Although the benefits of peer feedback have been widely studied in the EFL classroom, fewer studies have focused on the perceived challenges of giving and receiving peer feedback from the perspective of upper secondary students in Sweden. Therefore, the aim of this qualitative study is to increase teachers’ knowledge of the challenges surrounding peer feedback for EFL writing as voiced by students. This study also discusses students’ suggestions to minimise such challenges. Using data collected from eleven semi-structured interviews with students, thematic analysis and the theoretical framework of Sociocultural theory, this study found that giving feedback was perceived as being more challenging than receiving feedback. Moreover, findings show that the majority of students perceive heterogeneous language proficiencies and negative emotions arising from negative feedback to be major challenges, hence students’ suggestions for homogenous language proficiency groupings and for anonymous feedback. It can be concluded that students’ beliefs about peer feedback in heterogeneous language proficiency pairings and various negative emotions related to peer feedback can influence language development negatively.

This quantitative study explored the interplay among school culture, chronic absenteeism rates for English Learners (ELs), and overall English language proficiency (ELP) progress, as indicated by the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 test, in suburban Virginia middle schools. Utilizing the Virginia Framework for Cultural Competency, which encompasses learning environment, pedagogy and practice, community engagement, and self-reflection, the research aimed to determine the relationships among these domains, school culture, and student outcomes. The overarching research question addressed the interaction between school culture, chronic absenteeism rates for ELs, and ELP progress. Supporting questions examined the connections between school culture and ELP progress, the four cultural competency domains and ELP progress, and school culture and chronic absenteeism rates for ELs. Data for school culture ratings were sourced from the Department of Criminal Justice Services' school climate survey. The information on chronic absenteeism rates for ELs and ELP progress came from the Virginia Department of Education School Quality Profile. Analyses employing single and multiple linear regressions were conducted on existing archival data to identify statistical significance and correlations. The study yielded seven significant findings, highlighted three implications for practice, and revealed one policy implication. The findings from this research could assist current and future school leaders in Virginia middle schools by pinpointing specific aspects of school culture that could potentially enhance chronic absenteeism rates and academic progress in ELs. Additionally, division leaders might use these insights to tailor professional development for middle school principals and other educational leaders, emphasizing the critical role of a positive school culture. Furthermore, this study could support broader research efforts asserting the impact of school culture on academic success among ELs, identifying vital cultural elements that influence student achievement irrespective of their absenteeism or academic progress rates. / Doctor of Education / Principals of Virginia middle schools are tasked with ensuring that all students feel welcome in their building, attend school regularly, and make adequate progress. This quantitative study explored the interplay among school culture, chronic absenteeism rates for English Learners (ELs), and overall English language proficiency (ELP) progress, as indicated by the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 test, in suburban Virginia middle schools. Utilizing the Virginia Framework for Cultural Competency, which encompasses learning environment, pedagogy and practice, community engagement, and self-reflection, the research aimed to determine the relationships among these domains, school culture, and student outcomes. The overarching research question addressed the interaction between school culture, chronic absenteeism rates for ELs, and ELP progress. Supporting questions examined the connections between school culture and ELP progress, the four cultural competency domains and ELP progress, and school culture and chronic absenteeism rates for ELs. The study yielded seven significant findings, highlighted three implications for practice, and revealed one policy implication. The findings from this research could assist current and future school leaders in Virginia middle schools by pinpointing specific aspects of school culture that could potentially enhance chronic absenteeism rates and academic progress in ELs. Additionally, division leaders might use these insights to tailor professional development for middle school principals and other educational leaders, emphasizing the critical role of a positive school culture.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Linguistics, Language and Communication) / At independence, Namibia chose English as its official language and therefore its language of learning and teaching (LOLT). This decision has been well supported and therefore there has been an expectation among Namibians that learning English as early as possible is important because it will open many doors to the future (Harris, 2011). However, since the introduction of English as LOLT, government documents and other relevant literature have revealed poor performance of learners and falling standards of teaching (Iipinge, 2013). Despite this revelation, no study has been done in Namibia to investigate the effects of the current Language in Education Policy (LEP) on the teaching and learning of different school subjects. Therefore, this study focuses on critical questions regarding the effects of the current Namibian LEP on the teaching and learning of English Second Language (ESL) in Northern Namibia, with a special focus on one of the most demanding skills in second language learning: essay writing. Besides this, the study looks at the writing problems of learners and the intervention strategies that teachers are using to help learners overcome or reduce writing problems.

