<p>This dissertation investigates the linguistic features of engagement in spoken academic online and face-to-face instruction in mathematics on two platforms: Khan Academy and MIT OpenCourseWare. In particular, the study analyses involvement features (personal pronouns and deixis) and interactional features (response elicitors, direct hypothetical reported speech). Using corpus linguistics methodology and register analysis framework (Biber &Conrad, 2009), I investigated normed frequency of occurrence for these features and multi-word expressions which contain them to reveal patterns of use. Additionally, I investigated the function of these features in concordance lines to reveal their use to engage audience in the learning process. The findings of this study suggests that Khan Academy instruction in mathematics relies on using conversational and academic spoken features similar to those found in the MIT lecture corpus, including frequent use of personal pronouns (especially <i>we)</i>, and response elicitors (<i>right?)</i>. The format of online video instruction also elicits more use of spatial deixis to draw attention to the elements on the virtual board. The findings of this exploratory study add to the growing literature on language used for educational purposes in online environments, especially the online academic spoken discourse.</p>

Using quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, the current study examines Saudi students’ perspectives, coupled with EAL instructors’ views, regarding Saudi students’ English language-learning needs. Two data collection tools were used, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The study (N = 172) included samples of EAL learners (n = 127) and EAL instructors (n = 45) both in Saudi Arabia and Canada, Victoria. The mismatch between the skills identified as important and areas identified as needing support by the learners, in addition to the divergence between learners’ and instructors’ perceptions, underscores the necessity of triangulation when using needs analysis to discover language-learning needs. The study delineates oral communication (i.e., being able to interact by using the language appropriately and efficiently) as a language-learning need identified by both Saudi students and their language instructors. Quantitative (skill ratings) and qualitative (responses to open-ended questions and interviews) data suggest that both students and instructors view writing as a challenging area for Saudi English-language learners. The results also indicate issues that contribute to the challenges faced by Saudis in the process of learning English. Findings show the importance of educational background and cultural differences in the students’ language development. Responses report that reading is devalued in the Saudi educational system and Saudi culture in general. Hence, both Saudi students and instructors in Canada pinpointed reading as an area needing support. Based on the key findings, it is evident that the language-learning needs of Saudi students are shaped according to the requirements of their immediate study context and their prospective goals. The study contributes crucial findings about participants’ perceptions of the importance of skills and their assessment of skills status in Saudi Arabia and Canada. In addition to the implications for English language learning in Saudi Arabia, these findings can be informative for educational institutions and practitioners in the English-speaking world. Most importantly, the multi-level analysis confirms that language learning needs are context-specific. / Graduate

