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<p>  </p> <p>The rapid growth of the English Language Learner (ELL) population in Indiana has raised challenges for English language arts (ELA) instruction. This research adopts collective case studies and mixed-methods studies to explore the quality and quantity of ELA instruction (time allocation to literacy components and group configuration) for ELLs in Indiana elementary classrooms. Study one aims to further the understanding of the quality and quantity of ELL literacy instruction in Indiana first-grade classrooms through a collective case study. Then, a sequential mixed methods study is designed to examine the effect of professional development on ELL literacy instruction in second-grade classrooms (Study 2). To gain a deeper understanding of how Indiana schools have been coping with the COVID pandemic, another sequential mixed-methods study is designed to explore how the pandemic has impacted the quality and quantity of literacy instruction compared with the pre-pandemic era in K-5 classrooms (Study 3). These serial inquiries hold important implications for literacy educators with ELL students on how best to structure and plan for their English language arts (ELA) instruction. Also, they will inform schools on how to select professional development that yields significant transformations in teachers’ literacy practices, as well as how to better address ELL needs during the pandemic.</p>

<p>  </p> <p>This study examined preservice teachers’ culturally responsive literacy teaching self-efficacy changes during the field experiences in relation to the sources of self-efficacy. I delved into the meanings under the theoretical frameworks of culturally responsive teaching and social cognitive theory. I explored 84 preservice teachers’ experiences over three semesters, who have been working with K-5 students from diverse backgrounds. Mixed-methods explanatory sequential design was adopted. In the quantitative phase, I administered a culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy survey before and after the field experiences. Additionally, sources of self-efficacy were studied using a source of self-efficacy inventory scale. Results of the quantitative study indicated that four different types of clusters exist: self-efficacy increased, self-efficacy high-stable, self-efficacy decreased, self-efficacy low-stable. In the qualitative phase, I investigated one preservice teacher from each cluster. This phase shed light on the reasons for the different self-efficacy change patterns among the preservice teachers. Findings from both phases (quantitative, qualitative) have implications: 1. It is crucial for both teacher educators and preservice teachers to understand their culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and its changes. 2. Culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and the sources of self-efficacy display reciprocal interaction. An awareness is critical of how preservice literacy teachers’ experiences in the field affects their culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and other sources of self-efficacy. In light of the findings of the current study, teacher educators may wish to consider helping preservice teachers form informed and realistic culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy. </p>

<p>  </p> <p>The highly diverse character of US universities provides an opportunity for writing programs to (re)examine the extent to which their current administrative, curricular, and pedagogical practices support a growing student population with unique linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds, resources, and needs. This dissertation research aimed to explores the ways in which writing programs address the increasing diversity in writing pedagogy education, as a key component of writing program administration work. The main goal of this research was to investigate how writing program administrators and teacher educators in my study context represent our current reality regarding engagement with the increased linguistic and cultural diversity in the activity of teaching to the newest members of the writing program, i.e., graduate teaching assistants. Analyses of data collected through semi-structured interviews and educational materials suggest that while issues surrounding diversity and multilingual students have been addressed in writing pedagogy education, there is still room for more work, especially integrative, (trans)disciplinary diversity work that will help turn the graduate composition practicum, as the main context for writing pedagogy education in writing programs, into a space where new writing teachers can navigate diversity in order to learn how to actively engage with and pedagogically respond to it in their writing instruction in the era of superdiversity. </p>

The aim of the research study, Combatting the Downward Spiral: Burnout, Support Networks and Coping Strategies of TESOL Teachers at Private Language Schools in Johannesburg, South Africa was firstly to determine whether TESOL teachers working in private language schools in Johannesburg, South Africa suffered from burnout. Secondly, the aim was to discover which factors caused stress for TESOL teachers inside and outside the classroom, what support structures were available for burned out TESOL teachers and the type of coping strategies TESOL teachers used to manage burnout. Using a mixed method design which consisted of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey and semi-structured interviews, the findings revealed that 46% of the TESOL teachers who participated in the research study were suffering from high levels of burnout. Interviews revealed three main areas that caused stress for TESOL teachers: the job of teaching, relationships at work and organisational and TESOL-related issues. These areas were divided further into various sub-themes. Furthermore, support structures for burned out TESOL teachers were generally inadequate and although TESOL teachers attempted to manage burnout by using a variety of coping strategies, these did not seem to be effective in the long-term. / English Studies / D. Lit. et Phil. (English)

The aim of the research study, Combatting the Downward Spiral: Burnout, Support Networks and Coping Strategies of TESOL Teachers at Private Language Schools in Johannesburg, South Africa was firstly to determine whether TESOL teachers working in private language schools in Johannesburg, South Africa suffered from burnout. Secondly, the aim was to discover which factors caused stress for TESOL teachers inside and outside the classroom, what support structures were available for burned out TESOL teachers and the type of coping strategies TESOL teachers used to manage burnout. Using a mixed method design which consisted of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey and semi-structured interviews, the findings revealed that 46% of the TESOL teachers who participated in the research study were suffering from high levels of burnout. Interviews revealed three main areas that caused stress for TESOL teachers: the job of teaching, relationships at work and organisational and TESOL-related issues. These areas were divided further into various sub-themes. Furthermore, support structures for burned out TESOL teachers were generally inadequate and although TESOL teachers attempted to manage burnout by using a variety of coping strategies, these did not seem to be effective in the long-term. / English Studies / D. Lit. et Phil. (English)

