Research in the process of reading to write used by foreign language (FL) students is lacking. This study is descriptive in nature as its main purpose was to generate a hypothesis about how good Spanish-as-foreign-language (SFL) students in a third-year level class performed reading-to-write tasks. The following objectives guided the investigation: (1) to explore the processes and strategies that good upper-level SFL students in a third-year Spanish composition class used to perform reading-to-write tasks; (2) to explore how the processes used were affected by the contextual constraints of academic writing within an authentic FL class; and (3) to explore how the students integrated information from the source texts into their writing in terms of types of use of information, their function, and location in the students' texts. Case study was used to explore the processes of reading to write and to capture the relationship between cognition and context within an academic FL setting. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, two good third-year SFL students from a composition and conversation class in a large southeastern university were the subjects in this investigation. The subjects performed two reading-to-write tasks as part of their class assignments. The two reading-to-write tasks were intensely analyzed as to the processes and strategies that the subjects used and the effects of the teacher's expectations, of the rules and conventions of academic writing, and of the subjects’ limited command in Spanish on such processes. In addition, a product analysis was conducted on the final written products. Stimulated-recall interview was used as the method for data collection process. The subjects also kept reading and writing logs for each task that were used to help stimulate recall of the processes they used. Findings indicate that the process of reading to write used by good third-year SFL students is a recursive process that includes the orchestration of the following major processes: brainstorming/synthesizing, monitoring, structuring, elaborating, planning, relaxing, writing, revising, and editing. In addition, results show that contextual constraints affect the processes listed above. Among the contextual factors explored, teacher's expectations had the strongest effect. Rules and conventions of academic writing and limited command of Spanish also affected the processes of writing from source texts. Results from the product analysis indicate that good SFL students tend to integrate information from the source texts using mainly original statements, synthesis, and paraphrases. Results led to the design of a preliminary-research based model that could have important implications for future research and consequences for teaching. / Ph. D.

This study applied the latest developments in language testing validation theory to derive a core body of evidence that can contribute to the validation of a large-scale, high-stakes English as a Foreign Language (EFL) testing program in Japan. The testing program consists of a set of seven level-specific tests targeting different levels of proficiency. This core aspect of the program was selected as the main focus of this study. The socio-cognitive model of language test development and validation provided a coherent framework for the collection, analysis and interpretation of evidence. Three research questions targeted core elements of a validity argument identified in the literature on the socio-cognitive model. RQ 1 investigated the criterial contextual and cognitive features of tasks at different levels of proficiency, Expert judgment and automated analysis tools were used to analyze a large bank of items administered in operational tests across multiple years. RQ 2 addressed empirical item difficulty across the seven levels of proficiency. An innovative approach to vertical scaling was used to place previously administered items from all levels onto a single Rasch-based difficulty scale. RQ 3 used multiple standard-setting methods to investigate whether the seven levels could be meaningfully related to an external proficiency framework. In addition, the study identified three subsidiary goals: firstly, toevaluate the efficacy of applying international standards of best practice to a local context: secondly, to critically evaluate the model of validation; and thirdly, to generate insights directly applicable to operational quality assurance. The study provides evidence across all three research questions to support the claim that the seven levels in the program are distinct. At the same time, the results provide insights into how to strengthen explicit task specification to improve consistency across levels. This study is the largest application of the socio-cognitive model in terms of the amount of operational data analyzed, and thus makes a significant contribution to the ongoing study of validity theory in the context of language testing. While the study demonstrates the efficacy of the socio-cognitive model selected to drive the research design, it also provides recommendations for further refining the model, with implications for the theory and practice of language testing validation.

The dissertation deals with foreign language teaching methods at the Primary School in the Czech, English and German environment. It includes the summary of the present basic knowledge about the foreign language teaching methods generally both in the Czech, English and German environment. Subsequently there has been presented and analysed the real use of foreign language teaching methods at the Czech Primary School at present. In conclusion there has been drawn further suggestion for a possible appropriate future development of the foreign language teaching methods at the Czech Primary School based on the research too.

