Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of students and lecturers at the University of Namibia about teaching and learning. The study specifically determined the views of students and lectures in relation to language, teaching, learning and assessment as well as what we might learn from analysis of these views to assist in improving teaching, learning and assessment. / South Africa

This study examines the small group work management techniques of a teacher of English in a second language classroom in Bophuthatswana. The school at which the observation takes place, is a black secondary school in Mmabatho which follows the Department of Education and Training (DET) syllabus and writes the DET external matriculation examination. The goal of the research is to assess and evaluate the methods the teacher uses in managing group work according to five specified areas. These areas are noted for their importance in the successful management of group work. The report on the findings of this research reveals that the teacher's understanding of the nature of small group work differs from the accepted characteristics of successful group work management as interpreted by authorities in this field. This gives rise to management techniques that are sometimes inappropriate and ill-considered. Although this study observes only one teacher, the findings indicate the need for more classroom-based research in order to establish the true nature of classroom practice. Assumptions about classroom practice are too readily made by innovators, syllabus designers and textbook writers who design materials based on methodologies which can be complex and difficult to implement. These methodologies require understanding and commitment from the teacher. However, the pre-service and in-service education and development that the teacher receives often does not guarantee understanding of the processes involved nor does it generate the necessary commitment to small group work as an effective teaching technique.

This study is concerned with teacher decision-making in the English as a Second Language classroom. Specifically, the study examines the impact of teacher beliefs and perceptions, context factors and second language theory on planning and implementation decisions for the ESL instructional context. Nine ESL teachers in three post-secondary institutions participated in this qualitative study. Data were gathered through classroom observations, postlesson conferences and interviews. These data were examined in terms of what instructional decisions teachers made and the factors that influenced these decisions from the individual teacher's perspective. Second, the data were analysed for internal consistency between stated beliefs and instructional decisions and external consistency between decisions and second language theory. In examining the role of the teacher in the ESL instructional context, this thesis contributes to both research and teaching theory in English as a Second Language. First, while regular classroom research has indicated that the role of the teacher and the ecology of the classroom are central to understanding the instructional context, ESL classroom studies have primarily focused on the learner, the learning process and language learning outcomes in this context. This thesis addresses this gap in the research by investigating the teacher's role in the ESL instructional setting and the factors that impact on teacher decisionmaking. Second, ESL classroom researchers have observed that theoretical ideas are implemented in various ways in the formal setting. While researchers have speculated on the reasons for teachers' eclectic use of theory in practice, there has been little exploratory research conducted to investigate this phenomenon. The findings from this present study indicate that teachers' instructional decisions are centrally influenced by both individually held beliefs about second language learning and teaching as well as experiential knowledge of the ESL classroom. These findings not only contribute to our understanding of the ESL instructional context from the teacher's perspective, but are also significant for the development of instructional theory. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

An experiment was conducted to determine how learners and teachers of English as a foreign language in Japan cooperatively attempt to improve the comprehensibility of their talk in English during performance of various conversational tasks. The basic practical issue under study was the possibility that certain kinds of teacher-led groups and tasks would be more effective in generating repair and negotiation of the language by which tasks are accomplished than others, and that these group-task combinations might eventually be employed as alternatives to traditional teacher-fronted forms of foreign language instruction. The study was operationalized in a 2 x 5 between-and-within subjects, repeated-measures analysis of variance design. Two, six-dyad, teacher-led groups -- homogeneous (Japanese teacher/Japanese learner) and mixed (native English speaking teacher/Japanese learner) -- were formed in order to compare the frequency of 12 repair exponents generated during performance of five tasks. Teaching goals were represented in two tasks, instruction in use of the string-searching function of a laptop computer 1) with and 2) without the computer physically present. Non-teaching (social and cooperative problem-solving) goals were embodied in three additional tasks, 3) free discussion, and construction of a Lego (snap-together) toy accomplished with participants facing 4) away from and 5) towards each other. Task categories were also divided into experiential and expository activities (respectively, Tasks 2 and 5, and Tasks 1 and 4) following a model for use of reference in English. Experiential dyadic activity was related to the occurrence of exophoric (pointing out) reference and expository dyadic activity to the incidence of anaphoric (pointing back) reference in the task transcripts. Results of the analysis of variance indicated that while tasks differed on the basis of repair and reference, the groups did not: Dyadic talk was more responsive to the nature of the task than to the language background of the teacher. Further analysis suggested more frequent and elaborate repair during tasks which combine non-teaching goals and experiential processes as compared with tasks emphasizing teaching goals and expository processes. Qualitative analysis of task transcripts supported this distinction and elaborated specific discourse functions for such repair exponents as referential questions and confirmation checks which characteristically co-occur in conversational discourse. Based on these findings, it was concluded that Japanese teachers are capable of generating appropriate conversational repair in dyadic interaction with learners largely on a par with their native English-speaking counterparts. To this extent, their potential contribution to learners' acquisition of a foreign language is of an equivalent value. Furthermore, teacher-led small groups can be effective contexts for generating a rich supply of conversational repair and. thus should be considered as alternatives to traditional teacher-fronted foreign language classroom instruction. Finally, tasks which support achievement of social and problem-solving (i.e., non-teaching) goals through experiential activity are effective contexts in which normal forms of conversational repair can be generated. Since such tasks can be adapted easily to classroom settings, they merit consideration among the range of task options available to teachers and other instructional planners. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

