Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Lawrence C. Scharmann / Bradley A. Shaw / Spanish instructors are not neo-phobic of instructional technology (IT), and they will affirm they are not afraid of IT just to avoid being labeled as ‘living dinosaurs.’ Most of them just do not have the know-how to explore and use IT in-depth. Regardless, they are more familiar with the diverse IT world available. In this study the main factors influencing Spanish language educators to use IT (or not) in their Second Language Acquisition (SLA) teaching methodology were discussed. Data from Spanish instructors in eight Kansas universities was analyzed to understand their perceptions and attitudes regarding the use of IT in their classrooms. Mixed methodologies were used: A quantitative survey targeting 80 instructors from the Modern Language Departments was developed. The survey had one section on demographic information and a second with 43 items dealing with perceptions related to IT. Afterwards, a case study with four in-depth interviews was conducted to elucidate richer descriptions and potentially corroborate patterns identified from the survey data. Data analysis revealed that most Spanish instructors have positive perceptions and attitudes towards IT. From the survey, nine themes emerged. Six of them formed a super-ordinate category showing that instructors consider IT useful for teaching culture in the target language, and in facilitating general knowledge. In this super-ordinate category, the six emergent themes are considered subordinate themes. The other three emergent themes formed another super-ordinate category with three subordinate themes: faculty require more time, training and technical resources to be able to integrate IT in their teaching. The four interviews explored what perceptions (or characteristics) stand out among faculty along a continuum of non-users to users with respect to the integration of IT; this allowed the researcher to confirm the instructors’ perceptions and attitudes on the nine emerging themes. Spanish instructors would integrate more modern tools in their teaching if they had more opportunities and support to be better informed; received appropriate training in their specific field; and were advised of available technology. As the findings showed, educators are no longer afraid of technology. Finally, conclusions of the findings were offered as well as recommendations for future research.

Due to the fact that adolescents are familiar with so many different media and technology resources today, learning in a conventional way is no longer effective. The aim for this literature review was to analyse what research shows about the use of film as a teaching tool in English to develop students’ linguistic and critical thinking skills in upper secondary EFL classrooms. The results disclosed that film can improve students’ linguistic skills and critical thinking. One reason for this is that film is already such a large part of students’ lives and provides a meaningful and familiar context for them and that film offers visual support. Studentsʼ felt motivated to see and experience “real-life” situations as opposed to reading the conventional textbook. Interaction between the students also proved to be vital in developing their language skills. Results also showed that it is imperative that teachers present film not only as a tool of entertainment, but one for teaching as well. This can be done by creating contextualized assignments related to the film. The literature review concluded that there are gaps in knowledge of this subject and that further research is desirable.

abstract: This thesis examines the narratives and meta-commentary of Indonesian users of English about their English as a Second Language (ESL) experiences. It approaches interview data with ten Indonesian second language (L2) speakers of English from a narrative analysis/inquiry perspective. Each interview was transcribed according to a modified set of discourse analysis (DA) transcription conventions, then coded by the researcher. The first research question addressed what linguistic devices members of this population used to achieve cohesion and coherence in their narratives, and the second research question examined how members of this population portrayed their L2 selves in their narratives. The data yielded 21 linguistic devices that fell into three levels of frequency. Connectives, discourse markers, and repetition were by far the most common linguistic devices, followed by adverbials, embedded clauses, intensifiers, and the word like (non-comparison uses), which were somewhat frequent linguistic devices. The data also showed that participants constructed their L2 selves using three main categories: agency, identity, and perceptions of English and the U.S.. In regard to identity, participants invoked membership categorization, where they portrayed their identities in relation to other individuals. The study concludes with suggestions for future research, especially relating to Indonesian L2 users of English. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis English 2015

For this study, two groups of native Icelandic speakers were compared in terms of the acoustic properties of their English pronunciation of two phonetic phenomena, plosives and pre-aspiration. In English, plosives with the same manner and place of articulation are distinguished by means of a voicing contrast, whereas in Icelandic, plosives are distinguished by means of an aspiration contrast. This study examines whether participants exhibit interlanguage features in their plosive contrasts in English, substituting unaspirated voiceless plosives for voiced counterparts. Furthermore, this study looks at pre-aspiration, a phonetic feature of Icelandic, characterized by glottal friction following a short vowel preceding a fortis plosive (VhC). Pre-aspiration is not a feature of standard English varieties such as general American (GA) or received pronunciation (RP), and as such this study examines whether participants retain pre-aspiration in their English pronunciation or not. Participants numbered 16 in total, and were all L1 speakers of Icelandic, with eight in each group, four male and four female. The groups were divided by means of age differences, with the first group consisting of participants aged 20-26, and the second group of participants aged 44-50. Participants were asked to partake in a short informal interview, to read a short written passage, and to read a word list. The interview and readings were recorded and analysed using spectrograms and waveforms, and subsequently compared with English and Icelandic reference values for voice onset time (VOT), which vary between the two languages, and pre-aspiration duration in Icelandic. The two groups were also compared to determine whether there were any lingering differences between them. The conclusions drawn are that VOT in English and Icelandic may be more similar than assumed, and that participants shorten pre-aspiration duration or neutralize pre-aspiration when speaking English. However, the English production of the features are more similar to Icelandic than English. Furthermore, the results do not indicate any differences between the two age groups in terms of English pronunciation.

