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Due to an educational system that tends to prioritize receptive reading and listening skills and a concomitant lack of opportunities to engage in meaningful spoken production in the target language outside of the class, many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Japan struggle to develop their English speaking abilities even after many years of study. For many of these learners, post-secondary coursework presents a first opportunity to engage in consistent active oral production of the language in interactive communicative situations, but how language abilities develop in this context over time is not well understood. This longitudinal, mixed methods research study explores the development of interactive second language (L2) speaking proficiency of Japanese university students throughout their first year of post-secondary study. The participants were 92 female students from five sections of a required oral communication course of which I was the instructor: 34 from two mid-proficiency sections and 58 from three low-proficiency sections. In addition to the standard curriculum for this course, these participants also completed a series of ten 10-minute discussion tasks in groups of three to four participants on personal information topics of general interest over the course of two 15-week semesters that comprise the academic year. All of the group discussion tasks were video-recorded and carried out under the same procedures: without any pre-task planning time but with a post-task transcription and reflection assignment. The first group discussion task was administered for training and instructional purposes and excluded from the data analyses leaving seven tasks conducted roughly one month apart throughout the academic year as well as one additional repeated task with the same group assignments completed at the end of each semester. In total, nine discussion tasks were carried out for analysis in this study. A number of quantitative measures were collected for this study at various points throughout the academic year. First, all of the group discussion performances were rated using an adapted rating scale consisting of criteria dedicated to complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) as well as interactional engagement and overall communicative effectiveness. Additional measures consisting of participant ratings assigned to topic difficulty and group member familiarity were collected via questionnaire after each discussion task. Furthermore, measures of extraversion and English-speaking self-efficacy were collected along with the three repeated tasks that spanned the entire year. Finally, initial and end-of-year scores on the TOEIC-IP test consisting only of listening and reading sections were used as measures of general English proficiency. To provide a richer understanding of the participants’ perceptions of their development as well the social and individual difference factors considered most directly relevant to the research questions, an embedded qualitative component consisting of two focus groups and one individual interview was also carried out. The results indicated that the participants in this study made small but significant improvements in their mean interactive English speaking abilities across both the three repeated tasks and between the most temporally distant earliest and latest new tasks administered in the first and second terms, accounting for relatively large amounts of the variance in the measures. Furthermore, the social and individual difference factors investigated were found to jointly predict 56% of the variance seen in the interactive English speaking measures for the three repeated tasks. Of these factors, the participants’ initial general proficiency scores, English speaking self-efficacy ratings, and averaged group member initial proficiency scores were found to be much stronger predictors than their topic difficulty, group member familiarity, and extraversion ratings. When the ratings given along the five rating scale dimensions were inspected, strong relationships were revealed among all of them, though particularly among the CAF rating measures. Tracking these relationships over time revealed that they tended to strengthen from one task to the next with the most readily identifiable changes found among the relationships between accuracy, interactional engagement, and overall communicative effectiveness. Finally, the qualitative component of this study revealed that the participants interviewed perceived changes in their conscious attention during the group discussion tasks shifting from accuracy concerns to speaking fluently/effectively, a general lack of concern for and attention to complexity throughout, and improvement in their interactional engagement over the course of the academic year. Furthermore, the interviewees were found to generally ascribe a high degree of influence on their resulting group discussion task speaking performances to both the topic prompts assigned and their group members’ personalities as well as to the complex interplay between group member proficiency and familiarity among other factors. Although a number of limitations should be taken into account, it is believed that the results of this study provide new, important insights into the longitudinal development of interactive English speaking proficiency in an EFL university context where learners have little engagement with target language beyond limited classroom contact hours. / Teaching & Learning