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Findings also indicate other drawbacks such as some teachers' transmission of errors due to their low proficiency in the English language, their lack of common and well-designed EAP curricula, their lack of cooperation with non-language teachers, their delayed starting of classes and allowing a kind of laissez-faire and laissez-aller approach in classrooms, their lack of promotion of students' learning autonomy and problem-solving skills, their lack of language support to students, to cite but a few. Findings also indicate that teachers over-used pre-established materials that they had been recommended to use, using a teaching methodology known as PPP (Present Practise Produce) according to which teachers present an item or a skill and students are required to practise it before they become conversant with it. Furthermore, findings indicate a severe shortage of teaching and learning facilities. Findings concerning the language of instruction (English) indicate that it challenged students with an educational background in French. However, the students' French background and the widespread use of Kinyarwanda were also seen as an impediment to the implementation of EAP courses, but findings show that the shift from English to Kinyarwanda would help students understand the difficult concepts used in their academic subjects and safeguard Rwandan culture. Findings with regard to students' needs and expectations indicate that no opportunities were created for classroom interaction to enable students to think critically and comprehend the world and the word. Furthermore, teachers would fail to adjust the teaching and learning materials to suit students' needs. These materials were neither discipline-nor culture-related. To address the above-mentioned shortcomings, findings indicate that teaching and learning materials which incorporate discipline-related terminologies, Rwandan cultural artifacts, and world Englishes bear meaningful input and can raise students' motivation. They also indicate that students communicate better in Kinyarwanda and that the use of code switching helps students acquire both Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language proficiency (CALP). Concerning the above findings, therefore, recommendations are made to help the CBE and other institutions of higher learning in Rwanda and tertiary education settings in non-native English-speaking countries around the world to use EAP courses as a solution to students' language- related problems. Such recommendations are, to cite a few, teachers' shift from a banking to a problem-solving model of education, their switch to modes of communication other than the language of instruction to facilitate the teaching and learning process, teacher and student autonomy, accommodating students' voice in the teaching and learning process, the revision of criteria relied on to select language teachers, and in-service training for novice teachers. Other recommendations are CBE's partnership with other institutions of higher learning nationwide and worldwide, provision of learning and teaching materials, the government's mass consultation before the promulgation and implementation of any language policy, and the consideration of student errors as part of the learning process.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間・環境学) / 甲第19082号 / 人博第735号 / 新制||人||176(附属図書館) / 26||人博||735(吉田南総合図書館) / 32033 / 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻 / (主査)教授 田地野 彰, 教授 西山 教行, 准教授 中森 誉之 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間･環境学) / 甲第20722号 / 人博第831号 / 新制||人||199(附属図書館) / 29||人博||831(吉田南総合図書館) / 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻 / (主査)教授 田地野 彰, 教授 桂山 康司, 准教授 金丸 敏幸, 教授 植松 茂男 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of the essay writing process of first year undergraduates at Chancellor College (University of Malawi) and to a lesser extent those of the lecturers responsible for teaching academic skills. A mixed methods design, combining qualitative and quantitative techniques, was employed in order to obtain richer data for deeper understanding of the students’ writing process. Two hundred students from the humanities and social science faculties responded to a self-completion questionnaire towards the end of semester one. Based on the students’ responses, an open-ended questionnaire was administered to four full time English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors. Findings from this study indicate that most students find it very challenging to obtain sufficient and relevant source text information, paraphrase or summarise information, and use an appropriate academic writing style. As solutions to these challenges, the students suggested the need for timely essay writing instruction, availability of resources for essay writing, increased amount of time spent on essay writing instruction, and discipline specific instruction in essay writing. EAP instructors identified lack of teaching and learning materials, large EAP classes, and students’ negative attitude towards the EAP course, as some of the challenges they encounter when teaching the course. The EAP instructors proposed an increase in the number of staff members, making students aware of the significance of the EAP course at an early stage, and the availability of up to date resources, as some of the ways in which the teaching of the course can be improved. Overall, the findings seem to suggest that difficulties that students encounter during the writing process and teaching challenges that EAP instructors face, have great impact on students’ perception of academic writing as well as their approach to writing tasks. The findings also suggest a lack of dialogue between the students and their lecturers. This is evident in students’ unawareness of the nature of the writing demands of their lecturers and disciplines; students’ desire to have timely essay writing instruction; and the lecturers’ concerns about students’ negative attitude towards the EAP course.

