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<p>This investigation examined the effectiveness of different types of explicit classroom instruction on second language (L2) development of the Spanish discourse marker (DM) <em>pues</em>. While several studies have addressed the positive effect of explicit instruction on L2 DM development, the current investigation moves beyond the explicit-implicit method debate by examining the comparative effectiveness of different types of explicit instruction, specifically by comparing the effects of concept-based instruction (CBI), rule-based instruction (RBI), and a control group (CTRL). This investigation contributes to the field of instructed pragmatics by demonstrating how different types of explicit instruction can affect the robustness of pragmatics learning outcomes. Furthermore, with the inclusion of CBI, this investigation expands theoretical paradigms for L2 pragmatics teaching to include a less explored framework for instruction — sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1987).</p> <p><br></p> <p>Given the learnability problem posed by the low perceptual salience and extensive multifunctionality of DMs, along with their conceptual connections to important interactional practices and to a semantic core that guides their use in discourse, DMs and <em>pues</em> specifically were identified as a potentially ideal candidate for development through CBI. <em>Pues</em> is translated in English to ‘so’, ‘then’, ‘cos’, and ‘well’ and is a highly frequent feature of Spanish conversation (Domínguez García, 2016; Stenström, 2006a; Stenström, 2006b). DMs like <em>pues </em>contribute to speakers’ ability to communicate effectively and participate in social interaction (Crible & Pascual, 2020; Hayano, 2011; Hoshi, 2017; Thörle, 2016) and, thus, they are important linguistic features for L2 speakers.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Using a pre, post, and delayed post design, data were collected using an oral decision-making task and a dialogue reflection task. The analyses addressed whether CBI, RBI, and CTRL produce the same effect on L2 Spanish learners’ <em>pues</em> frequency of use, <em>pues</em> functional range, and use of <em>pues</em> in interaction. As a secondary objective, the analyses also considered whether CBI and RBI produce the same effect on L2 Spanish learners’ ability to transfer learning to unlearned DMs.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Quantitative analyses, which addressed the learners’ ability to use <em>pues</em> frequently and for a range of functions, indicated an advantage for the CBI group, with CBI learners using <em>pues</em> with greater frequency of use and functional range than RBI and CTRL learners. The qualitative analysis, which addressed the learners’ ability to use <em>pues</em> in interaction, also indicated an advantage for the CBI group, with CBI learners using <em>pues</em> to express a stance of givenness towards utterances as well as to manage turn-taking in interaction. CBI learners’ use of <em>pues</em> for accomplishing these two interactional practices indicated a deeper understanding of <em>pues</em> and how the DM can be used to accomplish social actions in interaction.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Overall, the findings provide support for the claim that CBI is superior to traditional explicit models of instruction (Erikson, Lanning, & French, 2017) and suggest that the learnability problem of DMs may be lessened by providing a conceptual structure that presents learners with a framework for organizing DM multifunctionality and that also highlights the interactional importance of DMs as tools that can be used to accomplish social actions. The findings are discussed considering the role of conceptual knowledge in L2 DM development and implications for pragmatics instruction.</p>

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Second language (L2) vocabulary learning is at the core of language learning and use. Studies have shown that native speakers and L2 learners perceive lexical errors as the biggest obstacle in effective communication (Gass & Selinker, 2008). As a result, the learning and teaching of vocabulary must be one of the focal points of L2 learning. This study quantitatively investigates the effectiveness of two vocabulary learning strategies, the keyword method and the visual support method. Using these two strategies, L2 learners can store the word's meaning both visually and linguistically by creating a "dual coding" (Paivio & Desrochers, 1981) of the word. The keyword method is a strategy that utilizes the association of a first language word (a keyword) with the unknown L2 word through the use of a mental image whereas the visual support method is a strategy that utilizes a visual image. In four L2 intact classes over a 6-day treatment period, participants learned 24 Spanish concrete nouns using both the keyword and visual support methods in one of two presentation orders. Using a pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test design, results indicated that the use of an image, whether mental or visual, increased L2 learners' knowledge of form, meaning, and use of L2 vocabulary. Qualitative analyses of vocabulary notebooks/journals and surveys revealed that participants' preferences for and experiences with each learning method were influenced by individual likes and dislikes of each treatment. Since vocabulary acquisition is such a complex and multi-faceted process (Nation, 2001), educators have the responsibility to implement and encourage the use of various L2 vocabulary teaching and learning strategies. This research thus aims to reveal how an image can be worth a thousand words in the L2 classroom. / Spanish

