Although there have been a large number of studies on the use of L1 and L2, there seem to be few on L1 use in Chinese university EFL classrooms, especially investigating the language use of those who teach English to students at different proficiency levels or teach different types of English courses. This thesis aims to analyze four Chinese EFL teachers’ actual use of L1 and L2, to understand their attitudes and beliefs regarding this issue, and their own perceptions of and reasons for their language use, and to explore possible influencing factors. The reading-and-writing lessons and the listening-and-speaking lessons of these four teachers, who were teaching non-English major students at four different levels, were observed and recorded. All the observed lessons were subjected to quantitative analysis with the aim of providing a clear picture of the distribution of their L1 and L2 use. Some episodes selected from these lessons were subjected to further detailed analysis, in order to provide an account of the circumstances, functions, and grammatical patterns of their language use, as well as their language use across different frames of classroom discourse. The teachers were interviewed subsequently about their general beliefs on the use of L1 in L2 teaching and learning. Separately, in a stimulated recall interview, they were invited to provide comments specifically on their language use in the selected episodes that were replayed to them. The quantitative findings show that the amount of the teachers’ L1 use was not necessarily closely related to their students’ English proficiency levels, although the teacher of the students at the lowest level used the highest amount of Chinese in her lessons. However, a noteworthy finding was that all four teachers used more Chinese in the reading-and-writing lessons than in the listening-and-speaking lessons, although with substantial individual variation. The qualitative analysis of classroom data indicates that these teachers switched often at unit boundaries, but rarely at clause boundaries. They also switched frequently within units, especially within noun phrases, and the ‘Chinese determiner + English noun’ pattern is the main one they had in common. Furthermore, the teachers used Chinese as the matrix language in their mixed utterances in most cases, and these mixed utterances nearly always fitted Myers-Scotton’s Morpheme Order principle and System Morpheme principle. The teachers were also found to use Chinese in a variety of circumstances, such as talking about lesson plans or examinations, dealing with exercises, analyzing text, teaching vocabulary, checking the students’ comprehension or retention, giving the students advice on learning, telling anecdotes and assigning homework. The functions for which they used Chinese could be divided into four main categories: facilitating developing lesson content; supporting students and carrying out classroom management; delivering information related to teaching agenda or examinations; and facilitating communication beyond language learning and teaching. The most frequent function common to all four teachers was translation. Furthermore, the study used four different ‘frames’ to analyze classroom discourse, and found that the teachers used the L1 with varying frequency across these frames. Moreover, although all four teachers believed that using the L1 was beneficial to L2 learning, their attitudes towards the medium of instruction were different. While two advocated using the L1, the other two expressed a preference for speaking English-only and perceived their L1 use as a compromise or an expedient. The teachers reported many reasons for their L1 use. The factors that affected their language use consisted of both immediate classroom factors, such as functions of utterances, students’ language use, students’ perceived mood, students’ background knowledge, the difficulty of lesson content, time limitations, teachers’ awareness of their own L1 use, and teachers’ state of mind at a particular moment in a lesson, and relatively static factors, such as the university policy, students’ L2 abilities, teaching objectives, teachers’ beliefs regarding L1 use, and teachers’ L2 abilities. Through its detailed analysis of the teachers’ language use, as well as their relevant beliefs and decision-making, this thesis hopes to make a contribution to L2 teachers’ professional development and L2 teaching, especially in helping to establish a pedagogically principled approach to L1 and L2 use.

