My identity as a white woman ESL teacher has been structured partly through movies I saw in my youth. More recently in the late 1990s, a film with ESL, The King and I (1956), was on Japanese television two years in a row while I was teaching there. I found that very interesting and began asking questions regarding the influences that popular film may have on real ESL teachers and students. The study questions how films contribute to ESL in terms of teacher and student identities and desires. To explore this question, I collected three forms of data: 24 films with ESL; post-secondary ESL teacher and student responses to watching two films with ESL; and memories of films from my youth. A framework of critical and feminist pedagogy, including work in identity and ESL, and postcolonial, cultural, and feminist studies informed the analysis. I analyzed the data in relation to discourses of desire and the body as a socially constructed site of racial and gender identification. From the film data, I made the case that particular tropes, initiations, and signs construct reel ESL, such as white female teachers as upholders of particular colonial identities. From the teacher and student data, I found that readers engage with cinematic meanings in a space of liminality, that is, not quite in the movie but not quite in themselves. Readers by-pass their race, gender, age, and occupation to access the cinematic body as politically engaged and disrupting the status quo. From the memory data, I argued that through the seemingly innocent practice of watching movies, a world of racialized and gendered desire was settling in and making itself comfortable. The study is positioned in a critical feminist pedagogy of multiliteracies. Here, diverse sites of meaning-making strengthen and disrupt the desires and identities of ESL. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

In recent years, the age of additional language learning has been lowered in school education. What separates current students from the previous generation, however, is the fact that they use modern technology, such as digital games, and this can be used as a teaching strategy. Several studies show that modern technology can benefit students in their language learning, especially when it comes to vocabulary whose acquisition helps students to develop and master the four language basic skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing). The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the literature concerning the use of digital games and their characteristics in middle school in Sweden(ages 9-12), looking at the positive and negative effects game-use has on English vocabulary learning. Results from different studies indicate that the advantages of using digital games with the aim of vocabulary acquisition outweigh the disadvantages that this computer technology can cause. Using digital games together with pedagogical materials can, for example, reduce speaking stress, increase students’ interest, motivate them to language learning, and develop language learning strategies. It is nonetheless important to take the risks of modern technology into consideration, such as behaviour change or addiction, especially with young users. Overall, integrating entertainment games into educational contexts can result in effective student learning gains.

The majority of the school population at the research site struggles in reading and mathematics, particularly the English language learner (ELL) students. ELL students typically score lower than non-ELL students and perform at various levels of English language proficiency in reading and math. The purpose of the study was to identify and implement effective research-based strategies during math instruction to support and increase ELL students’ academic performance. This experimental research was composed of a between-subjects approach with a pre- and posttest control group design with a simple random sample selection. The objective was to measure the effectiveness of integrating guided reading instructional strategies in ELL students’ third grade math class. Students received instruction inclusively in the form of word problems. The study consisted of an experimental and control group, a total of 36 participants. The period of implementation for the experimental group occurred over a 2-week period, 5 days a week, for 60 minutes each day. Data analysis consisted of an independent samples t test on pre- and posttest scores and a Mann Whitney U test on end of semester grade level progress reading scores to detect two groups are significantly different. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) revealed the mean scores for the two groups. The objective was to evaluate the impact of teaching literacy in the content of math to increase ELL students’ academic achievement.

Because of the globalization of society, English as a foreign language (EFL) has become easier to access through internet and outside school English activities, so called “extramural English activities” (EEA). Previous research indicates a positive relation between pupils’ EFL vocabulary development and EEA (Sundqvist, 2009). This development may influence teachers’ lesson planning, because of pupils’ wide span of interests and the resulting different levels of EFL vocabulary. The focus of this degree project is on year five teachers’ perception of pupils’ EEA and their level of vocabulary. We investigate there is a relationship between those variables, and how teachers are bridging the gap between pupils’ EEA and classroom activities. Further on, different theories of motivation and vocabulary, and previous research are presented and used in the analysis of collected data. The data was collected qualitatively through six interviews with teachers in year five. The results indicate that the teachers, to some extent know what kind of EEA the pupils are interested in. Teachers’ perceptions of the pupils’ level of EFL vocabulary correlated to some extent with their EEA. To bridge the gap between pupils’ EEA and enhancing motivation in EFL classrooms, some teachers tried to include pupils’ experiences in their teaching. Further on, these conclusions are discussed in relation to previous research. Finally, this degree project may motivate teachers to explore the EEA habits of their pupils.

This essay explores the ways colonial short stories by Rudyard Kipling can be used in many different aspects of language teaching in upper secondary school.The analysis takes inspiration from Edward Said’s Orientalism, where he discusses and argues for the prevalence of the phenomenon of Orientalism in the zeitgeist of Western society during the age of European occupation and colonization. Additionally, the essay aims at showing the value of using the selected short stories as a means of teaching students a certain vocabulary that is necessary for identifying how Kipling’s portrayal of the Indian population frames them as vastly different from their British colonizers. Lastly, the essay suggests how teachers can use these attitudes and descriptions as valuable material for facilitating the inculcation of those democratic values that Skolverket expects schools to advocate.The analysis reveals several of the attitudes that Said highlighted, such as depictions that both implicitly and explicitly portray the Indian population as backward, uncivilized, and nonconforming to the values and attitudes that were ascribed to the colonizers at the time. There is also a large degree of an alleged racial, cultural, and religious superiority present in the stories. These attitudes could be employed as a basis for promoting discussions surrounding democratic values. The analysis also includes methods for explicit vocabulary development, suggesting how teachers can apply these to enable successful learning and development of new words and their connotations. Certain selected words are discussed thoroughly, since they display useful information regarding the portrayal of the Indian population, and some are discussed briefly to aid certain arguments.

