What started as a discussion of the efficacy of explicit grammar instruction has over time led to a debate about the need for and effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) within the field of English language teaching (ELT). Dynamic written corrective feedback (DWCF) is a relatively new strategy developed by Dr. Norman Evans to provide WCF to English as a second language (ESL) students through systematic, coded feedback. While previous studies on DWCF have looked at its effects among other groups, few studies have examined DWCF in the context of ESL students studying at the graduate level. This study analyzes the linguistic accuracy and lexical and syntactic complexity of these students before and after a fourteen-week DWCF intervention.

In order to be able to use the operational Moldavian GNSS Positioning System MOLDPOS efficiently for the determination of normal heights in surveying engineering, e.g. during the construction of a road, an accurate quasigeoid model is needed. The main goal of this thesis is to present a new gravimetric quasigeoid model for Moldova (Mold2012), which has been determined by applying the Least Squares Modification of Stokes’ formula with Additive corrections (LSMSA), also called the KTH method. Due to limited coverage of gravity data, the integration area is often limited to a small spherical cap around the computation point, which leads to a truncation error for geoid height. Molodensky et al. (1962) showed that the truncation error can be reduced by the modification of Stokes’ formula, where the measured gravity data are combined with the low-frequency component of the geoid from a Global Gravitational Model (GGM). The LSMSA technique combines the GGM and the terrestrial data in an optimum way. In order to find the most suitable modification approach or cap size it is necessary to compare the gravimetric height anomalies with the GPS/levelling derived height anomalies, and for this purpose we use a GPS/levelling dataset that consists of 1042 points with geodetic coordinates in the MOLDREF99 reference system and normal heights at the same points given in the height system Baltic 77. The magnitude of the additive corrections varies within an interval from -0.6 cm to -4.3 cm over the area of Moldova. The quasigeoid model which results from combining the ITG-Grace02s solution (with n = M = 170, ψ0 = 3° and σΔg = 10 mGal) and the solution obtained from the modified Stokes’ formula together with the additive correction gives the best fit for the GPS/levelling data with a standard deviation (STD) of ±7.8 cm. The evaluation of the computed gravimetric quasigeoid is performed by comparing the gravimetric height anomalies with the GPS/levelling derived height anomalies for 1042 points. However, the above heterogeneous data include outliers, and in order to find and eliminate these, a corrector surface model is used. This surface provides a connection to the local vertical when the GNSS technique is used. After the elimination of the suspicious outliers (170 points) according to a 2-RMS test, a new corrective surface was computed based on the remaining 872 GPS/levelling points, and the STD of residuals became ±4.9 cm. The STD value for the residuals according to the order of the levelling network for the Mold2012 fitted to the local vertical datum is 3.8 cm for the I-order, 4.3 cm for the II-order, 4.5 cm for the III-order and 5.0 cm for the IV-order levelling network. But the STD of the residuals for the 18 control points indicates a better result where the STD is 3.6 cm and RMS is 3.9 cm and the min and max value of residuals is -5.3 cm and 9.0 cm, respectively. As the STD of the differences in height anomaly are not just the standard error of the height anomalies (quasigeoid model), but it contains also the standard errors of GPS heights and of normal heights. Assuming that the latter STDs are 3 cm and 3.5 cm, respectively, the STD of Mold2012 is estimated to 1.7 cm. / <p>QC 20121127</p>

The purpose of this study is to determine two types of error gravity in a corpus of texts written by native Chinese learners of English (ELLs)—one that enriches the traditional construct of gravity found in error gravity research by including error frequency, or how often an error occurs in a text relative to others, as an intervening variable, and one that applies the new error gravity data in a practical way to help establish salient grammatical focal points for written corrective feedback (WCF). Previous error gravity research has suggested that the amount of irritation caused by error is determined by the extent to which an utterance departs from "native-like" speech. However, because these studies often neglect the role of frequency in determining gravity—relying on isolated sentences, pre-determined errors, and manipulated texts to define it—a more complete view of error gravity is needed. Forty-eight native English speakers without ESL teaching experience and 10 experienced ESL teachers evaluated a set of 18 timed, 30-minute essays written by high intermediate to advanced native-Chinese ELLs. Errors were identified, verified, tagged, and classified by the level of irritation they produced. Results show the most serious errors included count/non-count (C/NC), insert verb (INSERT V), omit verb (OMIT V), and subject-verb agreement (SV). The most frequent error type was word choice (WC), followed by singular/plural (S/PL), awkward (AWK), and word form (WF). When combined, singular/plural (S/PL), word form (WF), word choice (WC), and awkward (AWK) errors were found to be the most critical. These findings support Burt and Kiparsky's (1972) global/local error distinction in which global errors, or those lexical, grammatical and syntactic errors that affect the overall organization or meaning of the sentence (Burt, 1975) are deemed more grievous than local ones, which affect only "single elements (constituents)" (Burt, 1975, p. 57). Implications are discussed in terms of future research and possible uses in the Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback classroom.

When supporting students’ language development, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers use different scaffolding methods, such as Oral Corrective Feedback (OCF). This method’s purpose is to assist learners’ oral language skills, and there are various strategies that can be utilised in an input providing or output prompting manner. The aim of this study is to investigate Swedish EFL teachers in K-3 regarding their preferences for OCF strategies, the challenges they face in implementing these strategies, as well as adapting them to their teaching context. In order to examine this phenomenon, data was collected through conducting semi-structured interviews with teachers as participants. The results indicate that Recast is the most prevalent approach, whereas output prompting strategies pose the greatest difficulty for teachers. One of the output prompting strategies that were frequently mentioned as the least preferred was Metalinguistic Feedback. Moreover, teachers tend to adapt their OCF strategies and sometimes even choosing to not correct their students at all, depending onthe learning context and the individual student attributes. In comparison to previous studies conducted in other countries, different strategies were preferred such as Explicit Correction, which teachers in Sweden tend to refrain from using. However, the beliefs regarding output prompting OCF strategies were similar. Overall, teachers believe that providing OCF is an effective method for scaffolding young learners’ language development in the EFL classroom.

