English language learners (ELLs) spend a majority of their instructional time in mainstream classrooms with mainstream teachers. Reading is an area with which many ELLs are challenged when placed within mainstream classrooms. Scaffolding has been identified as one of the best teaching practices for helping students read. ELL students in a local elementary school were struggling, and school personnel implemented scaffolding in an effort to address student needs. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine how personnel in one diversely populated school employed scaffolding to accommodate ELLs. Vygotsky's social constructivist theory informed the study. Research questions were designed to elicit the teachers' perceptions related to the use of scaffolding for ELLs and to examine the impact scaffolding had on ELLs reading performance. The perceptions of 14 out of 15 participating teachers were investigated via focus group interviews that were transcribed. Observation data were gathered to determine teachers' use of particular strategies. Hatch's method for coding and categorical analysis was used. Emerging themes included background knowledge, comprehension and evaluation. Participating teachers felt scaffolding strategies were crucial for building a solid foundation for ELL academic success. Pre and posttest scores in reading of 105 ELLs were analyzed using a paired samples t test. There were statistically significant gains in 13 of 15 performance indicators over the 3-month cycle of instruction. Implications for social change include strategies for classroom teachers and their administrators concerning scaffolding reading instruction with ELLs in order to help these students increase their reading performance levels.

Writing is an essential skill that students need in order to become successful in school and beyond. Within a school district in the southwestern United States, student writing scores were not at proficient levels, and students were not prepared for graduation or employment. The purpose of this quasi-experimental research study was to compare the distribution of student writing achievement scores for 5th grade teachers who used 7 or more of the 11 components of effective writing instruction outlined by Graham and Perin to those teachers who implemented 6 or fewer of these components. In this study, a survey was given to 35 teachers from the lowest and highest performing schools in each performance zone or geographic cluster of schools across the school district, to discover how many of the components from Graham and Perin's model were used. The results of this project study were insignificant and indicated that the number and frequency of strategies were not related to student proficiency as measured by the state's writing proficiency exam. Results from this study will be shared with district leaders in a white paper report. The report includes recommendations to create a district-based writing framework with research-based instructional strategies. Although the results from this study were insignificant, the results have added to the body of knowledge in writing instruction. The white paper report can be used as a foundation for teachers, principals, and curriculum developers to improve writing instruction and achievement in this and other school districts.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Language Education)) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / This dissertation investigates the challenges that history learners in rural black schools are faced with during examinations with the use of English as a language of learning and teaching. The aim of the research is to investigate whether English, which is used as a language of learning and teaching in schools, is a barrier to the learning and teaching of history. It is believed that the use of English has implications on the results that learners obtain during summative assessment. The literature revealed that any language of learning and teaching, which is not the mother tongue of learners, has an impact on the process of learning. Assessment, which determines whether the learning outcomes have been attained or not, is affected by factors such as the type of assessment, for example, formative or summative, the purpose of assessment and the rules and regulations that go along with assessment. In order to gain a greater insight and comprehensive understanding of the research problem, that is, the challenges that are faced by learners during summative assessment, both the qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. A case study design was adopted. The research techniques employed were interviews, document analyses and observations. The findings indicated that the environment in which the learners are learning second language has impact on the learners’ language proficiency. They further indicate that assessment in itself poses challenge to learners, in addition to the challenges caused by the language barriers. It was also indicated that the educators and the learners prefer to use English as the language of learning and teaching, despite all the challenges they face when they use English. The important findings were discussed with the aim of arriving at conclusions, shortcomings recommendations.

Thesis (M.A. (Linguistics)) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / This study examines the effectiveness and relevance of Xitsonga at the University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus. The study argues that as one of the six (6) official languages of Limpopo Province, Xitsonga deserves to be treated with the respect that it deserves. Although Xitsonga enjoys some recognition and support nationally and on campus, the study has discovered that there are problems associated with negative attitudes among Xitsonga speakers as they feel that the use of the English language enables them to be part of a global world. Furthermore, a major stumbling block with regard to the use of Xitsonga at the University of Limpopo Turfloop Campus is that some of its speakers hold a negative attitude towards their language as they prefer the use of English language for academic purposes. This is one reason English is still dominant amongst the student community as it is viewed as the language of the corporate world. However, the study reveals that a large number of respondents now support the idea that Xitsonga should be used in all official communication. Finally, the study recommends the use of Xitsonga in social and educational settings. It also recommends the holding of workshops and cultural activities in order to further promote and revitalise the language and its people, thus widening the circle of its acceptance at the Turfloop Campus of the University of Limpopo and beyond. / the National Research Foundation

