In order to enhance the effective use of peer review, I have developed materials to assist teachers in compliance with the standards for Masters' projects enacted by the Department of Linguistics and English Language. Published literature shows that as peer review grows in popularity in both L1 and L2 English writing classes, many researchers and teachers are trying to increase its effectiveness. In some cases it is very effective, while in others it is marginally effective. This has led researchers to ask why. The difference between helpful and less helpful peer review seems to be in the preparation. In studies where students were specifically and extensively prepared to do peer review, the benefits to the students, the class, and the effect on the revision process were significant. This indicates that peer review can be an effective tool when students are adequately prepared for the task. After synthesizing research, I determined that there are eight basic, useable concepts that need to be accomplished when preparing students for peer review; they are: 1. Knowing each other 2. Knowing what to look for 3. Knowing why to give advice 4. Know how to give advice 5. Knowing how to use advice 6. Practicing peer review 7. Following up weekly 8. Reviewing at midsemester I developed a curriculum component addressing these eight concepts that augments theory with application, such as materials and lesson plans, and implemented and tested them at the English Language Center at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Based on feedback from the teachers involved in the pilot study, I determined that preparing students for peer review has a positive effect on the students, their writing, and on the class as a whole Furthermore, the most important outcome of the pilot studies was the fact that students prefer reader response peer review activities rather than criterion critique.

This project describes the piloting of a family literacy curriculum developed for use in a community ESL course. The purpose of this curriculum was to teach family-literacy-oriented English to students in the community ESL courses that are part of Brigham Young University's TESOL Teacher Training Course (TTTC) held at the University Parkway Center on BYU's campus. Students in BYU's TESOL Graduate Certificate program are required to complete a one-semester teaching practicum in the TTTC program. This program regularly offers English courses that enroll approximately 100 ESL students from the local community who are non-native speakers of English. These ESL students have an oral proficiency interview before classes begin and are placed in an appropriate level according to their ability to communicate in English. Graduate students (hereafter referred to as teachers) design their own course and syllabus and teach classes in pairs. Classes last for approximately ten weeks. The TTTC administration allowed the author of this study, a student in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at BYU, to design a family literacy curriculum for the teachers to implement for two weeks of their classes. This report relates the preparation of the curriculum, the needs analysis of the students, the needs analysis of the teachers implementing the curriculum, the situational analysis of the TTTC program, the design of the curriculum, and its implementation and evaluation. In addition, this report describes the instruments used to evaluate the curriculum. Finally, it draws conclusions about the worth of the curriculum, and it gives suggestions for future work in family literacy curriculum development for speakers of other languages.

Evaluation is an important process in any language program curriculum to determine whether the program is meeting the needs of students, teachers and others who are involved in the program. The English Language Center (ELC) at Brigham Young University (BYU) is a unique institution that functions as 1) a language school for students from different backgrounds and with various purposes of learning English and 2) as a lab school for undergraduate and graduate students studying TESOL at BYU to have practical teaching experiences. Because of these two purposes, there are constant changes to the curriculum at the ELC. Evaluation is done to measure the effectiveness of such changes in the curriculum. This project is the development of a systematic evaluation model, specifically applies to the ELC context, which will provide organization and direction in conducting effective evaluations. The three major purposes of this project are to 1) increase awareness in evaluations, which leads to professional development in teachers and administrators, 2)reduce the time spent on evaluations with the proposed evaluation model, and 3) unify the evaluation projects at the ELC based on the ELC curriculum philosophy and principles. The main focus of this evaluation model is on the ELC Curriculum Philosophy and the guiding principles, which define what a successful curriculum should include. In-depth study of this philosophy, definitions and principles of the ELC curriculum, combined with the study of the evaluation models previously introduced in the field of language program evaluation were done to develop this ELC curriculum evaluation model. The process included the participation and support from the Executive Council who makes the majority of the decisions at the ELC. This model was developed using Microsoft Word 2007. It is intended to function as a reference guide for those who are interested in conducting evaluations at the ELC. This reference book includes the evaluation model and other practical worksheets and documents for conducting the evaluations at the ELC.

