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With a new national curriculum, the New Zealand Ministry of Education has created a new learning area – Learning Languages. From 2010 all schools will have to show they are moving towards providing programmes for language learning for all students from Years 7 to 10. In preparation for this, primary and intermediate schools have been increasingly offering diverse programmes of language learning to their students, and high school language teachers have noticed an increase in knowledge and experience from their Year 9 entrants to language classes. This gives rise to the question of how teachers at high schools are able to manage language classes where students have a very diverse range of experiences of learning another language. This study is a case study from one high school on the phenomenon of language learning, as experienced and explained by nine Year 9 students. The students are asked to explore their current and previous language learning experiences in group interviews, and especially to discuss the issues which they have found in their classes. The students are from diverse backgrounds, with different experiences of learning another language. Their discussion is honest and wide-ranging as they talk about their experiences, giving reasons for their language choice, and explaining what they like and don’t like about their learning. They offer opinions on co-operative learning, mixed-level classes and the difficulties and benefits of learning another language and they make suggestions about what helps them learn best. A recurring theme in their discussion is one of relationships – family connections which may make a particular language more attractive, teacher-pupil relationships which foster learning, and, more especially, the peer-relationships which support (or occasionally inhibit) learning, and provide social support and a social network of friends. Overwhelmingly, they say they would rather study with their friends in a mixed-level class, than learn in a class which is streamed to their own level. Analysis of data further reveals that identity negotiations, which may not be recognised by the students themselves, play a part in the learning process. The study concludes with recommendations for practice and pedagogy, based on the students’ conversations. The four recommendations are about diversity – exploring the extent of diversity in the classroom, creating an environment which supports diversity, creating programmes which allow diverse students to learn together and creating opportunities for them to learn from each other.

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The goal of the research was to discover which type of input and instruction best facilitates the acquisition of syntax in adult learners. An artificial miniature language was used to model real second language to control precisely the type of input, conditions of exposure and instruction accompanying that input. Performance of learners under four input conditions was compared and analogies were drawn between these conditions and those experienced by adult second language learners (L2 learners). 'Instructed' learners Z): like formally instructed L2 learners were systematically taught the rules of the language. 'Exposure' learners saw example sentences and were asked to search for rules, the conditions of their input analogous to that of 'naturalistic' L2 learners who receive no formal instruction but who make conscious efforts to search for rules. 'Memorisation' learners received the same input as that presented to the exposure learners but were asked to memorise the sentencesT. hey were seena s analogoust o naturalistic L2 learners who do not search for the rules and the conditions of input were modelled on those claimed to induce implicit learning. 'Cued' learners received input which contained cross-sentential cues to underlying phrasal structure. They were modelled on naturalistic learners whose input contains such cues and who make efforts to search for rules. Performance was compared on both grammaticality judgement and free production tasks. No overall superiority in performance was observed for any of the input conditions. An interaction between input type and rule complexity was evident in which the amount of information received regarding the rules related positively to performance on. the less salient, more complex rules. It was proposed that the findings could be explained in terms of a 'noticing' hypothesis, in which noticing of features is considered a pre-requisite for acquisition. Theories of second and artificial language learning which have stipulated that complex rules can only be learned implicitly were not supported.

This thesis is concerned with the training of Italian secondary school teachers of English as a Foreign Language. It identifies the training needs and requirements of these teachers and subsequently analyses in-service training courses offered both in Italy and the UK. The, aim is to see if these courses meet the requirements and expectations of Italian trainees and, if not, to develop recommendations on how these courses could be improved. The starting point of this research is the increased recognition of the effectiveness of the non-native speaking teacher. While in the past native English speakers were perceived as the 'ideal'. teachers of the language, it has recently been recognised that non-native English speaking teachers have an equal chance of becoming successful teachers. However, there has been very little research focusing on the requirements of non-native English speaker trainees and similarly there has been minimal feedback on what works and does not work in teacher education programmes. This thesis aims to contribute to the ongoing teacher related research in order to gain a deeper understanding of the specific training requirements of Italian teachers of E.F.L., so that their full potential may be realised. The thesis illustrates in detail the Italian school system, the Modem Foreign Language undergraduate curricula and the recruitment system for teachers in Italy, three elements which play a crucial role in determining the in-service training needs of Italian teachers of E.F.L. The thesis also provides a detailed description of the Italian State Special Project for Foreign Languages (P.S.L.S.), a national training project aimed at in-service teachers of Foreign Languages. The thesis analyses data coming from surveys aimed at Italian teachers of English. One survey devised by the author was carried out among teachers attending training events at the British Council in Milan. A second survey analysed was based on data provided by the I.R.R.S.A.E. (Regional Institute for Research and In-service Training) Lombardy, resulting from a questionnaire completed by a large number of lower and higher secondary school teachers of English working in the region. The results of the analysis of these surveys provide important information about the requirements of these teachers and identify where these needs have not been satisfied in the training courses they have attended in the past. The thesis subsequently examines the training courses currently available to Italian teachers of E.F.L., both in Italy and the UK. Data coming from a survey conducted among P.S.L.S. trainers supply information about the general structure and content of these courses. The thesis also analyses material obtained from UK institutions and illustrates, and comments on, the variety of programmes of study currently available to Italian teachers of English. Suggestions are put forward on how both P.S.L.S. and UK based courses could be improved in an effort to overcome trainees' difficulties and meet their requirements and needs. The thesis concludes with recommendations for further work which include those areas where the analysis of teachers' requirements would benefit from expansion and where the evaluation proccss of existing training courses could be refined.