The problem this study addresses is the continuing ineffective teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL) despite the popularity of in-service (INSET) programmes. As a means of situational analysis, ethnographic approaches were used to investigate the INSET participants in the four-year degree programme at the University of Botswana. Responses to one inventory containing second language teaching activities showed that the activities respondents know to characterize ESL classrooms do not facilitate much verbal teacher-pupil/pupil-pupil interaction. Responses to another inventory containing idealised course content showed evidence of needs the preparation programme was ignoring. This confirmed one of two study hypotheses that: there are specific second language teaching needs being ignored by preparation programmes for primary school language teachers. Document analysis verified the assumptions about what classroom English Language Teaching (ELT) was expected to achieve. However, lesson observation revealed that the products of the programme still taught and perceived English as a mental exercise, with the following results: the lessons were complicated, uninspiring, unenjoyable, restrictive, and ineffective. Questionnaire and interview results confirmed the second study hypothesis that: the confidence of non-native English-speaking teachers (non-NESTs) with regard to competence in English, which affects the effectiveness and efficiency of their teaching, is low. As a solution a model specifying the essential programme components for preparing ELT specialists in the primary school is proposed. The proposed model is however not prescriptive and the proposed content is neither exhaustive nor limiting, but only broadly suggestive of the content of each instructional component. It is hoped that the product of the proposed model will become not only a well-educated person in the arts but also a highly proficient and self-confident person in ELT. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)

The problem this study addresses is the continuing ineffective teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL) despite the popularity of in-service (INSET) programmes. As a means of situational analysis, ethnographic approaches were used to investigate the INSET participants in the four-year degree programme at the University of Botswana. Responses to one inventory containing second language teaching activities showed that the activities respondents know to characterize ESL classrooms do not facilitate much verbal teacher-pupil/pupil-pupil interaction. Responses to another inventory containing idealised course content showed evidence of needs the preparation programme was ignoring. This confirmed one of two study hypotheses that: there are specific second language teaching needs being ignored by preparation programmes for primary school language teachers. Document analysis verified the assumptions about what classroom English Language Teaching (ELT) was expected to achieve. However, lesson observation revealed that the products of the programme still taught and perceived English as a mental exercise, with the following results: the lessons were complicated, uninspiring, unenjoyable, restrictive, and ineffective. Questionnaire and interview results confirmed the second study hypothesis that: the confidence of non-native English-speaking teachers (non-NESTs) with regard to competence in English, which affects the effectiveness and efficiency of their teaching, is low. As a solution a model specifying the essential programme components for preparing ELT specialists in the primary school is proposed. The proposed model is however not prescriptive and the proposed content is neither exhaustive nor limiting, but only broadly suggestive of the content of each instructional component. It is hoped that the product of the proposed model will become not only a well-educated person in the arts but also a highly proficient and self-confident person in ELT. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)

This study explored the impact of the importation of expatriate English teachers on the morale of the Malaysian English teachers and attempted to identify the perceptions of Malaysian English teachers, expatriate native English-speaking teachers (NESTs), and expatriate nonnative English-speaking teachers (nonNESTs) regarding the practices that are prevalent in Malaysia in areas such as hiring, remuneration, and benefits. An initial questionnaire was completed by the participants to ensure that they fit the target demographic profiled. Then, a semi-structured interview was conducted as a follow-up to the participants' open-ended responses in the second part of the questionnaire. Completed questionnaires were gathered from ten participants, and two semi-structured interviews were conducted with an expatriate NEST and a Malaysian nonNEST respectively. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze responses to the seven-point Likert-scale statements. In addition, this study took a qualitative approach in analyzing the core themes of the responses in the semi-structured interview and the questionnaire. Examining individual survey items and interviews revealed that there is a large discrepancy in wages between NESTs and nonNESTs in Malaysia, and this contributes to the unhappiness and low morale of Malaysian English teachers. In addition, the presence of expatriate NESTs causes Malaysian nonNESTs to have low self-esteem as they compare themselves to their native counterparts. This study also revealed that participants felt that the importation of expatriate NESTs had no significant impact on improving the language proficiency of students. Owing to the perceived failure to deliver desired results, the majority of the participants agreed that hiring qualified and experienced English teachers (not on the basis of one's race or first language) is paramount in improving the language proficiency of Malaysian students. The analysis of the data collected resulted in recommendations for a more in-depth study of the impact of the importation of expatriate NESTs/nonNESTs to the morale of Malaysian nonNESTs and the improvement of the language proficiency of Malaysian students. Also, the contributing factors for the decline of the English proficiency of Malaysian students should be thoroughly evaluated so as to affect change.

