This study draws on ethnographic methods to provide background information for the English as a Second Language teacher who looks out at the classroom and asks, 6 Who are these Chinese students?" The goal is to let Chinese students describe for themselves their experiences learning English, both in China and in the United States.

The U.S. is the leading nation for international students to pursue higher education; the majority of whom are from countries with significant differences in culture and language from American students. As such, many international students start higher education in ESL support programs. While on the surface international students supposedly add cultural and linguistic diversity to American higher education by contributing to the internationalization of campuses, international students' transition into U.S. life and academe is often fraught with challenges including culture shock, adjusting to the new environment and society, adjustment to norms of academic performance, acquisition of academic and language skills, and negotiating chilly campus climates. Such factors can affect academic success, social/cultural acclimation, and even personal/ethnic identity. However, little is researched about international ESL students' transitions into U.S. higher education. This study employs qualitative research with semi-structured interview and grounded theory as analytical technique and aims to rectify the existing research literature limitation by identifying factors that facilitate and inhibit social, cultural, and academic transitions among international ESL students that best serve and accelerate their academic career in the United States.

That a link exists between language and culture has long been accepted; however, not only the extent, but also the exact nature of that link remains unclear. In recent years, rhetoricians have raised questions about how culture affects the patterns of organization and other rhetorical features of writing. At present, the search for answers to these questions is made difficult by the cultural bias imposed by the language of any analysis of writing that may be undertaken and by a lack of criteria that can be used in performing such an analysis.

This study was meant to provide some empirical evidence to confirm or disconf irm the assumption that the use of captioned videotapes will enhance the listening comprehension of second language students. This study compared the listening comprehension test results of intermediate English as a Second Language (ESL) students using videotapes with and without captions. Two episodes of an educational program were selected for the study. Students viewed one episode with captions and a second episode without captions. A total of sixty-four students participated in this study. Thirty-two students in Class 1 watched Video I with captions first and then watched Video II without captions, and the remaining students in Class 2 watched Video I without captions and Video II with captions. Each class was exposed to both non-captioned and captioned videos respectively.

This thesis addresses the problem of teaching and learning vocabulary in English as a Second Language (ESL), and proposes that a vocabulary based on the process of metaphoric extension could be taught directly. Despite the fact that an inadequate vocabulary is one of the main obstacles for intermediate-level ESL students, both ESL teachers and applied linguists have emphasized other aspects of English more than the study of vocabulary teaching and learning. Consequently, ESL students have few strategies for learning vocabulary other than reliance on the dictionary, and the predominant strategy for teachers is to present words rather unsystematically in the reading curriculum. In an effort to overcome this inadequacy, current vocabulary research is identifying central patterns of word usage, including lexical phrases and other 'chunks', core words, and semantic fields. One central pattern of usage that has not yet been researched is metaphoric extension. Since the so-called 'dead' metaphors produced by that process are lexical items expressing either literal or conventional meaning, they are also candidates for direct teaching.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what effect, if any, the social roles between second language learners and their conversational partners have on the types and frequencies of the following discourse categories: (a) input interactional modifications (b) corrections of language learners' linguistic errors by others and (c) language learners' production of comprehensible output. This study also seeks to corroborate previous research findings with regards to negotiation of meaning interactions (Pica, 1988; Pica, Holliday, Lewis & Morgenthaler, 1989) and other-corrections of language learners' linguistic errors (Chun, Day, Chenoweth & Luppescu, 1982).

Bilingual students are the fastest growing demographic group in U.S. P-12 public schools and offer promise and hope to our increasingly global workforce. However, many bilingual students are lagging behind in school, too many do not complete high school, and their schooling experiences are overshadowed by racial and linguistic segregation, low-academic tracking, and subtractive educational experiences. There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of bilingual and bicultural teachers and leaders who can include students' linguistic, cultural, and community assets in school. This qualitative research study explores the experiences of a specialized group of elementary bilingual and bicultural teachers that learned English in U.S. P-12 public schools and currently teach bilingual students in Oregon public schools. Through in-depth interviews and classroom observations, this study amplifies the voices of three bilingual teachers as they offer valuable insight into teaching and learning and contribute to how we can create excellent educational experiences for bilingual students. The findings point to how the interconnected nature of language, culture, and identity impacted these bilingual teachers' approach to teaching, the power of culturally responsive practices in the classroom, and the promise of building positive relationships and community with students and families.

