Interest in foreign language, in particular English, education in China has grown considerably in the past three decades, not only in terms of linguistic aspects, but also, more recently, its cultural dimension. The recent syllabuses for non-English and English majors have placed emphasis, to varying extents, on the development of students’ cultural knowledge and/or intercultural communicative competence. The purpose of the research reported in this dissertation is to provide a panoramic picture and a characterisation of the conceptions of culture and its role in English language teaching and learning in China. The research was designed as two discrete, but related, studies: a survey of academic publications; and a field study. The survey aimed at providing a systematic account of the main themes and emphases of writings about culture teaching and intercultural communication studies. Its aim was to discover the research interests, beliefs about culture and the role of culture in foreign language, mainly English, education, and culture teaching techniques. The field study employed semi-structured interviews and non-participant classroom observations to investigate Chinese university EFL teachers’ conceptions of culture and beliefs about culture teaching, and their instructional practices in the classroom. The findings from the studies indicate that the writers and the teachers shared a similar, fairly circumscribed, range of conceptions about culture and culture teaching. Culture is viewed principally as one’s way of life; the role of teaching culture in language learning as presenting factual information relating to products, practices and perspectives. Culture teaching is regarded as important and necessary in foreign language teaching, and its goal as the development of knowledge about cultures and awareness of other cultures. The main culture teaching techniques used in education are introduction, comparison and culture, and student projects Nonetheless, teachers were found to have little acquaintance with culture theory and to lack pedagogical training in culture teaching. They rely predominantly on their own, personal and largely limited, knowledge about and experience of other cultures and tend to focus on the development of students’ language proficiency without sustained cultural input. Despite the rapidly expanding scholarly literature on these topics, it appears to have very limited influence on actual foreign language teaching in universities. On the basis of these findings, a tentative model for cultural education in FLT in China is proposed, comprising (1) developing teachers’ beliefs about and knowledge of culture and culture learning; (2) strengthening comparative cultural studies and cultural pedagogically-oriented research, especially by teachers themselves; (3) developing expertise in culture-related pedagogical practice; (4) extending opportunities for both teachers and learners to gain immersion experiences in other cultures.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-277).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

The settlement of the Nunavut land claim in 1993 followed closely by the enactment of the Nunavut territorial legislation in 1999 were significant historical events for all aboriginal peoples in Canada. The newly formed public government made a commitment to have Inuit traditional knowledge, language, and culture as the foundation of "all we do". This commitment provides the starting point for the present study, which explores how the role of Inuit language and culture is constructed within the curricula and practices of Nunavut schooling. / Data were generated from dialogue with Nunavut teachers and with authors of the Inuuqatigiit curriculum. In order to interpret the interview texts, a discourse analysis was undertaken using James Gee's ideas of situated meanings, cultural models, and discourses at work within them in relation to the Nunavut schooling context. This analysis was informed by a critical review of government and academic texts related to northern education policy. / Thesis (PhDEducation)--University of South Australia, 2006.

This research examines the relative customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction (CS/D) of international post-graduate students from Asia with the university as a study destination. The investigation is guided by the main research question: Are there differences in the level of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction between international postgraduate students from Asia studying in Victorian universities? A conceptual model of post-choice satisfaction is developed and tested to support the analysis of four groups of students from China, India, Indonesia and Thailand studying in five universities in Victoria: Deakin University, La Trobe University, Swinburne University of Technology, the University of Melbourne and Victoria University of Technology. The research comprised two interrelated studies: a qualitative investigation, and a quantitative study. The qualitative study included a literature review and an exploratory study, which consisted of focus groups and depth interviews, and the development of the preliminary model of post-choice satisfaction. The analysis of this stage resulted in the identification of 36 variables influencing post-choice satisfaction of students, which were operationalised in a survey questionnaire based on the seminal expectancy disconfirmation paradigm and the SERVQUAL instrument. A final model of post-choice satisfaction was developed following the preliminary analysis of the qualitative data, and tested at the quantitative stage of the study. During this stage, the total variables included in the model were reduced to 26 variables within four composite constructs that were used to measure CS/D supplemented by the testing of eleven hypotheses using multiple techniques. The results showed that there were differences in the level of satisfaction between student groups and universities. In terms of the overall satisfaction, there were significant differences in the number of satisfied students, with students from India recording the lowest satisfaction levels followed by students from Thailand, Indonesia and China. The tests of significance indicated that education standards and facilities (UNISAT1) customer value and study outcomes (UNISAT3), and image, prestige and recognition (UNISAT4), were the most dominant factors in influencing post-choice satisfaction among student groups. Among the classificatory variables, age and semester were the most significant in explaining the variances in the satisfaction levels of students. High student expectations, the strength of student-lecturer relationship, the perceived role of lecturers, university bureaucracy, lack of student friendly policies, passive complaining behaviour and the lack of opportunities for industry experience were among the key findings of the study, which were directly related to the student satisfaction formation process. The thesis makes a contribution to knowledge by developing a conceptual model of post-choice satisfaction, cross national comparison of post-choice decision making behaviour of international postgraduate students, the use of triangulation methodology to ensure rigour in research and particularly the use of ratio scores in addition to weighted average gap scores to measure satisfaction. At a practical level, the major findings of this research provide greater insight into the post-choice decision-making process of postgraduate international students, which would enable Australian universities to devise appropriate strategies to enhance their attractiveness and competitiveness in a highly globalised industry. Several limitations of the research are identified and suggestions for future research including more longitudinal studies to improve the validity of the research and the findings are presented.