Thesis (Ph.D. (Educational Psychology)) --University of Limpopo, 2012 / This research project was an endeavor to investigate the effects of the languages of instruction (English and Shona), to teach Tsonga (Shangani) speaking children in Chiredzi district of Zimbabwe. Because of the nature of the study, a mixed method design was used where both qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted to study the performance of the Tsonga (Shangani) minority language speaking learners in five purposively sampled schools. 222 learners participated in the study. The main aim of the study was to investigate the effect of the language instruction in teaching Tsonga (Shangani) speaking Grade Seven children in Environmental Science. In fact, the researcher was interested in finding out whether teaching learners in a foreign language was a bridge or barrier to learning. In this case, the research did not only look at the effect of using English for instructional purposes, but also investigated how other major or dominant indigenous languages which are used for instructional purposes affect the performance of minority language speaking children in Chiredzi district of Zimbabwe. Data for this study were collected using lesson observation, document analysis, the questionnaire and a knowledge test. In this case, fifteen lessons were observed. Fifteen Tsonga (Shangani) speaking Grade Seven learners per school were purposively selected and taught in Tsonga (Shangani) only and the other fifteen Shona speaking Grade Seven children per school were also purposively selected and taught the same topic in Shona, and a third group of fifteen Grade Seven learners per school, were randomly selected and taught in English only. A knowledge test was given to each group thereafter. Children from each language condition were allowed to answer questions in their home languages, except for the third group which was taught in English. This group answered the questions in English with the restricted use of Shona. Each of the test results from the knowledge tests were analysed using a One Way Anova of Variance (ANOVA) and conclusions drawn. The results from other data collection instruments were analysed using qualitative methods like narrative discussions of data. A sample of five learners per school had their exercise books analysed. Data were presented in tables. The results from the knowledge tests given showed a significant difference in the mean marks obtained from the three groups (the Shangani, Shona and English group). The result showed that language has a significant influence on the performance of learners since the p – value was 0.000. This implies that the performance of learners between the three groups is significantly different. On the basis of these observations, the Null hypothesis was rejected. The same picture was also shown in document analysis and in the questionnaires. Consequently,conclusions were drawn and recommendations made.

This thesis describes a one-year study of 120 fifth grade students whose teachers participated in a program entitled Project SMILE (Science and Mathematics Integrated with Literary Experiences). The purpose of the study was to investigate the extent to which the classroom implementation of Project SMILE positively influenced the classroom environment and student attitudes toward reading, writing and mathematics. This was accomplished by, first, facilitating a series of five professional development workshops with the teachers and, subsequently, asking these teachers to use the strategies with their students. Because Project CRISS (CReating Independence through Student-owned Strategies), the foundation of SMILE, had already proven to be successful nationwide for secondary students, this study focused on elementary (K-5) school students and their teachers. My evaluation of this unique program, that integrates children's literature and mathematics, focused on student attitudes and the nature of the classroom learning environment. My research represents one of the relatively few studies that have employed learning environment dimensions with students in the elementary school mathematics classroom as criteria of effectiveness in the evaluation of educational innovations. The My Class Inventory (MCI) and an adaptation of the 1988 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) Attitude Survey were administered to a sample of 120 Grade 5 students as measures of students' perceptions of the classroom learning environment and their attitudes. Qualitative data were composed of student and teacher interviews, classroom observations and work samples. Methodologically, my study supports previous research that successfully combined qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. / The learning environment and attitude scales exhibited satisfactory internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity; additionally, the actual form of most learning environment scales was capable of differentiating between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. The implementation of SMILE was found to have a positive impact on the students and classes of the teachers who participated in the inservice program. In particular, students' attitudes to mathematics and reading improved, and there was congruence between students' actual and preferred classroom environment on the scales of satisfaction and difficulty. Therefore, others can implement SMILE with confidence. As well, prior research was replicated in that students' satisfaction was greater in classrooms with a more positive learning environment, especially in terms of student cohesiveness.

The purpose of this study was to investigate similarities and differences in the classroom discourse of male and female ESL teachers in the academic stream of one Western Australian tertiary institutions ELICOS program. Language and gender research generally suggests that males and females have different and quite distinctive communicative styles. This study attempts to examine if this finding is also manifested in male and female teachers discourse in adult ESL classrooms in the three main aspects of classroom interaction; giving explicit instructions, asking questions and providing verbal feedback, using Sinclair & Coulthards (1975) IRF framework. A sample of six teachers, three males and three females were observed through a process of non-participant observation and their lessons video-recorded in the naturalistic situation of the classroom in order to make a comparative analysis of their discourse.Teacher discourse in the three aspects of classroom interaction, namely, instructions, questioning and feedback, was examined with the purpose of exploring gender differences and similarities so that the reasons and implications for the manifestation of such similarities and differences can be further investigated. Conclusions were then made about the influence of traditional masculine and feminine speech styles on the discourse choices of the teachers.The discourse analysis found that more similarities than differences existed in the teachers classroom discourse supporting the notion that the choice of discourse features is dependent firstly on the context and secondly on the role of the interactants vis-à-vis each other in the community of practice. Although some differences emerged, the teachers in this study generally adopted a facilitative, cooperative speech style in their classroom discourse.

Bibliography: leaves 145-159.

Typescript. Bibliography: leaves 242-251.

