This study introduces a different kind of collaborative research whereby two researchers co-design and co-conduct the research and draw their own conclusions from the shared data. The data, gathered using qualitative tools such as surveys, questionnaires, and interviews, was further enriched as a result of having two individuals from different backgrounds interpreting the data. The data collected from 14 university students who were once identified as ESL students in British Columbia, Canada, were transcribed then analyzed using NUD*IST qualitative computer software. The focus was on their perceptions of ESL programs, immigration process, and socio-cultural factors that contributed to their academic and social integration success. Participants' own words centered mostly on their relationships with families, friends, and ESL teachers as major factors contributing to their success. ESL programs served as their safety nets as the majority suggested that their journey into social and academic mainstreams had undesirable effects on their experiences. Three major factors were identified as having both helped and hindered their adaptation and integration into Canadian school and society: family influence, bicultural identities, and segregation. Results from this study suggest a number of theoretical and practical implications. First, this study need to be replicated in different contexts using a longitudinal approach to document how immigrant ESL students construct their experiences within and outside of school overtime. Secondly, research need to aim at understanding the tension between students' home and school cultures and encourage involvement and collaboration between ESL students, parents, and teachers. In addition, examining how ESL students interact with their mainstream counterparts may provide helpful guidelines for schools to foster an environment whereby unity and support exist between the two groups. This study concludes with both researchers' reflection on each other's thesis. This step led to a critical reexamination of their interpretation. Differences and similarities emerged from this process. The similarities both researchers shared provided a greater degree of validity and reliability to this project. On the other hand, the differences that emerged served to enrich the data by providing two perspectives to the same problem. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

The following is a case study of grade 12 English as a Second Language (ESL) students enrolled in a British Columbia secondary school during the 2001-2002 academic year. The principal objective of this research was to uncover the following: 1) if ESL students made course choices at grade 12 which differed from those of non-ESL student choice patterns at grade 12; 2) the role of familial preferences, cultural influences and prior learning styles which predispose student choice for post secondary concentrations. This research examined the academic transcripts of 238 (94 ESL, 144 non-ESL) students, analyzed the responses of 145 (65 ESL, 80 non-ESL) student questionnaires, and considered interviews with 26 ESL students and 12 school staff (4 counselors, 8 teachers). The findings suggest that a significant difference exists in the academic courses in which ESL grade 12 students enroll compared to non-ESL students. Cultural and familial influences were found to affect both the types of senior courses ESL students chose and their aims about future educational and career aspirations. The findings suggest that secondary schools examine critically their policies regarding broadening the exposure of ESL students to more expressive courses in Arts to extend equality of opportunity in determining their career choice directions. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Does peer tutoring using computer-based hypermedia resources help ESL students generate academic discourse in L2? This relates issues of SL learning and the computer in education. I observed 10 upper elementary ESL students research the topic “Earth and the Solar System”, build a HyperCard stack (“Our World”) to record their results, and peer tutor the stack to younger classmates. Some peer tutored the stack again to ex-ESL Grade 5 students. I recorded both peer tutoring sessions (PT(1) and PT(2)) and analyzed discourse transcripts by quantitative variables, pedagogical objectives, cognitive functions and tutoring style; linked our discourse analysis to Krashen’s (1985) Input Hypothesis, Cummins (1991) concepts of conversational and academic language proficiency, and Halliday’s (1985) model of language socialization distinguishing interpersonal, ideational and textual components; and followed Staab (1986), in dividing the ideational component into “Informing” and “Reasoning”. In PT( 1) students spent more time talking (56%) in computer-based peer tutoring than in any other activity (10-16%). Informing was high (65%) but Reasoning was low (22%). Tutors used predominantly the traditional I-R-E knowledge-transmission teaching model, speaking 2½ times as much as tutees. In PT(2) tutors were given as aids 1) a Tutorial stack with knowledge-structure-based computer graphics to represent each topic and 2) training in moving from I-R-E to more equal dialogue exchanges with tutees. I compared a selected pair in PT(2) with a selected pair in PT(1). In PT(2). tutors produced 27% and tutees 19% more language; Reasoning increased from 22% to 39% overall and to 46% in the Tutor Explanation tutoring mode; and I-R-E discourse dropped from 62% to 13%. These changes marked a move from traditional knowledge-transmission towards a knowledge-construction paradigm. I conclude that 1) peer tutoring holds great promise for development of academic discourse in the L2; 2) but without training, tutors are likely to fall back on I-R-E teacher dominated discourse with a low proportion of Reasoning; 3) interactively using the computer facilitates a shift from traditional knowledge-transmission to cooperative knowledge construction learning; 4) the students’ use of elementary multimedia technology provides a window to a future shift from print to electronic technology and towards a knowledge construction paradigm. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Written in the form of a narrative, this thesis explores the phenomenon of voice in writing, and what the development of an awareness of the multiplicity voices while writing and reading can mean for language learners. This thesis is also a personal reflection of depression, and a recollection of individual, family and life events. One chapter takes the form of a unified narrative, while another presents anecdotal recollections. It is, in this sense, an exploration of voices through an analysis of available academic and public writing, and a personal inquiry into how the concept of voices in writing has affected my development as an individual and as a writer. The first section reviews some of the academic and public literature on writing and voice, and reveals that early writing on the issue of voice reflected a monolistic theory of voice. That is, that there is one voice that as writers we must find within ourselves, or there is a voice of the author that we must seek out. However, views of the multiplicity of voices in writing are increasingly common. While philosophical tradition since Plato has mistrusted writing and viewed it as secondary to speech, philosophy has nevertheless employed writing to further its own inquiries. Re/viewing the issue of voice in writing may be one way to deal with this long-standing schism between speech and writing. There is a need to further problematize the field of writing, not searching for ways to simplify the process but seeking ways to celebrate the inherent complexity, ambiguity, and paradoxical nature of writing. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the need to seriously consider the significance of voices in writing in first and second language instruction. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this work is to explore the roles of education and language in the creation of Japanese cultural identity. Education means first "schooling," but it also expands to include all cultural learning. In the attempt to unravel the inter-relationships of abstract concepts such as education, culture, identity, language and Japan, our understandings are necessarily influenced by our own education. Attempts by the educated elite of one culture to understand other cultures constitutes an intellectual conflict of interest that questions academic conventions, such as objectivity. In this work, I interweave expository and narrative chapters in an attempt to create a new "methodology" or "approach" to the study of culture, which I call cultural hermeneutics. The autobiographical chapters present an ongoing self-reflection upon my developing understanding of Japan. I have studied and taught in Japan for many years, and my increasing familiarity with things Japanese has gradually moved me beyond the boundaries of previous identities, and into spaces that once separated me from Japanese culture, involving me in the formation of new hybrid cultural identities. After an introductory chapter, the dissertation is split into three parts. The first part deals with the challenges of cultural hermeneutics as a methodology. The second part examines how the languages of Japan and foreign language education in Japan influence the formation of Japanese cultural identities. The third part explores how ideological debates, such as those about education, nationalism and internationalization, play a role in forming cultural identities. I conclude that identities are constantly contested by voices from both within and without the "imagined communities" of cultures. This contest is in progress even before we come to study "Culture." Because change is inherent to living cultures, and because lived experience is so abundant and complex, the knowledge we inherit about cultures is always incomplete, and full of prejudice and misunderstandings. We can never arrive at final understandings of cultures, not even our own. Nevertheless, it is important to continue conversations about cultures because they can lead us to form deepened understandings, and because these conversations ultimately contribute to greater self-understanding. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze policies and practices that facilitate and hinder international student admission to English as a Second Language (ESL) programs at public and private post-secondary institutions in British Columbia, from the perspective of institutions themselves. Since 1986, a proliferation of ESL programs for international students have emerged in public and private post-secondary institutions in B.C. and numbers of international students in the non-university sector of education in Canada have grown. The governments of B.C. and Canada recognize that English language training is a growing business in Canada and the world. Admissions procedures are but one factor of many that influence a student's decision to apply. This study assumes that streamlined admission to ESL programs will make Canada more attractive, and therefore increase its numbers of international students, a goal that exists for public and private institutions, for internationalization and economic purposes. The research question was: What facilitates and what hinders international student admission to ESL programs in public and private post-secondary institutions in British Columbia? Secondary questions were: How can admissions policies and procedures be more effective and more efficient? What are the implications for change at the institutional, provincial, and national levels? Over a six-week period in 1999, the author interviewed admissions personnel at forty post-secondary institutions in B.C. (sixteen public and twenty-four private), comprising 60% of those that met the selection criteria of providing year-round ESL to international students and having been in operation for three years. The interviews were transcribed and the data were analyzed with data from a questionnaire and written institutional material. The study finds and presents some institutional factors relating to documents, personnel, communication, fee payment and other issues that facilitate and hinder international student admission to ESL programs. However, the study also identifies areas beyond the control of institutions that, from the perspective of admissions personnel, may have a greater effect on international student admission to ESL programs and therefore on increasing the number of international students in Canada. The author makes ten recommendations for institutions and concludes with seven questions for future research. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

self and other. If reading the local papers and talking to parents is any indication, Education, it seems, is asked to play a greater role in the upbringing of our students. The schools are responsible for ensuring that the students are well fed and adequately supervised not just during school hours, but before and after as well. Schools are expected to keep up with the rigors of ensuring that the students are practiced in the almighty disciplines of reading, writing, arithmetic and now, technology skills. This will somehow propel them into the economic demands of the new millenium. But the impact of the culture and the community from which the students come - the histories of their experiences as individuals and as a group- are seldom explored. L Intuitively, I am drawn to my own stories when trying to make sense of the stories that swirl and swish amongst the myriad of moments that collectively comprise each experience. The influence our narratives have on the way we understand and learn is explored in this paper. Sandwiched in between the stories is a study of how using Drama as an instructional technique can be used to explore our narratives