This study explores the influence of collaborative learning on motivation and speaking anxiety in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom for young learners. The study highlights a crucial research aspect by examining the role of collaborative learning in addressing speaking anxiety. The research question is explored by multiple investigators, and Lundahl's (2022) groundbreaking work particularly stands out, emphasising the vital role of collaborative learning in education. Building on this foundation, Fenyvesi's (2020) study on Danish learners aligns with these collaborative learning findings, emphasising the importance of fostering positive attitudes from the early stages of language acquisition. Kopinska and Azakari's (2020) study of collaborative reconstruction tasks provides a task-based perspective, illustrating the positive impact on motivation and a preference for collaboration. Nilsson's (2019) research reveals several triggers of speaking anxiety amongst Swedish learners, emphasising the role of classroom situations. Collaborative learning relieves speaking anxiety, as highlighted by Nilsson (2019) and supported by Bozkurt and Aydin's (2023) study involving 34 EFL students. Pladevall-Balusters (2019) study in Catalonia, Spain, compares motivation levels in traditional and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) settings, acknowledging the potential and challenges of CLIL. The result of this study shows that collaborative learning has a positive impact on young EFL learners' motivation and speaking anxiety in English classes. It reduces anxiety, increases confidence, and fosters a supportive classroom atmosphere, ultimately contributing to improved motivation and vocabulary acquisition.

This corpus-based study explores writer-reader visibility (WRV) features in the writing by young Swedish learners of English. Specifically, using Petch-Tyson’s (1998) framework, this study examines the use of WRV features in essays written by young Swedish learners in lower and upper secondary school, and compares their use to that of Swedish university-level learners. The findings align with Hasund and Hasselgård’s (2022) observation based on young learners that “the tendency to be visible writers starts early” (p. 19). Yet, as the writing proficiency or experience of this learner population increases, their visibility decreases by relying less on WRV devices. This study contributes to the understanding of how young learners’ use of WRV features in their writing develops and provides insights into writing instructions for young learners of English.

The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent teachers in Swedish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms need to adapt their teaching methods and strategies to best handle students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). According to Skolverket (2020), a lot of students diagnosed with ASD fail to reach the knowledge requirements for a pass in their English classes in school. The paper presents relevant research retrieved from databases ERIC and EBSCO and discusses the findings in relation to the research questions and the Swedish curriculum. The research presented show students with ASD often struggle with attention, anxiety, and primarily listening comprehension in the classroom.  Methods researchers argue counteracts the obstacles for the autistic students aim to reduce anxiety, enhance communication, and complement verbal instructions with visual support.

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This study is a longitudinal, qualitative, interpretive inquiry into the work motivation of four novice EFL teachers at public secondary schools in Japan. I employed constructivism as my philosophical framework and narrative inquiry as my primary methodological tool, and attempted to capture the four young teachers’ changing motivation as embedded in their life histories and teaching trajectories over their first two years of teaching. The narratives of the four participants, constructed mainly from the multiple interviews, revealed various kinds of tensions in their transitions from student to teacher. Such tensions included a chasm between classroom realities and their beliefs, conflicts between collegiality and individuality, and also tensions that derived from the inherent nature of teaching such as uncertainty, extensive range of duties, and reflection on the self. In varying degrees and frequencies, all these tensions damaged the participants’ occupational motivation, demonstrating the vulnerable side of novice teachers’ motivation. The same narratives, however, also displayed a completely opposite feature of young teachers’ motivation: resilience. In the midst of the adverse circumstances, the participants continued to engage in the profession, sometimes restoring their motivation through interactions with students and colleagues, and other times returning to their original goals and ambitions. Among various sources of the sturdiness of their motivation, what was unique to novice teachers was a sense of discovery (Huberman, 1993). The four teachers’ discoveries included not only learning about teaching techniques or social norms but also new understandings of themselves as a teacher, and as a person. Although the process of negotiating and reshaping their self-concepts (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009; Markus & Nurius, 1986) disturbed their emotions and damaged their motivation temporarily, all four participants exhibited robustness of their self-concepts and motivation when they rediscovered their motivational goals at a higher level of self-awareness. The four young teachers’ narratives invite authorities such as policy makers, teacher educators, school administrators, and researchers to seek ways to support the growth of young teachers more effectively. In my conclusion, I suggest several measures to reduce the amount of tension and pressure to ease novice teachers’ entry into secondary school teaching. / CITE/Language Arts

