This study was an ethnographic case study of a Vietnamese unaccompanied minor in a post secondary setting. There were two guiding questions for the study: (1) How does the subject perceive language as it relates to educational experience? (2) What kinds of observable personality, cognitive, or affective factors have contributed to his language and educational experience, and in what way have they contributed? The subject for this study was selected because he had declared himself an unaccompanied minor and immigrated to the United States as a young adult. He was an ESL student who graduated from an American high school within two years of arrival. He was deemed successful by the academic community based on hours of completed course work and grade point average. The subject was extremely motivated to receive a four year degree, but was hampered by college requirements in classes which required high levels of English proficiency and competence. The theoretical base for this research was phenomenology. The subject, purposefully selected, was observed for six months in three different classroom settings: philosophy, physics, and English composition. Validity/replicability was obtained through triangulation of personal interviews and written questionnaires, interviews with faculty and other college personnel, and examination of artifacts such as school records, diaries, and journals. With the exception of school records, portions of artifacts are included in this thesis. The subject exhibited unusual abilities to comprehend complex written and oral material, relate information across disciplines, and adapt to instructional requirements and methodologies. Based on the results of this case study, three hypotheses were generated: 1) Listening skills and memory/recall, or auditory memory, appear to be essential to the subject's academic success. 2) General information about learning styles and strategies may be less useful than specific strategy application in academic situations for this subject. 3) Explicit, structured writing instruction may be more useful than process writing for this subject. / Graduation date: 1996

This thesis has explored the effects of sentence combining on the writing of English-speaking Freshman writing students at Taylor University, Upland, Indiana, to establish local base-line data for future research with sentence combining on ESL students. Under the assumption that regular practice in sentence combining would result in improved ability in written communication, four classes of students at two levels were pre-tested using the cloze procedure on three short passages of college-entrance-level reading material. Two classes were taught sentence combining techniques through the semester, one exclusively and one as an adjunct to other rhetorical. concerns. Two were taught with an emphasis on global writing processes. All were again post-tested using the cloze procedure at the end of the semester and asked to write a time-limited essay.An analysis of covariance was done to purge the residual scores of the pretest influence since random assignment of experimental and control groups was not possible. Statistically significant improvement among those taught sentence combining was noted.Having established statistical validity among a native, English-speaking control population the implication for ESL would be that the assumption now needs to be taken to the next level, applying the form and techniques of this study to an ESL population.In order to prepare for such a further step in research, some restructuring of materials would be necessary. The cloze tests (3 pre- and 3 post-tests) from this study need to be re-scored by acceptable answer as well as exact answer scoring procedure. Frequency lists of acceptable answers for each blank need to be established. For the pre- and posttests of the ESL population, the same cloze test passages could be used and scored by clozentropy -- weighing acceptable answers according to their frequency in the native speaker pretest. Then statistical significance of the technique on the teaching of writing in ESL by means of the technique of sentence combining could be determined either verifying or nullifying the hypothesis that the same conclusions would be reached with ESL students.Were similar findings to be reached in research with an ESL population, the importance of practice in sentence-level manipulation practice in techniques of sentence-combining would appear to be worth noting, Incorporation of sentence combining into a teaching of writing syllabus would seem to be a logical, pedagogically sound practice.

Herein are seven spelling lessons written for use on the computer. They are written specifically for use by foreign students and are intended to aid one student in spelling English words based on how they sound. Several rules, patterns, and guidelines are presented to the student who is then drilled on the information. The student is required to do quite a bit of writing to practice the rules, etc. which he is given. The lessons begin on a very basic and simple level and become increasingly more difficult as they progress. Each lesson requires between 15 to 30 minutes to complete.

This dissertation investigates how four half hour viewings of an authentic German television serial over the course of one fourth semester intermediate course in German affect foreign language (FL) students' perceptions about German culture. In recent years, filmic media have become popular learning instruments. However, how they affect the attitudes of the FL learner about the lifestyles, behaviors, and characteristics of that FL culture has remained largely unexplored. This study triangulates questionnaires, classroom protocols, and assessment of student essays to see in what ways students' discuss and write about cultural differences and similarities at the onset of viewing and after the final viewing of a German video serial. Additionally, it investigates whether English or German language class discussions following student viewing of the program are more effective in fostering critical thinking about a foreign culture. Participants in this study were 69 students (24 female and 45 male) enrolled in four fourth-semester classes of the lower-division curriculum of the Germanic Studies Department at the University of Texas at Austin. After reading biographies and related information about characters, all four classes watched four episodes of the popular German television program, Lindenstrabe, without subtitles. While all classes viewed and wrote about the television serial in German, two classes conducted post-viewing discussion activities in German and the other two classes in English. The investigator visited and took notes on all classes and provided instructors with guidelines to enable consistent approaches to relevant materials and assignments. The resulting data were analyzed using statistical (pre- and post-questionnaires) and qualitative analyses (student response papers and classroom protocols). Two central findings were identified: 1) Fourth-semester German students increased their ability to identify and critically discuss cultural issues and their related social implications when exposed to repeated viewings of the television serial Lindenstrabe and when reacting to the program and its content orally and in writing during in- and out-of-class assignments; 2) Students' gender and the language of the classroom discussions influenced the content and analytical style of students' on their essay analyses of the video. These and other findings are assessed in light of classroom variables, in conjunction with suggestions for future research, and implications of these findings for media use in FL classrooms. / text

