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 study revolves around the delivery of an ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) program on conflict management in the workplace to a small group of adult learners studying in a private educational institution in Sydney, Australia. The program was of four days???? duration, and was delivered over a four-week period. It involved both in-class and out-of-class tasks, and required learners to analyse their own discourse practices, those of other learners, and those of the speech community in which they were living. The program had two principle objectives. Firstly, it asked whether learners are able to modify their discourse practices at will in order to achieve successful negotiation outcomes. Secondly, it explored the effect of deliberately altered discourse styles on perceptions of learners held by speech community members. The methodology employed to achieve these objectives was ethnographic in nature and involved the following processes: 1. Learners were video-taped negotiating with other learners before and after the program. 2. Learners undertook the program aimed at increasing their ability to negotiate in business environments using culturally appropriate spoken language in conjunction with compatible prosodic and paralinguistic features as well as conversation management strategies. Learners kept diaries of their experiences and self-evaluation, and were interviewed following the course. 3. A group of nine native speakers of English viewed the 'before' and 'after' video-tapes and completed a survey aimed at collecting and quantitatively measuring (change in) their perceptions of the learners. This change was statistically analysed using a repeated-measures t test. The effect proved statistically significant overall; t(80) = 1.990, p&gt.01, two-tailed. 4. The 'before' and 'after' negotiations were then analysed by the researcher using ethnomethodological Conversation Analysis, modified to include some aspects of facial expression. The implications of the findings for teaching 'Business English', 'Global English' and 'Speaking' more generally are then discussed.

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 is a case study of dialogic learning in a university context as demonstrated in tutorial talk. The aim of the study is to examine the effectiveness or otherwise of dialogic learning as applied in an economics curriculum. More specifically, the thesis examines the learning experiences of a second language international student cohort as they attempted to understand the role of prediction and causality in economic principles and theories through spoken dialogue. This approach means interpreting the students’ learning as a semiotic process and the students’ cognitive development as shaped by their language in use. The theoretical framework for this examination is offered by the analytical resources of systemic functional linguistics, as developed by M.A.K. Halliday (from 1975 to 2004) combined with frameworks for mediated learning offered by Vygotsky (1986, 1987); Bakhtin (1986); Hasan (from 1985a to 2001); Bernstein (from 1971 to 2001) and Cloran (from 1994 to 2006 draft); and more recent research in ‘scaffolded learning’. The study applies these resources to analyse significant rhetorical functions of economic discourse, such as predictive reasoning and argumentation, and to examine how these were negotiated and mediated by the students and their lecturer. The method for analysing negotiation and mediation in these students’ learning draws on Rhetorical Unit (RU) analysis as devised by Cloran. Linguistically, the analysis takes account of categories and relations between the Rhetorical Units on the basis that these are able to provide theoretical explanations for the predictive reasoning construed in the interactions. The analysis of Rhetorical Units primarily involved the identification of relations between the basic constituent of the text, ie, the message, and how these relations constructed the units of rhetorical meaning in the discussion. The advantage of adopting this approach is the possibility of realising rhetorical activities as an abstraction at the semantic stratum, and, as such, how they were realised by lexicogrammatical phenomena. The analysis examined: first, the use of Rhetorical Units by the lecturer and students in their construal of the critical pedagogic discourses identified by Bernstein, being the regulative and the instructional; and second, the adjustments and shifts to more congruent explanations as a result of contingency strategies taken by both the lecturer and students in response to the students’ difficulties. The findings throw a different light onto dialogic learning in a new social constructivist pedagogical approach in a university context. The study reveals that while the students’ learning was a highly collaborative dialectical process, any transformations in understanding were not at all neatly incremental as described in the literature. Indeed, the negotiations were highly ‘peripatetic’; any increments in understanding were overall devolutionary. While the lecturer’s initial guidance reflected the monologic discourse of written economics, her responses became more congruent and reactive. It was shown that a key predictor of these contingency strategies was the kinds of meanings sought by the students’ extensive questioning. Hence, in this case study, the contingency strategies undertaken within the interactional dynamic reveal a different view of semiotic mediation, necessarily a process of semiotic remediation. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1283936 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Mechanical Engineering, 2006

Culture, thought worldview and language have been discussed for a long time in different fields from various perspectives. However, the basis of this study is the view of language as both the product and producer of people just as people are the producer and product of language. Each language requires of those who use it, a particular way of viewing reality. The structure of language containing a particular worldview therefore must influence how people learn and acquire a second language. The purpose of this study is to test this assumption about worldview in adult second language acquisition. The main concern is whether or not the native English speakers' worldview influences their ability to learn Chinese as a second language. The focus of this investigation is the Aspect marker -le, which represents a different way of observing action when compared to Tense used in English. Chinese is a context sensitive language. The way of perceiving action is in terms of Aspect, which is to observe an action within an event from a specific point of view without considering Speech-time. In contrast, English is less context sensitive, and its way of perceiving action is more precise and time-conscious, in terms of Tense. The results of the investigation of a group of native- English-speakers learning Chinese as a second language reveals that the worldview they have in observing action is shaped by their native tongue and interferes with their use of the Chinese Aspect marker -le. / Graduation date: 1998