In this case study, I investigate the development of first-year Japanese students’ self-regulated learning skills and the role of language learning advising in their transition to college. A great deal of research on the first-year experience has focused on a sense of belonging and the quality of friendships, but few researchers have investigated how learning habits influence first-year students’ successful adjustment to college life. Meanwhile, research on language learning advising has largely focused on learner strategies, a framework that has been met with increasing criticism (e.g., Dörnyei, 2005). Accordingly, for this study I adopt Zimmerman’s self-regulated learning (SRL) framework to examine the participants’ ability to transition to independent learning during their first year at a junior college in Japan. Furthermore, I aim to investigate the relation between SRL and foreign language learning and explore how advising in language learning can help learners to self-regulate their learning. The participants are 15 first-year students enrolled in a women’s junior college in Japan. The data were collected by conducting interviews, recording advising sessions, and obtaining documents. A series of four semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant over the course of eight months in their first year. Advising sessions with seven participants were also recorded. Each advising session lasted for half an hour and the number of advising sessions varied from one to eight times depending on the participant. Documents related to the college and materials relevant to the participants’ self-study were also collected. In addition, key administrators and faculty members were interviewed. The data were analyzed using three coding methods in two cycles: Eclectic Coding, Hypothesis Coding, and Axial Coding (Saldaña, 2013). Following this analysis, single-case and cross-case analyses were conducted (Yin, 2014). The findings suggest that there was a great variance in the level of SRL skill development among the participants. Some learners had already developed some SRL skills prior to entering college and built on their skills in their first year in college. Others experimented with strategies and eventually developed skills based on their mistakes. However, there were many participants who were able to observe and emulate their peers’ learning skills, but failed to utilize these skills independently in other contexts. These behaviors were observed more among the lower proficiency learners. It was also shown that the students who utilized effective SRL skills were good at managing their language studies. Several factors affected their SRL skill development. Emerging demands due to novel academic assignments, new living environments, and additional social obligations proved particularly challenging. Students with less developed self-regulated skills found themselves in a riskier position because in many cases it was difficult for them to understand the demands that new tasks presented. Consequently, they tended to take on more tasks beyond their abilities. The cases of two participants who visited the advisor repeatedly suggested that giving advice only on language learning strategies was insufficient, and pointed to the need for more SRL training. The rich description of the multiple cases in this study contributes to our understanding of the many challenges that students face in their transition to college, and the various strategies, some successful and some less so, that they use in their attempts to address these challenges. This study also provides insight into the processes of SRL development in the Japanese context. In particular, this study elucidates the difficulties that lower proficiency students have in adjusting to college life and developing SRL skills. The importance of understanding the context is re-emphasized and more flexibility on the part of advisors is recommended in order to support the varying degrees of preparedness for self-regulated learning with which first year students come to college. / Teaching & Learning

This study is a qualitative and descriptive investigation of teacher gestures in EFL education. The specific aim is to describe the types, roles, and functions of gestures that are produced by native English speaking teachers in English as foreign language (EFL) classrooms in Japan by examining naturally occurring interactions. In addition to teacher gesture, I included some nonverbal behaviors such as suprasegmental features, nodding, and gaze direction so as to understand classroom interaction and communication in EFL classrooms. In order to accomplish these aims I employed a qualitative case study approach in five EFL classrooms at a university in an urban area in Japan. The primary data come from classroom interactions of a native English speaking teacher and his 26 students of one classroom over one semester that were analyzed through a microanalysis of videotapes of the naturalistic classroom interactions. In addition to videotapes, to better understand the interactions that occurred in the classroom, I gathered and analyzed observation notes from my perspective as a peripheral observer. I also collected retrospective stimulated video recall interview data from the teacher and some volunteer students for further analysis. Furthermore, in order to have wider understanding of multimodal foreign language (FL) classroom interactions, I observed four more EFL classes that were taught by two other native English speaking teachers at a university that was situated in a municipal capital in Japan as additional observations and a post-lesson survey with the teachers and students for additional analyses. My aim is not to seek causal explanation but to present plausible descriptions and interpretations of naturally occurring interactions in EFL classrooms. Analysis revealed that various types of teacher gesture were used by the teachers from five EFL classrooms. They were categorized into representational, referential, emphatic gestures, and emblems. The findings were further analyzed for the following