This study identifies the academic vocabulary from the IGCSE science textbooks by using online software. Then compare the words identified with the new Academic Vocabulary List (AVL) (Gardner & Davies, 2013a) to generate 139 academic core vocabulary (ACV) from Chapter 1 of the science textbooks. A trial lesson is conducted to explore ways of teaching those ACV to a group of ESL/EFL students in an international high school programme in Mainland China, where English is the medium of instruction. The researcher utilizes an inductive, inquiry-based approach to teach the lesson, with visuals as the main teaching aids. The measurement instruments include a pre-test, an immediate post-test and a one-week delayed post-test. A questionnaire is employed after students’ participation of the trial lesson unit, in order to get students’ perspectives on and perceptions of such an academic vocabulary learning LAC programme. The results suggest that learning the meaning of ACV through pictures is effective to students. The majority of students (93.3%) believe that the learning of ACV will benefit them in academic study, although almost half of them (40%) think that participation of such an academic vocabulary learning programme is not necessary. Although students have shown improvement in the tests, the research result is very likely to be only applicable to this particular group of students at this specific time of the academic year. This is because these students are generally positive about learning and have very good interaction with the teacher and classmates in the classroom. They are from Class A, which consists of students of relatively higher English ability. Another important factor is that this study is taken at the end of an academic year for Year 10 students. One implication of the findings is that for future study of this type, it is important to test students’ vocabulary size with reference to the new AVL so that the research can be more focused on students’ real needs. The study implies that the time of the study (at the beginning of a new semester or at the end of an academic year), the students’ English proficiency level and the instructor of the lesson are crucial factors that might affect the study. The current study also indicates that the students’ own content teacher plays a vital role in their science key academic vocabulary learning, i.e., the content teacher seems to be in the best position to teach content vocabulary, as the study finds that students are more likely to learn academic vocabulary during class time, rather than spending extra time on vocabulary learning after class. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Imitation, modeling, emulation: these are terms frequently appearing in reference to the teaching of writing. Their history includes the model teacher, the materials used as models, and the modeling method. Two-thirds of this work focuses on imitation's applications in the teaching of composition in America 1636-1988 (an overview of the "petty" or grammar schools, the private academies, and the early colleges). The remaining third traces imitation's use from pre-Greco-Roman times through the Renaissance. Imitation methods date back to the beginnings of rhetoric; they were the teaching paradigm until at least the Middle Ages. The ideal model teacher had a close relationship with few students at a time, was a moral model, and was a practicing professional. Models were at first current speeches, but expanded to include poetry, sermons, letters, and finally all types of prose. Problems in application occurred when models became dated or removed from their purpose. The imitation method included imitation of the teacher, practice, prelection (criticism and analysis), and emulation, the point at which the student takes off to write original work. In America imitation was clearly the inherited paradigm, but it was weighed down by its legacy from the Middle Ages and Renaissance: over emphasis on style and grammar. Today imitation methods are surfacing as ways of teaching composition. Research is in the embryonic stages. The use of models and of classical imitation methods in today's classrooms seems to be increasing. A study of what imitation was and how it was used may help in avoiding its possible problems and applying its many merits.

This thesis examines ways in which literacy practices are shaped by local norms in all-Irish immersion schools, as evidenced in storybook reading events in Irish and English. Within a sociocultural framing, the thesis takes as presuppositions that (i) reading is not a set of autonomous, transferable skills but is embedded in social settings; (ii) contexts and literacy practices co-emerge; (iii) children learn ways of being readers through participation in classroom literacy events; and (iv) language, literacy and identity are inextricably linked in all-Irish immersion programmes. In a classroom the teacher and pupils co-construct their own particular models, understandings, and definitions of literacy through their actions and the events they engage in. In the present study literacy is theorized as a performative accomplishment co-constructed by the participants in the event including those not directly present such as authors and illustrators. A micro-ethnographic case study approach was used to examine literacy practices in infant classes in all-Irish schools. Taking a phenomenological approach data were gathered using video-recording, observation, and pupil and teacher interviews and data were analysed using inductive analysis and interpretive discourse analysis. Key findings from the study are that (1) local norms, filtered through teachers' intentions and motivations, shaped the storybook reading events; (2) classroom literacy practices constructed during the Irish events were being transferred to the English events; and (3) children selected from their first and second language linguistic resources during storybook reading events to support their reading development. These three processes together were part of how children negotiated their socially situated identities as bilinguals and bilingual readers. Parental support for speaking Irish as well as social proximity to the Gaeltacht community, were factors closely associated with positive attitudes to speaking Irish and to reading in Irish. One implication of the findings is that teachers in all-Irish schools will need to make explicit their views of knowledge and of what it means to be a reader in an all-Irish school as they consider young children's agency in constructing their interpretations of texts.

