Knowing how to promote oneself in written self-promotional genres is a vital, yet neglected, component of non-native speaker (NNS) communicative competence. / Focusing on the self-appraisal, I explore some of the impression management (IM) tactics and interpersonal metadiscourse (MD) markers used by writers to manage the impressions they give off. Of particular interest is the extent to which (a) patterns of self-presentation, and (b) language background (NS/NNS) contribute to the affective response of the reader. / The self-appraisals, collected from 41 students taking a required undergraduate writing course, were grouped according to the affective response of independent readers. Patterns of IM and MD use were compared across positive- and negative-affect groups, and across NSs and NNSs. / The findings reveal distinct differences between affect groups in patterns of IM and MD use. Interestingly, NS/NNS differences did not contribute to the affective response of the reader, thus challenging the assumption that NS linguistic form is requisite to pragmatic competence.

This thesis examined the effects of audio-taped feedback on ESL graduate student writing. Thirty-two students participated in the study over one semester. A triangulated approach to data collection was used by gathering and analyzing information from three principal sources: (a) students' written texts, (b) audio-taped feedback from the instructor, and (c) interviews with the participants. The research revealed that single and multiple feedback moves, in the form of models and prompts, were used by the instructor with similar frequency. Results also indicated that students benefited in all cases from audio-taped feedback. Overall, findings suggest that audio-taped feedback is very effective at helping students to produce an improved draft. The study includes discussion of the pedagogical implications of audio-taped feedback. Limitations to the study are discussed and conclusions are drawn based on the findings.

In this classroom-based study, the effects of input enhancement on the acquisition of a linguistic feature known to be problematic to francophone children learning English. were investigated. The research questions were: (1) Can L2 learners benefit from typographically enhanced input in their acquisition of third person singular possessive determiners? (2) Is typographically enhanced input more effective than unenhanced input? (3) Is typographically enhanced input more effective when combined with a book flood? / To investigate these questions, three treatment conditions were implemented with Grade 6 ESL learners. Groups E and E+ received a typographically enhanced input flood. This did not include explicit reference to the learners' L1 nor was a pedagogical rule presented at any time. In addition to the typographically enhanced input, Group E+ was exposed to extensive reading and listening activities. To ensure that all groups in the study were exposed to written input containing the target features, Group U read unenhanced versions of the texts read by the other two groups. A pretest, immediate and delayed posttest design was used in this quasi-experimental study. / Results indicated that all three instructional treatments improved the learners' acquisition of the target forms and that those in Group E+ received the greatest apparent benefits. At the immediate posttest, learners in Group E+ outperformed those in the other two groups on written tasks designed to measure their ability to recognize correct instances of the target forms. Learners in Group E+ also outperformed the others on an oral production task. On the delayed posttest five weeks later, however, Groups E and U had caught up with Group E+, and most of the between-group differences had disappeared. / The finding that all learners had significantly increased in their accuracy and development of possessive determiners immediately following instruction suggests that the target forms were equally salient to the learners in the three groups. That all learners continued to improve but did not reach advanced developmental stages, however, suggests that the salience of these features in the input may not have been sufficiently explicit. The results are discussed in terms of the potential need for more explicit instruction in the acquisition of third person singular possessive determiners. This may be particularly important because of substantial differences in the way in which gender is marked in English and French.

Pinker and Prince (1988, 1994) propose that there are two separate systems involved in linguistic representation and processing; one system is rule-governed, and incorporates symbolic hierarchical linguistic representations, the other is associative with linguistic information represented in a more distributed fashion. One particular linguistic feature of English said to exemplify the principles of this dual-mechanism model is inflectional morphology. Pinker and Prince (1988; 1994) present a range of evidence showing that native speakers of English process regular inflectional items in ways that are both quantitatively and qualitatively different from irregular inflectional items. This dual-mechanism model has been largely investigated within the context of first language (L1) learning, and has received considerable support from investigations using a number of different research paradigms. Nonetheless, there have been a number of serious criticisms in that the apparent behavioural distinctions between regular and irregular inflectional items can be supported by an alternative associative system (Elman, Bates, Johnson, Karmiloff-Smith, Parisi & Plunkett, 1996). The research presented in this dissertation investigates how knowledge of second language (L2) inflectional morphology might be processed and represented. The research is grounded within the theoretical framework provided by the dual-mechanism model and evaluates whether the claims and assumptions of this model are relevant to how L2 learners process, represent and learn about inflectional morphology. Three experiments are presented which address the issues of: compounding with regular and irregular noun plurals (Experiment 1); past tense generalization with regular and irregular verbs (Experiment 2); and finally, the development of knowledge of a new inflectional paradigm (Old English noun plurals, Experiment 3). Each of these experiments provides findings which are difficult for the dual-mechanism model

