behaviour was discovered, and seemed to be primarily an artifact of lesson content. In fact, discourse usage seemed to vary as a function of lesson content, as well as proficiency level of the students. One result, the marked reduction in use of display questions at the advanced level, was discussed in light of prevailing ESL goals. As research addresses the question of whether and which adjustments do promote language acquisition, there will be implications for teacher training. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

This study tested the hypothesis that students who were identified as possessing an intuitive preference, or cognitive style, on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator would learn most about a series of poetry concepts if they were in an environment which emphasized discovery learning and low levels of structure. Conversely, those students who were identified as possessing a sensing preference, or cognitive style on the indicator would learn most in a more directed and structured environment. Data was gathered on 167 Grade 8 students who had been randomly assigned to two treatment groups. Analysis of variance and linear regression revealed significant disordinal interaction for one of the two treatment methods. The interaction partially supported the hypothesis: "N" students achieved most in a discovery-learning environment (P<.005 and P<.001), while "S" students were not significantly advantaged in the more directed and structured environment. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The ability to read and write academic discourse in a second language often determines an ESL student's scholastic progress. Recent related research has focused on the academic reading of ESL university students at the text level, often at the single or multi-paragraph level (Block, 1986; Carrell, 1985, 1987), and has looked at categories that were general across subject areas. This study explores how first year university ESL students cope with the reading demands of two specific credit courses, English Literature and Introductory Psychology, within the context of the course requirements, the instruction, and the nature of the academic discipline itself. The research method focused on ethnographic interviews with ten students from various Asian countries and their Canadian instructors, on classroom observations, and on the researcher's extensive field diary. Analysis of the findings identified three major coping strategies: self-management, background knowledge and experience, and reliance on the instructors in the disciplines. The nature of the genre, the students' interest in the discipline, and their perseverance in reading comprehension appear to influence their choice of strategies in meeting specific academic objectives. These strategies contributed to the background knowledge component of the academic tasks that the students face. Their efforts at academic tasks were guided by the concern to do what was required to complete course assignments. Essentially, course assignments directed the action component or agenda, of the students' academic tasks. Reading-to-learn involved approaching the genre-specific reading tasks at the whole text level within the context of what was required to successfully fulfil the course requirements of the particular genre. The primary reality of the students was to demonstrate an adequate level of academic proficiency. In contrast with previous research, findings indicated the importance of genre-specific reading tasks at the whole-text level rather than generic reading at the paragraph level, and the importance of relating coping strategies to the context of what was required to fulfil course requirements rather than the study of strategies in isolation. Thus, the findings were consistent with a theoretical model (Mohan, 1986) analyzing academic tasks into an action component and a knowledge component. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate