This study attempts to outline the exposure to English language students between the ages of 14 and 16 experience in Swedish schools. Due to the relatively small scope of our study we have limited our parameters and concentrated on two schools with predominantly Swedish pupils. The aim was to establish the nature of English influence on teenagers in Swedish schools and then to examine whether this naturally occurring acquisition of knowledge is utilized in the more formal language learning environment of the classroom.We used a survey to get an overview of our topic and to help us establish patterns and trends of English language exposure amongst our target students. In order to further analyze our topic we conducted two group interviews.Our research shows that English has a great influence on Swedish children though perhaps not as much as we had first anticipated. While receptive acquisition is high, chances to actively produce the language remain low. It is also noted that while different types of English media is in fact utilized in the classroom, it may not be relevant or interesting to the students.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Explores the applicability of cognitive writing theories in a language immersion program at the elementary school level.

This study explored the relationship between the use of motivational strategies by Albanian and Japanese teachers and the observed and reported motivation of missionaries at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Provo, Utah. The aim of this study was to collect baseline data about the motivational strategies already employed by teachers in the Albanian and Japanese areas of the MTC and to explore the relationship that the teachers' use of these strategies has with the motivation of the respective missionaries. The data for this study was collected from seven teachers and 28 learners during a series of observations using a modified version of the Motivation Orientation of Language Teaching (MOLT), a classroom observation instrument developed by Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008). The MOLT is used to record the observable motivated behavior of learners as well as the motivational practices of the teachers according to Dörnyei's (2001) foreign language classroom motivational strategy framework. Each participating class was observed using the MOLT three times during the missionaries' nine-week stay in the MTC. The data from the observations was supplemented with teacher and learner surveys administered during the first and final weeks of the study period. Not only was this study useful for collecting valuable information about teaching practice at the MTC, but it also adds a new dimension to the empirical research that has been done in motivation in second language acquisition by expanding the research to English speakers being taught in foreign languages, whereas most research had been focused in ESL and EFL contexts. It is the first study to combine surveys with an observation component in target languages other than English. The results of this study support previous findings that teacher use of motivational strategies does indeed correlate significantly with learner motivation.

Sorting out data into partitions is increasing becoming complex as the constituents of data is growing outward everyday. Mixed data comprises continuous, categorical, directional functional and other types of variables. Clustering mixed data is based on special dissimilarities of the variables. Some data types may influence the clustering solution. Assigning appropriate weight to the functional data may improve the performance of the clustering algorithm. In this paper we use the extension of the Gower coefficient with judciously chosen weight for the L2 to cluster mixed data.The benefits of weighting are demonstrated both in in applications to the Buoy data set as well simulation studies. Our studies show that clustering algorithms with application of proper weight give superior recovery level when a set of data with mixed continuous, categorical directional and functional attributes is clustered. We discuss open problems for future research in clustering mixed data.

The purpose of this study is to determine two types of error gravity in a corpus of texts written by native Chinese learners of English (ELLs)—one that enriches the traditional construct of gravity found in error gravity research by including error frequency, or how often an error occurs in a text relative to others, as an intervening variable, and one that applies the new error gravity data in a practical way to help establish salient grammatical focal points for written corrective feedback (WCF). Previous error gravity research has suggested that the amount of irritation caused by error is determined by the extent to which an utterance departs from "native-like" speech. However, because these studies often neglect the role of frequency in determining gravity—relying on isolated sentences, pre-determined errors, and manipulated texts to define it—a more complete view of error gravity is needed. Forty-eight native English speakers without ESL teaching experience and 10 experienced ESL teachers evaluated a set of 18 timed, 30-minute essays written by high intermediate to advanced native-Chinese ELLs. Errors were identified, verified, tagged, and classified by the level of irritation they produced. Results show the most serious errors included count/non-count (C/NC), insert verb (INSERT V), omit verb (OMIT V), and subject-verb agreement (SV). The most frequent error type was word choice (WC), followed by singular/plural (S/PL), awkward (AWK), and word form (WF). When combined, singular/plural (S/PL), word form (WF), word choice (WC), and awkward (AWK) errors were found to be the most critical. These findings support Burt and Kiparsky's (1972) global/local error distinction in which global errors, or those lexical, grammatical and syntactic errors that affect the overall organization or meaning of the sentence (Burt, 1975) are deemed more grievous than local ones, which affect only "single elements (constituents)" (Burt, 1975, p. 57). Implications are discussed in terms of future research and possible uses in the Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback classroom.

