Problems and SignificanceWhen a foreign student is asked to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language he is asked to demonstrate some knowledge of that language. But the question is "What does it mean to know a language?".Some people say that knowing a language is knowing facts about the language. They deal with different aspects of language at different levels of analysis. Thus, a student who knows a foreign language has to have some knowledge of its morphology, syntax, and lexicon. In other words, in a language there are a number of specific things or facts, the knowledge of which constitutes a particular language.Some of the most widely used tests given to measure proficiency in English are "Test of English as a Foreign Language" (T0EFL), and the "Michigan Examination of Proficiency in English." Both of them use discrete-point items; that is, items which are intended to measure particular facts about the language. These examinations only test what degree of knowledge about the facts of the language the student has.There is growing concern among certain language test designers over the actual validity of this discrete-point approach because of the very difficult problem of identifying precisely many of the complex variables which define the competence of a speaker or listener in any act of communication.PurposeThe purpose of this research is to investigate performance tests which have been designed to date, and then develop a test where the student is asked to perform in the foreign language rather than give isolated facts about it.Method and MaterialFor this purpose, I worked under the guidance of Dr. Janet Ross and also with those students enrolled in the course "English for Foreign Students" offered in the English Department at Ball State University. The performance test was administered to these students during the Fall Quarter and results were compared with those on Composite Scores on the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency and the Michigan Test of Aural Comprehension.

The purpose of this study is to examine the concept of individualization of instruction, especially as it applies to high school English instruction, thereby providing both a rationale and a strategy. The first two chapters of the study provide the rationale for individualizing high school English instruction; Chapters Three and Four suggest a strategy for individualizing high school English instruction; and Chapter Five presents a summary and conclusions.Chapter One analyzes some of the conditions of our society of the latter part of the 20th century which call for new approaches to education in order to prepare young people of today to live and grow into the 21st century. One of the approaches discussed and encouraged by many educators is that of individualization of instruction, and one hypothesis of this study is that individualization of instruction is appropriate to the subject of English. Chapter Two continues the presentation of a rationale for individualizing English instruction by examining some of the major developments in the concept of individualization from the early 1900's to the present. The review of literature reveals that much remains to be done in the application of the theory and principals of individualization to the practical implementation of them.The second part of this study (Chapters Three and Four), therefore, is designed to move from theory to practice. Chapter Three recognizes that, as the learning situation shifts from the traditional large group instruction setting to a classroom operating on an individualized approach, the responsibilities and activities of both teacher and student shift also. This chapter, therefore, discusses some of the essential changes in role and function of both teacher and student in an individualized situation, with specific application to the individualized high school English program. Chapter Four provides further application of theory to practice, specifically for high school English. In this chapter, model units for various areas of English are presented as guides to help teachers prepare their own units for the initiation of an individualized program in English for grades 10-12.The examination of the rationale and the presentation of a strategy for individualizing high school English instruction lead to certain conclusions which are included in Chapter Five. One conclusion is that efforts should be made to prepare prospective teachers of high school English to approach English instruction through an individualized approach. A second conclusion is that experienced English teachers also should be provided help to understand the rationale and strategy behind the concept of individualized instruction and be given assistance and encouragement to consider this approach as a viable alternative to traditional methods of instruction. The third conclusion is that some controlled research studies should be carried out to see the relationship between traditional approaches to the teaching of English and individualized methods as far as measurable outcomes and pupil attitudes are concerned, with the recognition that some of the goals of an English program (and sometimes essential ones) are unassessable ones.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop materials for a skill training unit for teachers of English as a foreign or second language. This development was an attempt to meet the need for short-term, self-instructional materials, based on sound psycholinguistic theory, and designed to give trainees the opportunity to practice isolated skills of foreign language teaching.First of all, a review of related literature was conducted for a fourfold purpose: to assess the success of the skill training approach as used heretofore in education, to discover those aspects of the skill training approach which research studies have proven to be most effective, to determine a rationale for application of the skill training approach to foreign language teacher education and to review the successful components off the major approaches to foreign language teaching. From this review of the literature and research, basic principles are drawn, to serve as the criteria for the development of the skill training unit. The design of- the skill training unit is based on the pattern of the teacher education minicourses developed by the Far West Laboratory for Research and Development. In other words, the training unit is divided into three packets for the isolated practice of three different skills or teaching activities in the teaching of English as a foreign language: 1) Introducing and Presenting Language Material, 2) Directing Practice Activities and 3) Providing for Communication Activities. Each of the three packets contains six items to be used systematically by the trainee: 1) A Self-Instructional and Check-Off Sheet, 2) A Description and Rationale of the teaching activity in that packet (i.e. language learning theory simplified to a one-page explanation), 3) A Checklist of Objective Teaching Behaviors for that packet, 4) A Model Lesson on Videotape (including a written outline of the model lesson), 5) A Lesson Plan for the trainee to follow in the preparation of his own 5-8 minute lesson segment for videotaping and evaluation and, 6) An Outline for the Trainee's Plan to Reteach the lesson based on self and other evaluations from the first practice lesson.The emphasis of this dissertation is on the development of the product rather than on a statistical analysis of its effectiveness. However, following the development of the materials, a small scale evaluation is conducted to obtain feedback on the content validity. Through a process of rational, judgmental analysis, a panel of five experts and a group of teacher trainees decide whether each criterion has been met. The succeeding revision of the unit refines any of the problem areas indicated by the panel, as well as three additional areas indicated by the trainees.The completed skill training materials are available and recommended for use by preservice or inservice trainees in any area of the world who need the opportunity to practice basic skills of teaching English as a foreign or second language. The unit can be used by those who are unable to research theory and need demonstration and practice, or by those who are studying theory and need application opportunities. It can serve as a supplemental unit in a regular methods class or as an entire program for a workshop or self-instructional study, and does not require the presence of an informed leader. While it is definitely preferable that videotaping facilities be available for feedback purposes, the course could be conducted without this provision as long as a VTR monitor is available for showing the model lessons. The skill training unit is available by order through contacting: Tara E. Davis Secondary Education Ball State University Muncie, Indiana 47303

This thesis predicts the phonological errors which were likely to occur in the American English pronunciation of speakers of different dialects of American Spanish and ascertains whether the predicted errors actually occur. In the process of error prediction it was expected that not only should the sound system of Spanish in general make a difference as to which errors would be committed, but that dialectal differences should also. Both aspects of interference prediction were based on a contrastive analysis between the individual native phonological manifestations and American English. Sounds found to be universal in the native language were taken under the rubric of homogeneous L1 sounds and were to cruse negative interference for all informants. Sounds which differed from native informant to native informant were taken to be non-homogeneous sounds and expected to cause interference for those individuals who manifested sounds different from English sounds.

This creative project details a series of ESL conversational materials for in-class usage. Emphasizing relevance, communicative need, and social register, the series of taped dialogues, readings, and activities provides authentic language experiences for ESL students at any proficiency level. Each of the seven functional units centers on communicative needs which the students share as newcomers to the U.S. This format affords students a pertinent context in which they can begin to communicate immediately in the target language.Throughout the tapes, the students come to learn that the more one listens to a person and watches that person communicate, the more one will understand that person's responses to life. Thus the students can improve their ability to communicate effectively--to express themselves as well as understand others in an English-speaking environment.

This paper presents a general comparison of Japanese and American communication patterns and includes 30 dialogue lessons which focus on differences in communication patterns between the two nations to be used as oral communication teaching materials for Japanese learners of English.There are four striking contrasts in common personality and cultural norms between Japan and the United States, namely, introversion vs. extroversion, hierarchism vs. egalitarianism, collectivism vs. individualism, and nonverbalism vs. verbalism. The differences in common personality and cultural norms effect behavioral and psychological differences, which in turn cause differences in communication patterns between the two nations. A comparative study of communication patterns, then, makes it possible to speculate on the probable occurrence of misunderstanding and miscommunication in cross-cultural communicative interactions, and finally, provides a firm basis for the development of oral communication teaching materials with attention to cultural relativism for Japanese learners of English.

