Wang Junju. / "April 2004." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 296-316). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

The purpose of this study is to determine the type, possible source and gravity of errors found in the Test of Written English and Placement Tests compositions written by native speakers of Arabic at college level. The first part of the study is an error analysis designed to reveal the types of errors that are most frequently made by Arab students at college level. The sources of these errors are explained according to Richards' classification of errors as inter- and intralingual (1971). Seven types of errors are identified under interlingual category: articles, prepositions, the copula, embedded questions, pronoun retention, semantic and stylistic errors. Intralingual errors included errors in overgeneralization and ignorance of rule restriction.

Culture is at the core of language teaching. Because classrooms are contact zones (Pratt 1991), teachers must have a well-developed sense of their own intercultural competence so that they may better facilitate the cross-cultural discovery inherent in language teaching. Teacher preparation programs need to provide opportunities for new teachers to increase their intercultural awareness. The purpose of this research was to qualitatively understand the experiences of pre-service teachers in a required culture-learning class at a large urban university. Specifically, the focus of this study was the completion of a mini-ethnography project designed to give the students a cross-cultural exchange. Since such contact zones can be the site of reflexivity and transformation, this study sought to understand the contexts in which reflexivity and transformation might occur, as well as how these changes might influence a person's intercultural competence. This research used student writing as a primary source for illustrating change. Writing samples from all course assignments were collected from the class. Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Profiles were collected from three individuals who also agreed to extensive interviews. This data was used to create case study portraits of the class as well as the three individuals, illustrating a variety of experiences with the ethnography project. Change in intercultural competence was measured according to the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennett 1993) and the IDI. Each person had a markedly different experience with the project, and each person experienced some kind of intercultural change. Overall, the results suggest that ethnography is a useful classroom tool. When used at an appropriate stage of a student's intercultural development, reflexivity and perspective transformation can occur, thus leading to intercultural competence.

This qualitative study examined the influence of the 2011 Oregon Writing Project (OWP) Summer Institute (SI) on the professional development of six teachers in the following ways: 1. The development of case descriptions of teachers' personal and professional backgrounds relevant to their teaching of writing. 2. An examination of the effects of the Summer Institute on participants' self-reported teaching practices, attitudes, and beliefs about the teaching of writing. 3. An examination of participants' perceptions of aspects of the SI program that they deemed 'influential' in their professional development. Data was collected from Summer Institute application materials, written coursework, and follow-up interviews. Using inductive reasoning, systematic analysis of the data resulted in the following findings: 1. Teachers reported a neglect of writing education in their teacher preparation programs, as well as in the professional development programs offered by K-12 schools. 2. Participants tended to report change in their professional and personal practices, attitudes, and beliefs related to writing following the Summer Institute. 3. Participants unanimously identified the characteristics of time and a safe learning environment as significant in their professional development experience. The study suggests the need for more comprehensive inclusion of writing instructional methods in preservice and professional development programs. The study also reinforces pre-existing research that supports professional development models that are designed to be teacher and context-centered within a collaborative community. The present research highlights the need to consider factors of time and participant feelings of "safety" when designing professional development programs. Finally, the study maintains that effective professional development may offer the important teacher learning and confidence needed in K-12 schools / Graduation date: 2012

published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

The transition to democracy in South Africa has resulted in systemic efforts to ensure equality education for all. However, despite such endeavours to address inequities, inequalities still remain regarding not only resources but also classroom pedagogies. One aspect of classroom pedagogy is the teaching of writing. The writing proficiency of mainly non-mother tongue learners seldom surpasses that of mother tongue speakers of English. Writing is seldom explicitly taught. Moreover, factual texts are almost never taught in schools although they are one of the most powerful genres in society. Systemic transformation in South Africa is often driven by global trends that focus on functional literacy. The Outcomes Based Curriculum is such an initiative with its emphasis on skills, values, critical thinking, and learner centeredness. The current process writing approach in our schools, within the framework of Outcomes Based Education, does not address the needs of all learners. The focus on grammar, correctness, and creative outpourings of self -reflective essays, advantages the learner familiar with the cultural heritage discourse. It disempowers those who are from different cultural or linguistic backgrounds. Writing is a social practice, and in order to write effectively learners have to uncover the generic conventions that configure different genres. In schools this translates into an explicit pedagogy of writing underpinned by theory. This thesis attempts to seek an alternate approach to the teaching of writing in a multicultural classroom, using the genre approach. The research was collaboratively planned and implemented as an action research intervention, at a multicultural school in Durban. The aims were to change learner attitudes to writing, use genre theory to teach learners explicitly about linguistic and generic conventions, produce a factual group text, and to transform my own practice. The first part of the thesis describes the rationale for the research within the context of transformation, issues of democracy education, and multiculturalism as a challenge to educators teaching English primary language. The second part examines the theories that inform this research especially genre theory, critical language awareness, functional grammar, and critical literacy. The implementation of the project in carefully planned and explicit stages is the subject of the third part of the thesis. It also describes how field notes, questionnaires, and the leaflets were used for data collection in the field of research. The fourth section addresses the action research intervention at Park High within a ten-day cycle, together with an integrated analysis of data collected and the findings. The final section of the thesis examines the limitations of the project together with recommendations for improved practice in the writing classroom. The findings indicate that learners value explicit pedagogies and that learning about generic conventions improves confidence and competence. The findings further suggest that learning about genres and generic conventions is a lengthy and difficult process. However, this process has the potential to transform implied pedagogies for both mother tongue and non-mother tongue learners in a post-apartheid society. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