Orientador: Maria Helena Vieira Abrahão / Banca: John Robert Schmitz / Banca: Ana Mariza Benedeti / Resumo: Esta investigação insere-se na área de ensino e aprendizagem de inglês como língua estrangeira, mediada pelo uso da internet. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de natureza qualitativa, de cunho etnográfico e tem por foco a motivação. Esta foi investigada em dois momentos: na fase de diagnóstico, em que aulas de língua inglesa foram observadas e na fase de intervenção, em que os alunos do mesmo contexto foram preparados e atuaram no laboratório de informática em chat com outros jovens, na língua-alvo. Na análise dos dados, na fase de diagnóstico, verificamos a baixa motivação da professora participante e também dos alunos observados, ocorrida provavelmente devido ao predomínio de procedimentos metodológicos tradicionais. Percebemos também, a desmotivação da maioria dos alunos observados pelos tipos de atividades propostas e desenvolvidas pela professora participante. Na fase de intervenção pedagógica, verificamos uma alta motivação na maioria dos alunos devido às atividades desenvolvidas pela professora pesquisadora, que enfatizavam a língua inglesa em uso para propósitos comunicativos. Neste momento da pesquisa foi realizado um estudo panorâmico da motivação dos alunos. Os dados coletados nesta fase foram insuficientes (pouco representativos), e então, optamos pela realização de um estudo de caso. Como resultados das interações, verificamos momentos de alta e baixa motivação. Momentos de alta motivação ocorreram quando os alunos participantes conseguiram interagir bem na língua inglesa e encontraram condições favoráveis da internet (speedy). Momentos de baixa motivação ocorreram quando os alunos encontraram dificuldades de compreensão da mensagem enviada na língua inglesa, e condições desfavoráveis da internet (ig). / Abstract: This investigation is inserted within the area of teaching and learning English as a foreign language, mediated by the use of internet. It's a qualitative research of ethnographic nature which has as focus motivation. Motivation in a seventh grade of a public school was investigated in two moments: in a diagnosis phase, an English class was observed and in an intervention phase, the students of this same context were prepared and performed in the computer laboratory in chat with other young speakers of the English language. In the analysis of the data from the intervention phase, we could verify low motivation of the participating teacher and of the observed students which probably occurred due to the teacherþs traditional approach. We also realized that the students' desmotivation was caused by the kinds of activities proposed and developed in the classroom. In the intervention phase, we could verify high motivation of the great majority of the observed students due to the activities developed by the researcher teacher, that emphasized the English language in use for communicative purposes. In this moment of research, we fulfilled a panoramic study of students' motivation. The collection of data in this phase was incomplete, we opted to develop a case study. As results of the interactions, we could verify moments of high motivation and low motivation. Moments of high motivation were observed when the participating students demonstrated the wish of having more classes, communicated well in English and met favorable conditions of internet (speedy). Moments of low motivation occurred when the students found difficulties of comprehension of the message sent in English and unfavorable conditions of internet (ig). / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:34:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Monica Raimunda de Jesus.pdf: 507492 bytes, checksum: 9c150c9a752f39cd1e6b938cae5936aa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study aims to examine the relationship between proficiency in English and previous school experiences, as well as personal characteristics, family ambience and social experiences in English Language, of students who attended the last year of High School in 2008. The research was conducted in two public schools of the state of São Paulo. As basic procedure for data collection, questionnaires and a test of proficiency in English language were applied to High School students of the schools surveyed. Data analysis was based on the theories of Bourdieu (1971, 1982, 1989, 1998, 2007) about cultural and social capital, as we propose to understand the practices in English in the social educational experience of research participants, which has determined or not a satisfactory or unsatisfactory assimilation of the English Language. Besides, we analyse the activities involving the English language based on the contributions of the same author on the social construction of taste. We have found, using data collected, that some social and educational practices of last year High School students of the same social class are determinants for some of these students who obtain better performance in English than the majority of students. In the test of English proficiency, from the 99 surveyed students, 6 had a better result than average, 16 obtained an average performance and 77 underperformed. These data show that although the students attended at least seven years of English classes, the skill level of the majority is very low, which, on one side, reinforces the poor quality of Brazilian schools in general, and it indicates that Foreign Language education is also a factor in this lack of quality: so much so that, when comparing the results of students from two schools and their rates of assessment (SARESP) that differ from each other, the levels of proficiency in English were similar, which made