With the number of Asian immigrants continually increasing in New Zealand society, Asian immigrant businesses have been appearing more rapidly in New Zealand, particularly in Auckland. The primary purpose of this study is to enquire into why a certain Asian immigrant group become business people after migrating to Auckland, New Zealand. In addition, it investigates the level of their business activity and the level of happiness with their new life in New Zealand. This study examines the growing phenomenon of Asian immigrants, and the entrepreneurship rate of ethnic groups through existing statistics. The study focuses on Korean immigrants. Twenty self-employed Koreans who are running a business in Auckland participated in the study. They were invited to talk about why they became self-employed business people and related matters about their business activity. The study found that Korean immigrants chose self-employment as a means of getting a job. They gave up seeking mainstream employment opportunities due to the language barrier and their inability to cope with a new society and new system. Other fundamental factors in their decision to become entrepreneurs were that firstly, they were willing to invest a considerable amount of their own money and secondly, they preferred to participate in the workforce rather than to depend on the New Zealand welfare system. Based on the information acquired through the research, the study reported that the recently increased numbers of Asian businesses are partly attributable to New Zealand business immigration policy which introduced a new business category – Long Term Business Visa (LTBV). The findings from this research pointed to commitment that immigrant businesses contribute to the New Zealand economy and New Zealand society as taxpayers and potential employers.

With the number of Asian immigrants continually increasing in New Zealand society, Asian immigrant businesses have been appearing more rapidly in New Zealand, particularly in Auckland. The primary purpose of this study is to enquire into why a certain Asian immigrant group become business people after migrating to Auckland, New Zealand. In addition, it investigates the level of their business activity and the level of happiness with their new life in New Zealand. This study examines the growing phenomenon of Asian immigrants, and the entrepreneurship rate of ethnic groups through existing statistics. The study focuses on Korean immigrants. Twenty self-employed Koreans who are running a business in Auckland participated in the study. They were invited to talk about why they became self-employed business people and related matters about their business activity. The study found that Korean immigrants chose self-employment as a means of getting a job. They gave up seeking mainstream employment opportunities due to the language barrier and their inability to cope with a new society and new system. Other fundamental factors in their decision to become entrepreneurs were that firstly, they were willing to invest a considerable amount of their own money and secondly, they preferred to participate in the workforce rather than to depend on the New Zealand welfare system. Based on the information acquired through the research, the study reported that the recently increased numbers of Asian businesses are partly attributable to New Zealand business immigration policy which introduced a new business category – Long Term Business Visa (LTBV). The findings from this research pointed to commitment that immigrant businesses contribute to the New Zealand economy and New Zealand society as taxpayers and potential employers.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:34:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Monica Raimunda de Jesus.pdf: 507492 bytes, checksum: 9c150c9a752f39cd1e6b938cae5936aa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study aims to examine the relationship between proficiency in English and previous school experiences, as well as personal characteristics, family ambience and social experiences in English Language, of students who attended the last year of High School in 2008. The research was conducted in two public schools of the state of São Paulo. As basic procedure for data collection, questionnaires and a test of proficiency in English language were applied to High School students of the schools surveyed. Data analysis was based on the theories of Bourdieu (1971, 1982, 1989, 1998, 2007) about cultural and social capital, as we propose to understand the practices in English in the social educational experience of research participants, which has determined or not a satisfactory or unsatisfactory assimilation of the English Language. Besides, we analyse the activities involving the English language based on the contributions of the same author on the social construction of taste. We have found, using data collected, that some social and educational practices of last year High School students of the same social class are determinants for some of these students who obtain better performance in English than the majority of students. In the test of English proficiency, from the 99 surveyed students, 6 had a better result than average, 16 obtained an average performance and 77 underperformed. These data show that although the students attended at least seven years of English classes, the skill level of the majority is very low, which, on one side, reinforces the poor quality of Brazilian schools in general, and it indicates that Foreign Language education