This study was an exploration of the effects of a pedagogical intervention on the development of Japanese university students’ oral performances. In task-based language teaching (TBLT), developing speaking proficiency is a major learning goal. However, research examining the effect of a focus on linguistic form in TBLT is limited. One way to balance communication and attention to linguistic form in TBLT is to add form-focused instruction to the communicative tasks. This study is an exploration of the longitudinal effects of form-focused instruction in a speaking task on the development of speaking proficiency. The current study was conducted for the following research purposes. The first purpose was to explore the longitudinal development of CALF (complexity, accuracy, lexis, and fluency) through form-focused intervention. A one-semester form-focused intervention was conducted to investigate how L2 learners develop or change their linguistic performance as measured by the CALF variables. The second purpose was to explore proceduralization through the 3/2/1 task. The third purpose was to investigate the relationship between communicative adequacy and CALF in the 3/2/1 task. This purpose was addressed by comparing human raters’ perceptions of communicative adequacy with the CALF analyses. The final purpose was to qualitatively investigate what the participants prioritized during their task performances. The participants were 48 first-year Japanese university students attending a private university in eastern Japan. A shortened version of the 4/3/2 task, the 3/2/1 task, was implemented 10 times for 13 weeks in one academic semester. In the 3/2/1 task, students talk about the same topic for 3 minutes, then 2 minutes, and finally 1 minute. The participants were divided into three groups: the comparison group, the teacher-led group, and the teacher and peer group. Two types of form-focused instruction were implemented, teacher-led planning and a peer-check activity. The participants in the comparison group started the 3/2/1 speaking task immediately, those in the teacher-led group read a teacher-model passage with the target formulaic language underlined prior to beginning the 3/2/1 task, and those in the teacher and peer group received a peer-check treatment while doing the 3/2/1 task in addition to teacher-led planning. Listener partners checked to see if the speakers used the target formulaic language during the 3/2/1 task. The target forms were (a) stating opinions (e.g., In my opinion), (b) giving reasons (e.g., It is mainly because…), (c) giving examples (For example…), and (d) expressing possibilities (If…). Speaking data were collected at Time 1 (Week 2), Time 2 (Week 8), and Time 3 (Week 14), transcribed, and analyzed for syntactic complexity, morphosyntactic accuracy, lexical diversity, fluency and communicative adequacy. This result showed that form-focused instruction with the target formulaic language improved the Japanese university students’ speaking fluency such as mean length of run and phonation time ratio. The participants also improved human raters’ perceptions of communicative adequacy over one academic semester. There was a significant and strong positive relationship between utterance fluency and human raters’ evaluation of communicative adequacy. In addition, the peer-check enhanced the learners’ usage of a wider variety of the target formulaic language. The results indicated that including formulaic language instruction can enhance learners’ mean length of run, which is a measure of speaking fluency, while teacher-led planning can help learners notice target forms. The peer-check can pressure learners to use the target forms during the 3/2/1 task and provide feedback so that speakers know what form should be used in the next 3/2/1 task performance. Suggestions for future studies regarding the use of formulaic language in TBLT tasks are proposed. / Teaching & Learning

The study sought to examine first year students‟ conceptions of writing and the extent to which these conceptions influence their academic writing; explore tutors‟ expectations and understandings of student writing and how they respond to it; and suggest guidelines that can inform effective teaching and learning of writing in ESL contexts. The study is underpinned by the academic literacies model. The study adopted a qualitative research methodology and used a case study approach as research design. Participants included ESL first year students and their tutors. Questionnaires, focus group interviews and marked student writing samples were employed as data collection instruments. Though students claimed that they subscribed to the ideologies of the academic literacies model, and that the first year level course improved their academic writing, the findings show that, on the contrary, students were underprepared for engaging in the academic writing activities required at university level. Moreover, the findings showed that although students categorised their writing skills as average, tutors had a different perspective. The findings reveal that tutors found that students still struggle with aspects of writing including, for instance, grammar, spelling, the structuring of essays, coherence and cohesion in paragraphs as well as arguing a point convincingly. However, although the findings show that students valued feedback highly, in some instances tutors did not provide adequate, understandable and useful feedback. / English Studies

<p> This qualitative case study explored the teacher&rsquo;s experiences, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of teaching content-based classes in tandem with English. This study included K-12 Arabic speaking, English Language Learners (ELLs) among the English-only context at 5 international private schools in Saudi Arabia. Second language acquisition (SLA) was examined through the lens of an English-only context that has long been debated as the preferred learning environment for ELLs. This study was concerned with understanding how teachers form their pedagogical attitudes, beliefs and perceptions towards the use of a student&rsquo;s first language (L1) to facilitate the learning of a student&rsquo;s second language (L2) within a monolingual teaching environment for content area instruction in K-12 classes. The study&rsquo;s findings revealed the views of 17 teachers&rsquo; perceptions and how their attitudes and beliefs have influenced SLA. Additionally to filing the gap in the literature, this case study found that teachers preferred to use English-only in their classrooms, however; there was a need for the teacher to use Arabic translation when teaching ELLs. The student&rsquo;s L1 was needed to facilitate the student&rsquo;s L2 learning. The study recognized that teachers supported the efficacy of English L2 acquisition strategies and there were variant amounts of L1 used by the teacher and between the learners to facilitate the learning of L2. The study showed the teacher&rsquo;s L2 effectiveness across the curriculum and what had minimal and maximum impact on their students when learning L2. Teachers were sensitive to their student&rsquo;s sociocultural needs and used cooperative learning to facilitate L1 translation. This case study included 17 teacher interviews, classroom observations and documents as the data collection method. Recommendations for further research include a similar study to be conducted among the pre-school and pre-kindergarten populations.</p>

This project examines narratives of transplanted identity-building and memory in European languages by second-generation non-European writers who choose to write their stories in European languages. The dissertation focuses on three books: La colline aux oliviers by Mehdi Lallaoui, a “Beur” (French Algerian) writer, White Teeth by British Caribbean Zadie Smith and Lipstick Jihad by Do-rageh/Iranian American Azadeh Moaveni. I argue that these three narratives use the language and memory sites of the host countries. They claim these as their own in order to recuperate events removed from historical memory by the violence of colonialism and the disruptive tide of exile and immigration. Because these children of immigrants are born and raised in the host country, they occupy a privileged position of being in-between that enables them to undertake reconciliatory mediation and assert the relevance of the colonized and imperialized experience for all its inheritors, both former colonizers and former colonized. Multiple choices eclipse the sense of dead end and rejection that characterizes literature of exile and colonization. To discuss these choices, I use Edward W. Said's concepts of filiation and affiliation. Filiation implicates the culture inherited from the parents of second-generation characters whereas affiliation points to the place of birth and upbringing. Filiation and affiliation can be seen as contradictory and antagonistic, however I choose to use these terms as complementary and reconciliatory. If previous scholars consider second-generation immigrant narratives to reproduce the sense of displacement and bitterness experienced by their parents, I propose to examine how concepts such as Maurice Halbwachs'collective memory nevertheless occupy a positive strength in the second-generation immigrant narratives where memory and reconciliation are reclaimed. / text

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