Heeding the call by Firth and Wagner (1997) for a re-analysis of some of the “facts” of modern second language (L2) learning theory and research, the goals of this present study are to determine if: (1) informal conversations between a NS of English (NES) learning Spanish and a NS of Spanish (NSS) learning English reveal insight regarding the natural use and interaction of the first (L1) and the target language (TL); (2) informal L2 conversations in which the L1 is permitted present opportunities for L2 teaching, learning or socialization; and (3) provided that evidence of possible opportunities for L2 teaching, learning or socialization is found, does this indicate a need for permitting both informal talk and the use of the L1 in the L2 learning context. It was hypothesized that in informal conversations, learners would demonstrate intuitive approaches to L2 learning, teaching and socialization, and that observations of these phenomena could help guide research and pedagogy regarding the L2 learning context. It was also hypothesized that informal language exchanges would demonstrate that when left to intuition, participants would provide quality NS input and modified NNS output for their partners as they alternated between L1 and L2 and between the roles of language teacher and language learner. Previous studies have shown that the ability to control the language being used and the topic being discussed allows learners to access knowledge and linguistic structures that enable them to feel more comfortable using the L2 and less anxious about interacting in L2 conversations (Auerbach 1993; Tomlinson 2001; Lantolf and Thorne 2007). The design of this study was intended to address the concept of bi-directional informal discourse in learner/expert learner/expert pairs (i.e., participants who are each learners of their partners’ L1) and the informal exchange of two languages in the L2 learning context. Although the importance of language learning and use in context have been described since the early 20th century in the work of Vygotsky, and the phenomenon of participant orientation and role-switching has also been examined in recent years, there have been relatively few studies that have looked at the nexus of social talk and reciprocal teaching by pairs of learner/experts as this context interacts with the use of the L1 and the L2 in an informal communication event. Data for the study were obtained from audio recordings of four conversations between pairs of native Spanish speakers learning English and native English speakers learning Spanish with the goal of determining what the participants would teach to one other through the use of informal, unstructured conversation using both the L1 & the L2. In addition, all of the participants completed an exit interview questionnaire on their experience with the interaction as well as their general opinions regarding language learning. The data showed that 7 out of 8 participants did teach (intentionally or unintentionally) both linguistic and extra-linguistic information from their L1 to their partners, and that in all pairs a local set of rules regarding the use of the L1was established (including the pair in which no English was used). The pairs modeled an intuitive use of the L1 demonstrating the ability of the L1 both to bridge conversational gaps and to enable teaching and socialization in the L2. The data also show how the participants built a community of practice by setting and changing the language used, requesting explicit feedback or evaluation from their partners, bonding over language learning struggles, as well the linguistic and extra-linguistic information that the participants provided for their partners. The results of the study indicate potential benefits both for the use of the L1 in the L2 learning context, and for allowing learners to teach from their own L1 while learning the L2 in informal conversations. However, the recordings and the exit interviews also show some potential problems for implementation (e.g., the possibility that a conversation may be carried out in just one language). The conclusions present implications and applications for the study, such as the establishment of language exchange programs as a supplement to traditional L2 classes, as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. / text

In this study I investigated foreign language learners' Willingness to Communicate, frequency of L2 communication, and eight individual difference variables hypothesized to influence them: L2 learning anxiety, L2 learning motivation, integrativeness, international posture, ought-to L2 self, ideal L2 self, L2 linguistic self-confidence, and valuing of global English. Based on the concept of possible selves (Markus & Nurius, 1986), Dörnyei (2005) proposed the concept of the ideal L2 self: an idealized self-image involving future linguistic proficiency and professional success through mastery of an L2. In this study, Dörnyei's (2005) hypothesis that Willingness to Communicate is primarily determined by linguistic self-confidence and the ideal L2 self is tested using a structural equation model. A second purpose of this study, tested by comparing alternative structural equation models, was to confirm whether students' self-reported Willingness to Communicate best predicts foreign language use in the classroom. In addition, gender differences in L2 WTC and the ideal L2 self, and the effects of visualization and goal-setting activities on the enhancement of Willingness to Communicate were investigated using multivariate statistical techniques. A total of 662 Japanese university students participated in the study, 373 as core participants and 289 for cross validation. A model was hypothesized based on the WTC model (MacIntyre, 1994), the socioeducational model (Gardner, 1985), and the concept of the