us leave the initial goal of mutual comparison between the results of students in each school. As regards the relationship between family ambience, educational and social experiences and levels of proficiency, we found the following results: the existence of a family member who knows English seems to be insignificant in increasing proficiency; social experiences (use of the internet, habits of reading in English and watching dubbed movies) show that even if one does not know whether the habit leads to the best proficiency or the best proficiency leads to the habits, the fact is that students who had higher proficiency in English read and watched more subtitled films, which seems to reinforce the view that education does nothing more than reinforce the culture obtained outside school. With regard to school experience, the most significant finding concerns the high number of students with low proficiency and that were failed in High School, which seems to confirm that this group of students is destined to failure in all activities and school subjects / Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a relação entre proficiência em Língua Inglesa e as experiências escolares pregressas, características pessoais e ambiência familiar e as experiências sociais envolvendo o uso dessa língua , de alunos que cursaram o último ano do Ensino Médio em 2008. Para esta investigação, foram selecionadas duas escolas públicas da rede estadual de São Paulo e foi adotado, como procedimento básico, a coleta de dados a partir de questionários e de um teste de proficiência em Língua Inglesa, aplicados aos alunos. A análise dos dados apóia-se nos conceitos de Bourdieu (1971, 1982, 1989, 1998, 2007), fundamentalmente os de capital cultural e social, na medida em que propomos identificar as práticas relativas ao uso do inglês nas experiências sócio-educacionais dos participantes da pesquisa, que foram determinantes ou não para uma satisfatória/insatisfatória assimilação da Língua Inglesa. Acessoriamente, procuramos analisar as atividades que envolviam a Língua Inglesa com base nas contribuições desse mesmo autor sobre a construção social do gosto. Constatamos, por meio dos dados coletados, que algumas práticas sócio-educacionais de alunos do último ano do Ensino Médio, de uma mesma classe social, são determinantes para que alguns desses educandos obtenham um desempenho melhor em inglês que o da grande maioria dos estudantes. No teste de proficiência em inglês, dos 99 alunos pesquisados, 6 tiveram um resultado acima da média, 16 obtiveram um desempenho mediano e 77 um baixo desempenho. Esses dados mostram que, apesar de cursarem, pelo menos, sete anos de aulas de inglês, o nível de proficiência da maioria é baixíssimo o que, se de um lado, reforça a falta de qualidade da escola brasileira no geral, indica que o ensino de Língua Estrangeira também é fator para essa falta de qualidade: tanto é assim que, quando comparados os resultados dos alunos das duas escolas cujos índices de avaliação (SARESP) se distinguem, os níveis de proficiência em inglês encontrados foram semelhantes, o que nos fez abandonar o objetivo inicial de cotejamento entre os resultados dos alunos de cada uma das escolas. No que se refere à relação entre ambiência familiar, experiências escolares e sociais e os níveis de proficiência, foram encontrados os seguintes resultados: a existência de familiar que sabe inglês parece ser pouco significativa para o aumento da proficiência; as experiências sociais (uso de internet, hábitos de leitura em inglês e de assistir filmes dublados) mostram que, independentemente de sabermos se o hábito leva à proficiência ou esta a uma maior ocorrência dos primeiros, o fato é que os alunos que apresentaram maior proficiência liam mais em inglês e assistiam mais a filmes legendados, o que parece reforçar a tese de que a educação escolar nada mais faz do que reforçar o capital cultural obtido fora dela. Com relação às experiências escolares, o achado mais significativo diz respeito ao número elevado de alunos com baixa proficiência e que foi reprovado no Ensino Médio, o que parece confirmar que esse grupo de aluno está fadado ao insucesso em todas as atividades e disciplinas escolares

The primary focus of this research was to investigate the emotion language and emotion narratives of Turkish-English late bilinguals who have been living in the U.S. Previous research has shown that the emotion language and narratives of second language learners and native speakers of English are different. This study focused on late bilinguals who had learnt English in instructed settings in their home country, and came to the U.S. for M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. The study consisted of two parts. In the first part, the elicited personal narratives of Turkish-English late bilinguals in English were compared to those elicited from native speakers of English with regard to both emotion and emotion-laden word production and narrative structure. The results showed that there were differences between the emotion language and narratives of the bilinguals and native speakers in their English narratives. In the second part of the study, personal narratives were elicited from Turkish-English late bilinguals in their first language, Turkish and their emotion language and narrative structure from their English narratives were compared to their narratives produced in Turkish. Similarly, the results showed that the emotion language and emotion narratives of bilinguals in English and Turkish were different. In conclusion, late bilinguals' emotion language and narratives are different in their first and second languages. Furthermore, they are different from the emotion language and narratives of native speakers.