This protocol-based case study research explored the general composing and thinking processes of five Thai EFL high school subjects who, while verbalizing their thoughts, composed in the first language (L1), Thai, and in the second language (L2), English. The composing sessions were audiotaped and videotaped; these tapes were then transcribed, translated, and coded for analysis, along with notes, drafts, and the written compositions.The L1/L2 protocol data yielded a number of interesting findings. Most subjects had a purpose in mind while composing their texts, but had little concern for the audience. Individually, each subject displayed a unitary composing style across languages, tending to compose in the Li and the L2 similarly, with minor variations. This suggests that composing knowledge and skills of the L1 were probably transferred to the composing in the L2.As a group, the subjects wrote the Li compositions in a similar manner, manifesting mental planning and reliance on internal resources, as they alternated among writing, repeating, and rehearsing. The L2 compositions gradually emerged with frequent repetitions and brief pauses, and the L2 composing processes seem to be constrained by the subjects' imperfect mastery of the L2.In addition, when they stumbled on L2 lexis, grammar, and mechanics, the subjects mainly employed the L1. Use of the L1 seemed to facilitate the subjects’ writing in the L2 a great deal. In both the L1 and the L2 compositions, the subjects tended to comment and repeat portions of texts in words, rehearse in phrases, and engage in other composing activities at the sentence level. The translated segments which occurred in the English protocols were at the phrase level.A tentative composing process model of these Thai EFL subjects is proposed; implications for EFL composition instruction and suggestions for further research are also provided. / Department of English

This study investigated the reactions of Saudi college students to collaborative learning techniques introduced in two modalities: face-to-face and web-based. Quantitative data were collected with a questionnaire that examined the changes of three constructs: attitudes toward collaboration, social self-efficacy, and perceived peer academic support of composition students at Umm Alqura University, Saudi Arabia. Students in the experimental group collaborated electronically using Blackboard, a web-based environment while students in the control group collaborated face-to-face. Students' responses to the questionnaire did not show any significant differences between the experimental group and control group with respect to the three variables.Three factors might have led to such results. First, one of the scales used in the questionnaire had low reliability that could have affected its procedure implementation. Second, collaborative learning is a new technique to Saudi students that could have contradicted the learning styles they studied according to since elementary school. Third, there were technical obstacles experienced during the experiment (i.e. no enough computer labs and no full access to the Internet) that could have been a discouraging factor for the subjects.Qualitative data collected through a post-study survey reflected the participants' positive attitudes towards peer response techniques applied throughout the experiment, giving and receiving comments, and working with computers. Such positive attitudes reflect the need to update composition teaching methods, introduce process-oriented pedagogies, foster group work strategies, and develop more computer resources and networking facilities. / Department of English

This study is based on a semester-long qualitative study that investigates student perceptions of and interactions with social software and mobile technologies, particularly as they move between digital and physical spaces. As digital technologies become more ubiquitous, both within the classroom and without, it becomes increasingly important to investigate the ways these technologies are influencing lived writing practices, particularly if instructors are incorporating these technologies into their teaching. In particular, this dissertation investigates constructions of student identities in technology-rich environments, and the ways that digital, mobile, social, and spatial factors both afford and constrain student identities. This dissertation focuses on movement—of students and information—between academic and non-academic spaces. The research focuses on the lived practices of students as they use mobile technologies and social software as a part of their writing practices and habitus, and this study explores in depth both their physical contexts and their habits and attitudes towards the ways the digital meets the physical. This study is based on 10 semester-long qualitative case studies which followed students as they engaged in writing activities, both within class and without. The findings from this study point to the ways that contemporary students are rapidly embracing an existence which incorporates machines into their self constructions: their identities and their physical bodies. These students have adapted their writing styles to incorporate multiple kinds of physical technologies, and almost all interactions in their social sphere are mediated through social software and digital technology. This dissertation presents the findings from this study, arguing for a conceptualization of student as cyborg. / Methods and methodologies -- Findings : cyborg bodies -- Findings : cyborg identities. / Department of English

This study investigated the strategies employed by adjunct writing teachers in their attempts to reconcile changes in writing program policy with their existing pedagogies. The methods of investigation combined class observation with extensive interviews with three Ball State University adjunct faculty members to identify the means by which these writing instructors brought new pedagogical goals in their classrooms. It also sought to identify the mechanisms each teacher used to integrate computer-oriented teaching styles into his or her course planning. The purpose of this study was to identify means by which a writing program administration could better introduce change to its teachers of first year composition courses, who are largely adjunct staff.The results of this study showed that while each faculty member felt committed to using technology in his or her teaching, each confronted change differently. Studies in faculty vitality were examined to identify development strategies which could effectively address the differences in faculty change. This study recommends, based on the strategies of each participant, that writing programs seek more kairic models of development. These models would seek to foster continuous discussion of change in order that fitting incentives for development could arise in "the proper time," or kairically, for individual teachers. / Department of English