The present study replicates research by Tomoko Takahashi (1984) on lexico-semantic patterns used by students in an acquisition poor environment. The purpose of the current study was to determine how an acquisition rich environment affects learners' use of four lexico-semantic patterns: congruence occurs when the Ll definition of a lexical item forms a one-to-one correspondence with the L2 lexical item; convergence occurs when the Ll lexical item has broader applications than the L2 lexical item; divergence occurs when the L2 lexical item has broader applications than the Ll lexical item; and semantic gap occurs when the Ll lexical item has no appropriate corresponding L2 lexical item (Takahashi, 1984). The instrument, a lexico-semantics test, is the same instrument used in Takahashi's study. It was designed to measure which patterns are most frequently used by Japanese EFL students learning English. The results, unlike Takahashi's, suggest that beginning and advanced ESL students use the four patterns equally well. No significant difference was found between the two groups. These results are contrary to what had been expected. However, they show that the proposed hierarchical order of difficulty of congruence, convergence, divergence and semantic gap is the same in both studies. The results also indicate that the acquisition· rich environment seems to dramatically improve beginners' performance of the four patterns. Since the instrument was designed for EFL students (an acquisition poor environment) it may not have fully challenged the advanced ESL students (an acquisition rich environment) while challenging the beginning students. This may have been due to the fact that the students in the present study received a great deal of input from the acquisition rich environment, which could account for their increased ability to restructure hypotheses about L2 vocabulary items. In conclusion, more studies are needed to determine the complete role of the four lexico-semantic patterns in vocabulary acquisition. An expanded follow up study that fully tests the advanced and beginning ESL learners' ability could determine whether both groups progress along a language continuum with respect to the use of the four lexico-semantic patterns. Furthermore, although the patterns may serve, in a limited capacity, as indicators of a learner's difficulties in vocabulary acquisition, a wider body of research is needed before they can be applied in a language learning environment.

The use of word processors has become common in writing instruction for students of English as a second language (ESL). Recent developments in microcomputer technology have increased the number of "tools" or writing aids that are incorporated into word processing programs. Among these are computer style and grammar checkers, programs that attempt to identify and diagnose stylistic, grammatical, and mechanical problems in writing. This study examines the suitability of commercial grammar checking programs for use by ESL writers through descriptive analysis of program features and evaluation of accuracy. The programs evaluated are Grammatik 5, Microsoft Word 6.0 and Correct Grammar (both using CorrecText as an underlying system), and Right Writer 6.0. The principal issues explored in the descriptive analysis are comparative ease-of-use, the nature of diagnostic advice and tutorial information, and modification capabilities of each program. The analysis shows that grammar checking programs that are part of word processing programs (e.g., Word Perfect and Microsoft Word) are easier to use, but lack key components that permit modification of advice messages and tutorial information, or addition of new error patterns. The evaluation of accuracy examines program performance in terms of error types the programs were designed to identify in relation to errors common in ESL writing. In a test of sample sentences, the overall accuracy rate for the most successful program, Grammatik 5, was only 50%. Microsoft Word and Correct Grammar were second with 42%; Right Writer 6.0 was the weakest, with a score of 25%. Program accuracy was substantially reduced in analysis of a sample student essay. Microsoft Word and Correct Grammar performed best, but with only 21% accuracy. The score of Grammatik 5 was reduced to 17%, and that of Right Writer 6.0 to 13%. This suggests that student writing contains a larger number of errors the programs cannot identify than do the test sentences. In addition, sentences in the essay contained multiple errors, while most of the test sentences contained only one error. Low accuracy rates might be improved by rule modification features of standalone versions of programs such as Grammatik 5 and Correct Grammar.

In the ESL classroom, there are often cultural differences between learners and teachers. Sometimes these differences can lead to misunderstandings or even conflict. One area where differences between cultures can be seen is language learning strategies and styles. This study explores the possibility that awareness of differences, explicit teaching, and negotiation may help to resolve differences. This study looks at differences between Russian-speaking adult ESL learners and American ESL teachers, with respect to strategy use and preferences. Three aspects are investigated. The first is to see whether there are statistically significant differences ~tween these groups of learners and teachers. The second is to try to form a loose profile of the learners as a cultural group. The third is to see whether or not there is evidence to suggest the validity of explicit teaching of strategies in the ESL classroom. The Strategy Inventory for Language Learners (SIIL), developed by Rebecca Oxford, is one way to assess differences ~tween learners and teachers. A survey including the SIIL and a questionnaire was given to ninety-four subjects. Forty-seven are Russian-speaking adult ESL learners and forty-seven are American-English-speaking ESL teachers or potential ESL teachers taken from a TESOL program. The results of the survey show that, in this case, there are statistically significant differences in preferences for and use of several sets of strategies. A preliminary cultural profile is derived from the SILL results and from anecdotal evidence gathered from the questionnaire. There is some evidence that the explicit teaching of language learning strategies and their use may help resolve some of the classroom conflicts between the two groups studied.