Thesis (M.A.)--Southwest Texas State University, 1952. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [51]-52).

The teaching practices of English reading in Indonesia provide limited opportunities for students to engage actively with texts to foster comprehension. Teaching reading through the use of self-questioning strategy has been shown to be an effective approach to improve students’ levels of questioning that promotes reading comprehension. However, for this to occur, teachers need a more effective self-questioning strategy to use it with their students. This study investigates the development of teachers’ and students’ self-questioning strategy use, the challenges faced by teachers, and the assistance that they need to implement it. The effects of the implementation of self-questioning strategy on students’ skills in generating questions about English passages are also examined. This study was conducted in Samarinda, the capital of East Kalimantan, Indonesia, where English is a foreign language to Indonesian speakers. Three teachers and their Grade 11 classes from three different secondary schools participated in a multiple-site case study which was employed to generate rich explanatory data across sites. Data were gathered from both teachers and students in the form of observations, field-notes, interviews and reflective journals. Audio and video recordings of classes and teaching of English reading were used to support the data collection. The teachers were subsequently trained in a workshop in the use of self-questioning strategy with guidelines for the use of different levels of questions based on Bloom’s taxonomy. The teachers then implemented the self-questioning strategy with students in their classrooms. Two levels of analysis were applied in this multiple-site case study. Within site study analysis involved organising the data to search for patterns for each site. Across-site study analysis was then applied to generate themes, knowledge, concepts, and connections between variables and across the study sites before triangulation with other sources of data was undertaken to draw conclusions. The findings from this study show that teachers relied on textbooks for pedagogies for teaching reading and for the kinds of questions they asked to assist in reading comprehension. This meant that both teachers and students were exposed mainly to low level questions. Thus, they faced challenges in generating high level questions in these conditions, and required assistance in order to do this. The results reveal that both teachers and students perceived that they gained benefits from the application of the self-questioning strategy. Some factors that contributed to the effectiveness of the implementation of the self-questioning strategy in this EFL context were teachers’ knowledge and confidence, the abilities of students, the nature of the class, the supportive learning environment, and sufficient time for implementation. The implications for future research included the need to examine the self-questioning strategy in a longitudinal study, and the need to focus on students’ understanding and transfer of learning to other contexts. More generally, this study shows that the self-questioning strategy can be implemented effectively in reading lessons in Grade 11 classes in an Indonesian context. The findings of the study reveal that as well as improving teachers’ and students’ abilities to generate questions about English passages, the use of self-questioning also promotes the development of a more learner-centred approach in EFL and assists teachers to ask questions in their classrooms that go beyond those provided in the textbooks. The findings suggest that research in self-questioning strategy needs to be expanded and continued because this study has shown the potential of the strategy to enhance students’ engagement in learning and potentially to foster improvements in reading comprehension.

The research recorded in this thesis examined the experience of eight foreign teachers who have taken up residence in China as teachers of oral English language. The study grew out of my reflections on my own challenging, yet rewarding, journey as an international student in New Zealand, and aimed to investigate and unfold the reality of foreigners living and working experience under the influence of traditional Chinese culture, specifically in Pan Yu district, Guang Zhou City, Guang Dong Province. I was interested to find the cultural differences that the teachers struggled to accept or understand. I wondered whether the foreign teachers would reshape their personal beliefs and values, especially about teaching, because of the cultural differences they encountered in China. A sample of eight foreign teachers, from Australia, America, Canada and New Zealand, took part in semi-structured interviews in which I hoped to capture critical incidents in their inter-cultural experience. I was also able to undertake two observations of classroom practice. The data collected was then analysed using Boyatzis' (1998) system of thematic analysis. The research found that participants had similar experiences during their residence in China. For instance, the majority of participants showed a long period of cultural adoption and they all defined their experience as challenging. All participants refused to reshape their moral beliefs about teaching in response to traditional Chinese culture, but that they all, to some extent, eventually adjusted to a Chinese way of thinking. However, issues that direct connected to their own cultural heritage remained unchanged. An interpretation of the findings was that perhaps, on one hand, while the environment and cultural difference initiated various forms of difficulties, on the other hand, participants are trying to reset their personal limits. Most likely, their desire to introduce their Chinese students to a different style of learning convinced them to hold on to personal beliefs about effective teaching and learning, hoping to pass this on to a new generation of Chinese. My research, however, focused on only very small proportion of foreign teachers in China. Further research should be pursued with an expanded focus, to find the potential of the implementation of cultural awareness programmes and support groups for foreigner.

Thesis (M.A.)--Southwest Texas State University, 1952. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [51]-52).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-161).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1986. / Photocopy of transcript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 145-154).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-154). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-161). Also available in print.

Studies about native and non-native language teachers have found that these two groups are perceived as different from each other in language abilities and teaching styles. However, most of the existing research has investigated the perspective of teachers or students separately and has rarely triangulated their opinions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to contribute to the body of literature related to the native and non-native teacher dichotomy by triangulating perceptions from native and non-native teacher samples and a student sample. Particularly, this study set out to examine the problem in the context of the English language teaching and learning system in Vietnam. This study involved three participant groups: 30 native English teachers (NETs), 30 Vietnamese teachers (VETs), and 30 Vietnamese EFL students in Vietnam. The instrument included two versions of an online Likert scale survey, one for the students and the other for the teachers (both NETs and VETs). The questions covered 4 areas of teaching efficacy: teaching language skills, teaching language aspects, teaching methodology, and assessment. The data were analyzed through statistical analyses, including Cronbach alpha, two MANOVAs, and 16 dependent t-tests. The results of this study revealed that NETs, VETs, and students did not differ significantly in how they perceived the teaching efficacy of NETs and VETs. Instead, they had similar judgments which overall were in the upper part of the scale, showing rather positive perceptions of the teaching efficacy of both NETs and VETs. NETs were favored in teaching pronunciation; teaching culture; teaching speaking; involving students; balancing lecture, pair work, and group work; organizing classes; measuring students' progress; and grading. VETs were found more effective in teaching grammar and giving feedback. Both NETs and VETs were perceived as equally effective in teaching listening, teaching reading, teaching writing, teaching vocabulary, preparing classes, and giving an appropriate number of tests.

The preparation of new college teachers of composition has been a disciplinary topic of interest as well as an institutional concern since the establishment in the late 1800s of the modern English department. In this project, I offer a critical history of the treatment of the topic of the preparation of teachers of college composition by the three most historically significant organizations to English as a discipline and Composition as a field of study within that discipline: the Modern Language Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Conference on College Composition and Communication. By analyzing the treatment of the topic of the preparation college teachers of composition by the major publications of these three organizations during their formative years, I provide a topic specific history of the marginalization of composition within the discipline and its organizations. This project expands on the work of individuals such as James Berlin, Albert Kitzhaber, Stephen North, Robert Connors, and others who have written on the historical marginalization of composition within the discipline and Academy and offers a more specific interrogation of the position of composition within the discipline and the Academy in general. In my work, I argue that the contemporaneous founding of the modern English department and the Modern Language Association allowed for the institutionalized relegation to a low status of composition and teachers of composition. That institutionalized low status eventually led to the marginalization, fractionalization, and specialization of a group of composition scholars who believed teaching to be a central concern for the discipline, as well as to the development of NCTE and CCCC. I further argue that a similar fractionalization and specialization within these smaller groups has left intact the institutionalized notions of status that led to their formation in the first place. I conclude by suggesting that in order to raise the status of composition in the discipline and the Academy, it is necessary to address the sources of marginalization directly as opposed to fractionalizing and specializing in reaction to it.