In Lesotho the policy regarding language learning and teaching is spelt out in the syllabus. Inspired by the constitution and resulting from broad consultations the policy requires the active involvement of learners through a learner-centred mode of delivery. This study investigates the use of learner-centred approach in the teaching of English and Sesotho languages in Lesotho secondary schools. The researcher describes the learner-centred approach to teaching as it can be observed in the context of Lesotho; examines skills acquired through the learner-centred approach; inquires into the learning that is experienced in learner-centred classrooms; and considers how the approach can be improved. The findings, based on learners’ and teachers’ questionnaires, observations and focus group discussions, indicate that certain learner-centred strategies suggested in the syllabus as well as other methods are used; and certain skills and content knowledge are acquired from each learner-centred strategy simultaneously. Past experience is crucial in assisting learners to form and build new knowledge. Moreover, it is apparent that learners and teachers consider working alone (not always considered a learner-centred strategy) to be important in building confidence and independence skills. Suggestions are also forwarded as to how to improve and maximise the teaching of languages using the learner-centred approach.

This thesis focuses on the fact that although David Williamson’s popular appeal is attested to by his continuing commercial success in a career of over thirty-five years, a consistent stream of adverse criticism has nevertheless been levelled at his work on the basis of perceived superficiality and glibness. The term 'sugared placebos' was employed to describe the truncation of characterisation and treatment of ideas in Williamson’s work (Fitzpatrick 'Styles of Love: New Directions in David Williamson' 416). In examining and explaining the presence of satire and farce in his plays, this thesis interrogated the nature of both satire and farce to establish the accuracy of the term ‘sugared placebos’ when applied to Williamson’s work, and suggests that instead what is produced is a valuable curative. The thesis involved examining the concept of superficiality as a basis of criticism in a postmodern world and sought to connect this perceived superficiality with the presence of satire and farce in Williamson’s work. The naturalist text of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts was evaluated to establish the validity of stereotypes and genre-blending in a foundational naturalistic text. Using Ghosts as a paradigm against which to compare Williamson’s work, it was established that through a confluence of satire, farce, and irony Williamson creates his unique interpretation of “naturalism” by reflecting the patterns of behaviour of certain individuals in social situations. The study found that like Ibsen before him, Williamson also contends that individuals are strongly conditioned by their society and the enduring and universal emotions they carry from their deep past are endemic of all cultures at all times. A further outcome from the study revealed that far from being 'superficial' Williamson’s use of satire and farce renders his naturalism ironic, while at the same time providing a deep and profound social commentary. In addition, it was found that Williamson’s characters, although robustly Australian and located in the history of their times have, become iconic representations of universal verities that present audiences with deeper truths about their humanity.