Abstract Task-Based Language Teaching has long been a method for education in different subjects. This study investigates the use of Task-Based Language teaching regarding vocabulary acquisition in English upper secondary/high school students. Through the use of a database, multiple scientific studies and research papers on vocabulary acquisition through TBLT have been included. This study contains the results of the use of TBL through similar teaching methods with the focus on vocabulary development in the L2 classroom. The findings show that studies have different results regarding what tasks to include but present a similar conclusion regarding what method to use; TBLT. The results also show that regardless of what task is used, communication could be beneficial and even played a big role in multiple studies where it increased students vocabulary acquisition. The conclusion of our study suggests that TBLT is an efficient method for developing vocabulary acquisition in upper secondary and high school students. All research papers analysed concluded that TBL and TBLT can be used as means for motivating students which aided the task engagement, thus helping develop their vocabulary acquisition.

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This study examined the effects of a computer-mediated intervention on "at-risk" preschool students' receptive vocabulary development, computer-literacy skills, and enthusiasm for leaning. Twenty-two preschool-aged children attending an urban primary public school and participating in government subsidized school lunch program participated in the study. A pretest/posttest control-group design and case-study participant observations were used for data collection. Students were assigned to one of two treatment groups. Eleven preschool students with pretest School Readiness Composite (SRC) standard scores of 80, or below, on the Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised (BBCS-R), were assigned to the intervention group. Eleven pre-school students matched by age level and teacher comprised the comparison group. The intervention group received computer-mediated instruction while the comparison group received classroom teacher instruction. The first research question examined the effect of the intervention on students' receptive vocabulary analyzing groups' pretest and posttest BBCS-R School Readiness Composite mean scores. Combined analysis of a Two-Factor Repeated Measures and a Posttest only ANCOVA revealed that computer-mediated instruction was as effective as classroom teacher instruction in helping "at-risk" students acquire readiness receptive vocabulary. The second research question examined the effect of the intervention on "at-risk" student's computer-literacy skills analyzing participants pretest and posttest mean scores on the Computer Input Observation Rubric (CIOR), a rubric developed by the researcher. Analysis of One-Factor ANOVA and of Two-Factor Repeated Measures indicated that computer intervention significantly increased students' computer literacy skills. The third research question examined the impact of computer-mediated intervention on preschool students' enthusiasm for learning and followed descriptive case study methodology. Students' level of task involvement and positive-self statements confirmed enthusiasm for learning with technology.

Attendees will learn free, specific multimedia resources to entice children to read as well as to improve fluency in vocabulary and comprehension. The majority of young readers are captivated by mobile devices and the Internet. Why not use this to our advantage in reading instruction. Join us to discover games, websites, and apps that engage children and improve phonemic awareness, spelling, vocabulary development, and comprehension.

xiv, 203 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The primary purpose of this research is to determine whether the implementation of Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) teaching strategies increases the English receptive language and expressive vocabulary development of native Korean-speaking students. A secondary focus of the study is to identify specific GLAD strategies that are observed to be effective at supporting the expanding vocabulary of students. Because English language learners need to learn and use vocabulary words for different purposes and in different contexts, this dissertation is focused on vocabulary development for second language acquisition that is not in the context of reading. Participants included 16 native Korean-speaking students (grade 1, N = 11; grade 2, N = 5) and their teachers ( N = 7). The teachers used seven GLAD strategies to implement their science curriculum over a period of approximately 7 weeks. All of the teacher resources that were necessary to implement the GLAD strategies were provided. Quantitative data were collected on curriculum dependent as well as curriculum independent measures and were analyzed using paired-samples t tests to determine if growth occurred in the student's English receptive and expressive vocabulary development. Results indicate that curriculum independent measures produced findings that were statistically significant in receptive language only, at least at the small sample size. Curriculum dependent measures, however, did produce findings of learning gains that were statistically significant in both areas. These findings suggest that when vocabulary words are carefully selected from the curriculum, intentionally taught and implemented through a variety of strategies, it is possible that receptive language and expressive vocabulary growth may occur on targeted vocabulary. Qualitative data were also collected through teacher interviews, observation checklists, and web-based teacher questionnaires. The qualitative data were coded and analyzed for patterns to provide information on the implementation and effectiveness of the GLAD strategies. Three strategies, the cognitive content dictionary, total physical response, and 10/2, were identified as strategies that were (a) used frequently, (b) showing effective use when implemented, and (c) used to teach the target vocabulary words. Qualitative data also revealed that these three strategies were used throughout the day and not exclusively during science. / Committee in charge: Kathleen Scalise, Chairperson, Educational Leadership; Gerald Tindal, Member, Educational Leadership; Edward Kameenui, Member, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Jean Stockard, Outside Member, Planning Public Policy & Mgmt