No research to date has involved ESL students as researchers in investigations of community language practices. This study examined the research processes of 23 international college students in an advanced ESL course. The students worked on an original curriculum, the Language Research Project, through which they performed ethnographic and discourse analytic tasks and engaged in collaborative action research. As the students uncovered the tacit rules that regulate communicative practices in the university community, they sought to improve their own performance in academic interactions. The teacher-researcher simultaneously observed and analyzed students' perspectives, seeking to improve her teaching practice. An analysis of the classroom dialogues showed that intertextual links made by the teacher and the students served to build a system of scaffolds for the group. These intertextual links acted as cognitive and affective support for reflection and evaluation of ideas. The students' comments to each other resembled comments made by the teacher, which indicates that they appropriated the teacher's expert role. Thus, this study reveals that learners of similar levels can offer each other expert assistance in the completion of tasks. The students developed a high level of metacognition. Their reflections uncovered serious conflicts between themselves and native English speakers. They observed that they performed better in social settings. Conversely, they felt awkward in academic settings when interacting with domestic classmates and professors, who were often unsupportive and unwilling to engage in communication. This denial of access by Americans resulted in feelings of inadequacy and inferiority for the students. Nevertheless, some students rejected and transformed certain dominant practices of the community. By adopting the identity of researchers, the students were empowered to engage in their own realities from a position of strength and to assert their individual needs. These findings demonstrate that the students developed a sense of critical language awareness. This dissertation portrays an emerging Vygotskian sociocultural perspective on second language acquisition research. The findings support social constructivist teaching approaches that incorporate students' lived experiences. Finally, this study reveals an urgent need to sensitize faculty and students in higher education in the United States about the experiences of language-minority students. / Graduation date: 2003

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

The purpose of the study was to determine whether tenth grade adolescents can exhibit the three goals of bibliotherapy, identification, catharsis, and insight, thus achieving self-discovery, through reading contemporary adolescent novels and discussing them with their English teacher on an individualistic basis. Six subjects, four girls and two boys, were selected from two tenth grade English classes at Anderson High School, Anderson, Indiana. The students were given two literary attitude surveys: "Questionnaire: Responses to Feminine Characters in Literature" and "Literary Transfer and Interest in Reading Literature," as pre-tests and post-tests. The six subjects, selected on the basis of average or better grades as well as demonstrated maturity and responsibility, read' Confessions of a Teenage Baboon by Paul Zindel, Don't Look and it Won't Hurt by Richard Peck, The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katharine Paterson, My Darling, My Hamburger by Paul Zindel, The Pistachio Prescription by Paula Danziger, and That Was Then, This Is Now by S. E. Hinton. The students discussed each book in a specific order in a private, tape-recorded session with their English teacher, the researcher, who asked predetermined questions over each book. After the tape-recorded discussions were transcribed, the responses were identified as examples of identification (ID), catharsis (C), and insight (IN).Findings1. Identification with fictional characters can lead to insights by adolescents not only about the characters but also about their own personal lives.2. The number of insights did not increase as more books were read.3. In this study the girls appeared to achieve more identification and to gain more insights than the boys.4. Catharsis is the one goal of bibliotherapy less frequently experienced, but the more an adolescent becomes emotionally involved in a book, the more likely he is to experience catharsis.5. Adolescents can achieve self-discovery if they are given the opportunity to discuss fictional characters and situations as related to their own concerns with teachers who can take the time to do so.Conclusions1. Bibliotherapy on an individual basis with adolescent novels not only has emotional and personal benefits but also academic value in that students will respond more readily and responsibly to literature within the realm of their own experience than to the traditional literature of classroom anthologies.2. Emotional maturity and self-discovery can occur if educators are willing to individualize and humanize education.3. Bibliotherapy with adolescent novels can engender feelings of mutual trust and respect between teachers and their students, who need the opportunity to discuss their feelings and problems with adults whom they perceive care about them.4. The individualized approach to bibliotherapy can provide more thorough and genuine responses, leading to significant conclusions.

This research addressed two major questions: (1) whether students in an English 104 class in which synectics was used as an aid to invention would develop the ability to think analogically by using an analogy invented in the synectics process and to think divergently by using the oxymoron invented in the synectics process and (2) whether these students would develop a more positive attitude towards writing.The subjects of the study were two English 104 composition classes with fifty students, including eight case studies. The research was conducted during Winter Quarter 1982-83 at Ball State University.The study followed these steps: (1) a diagnostic theme, (2) questionnaires, (3) three synectics sessions and the resulting essays, accompanied by journal responses and logs, (4) interviews as necessary to complete data, (5) a final theme without a synectics session, accompanied by a journal response and log, and (6) instructor's logs.Analyses of the data led to the following findings:(1) that all of the case studies and the majority of the group used analogical thinking on all of the themes.(2) that although four of the case studies and the majority of the group used divergent thinking on at least one theme, only one of the case studies and a minority of the group used this type of thinking on the final theme.(3) that all of the case studies and the majority of the group evaluated synectics as being helpful.(4) that of the four case studies responding to the questionnaires, two indicated more positive attitudes towards English 104 than they had indicated towards previous writing experiences, as did the majority of the group as a whole.These findings led to the following conclusions:that students learned to think analogically. that few students learned to think divergently. that students developed a more positive attitude towards their writing.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xiv, 164 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Mari Noda, Dept. of East Asian Languages and Literatures. Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-164).