Most of the studies conducted on bilingual education emphasize current educational problems. Instructional, administrative, fiscal, and political issues have highlighted the development of serious attempts to produce research accounts of the history of bilingual education in the United States. Nevertheless, it is almost impossible to find an accurate and global account of the legal struggle that allowed bilingual education to survive years of obstacles, intolerance, and success. Without utilization of recollected information on the legal process across the nation dealing with bilingual educational issues, it is rather difficult to make an objective assessment on the legal status of bilingual education within the educational and legal boundaries. This study focuses on the historical repercussions of the laws, consent decrees, and enactments favoring bilingual education across the country, specifically, the impact of those legislations that, according to the researcher's estimation, went beyond the notion of responding to political pressure. The notion of responding to the educational needs of linguistic minority students and the responsibility to a large constituency that would not understand the bilingual education concept produces the middle-road solution called "bilingual education" to pamper an everlasting educational problem. To explain the present situation of bilingual education, in general, and in Massachusetts, in particular, an historical sequence of the most important events affecting education is covered. An historical legal framework is included to provide a better understanding of the nation's educational view through the law and how cultural diversity has affected the development of education nationally. Major legal cases, as well as other legislation in favor of bilingual education, is explored in detail. After reviewing the history of laws, enactments, and consent decrees, and observing the present situation of bilingual education in this country, one has to conclude that bilingual programs have been programmed for failure. This study will enhance the information base of educators, parents, community activists, and others who need to work with linguistic minority students coming from educational systems that have denied them the right to learn. Furthermore, the intent of this dissertation is to put forth information central to the development of initiatives to aid parents, students, and educators in overcoming obstacles created by unclear bilingual laws and biased to bilingualism politicians or school administrators.

The purpose of this study was to describe how meaning was socially constructed within a task-based small cooperative learning group. The group was composed of five native English and English as a Second Language speaking teachers and teachers-in-training enrolled in a graduate course entitled "Curriculum Development for Heterogeneous Classes" in the Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies Department in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts. This study examined the claim that participants in cooperative learning groups must be willing to set their personal beliefs, desires, and agendas aside in order to focus their attention on the learning needs of their peers and to shift the attention of their peers to explicitly relevant information (Gee, 1990). Further, groupwork is described as an interactional experience that involves conflict, tension, and individual risk-taking behaviors (McCutcheon, 1995). This study examined the claim that these behaviors can have a positive effect on a group's process when the willingness to analyze conflict and tension through the risk-taking process of revealing one's experience, perception, and self are present (McCutcheon, 1995). This study researched these claims by investigating the discourse of a small cooperative learning group in this course. This study provides an ethnographic thick description of the normative patterns that emerged through the group's work. These include the communicative norms that were co-constructed prior to and after the naming and analyzing of conflict. The results of this study reveal that participants were willing to focus their attention onto the needs of their peers and were willing to focus the attention of their peers to explicitly relevant information after conflict was named. Analyzing conflict was not easily obtained in this group. Members avoided and resisted this process. However, naming conflict was seen to have a purpose in this cooperative learning group and provided a rich source of insight about the complexities of conflict, tension, and individual risk-taking behaviors in cooperative learning settings composed of native English and English as a Second Language speaking learners.

No description available.