This study uses a self-presentational framework to investigate second language listening anxiety (L2 listening anxiety) among university students learning English in Japan and demonstrate that L2 listening involves social concerns that are specific to L2 settings. Successful performance in aural interaction presupposes mutual understanding, and L2 listeners have good reason to become anxious when it is doubtful whether they properly comprehend what others say. The Shortened Scale of Foreign Language Listening Anxiety, the Revised Interaction Anxiousness Scale, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire as well as a dictation test were administered to 1,177 students in 15 universities for the quantitative part of this study. Introspection verbal report data were collected from 17 students in two universities to investigate the thought processes of L2 listeners for the qualitative part. The profile analysis indicated the following: L2 listening anxiety was (a) specific to L2 situations and (b) linked to L2 proficiency because high and low L2 listening proficiency groups were different in the overall levels of L2 listening anxiety, but not different in general anxiety measures. The exploratory factor analysis and Rasch principle component analyses demonstrated that L2 listening anxiety was a broad construct composed of two related but distinct dimensions, Self-Focused Apprehension and Task-Focused Apprehension. The former is a concern over social evaluative threat, and the latter is worry over effective processing of aural input. The univariate analyses of variance confirmed that L2 listening anxiety was partly socially constructed because social anxiety was linked to both dimensions of L2 listening anxiety. The verbal data suggested that L2 listening anxiety was receiver-specific in that it involved concerns over comprehending and responding appropriately to aural messages. They also indicated that the levels of L2 listening anxiety were (a) susceptible to individual differences, and (b) influenced by different social situations. This study contributes to conceptual developments in the area of L2 learner psychology because understanding others is of profound importance in successful communication, and anxiety over non-understanding or misunderstanding can have significant personal and interpersonal consequences. / CITE/Language Arts

This study is a longitudinal, qualitative, interpretive inquiry into the work motivation of four novice EFL teachers at public secondary schools in Japan. I employed constructivism as my philosophical framework and narrative inquiry as my primary methodological tool, and attempted to capture the four young teachers’ changing motivation as embedded in their life histories and teaching trajectories over their first two years of teaching. The narratives of the four participants, constructed mainly from the multiple interviews, revealed various kinds of tensions in their transitions from student to teacher. Such tensions included a chasm between classroom realities and their beliefs, conflicts between collegiality and individuality, and also tensions that derived from the inherent nature of teaching such as uncertainty, extensive range of duties, and reflection on the self. In varying degrees and frequencies, all these tensions damaged the participants’ occupational motivation, demonstrating the vulnerable side of novice teachers’ motivation. The same narratives, however, also displayed a completely opposite feature of young teachers’ motivation: resilience. In the midst of the adverse circumstances, the participants continued to engage in the profession, sometimes restoring their motivation through interactions with students and colleagues, and other times returning to their original goals and ambitions. Among various sources of the sturdiness of their motivation, what was unique to novice teachers was a sense of discovery (Huberman, 1993). The four teachers’ discoveries included not only learning about teaching techniques or social norms but also new understandings of themselves as a teacher, and as a person. Although the process of negotiating and reshaping their self-concepts (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009; Markus & Nurius, 1986) disturbed their emotions and damaged their motivation temporarily, all four participants exhibited robustness of their self-concepts and motivation when they rediscovered their motivational goals at a higher level of self-awareness. The four young teachers’ narratives invite authorities such as policy makers, teacher educators, school administrators, and researchers to seek ways to support the growth of young teachers more effectively. In my conclusion, I suggest several measures to reduce the amount of tension and pressure to ease novice teachers’ entry into secondary school teaching. / CITE/Language Arts

In this interview study involving the analysis of narratives collected from Japanese American professionals teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) who have lived more than ten years in Japan, I focus on how the participants negotiated their often contested identities in the TESOL context in Japan. I use the notion of identity negotiation narrowly defined as "struggles which occur when certain identity options are imposed or devalued, and others are unavailable or misunderstood" (Pavlenko & Blackledge, 2004, p. 20). Most Japanese Americans share similar phenotypes with the majority of Japanese nationals, creating many misconceptions about our linguistic competence in Japanese and English and ability to act appropriately within Japanese cultural norms. Educational settings are also an arena contributing to a simplistic Japanese/non-Japanese, native speaker/non-native speaker (NS/NNS) framework within which such encounters are defined. I intend to illuminate the underlying assumptions responsible for the misconceptions that continue to challenge their authenticity. This is in line with inquiry into the role of race in TESOL (Curtis & Romney, 2006; Kubota & Lin, 2006). The six participants were two men and four women, including myself. I conducted multiple interviews individually and in groups over a period of four years. I transcribed the narrative data into numbered lines and reworked selected parts into stanza form (Gee, 2005) or used block quotes to analyze the identity negotiation processes. For the autoethnography, I used intensive reflective writings done throughout the course of this project in addition to interview data in which I am the interviewer who also shares stories. Through multi-layered analyses (Sorsoli, 2007), I hope to illuminate what the individuals' narratives reflect about the contested nature of values held about language, ethnicity, race, and identity in the context of English teaching, learning, and use in Japan today. I suggest that the findings and conclusions from this study can be applied to other contexts in the world as well. It is therefore important for the TESOL professional to become an actively critical observer of how her work is affecting all the stakeholders, including her own self. / Applied Linguistics

