An evaluation of BYU's Local TESOL Minor Internship program shows the strengths and weaknesses of this academic internship program. Students are required to complete 150 hours of TESOL-related work outside of their courses. The interns volunteer in different English-teaching programs in the area. Internship hours include the time in the classroom, preparation, materials development, as well as the time in the Linguistics 496R course. The interns are required to have most of their minor classes finished before they complete their internship so that their internship can be a capstone to and an application of what they have learned thus far. This MA evaluation project reports findings of a formal program evaluation of BYU's Local TESOL Internship program, which has been in place for four years. It specifically looks at how effective the internships are by addressing the program's criteria which are: The internship enhances the student's education, reflects what the students have been taught in their TESOL minor classes, helps the interns become more confident teachers, helps the interns feel more prepared to teach ESL, and creates ties with the community. The paper presents quantitative data collected from surveys of past and present interns as well as program administrators. It also presents qualitative data from the same surveys as well as from summary papers in which the interns have discussed their internship experience. The evaluation also offers suggestions and recommendations for the program, as well as future research recommendations.

This thesis presents two research problems regarding the evaluation of the learning outcomes and the curricular organization of the TESOL minor internship course at Brigham Young University. First, the course learning outcomes have not been revisited after their initial design which demands the need for assessment. Additionally, the current curricular organization of the course does not allow for all learning outcomes to apply to students enrolled in the course, as some of the students do their internships internationally which prevents them from participating in the sessions held locally during their internship. In an effort to find solutions to these two problems, data were gathered from the five main stakeholders of the internship course: university administrators and advisors, TESOL faculty, TESOL program coordinators, TESOL internship providers, and students who have enrolled in the TESOL minor internship course. The analysis of the data collected resulted in recommendations for the change and revision of the current learning outcomes into four new ones and the division of the internship curricular organization into two new components: an internship prep course, and in-service support sessions.

A team of graduate students from Brigham Young University under the supervision of the main author Dr. Lynn Henrichsen collaborated on creating a book, as well as a website, Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTR TESOL). The entire project consists of 10 sections with nearly 50 units addressing topics that novice teachers should know before teaching English to non-native speakers. The BTR TESOL program provides basic material for untrained novice teachers that will help them to be better prepared to face the challenges and responsibilities of teaching English. This write-up describes the creation of two units titled "Basic Principles of Second Language Acquisition" and "Communicative Language Teaching and Information Gap Exercises." The first unit, "Basic Principles of Second Language Acquisition," educates novice teachers about some of the basic theoretical concepts of second language acquisition that can be applied directly to teaching. It also includes a discussion of variables that can affect second language acquisition. The second unit, "Communicative Language Teaching and Information Gap Exercises," introduces novice teachers to basic principles of the communicative approach and the steps involved in the creation and implementation of information gap exercises. Both units include an opening scenario and a list of the objectives of the unit. Following the main content, there is an audio or video segment related to the theme of each unit as well as reflection questions. The final section directs readers to resources where they can go to learn more about the subject.

This MA project consists of the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of intended improvements to the TESOL minor internship program at Brigham Young University (BYU). The majority of changes implemented and evaluated in this study were suggested by Marisa Ontiveros in her 2010 MA thesis, An Evaluation of the Learning Outcomes and Curricular Organization of the Brigham Young University Undergraduate TESOL Internships Course. The present report summarizes relevant literature that led to the current project, including a discussion of the importance of internships in general, information regarding the significance of TESOL internships, and a summary of the BYU TESOL internship program, with descriptions of past studies that have focused on it. Specific curricular changes central to this study are then outlined, which consist of the implementation of new learning outcomes, the alteration of internship prerequisites, the addition and alteration of several course components, and the requirement that international interns participate in internship class sessions. Methods employed to implement and evaluate these changes are also discussed. Evaluation results are summarized, and implications and suggestions for future work are detailed.

There have been profound changes within German culture and society in recent decades including the social reality and legal equality of same-sex couples and parents and an increased visibility of non-heterosexual individuals. Through my many years of formal education and as a teacher of English as a Second or Other language (TESOL) in Germany, I have not seen this reality represented in TESOL education in target language samples, textbooks, images or critical discussions. The aim of this thesis was to explore whether teachers and students on a TESOL language teacher education (LTE) programme at a Bavarian university are aware of issues of gender, sexual diversity and heteronormativity on their programme and in their classrooms. This fits well with the many other studies carried out internationally in this field over the past few years but looks specifically at a politically and culturally homogeneous part of Germany. By adopting a feminist poststructuralist and queer-theoretical approach to create, deliver and reflect on a course geared specifically towards troubling the silence and exclusion of sexual diversity in (language) teacher education, it investigates if and how social change has manifested itself in a Bavarian LTE programme. Through the use of multiple data collection methods, a background questionnaire to situate the students in this Bavarian context, interviews with non-heterosexual staff and students, a troubling course-construction, delivery and recording, a researcher reflective journal, and participant exit interviews and reflective written assessments, this case study examines staff and students' experiences of and attitudes towards heteronormativity in LTE and que(e)ries the potential for change. The findings reveal that there is initially little conscious awareness of the pervasiveness of heteronormative discourses in LTE TESOL classrooms or in language use, but that through que(e)rying materials, critical dialogue, reflection in interviews and classes, practice and active explicit analysis of taken-for-granted exclusions and silences, a heightened and critical awareness can be achieved.