The continual decline of Chinese proficiency has caused serious concerns in Hong Kong. Although most Hong Kong people speak Chinese as their first language, they have not been strongly motivated to learn it in part because of the socio- economic status of English, and in part because of the discrepancies between the spoken and the written forms of Chinese. The absence of a link between the spoken dialect (Cantonese) and the written Modem Standard Chinese language (based mainly on the syntax of Mandarin) makes the learning of Chinese in the 'trilingual' (Cantonese, Mandarin and English) and 'biliterate' (Chinese and English) society laborious. The perception that Chinese proficiency is waning has led to criticisms of the quality of language teachers and language teacher education in the community. Hence, a study of the problems in Chinese language teacher education in Hong Kong is an indispensable step in improving the quality of Chinese language education in Hong Kong. This study takes pre-service teachers' (PST) perceptions as the predomhant factor in understanding how they learn to become a teacher of Chinese. As both students and teachers, the PSTs in this study provide insights into learning, teaching, and learning to teach, the Chinese language. Famous for its cultural tradition, Chinese teaching is typically transmissive. In particular, teachers of Chinese are expected to teach with a missionary zeal for 'educating' students by acting as exemplars. As a result, how a teacher teaches is often determined by how he or she was taught to interpret the nature of Chinese Language. The use of texts written by distinguished authors as teaching materials further encourages language teachers to give higher priority to literature, culture and moral education than language use. Inheriting such a tradition, modem Chinese language teacher education is faced with multiple challenges: to promote cognitive developments in teachers and cognitive teaching approaches to meet the needs of rapidly developing society, and to prepare teachers to maintain a proper balance between moral education and appreciation of culture and literature on the one hand, and teaching language use on the other. This study draws on the literature on Chinese language education, TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages), learning to teach, teacher knowledge, beliefs and perceptions, and develops a conceptual framework to interpret the relationships between perceptions and practices as a reciprocal cycle. Perceptions of self as a teacher, the subject matter, and teaching and learning of the subject matter are inseparable from the beliefs and knowledge of the PSTs, which affect how they prepare lesson plans to teach and actually teach in the classrooms. Planning and classroom practices are realised in teaching objectives, instructional strategies and evaluation of teaching effectiveness, which then reinforce knowledge, beliefs and perceptions. The cycle goes on as the PSTs learn more about teaching and accumulate teaching experiences. From this recurring cycle, the PSTs generate personal theories of teaching a specific subject. This study is longitudinal in design, which follows a logical procedure of inquiry. It first examines the PSTs' perceptions of teaching and learning Chinese on entry to, during and on exit from a.two-year teacher education program. Then it turns to the perceptual development and the sources of perceptions and perceptual changes, and how they impact on the PSTs. Finally, the complex relationship between perceptions, lesson planning and classroom practices are elaborated. In particular, data collected in some stages were dependent on the findings of the preceding stage. This adds complexity to the overall research desip of the study. This study uses a multimethod approach with two research populations -the questionnaire surveys of the entire cohort and qualitative data collection from twelve sub-sample participants. Because of the lack of well-established research instruments in the Chinese research context, all methods of inquiry have been revised according to the results of pilot studies. The multimethod approach in this study demonstrates how questionnaire surveys, repertory grids, individual interviews, focus groups, classroom observations and the analyses of lesson plans and reflective journals can be used in a complementary manner to assure the validity of the research. Questionnaire surveys yield the overall perceptions of the cohort on entry to and exit from the teacher education program. The perceptual development of the entire cohort is understood by the findings of the two surveys. Against the backdrop of the overall perceptions of the cohort, the qualitative methods are used to study the sub-sample. Repertory grids reveal the participants' views of teachers of Chinese from different perspectives, whereas individual interviews and focus group discussions tap more deeply into the participants' thinking about how they have learned to teach Chinese. Other qualitative methods such as classroom observation and the analyses of lesson plans and reflective journals provide compelling evidence for indicating the extent that the participants have grasped the craft of teaching. This study suggests from the persistent perceptions and perceptual development of the PSTs that Chinese language education in Hong Kong has been ineffective. Ineffective Chinese language education has a long-lasting negative impact on students including the PSTs. The strong emphasis on literature, culture and moral education, and the knowledge telling and teacher-led traditions have led to a low level of cognitive demand in Chinese teaching. The procedures recommended for teaching a text in Chinese and the assessment criteria of the teacher education program have encouraged the,PSTs to become more didactic in teaching, although they themselves are aware that they should pay more attention to the needs of students. This study argues that student teachers' perspectives form a critical element in reforming Chinese language teacher education in Hong Kong, and that language teacher education should first be ameliorated before language education can be effectively improved. Not only should PSTs of Chinese Language be equipped with better subject matter knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, but Chinese language teacher educators should also be cognisant of the necessity for change. Because learning to teach is often discipline-based, it is more cost-effective and consistent if the teacher educators' Chinese language classes also emphasise cognitive development in the PSTs. To be real exemplars for the PSTs, the Chinese language teacher educators should be involved in continuing critical evaluation of their own practices.