Abstract Since 2005, it has been government policy in Taiwan to introduce English in Grade 3 of primary schooling (when learners are generally age 9). The overall aim of this research project was to investigate some of the problems associated with the implementation of this policy by combining research involving teacher cognition with research involving the criterion-referenced analysis of a sample of textbooks produced in Taiwan for young learners and a sample of lessons taught in Taiwanese primary schools. A questionnaire-based survey of a sample of teachers of English in Taiwanese primary schools (166 respondents) was conducted, focusing on teacher background and training, views about national and local policies, approaches to course content, methodology and teaching resources, and perceptions of their own proficiency in English and of their own training needs. Only 46 (27%) of the respondents reported that they had a qualification specific to the teaching of English and 41 (25%) reported that they had neither a qualification in teaching English nor a general primary teaching qualification. Many expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of policies relating to the teaching of English at national level (46/ 29%), local level (39/24%) and in their own school (28/17%). Although many reported that the availability of resources (125/ 75%) and/ or student interest (101/ 61%) played a role in determining what they taught, none reported that the national curriculum guidelines did so. Although official policy in Taiwan endorses the use of 'communicative language teaching', only 103 (62%) of respondents reported that their own approach was communicatively-oriented, with 18 (11%) observing that they preferred grammar-translation. A more in-depth survey relating to teacher perception of pre- and in-service training was conducted using a questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Although all 10 participants in this survey are officially classified as being trained to teach English in Taiwanese primary schools, the type and extent of their training varied widely and all of them expressed dissatisfaction with that training, noting that they had no confidence in the trainers' own competence in teaching English to young learners. All claimed that critical issues were either omitted altogether or dealt with in a superficial way. One contextual factor that has a significant impact on teacher performance in Taiwan is the quality of the textbooks that are generally available. A sample of textbooks (3 different series) produced in Taiwan was analysed and evaluated, the analysis revealing that the materials were often poorly organised, inappropriately selected and illustrated, contextually inappropriate. Finally, from a sample of twenty videotaped English lessons taught to students in primary schools in Taiwan, six that were considered to be typical were transcribed, analysed and evaluated in relation to criteria derived from a review of literature on teaching effectiveness. All of these lessons were found to be characterised by problems in a number of areas, including lesson focus, lesson staging, concept introduction, concept checking, and the setting up and conducting activities. It is concluded that the implementation of official policy on the teaching of English in primary schools in Taiwan is fraught with problems, problems that are evident at every stage in the process, from teacher education, through materials design to lesson planning and delivery.

This study examines the problems involved in oral English teaching in the Chinese tertiary institution Erwai (the Beijing Second Foreign Language Institute). In the study the author analyses oral English teaching in China based on his experience as a teacher of English in China, his two-year study experience as a student in Australia, interviews with colleagues, and class observation of oral English teaching by Australian teachers in the C.C.A.E. Special English Programme. Some materials from Erwai are also drawn on in the study, such as Erwai-compiled textbooks and the Erwai teaching curriculum. During the study the author has referred to many books and journals on TESOL in various libraries in Canberra. The theoretical knowledge and teaching techniques learned in the TESOL Programme at the Canberra College of Advanced Education have also helped the author carry out this study. Chapter One introduces the background to the problems which exist in oral English teaching in China. It emphasises the importance of Chinese teachers' having a clear understanding and a good command of a wide range of techniques in teaching oral English. Chapter Two examines some approaches now used in oral English classes at Erwai. This chapter also analyses students' motivation to learn oral English, the teachers' performance in oral English classes as well as when and how to correct students' mistakes in their oral English. Some practical oral activities which Erwai has arranged for present students and is thinking of arranging for future students are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter Three identifies and analyses in more detail theories of teaching oral English such as the audiolingual method, counselling learning, the direct method and the eclectic approach. In Chapter Four some activities are suggested to make oral classes more enjoyable. In second year oral English classes, repetition and situational dialogue are far from enough for teaching oral English. Short plays and skits can be used to enrich the oral English classes. This chapter also discusses the observation of oral English classes by Australian teachers in the C.C.A.E. Special English Programme. Chapter Five considers the choice of materials and the application of materials in class. Oral English materials used at Erwai at the moment mainly come from two sources: home-produced materials compiled by Erwai or other foreign language institutes in China, and some commerciallypublished materials imported from foreign countries. There is another source which can be used in teaching oral English - materials compiled on the basis of authentic materials such as excerpts from magazines and newspapers. In the conclusion it is pointed out that many suggestions have been made in the study about oral English teaching techniques and materials. It is hoped that such suggestions have practical value in improving the level of oral English in China in line with the country's present needs. At the same time new techniques require ample opportunity for trying out in practice before their full effectiveness will become apparent.