The influx of Black pupils seeking admission to Indian schools began in 1990 after the Democratic Movement's "all schools for all people" campaign was announced. The medium of instruction in Indian schools is English which is also the mother tongue. Therefore Black pupils who come on transfer from schools in the KwaZulu township are immediately faced with a language problem as they are taught in the mother tongue untii standard three, when they switch to English. This research project arose as a result of the researcher's experience with Black pupils, whom he - felt were severely linguistically underprepared for academic study in the senior primary phase. Furthermore, most present day teachers were trained for monocultural schools and have little or no experience of multicultural education. The main problem that this research focuses on includes the learning problems encountered by Black pupils in Indian primary schools and the concomitant teaching problems their teachers experience. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Didactics)

Science fiction, like any other genre, is sub-divided into categories. Yet scholars in the field have long debated the existence of multiple, regional sf genres. The most critiqued of these classifications is between sf produced in Britain, and America. Though Britain remains the birthplace of sf, American author have undoubtedly left a mark on the genre. Scholars mark this difference in the writing styles and themes of authors in these regions. To examine this difference, I analyze two authors that have worked on a common theme: religion and in particular, the concept of hell. Evaluating the arguments put forth by critics such as Peter Kuczka, Cy Chavin, Franz Rottensteiner, and others; I examine works by Scottish author Iain m. Banks, and American author Cordwainer Smith to determine the validity of this classification. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Depuis l’ouverture des concours de recrutement de l’Éducation nationale aux ressortissants européens, au début des années 1990, de nombreux Britanniques et Irlandais ont rejoint le contingent d’enseignants certifiés et agrégés d’anglais. Ces professeurs d’anglais « locuteurs natifs » (PALN) n’ont pas été socialisésen France et mettent parfois des années à décoder le système éducatif français et leur intégration professionnelle dépend de nombreux facteurs. Si le CAPES et l’Agrégation constituent une étape cruciale dans le processus d’interculturation, parce qu’ils initient les candidats anglophones aux normes, règles et valeurs du système éducatif français et de l’anglais-objet d’étude universitaire et d’enseignement-apprentissage en France, ces premiers ne sont en réalité que les prémisses d’une longue construction de l’identité professionnelle de ces enseignants. La présente enquête, élaborée dans une perspective ancrée et compréhensive et qui s’appuie sur des méthodes mixtes, a permis au chercheur d’explorer comment les PALN perçoivent leur vie et leur identité professionnelles. Une analyse du discours des participants et des interactions enquêteur-enquêté amène le chercheur au cœur de la problématique identitaire des enseignants« natifs » qui se retrouvent face à un paradoxe : si le « capital natif » est un atout pour réussir les concours de recrutement, une interculturation (Demorgon, 1999) « trop » réussie peut fragiliser ce même capital qui, pour conserver son intérêt et rester dynamique, doit être sans cesse actualisé. / Since the early 1990s, EU citizens have been able to sit the competitive examinations which give access to qualified teacher status within the French education system, without needing to have French nationality. This change has attracted British and Irish candidates who were not necessarily qualified to teach before moving to France and who, as native English-speaking teachers (NESTs), were not socialized there. Consequently, it sometimes takes them years to decode the French education system. For these teachers, comfortable professional integration depends on their capacity to adjust not only to the requirements of French schools, but also to the French approach to teaching and learning English. Taking the CAPES is one step towards interculturation, since by doing so, English-speaking candidates gain an insight into the norms, rules and values of the French education system and see how English is taught at university and in schools in France. However, passing the exam is only the first step towards building aprofessional teacher identity, which is a long process. The present investigation into the professional identity of NESTs from the UK and Ireland was constructedfrom a Grounded Theory and interpretative perspective using mixed methods. The researcher seeks to understand how participants perceive their professional identity and life as English teachers in the French education system. An analysis of participants’ discourse and of interviewer/participant interaction brings tolight the following paradox: the initial “gift” which helps NESTs through the rigorous state examinations can be weakened by strong interculturation and needs to be updated and enriched in order to remain an asset.