No description available.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1951 W48 / Master of Science

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts Unitrers:Ltyof the witwatersrand, Johannesburg for the degree ~f Master of Arts. Johannesburg, 1992. / This investigat:i.ondemonstrates that school-leavers" experience the greatest amount pf difficulty in answering comprehension questions that demand inferencing related to stylistic effects in written passages. It also demonstrates that the texts use,d in Transvaal Education Department written comprehension examinations and the questions<asked on the texts ar,enot syntactica.lly difficUlt to.process. A brief introduction to comprehension testing in the Republ)~c of •South Africa is followed bY an explanation as to how 2077 scripts from the Transvaal province were seleqted and treated" to establish which questions ma't:riculatioU candid~tes found most, difficult and which the easiest. \\t'he items most ca.ndidates<,failed, and those for which most scored 70% er'more, were then categorised accol:'d.in,•tg•o two , different taxonomies"" to,reveal that the c(}f.ficultquestioIj~ reguire inferencing procedures that easy questions do not. ,/, ,;;:-~ . , ... . .... , _ _ _ ,f,~", ' __ ' ' , , ." ", ,,' ,',", " __ ~~;;;o<'; T,O,conf-rm that comprehensJ.on'·dJ.ffl.cultyfor school"'leavers stems ~rom what they are asked to infer, and not from the inhere\~t syntactic complexity of the t~,ts or questions the:mse:l)ves,the syntax of both,the difficult and easy items is scrutinized. The inferencing tasks demanded of candida~es in the six ~ost difficult questions are desc:.;:ih~d in detai~l."and,sonte,of the findings of this investigation are related·to ongoing research in Britain. The study questions. whe~;:::(er c(;)mp::.~ehertsa1b0inlity is best tested by the kinds of g:jlestir\lclRit'nldSic1atesfound :most difficult and suggests ways teachers may use to prepare candidates for a comprehem~ion examination of this kind.

This dissertation aimed to deepen knowledge and understanding of the impact of individual differences on Second Language (L2) learning and development. It investigated how a learner's chronic regulatory focus (RF, promotion vs. prevention) and regulatory mode (RM, assessment vs. locomotion) are related to linguistic characteristics. It also assessed how RF and RM moderate the effect of task complexity on the linguistic performance of writing, touching a highly controversial issue in the task based language instruction, in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). In an experiment, 55 college EFL learners were asked to complete the regulatory focus and mode questionnaires, and then to perform two writing tasks with varying task complexity; picture description task and argumentative writing task. For analysis, learners' regulatory foci and modes were evaluated, and learners' writing performances were assessed with three CAF measures. Correlation analyses revealed 1) the positive correlation between the level of assessment and lexical complexity 2) the negative correlation between the level of prevention and all measures of CAF, and 3) the negative correlation between the level of locomotion and accuracy. In order to analyze differences among the four groups divided by the predominance of RF/RM, the One-way ANOVA was conducted. The results revealed the significant mean differences in fluency and complexity across groups. In the analysis testing the effect of task complexity, the Paired sample t-test revealed learners significantly increased fluency and lexical complexity but no change in accuracy. However, the patterns determined from the individual group data were somewhat different from those obtained from the pooled group data. In addition, the results of the analysis of disaggregated data using 4x2 Repeated-measures ANOVA showed a significant main effect of task complexity on the measures of lexical complexity and again a significant main effect of regulatory orientations on the measure of fluency. The results of this study provided empirical support for establish theory and important implications for Second Language (L2) learning and development. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2018. / November 13, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Mostafa Papi, Professor Directing Dissertation; Michael Leeser, University Representative; Phil Hiver, Committee Member; Elizabeth Jakubowski, Committee Member.

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of Portuguese

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of Portuguese

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of Portuguese