English is a vehicle for international communication. In order to meet the demands of modern society, English teachers need to pay more attention to the development of learners’ competence and focus on a more effective and successful method. However traditional approaches to English language teaching still dominate Thai classrooms. Language teachers should not focus on reciting but should teach from their own understanding of language learning and help learners gain more competence with confidence. This study is a collaborative action research investigation to develop pronunciation training and communicative competence for Thai students studying English in Thailand. This study investigated pronunciation training and language learning strategies, how they influenced the learning behaviour of Thai students studying English and improved their speaking confidence. The purpose of the training was to improve students’ pronunciation and spoken intelligibility. It drew upon data collected in pronunciation training in one school in Thailand using language learning strategies and evaluated improvement after being trained in developing speaking confidence. The project contained two cycles, the first of which was to train five teachers using pronunciation training and language learning strategies. We evaluated their improvement in correct speech and in developing speaking confidence. In the second cycle, these teachers in turn taught a group of four students each and similar improvements were observed. The action phases showed the implications of the importance of pronunciation training in the Thai context and the usefulness of dictionary usage to help learners to improve their competence and to have more confidence to speak English. The project resulted in a change of policy by the school to include pronunciation teaching and to allocate English classes to teachers who understood that process. The pronunciation learning strategies in this study and those of other researchers were presented to formulate strategies as a contribution for teachers to include teaching pronunciation in their classroom instruction. The researcher intends that the data will be useful for language teachers to help them further their understanding of their students’ learning behaviour to achieve improved pronunciation. In addition, the phonetic symbol system used in the training was chiefly inspired from the symbols of the International Phonetic Association (IPA) to be standardized and easy to apply.

Since the disintegration in the eighteenth century of their once-mighty ‘Kingdom’ of Lan Xang, the ethnic Lao have maintained a struggle for political and cultural independence against waves of foreign dominance. Over the centuries, the Lao have faced the cultural hegemony of their linguistic cousins the Siamese, the territorial ambitions of the Vietnamese, the ethnocentrism of French colonialists, and the cataclysmic anti-communist imperialism of the United States of America. In this more peaceful era, Lao articulation of their worldview remains constrained by powerful external forces. Engaging in debates within critical development studies and applied linguistics, and drawing on understandings from sociology, this inter-disciplinary study examines how the cultural hegemony of the past is perpetuated in the dominant development discourse and, in turn, enacted at project level. With a particular development assistance project serving as a lens for viewing broader development issues, the study ultimately presents a glimpse of an alternative development possibility. The study thus adds to the voices of those who argue against the exclusive Eurocentric view of modernity, and for the possibility of what Tu Wei-ming (1999) refers to as ‘multiple modernities’. Beginning with an examination of the Buddhist-legitimated socio-political organisation of the pre-colonial Lao, based primarily on the work of Martin Stuart- Fox (1998), the study argues that the pre-colonial worldview has continued to inform the values and actions of the ethnic Lao throughout their history of foreign domination, and despite the more recent political embracing of Marxism-Leninism. Drawing on the work of critical development theorists such as Escobar (1984; 1995a; 1995b), Tucker (1997a; 1999) and Munck and O’Hearn (1999), and illustrated with Lao examples, the study then examines the disjunctions between these values and those of the dominant development discourse with its roots in the Eurocentric notion of modernity, and its current neo-liberal economic agenda. The theme of disjunction features throughout this study, which centres on an AusAID-funded project in the Lao PDR aimed at implementing a competency-based English language curriculum for Lao government officials. As well as the disjunction between Lao values and those of the dominant development discourse, the thesis includes a practitioner’s first-hand insight into the disjunctions between Lao values and the curriculum model, and between the project design and Lao social reality. However, a major aim of this ethnographic study is to give voice to Lao stakeholders at policy, management and classroom levels. Their voices are woven into a series of narratives through which we are afforded insights into the disjunctions between Lao and donor priorities. As a result of these disjunctions, as the three-year AusAID project drew to a close the Lao demonstrated a commitment to the program but revealed a range of political, cultural and pedagogical factors which threatened its stability and ultimate sustainability. These Lao stories, together with those articulating the unfolding of events over the ensuing eighteen months, exemplify the conflict inherent in development assistance. On the one hand the accounts reveal how the unequal balance of power works to stifle the articulation of worldviews other than that of the dominant West, and how development workers inadvertently perpetuate the discourse’s ‘regime of truth’ (Foucault, 1980) that holds the Lao worldview irrelevant in a ‘modern’ world. On the other hand, we hear through the Lao voices how the agency of local stakeholders subverts the imposition of values, so that the English language program better reflects Lao priorities. As the thesis demonstrates, the subversion is in the form of a Buddhist-infused ‘middle way solution’ to the culturally problematic values underpinning the competency-based curriculum, which effectively restructures the approach to fit within acceptable, albeit modified, socio-cultural boundaries. The solution provides a tool for the analysis of the appropriateness of the curriculum model, the project design and, ultimately, the dominant development discourse for the Lao context. Standing as a metaphor for diverse possibilities, the Middle Way Solution suggests the need for development donors and practitioners to engage reflexively in our own practice, and offers a distinctly Lao alternative to the dominant discourse.