This thesis examines several possible contributions and limitations of John Dewey's Progressive educational theory towards creating an effective program for improving the teaching of oral English courses in Japanese high schools. / In particular, the study attempts a critical examination of Dewey's theory of Instrumentalism as a standpoint from which it continues to contribute to the retrogressive state of contemporary Japanese pedagogical orientation. In so doing, the thesis attempts to elicit, find speculative guidance in, and occasionally utilize in the clarification process, critical evaluations of Japan's university entrance examination system. / The aspects of Dewey's theory which are considered as conducive to the above goal are: his approach to the relationship between educator and student, teaching techniques, and his research in the realm of education as it applies to meeting the needs of society. It is put forth that although Dewey's ideology in these areas has actually contributed to pedagogical dilemma which may impede the compulsory teaching of English conversation in Japanese high schools, such a contribution must be considered en route to reaching an accurate solution. / It is contended that the cognitive-linguistic theory of Jerome Bruner is required as a viewpoint which serves to supplement, ameliorate and to assimilate Dewey's proposals in order to clearly elaborate a method by which Japanese adolescents may fluently express their hopes for participating in global ecology.

The study examines to what extent and under what conditions incidental L2 vocabulary acquisition through reading occurs. The all-male subjects were 144 grade seven ESL learners at a French-language high school in Montreal. They were previously placed into 5 groups, ranging from beginner to bilingual, according to their English language ability as assessed by the school's English placement test. To study the extent of incidental acquisition through reading, a Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation, 1990) was administered to determine students' initial vocabulary knowledge which indicated that this knowledge correlated with their group placement level, and that the majority of the subjects were proficient at the 2000-word frequency level. A story having a vocabulary difficulty at this level, as analyzed by two computer programs, was chosen and a pretest and posttest were developed in the same format as Nation's test using words from the story. Two weeks after the pretest, the students heard the story on tape while following along with the written text. Posttests were administered 48 hours after the treatment. Further conditions were examined in post hoc analyses on the effects of contextual richness and number of appearances of a word. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The effects that various forms of bilingual education may have on children's reading development are of concern to parents and educators alike. In this thesis, I investigate the development of mother tongue and second language reading in two bilingual education contexts, and assess the effects of the language of initial formal reading instruction upon this development. This study examines children's reading within the home, classroom and community environments. / The research involved two Grade 1 classes mainly comparing the language of initial formal reading instruction. One site was a French immersion school offering a 50% English/50% French program in which initial formal reading instruction was in English. The second site was a French school, with a majority of anglophone students and initial formal reading instruction was in French. The participants in this study were 12 children from each class, their parents, and the classroom teachers. / Three main tools of inquiry were used: classroom observations were carried out in each of the two classes during the Grade 1 school year; samples of oral reading and retellings, in English and in French, were collected from the participating children for miscue analysis, and informal interviews were conducted with all the participants. / The analysis revealed that regardless of the language of initial formal reading instruction, the children's reading abilities developed in both languages. Children tended to feel more comfortable reading in the language in which they had been formally instructed but, despite this, meaning-construction was more effective in the mother tongue. Differences in reading abilities for both groups could be accounted for by limitations in knowledge of the second language rather than by language of initial instruction. Finally, children with initial formal reading instruction in the second language easily applied their reading abilities to reading in their mother tongue. / The conclusions drawn from this inquiry are that having supportive home and community environments, exemplary teachers and constructive classroom environments enables children to use their creative abilities and language resources to make sense of reading in two languages. It is the continuities and connections between these elements which enables children to transcend any difficulties arising from the fact that reading is being encountered in two languages.