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

This study provides a critical review on the provision of Chinese Language education for non-Chinese speaking students (NCSS) in traditional high-concentration designated secondary schools in Hong Kong. NCSS are equipped with L2 Chinese literacy but are asked to survive with the main stream society who sought for L1 Chinese literacy. This has been a thorny issue since 2008 where the good efforts of various stakeholders including the EDB have not yielded any positive outcomes in enhancing the Chinese literacy of the NCSS. On one hand the NGOs strongly advocate for an alternative Chinese curriculum framework for NCSS while on the other, the EDB justifies the existing provision of Chinese education such as the central Chinese curriculum framework (CCCF) and the supplementary Chinese curriculum guide (SCG) as adequate. Their entanglements have ended up as political fights and bring further disarray to schools, teachers and the NCSS. Despite the absence of literature and few research studies, the issue of providing Chinese Language education for NCSS is pursued in this study within a theoretical framework derived from three related areas of research: Language policy in Hong Kong for government and subsidized schools, the Chinese Language curriculum for NCSS in Hong Kong and NCSS’ language acquisition and Chinese language learning. The main aim of the study is to achieve a better understanding of the Chinese literacy of the NCSS, the manner in which the school-based NCSS Chinese curriculums are adopted from the CCCF and SCG and implemented. Last, the different views of the stakeholders and their entanglements are depicted. This study employed an eclectic approach where both quantitative (test administration and survey) and qualitative (observations, documentary review and in-depth interview) methods were administered to collect the data for the study. The essence of critical ethnography was employed in the qualitative method where in-depth interviews in a semi-structured manner and my experience and educational upbringing as an NCSS helps shed additional light and explanation to the issue which allows the issue to be holistically depicted. The findings reveal that, despite the NCSS attaining satisfactory examination results in the international Chinese examination (GCSE); their Chinese literacy is far beyond the benchmark of the societal expectations. Second, regardless of the amount of work that the EDB has put in place concerning the implementation of the NCSS Chinese curriculum, there is a weak negotiation between the different levels of curriculum planning, namely the strategic, tactical and operational. In addition, at the operational level of planning, teachers’ inadequate LTC and LTEC in notional and operational curriculums warrant our concern. Last, the entanglements between different stakeholders arise due to their relative differences on the degree of accountability and practicality concerns towards the issue. The study seeks to contribute to empirical and conceptual knowledge on international studies and re-conception on language education policy for linguistics minorities at the political level and fills the literature gaps on language pedagogy, LTEC and LTC at school level. Finally, it becomes a unique literature in explaining the un-imparted multilingual NCSS’ language acquisition which is absence in the field of applied linguistics. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Technological advancements in the recent past have provided new methods for learning to speak English as a second language (ESL). The majority of accent reduction training regimes nowadays involve the use of different media as teaching and learning cues such as video or audio signals. However, few such programs have been proven to actually provide efficient and useful feed back to ESL learners, and few offers evidence proving that such multisensory approach of accent reduction is superior to traditional unisensory (auditory-only) approach. The present study intended to design and assess the effectiveness and efficacy of a multisensory, acoustics-based accent reduction training system that is capable of training foreign speakers to correctly produce English vowels by providing instantaneous auditory and visual feedback to the users. The study also validated the system against traditional accent modification regimes by objectively comparing the efficacy of such system with traditional accent reduction training. Results indicate that multimedia-based training with instantaneous visual and auditory feedback yielded significant improvement in accent reduction. / published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy

This thesis presents an in-depth, qualitative study that examines how a group of English teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and various sociocultural and institutional factors affect their integration practices of CALL in a private university in China. An activity theory (AT) perspective is adopted as both the theoretical and analytical framework for the research. AT in essence postulates that human activities shape and are mediated both at the individual and social levels, with the mediational tools and artifacts that link the processes together. Four College English teachers in a private university (two part-time teachers and two full-time teachers) participated in this one-year study. Adopting a qualitative multi-case study approach, data were collected from semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, stimulated recall interviews and related documents and artifacts. A key finding is that the teachers each espoused unique, compatible and incompatible systems of pedagogical belief regarding English teaching and CALL. While commonalities among the teachers’ reported beliefs about English teaching and learning are noticeable, there are significant divergences existing among their beliefs with regard to CALL. In contrast with the divergences in the teachers’ reported beliefs, however, classroom observations reveal a very similar pattern in the teachers’ CALL integration: CALL was applied primarily as a tool of input to support their teacher-centered and linguistic-knowledge-oriented method of instruction. With activity theory as the analytical framework employed for interpreting the mechanisms that link the teachers’ integration of CALL, their cognition and the sociocultural settings, the research findings suggest strong contradictory relationships among the various elements in the teachers’ CALL-integration activity systems. The cross-case analysis (in terms of the identified object and contradictions in the teachers’ activity system in particular) suggests that, regardless of their expressed pedagogical beliefs, the teachers’ practices in CALL were also strongly affected by their situated concerns for learners and for meeting the institutional expectations that they act as “qualified teachers”. In addition, their practices in CALL were also evidently shaped by the institutional part-time and full-time personnel structure, a fact manifested in the teachers’ unsystematic teaching arrangements, their heavy workload and the lack of community communication and professional development. The long-established teaching and learning culture in the Chinese context also had a role to play. In such a context, teachers are considered the major source of knowledge imparted to students, while computers as a distraction from learning. The significance of this study is threefold. First, the findings provide a comprehensive understanding of why and how College English teachers in a private university setting in China integrated CALL in their instruction. The findings suggest the institution needs to direct its efforts in promoting change in teachers’ conceptual and pedagogical beliefs while integrating CALL, and to emphasize alignment among teachers’ belief systems, curriculum design, pedagogy, technology affordances and the learning context. Second, the research findings provide pedagogical and policy implications for CALL integration in higher education in China. In addition, the findings may facilitate the development of teacher preparation and development programs in the area of educational technology in language education in higher learning institutes in China. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

本研究通過對深圳大學初級漢語水平留學生的晤談以及測試，發現初級水平階段的漢語學生在聆聽過程中常出現以下困難： 1. 未能準確辨識出語音。 2. 雖然能夠識別單個辭彙或者短語，但是無法獲取整個句子的含義。 3. 未能及時進入聆聽狀態，以至於錯過了錄音的開始部分。 4. 遇到障礙往往會卡在困難之處，導致錯過了後續的錄音內容。 5. 無法概括出語段大意。 由於語言知識的不足，留學生在聆聽過程中往往受挫。從認知負荷理論的角度看，無論是語音、辭彙、語法結構，乃至於句子的深層含義和文本大意，不同的層面都對工作記憶施加了負荷。降低認知負荷的有效方法便是激活學生的圖式，對所聽材料進行預測、補充以及選擇性加工，使工作記憶留存更多資源處理不熟悉的任務。適當的聆聽策略可以幫助學生激活長時記憶中的圖式，跳躍障礙，提升理解。 基於此，本研究以深圳大學初級漢語班的外國學生為研究對象，以其中一班（共13 名學生）為實驗組，另一個班（共11 名學生）為控制組，進行准實驗研究。考慮到學生已初步具備預估、猜想的意識，且大部分聆聽困難可透過此方法得以解決，所以在實驗過程中，實驗組學生將接受“猜一猜”的聽力策略教學法。此聽力策略的實施階段包括聆聽以前和聆聽過程。控制組學生接受教師原有的教學方法，即聆聽前教師講解生詞，學生流覽問題，而後聽錄音做練習。 准實驗研究結果顯示，實驗組學生“詞義推斷”一項成效明顯，而“句子深層含義”以及“概括大意”兩項雖然有所改善，但和控制組相比，差異仍未達到顯著水平。“猜一猜”的聆聽策略能在一定程度上幫助學生激活長時記憶中的圖式，在聆聽前根據話題、背景知識等預估錄音大意，在聆聽過程中，利用上下文來跳躍障礙，達成順暢理解。圖式的激活降低了學習者工作記憶的負荷，為工作記憶釋放了大量空間。 從學生調查問卷的結果看，聽力策略“猜一猜”得到了師生的普遍認同，具有教學意義。 最後，本研究對聆聽教學以及未來研究提出了一些建議，以期有更深入的探討。 / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

本文嘗試通過對兩所香港國際學校授課教師的問卷調查, 以及筆者對授課教師進行的課堂跟蹤觀察, 試論香港的國家學校的對外漢語教學課堂中, 有效的和較無效的糾錯策略, 從而可以為香港國際學校對外漢語教學的後繼研究和實際教學提供實驗性的結果 / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education