This project is divided into two parts. It is argued in Part I that the teaching of mythology to students in English programs at the secondary level provides a foundation for their study of literature. The mythology of the ancient Greeks, the legends and myths of Europe, and native North American folklore are a rich source for students, both in the characters, plots and themes they present, and also for the structures that have becom1e archetypes upon which much literature is based. In order to show that the mandate set out by the Ministry of Education for this development of curriculum is satisfied by this project, an examination of the relevant literature is presented. A critical analysis of the curriculum theories of Joseph Schwab is presented in some detail. The suitability of his theory of deliberation as the basis of the development of this curriculum project is explained. The implementation of these units in one particular school is recounted. The concluding chapter of Part I describes the data collection that has been used in evaluating and revising of these units. Part II contains one unit of mythology for the advanced level English program in each of grades 9, 10, 11 and 12. These units reflect and contain the ideas developed and expanded upon in Part I. Each unit is the first one taught at that grade level and informs the way in which the students read the other literature on the course. These units identify objectives, strategies and suggested evaluation procedures. Each of the units also includes a resource list, and a bibliography. In addition, each unit represents a balanced selection of literature, language and media, in keeping with the guidelines established by the Ministry of Education. Part II also presents specific lesson plans and activity sheets for individual lessons. The instruction strategies suggest a variety of pedagogical activities for individuals, pairs, small groups and whole class instruction. An independent study component is provided with each unit. / Thesis / Master of Arts in the Teaching of English (MATE)

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987. / Also available in print.

In measuring second language learners’ writing proficiency, test takers’ performance on a particular assessment task is evaluated by raters using a set of criteria to generate writing scores. The scores are used by teachers, students, and parents to make inferences about their performance levels in real-life writing situations. To examine the accuracy of this inference, it is imperative that we investigate the sources of measurement error involved in the writing score. It is also important to ensure rater consistency, both within a single rater and between raters, to provide evidence that the scores are valid indicators of tested constructs. This mixed methods research addressed the validity of integrated listening-to-write (L-W) scores. More specifically, it examined the generalizability of L-W scores and raters’ decision-making processes and scoring challenges. A total of 198 high school English learners in Taiwan completed up to two L-W tasks, each of which required them to listen to an academic lecture and respond to a related writing prompt in English. Nine raters who had experience teaching English evaluated each student’s written materials using a holistic scale. This study employed a univariate two-facet random effects generalizability study (p × t × r) to investigate the effects of tasks and raters on the score variance. Subsequent decision studies (p × T × R) estimated standard error of measurement and generalizability coefficients. Post-rating stimulated recall interview data were analyzed qualitatively to explore raters’ alignment of rating scale descriptors, decision-making behaviors, and scoring challenges. The results indicated that the majority of score variance was explained by test takers’ ability difference in academic writing proficiency. The raters were similar in their stringency and did not contribute much to score variance. Due to a relatively large magnitude of person-by-task interaction effect, increasing the number of tasks, rather than raters, resulted in a much lower degree of error and higher degree of score generalizability. The ideal assessment procedure to achieve an acceptable level of score generalizability would be to administer two L-W tasks scored by two raters. When evaluating written materials for L-W tasks, nine raters primarily focused on the content of the essays and paid less attention to language-related features. The raters did not equally consider all aspects of essay features described in the holistic rubric. The most prominent scoring challenges included 1) assigning a holistic score while balancing students’ listening comprehension skills and writing proficiency and 2) assessing the degree of students’ successful reproduction of lecture content. The findings of this study have practical and theoretical implications for integrated writing assessments for high school EFL learners.

This diploma thesis is focused on acquiring communicative competence in teaching the English language as a foreign language. It is based on the presumption that students are not aware of some components of communication which partake in understanding when communicating in a foreign language (context of situation, nonverbal communication, paralinguistic features). This assumption is being verified via questionnaires. The theoretical basis describes the grounding and benefits of drama techniques used in teaching a foreign language and The Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) method. Both these approaches are used for preparation of three experimental lesson plans which are put into practice. Video recordings are made which, along with information from students and their teacher, serve as a detailed analysis of the whole experiment.

Previous research shows that English teachers in Sweden struggle with the assessment of oral proficiency. The reasons for this are several but most of them have occurred in the gap between the intended and perceived curriculum. English teachers interpret the knowledge requirements within oral proficiency differently because of their pedagogical background and experience. This study investigates teachers’ interpretations of the intended presentation of interaction and fluency in the oral proficiency knowledge requirements. The study also investigates what methods and procedures the teachers use when assessing the two abilities and what views the teachers have on the syllabus and assessment support. Semi-structured interviews were organized with four different English teachers with extensive experience in teaching and assessing English in Sweden. The data from the interviews were analyzed through the use of qualitative content analysis in order to find potential links between results and earlier conducted research. The results suggest that the English teachers interpreted, valued, and assessed interaction and fluency differently in relation to the knowledge requirements. The teachers also promoted the knowledge requirements from the Oral National Test since these simplified the interpretation of aspects such as interaction and fluency. The teachers did not present the syllabus as poor or complex, but their exclusive use of Oral National Test knowledge requirements and assessment material suggested something else. Along with this result, all teachers criticized the assessment support that comes with the knowledge requirements in the syllabus. The assessment support was thus something several of the teachers mentioned as key along with the implementation of co-assessment for future reliability within oral proficiency assessment.