L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2005), and tested using questionnaire data collected at the beginning of the university semester. The hypothesized model showed marginal fit to the data (CFI = .902, RMSEA = .081). The path from ideal L2 self to L2 WTC, tested for the first time in this study, was the most substantial predictor of L2 WTC in the model with a path weight of .51. It was also confirmed that self-reported estimates of WTC directly predicted observed L2 use in the classroom, while Motivation and Ideal L2 Self did not. A model specifying a direct path from WTC to L2 Use and indirect paths via WTC for Motivation and Ideal L2 Self showed good fit to the data (CFI = .962; RMSEA = .083). Regarding gender differences, female participants scored higher than males in both L2 WTC and Ideal L2 Self. Concerning whether L2 WTC can be enhanced by classroom tasks such as visualization and goal-setting, the results suggested that the visualization treatment alone was not effective in enhancing learners' L2 WTC over the non-treatment group. The increase in learners' L2 WTC was significantly greater for the When visualization and goal-setting group compared with the visualization group and the non-treatment group. The first implication of this study is that considering the strong impact of ideal L2 self on L2 WTC, there is significant potential for enhancing L2 WTC by applying motivational strategies that enhance or develop second language learners' ideal L2 self. Second, considering the importance of L2 output for developing communicative proficiency, the finding that self-reported L2 WTC predicted actual L2 use in the classroom lends additional credence to such motivational approaches. That finding also supports the validity of other studies that have relied on self-report for measures of L2 WTC. A third implication is that because females generally exhibited higher measures for L2 WTC and Ideal L2 Self, gender diversity is preferable to promote active classroom communication. Finally, for researchers and practitioners interested in designing activities to enhance learners' L2 WTC, connecting the proximal goals in the class to future distal goals (Miller & Brickman, 2004) could be an important aspect for the success of the activities). / Teaching & Learning

No description available.

El propósito de la presente monografía es investigar si un grupo de hablantes no nativos de español, todos de nivel muy avanzado, usan los adjetivos modificadores en su discurso espontáneo de una manera parecida a la nativa, y más particularmente en qué medida los colocan de manera idiomática delante o detrás del substantivo. El material usado consiste, por un lado, de entrevistas, en las cuales los participantes cuentan de sus propias vidas, y por el otro lado, de una tarea en la que comentan la acción en un videoclip de la película Tiempos Modernos (de Charlie Chaplin). Los participantes del estudio son diez suecos que residen en Chile desde hace por lo menos 5 años. La hipótesis es que, dada una constatada tendencia conservadora general en los hablantes de una segunda lengua que los llevaría a “ir por lo seguro“, los sujetos sobreusarían la opción no marcada, o sea, la posposición, en la colocación de los adjetivos. Los adjetivos están categorizados en dos grupos: uno de adjetivos cotidianos que tienden a anteponerse al sustantivo (bueno, malo, pequeño, grande, pobre, puro, nuevo, viejo, alto), y los restantes adjetivos, que por defecto aparecen en posición posnominal (p.ej. laboral, sueco, libre, desnudo, rápido, cultural, blanco, redondo, privado etc.). Los resultados no apoyan la hipótesis, en el sentido de que los participantes no nativos tienden a sobreusar la posposición. Estos participantes son comparados con un grupo de control que consiste de diez hablantes de español L1 que residen en Chile. Un aspecto que discrepa en el grupo de hablantes no nativos es el uso del adjetivo grande, para el cual los no nativos prefieren la posposición. También destaca el hecho que los participantes nativos son más propensos a usar adjetivos en general en comparación con el grupo no nativo. / The purpose of this thesis is to investigate to what extent a group of non-native Spanish speakers, all of whom are highly proficient users of L2 Spanish, use modifying adjectives in spontaneous discourse in a targetlike manner and, particularly, to what extent they place them idiomatically before or after the noun. The corpus used consists of interviews, in which the subjects talk about their lives, and another task in which they comment the action of a videoclip from the movie ‘Modern Times’ (by Charlie Chaplin). The subjects of the study are ten Swedes that have lived in Chile for at least 5 years. The assumption being the tendency for second language speakers to be generally conservative and choose to ‘go for what's safe’, it is hypothesized that the L2 users would overuse the unmarked option for placing adjectives, namely after the noun. The adjectives are divided into two categories: one consisting of everyday adjectives that strongly tend to be placed ahead of the noun (bueno, malo, pequeño, grande, nuevo, pobre, puro, viejo, alto) and the other of adjectives that appear in postposition by default (e.g. laboral, sueco, libre, desnudo, rápido, cultural, blanco, redondo, privado etc.). The results don’t support the hypothesis, in the sense that the non-native participants tend to overuse postposition. The L2 participants have been compared to a control group consisting of ten L1 Spanish speakers living in Chile. One aspect that differs in the non-native group is the use of grande, for which the non-native speakers, unlike the natives, prefer postposition. What also stands out is the fact that native speakers are more prone to using adjectives in general compared to the non-native group.