As the need for foreign language education increases, various types of immersion programs are on the rise within the United States. This study presents foreign language housing as an under-researched type of immersion program that can be a valuable component of university language departments. Using the framework of situated learning and communities of practice, this study provides an in-depth look at lower proficiency (LP) student perspectives and experiences within Brigham Young University's French House. Data were collected through a preliminary questionnaire, a semester-long period of observations, and multiple interviews with select participants. A comparison of all three sources revealed that all levels of learners played a role in creating a comfortable, safe community where participants could make linguistic progress and build social ties. In particular, student leaders, known as resident facilitators, play a key role in granting legitimacy to the LP learners by including them in a variety of activities and giving them specific roles to fulfill within the community. By contrast, attitudes of superiority from student leaders or higher proficiency learners as well as misunderstandings between residents damaged the sense of community at one point and hindered LP learner participation through increased social tension and language anxiety. The data also revealed that moderate first language use was an effective tool in building good relationships, a key component of a healthy community of practice. Further, the data suggest that involvement in the community's activities and practices was related to different personality traits in the participants including willingness to communicate in either the first or the second language. As a whole, the study exhibits that foreign language houses provide a wealth of viable research topics and underscores the important role of building community relationships within a second language learning environment.

The number of English as a second language (ESL) students attending universities in the United States has increased during the 2011-2012 school year (Hagedorn & Lee, 2005), with, for the first time since 2001, more undergraduate international students than graduate students in institutions across the country (Davis, 2012). Given the wide range of backgrounds and English proficiencies represented by this group, their varying needs are frequently not being fully met, particularly in reading and writing, two areas that are often weak in ESL students but linked to academic success (Matsuda, 2004). Regarding writing, much research has shown that ESL students need feedback on various aspects of writing to improve (Ferris, 2009), ranging from content, to organization, to linguistic features. However, giving feedback on each of these components may not be possible for writing teachers, due to time demands. Alternatively, peer tutors may effectively work with ESL students to help them understand academic writing expectations in the U.S. and meet said expectations. This investigative study looked at a newly-developed ESL Writing Fellows (WF) program at Brigham Young University, focusing on the perceptions of the various stake holders (students, writing teachers, and Fellows themselves) regarding the success of the ESL WF program. Via pre- and post-program surveys, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups, the perceptions of the students were obtained. Via non-structured interviews, the perceptions of the teachers and Fellows themselves were obtained. From these data, themes that looked at the aspects of the program that were successful and that need to be improved were developed and analyzed, primarily from an administrative perspective. Overall, this study found that ESL students greatly appreciated having the individualized tutoring provided by the ESL WF program. Students valued the feedback given by the tutor on content, organization, and grammatical issues, and found the follow-up conferences with the tutor to be a great asset as the tutors could explain intended meaning. Additionally, tutors felt more comfortable negotiating intended meaning with the Fellow, which may be more effective at helping students develop the needed schema to apply Fellow suggestions to future writing assignments. However, much of the success of the program relies on the individual Fellow, with Fellows who neglect duties or provide feedback that conflicts with that of the teacher creating problems for students. Administrators should hire and train tutors accordingly. Teachers agreed that the Fellows generally were an asset to their classes, and the Fellows themselves appreciated the opportunity to work one-on-one with ESL students, feeling that this program afforded them experience that would make them more employable in the future.