No description available.

Studies have shown that accuracy of L2 writing is improved when teachers employ direct corrective feedback (CF). Less is known about the benefits of adding some form of metalinguistic explanation to the focused direct CF. In this study, thirty-six grade nine students from two different schools in Sweden completed two sets of written tasks, one week apart. All of the students’ work was corrected using focused direct CF, with only one linguistic feature (the accurate use of the present simple and the present continuous) being the primary focus. Some of the students also received an oral metalinguistic explanation in the form of a class lecture, while others received a written, personalised metalinguistic explanation. Eleven students were subsequently interviewed.The study showed that all of the students appreciated the CF that they received and the vast majority thought that it had helped them, even if their results did not reflect this. The students who received focused direct corrective feedback with an oral explanation in the form of a class lecture showed the most consistent improvement overall.

Corrective feedback (CF) is regarded as a controversial topic when it comes to writing in the L2 classroom. Some researchers have found it to be both meaningless and harmful, while others have researched the effects of different types of CF and found it to be good for language development in several ways. This made us interested in conducting a study focusing on what attitudes grade 3-5 (age 9-11) teachers have concerning CF, and if they themselves use it for their L2 students’ writing. The study was conducted through five semi-structured interviews with teachers working in Lund, Sweden. The aim of the study was to investigate compulsory school teachers’ experiences of and thoughts on CF as a teaching method for improving young L2 learners’ writing. The results revealed that the teachers believe CF to be an irreplaceable part of language learning but that it should be adapted to each individual’s needs. Although all interviewed teachers acknowledged CF’s potential harm on learners’ motivation and willingness to write, no one believed that it could be left out completely.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / According to one theory of root resorption, occlusal trauma during orthodontic tooth movement damages the cementum covering the root dentin. The body detects the exposed dentin and seeks to remove it, and the result is root resorption. This experiment will explore an aspect of this theory by quantifying the amount and location of damage in mechanically fatigued teeth. Nine dog mandibles were sectioned at the mandibular symphysis. Each half was mounted in orthodontic resin with the incisors upright and exposed. The block was inserted into a jig and placed into a servohydraulic mechanical testing machine. The left central incisor was fatigue loaded with a 2Hz, 10-90 N sinusoidal force for 100,000 cycles (approximately 14 hours). The right central incisor served as the control. Both specimens were scanned with a micro-CT unit, stained with basic fuchsin, and then sectioned along the sagittal plane. Because the experimental and control specimens were stained before sectioning, only microdamage due to the loading process would be evident in the sections. Microdamage which occurred during the sectioning process would not be stained. Central sections through the long axes of the samples were examined for the presence of microdamage with a light microscope and a micro-CT unit. Based on preliminary findings, two types of staining patterns were measured and recorded. The first was called "diffuse stain" and consisted of large stained areas in the dentinal tubules. Diffuse stain was not associated with any visible features at the dentinocemental junction. The second type of staining pattern was called "stained defects." Stained defects were stained irregularities at the dentinocemental junction. For statistical analysis, the roots were divided into buccal-cervical, buccal-middle, buccal-apical, lingual-cervical, lingual-middle, and lingual-apical regions. Comparisons between the fatigued and non-fatigued teeth for differences in area, length, and depth were made under the generalized estimating equation (GEE) framework applied to normally-distributed data. Because the measurements were not normally distributed, a rank transformation of the measurements was performed before conducting the analyses. Comparisons between the fatigued and non-fatigued teeth for differences in presence or absence of stain or defects were made using Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel tests. Repeatability of the measurements was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), paired t-tests, and Bland-Altman plots. The ICC's ranged from 0 .85 to 1.00, thus making the repeatability of the measurements generally very good. The statistical analysis showed there were no significant differences between the experimental and control teeth for stained defects or diffuse staining for length, depth, or area measurements. However, analyses comparing the distribution of stained defects and diffuse stain within the control and experimental specimens showed significant differences in the distribution of stained defects within the experimental specimens. In the experimental specimens, the stained defects were distributed in a gradient, with the most in the apical region and progressing to the least amount in the cervical region. In the control specimens, there was only a difference in the stained defects between the cervical and apical regions. This distribution is consistent with the biomechanical model which shows increasing stress moving from the cervical region towards the apex. These results show that the test and control specimens differed in how the stained defects were distributed throughout the root, even though there were no differences in the amount of staining between the control and experimental specimens. Whole tooth and histologic slides were scanned with the micro-CT unit, but the dentinocemental junction could not be delineated enough to make any measurements. No data could be collected regarding microdamage in this area using the micro-CT unit. It was recommended that future studies use a tomography unit with better resolution, use a larger samples size, employ a contrast agent when trying to visualize microdamage with the micro-CT unit, and incorporate a way to measure the intensity of the staining in addition to the location and size.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the existence the educational backgrounds of adult English Language Learners and their preferences in error correction. Fifty participants completed surveys of their educational and demographic backgrounds and beliefs about error correction, and then ranked video clips of different types of error correction in terms of perceived usefulness. The survey examined the affective impact of oral error correction and students' preferences regarding which errors merited correction and when and how these errors should be corrected. Participants with differing educational backgrounds expressed similar beliefs concerning the error correction and similar perceptions of the affective impact of CF. The findings of this study indicated that teachers may run more risk of disappointing students by not meeting their expectations than they do of causing them a negative emotional experience through correction.

No description available.