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of the essay writing process of first year undergraduates at Chancellor College (University of Malawi) and to a lesser extent those of the lecturers responsible for teaching academic skills. A mixed methods design, combining qualitative and quantitative techniques, was employed in order to obtain richer data for deeper understanding of the students’ writing process. Two hundred students from the humanities and social science faculties responded to a self-completion questionnaire towards the end of semester one. Based on the students’ responses, an open-ended questionnaire was administered to four full time English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors. Findings from this study indicate that most students find it very challenging to obtain sufficient and relevant source text information, paraphrase or summarise information, and use an appropriate academic writing style. As solutions to these challenges, the students suggested the need for timely essay writing instruction, availability of resources for essay writing, increased amount of time spent on essay writing instruction, and discipline specific instruction in essay writing. EAP instructors identified lack of teaching and learning materials, large EAP classes, and students’ negative attitude towards the EAP course, as some of the challenges they encounter when teaching the course. The EAP instructors proposed an increase in the number of staff members, making students aware of the significance of the EAP course at an early stage, and the availability of up to date resources, as some of the ways in which the teaching of the course can be improved. Overall, the findings seem to suggest that difficulties that students encounter during the writing process and teaching challenges that EAP instructors face, have great impact on students’ perception of academic writing as well as their approach to writing tasks. The findings also suggest a lack of dialogue between the students and their lecturers. This is evident in students’ unawareness of the nature of the writing demands of their lecturers and disciplines; students’ desire to have timely essay writing instruction; and the lecturers’ concerns about students’ negative attitude towards the EAP course.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Over the last 25 years socially-based SLA research has increasingly focused on contextual factors that constitute the local learning environments of learners of English as a second language in attempting to better comprehend the socially embedded nature of learning outcomes. These scholars have largely postulated language learning not only as the acquisition of linguistic knowledge in the abstract but rather as fundamentally constituted by participation in social praxis as situated within local sociocultural and institutional contexts. The emergence of „the social‟ in SLA research is especially significant to academic contexts in which learners belonging to diverse cultural and literacy traditions typically struggle to identify with target literacy practices of their academic communities. Drawing on a sociocultural approach and the community of practice construct, this thesis takes a qualitative approach. Through the analysis of teacher and student focus group data, this thesis sets out to illustrate learner and teacher articulations surrounding what constitutes learner engagement in an academic English program at an international university in Vietnam. The data collected in this study suggests that the focal learners perceived higher levels of learner engagement in learning contexts in which collaborative, dialogic activity was extensively integrated in the acquisition of target academic literacy practices. While the focal teacher articulations surrounding student engagement also took into account the importance of such collaborative class activity, the teachers did not attribute the same level of importance to it that the focal students did. This study concludes that teachers should extensively use activity frameworks within class that encourage group work in the learning of target academic literacy practices, especially academic reading and writing practices. Even where target practices will ultimately be elaborated and assessed on an individual basis, this study illustrates that collaborative dialogic frameworks seemed to provide students with opportunities to pool linguistic, content, and skills-related resources, thus allowing students to overcome learning difficulties associated with academic literacy practices. Ultimately, such activity frameworks appeared to mediate higher levels of student engagement within class activities, which students linked to more effective and enjoyable learning of academic English. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming beskikbaar

Students entering academic programmes are frequently overwhelmed by the demand for extensive reading and comprehension of information derived from multiple and contrasting sources. This entails both careful and expeditious reading. The latter has been generally neglected in research and has not been the focus of many tests. Both types of reading were investigated in this study through a validation process of the summative English reading test for academic purposes taken at the end of the Foundation Programme in Oman. In particular, context validity was established through focusing on the interaction between the linguistic demands and task setting parameters and also the cognitive processes through which the students engaged with the test tasks. To establish the context validity of the test, this study adopted Khalifa and Weir’s (2009) model which not only embraced the complex and multi-componential nature of reading but also provided a workable validation framework. A multi-strategy approach was adopted. A natural experiment utilising Verbal Protocol Analysis captured the cognitive processes through which students engaged in reading. Automated analysis software and opinions of expert judges were used to compare test passages with text extracts drawn from first year academic courses. Correlation tests and factor analysis revealed these cognitive processes and established the robustness of the Khalifa and Weir (2009) model, which was thus validated in a second language context. Passages in the foundation tests were found to be generally representative of academic texts although certain features such as abstractness were under-represented.

An increasing number of universities are providing the current generation of students, the socalled ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001) - with more flexible and innovative language learning environments through the use of free Web 2.0 tools, such as wikis, blogs, social networking, Second Life and podcasting. However, still relatively little is known about wikis in the context of teaching English for Academic Purposes. My project aims to fill this research gap. I applied a case study strategy, where three groups of students attending a course Academic reading and writing for teacher candidates were examined. This paper demonstrates how the wiki software was employed in the course to encourage teacher candidates to proof-read and edit their own and others’ texts in order to be more accurate in academic writing. The present case study applied several research methods, including analysis of the texts written by students on the wiki and chat-room comments, an interview with the teacher of examined groups and a student questionnaire. The analysis of peer revisions was carefully conducted with a particular focus on: the variations in the way that students corrected each others’ texts, types of revised language issues, and the extent to which the teacher candidates were correcting accurately. My findings show that the students paid close attention to sentence structure (e.g. clauses, punctuation), fixing sentence problems (e.g. parallelism, choppy and stringy sentences), inflection and academic style. It is noteworthy that most of these languages issues were discussed in class. Considerably less attention was given by students to questions like paragraph structure and content. The accuracy of students’ revisions varied depending on the type of corrected language issue. The general impression of employing the wiki in this course was favourable. Many of the teacher candidates admitted that they would like to utilize the wiki tool in their future teaching courses.