functions: In EFL instruction, the teacher’s speech and gestures influence the transmission of knowledge and information as comprehension aids, classroom management, and students' affective states. All three teachers heavily relied on multimodal behaviors, primarily gestures. However, they not only used gestures, but also various nonverbal behaviors. The teachers selected a mode or a combination of modes according to their instructional purposes and personal styles such as giving knowledge and information, and giving directions. It was confirmed that the teachers presented visual input even when learners were not looking at them. The teachers' awareness of their gesture use differed individually. Whereas teacher 1 was not aware of his gesture production, Teacher 2 and Teacher 3 were conscious about their gesture uses and intentionally used certain types of gestures for pedagogy. Student interviews and survey suggested that the students perceived teachers’ gestures positively. Close analysis of the transcribed data suggests that multi-modes of communication including gesture serve to potentially enhance meaning-making in classroom interaction and communication. I assume that integration of these gestural functions of teacher gesture scaffold learning to some extent although the degree of its influence cannot be determined from this study. The teachers’ gestural and speech instruction might contribute to learning, in particular to multimodal semiotic meaning construction for the case of teacher gestures that function as comprehension aids, and that this kind of instruction definitely contributes to classroom management and atmosphere. Students reacted nonverbally to the teachers’ rich input in speech and gestural explanations, and followed the teachers’ speech and gestural directions. In addition, the classroom cohesion was promoted through the use of humor presented by bodily motions such as mimes and the use of students. This finding was confirmed by interview and survey results. This study contributes to the research on gesture in second and foreign language (L2 / FL) education, to the pedagogy of language education and subject matter education in the first language, and possibly to the larger body of research on gesture. / Language Arts

This project explored aspects of English-related out-of-class time use by Japanese university students. The aim was to identify the salient temporal and motivational features of the episodes. The study had three parts, two longitudinal components and one cross-sectional component. Data from these three components consisted of out-of-class English time use information collected through a time diary (8,838 episodes). The episode data was collected from longitudinal study participants (n = 125) and cross-sectional study participants (n = 642) who maintained the time diary for at least one week. Data also include interviews with longitudinal participants (n = 40) about their time use and motivation and motivational information collected through an L2 motivational self system survey administered to cross-sectional study participants (n = 1,399) that was modeled after the survey developed by Taguchi, Magid, and Papi (2009). Two sets of time use and interview data were collected longitudinally (one semester per dataset) through Longitudinal Study 1 (ninitial = 66, nfinal = 15), which included participants from three universities in Western Japan, followed by Longitudinal Study 2 (ninitial = 59, nfinal = 25), which included participants from two universities in Western Japan. Interviews were with participants from these studies. Participants maintained a record of their out-of-class English-related time use during the semester. These data provide an overview of the out-of-class time use of Japanese university students during a full Japanese academic year. Longitudinal Study 1 data were collected during the fall semester, the second term at Japanese universities. Longitudinal Study 2 data were collected during the spring term, the initial term. Longitudinal Study 1 participants reported 2,529 episodes and Longitudinal Study 2 participants reported 3,322 episodes of out-of-class English access during the study period. One interview was held with the Longitudinal Study 1 participants (n = 15), at the end of fall semester. Two interviews were held with Longitudinal Study 2 participants (n = 25), one during the term and one following summer holiday. Data were examined for their temporal patterns and the contextual and affective features of the time use episodes. The cross-sectional component collected data from participants (n = 1,399) at 11 universities in Western Japan. These participants provided data for the motivational survey (n = 1,399) and at least one week of out-of-class English time use (n = 642) data. The participants in the cross-sectional study reported 2,987 out-of-class English access episodes. Episode data for all three components (K = 8,838) and the motivational survey data (n = 1,399) were analyzed at the person, group, and amalgamated episode levels for the patterns of participants' time use using ANOVA and nonparametric procedures. The data were also examined using nonparametric procedures (Kruskal-Wallis) to exam the affective variables (anxiety, enjoyment) by the contextual variables (purpose, location, persons present) of that time use. The episode data regarding participants' (n = 1,399) time use and motivational survey data were analyzed using ANOVA, factor, Rasch, multiple regression analyses, and structural equation modeling. The analyses of the time use data considered the temporal features of the episodes (time of day, day of week, hebdomadal pattern), the contextual features of the episodes (purpose, location, persons with), and the affective features of the time use (enjoyment, anxiety). The analyses of the motivational data considered two models of the L2 motivational self system, an intention to learn model (ILM) and a time use model (TUM). The ILM replicates the model found in the final solution proposed by Taguchi et al. (2009) for their model of the