This study examines the use of language learning strategies by a group of adult immigrant learners of English attending government-funded classes in Australia. It attempts to identify the language learning strategies reported by the learners and the particular factors which are influential on their use. / The study gathered both quantitative and qualitative data on language learning strategy use. The quantitative data comprised the responses of 154 learners to the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford, 1990), while protocols such as classroom observation, stimulated recall and think-aloud protocols, and individual and group interviews with the investigator were employed to gather qualitative data on strategy use from nineteen of the original 154 learners. / The subjects’ response scores to two of the six SILL subscales, Compensation and Affective, were discarded after analyses of reliability revealed that those quantitative data were not reliable. The remaining four subscales were then analysed using SPSS. Coding and analyses of the qualitative data were conducted using the computer software Non numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theory-building (NUD*IST). / Results of the analysis of subjects’ responses to the SILL indicated a ‘high-medium’ use of the majority of SILL items and an overall preference for the use of Social strategies. Little effect was found for independent variables on reported strategy use. Analysis of the qualitative data, using NUD*IST, confirmed some of the SILL responses and also revealed additional strategies and factors, particularly of motivation, which were important and influential to the language learning of the immigrant adult subjects. / The conclusion is reached that, in the case of the immigrant ESL learners involved in the study, the use of strategies is an individual choice and is consequent on the motivation which the learner brings to the learning situation. This motivation had been shaped by interacting internal and external factors, by the learner’s past experience and current life context. / The thesis discusses the significance and limitations of the study, together with the theoretical, methodological and pedagogical implications which arise from the findings and suggests areas for further research.

Five experiments are presented in this thesis. They investigate the impact of the interpreter's language exposure on the interpreter's fluency in simultaneous interpreting. The measurement of the interpreter's fluency involves a quantitative procedure developed by Kirsner and his colleagues (2002). The procedure is based on computer-assisted analyses of pause and speech segment durations and associated variables. The quantitative measures are employed to determine whether or not different levels of the language exposure influence fluency in simultaneous interpreting. The impact of the interpreter's language exposure is elaborated upon within the framework of dynamic systems theory. Experiment 1 is a pilot case study investigating the applicability of the methodology developed by Kirsner and his colleagues (2002, 2005) to the research in fluency in simultaneous interpreting. In Experiments 2-5 this methodology is extended to investigate the impact of the participants' language exposure on fluency in simultaneous interpreting involving various language pair combinations. Experiment 2 investigates the interpreter students' exposure to their third working language, Norwegian. It has been found that the participant's fluency in the experimental tasks critically depends on the amount of out-of-classroom language exposure, involving the language exposure to Swedish, a language typologically closely related to Norwegian. Experiment 3 investigates the impact of the interpreter students' language exposure gained during the stay abroad in Germany on their fluency in interpretation from/into German. Significant gains in fluency due to the stay abroad have been found between the groups of participants and their respective controls who studied German at their respective home universities. Experiments 4 and 5 explore the impact of the on-going language exposure to the interpreter's second language in the conditions of discontinuity in practicing simultaneous interpreting. The participants with the language pair combinations Finnish/Swedish (experiment 4) and English/Russian (experiment 5) have discontinued practicing simultaneous interpreting, yet enjoy a continuous exposure to their working languages. The participants have exhibited superior fluency measures compared to their respective controls (beginner and advanced students), and inferior fluency measures compared to the control group of professional interpreters. Data analysis of all the participants under all experimental conditions have not yielded any pause duration distributions specific to simultaneous interpreting.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Duquesne University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-82) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 249 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-249).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-67).