The focus of this project was to develop self-directed pronunciation materials for a specialized group of English as a second language (ESL) learners—missionaries at the Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A set of six Cued Pronunciation Readings (CPRs) were developed. CPRs are computer-based, self-directed pronunciation materials designed to help students perceive pausing, word stress, and sentence-final intonation in spoken English and practice these features through a sequence of oral reading tasks. The CPRs developed in this project were based on essential missionary communicative tasks and utilized high-frequency gospel vocabulary. These tasks included saying set prayers, reciting relevant scripture passages, and bearing testimonies on gospel principles. These materials, originally developed in Microsoft PowerPoint, were converted for use in an MTC application called Assessment Tools. Following development, the materials were tested with a group of ESL missionaries in the Provo MTC. Fourteen missionaries used the materials during a three-week period. They were encouraged to spend 10–15 minutes each day in the computer lab working on the tasks. At the end of three weeks, a posttest survey was administered to obtain the missionaries' feedback. The missionaries' use of the materials and their reactions are discussed. Suggestions are given for the further development of similar materials and for further implementation of these materials at the MTC.

Within the professional field of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), it is not unusual for highly qualified instructors to teach several part-time jobs in order to support themselves. Despite advocacy efforts carried out by the international TESOL organization, finding rewarding full-time employment in the United States can be very challenging. In addition, with the current state of the economy and high unemployment, TESOL professionals like others in various fields are seeking stable employment. Although this research will not solve the lack of full-time jobs, the intention is to help job seekers better prepare themselves for today's job market by knowing the skills, knowledge, and personal characteristics that employers are looking for in potential hires. To identify this information, a 12-month review was conducted of three well-established employment websites in an effort to capture advertisements seeking to hire TESOL professionals full-time for ESL related positions in the U.S. A total of 169 job advertisements were collected and reviewed to identify the skills, knowledge, and personal characteristics employers were seeking in qualified individuals. Data from the advertisements were organized into a 42-category coding scheme in an effort to delineate the skills, knowledge, and job characteristics mentioned previously. In addition, a second coding scheme containing 12 categories was created for analyzing the personal characteristics listed in the advertisements Results from this data revealed that employers seek applicants who have knowledge and experience in curriculum development, teacher education, and program administration. Top skills include written and oral communication and basic computer skills. With regards to personal characteristics, employers are most interested in individuals possessing strong interpersonal and teamwork skills. In addition to these skills and qualifications, the data provide important insights concerning the distribution of jobs by job type, degree, institution type, and salary across five regions of the United States.

The focus of this MA TESOL project was to develop promotional products for BYU's Community Outreach English (CORE) program. The purpose of these products is to create greater community awareness of the program and the resources it provides to learners. It is also hoped that the promotional products will aid in the process of recruiting students for the program from one year to the next. While the essential elements of the marketing mix (product, place, promotion, and price) were reviewed, an emphasis for this project was placed on promotion, which translated into developing materials for this purpose. Promotional materials that were created included a video of student testimonials, a new program name and logo, program flyers, and a Facebook page. The promotional video was viewed and evaluated by a group of past and future CORE instructors. From the teachers' feedback, the video was shortened, the text script was altered to make it more readable, and some video segments were edited and rearranged. After editing the video, a group of 36 CORE students were shown the video and data was collected with a follow- up survey. Feedback showed that 100% of the students felt the video provided an accurate description of the student experience in the CORE classes. Demographic information also obtained from the survey indicated that the CORE students generally do have access to the internet outside of class, that the majority have newly arrive in the U.S. within the past three years, and that the majority do not work. Further elaboration on the data is provided in the discussion of the findings.