L2 motivational self system. In this model, the outcome factor is Intention to Learn, a factor labeled Criterion Measures by Taguchi et al. In the TUM, the outcome factor of Intention to Learn is replaced by actual time use on out-of-class English access. Time use results from all three components of this study indicated most out-of-class episodes occur when the participant is alone at home either studying or listening to English music. The most typical episode was listening to music, either alone at home or while commuting. A similar pattern of out-of-class English access was found for participants in all three components of this study. Study-related episodes were not considered enjoyable but also were not seen as causing anxiety. The amount of out-of-class time varied widely between participants, with one longitudinal study participant devoting 40 hours per week to English outside of class. For longitudinal study participants, the time use episode data, along with interviews, indicated that habit was a primary driver of out-of-class English access, with participants showing stable patterns of time use, whether for enjoyment or study, during the term. For the most part, once participants in the longitudinal components for this project had established a routine it remained fairly consistent during the term. The interviews clarified the initial motivators and drivers of the participants' English-related out-of-class time use. Interviews also confirmed the importance of habit in out-of-class time use patterns. Moreover, the interviews also indicated that the participants' L2 motivation was set in junior high school, though initial interest may have begun much earlier. Moreover, results from the three components showed that none of the participants met the time requirements of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sports, Technology and Culture (MEXT, 2002, 2009b) for out-of-class time allocated to study for their English courses, a 2:1 ration, for every week that they participated in the study. Only a few of the participants met this requirement for out-of-class English access during any week of the study and only if all purposes, including enjoyment, were considered. This study also addresses the call that Dörnyei (2000) made for research examining the links between motivation and behavior in L2 learning. One unique aspect of this study is the use of a behavioral variable, Time Use, in addition to the survey-assessed latent trait, Intention to Learn, to explore the links between motivational profile and actual behavior. Motivational results show limited support for Taguchi et al.'s (2009) structural model following the same paths that they used in their model of the L2 motivational self system. More informative is the difference in the loading of the motivational profile factors on the outcome variable, Intention to Learn, which was the Criterion variable in Taguchi et al.'s final model, and the loading of the motivational profile factors on the measure of actual out-of-class time accessing English. Results show that Ideal L2 Self loaded strongly (.94) on the criterion, Intention to Learn, but much less strongly (.35) on actual out-of-class time use. However, the confirmatory factor analysis also indicated only a marginal fit to the model. Of importance, however, is that participants who rated highly on their Ideal L2 Self rated highly on the Intention to Learn, but not nearly as highly on actual time use on English. This suggests that responses on surveys of motivation to learn a second language are measures of intention and should not be used to predict or explain actual language learning behaviors. Like the results found by M. P. Eccles et al. (2012), who looked at intention and behavior in medical intervention studies and concluded that surveys targeting intention did not indicate actual behavior, language researchers might need to take a more critical approach to any interpretation of survey-based results as explaining actual learner behavior. This study set out to begin the process of understanding language learners' out-of-class time to language learning and exploring the links between out-of-class behavior and the learners' motivations. Through the longitudinal and the cross-sectional components, the study clarified the ways in which language learners use their out-of-class time allocated to second language access, the amount of time that they allocate, and the characteristics of this time use. It examined the connections between motivation and behavior and began the process of linking motivational studies with actual behaviors called for by Dörnyei (2000). If, as this study has suggested, there is little connection between the level of motivation and the type of motivated behavior that is being targeted, then researchers need to reconsider the current construction of such instruments and search for alternative ways to include actual measures of behavior in L2 motivational surveys. Given the large body of research on motivation in language learning, the results of this study indicate that researchers might want to consider ways include a measure of actual behavior or interpret results of surveys more conservatively when making claims of links between motivation and actual intention. / Teaching & Learning