The English language occupied a specially important status in the increasing development of science, technology, culture and international relations in Vietnam, which has resulted in a growing demand for English Language Teaching (ELT) all over the country. The Hanoi Foreign Languages Teachers' Training College in general and its Department of English in particular plays a very important role in this by producing as many teachers of English as possible for high schools as well as for other Colleges and Universities in Vietnam as a whole. Unfortunately, ELT in Vietnam is still far from satisfactory. There exists a common problem of communicative competence in Vietnamese students, even in Vietnamese teachers of English. ELT at HFLTTC is taken to illustrate the fact that even after five years' training, graduates remain deficient in the ability of language use as well as understanding its use in normal communication. This being the case, how can they carry out effectively the teaching of English to high school pupils or students at other institutions? In this situation, we need to take a serious look at ELT in the Department of English at the HFLTTC so as to suggest suitable materials and methods which will enable the Institution to function more effectively. This project makes an exploratory study of the problem. To provide a context for the study, the background to ELT in the Department of English is reviewed. This is followed by a detailed description of different approaches used in ELT with the reference to the actual activities of teaching and learning in the Department of English. A special emphasis is placed on the difference between conventional approaches and the currently influential one - The Functional- Notional-Approach to language teaching and learning. The basic notions of this approach will be covered and also different categories of functions and categories of situations which the students of English often encounter in using English. Different techniques of teaching functional spoken English will be suggested with an aim to improving the teaching of spoken English in the above-mentioned setting. It is hoped that this project may become a contribution to solving some of the existing problems of inadequate communicative competence of Vietnamese students of English and to teaching and learning English with effective communication skills in the Department of English at the HFLTTC.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the interactional practices of Foreign language learners in an online Distance Education course. Additionally, this study sought to investigate whether a relationship exists between participant interaction and course completion and linguistic learning outcomes. The dissertation tracked the practices of 43 participants. The data of the study included log reports from the course website that gave detailed information as to what tasks each participant completed on the course website. These log reports were then coded and analyzed to provide insight to the overall number of tasks students completed, the partner with which they were interacting, the purpose of their tasks, the collaborative nature of their tasks and the media types participants preferred. The purpose of this study is two-fold. The first goal is descriptive: to gain an indepth understanding of how learners spend their time in an online course to better understand how they use online materials and opportunities for communication to learn a language. There is little known about actual student practices in DE as the majority of research conducted relies on self-assessment measures or assumptions. Many researchers believe that communication is vital for both FL learning and DE learning. However, some of the most recent studies on interaction have questioned whether more communication and interaction in DE is necessarily better, revealing that certain interactions are possibly more effective than others. To test this assumption, this study employed an inferential design to investigate the relationship of tasks in the online learning environment to course completion and learner outcomes. The results of this research found three variables were significant predictors of both course completion and linguistic outcomes: total tasks completed, total assignments completed and language tasks. Additionally, foreign language, collaborative and asynchronous tasks also correlated to course completion and individual tasks to linguistic outcomes. Further discussion of the research findings, along with a host of recommendations for further research in this field is presented for consideration. / text