Grammar is an important aspect of language learning and is thus of concern in language teaching as well. This study sets out to investigate the kinds of grammatical mistakes Swedish secondary school pupils make in their written production of English and the possible causes behind these different mistakes. Forty essays from pupils in year nine have been used to study the phenomenon of frequently occurring mistakes and their causes, and the salient mistakes have been quantatively and qualitatively accounted for in the study.      Common mistakes found in the material were subject-verb concord mistakes, mistakes involving plural nouns, incorrect article usage as well as problems using prepositions correctly. Interlingual transfer, i.e. negative transfer from the pupils’ L1, proved to be one significant factor causing mistakes in the material. However, other causes could be traced as well, such as intralingual transfer for example.      Consequently, the findings of this study point in the direction of areas which need specific attention in English L2 learning in Swedish classrooms. Thus, the study contributes with valuable insights for English teacher and teacher trainees to consider in their future practice.

Teachers work with large student groups and their job is to make their pupils’ grow and evolve in their learning every day, even though the students may not be interested in the subject at all. How can teachers manage to do this with such a variety of students? What tools can be used to motivate as many of them as possible to achieve the most favourable learning outcomes? Music is a universal language that most people enjoy and for children it is even a natural part of growing up. Music can be a pleasant and fun element in the classroom, so we want to investigate if teachers could take advantage of this and use music and songs as an effective motivator to foster second language development. In the national curriculum, Skolverket states that teachers need to build upon the pupil’s confidence in their own ability to use language in different situations and for different purposes (Skolverket, 2011). What happens with the classroom environment when music is used and what happens to the pupils? There is research pointing to the benefits of using music in second language learning however, there exists some disagreement among researchers if music could improve language development or if it is just a fun activity. Researchers also discuss on how to use music in the classroom in the most valuable way. In the current study, we explore and provide an overview for the possible advantages of using music. We also investigate the effectiveness of different musical approaches for facilitating language learning for young children in an educational context. In particular, we will discuss how songs and music can motivate young English language learners in their process and how the second language development can benefit from this.

This study aims to investigate possible factors contributing to subject-verb agreement errors in Swedish junior and senior high school students' English written production. The sample data is collected from the Swedish Learner English Corpus (SLEC), which comprises student texts produced in a classroom setting. The texts are randomly chosen but evenly distributed in terms of binary gender, school year, and type of high school program. In this study, the texts included in the scope are written by students attending a Swedish-speaking school with Swedish as their first language. Errors are classified as overgeneralization or transfer and further classified in relation to the subject type, the verb type, and the distance between the subject and the verb. The classification of all correct instances of subject-verb agreement is also performed to further investigate possible error explanations. A total of 41 agreement errors were found in 24 texts written by students in the 9th and 11th grades. The results show that overgeneralization is more frequent than transfer errors. Overgeneralization suggests that the students are aware of the third-singular form but do not always apply it correctly, while transfer errors show a potential lack of awareness or attention to the form. In both cases, the errors indicate that these students have not automatized the principle yet. Errors are often related to subject types “a pronoun” or “a noun/noun phrase" and the verb be, which is the most frequently used verb. Most of the errors occur when the subject and the verb are in immediate contact, and more than half of them involve a relative pronoun as subject, which indicates that the learners have misinterpreted the grammatical principle or have not fully acquired it. Overuse of the third-person singular form can also be an effect of teaching and explicit learning, which makes learners apply the form whenever it seems possible and relevant.

Providing written feedback is a time-consuming part of an English teacher’s work life and there are many ways in which feedback can be provided. According to the Swedish National Agency of Education (2011), teachers must provide their students with feedback. Studies have been conducted investigating feedback provision and teachers’ feedback practices, but few studies have shed light on the students’ perception of feedback, especially in Swedish, and even Nordic, contexts. This study investigated students’ perception and use of teacher feedback on written assignments in an EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom in mid-Sweden. The study investigated both student perception of feedback, with specific focus on WCF (written corrective feedback), and students’ use of the feedback. The method used for data collection was a semi-structured internet survey containing 21 questions. The participants were 30 upper secondary school students. The results of the study showed that students mostly perceived feedback as important and useful, especially when it contained concrete tips and proposals for text improvement. They regarded CF and WCF as important as they wanted to become aware of what errors they made to avoid making those in future writing. Nevertheless, they reported that too extensive feedback (unfocused CF) was not preferred. Both positive and negative feedback were considered useful for future writing and a large majority read the feedback they received every time. Feedback provided together with a grade was also read by the students, as they wanted to have information about strengths and weaknesses in the text as well as motivation for the grade. To conclude, feedback was mostly perceived as important and useful, and the students used it to improve their writing.

Proper spelling is important for efficient communication between people with different first languages in the 21st century. While Swedish functions as an intranational language within Sweden, it sees little to no use outside of Scandinavia. English fills the role as a second language that all Swedish students must learn, yet more focus appears to be given to grammar rather than spelling. Spelling is important and knowing the kinds of spelling errors Swedish learners of English tend to make can help educators improve the spelling proficiency of their students. The aim of this study is to investigate the spelling errors made by senior high school students in Sweden by analyzing a collection of essays written by students and gathered in the Uppsala Learner English Corpus (ULEC). The results of this study show that spelling proficiency nearly doubled for students in their third year in senior high school compared to their first year, yet the distribution of spelling errors remained the same. Additionally, some particular sounds that appear to be especially problematic for Swedish spellers were identified, such as /ə/, /l/, /s/ and /k/. / Korrekt stavning är viktig för effektiv kommunikation mellan människor med olika modersmål i tjugohundratalet. Medans svenska fungerar som ett språk mellan människor inom Sverige, ser det lite till ingen nytta utanför Skandinavien. Engelska fyller rollen som andraspråk som alla svenska elever måste lära sig, ändå sätts mer fokus på grammatik över stavning. Stavning är viktig och att veta vilka typer av stavfel som svenska elever brukar göra på engelska kan hjälpa lärare förbättra elevernas stavningskunskaper. Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka svenska gymnasielevers felstavningar i Engelska genom att analysera en samlig essäer skrivna av studenter och samlade i Uppsala Learner English Corpus (ULEC). Resultaten från den här studien visar att stavningskunskaperna hos eleverna hade nästan fördubblats när de gick det tredje år på gymnasiet jämfört med när de gick det första, men att fördelningen av stavfel förblev densamma. Dessutom har vissa ljud identifierats som verkar vara särskilt problematiska för svenska elever att stava, såsom /ə/, /l/, /s/ and /k/.

Apesar de o Brasil ser o país com a maior comunidade japonesa fora do Japão, ainda há poucos estudos sobre a aquisição e aprendizagem do português por falantes japoneses. Partindo da descrição do sistema silábico da língua portuguesa (CÂMARA JR., 1970; FERREIRA NETTO, 2001; CRISTÓFARO SILVA, 2009; CAGLIARI, 2007; CAVALIERE, 2005) e da língua japonesa (SHIBATANI, 1987; ITÔ, 1986; McCAWLEY, 1968; HINDS, 1986), pretende-se observar por meio da Análise de Erros (CORDER, 1967) quais as estratégias utilizadas por falantes japoneses em processo de aprendizagem da língua portuguesa para pronunciar duas estruturas silábicas que não existem em sua língua materna: sílabas CVC terminadas em /r/ ou /s/, e sílabas com mais de uma consoante pré-vocálica do tipo CCV, com /r/ ou /l/ ocupando a segunda posição de ataque. A partir dessa observação, busca-se determinar quais dessas estruturas representam maior dificuldade para o aprendiz japonês. Para a composição do corpus, foram criados dezenove nomes fictícios com as estruturas silábicas em questão e sete informantes foram gravados. Ainda que não tenha sido uma pesquisa quantitativa, por meio da comparação dos resultados foi possível verificar a maior facilidade de produzir sílabas CVC em relação às CCV e, para a maioria, o número de acertos foi maior com a consoante /s/ em posição de coda e /r/ na segunda posição de ataque complexo. Quanto à estratégia utilizada, o uso de inserção vocálica foi maior que o de apagamento, exceto quando /r/ ocupa a posição de coda. A pesquisa mostrou que a dificuldade maior ou menor do aprendiz pode ser entendida a partir de processos fonológicos que acontecem na L1, no caso a língua japonesa. / Although Brazil is the country with the largest Japanese community outside Japan, there are few studies about Portuguese acquisition and learning by Japanese speakers. Based on the description of the syllabic system of the Portuguese language (CÂMARA JR., 1970; FERREIRA NETTO, 2001; CRISTÓFARO SILVA, 2009; CAGLIARI, 2007; CAVALIERE, 2005) and of the Japanese language (SHIBATANI, 1987; ITÔ, 1986; McCAWLEY, 1968; HINDS, 1986), we intend to observe through Error Analysis (CORDER, 1967) the strategies used by Japanese learners of Portuguese to pronounce two syllable structures that do not exist in their native language: CVC syllables closed by /r/ or /s/ and CCV syllables with /r/ or /l/ in the second onset position. From this observation, we seek to determine which of these structures represents more difficulty for Japanese learners. To compose the corpus, nineteen fictitious names with the syllabic structure in question were created and seven informants were recorded. Although it has not been a quantitative research, by comparing the results we could verify that it was easier to produce CVC syllables than CCV ones. In addition, for most of the informants, the number of correct production was higher with the consonant /s/ in coda position and /r/ in the second onset position. For the strategy used, the use of vowel insertion was higher than deletion, except when /r/ occupies the coda position. Research has shown that the greater or lesser difficulty of the learner can be understood from phonological processes that occur in L1, in this case the Japanese language.