Calâleddin Mohammad Balxi, ou Roumi, est un poète mystique persan du XIIIe siècle, parmi les plus connus en Occident et surtout l’un des plus traduits de la littérature persane, notamment en anglais. Ce fait est dû aussi bien à l’immensité de son œuvre poétique consistant en un ouvrage mystico-didactique, Masnavi e ma’navi et un recueil mystico-lyrique de qazals et de quatrains, intitulé Divân e Şams e Tabrizi, qu’à un significatif engouement relativement récent en Amérique anglophone pour ses poèmes, de caractère spirituel. Les textes de Roumi apparaissent, de manière sporadique, en allemand, anglais et français, dès le début du XIXe siècle jusqu’à ce que Masnavi soit intégralement traduit en anglais au début du XXe siècle. Des vagues de réception ont désormais vu le jour dans le monde anglophone grâce aux nombreuses retraductions et adaptations. La réception du poète a été plus mince dans le monde francophone, où la grande partie des traductions ne datent que de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle sans susciter le même enthousiasme. Si les traductions ne font pas défaut dans ces deux langues, les spécifiés de la poésie persane ainsi que de la pensée mystique rendent particulièrement difficile l’opération du transfert du discours poétique de Roumi en anglais et en français. On étudie ici, d’abord, les obstacles principaux auxquels doivent faire face les traducteurs sur les plans linguistique, sémiotique, stylistique, poétique, et herméneutique. Cet exposé cherche, ensuite, à montrer les modalités du transfert de l’œuvre chez les traducteurs anglophones et francophones de diverses époques en évaluant les traductions dans le cadre de la théorie éthique (bermanienne) de la traduction. S’inspirant des théories sociolinguistiques de la traduction et s’appuyant sur un corpus bilingue diversifié, cette thèse tente enfin d’expliquer les différences de degré et de nature de la réception par les deux sphères culturelles cibles. / Calâleddin Mohammad Balxi or Rumi, a Persian mystical poet of the 13th century, is amongst the best known in the West and one of the most translated authors of Persian literature, especially in English. This is due to the abundance of his poetic works which consist of mystical and didactic Masnavi e ma’navi and a collection of lyrical qazals and quatrains, Divân e Şams e Tabrizi. He is also known and translated because of the relatively recent strong appeal of his poems, with their spiritual undertone, to the North American audience. Rumi’s poems appeared sporadically in German, English and French since the beginning of the 19th century until the full English translation of Masnavi in the early 20th century. Ever since, the English-speaking world has had waves of reception thanks to numerous retranslations and adaptations. In the French-speaking world, however, the reception of Rumi has been far less important: the majority of the translations were introduced in the second half of the 20th century and failed to find an equally enthusiastic audience. Despite numerous translations in both languages, transferring the poetic discourse of Rumi to French and English is a particularly complicated task, considering the specificities of Persian poetry and the mystical quality of his thought. In this study, we will first look into the principal obstacles that translators must surmount and we will work from linguistic, semiotic, stylistic, poetic, and hermeneutic perspectives. We will subsequently show how this transferring process has been carried out by French and English-speaking translators of various periods by applying the principles of Berman’s theory of translation ethics to their works. Working from a diverse bilingual corpus and using the sociolinguistic theories of translation, the present thesis intends to explain the differences in the level and nature of this reception in the two target cultural spheres.