Previous studies have shown that teachers and students using English as the medium of instruction (EMI) in science classrooms encounter many language challenges with teaching and learning processes. Problems include the limited English communication skills of science teachers, the lack of EMI training for science teachers, the students' different language abilities and science teachers' beliefs that they are not responsible for addressing students' language needs in science. Teachers' lack of language awareness has led to poor teaching practices and limited interactions in the classrooms. This lack of language awareness, in turn, suggests that there are limited opportunities for students to learn English as a second language in the science classroom. This study extends the research on EMI classroom interactions in Hong Kong (Lo and Macaro, 2012) to the previously unexamined context of senior secondary science classrooms. A total of 19 teachers and 545 students from grades 10 and 11 EMI science class were recruited in Hong Kong from 'early-full EMI' schools (full EMI instruction from grades 7 to 12) and 'late-partial EMI' schools (Chinese medium from grades 7 to 9 and partial EMI instruction from grades 10 to 12). The project used multiple sources of qualitative data (i.e. semi-structured interviews and 33 videotaped classroom observations) to explore the similarities and differences in classroom interactions during the first and second years of the senior science curriculum (grades 10 and 11) in the two types of EMI schools. This project also investigated these science teachers' and students' perceptions of EMI teaching and learning processes, their preference of instructional language and their beliefs about teaching and learning in the EMI environment. Interviews also probed teachers' language awareness, teachers' and students' belief about EMI, students' self-concepts in science (students' perceptions or beliefs about their ability to do well in science, see Wilkins, 2004)) and their perceptions of language challenges and coping strategies in EMI classrooms. The results from the observational data show similar interactional patterns in both early-full and late-partial EMI science classrooms when measured as percentages of interaction time, distribution of time between teacher and student talk and frequency of pedagogical functions. However, the nature of the interactions is different. In late-partial EMI schools, overall, there are more (but shorter) student initiations and responses, more use of higher-order questions from the teachers but less direct feedback to students. Both teachers and students tend to use their L1 more. In both types of schools, there was less interaction time and a lower maximum length of student turns and more L1 use in grade 11 than in grade 10. The discourse analysis of the four biology lesson transcripts also shows that both early-full and late-partial EMI students predominantly produced incomplete sentences consisting of short, technical nouns or noun phrases referring to scientific items. Science teachers rarely made any attempts to correct their students' language mistakes, nor did they encourage students to produce a complete sentence. This lack of teacher feedback on students' L2 language production perhaps reflects the fact that EMI science teachers rarely provide comprehensible input to facilitate students' L2 language learning. These findings suggest the important role of the teacher's modified input in teacher-student interaction in developing students' content knowledge and language skills. The adoption of EMI appears to lead to the development of students' comprehension of content knowledge more than development of their language production skills. As a result of their language shortfalls, the students' L2 productive skills remain under-developed despite English instruction. This lack of language support by teachers appears to indicate a gap between the aims of the EMI policy and its implementation. The interview and questionnaire data show that the science teachers from both the early-full and late-partial EMI schools held many of the same views about their EMI teaching experiences, but they differed in their attitudes towards the value of English language skills and their language awareness. The early-full EMI teachers believed English language skills were important and these early-full teachers have a higher language awareness than the late-partial EMI science teachers. Students from both types of schools also held similar views about their EMI learning, indicating that they welcome the adoption of EMI instruction. However, while the late-partial EMI students see EMI as an opportunity to improve their English, those in the early-full EMI schools believe that EMI discouraged them from learning. By providing an evidence-based, pedagogically focused analysis of teacher and student classroom interactions and their perceptions, this research sheds light on ways to improve the quality of instructional practices in different EMI classrooms in Hong Kong and in similar contexts around the world.