<p>This research used diary studies and interviews with five Japanese learners of English to investigate the different affective, cognitive and social factors that affected their learning of English in Cape Town between 2004 and 2005. The findings of this study corroborate arguments put forward by Gardner that factors such as learning goals, learning strategy, attitude, motivation, anxiety, self-confidence and cultural beliefs about communication affect the acquisition of a second language and correlate with one another.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D. (Educational Psychology)) --University of Limpopo, 2012 / This research project was an endeavor to investigate the effects of the languages of instruction (English and Shona), to teach Tsonga (Shangani) speaking children in Chiredzi district of Zimbabwe. Because of the nature of the study, a mixed method design was used where both qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted to study the performance of the Tsonga (Shangani) minority language speaking learners in five purposively sampled schools. 222 learners participated in the study. The main aim of the study was to investigate the effect of the language instruction in teaching Tsonga (Shangani) speaking Grade Seven children in Environmental Science. In fact, the researcher was interested in finding out whether teaching learners in a foreign language was a bridge or barrier to learning. In this case, the research did not only look at the effect of using English for instructional purposes, but also investigated how other major or dominant indigenous languages which are used for instructional purposes affect the performance of minority language speaking children in Chiredzi district of Zimbabwe. Data for this study were collected using lesson observation, document analysis, the questionnaire and a knowledge test. In this case, fifteen lessons were observed. Fifteen Tsonga (Shangani) speaking Grade Seven learners per school were purposively selected and taught in Tsonga (Shangani) only and the other fifteen Shona speaking Grade Seven children per school were also purposively selected and taught the same topic in Shona, and a third group of fifteen Grade Seven learners per school, were randomly selected and taught in English only. A knowledge test was given to each group thereafter. Children from each language condition were allowed to answer questions in their home languages, except for the third group which was taught in English. This group answered the questions in English with the restricted use of Shona. Each of the test results from the knowledge tests were analysed using a One Way Anova of Variance (ANOVA) and conclusions drawn. The results from other data collection instruments were analysed using qualitative methods like narrative discussions of data. A sample of five learners per school had their exercise books analysed. Data were presented in tables. The results from the knowledge tests given showed a significant difference in the mean marks obtained from the three groups (the Shangani, Shona and English group). The result showed that language has a significant influence on the performance of learners since the p – value was 0.000. This implies that the performance of learners between the three groups is significantly different. On the basis of these observations, the Null hypothesis was rejected. The same picture was also shown in document analysis and in the questionnaires. Consequently,conclusions were drawn and recommendations made.

<p>This research used diary studies and interviews with five Japanese learners of English to investigate the different affective, cognitive and social factors that affected their learning of English in Cape Town between 2004 and 2005. The findings of this study corroborate arguments put forward by Gardner that factors such as learning goals, learning strategy, attitude, motivation, anxiety, self-confidence and cultural beliefs about communication affect the acquisition of a second language and correlate with one another.</p>

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Includes tables. Sponsor: Arno A. Bellack. Dissertation Committee: Harry Lee Brown. Investigates in fifteen secondary school classrooms the soliciting function as defined in The language of the classroom by Arno A. Bellack and Joel R. Davitz. Includes bibliographical references.