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Mary T. Copple / This study investigates the effectiveness of visuals in the language classroom. Two types of visual aids commonly used in the language classroom, video and still pictures, are used to elicit narratives from L2 English speakers, and these narratives are subsequently compared. The data come from eleven international students from a university English Language Program, who voluntarily participated in two separate 15-minute interviews. In each interview session, they were shown either a series of pictures or a video, both depicting a story. Upon completion of the presentation of each visual, participants were asked a prompt question and their narration of the events portrayed in the visuals recorded. The narratives were transcribed and analyzed in order to test (1) if still pictures and video are equally effective in eliciting elaboration in the narratives, defined in this case, as the number of new referents introduced and the number of adjective and verb types produced; and (2) if exposure to still pictures and video elicit narrations of similar length. Both kinds of visuals stimulated learners to create narratives and elaborate on what had been shown in them. The video task elicited narratives roughly 10% longer than the picture task in regards to the raw number of words. When linguistic factors were compared, participants introduced new referents at comparable rates in both tasks while they employed 10% more verb types in the video task. Additionally, the series of still pictures prompted participants to employ a much higher number of adjective types. These observations suggest that a series of still pictures are an effective alternative for video for eliciting narratives. This study provides support for the use of still pictures as an equivalent to videos in situations where videos are less accessible in language classrooms (due to lack of technological access).

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Douglas Benson / The purpose of this report is to demonstrate mastery of content in the Spanish MA program in Second Language Acquisition at Kansas State University. After graduation from this program, I plan to pursue a career as a high school Spanish teacher. As evidence of content mastery, this report contains my philosophy of education, which emphasizes communicative competence in the Spanish classroom. I discuss best teaching practices in presenting and practicing Spanish vocabulary and grammar with students. The use of the target language and the integration of culture and the four language skills is designed to further my students’ development through the progression of the lesson plan, from warm-up, to input, to the activity sequence, to closure. This report also contains a rationale, or how my philosophy of education directly and specifically applies to my teaching, for a unit plan including daily lessons and related appendices on the subject of the Spanish Civil War, and outlines student learning outcomes for this unit, such as the ability to compare their home culture to the culture of the second language as well as the ability to relate art and literature to the events of the war. The topic of my unit plan is of particular interest to my students and me as wars and violence are a present reality in our world. The secondary focus of my unit plan involves the significant detrimental effects of the Spanish Civil War and well as its specific consequences in the lives of women and children.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Lawrence C. Scharmann / Bradley A. Shaw / Spanish instructors are not neo-phobic of instructional technology (IT), and they will affirm they are not afraid of IT just to avoid being labeled as ‘living dinosaurs.’ Most of them just do not have the know-how to explore and use IT in-depth. Regardless, they are more familiar with the diverse IT world available. In this study the main factors influencing Spanish language educators to use IT (or not) in their Second Language Acquisition (SLA) teaching methodology were discussed. Data from Spanish instructors in eight Kansas universities was analyzed to understand their perceptions and attitudes regarding the use of IT in their classrooms. Mixed methodologies were used: A quantitative survey targeting 80 instructors from the Modern Language Departments was developed. The survey had one section on demographic information and a second with 43 items dealing with perceptions related to IT. Afterwards, a case study with four in-depth interviews was conducted to elucidate richer descriptions and potentially corroborate patterns identified from the survey data. Data analysis revealed that most Spanish instructors have positive perceptions and attitudes towards IT. From the survey, nine themes emerged. Six of them formed a super-ordinate category showing that instructors consider IT useful for teaching culture in the target language, and in facilitating general knowledge. In this super-ordinate category, the six emergent themes are considered subordinate themes. The other three emergent themes formed another super-ordinate category with three subordinate themes: faculty require more time, training and technical resources to be able to integrate IT in their teaching. The four interviews explored what perceptions (or characteristics) stand out among faculty along a continuum of non-users to users with respect to the integration of IT; this allowed the researcher to confirm the instructors’ perceptions and attitudes on the nine emerging themes. Spanish instructors would integrate more modern tools in their teaching if they had more opportunities and support to be better informed; received appropriate training in their specific field; and were advised of available technology. As the findings showed, educators are no longer afraid of technology. Finally, conclusions of the findings were offered as well as recommendations for future research.