This study investigates the acquisition of English in a nine year old totally blind student (Amanda) who has English-as-a Second Language (ESL). The study demonstrates the intricate relationship between language and interactive experiences. This case study will show the contrast in expressive language before and after a transition into a grade four class. In this classroom, Amanda was expected to participate and interact with her teacher and classmates. Data was collected on videotapes from I960-1967 and language samples were recorded from 1966-1990. Additional testing was also used to determine post transitional development. Language samples were analyzed and results of pre and post means of Mean Length of Utterance, Complete Sentence Usage, Function Word Usage, Braille Letter Recognition, and Braille Writing were determined. Results indicated that significant improvement occurred in Amanda's expressive language following transition into the grade four classroom. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Research in word association studies found that children give predominantly syntagmatic responses (responses from different form classes from stimuli). English children were found to undergo a shift to paradigmatic (responses from the same form classes as stimuli) before age ten (referred to as S-P shift) which is the adult norm. On the other hand, Japanese children do not have S-P shift, and Japanese adults' responses are dominantly syntagmatic (Moran 1968). Leicester (1981) collected English word association responses from Japanese beginner and advanced learners of English as a second language and found S-P shift like increase of paradigmatic responses as English ability improves. This study purports to replicate Leicester's study among children. It is because the existence of the S-P shift in English of second-language learners whose first language does not have the shift would mean that second language learning parallels first language acquisition. Two main hypothesis were tested: 1. That Japanese children learning English as a second language will give dominantly syntagmatic responses in Japanese regardless of their grade level. 2. That Japanese children learning English as a second language of higher grade level will give more paradigmatic responses than those of lower grade level. Three subsidiary hypotheses were tested: 3. That Japanese children learning English as a second language will give different proportion of paradigmatic responses in Japanese and English. 4. That Japanese children learning English as a second language will give different pattern of responses in each language. 5. That Japanese children learning English as a second language will give fewer paradigmatic responses in English than monolingual English children of the same grade. Thirty students each of grades one, three, and five from two Japanese supplementary schools in Vancouver and Seattle were used as subjects. The subjects attend regular English classes at public schools, and therefore, their English ability was assumed to parallel their grade level. 27-item word association test was administered in English and Japanese. The ratio of paradigmatic responses was analyzed according to grade level. In agreement with literature, no grade difference was found among Japanese paradigmatic responses. In English, however, grade one subjects performed most paradigmatically, and thereby, no linear correspondence between English ability and English paradigmatic responses was found. Although English responses were close to the English norm, and Japanese responses to the Japanese norm, a significant number of Japanese responses were given in English association by grade five students. Significant difference in paradigmaticity was also found when two schools were compared as well as between two languages. Grade one students outperformed equivalent English monolingual children in English. It was speculated that young children develop L2 vocabulary systems independently and directly from the start resulting in higher rate of paradigmatic responses, whereas older children initially construct a one to one association between LI and L2, resulting in translation responses and low paradigmaticity in the case of English. School difference suggests that there are some other variables affecting word association. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