The aim of this study was to investigate the role that humanistic techniques play in reducing feelings of language anxiety associated with oral communication in the TESOL classroom. Students in the experimental group attended classes which incorporated humanistic techniques such as journal writing and group work and where the affective needs of the students were taken into account. Students in the control group were provided with the normal course content along more traditional lines and their affective needs were not taken into account. Language anxiety was measured by means of questionnaires, journals and interviews. The results revealed that general feelings of anxiety about oral communication decreased in the experimental group. The experimental group achieved higher scores in the final written examination although there was no significant difference in the oral examination results between the two groups. The drop-out rate in the experimental group was lower than that of the control group. / English Studies / M.A.

本篇論文重組並重現一個合作敘事探究的生命經驗。在這集體的生命故事中，研究者與四位女性英語實習教師，透過一個全校性的英語同儕輔導計畫，一同探究學習如何教英語。本研究包含兩個研究重點：（一）探索英語實習教師在教學實習過程中對英語教學的概念覺知與教學發展;（二）檢視機構與社會情境與英語實習教師之教學發展的互動關係。本研究提出三個研究問題核心，協助對於現象的分析與詮釋：（一）英語實習教師在實境教學中教學發展之轉化歷程;（二）驅動英語實習教師之教學發展轉化的支配力類型;（三）英語實習教師對於實境教學之生命經驗的理解與覺知。 本研究發現，英語實習教師的教學發展，呈現前進式的結構模式。教學行動系統中的內、外部矛盾，引發一連串的衝突與失序，直接衝擊英語實習教師的教學發展轉化。在問題解決的轉化過程中，有三種主要的驅動能量，對教學發展轉化形成支配：情境支配力、策略支配力、情意支配力。在故事的尾聲，英語實習教師對於英語教學有新的覺知：對於教學行為及身為英語教師本體的覺知、對於英語學習者的認知、對於英語學習的本質的理解。 本研究回應相關文獻，提出三點新發現。首先，學習如何教的過程，包含持續性的觀察、分析、評量和反思。其次，英語實習教師的教學發展，透過跨層次行動系統的比對與分析，發現並理解可能存在的失序、衝突與解決方案，進而從事教學改變與教學發展轉化。最後，本研究提出，有關教師學習、學習如何教的相關研究，應該採用一種全方位的研究方法、一種廣泛理解的觀點，用以分析詮釋實作教學中既存的知識斷層。 / This collaborative narrative inquiry reconfigures and represents the lived experiences of four female prospective TESOL teachers’ learning to teach through a campus-based tutoring program. The research foci of this inquiry-based study are twofold. Firstly, the research aims at exploring how prospective TESOL teachers learn to teach through practical teaching experiences, as they examine the definition of learning to teach itself and the understanding of the what and how of the learning process evolves. Secondly, the research investigates the role of the social and institutional context in prospective TESOL teachers’ learning to teach, in examining how activity setting shapes the process of learning to teach. Drawing on the research approach of narrative inquiry, prospective TESOL teachers’ stories are told in their own voices while the school’s stories, and the stories about the school are told by the supervisor of the structured program in this research, the researcher, for purpose of providing a context to the prospective TESOL teachers’ stories. Following such respects, research questions are generated with special emphasis on (a) the transformational process of the prospective TESOL teachers’ learning to teach in situ; (b) the driving forces for the transformation to take place; (c) how the prospective TESOL teachers make sense of the lived experiences of learning to teach. The prospective teachers’ collective story appeared to be a progressive mode of development. The transformational process was overwhelmingly influenced by the dissonance and conflicts emerging from the contradictions within and across the collective activity system of teaching, namely primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary contradictions. In order to solve the problems resulting from the contradictions, the prospective teachers undertook changes and transformation in their teaching. Three types of driving force appeared to be significant for the transformation in the process of the prospective teachers’ learning to teach, including contextual force, strategic force, and attitudinal force. During the process of engaging in the socially situated activity of teaching, the prospective teachers formulated new conceptualizations of teaching, inclusive of the understanding of their teaching and of themselves as English teachers, of the students as English learners, and of the nature of English learning. The findings of the research suggest that a campus-based tutoring EFL program could be an alternative form of practicum teaching. Corresponding to previous research into teachers’ learning and learning to teach in second and foreign languages, three notions are provided. Firstly, the process of learning to teach prospective teachers includes continuous observation, analysis, evaluation and reflection on the entirety of the teaching activity embedded within a specific context, rather than shifting their focus from one entity to another entity, such as focusing on themselves at early stage and then shifting their focus to either on students or instructional techniques. Secondly, the process of prospective teachers’ learning to teach includes changes and transformation following iterative analysis and interpretations of cross-level activity systems to determine possible dissonance and solutions with the help of structured resources. Thirdly, research into teachers’ learning should employ a holistic research approach with a comprehensive perspective in analyzing and interpreting existing gaps in teaching practice.