Despite the growing interest in the issue of identity formation in the broader TESOL research field, few studies have been concerned with the question of female teachers’ identity formation from a feminist poststructuralist perspective. This study also seeks to further the feminist poststructuralist research within the Iranian TESOL and bridge the substantive gap within the existing literature, which is an almost untouched area of research regarding the teachers’ identity formation. This thesis attempts to explore the construction of identities of eight Iranian female teachers of English and the discourses that shape them through examining their narratives, using data gathered from interviews and email correspondences. In a two-year collaboration with the participants, I applied a feminist poststructuralist conceptual framework to examine the participants’ main subject positions and the prevailing discursive practices that construct them. The research data, collected by individual interviews and email correspondence, indicates the teachers’ identities as multiple, complex, and contradictory. I contend that multiple subject positions stem out of the clash of the multiple discourses that are available to them. Impacted by both gender and professional discourses that sometimes even collide, the findings show how these women struggle to conceive a sense of coherent self. The results of the analysis indicate that the gender and professional discourses are of normative, disciplinary, and individualizing nature. Negotiating identities within themselves and within the complex cultural context they live in, these female teachers are involved in an ongoing process of adjustment, adaptation and resistance.

This small-scale ethnographic research study investigated student perceptions of social identity and agency and the usefulness of the construct of the Community of Practice for struggling writers in the context of a pre-university EAP program. The appropriateness of socio-cultural theories in language teaching and learning today stems from social constructivist and social interactionist theories of the role of language in the discursive construction of society, knowledge and power. This study problematised these constructs in the development of writing for learners in a pre-university Higher Education context. Comparing data from focal students who were struggling with writing and from students who were more successful, the biographies of struggling students and their awareness of their futures, or imagined selves and communities, revealed not only learning histories in which they had radically different identities as learners and writers, but also a lack of clarity about their learning trajectory in the writing program. There was no apparent lack of investment in learning among the focal students, who identified themselves as weak writers, although there was frustration and anger at their predicament. The data suggest that they did not identify with the learning community at the start of the project, probably because they resisted belonging to a community which labeled them as failures. During the study a variety of means were used to elicit participants’ perceptions of their status as novice writers and to support their learning trajectory on an individual basis by elucidating the reasons for and requirements of academic writing. By the end of the study the focal students had developed more awareness of the subject positions the writing trajectory afforded them and had chosen ways in which to continue along their learning path. The Community of Practice appears to have potential as a means of supporting the roles of EAP students and teachers as members of the academic community of practice.

The emergence of English as a global language has led to a huge demand for TESOL language educators around the world (Davies, 2009). This has resulted in greater intercultural encounters with the cultural Other; hence, the need to understand the experiences of these teachers to prepare teachers for their work and support them to achieve favourable outcomes of intercultural learning emerges. This is especially important in light of the failure of teacher education programs to prepare these teachers for the realities of their work and in light of inadequacy of intercultural learning theories to theorize intercultural learning based on these teachers’ experiences. This thesis sought to explore TESOL teachers’ experiences using a grounded approach that is based on the teachers’ experiences as central to their intercultural learning. Drawing upon the intercultural experiences of seven global TESOL teachers who are working in Saudi Arabia, this thesis sought to understand the types of intercultural experiences that they went through, the factors that affected these experiences and the intercultural learning that these experiences generated. Interpretative qualitative study methodology was employed in my study to examine the TESOL global teachers’ lived intercultural experiences in Saudi Arabia. Qualitative data were collected through conducting in-depth narrative interviews and examining personal correspondence (where available), with seven experienced global TESOL teachers. The findings suggested that the global TESOL educators’ intercultural experiences were enormously complex with many factors and four facets affecting these experiences. The global TESOL educators’ experiences of interculturality were mainly found to be Othering experiences. The factors related to the global educators’ social positions and the four facets were wider discourses, dispositional positions, contextual realities and situated value systems in Saudi Arabia. The findings highlighted the importance of “translocational positionalities” in understanding the TESOL global teachers’ intercultural experiences and learning. Contrary to the literature, the thesis suggests that intercultural learning was not about intercultural competencies and developmental stages, but about how the participants negotiated their positionalities and developed awareness of their positionalities in relation to the Other. The thesis also uncovered two insights that have potential to contribute to preparing and supporting global TESOL educators in global contact zones. These insights related to the educators’ need to talk about their intercultural experiences and the need to interrogate these educators’ understanding of culture. The findings and the insights offer some theoretical and practical implications for understanding intercultural learning experiences in a new light. The theoretical implications suggest a new experiential model for intercultural learning in global contact zones. The practical implications highlight suggestions for a pedagogy of dialogue for teacher education programmes to promote favourable intercultural learning outcomes.