is also a factor in this lack of quality: so much so that, when comparing the results of students from two schools and their rates of assessment (SARESP) that differ from each other, the levels of proficiency in English were similar, which made us leave the initial goal of mutual comparison between the results of students in each school. As regards the relationship between family ambience, educational and social experiences and levels of proficiency, we found the following results: the existence of a family member who knows English seems to be insignificant in increasing proficiency; social experiences (use of the internet, habits of reading in English and watching dubbed movies) show that even if one does not know whether the habit leads to the best proficiency or the best proficiency leads to the habits, the fact is that students who had higher proficiency in English read and watched more subtitled films, which seems to reinforce the view that education does nothing more than reinforce the culture obtained outside school. With regard to school experience, the most significant finding concerns the high number of students with low proficiency and that were failed in High School, which seems to confirm that this group of students is destined to failure in all activities and school subjects / Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a relação entre proficiência em Língua Inglesa e as experiências escolares pregressas, características pessoais e ambiência familiar e as experiências sociais envolvendo o uso dessa língua , de alunos que cursaram o último ano do Ensino Médio em 2008. Para esta investigação, foram selecionadas duas escolas públicas da rede estadual de São Paulo e foi adotado, como procedimento básico, a coleta de dados a partir de questionários e de um teste de proficiência em Língua Inglesa, aplicados aos alunos. A análise dos dados apóia-se nos conceitos de Bourdieu (1971, 1982, 1989, 1998, 2007), fundamentalmente os de capital cultural e social, na medida em que propomos identificar as práticas relativas ao uso do inglês nas experiências sócio-educacionais dos participantes da pesquisa, que foram determinantes ou não para uma satisfatória/insatisfatória assimilação da Língua Inglesa. Acessoriamente, procuramos analisar as atividades que envolviam a Língua Inglesa com base nas contribuições desse mesmo autor sobre a construção social do gosto. Constatamos, por meio dos dados coletados, que algumas práticas sócio-educacionais de alunos do último ano do Ensino Médio, de uma mesma classe social, são determinantes para que alguns desses educandos obtenham um desempenho melhor em inglês que o da grande maioria dos estudantes. No teste de proficiência em inglês, dos 99 alunos pesquisados, 6 tiveram um resultado acima da média, 16 obtiveram um desempenho mediano e 77 um baixo desempenho. Esses dados mostram que, apesar de cursarem, pelo menos, sete anos de aulas de inglês, o nível de proficiência da maioria é baixíssimo o que, se de um lado, reforça a falta de qualidade da escola brasileira no geral, indica que o ensino de Língua Estrangeira também é fator para essa falta de qualidade: tanto é assim que, quando comparados os resultados dos alunos das duas escolas cujos índices de avaliação (SARESP) se distinguem, os níveis de proficiência em inglês encontrados foram semelhantes, o que nos fez abandonar o objetivo inicial de cotejamento entre os resultados dos alunos de cada uma das escolas. No que se refere à relação entre ambiência familiar, experiências escolares e sociais e os níveis de proficiência, foram encontrados os seguintes resultados: a existência de familiar que sabe inglês parece ser pouco significativa para o aumento da proficiência; as experiências sociais (uso de internet, hábitos de leitura em inglês e de assistir filmes dublados) mostram que, independentemente de sabermos se o hábito leva à proficiência ou esta a uma maior ocorrência dos primeiros, o fato é que os alunos que apresentaram maior proficiência liam mais em inglês e assistiam mais a filmes legendados, o que parece reforçar a tese de que a educação escolar nada mais faz do que reforçar o capital cultural obtido fora dela. Com relação às experiências escolares, o achado mais significativo diz respeito ao número elevado de alunos com baixa proficiência e que foi reprovado no Ensino Médio, o que parece confirmar que esse grupo de aluno está fadado ao insucesso em todas as atividades e disciplinas escolares

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The aim of this research was (1) to provide empirical data of learning potential and English language proficiency for work performance; (2) to establish whether race and gender influence work performance; (3) to evaluate practical utility and to propose recommendations for selection purposes. The Learning Potential Computerised Adaptive Test and the English Literacy Skills Assessment were used as measuring instruments to measure learning potential and English language proficiency respectively. Work performance data were obtained from the normal performance data system of the company where the research was conducted. ANOVA results showed differences between race and gender groupings. A regression analysis confirmed the predictive validity of learning potential and English language proficiency on work performance. The Spearman rho correlation coefficient (p < 0.05) showed a significant positive correlation between the investigated variables / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / M. A. (Industrial & Organisational Psychology)