Submitted by Noeme Timbo (noeme.timbo@metodista.br) on 2017-03-17T19:16:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Alda Mendes Baffa.pdf: 1300022 bytes, checksum: 83bc1381afd0939a6cbecd3991dfee59 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-17T19:16:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alda Mendes Baffa.pdf: 1300022 bytes, checksum: 83bc1381afd0939a6cbecd3991dfee59 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-11-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This paper conducted an investigation which prioritized the unveiling of representations of students of a pedagogy distance learning course on teaching and dialogical language. This is a qualitative research that conducted a case study involving 17 students from last year (8th semester) of a pedagogy course the distance, a higher education institution, private, located in the Greater ABC region. The guiding research question was: What is the knowledge that the students of the Faculty of Education at a distance have on teaching language, dialogical and its importance for the construction of knowledge? The hypothesis assumes that the studies and training in ODL bring a new type of reflective and operative teaching, but the development and importance attributed to the teaching language come not only from the Faculty of Education in distance education, but also other experiences subjects who are in training. The purpose was to investigate and reflect on the representations of students about the training they are receiving interface with language/dialogicity. To collect data, a questionnaire was applied – with open questions and closed questions – to the profile disclosure and representations about the guiding question of research and analysis of these data was to reference Franco (2003) and Szymanski (2010) for the methodology of content analysis. The theoretical framework that based the research included authors who helped us produce reflections on language, constitution of the subject and the importance of language in the construction of knowledge, as Bakhtin (1999 and 2000), Geraldi (1997) and Orlandi (1997). For the recovery of historical and discussions on the classroom pedagogy course and distance, we selected some authors as Gatti and Barretto (2009); to the crisis of degrees and teaching identity, Gatti and Barretto (2008 and 2010); to research the public policies of training, recovery and encouraging teaching career, Brzenzinski (2013), Tardiff and Lessard (2014), and we seek in Nóvoa (1992) and Libâneo (2002) the professionalism of ideas, professionalization and professionalism; in Saviani (2012) a critical study of the National Curriculum Guidelines for Education Course. In Bahia and Duran (2009) we seek reflections on the training of teachers in distance courses; in Bahia (2014) studies on initial teacher training at a distance, and Azevedo (2013) learning and language in Distance Education. The results of the research point to the great importance given by the students of distance learning to language, their dialogical and interlocutive development, their importance in the construction of knowledge and in the development of the interaction between the interlocutors in Distance Education and the contribution however, as far as dialogue is concerned, the dialogic language is somewhat impaired because the interaction is small (although it exists), and the lack of real-time debates compromises the construction of a dialogue / O presente trabalho realizou uma investigação que priorizou o desvelamento das representações de alunos, de um curso de Pedagogia a distância, sobre linguagem docente e dialogicidade. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de cunho qualitativo, especificamente, um estudo de caso envolvendo 17 alunos do último ano (8º semestre) de um curso de Pedagogia a distância, de uma instituição de ensino superior, particular, localizada na região do Grande ABC paulista. A questão norteadora da investigação foi: Qual o conhecimento que os alunos do curso de Pedagogia a distância têm sobre linguagem docente, dialogicidade e sua importância para a construção do conhecimento? A hipótese parte do pressuposto de que os estudos e a formação em EAD trazem uma nova modalidade de docência reflexiva e decisória, porém, o desenvolvimento e importância atribuídos à linguagem docente vêm, não só do curso de Pedagogia em EAD, mas também de outras experiências dos sujeitos que estão em formação. O objetivo foi o de investigar e refletir sobre as representações dos alunos acerca da formação que estão recebendo em interface com a linguagem/dialogicidade. Para a coleta de dados foi aplicado um questionário – com questões abertas e questões fechadas – para o desvelamento do perfil e das representações acerca da questão norteadora da investigação e, a análise destes dados, teve como referência Franco (2003) e Szymanski (2010) para a metodologia de análise de conteúdo. O referencial teórico que embasou a pesquisa contou com autores que nos auxiliaram a produzir reflexões sobre linguagem, constituição do sujeito e a importância da linguagem na construção do conhecimento, como Bakhtin (1999 e 2000), Geraldi (1997) e Orlandi (1997). Para a recuperação do histórico e discussões sobre do curso de Pedagogia presencial e a distância selecionamos alguns autores como Gatti e Barretto (2009); para a crise das licenciaturas e identidade docente, Gatti e Barretto (2008 e 2010); para pesquisarmos as políticas públicas de formação, valorização e incentivo à carreira docente, Brzenzinski (2013), Tardiff e Lessard (2014), e fomos buscar em Nóvoa (1992) e Libâneo (2002) as ideias de profissionalidade, profissionalização e profissionalismo; em Saviani (2012) um estudo crítico sobre as Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais do Curso de Pedagogia. Em Bahia e Duran (2009) buscamos reflexões sobre a formação de professores em cursos a distância; em Bahia (2014) estudos sobre a formação inicial de professores a distância, e em Azevedo (2013) a aprendizagem e a linguagem na Educação a Distância. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam para a grande importância, dada pelos alunos do curso de Pedagogia a distância, à linguagem, seu desenvolvimento dialógico e interlocutivo, sua importância na construção do conhecimento e no desenvolvimento da interação entre os interlocutores na Educação a Distância e a contribuição desta para a construção de um novo discurso educacional, porém, no que se refere à dialogicidade, a linguagem dialógica fica um pouco prejudicada, pois a interação é pequena (embora exista), e a falta de debates em tempo real compromete a construção de um diálogo mais efetivo.