A primary purpose of second language (L2) research is to determine what factors hinder or help L2 acquisition. One aspect that has a strong effect on L2 proficiency is learners' age of onset of acquisition (AOA) (Johnson & Newport, 1989). These studies and others suggest that younger learners are more adept than older learners at learning an L2, especially to a near-native level. However, some older learners can become quite proficient in an L2 (Ioup, et al. 1994; Bialystok, 1997; Bongaerts, 1999), although learners who have acquired the L2 over the age of 30 are rarely studied. Why is it that some older learners are more adept at learning a second language than others? Some argue cognitive abilities (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2002; DeKeyser, 2006) while others argue social and affective factors (Moyer, 1999) differ across the lifespan, causing younger learners to achieve a higher proficiency than older learners. Little research, however, has examined both these factors, especially in learners who acquired a language beyond early adulthood. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine 1) if there are age effects between groups of older adults learning an L2 and 2) what causes any differences found. This study examines a variety of both cognitive, affective and demographic factors that have been previously shown to affect language learning. The participants included 38 native Spanish speakers placed into four AOA groups: 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, and over 40. In order to test cognitive factors a working memory task as well as a switch task were included (Abrahamsson, 2012; Paradis, 2009). Other factors were assessed using a survey that inquired about motivation, amount of time using the L1 versus the L2, and musical ability (Slevc & Miyake, 2006). Subjects also participated in an elicited imitation task to assess global proficiency in the L2 (Erlam, 2009).Results suggest that age effects are found even in older learners. Participants with a younger AOA who spend more time speaking the L2 (English) tended to have greater proficiency in the L2. Attentional control was also a predictor.

Pragmatics is part of communicative competence. In order to communicate successfully, pragmatic competence is of vital importance. Although pragmatics has played a significant role in L2 learners' communicative competence, pragmatics still has not been commonly taught in the classroom. The present research investigates the efficacy of instruction in pragmatics in the advanced Chinese language class has on the production and appropriate use of apology strategies, and examines the correlation between exposure in a Chinese Speaking Community (CSC) and pragmatics development. The subjects include 55 students in their third-year of college-level Chinese, divided into four classes at Brigham Young University. The study uses an experimental design in which the participants are assigned either to an explicit instruction group or an implicit instruction group. Participants in both groups also report their experience in a CSC. Results of this study show which as a whole improved their apology performance over the 8-week instruction, as rated by Chinese native speakers. Results reveal no significant difference between the explicit and implicit instruction groups, suggesting that explicit and implicit approaches were both effective methods in facilitating pragmatic competence. In addition, we also found no statistically significant difference between the CSC and Non-Chinese Speaking Community (NCSC) group in their pragmatic development. The findings of the present study indicate that pragmatic knowledge may emerge from classroom instruction, regardless of explicit or implicit instructional approaches; and living in a Chinese speaking communities do not necessary aid or accelerate the development of pragmatic competence.

Metacognitive listening instruction is the method recommended to Swedish teachers by the Swedish National Board of Education (Skolverket) in a document authored by Lena Börjesson (2012) found in the commentary material to the steering documents. This method is based on a metacognitive pedagogical sequence of L2 listening instruction suggested by Vandergrift and Goh (2012). In this study, I test this method using action research. The participants of the study were first year upper secondary school students from a vocational program, the control group consisted of students from a preparatory program. In general, the treatment group exhibited low motivation to study, while the second group had higher motivation. Both groups attended an upper secondary school in the South of Sweden. During seven classes, the treatment group (n=16) received training in the method, and the control group (n=21) was given more traditional tests during six classes. In this study, I used the following methods to obtain my data: the PET listening test, the listening segment of the Swedish National Test of English and the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ). The results demonstrated that both groups improved their results on the listening aptitude test significantly; however, the treatment group did not with a statistical significance improve more than the control group. Secondly, the students did not perceive that they were using more strategies after the explicit strategy training they had received; both groups reported to using strategies less, as the listening texts became increasingly difficult. Thirdly, the students from the two groups did not report perceiving any difference in learning how to listen, despite one of the groups receiving explicit instruction in listening strategies. Finally, the students both in the treatment group and in the control group have reported to increasing listening anxiety after the instructional period, but the levels of anxiety increased less in the treatment group. The results of this study thus do not unequivocally suggest the effectiveness of the method for teaching listening recommended by Skolverket. In particular, it is questionable whether the method is at all suitable for students with low motivation as those who have participated in the study.