An area of research that has witnessed an enormous surge of research studies as well as extensive debates in the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), is the Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) concept and practices in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or English as a Second Language (ESL) contexts. Over the past three decades, there has been a plethora of research studies on WCF, however, most studies had few limitations which necessitated a wider prospect into the various issues concerned with WCF. This research study, following an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, which was conducted in the Saudi context, brought a new angle into this heavily debatable area of research where a link was sought to bridge the gap between the teachers and students’ perceptions of WCF and their preferred WCF type in an EFL context taking advantage of a large number of participants to take part in a single study on WCF. Online teacher and learner questionnaires were utilised with the participation of 320, both male and female, EFL teachers, and 840 EFL male and female learners from Preparatory Year Program (PYP) at six government universities in Saudi Arabia. Then, semi-structured interviews with 10 EFL, male and female teachers and 10, male and female learners were conducted to explore their perceptions, attitudes and practices (in the case of the EFL teachers) towards this important issue in TESOL and where differences as well as agreements among the teachers and learners exist, so as to attempt to enlighten EFL/ESL professionals on various aspect of WCF as seen by both teachers and learners. Data analysis included quantitative analysis of the teacher and learner questionnaires as well as qualitative and thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews. The teachers, as well as the learners expressed high level of interest towards WCF. Similarly, the learners also believed that their overall language learning can be elevated by having a well-structured WCF which they need to be familiar with. Results of the data analysis also indicated that there are still some differences in the way teachers and learners perceive the WCF in general where teachers prefer coded WCF, whereas, learners prefer unfocussed WCF. There were positive unified agreements, however, between the EFL teachers and learners which gave the indication that there should be more discussions and research studies in order to reach a mutual understanding and a beneficial solution that aims to elevate the scope of TESOL teaching and learning. Furthermore, establishing writing centres at universities in Saudi Arabia where WCF is fully detailed for learners, may also represent an area for continued focus. Recommendations and suggestions for future research include conducting a similar research study in a different EFL context and compare the results to the outcome in this study.

This study provides a critique of institutional discourses that are informed by race, culture and identity, learning constraints and particular constructions of English and offers ways of thinking that encourage multiplicity and complexity. Its principal aim is to probe issues relating to the identity formation of international TESOL students in the context of the globalisation of international education. To achieve this aim, the study poses questions about the commodification of the TESOL machinery through marketing programmes and its impact on international TESOL students. In addressing these questions the study considers Australian universities’ marketing practices, the discursive representation of international students by these universities and the government, as well as wider matters of educational policy. The research draws on poststructuralist and postcolonial theories, particularly on selected aspects of the works of Foucault and Said and in so doing demonstrates the usefulness of such theories for exploring issues associated with international TESOL students. Taking from these theorists the concepts of power/knowledge, subjectivity, identity and agency, it also incorporates the work of cultural theorists such as Althusser and Hall. The participants were drawn from a wide range of cultural, linguistic and professional backgrounds, enrolled in Masters of TESOL at Australian universities. Through dialogic sessions with them and documentary analysis the discursive practices of the university sites were examined. So too were the subjectivities of students, as they became involved in the various activities of the institution in which they were enrolled, before, during and after their studies. Overall, the analysis reveals how the subjectivities of international TESOL students are constructed both by the university and the students themselves. The students’ accounts of their experiences broadly conflicted with the sweeping claims made by certain institutes, as well as by the dominant knowledges of marketing, international education and globalisation. The analysis shows how the subjectivities of international TESOL students are constructed by both the university and by the students themselves. It also shows how economics has become firmly entrenched in a market discourse and overall how international students are inscribed within policy shifts. The academic welfare, teaching and learning processes of the university indicated little awareness of the fluidity of culture and language or hybridity of its international students. A consequence of this myopic vision of the university is that students are subjected to constricting, divisive and exclusionary discursive practices that fail to properly acknowledge their complex histories, subjectivities and professional aspirations. An identity has been created for them that is not only superficial but also inaccurate. The findings point to the benefits of examining through a Foucauldian analytic such discursive practices of the institution alongside the subjectivities of students. The approach adopted in the research points to the possibility of moving beyond the current reductionist dualisms and binaries to the adoption of educational and institutional practices that recognise students’ hybridity and syncretic subjectivity. In such a space, the meaning of ‘international students’ and the institutional and educational policies and practices designed for them might be renegotiated. The study concludes that if the goal of genuine internationalisation is to be achieved, there is a need for significant institutional change.