<p>This study uses an interdisciplinary approach in the analytical framework combining Systemic Functional Linguuistic theoty (SFL) (Martin 1992 / Halliday 19994) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) (Wodak 7 meyer 2001 / Fairclough 1989, 1993, 1995, 2001). Further, the study draws on christie's (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005) work on classroom discourse analysis, which in turn builds on Bernstein's (1990, 1996, 2000) model on pedagogic practice and interaction, to examine dominanceand power relationsin the classroom. The interdisciplinary approach enabled this study to evaluate Al-Thadi university students' English language competence, linguistically and textually.</p>

In Australian schools in the late nineties approximately one quarter of all students are from a language background other than English. Although many of these students are fluent in English in informal conversational contexts, there is evidence that such students are not always able to control the more academic registers of English associated with school learning and literacy. A major challenge for teachers is therefore to integrate subject learning with English language learning, and to find ways to support the language development of students concurrent with the construction of curriculum knowledge. This study addresses that challenge. Drawing on data from two classrooms of nine and ten year olds in the curriculum area of science, the study explores how the discourse of the classroom can be enabling of language development. It does not attempt to make claims about what might be common to all classrooms, but rather points to those practices which are shown to be supportive of second language learning. The aim therefore is not to suggest what is common to all classroom discourse but what its potential can be for second language development. The study takes as a basic principle the notion that language development interacts dynamically with the socio-cultural context in which it occurs, and cannot be fully understood without taking account of this context. Although the analysis draws on systemic functional linguistics it does not purport to be a study 'in' linguistics, but rather, through a theorisation of practice, seeks to contribute to a theorisation of second language pedagogy in the mainstream classroom. To this end, the analysis is also informed by a neo-Vygotskian approach to learning and teaching, by second language acquisition (SLA) research, and by critically conceived notions of minority education. A number of conclusions are drawn from the study. First, it shows how, through a process of recontextualisation of student talk, the teachers jointly construct with the students aspects of the science register. It concludes that when teachers encourage the dialogic function of discourse to develop, (that is, when knowledge is seen as co-constructed between teacher and learners, rather than transmitted from teacher to learners), this also leads to the kind of teacher-student talk which is most enabling of second language development. The study demonstrates that even apparently minor changes in interactional patterns can have quite major effects on the progress of the discourse as a whole, and can make the difference between discourse which is likely to constrain or facilitate language development and learning. The thesis also shows how the discourse incorporates a range of interactional patterns, each of which tend to be used for distinct pedagogical purposes, and thus how the role of the teachers correspondingly changes at different phases of the teaching and learning cycle. The study concludes that a reconceptualisation of pedagogy is required which foregrounds the relationship between teaching and learning and the nature of teacher mediation in the teaching and learning process. The study identifies other significant factors for language development in the classrooms examined: the language knowledge of the teachers, the explicitness of the discourse, (including explicitness about language and about the social aspects of participating in the class), the sequence of teaching and learning activities, and the importance of the intertextual links, the 'dynamic' context, which were the result of this sequence. Finally, the study points to the value of approaching SLA research and pedagogy with a model of language which goes beyond a description of its phonology, morphology and syntax, one which allows for the study of discourse and for the study of language development in terms of socio-linguistic competence, and for the value of a socio-cultural and classroom-based approach to research into second language learning and pedagogy.