This research addressed the nature of mainstream counsellors' attitudes towards their culturally different clients. This investigator conducted two separate studies in which all of the subjects were students in the Department of Counselling Psychology at The University of British Columbia. The counsellors in the first study were in the first year of the counselling program (novice) while those in the second study were in their final year (mature). The research design was an experimental post-test only control group. Counsellors' attitudes towards their culturally different clients were investigated by presenting a client who had a foreign accent. In each study one group was exposed to a non-accented client in a counselling situation and the other group was exposed to a foreign-accented client. A matched-guise videotape of a client presenting a counselling problem was shown to the two groups of counsellors in each study. Each counsellor in the control group viewed a non-accented client and each counsellor in the experimental group viewed the same client but with a foreign accent. To measure the attitudes of counsellors towards their clients, a Semantic Differential Attitude Scale was constructed utilizing 50 bipolar adjectives. In addition, the counsellors responded to a written Interview Questionnaire designed to investigate what may influence the attitudes of the counsellors, such as: similarity of beliefs; perception of the client's motivation and an awareness of cultural differences. In both studies all counsellors rated the client in the accented and non-accented situations with an overall positive attitude on the Semantic Differential Scale. However, the counsellors exposed to the accented client, in Study One responded with a more positive intensity of attitude than the counsellors who viewed the non-accented client (p≤.001). The counsellors in the second study did not differ in their attitudes towards the accented or non-accented client (p>.05). In response to the Interview Questionnaire, the novice, beginner counsellors in Study One generally reacted to the client on a more personal level with the mainstream counsellors in the accented situation reporting more affinity towards the client. Those more mature counsellors in Study Two were less involved and attended to the external influences on the client (accented or not). Recommendations for future counselling research are suggested in the areas of the attitudes of counsellors towards their accented clients; similarity of experience as a variable which influences the cross-cultural counselling process; and the utilization of the matched-guise videotape in training and education. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Output, input and interaction are examined in this study for a native English speaking (NS) teacher and for native and non-native English speaking (NS, NNS) young children in two situations in the classroom, child organized and teacher organized. Video tapes and transcripts of fourteen samples of interactions in teacher organized situations and fourteen samples of naturally occurring interactions in child organized situations, each limited to the first consecutive one hundred utterances, were analyzed. Output was assessed in terms of verbal participation - utterances and words. Input and interaction were assessed both for discourse features (twelve negotiating devices) and in terms of the situational structure of the contexts that existed during the interactions - their distance from the speaker and the action was assessed with measures of exophoric and anaphoric reference (twenty-four reference items). The results indicate: 1) that output or verbal participation varies for the teacher and the NS, NNS children with situation, 2) that discourse features, often used to assess input, vary in their use by the teacher and the children with the situational context, increase with verbal participation, and may not be useful measures of input, and 3) that the situational structure of the contexts that exist during teacher organized interactions and child organized interactions vary with situation - the distance of the language and the action from the speaker as well as the nature of the interaction. Individual variations amongst items, within and across groups are noted. It is concluded that: 1) output, input and interaction vary with situation, 2) data analyses concerning input and interaction are more meaningful if they are related to the output occurring in different situations, and 3) L2 researchers will benefit from moving beyond the analysis of discourse features as the sole predictors of input during interaction to examine other aspects of the interaction situation. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

This research project was designed to determine whether anxiety in counsellors was higher with clients with foreign accents, and if so, whether this resulted in counsellors being less effective within the counselling session. Other feelings experienced by counsellors specific to counselling accented clients were also examined. Two separate, but related studies were conducted in which a comparison between two groups of counsellors-in-training was made. One group counselled a client with a European accent, while the other counselled a client with a Western Canadian speech style, typical of the region in which the study took place. Subjects in both groups were presented with a 20-minute video training tape of a client presenting a problem. Each subject was asked to respond verbally as they would in a real counselling session. The video tapes shown to the two groups were identical with the exception of the accent variable. The findings in both studies were similar. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in level of state anxiety as measured by the A-State of the STAI. Results from a questionnaire constructed specifically for this research project supported these findings. It did appear, however, that counsellors presented with the foreign accented client may have experienced more anxiety in the first few minutes of the session resulting from their inability to fully understand the accent. An unexpected finding emerged when both studies were examined together. It was found that a lower proportion of counsellors exposed to the foreign accented client expressed feelings on a frustrated/thwarted dimension (p<.05). More expected however, was the finding that higher levels of counsellor state anxiety were correlated with lower levels of counsellor functioning in the session (p<.001). The results of this study are discussed in relation to cross-cultural counselling, the anxiety-counsellor competence relationship, and sociolinguistic accent research. These results question several assumptions prevalent in the cross-cultural literature and suggest that a new set of issues may be emerging for the counsellor working with the minority client. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of task complexity and learner proficiency in native speaker (NS)/non-native speaker (NNS) interaction. A total of 24 Japanese NSs and 12 NNSs subjects representing three levels of proficiency, low (n=4), intermediate (n=4) and advanced (n=4), were randomly assigned to dyads to complete two communication tasks, each differing in relative complexity. Three composite variables made up of 32 dependent variables were used to measure the frequency of formal reduction, communication and repair strategies across both tasks. The hypothesis that NSs would simplify their speech and use a higher frequency of interactional modifications in accordance with the level of proficiency of the NNSs and the complexity of the tasks was tested. The results for the first independent variable of proficiency, indicated there was a trend showing that NSs simplified their speech when addressing NNSs in general and in particular, when addressing lower level learners of Japanese. The results for the second independent variable of task complexity revealed that there was a significant effect on the number of reduction, communication and repair strategies used on the more complex task for all groups. These findings are discussed in relation to previous research on NS-NNS interaction and implications for second language teaching are explored. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate