Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-147). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliography.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Life in the twenty-first Century globalised world brings people into contact with others from different cultures who use different languages. Through these contacts, the need for interactions makes these people to find different ways of understanding one another and to generate knowledge. For them to achieve this objective, they need a strong medium. L2 and Foreign language education has been develop to unravel such challenges posed to competence in intercultural communication, with the emphasis placed on how to communicate with a different "other" since the world is now a small village. Foreign and second language teaching and learning (a social practice) in this study, is tangible to eradicate linguistic and cultural barriers. In this case, it does not only require to promote competence through linguistic capital (language), but more importantly, it arouses intercultural awareness. For these issues to develop and consolidate intercultural communication competence, language practitioners need to deviate from the rationalist reductionistic approaches to language teaching and learning in favour of an ecological or a constructivist perspective, which views language learning as a social practice. In view of this, whatever language the participants may use for communication does not matter, what really matters is that they need to switch to any given language as a situation may demand. In upholding a constructivist perspective, this research hypothesized that engagement and participation as a social practice, does not only increase competence in the target language, but it also helps the participants to develop in terms of emotional maturity and character (Bilton and Sivasubramaniam 2009). This research made use of the qualitative research methodology, revolving around an ethnographic design, to understand the outcomes and the fluidity of interactions among a diverse community of the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. Such an understanding can therefore only be deduced from the perspectives of the role-players through their engagements and participation in activities and events in and out of the classrooms. The research population constituted lecturers, tutors and students of the above institution. The four principal tools used for data collection included: the Interviews, Questionnaires, Naturally Occurring data and Participant Observation. The interviews were both formal and informal and together with the Questionnaires, they were all open-ended. Their open-ended nature was not only because of the interaction it provided between the researcher and the researched but also because they aroused an awareness of diversity and a need to understand otherness. The findings from the study affirmed that the participants gained competence in intercultural communication through the different levels of interactions that were used to enhance participation, engagement and involvement. In view of this, the participants benefited from provisional understanding, tentative interpretations and the affective environment. Furthermore, it could be said that interactions provided them the rationale to challenge, develop and explore ideas and meanings for communication. Holistically, the study attested to the importance and centrality of participation and engagement in a target language, with the main aim of motivating the participants to understand that there is no such thing as correctness in meaning or proficiency in a language, nor in understanding the world around them.

abstract: The study develops a better understanding of what is valued in L2 academic writing in IEP and FYC programs through a comparative case study approach, identifying the assumptions and underlying values of program directors and instructors in both types of instructional settings. The goal of the study is to understand more about second language writing pedagogy for international students in these programs, as well as to provide university administrators with a better understanding of how to improve writing instruction for multilingual students, who have become a key part of the U.S. higher education mission. Data include program-level mission statements, course descriptions and objectives, curricular materials, as well as interviews with teachers and program directors. Major findings show that there is a tension between language-focused vs. rhetoric-focused approaches to second language writing instruction in the two contexts. IEP instruction sought to build on students' language proficiency, and writing instruction was rooted in a conception of writing as language organized by structural principles, while the FYC program emphasized writing as a tool for communication and personal growth. Based on these findings, I provide recommendations for improving graduate education for all writing teachers, developing more comprehensive needs analysis procedures, and establishing administrative structures to support international multilingual students. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2014

With globalization and the growth of the World Wide Web, it is increasingly important for non-Anglophone students to acquire a functional level of English before graduating from secondary school. However, Francophone students in the province of Quebec who are learning English as a second language (ESL) face particular challenges that hinder their development of English proficiency, not the least of which is motivation. This quasi-experimental case study explores the effects of an eTandem project with Anglophone peers on the motivation of Francophone ESL learners in secondary school. The results indicate that Francophone students who completed the eTandem project showed greater motivational intensity, greater desire to learn the target language, and less anxiety. It also appears that technical problems, scheduling issues and anxiety contributed to the majority of Francophone students discontinuing the project. Recommendations are made to integrate eTandem projects into Quebec’s ESL curriculum and to address the anxiety issues of students in class.

<p>Although L2W practice has been present in China for a long time, limited existing research has investigated its origin and development. My study aims at reviewing and synthesizing L2W articles published in major linguistic/foreign language journals in the People’s Republic of China in the past seven decades (1949-2018). By collecting and analyzing the 1,340 articles, I identified four developmental periods in China’s L2W history, nine major topics covered in the scholarship. Features in research methods and article contexts are also discussed. I conclude that L2W in China emerged from the pedagogical practices and that its development has been heavily influenced by the country’s social and political movements. After seventy years of development, L2W in China has become a promising field of study with an increased number of journals articles, investigating diverse topics related to L2W, with various research methods, in rich contexts.</p>

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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