The problematic areas of the teaching of Korean as a foreign language have been largely neglected in the past. Few studies combine the following three aspects: 1) an examination of learner Korean; 2) the provision of substantial linguistic and pedagogical explanations; and 3) the devising of teaching or learning strategies based on empirical evidence. By studying KFL learners and their language production, insights can be gained relating to the learning of KFL and instructors will be able to provide appropriate corrective measures. This study investigated errors produced by KFL learners, focusing primarily on high frequency orthographic, lexical and grammatical errors in written language production. The study attempts to identify key areas of difficulty in learning Korean, to investigate the possible cause of difficulties and to provide more adequate information for the teaching and learning of KFL. To this end the study uses two classes of textual data and employs both statistical and descriptive analyses. At an orthographic level the study has identified four main error categories: 1) mismatch in three series consonants, 2) mismatch in vowel sounds, 3) misuse of nasals and laterals, and 4) omission and addition of ???h???. Overall the cause of key error types correlates strongly with the differences in sound quality and sound patterns between Korean and English, with some intralingual features. At a lexical level, the study found nine types of errors including 1) semantic similarity, 2) lexical misselection and 3) overgeneralization. The findings suggest that learners have a great deal of difficulty in differentiating lexical items with similar meaning and in selecting words appropriate to particular contexts or situations. As for grammatical errors, the study identified the five most active error categories, which made up more than 80% of the total grammatical errors. An overwhelming majority of grammatical errors and case particle errors in particular were errors of substitution. Many high frequency grammatical errors had distinctive triggering factors such as particular types of verb and sentence construction. The findings of the study have several pedagogical implications. First, there are key common errors for English L1-KFL learners and these common errors need increased linguistic and pedagogical attention. Secondly, the results reinforce the need to pay more active attention to the usage of the main case particles, along with the triggering constructions causing substitutions. Thirdly, the findings suggest that different types of analysis should be done in order to facilitate a plausible description of the problematic KFL items. The study argues that despite being problematic, the items discussed in this thesis are learnable and worthy of being taught with explicit or intentional strategies and that there is a need for pedagogically effective and adequate instructional input to maximize the potential of the learner???s language development in Korean.

This thesis reports on the effectiveness of using a genre-based approach in teaching academic English writing to studnet teachers who were learning English as a foreign language in a state university.

This Doctor of Education (EdD) portfolio addresses the learning by and teaching of English to full-fee-paying international students from language backgrounds other than English in a secondary school setting in Australia. It focuses on the two strands of English second language (ESL) learning and teaching in schools. The first of these is ESL for the general school curriculum in New South Wales (NSW). The second is English language intensive courses for overseas students (ELICOS). The EdD portfolio consists of two volumes. Volume 1 consists of five published journal papers, two refereed papers and one unrefereed paper published in national, state or local conference proceedings. These papers examine theory, pedagogy and teacher knowledge about English language education for high school aged international students. English language programs for overseas students are now a global market driven by commercial interests. I argue for an increased understanding of the needs of overseas students in the Australian education system, and that quality English language education and student welfare are both central to an effective ELICOS program for high school aged international students. Volume 2 comprises a resource for policy makers, principals and teachers entitled ‘Excellence in ELICOS: A Resource for quality preparation programs for high school aged international students in Australia’. Volume 2 is informed and underpinned by the scholarship, research, and theoretical work presented in Volume 1 but also draws on the author’s professional experience of implementing a holistic approach to international student welfare and English language education in a secondary school in NSW. Volume 2 presents a practical framework, approach and supporting resource that might assist in the establishing, implementing and sustaining of quality, intensive English language courses that are sensitive to the diverse educational and welfare needs of overseas students. Volume 2 was developed in response to the needs and demands of principals and teachers for proven, research driven curricula and policies that meet the needs of the growing population of international students enrolled in NSW secondary schools. / Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study uses an interdisciplinary approach in the analytical framework combining Systemic Functional Linguuistic theoty (SFL) (Martin 1992; Halliday 19994) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) (Wodak 7 meyer 2001; Fairclough 1989, 1993, 1995, 2001). Further, the study draws on christie's (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005) work on classroom discourse analysis, which in turn builds on Bernstein's (1990, 1996, 2000) model on pedagogic practice and interaction, to examine dominanceand power relationsin the classroom. The interdisciplinary approach enabled this study to evaluate Al-Thadi university students' English language competence, linguistically and textually. / South Africa