and expand on our ways of knowing and understanding, particularly how it is experienced by the English as a Second Language (ESL) learner. . Twenty-six grade five and six students from a multi-cultural, suburban community were observed. The students participated in a two-month, tri-weekly unit on basic drama methods, which culminated in a final class narrative performance. Four ways of data collection were employed. A static camera (i.e. a video camera that remained in a fixed position on a tripod in one of the classroom corners) was used throughout each lesson to record the events and to supply another view to the multi-perspective data collection. Student journals as well as a personal narrative from each participant (a video portrait) were collected. The classroom teacher also kept a journal and made observations about her students throughout the unit period. This dissertation was not limited to the stories of the students in the classroom as this journey precipitated a desire, indeed a need, to tell my own stories of daughter, mother, sister, student, teacher and friend. Since our physical experiences, our stories and our ways of understanding are integrally intertwined, this (re) search honored narrative as a way of including these aspects in the dissertation. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies) / Knowledge in any field is not static. The world is faced with a knowledge explosion. New information, new ideas and new perspectives are continuously being uncovered, with the result that old information is. forever being challenged and proved wrong (Nicholls & Nicholls, 1978; Zais, 19761130). There is a need therefore to monitor the situation and to assess whether what is going on in the school is congruent with developments in the disciplines. In the context of this dissertation, English is a second language and it is also the medium of learning. Research has to assess whether the curriculum for English second language reflects the requirements of situation analysis, which includes developments in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, and to assess the extent to which the syllabus as a curriculum document reflects the inherent characteristics of a curriculum. The syllabus that is being evaluated in this dissertation is a document designed in Bophuthatswana and has been in use since 1985. No formal evaluation of the particular syllabus has been carried out...

M.Ed. (Educational Linguistics) / The problem addressed in this research is the working hypothesis stating that teachers' tacit notions about individual writing development is related to their views on the pedagogy of writing. The rationale for the premise underlying the problem is that pedagogy is invariably based on teachers' conceptions of content and that unarticulated notions could accommodate conceptions which could in turn inhibit pedagogic activity, in this instance. the teaching of writing at higher capacity levels. The theory frame for this study includes readings in the phylogeny and ontogeny of writing. contemporary models of the teaching of writing and psycholinguistic theory on writing, as well as sociolinguistic views on the development and nature of writing. The theoretical premise for the research is based on Vygotskian principles of semiotics, the main ones being that writing as cultural tool and as sign impacts in a socio-cultural way on the signifiedand that the tool and sign as mediators are partners in intermental but especially also intramental functioning. The implications for pedagogy are that the meaningful teaching of writing skills and strategies could enhance mental activity (cognition) and communication. The nature of the research question presupposes a microgenetic study as format. which in turn directs the research to protocol interviews, on-site observations and analysis of documents. much of which will be of qualitative interpretive nature. A group of 16 teachers will be studied. with the microgenetic analyses focusing on three cases, selected in a stratified way. The findings of the inquiry indicate that there seems to be a relationship between the ontogeny and the pedagogy of writing, because the teachers involved in the inquiry emphasize the use of the prosthetic device, both in their own writing and in their instructional design and this is the way they were taught to write. It was also found that the teachers are deficient with regard to knowledge of the cognitive nature, the structure and the pedagogy of writing. The teachers were also found to have a positive attitude towards writing. despite the fact that their writing proficiency is severely impaired by a lack of knowledge of writing strategies as well as linguistic incompetence in English

M.Ed. / This dissertation sets out to examine the feasibility of teaching English to rural black teachers by distance education. It argues that the retraining of teachers is central to the reconstruction program of the ANC government and that English, as medium of instruction in most schools, is an area of weakness that needs to be addressed. It claims that failure to tackle this language issue creatively will contribute to the continued failure to achieve educational goals in South Africa. While it recognises the inability of formal institutions to cope with the enormous task of teacher retraining programmes, it seriously questions the effectiveness of teaching communicative competence by distance education. It claims that distance education does not achieve parity with conventional provision either in quality, quantity or status. It therefore sets out to find some of the 'missing links' to successful language learning and teaching in existing distance systems and to offer suggestions and recommendations for future consideration. A critical discussion of the literature on distance education, learning theories and adult second language learning, provides the context in which the training of black teachers is situated. The theoretical debates highlight the deficiencies in many of our existing language programmes and illustrate the need to implement the concept of mediated learning in the development of distance language study courses. The dissertation proposes the thesis that autonomous learning, which is central to the concept of both open and distance systems, conflicts with the general characteristics of black teachers who are products of the Bantu Education system. It emphasises the need to recognise these barriers to learning and advises the creation of a distance learning context in South Africa which exhibits a greater 'continuity of concern' (Sewart,1978) by providing for a two-way dialogue through both tutor-learner and learner-learner interaction. The dissertation therefore deals with two prime concerns: the need to equip underqualified black teachers with communicative competence in English, which will facilitate learning in the classroom and the difficulty of teaching a skills based course at a distance (see also fig. 1 on p.1).