This study aims at generating an understanding of today's teaching in English. The study  seeks to find out in what extent teachers in grade 4-6 speak English during the lessons in English and on what occasions the teacher chooses to use the English language. The work empiricism consists of two different methods, classroom observations and qualitative interviews. In order to get such a broad picture of teacher's English teaching as possible, classroom observations were conducted first and then supplemented with an interview. Respondents participating in this study work in the municipal sector at four different schools in central Sweden.          The study shows that English as an teaching language is used at all times during the lesson, and that English is the most used teaching language. The teaching language fluctuates a lot, and the teachers who participated in this study mainly choose languages according to the group and the pupils in the group. All participating teachers used Swedish as a tool to answer the students' questions and guide them. The teachers primarily want to create a safe place for the students and to make sure everyone understands what´s being said on the lessons. / Denna studie syftar till att generera förståelse för dagens undervisning i engelska. Jag undersöker i denna studie i vilken utsträckning lärare i 4-6 talar engelska under lektionerna i engelska och vid vilka tillfällen läraren väljer att använda det engelska språket. Arbetets empiri utgörs av två olika metoder, klassrumsobservationer och kvalitativa intervjuer. För att få en sådan bred bild av lärares engelskundervisning som möjligt så genomfördes klassrumsobservationerna först och kompletterades sedan med en intervju. Respondenterna som deltar i denna studie arbetar inom den kommunala sektorn på fyra olika skolor i Mellansverige.          Studien visar att engelska som undervisningsspråk används under alla tillfällena under lektionens gång och att engelska är också det undervisningsspråk som används mest. Undervisningsspråket växlar väldigt mycket och lärarna som deltog i denna studie väljer främst att välja språk utefter vilken grupp och vilka elever som finns i gruppen. Alla deltagande lärare använder svenska som ett verktyg för att besvara elevernas frågor och vägleda dem. Lärarna vill i första hand skapa trygghet för eleverna och vill säkerställa att alla ska känna att de förstår vad som sägs.

The thesis is a study of the early stages of the writing cycle in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) class at the University of Singapore. The study focuses on a group brainstorming activity prior to the stage of writing the first draft and on the impact of this activity on the students’ first individual drafts. In addition, the study compares two different modes of discussion: face-to-face and online synchronous chat. The comparison is concerned with the interactional patterns of the discussion in the two modes, and with the transfer of content from the discussion to the first written drafts. The use of group brainstorming at the pre-writing stage is a familiar activity in the writing class but researchers have not yet paid much attention to the way in which the ideas generated in the brainstorming activity are transferred to individual written drafts. It is this gap that this dissertation seeks to fill. A question of particular interest is the extent to which knowledge construction in the composition class is accomplished by the individual or by the group. Data were collected from four classes of first-year undergraduate students of Science taught by the researcher. The control group, with 31 members, carried out their brainstorming activity in face-to-face mode, while the experimental group, with 27 members, carried out their brainstorming using a synchronous chat facility. The primary data were the chat scripts, face-to-face transcripts and first writing drafts. Analysis of the discussion data was carried out using a genre-based content analysis model deriving from speech act theory (Sinclair and Coulthard, 1975), rhetorical structure theory (Mann & Thompson 1986, 1988), and more recent work on collaborative writing by Plowman (1993), think-aloud protocols (Smagorinsky, 1991) and collaborative computer-based communication by Garrison and Anderson (2003), among others. The model is used to count the frequency of different ideas according to their rhetorical characteristics in the two conditions (face-to-face and synchronous chat), and to determine whether the ideas were generated by individuals or through group discussion. The analysis then looks at the extent to which the ideas were subsequently reproduced in individual drafts. The frequency analyses are complemented by detailed qualitative analysis of the discussion transcripts and the essays of four students, two from each discussion mode. The results of the analysis suggest that collaborative brainstorming is productive in helping students with the generation and development of ideas for their writing. The findings also suggest that there is a strong link between ownership and use of ideas initiated in the discussion. This tendency is stronger in the chat group than in the face-to-face group. Analysis of the discussion transcripts suggests that this difference is a result of more ideas being initiated in the chat group. In addition to these group differences, the analysis shows that discussion in both modes is characterised by a tendency to seek consensus, with very little argument and negotiation of content. The implications of these findings for the use of group discussion in the writing class are discussed.