To create a much-needed program for training novice and volunteer English teachers, Dr. Lynn Henrichsen put together a team of interested TESOL graduate students who developed materials and resources for this purpose. Under his supervision and mentorship, each student helped with the development of units for a website and book titled, Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTRTESOL). Recognizing the target audience as novice teachers with little or no training in teaching English as a second language, each graduate student approached the development of each unit for this BTRTESOL program with this in mind. These untrained teachers are filling the gap that exists in areas of the world that are in need of well trained, certified TESOL teachers but lack resources because of poverty and the large quantity of students wanting to learn English. Owing to the great demand for English skills and the lack of trained teachers, there is a great need for the resources that this program and project provide. My part in this program included the design and development of two units, "Teaching Styles and Cultural Differences" and "Understanding Students' Learning Styles." These two units seek to help novice teachers understand teaching styles, learning styles, the role of culture, and the cultural mismatches that may exist between a teacher's style of teaching and a student's style of learning. These training units help novice teachers learn how to identify, teach, and expand students' learning styles in order to help them improve students' learning. Additionally, the units include information directing users to other resources for more information on these topics.

As English expands across the world, quality English teachers are increasingly needed. However, reports that even well-trained TESOL professionals have a hard time obtaining stable employment are prevalent. This study sought to provide some solid evidence about employment trends in TESOL. It is based on a survey administered to alumni who graduated between the years of 1973 and 2008 from Brigham Young University's TESOL program. The results indicate that graduates spend about half of their career time in TESOL-related employment. Most are involved in teaching, but jobs in administration, materials development,or testing are more likely to be full-time and offer benefits. Graduates spend little time in EFL positions, but these jobs are the most likely to be full-time and offer benefits. A surprising amount of time was spent unemployed by choice, and the majority of graduates report salary satisfaction, indicating that perhaps the field attracts those who are not looking for stable, full-time employment. These findings are useful for those anticipating a career in TESOL and for teacher educators. They likewise add a valuable contribution to the small body of literature focused on TESOL employment.

Many thousands of people with varying degrees of preparation teach English as a second or foreign language to many millions of people around the world. Some of these teachers are novice, volunteer teachers, who have not received any professional-level training. These novice teachers help to meet the demand for English teachers by often teaching for little remuneration or in non-ideal teaching conditions. These teachers can benefit from receiving training in how to teach English as a foreign language. Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTRTESOL) is a program that is being created to provide training to these novice teachers on a wide variety of topics, including teaching various age groups. Research has shown that children learn language differently from adults. It is therefore important that teachers be aware of the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children and the teaching techniques that help children acquire language. Additionally, important differences exist between very young children (aged 3-7) and children (aged 7-11) that affect how they learn and how they should be taught. In addition to novice, untrained teachers, people who have been trained to teach English to adults may work abroad teaching English to children. They can benefit from additional training in educating children. In sum, training in the distinctive language learning needs of children will help all these teachers and their students to be more successful.

Educational and economic developments in the Persian Gulf have increased the need for academic English reading fluency in the rising generation of college-bound students. A discussion of the literature on the linguistic properties of Arabic diglossia and orthography affirms the challenge that Arabs confront in L1 literacy. Because of the difficulties encountered in Arabic literacy, the transfer of L1 skills to L2 emerges as a salient issue for English instruction in the Arab world. The following study of Arab ELLs' academic reading fluency in Arabic and English investigates a hypothesized positive correlation between L1 and L2 reading abilities. Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained through the administration of academic reading fluency instruments in both Arabic and English and a survey of reading habits to a sample of 112 post-secondary Gulf Arab students in an English language program in Doha, Qatar. The analysis of the data reveals a correlation between Arabic and English reading fluency confirming previous research on transfer of reading skills between L1 and L2. The data further suggest the advisability of promoting reading fluency training in L1 as a facilitator of L2 fluency, especially in localities such as the Persian Gulf, where the professional environment requires young graduates to have fluency skills in both languages.