In the South African context, it is currently assumed by most role players in education that teacher graduates are proficient in the medium of instruction they will use once they start their careers. This may be a reason why currently there is no mandatory testing of teachers‟ language proficiency. Due to social, economic and historical factors, English has become the medium of instruction at most educational institutions in South Africa, yet less than 10% of the population speak English as a home language. Consequently, an overwhelming number of learners are being taught in a language other than their home language and often by teachers not adequately prepared to teach through the medium of English. In the absence of mandatory testing and with the complex language situation in South African classrooms, this case study aimed to determine the perceptions held by pre-service teachers and their mentors regarding their English proficiency at entry to the teaching profession. This was done by answering the following research question: What is the perceived Classroom English proficiency of final year pre-service teachers prior to graduating? The conceptual framework was grounded in Uys‟s (2006) model of Classroom English proficiency and the methodology employed was quantitative in nature. Instruments used to collect data included an observation schedule completed by mentor teachers observing pre-service teachers presenting the fifth lesson of their first internship period, and a questionnaire completed by the pre-service teacher directly after the observed lesson. Both instruments were adapted from Elder‟s Classroom Language Assessment Schedule (1993, 2001), and each included 42 items related to various language proficiency variables rated on a four-point Likert scale. Data were analysed using various statistical measures comparing groups and subgroups within the sample. Key findings included a significant statistical difference between how English Home Language (EHL) pre-service teachers perceived their language proficiency and those who are English Additional Language (EAL) preservice teachers. EHL pre-service teachers perceived their Classroom English proficiency better than EAL pre-service teachers. The same trend was evident among the perceptions of mentor teachers. Pedagogical language and voice skills emerged as areas in which additional support was required by EAL pre-service teachers. Further research avenues to explore relate to the feasibility of administering refined instruments among teachers to determine not only what the perceptions would be on a national level but also to assess their Classroom English proficiency, followed by possible interventions. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Social Studies Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Doctor Educationis / The language of instruction plays a determining role in students’ academic performance. This suggests that students should be taught in a language they are familiar with in order to enhance understanding of the content subjects. In Rwanda, almost all Rwandans communicate and interact in Kinyarwanda, their mother tongue. It is, thus, expected that Rwandan children should be instructed in this home language. However, the status of English as a global language has also found echo in Rwanda, and this foreign language was adopted as medium of instruction from Primary 4 onwards. This thesis, therefore, aims to determine what role English as a medium plays in delivering quality education in Rwanda. To respond to the above question, the researcher investigated three secondary Third Form schools in the rural Gisagara District of the Southern Province. She wanted to explore the teaching and learning strategies deployed in the English language classrooms and the learning materials and infrastructure available at the schools. The focus was on English language classes as these were the spaces in which Rwandan children were explicitly exposed to English and where their proficiency in the language was developed. However, the researcher also needed to find out the effect that English had on the students’ academic performance, the correlation between their results in English and their results in content subjects, and the students’ and teachers’ perceptions of English as language of instruction. It is in this vein that a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches was used and various data collection techniques employed to obtain enriched data. Classroom observations and interviews with students and their English teachers were conducted. A questionnaire was also distributed to the students and their results in English and in content subjects were analysed to supplement the data generated by other methods. This study was guided by sociocultural theories of second language learning according to which language is a mediating tool that helps to adjust relationships between people that live in the same community. Language is, hence, a necessary artifact that is worth acquiring. For language learning to take place, learners need to interact with more knowledgeable people. In the classroom, it is the teacher who has to mediate this learning, assuming that he/she is more knowledgeable than the students. Classroom peer interactions in the target language also provide room wherein brighter students may assist their struggling classmates. Language across the curriculum approach and content-based instruction also inspired this study. These approaches suggest that language should be taught in context and especially through the content related to the students’ fields of study. The research findings indicate that the students were not proficient in English, the language of instruction, which hindered their school achievement. In addition, no correlation could be established between the students’ results in English and their results in content subjects. Indeed, despite the students’ poor performance in English they did better in this language than in the content subjects. Furthermore, not all students who fared well in English succeeded in the content subjects, and some students scored good marks in the content subjects whilst they failed in English. The findings also show that the teaching and learning strategies used in the language classrooms, as well as the learning materials and infrastructure at the schools, did not promote English acquisition. Ironically, despite English being a hindrance to the learning of other subjects, both the students and their teachers affirmed that they preferred that this language remain as medium of instruction. They believed that being competent in English could offer them more life opportunities than any other language.

The study's purpose was to assess, through mixed methods, written linguistic features of 20 Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) in middle school. Students came from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Participants wrote two expository and two narrative formal texts, each in Spanish and English, for a total of eight writing samples each. Additionally, students developed 10 journal entries in their language of choice, and 6 randomly selected, focal participants were interviewed for the qualitative analysis. The quantitative analysis involved scoring formal texts at the lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels. Scores were analyzed using Friedman's 2-way ANOVA by ranks, and resulting ranks were compared across genre-topic and language. A key outcome was that the text topic, rather than genre or language, impacted on rank differences at all levels, possibly due to student engagement or influence of the prompt structure. Performance at the three levels was essentially similar across both languages, revealing that participants were emerging writers in Spanish and English. Similar outcomes in Spanish and English also implied potential cross-language transfer of academic language proficiency. Results further highlighted the interaction of multiple linguistic levels in text composition. Finally, students appeared to apply a knowledge telling strategy to writing, resulting in unsophisticated vocabulary and structures. For the qualitative analysis, focal participants' journals and interview transcripts were analyzed with domain and taxonomic analyses to discern how their language learning experiences shaped their identities as bilinguals. Results showed that 1) Spanish was preferred for all focal participants; 2) students shared the experience of language discrimination; 3) bilingual and monolingual identities resulted in different attitudes toward language learning and varied writing performance; and 4) Mexican and Puerto Rican students had diverse language learning experiences, leading to differences in identities and writing outcomes. Overall, the quantitative and qualitative findings raise two questions: 1) which aspects of academic language proficiency are shared across both languages, and how might these be assessed with bilingual, integrated language measures? 2) How might integrated assessment in L1 and L2 aid in identifying adolescent ELLs with language impairment?

This paper aims to investigate to what extent creative writing promotes motivation for EFL learners to write. A report published by the National Assessment Project (NAFS) commissioned by The Swedish National Agency for Education evaluated the national tests in English for Swedish students during 2018/2019, documenting that the Swedish students obtained the lowest English scores on writing. This result corresponds with the national test scores in English from earlier years. According to The Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket, 2019) motivation is a necessary component for L2 learning, and teachers are expected to play a fundamental role in creating student motivation. However, research within the area of motivation indicates that the understanding of motivation in L2 learning is limited. Likewise, the research indicates a need for the understanding of motivation to be both revised and subject to further research, both to understand the nature of motivation and to define tools on how to push motivation in L2 writing. One such tool could be creative writing (CW). Thus, to understand to what extent CW can motivate EFL learners to write, we explore recent studies that examine how different implementations of CW activities and CW courses can motivate students to write within a school context. In the study, we argue that CW motivates EFL learners to produce text. CW seems to facilitate relevance for the student and empower writing activities that consider the student’s self-interest as well as bring new life to the student’s understanding of writing. The insights of this study hold pedagogical values for L2 writing in the EFL classroom.

Reclassification is a process that changes the language proficiency status of an English learner (EL) to that of a fluent English proficient (FEP) student. School districts in California are allowed to set their own reclassification criteria, based on guidelines from the State Board of Education. Various reclassification policies may present problems, such as inappropriate placement and provision of services which would widen the academic deficit of English learners and place them at greater risk for long-term academic problems. The purposes of this study were to analyze the reclassification criteria among districts in the Northern San Joaquin Valley and Foothill area of California, to learn how districts arrive at their current criteria, and to know what modifications and recommendations district leaders who are in charge of English learner services would suggest regarding reclassification. Policies from 23 K-12 school districts in the studied area were collected and analyzed. Interviews with 12 district leaders who are in charge of English learner programs and services were conducted to find out how districts developed their criteria and their suggestions for modifications and recommendations regarding reclassification. Data collected from school districts' policies revealed a diverse set of practices in the establishment of the reclassification criteria although the majority of the school districts studied met the SBE guidelines to reclassify EL students. There is a range of selected cut points for English language proficiency and the California Standardized Tests. There is also a wide variety of measures and their specific requisites that are being used as part of the teachers' evaluation of students' curriculum mastery requirements. Parental opinion and consultation were presented in 22 out of 23 policies collected. Furthermore, an array of miscellaneous requirements was found in the majority of districts' criteria. The differences in districts' reclassification criteria prompted concerns regarding reclassified students' proficiency levels and performance. Recommendations include a more uniform and specific set of reclassification guidelines statewide, an explicit operational definition of English proficiency, and frequent review of EL students' progress to prevent and identify Long Term English Learners, LTELs, so that appropriate intervention can be provided to enable their success.

Studien baseras på en kvalitativ och kvantitativ läromedelsanalys med fokus på vilket språkbruk som används i problemlösningsuppgifter i matematikläroböcker. Studiens syfte är att undersöka och analysera ur ett flerspråkigt perspektiv problemlösningsuppgifter i matematikläroböcker ämnande för årskurs tre.   Studien fokuserade på att ta reda på vilka språkliga utmaningar som finns för flerspråkiga elever och om det finns multimodala resurser som stödjer de språkliga utmaningarna.  Som tidigare forskning påvisat tar det längre tid för flerspråkiga elever att utveckla språkkunskaper på sitt andraspråk jämfört med elever som lär på sitt första språk. Flerspråkiga elever kan därav möta utmaningar i språkbruket i problemlösningsuppgifter. Språkbruket och de multimodala resurserna som analyserades i studien var vardagsspråk, egennamn, skolspråk, matematiskt register, homonymer, bilder och matematiska symboler. Studiens forskningsfrågor var Vilket språkbruk används i problemlösningsuppgifter i matematikläroböcker och hur utmanande är problemlösningsuppgifterna i ett flerspråkigt perspektiv? Finns det multimodala resurser och hur stöttar de texten? Och Hur skiljer sig matematikläroböckerna åt ur ett flerspråkigt perspektiv? De utvalda matematikläroböckerna för denna studie var Favoritmatematik 3 (2018), Nya Prima matematik 3A (2020), Singma matematik 3A (2015) och Triumf 3A (2021).    Analysen utgick från två teoretiska utgångspunkter: Cummins (2017) teori om Basicinterpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) och Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency CALP samt Selanders och Danielssons (2021) teori om multimodala resurser.   Resultatet visade att flera problemösningsuppgifter innehar ett utmanande språkbruk för flerspråkiga elever samt att problemlösningsuppgifterna visade sig sakna multimodalt stöd i form av bilder och matematiska symboler som stöttar de språkliga utmaningarna som överensstämmer med tidigare forskning. Studiens slutsats är att problemlösningsuppgifterna innehåller i olika utsträckning ett kognitivt krävande språk för flerspråkiga elever. De språkliga utmaningarna som de flerspråkiga eleverna står inför behöver synliggöras: då kan läraren förebygga de språkliga utmaningarna som finns i matematikläroböckerna innan eleverna arbetar “tyst” i matematikläroboken.

Research shows that the inclusion of youth literature in lower secondary schools has several advantages, including improvement of language proficiency development. For this reason the Swedish lower secondary school curriculum endorses the use of literature in language classes. There is, however, a great deal of freedom with regard to how teachers may implement literature for language learning purposes. Hence, this study aims to examine how some teachers use literature in their teaching to develop student’s language development and how the teachers perceive the benefits and challenges that come from using literature. The results show that incorporating literature in the classroom is regarded as important and that teachers  can see numerous benefits for the students. The results also indicate that there are various approaches available for teachers to integrate literature into their teaching.

The challenge facing children learning language bilingually has led to efforts to improve the assessment and treatment of language learning difficulties. One of these efforts is the development and validation of the Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS). Previous research has been performed to validate the scale for English language proficiency but not for Spanish language proficiency. Twenty-four sequential bilingual children produced spontaneous narrative language samples that were rated using the SELPS and coded for language sample variables using the Systemic Analysis of Language Transcripts software. Several language sample variables, most notably the Subordination Index, the number of omitted bound morphemes, and the number of code-switched words, were correlated with the SELPS subscale scores and total score. Findings have implications for screening the Spanish language proficiency of Spanish-English bilingual children who are between four and eight years of age.

The United States is a host to several ethnicities that bring both their own languages and their own culture to an already large mixing pot. The children of the immigrants who grow up learning both English and their families' heritage language are called heritage language learners (HLLs). The first objective of the study was to find out whether foreign language anxiety had a relationship with reading and writing in Spanish for HLLs in high school. The second was to ascertain whether perception of ethnic identity also had a relationship with reading and writing in Spanish for heritage language learners in high school. Most studies have found that both foreign language anxiety and perception of ethnic identity has a connection with reading and writing in their heritage language (HL). A majority of the research, however, focuses on these students and their challenges while at the university level. As studies concerning high school students are rare, it is important to focus on a younger group of participants in order to understand their unique cultural and linguistic needs and implement strategies to help Spanish HLLs succeed. For this particular set of students, it is possible that ethnic identity and writing have a positive relationship. However, ethnic identity did not have a strong relationship with reading. Foreign language anxiety did not have much of a connection between either reading or writing.

Although the benefits of peer feedback have been widely studied in the EFL classroom, fewer studies have focused on the perceived challenges of giving and receiving peer feedback from the perspective of upper secondary students in Sweden. Therefore, the aim of this qualitative study is to increase teachers’ knowledge of the challenges surrounding peer feedback for EFL writing as voiced by students. This study also discusses students’ suggestions to minimise such challenges. Using data collected from eleven semi-structured interviews with students, thematic analysis and the theoretical framework of Sociocultural theory, this study found that giving feedback was perceived as being more challenging than receiving feedback. Moreover, findings show that the majority of students perceive heterogeneous language proficiencies and negative emotions arising from negative feedback to be major challenges, hence students’ suggestions for homogenous language proficiency groupings and for anonymous feedback. It can be concluded that students’ beliefs about peer feedback in heterogeneous language proficiency pairings and various negative emotions related to peer feedback can influence language development negatively.