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T14:54:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MABIACAMARGO.pdf: 2963654 bytes, checksum: 9a95b861316170c98e112c71b5018ba2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-07 / The purpose of this study is to understand how issues of race and ethnicity are being treated in the English as a Foreign Language classes. The locus school of the research is a public school located in the district of Entre Rios, which is formed by five Swabian colonies, in the city of Guarapuava-PR. The classroom observed is composed of students who live on the outskirts of the district, students who live in rural communities and farms between the city of Guarapuava and Pinhão, and also students who live in the Invernada Paiol de Telha Community, a quilombola settlement located in the Socorro Colony. The theoretical base used in this research was constructed from studies about: critical literacy, social-identity theory and the issue of race / ethnicity (MCLAREN E LANKSHEAR,1993, MOITA LOPES, 2002, FERREIRA, 2006, KLEIMAN,1995, PENNYCOOK, 1998, STREET, 1995, BAUMAN, 2005, MUNANGA, 2004). As well as official documents, for example, Federal Law 10.639/2003, which demands the teaching of History and Afro-Brazilian Culture in Basic Education, and the DCEs (Parana State Curricular Guidelines for EFL). The research is qualitative with an interventionist kind, the working method is an ethnographic case study, where through observations during the period of approximately two months, it was accompanied the work of an EFL teacher in dealing with issues of race and ethnicity. In order that, a teaching unit was designed and implemented in the classes of EFL. The research shows up the issues of identity are characterized by the territorial and the social class notion, because of a hegemonic German identity, the other ethnics (Brazilians and Quilombolas) are forgotten and not enhanced. The need for ongoing training of English Language teachers so that the ethnic and racial issues can be worked satisfactorily in the classroom is primary, because the collected data indicates that ethnic and racial issues were not being worked in EFL classes at the referred school. This study aims to contribute to an education of EFL that satisfies the cultural and political demands in equality of race and ethnicity, and to continue discussions about teacher educational training, viewing an anti-racist education. / A proposta deste trabalho está em compreender como as questões de raça e etnia têm sido tratadas nas aulas de língua inglesa. A escola locus da pesquisa é uma escola pública, localizada no Distrito de Entre Rios, o qual é formado por cinco colônias suábias, na cidade de Guarapuava-PR. A sala de aula observada é composta por alunos que vivem na periferia do Distrito, em comunidades rurais e chácaras entre os municípios de Guarapuava e Pinhão, e também por alunos que vivem na Comunidade Invernada Paiol de Telha, um assentamento quilombola, localizado na Colônia Socorro. Os aportes teóricos utilizados na pesquisa foram construídos a partir de estudos sobre Letramento Crítico, teorias socioidentitárias e a questão de raça/etnia (MCLAREN E LANKSHEAR,1993; MOITA LOPES, 2002; FERREIRA, 2006; KLEIMAN,1995; PENNYCOOK, 1998; STREET, 1995; BAUMAN, 2005; MUNANGA, 2004). Este trabalho também se apoia em documentos oficiais como, por exemplo, a Lei Federal 10.639/2003, que torna obrigatório o Ensino de História e Cultura Afro-Brasileira na Educação Básica, e as DCEs-LEM (Diretrizes Curriculares da Educação Básica de Língua Estrangeira Moderna do Paraná). A pesquisa é qualitativa de caráter intervencionista, o método de trabalho é o estudo de caso etnográfico, a partir do qual, por meio de observações realizadas durante o período aproximado de dois meses, foi acompanhado o trabalho de uma professora de Língua Inglesa (LI) no trato das questões de raça e etnia. Para tanto, uma unidade didática foi elaborada e aplicada nas aulas de LI. A pesquisa evidencia que as questões de identidade estão marcadas pela noção de territorialidade e classe social, devido a uma identidade hegemônica alemã na região, o que determina um esquecimento e consequente desvalorização das as outras etnias (brasileiros e quilombolas) presentes no território. A necessidade da formação continuada dos professores de língua inglesa para o trato das questões étnico-raciais nas aulas de língua inglesa é primordial, pois os dados gerados indicaram que essas questões não estavam sendo trabalhadas nas aulas de LI da referida escola. Este estudo, nesse sentido, visa contribuir para um ensino de LI que satisfaça as demandas culturais e políticas na igualdade de raça e etnia, e ainda dar continuidade às discussões sobre a formação de professores com vistas a um ensino antirracista.

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Young-Ok Yum / Writing well, especially in English, is an asset to anyone who aspires to succeed in the academic or other professional fields in this age of English as a lingua franca. Numerous scholars have investigated errors committed by English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners. However, to date there is no empirical study on the error patterns displayed in native Dari speakers’ EFL writing in English and in Dari. The present study investigates error occurrences in 20 native Dari speakers’ English and Dari writing. These participants were English majors attending Balkh University, in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. Most of the participants self-identified their English proficiency levels as “advanced.” The data were collected through convenience sampling of the students enrolled in EFL writing courses who voluntarily participated in two writing tasks of different levels of difficulty; they completed these first in English and then a week later in Dari. In order to observe any patterns, all spelling and word choice errors were identified by three independent judges (one Dari instructor at BU, one native-American-English-speaking graduate student in the English Department, and the author who is bilingual and works as an English instructor). All three worked separately initially and then discussed any discrepancies together in person (English) or via Skype (Dari), until they reached consensus. The analysis, concerning the three research hypotheses, supported these findings: (1) as predicted, the native Dari speakers committed a variety of errors similar to learners from previous studies; (2) as predicted, the participants made fewer errors in English than in Dari; and (3) counter to the hypothesis, the results indicated that the participants, when writing in Dari, demonstrated more errors in the simpler tasks; yet, the participants committed more errors in the more complex (versus simpler) English writing task, consistent with this hypothesis.