This exploratory case study aims to develop a set of best practices for integrating online discussion forums into the foreign language curriculum, focusing specifically on a group of learners in an advanced French grammar course at a large, public U.S. university. During a period of two months, 26 participants completed a series of tasks designed to provide three different types of data: 1) exploration and analysis of interactional, linguistic, and social features of Web forum discourse; 2) participation in Web forums; and 3) feedback from students. Since the feedback received from two questionnaires was ultimately the most consistent and reliable type of data collected, this study focuses on students' participation patterns and their perceptions of Web forums as a communication space having the potential to provide opportunities for learning French. Although some students indicated that they would neither consider visiting a French-language Web forum nor actually visit one, in both cases, more than half of the participants who completed these questionnaires indicated that they would both consider visiting a French-language Web forum and might actually visit one. Since encouraging students to use French beyond the classroom and to engage in the lifelong use of French for personal enrichment (following the Communities standard of the U.S. Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century), at least one goal of this study-the main goal-has been partially achieved.

This study, undertaken within the field of interlanguage pragmatics, investigates the kinds of pragmatic failures observed among tertiary level foreign learners of Japanese and also seeks to find reasons to help explain the occurrence of these failures. The focus of the study is on the data generated from a role play where a student has to borrow a book from their Japanese teacher. The primary role play is performed by nine beginner level learners of Japanese studying at an Australian university, but the role play is also performed by ten Japanese native speakers in order to determine what is normative for native speakers in this situation. Unlike previous studies in this area, this research collects kinesic non-verbal data in addition to linguistic data. The data is analysed using Thomas's (1983) concept of pragmatic failure, and Brown and Levinson's (1978, 1987) politeness theory. The study also considers whether Japanese native speakers evenly evaluate the role play performances of the Japanese learners. Despite difficulties in the application of these linguistic theories to beginner level learners, a number of sociopragmatic failures and one pragmalinguistic failure are observed in the role play performances of the Japanese learners. These are partially explained by a lack of instruction, nervousness in performing the role play and the learners' limited proficiency in the Japanese language. Inconsistencies are also observed in the way that JNS participants evaluate the role play performances of the JFL learners.

This study investigated eight and nine year old children’s capabilities to develop skills in the intrapersonal intelligence domain as defined by Howard Gardner. A group of twenty-seven, seven to nine year olds were introduced to a program specifically designed to foster their self-knowledge as learners and their self-management skills in the English learning environment. The students were introduced to activities that would help them to identify their own relative strengths and limitations and use this knowledge to negotiate a learning environment that would best suit their own learning needs. This program included developing skills in goal setting and identification of personal learning strategies. It also sought to improve work habits and student on- task behaviours and encourage self-monitoring, self-evaluation and self-reflection. The results obtained evidenced a considerable improvement in the students’ self knowledge and how this impacted on their perceptions of themselves as learners. The students grew increasingly aware of their own relative strengths and used this information to negotiate their learning environment, to identify strategies that worked for them and to take increasingly more responsibility for their own learning. As a result of the findings of this study, there are clear implications that if students are provided with opportunities to develop accurate intrapersonal intelligence, this improved awareness of ‘self’ can have an impact on successful learning. This study indicates that if teachers provide students with opportunities to investigate and learn about themselves as learners, to build skills in goal setting and to identify personal learning strategies, then an increase in self-knowledge and self-management will impact positively on the students’ capacity to learn successfully. Consequently, programs and strategies designed to promote students’ intrapersonal intelligence may become a valuable part of school practice and curricula.

<p>This essay investigates native Swedish speakers’ problems in the area of prepositions. A total of 19 compositions, including 678 prepositions, written by native Swedish senior high school students were analysed. All the prepositions in the material were judged as either basic, systematic or idiomatic. Then all the errors of substitution, addition and omission were counted and corrected. As hypothesised, least errors were found in the category of basic prepositions and most errors were found in the category of idiomatic prepositions. However, the small difference between the two categories of systematic and idiomatic prepositions suggests that the learners have greater problems with systematic prepositions than what was first thought to be the case. Basic prepositions cause little or no problems. Systematic prepositions, i.e. those that are rule governed or whose usage is somehow generalisable, seem to be quite problematic to native Swedish speakers. Idiomatic prepositions seem to be learnt as ‘chunks’, and the learners are either aware of the whole constructions or do not use them at all. They also cause some problems for Swedish speakers. Since prepositions are often perceived as rather arbitrary without rules to sufficiently describe them, these conclusions might not be surprising to teachers, students and language learners. The greatest error cause was found to be interference from Swedish, and a few errors could be explained as intralingual errors. It seems as if the learners’ knowledge of their mother tongue strongly influences the acquisition of English prepositions.</p>

<p>The aim of this study was to investigate, illuminate and discuss teacher’s and multilingual student’s view on the connection between their mother tongue and their learning of other languages. This qualitative study is based on interviews with eight students in the 8th grade and two language-teachers from the same school, as well as ethnographic observations during English and Swedish lessons. With the help of some relevant theories, the empirical study is compared, analyzed and interpreted. The results show that the theories and informant’s view on the connection between the mother tongue and other languages are similar, which is that the mother tongue must be fully established before a new language can be taken in.</p>

<p>In order to be able to influence the motivation of second language learners one first has to understand what motivation is, what its preconditions are and how to detect it. The research for this essay was done with the help of one hundred and ten students from seven classes in two different upper secondary schools and most of these learners were first year students.</p><p>The aim was to find and measure the students' motivation to learn English and how this motivation can be influenced in a positive manner. The method used to collect the necessary data was a questionnaire which asked questions about the relevancy of the English course and how frequently the students used English and how interested they were in the language.</p><p>The results give a clear picture of the students' motivational levels as well as to which parts of the English course they respond and to which they do not.        </p>

The focus of this empirical study was on the antecedents of resilience among poor, English second-language (ESL) adolescent learners. The reasons why some adolescents in this situation are resilient and others are not, are indicated in this study. Adolescents qualify as being resilient if they are exposed to significant threat to their development, indicating high risk to the individual, and their adaptation to the threat is successful, due to support, resources or intervention. Thirty three resilient and 32 non -resilient poor, ESL adolescent learners were selected to participate in the empirical study. My study was a mixed method study because I made use of quantitative research (a survey questionnaire completed by the 65 selected learners), and qualitative research (semi-structured interviews with two identified resilient learners and a group interview with elders who are knowledgeable about young people in this community). The conclusions of my study emphasise that dynamic interactions between individual attributes, familial support, community resources, and cultural ties empower some adolescents to overcome hardships and be resilient. My findings are supported by literature. My findings cannot be generalised, as the adolescents in my study were all black, South African youth from an impoverished community in the Vaal Triangle. This is an explorative study, and themes that were identified as contributing to resilience in my study, need to be explored in future studies. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Center for Language Studies, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 26-28).

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.