L’objectif général de la thèse est d’examiner le rôle de l’utilisation du langage dans la perpétuation des biais intergroupes. Plus spécifiquement, il s’agit d’étudier les conséquences du Biais Linguistique Intergroupe (Linguistic Intergroup Bias, LIB,Maass, Salvi, Arcuri, & Semin, 1989). Le LIB est une manifestation subtile du biais de favoritisme endogroupe au niveau langagier. Ce biais se traduit par l’utilisation préférentielle de termes abstraits, i.e. des adjectifs, pour décrire les comportements positifs des membres de l’endogroupe et négatifs des membres de l’exogroupe, et à l’inverse par l’utilisation de termes concrets, i.e. des verbes d’action, pour décrire les comportements négatifs des membres de l’endogroupe et positifs des membres de l’exogroupe. Il est généralement admis que le LIB participe au maintien et à latransmission des croyances sur les groupes (Wigboldus & Douglas, 2007), cependant les processus sous-jacents restent relativement peu étudiés. Cette thèse propose une approche normative des conséquences du LIB, en examinant l’évaluation de l’usage de l’abstraction linguistique en contexte intergroupe. Le programme de recherche se décline en huit études. Trois études portent sur les liens entre usage de l’abstraction linguistique et évaluation des biais du locuteurà l’égard du groupe décrit. Quatre études examinent ensuite les liens entre utilisation de l’abstraction et évaluation de la valeur du locuteur en tant que membre de son groupe. Enfin, la dernière étude porte sur les conséquences des réactions sociales envers l’utilisation du LIB sur la perception des normes et sur l’expression explicite des biais intergroupes. Globalement, les résultats soutiennent l’idée que l’usage de l’abstraction linguistique en contexte intergroupe, et donc leLIB, peut faire l’objet de régulations normatives. Les implications pour le rôle du LIB dans la perpétuation des biais intergroupes sont discutées / The general aim of this thesis is to examine the role of language use into the perpetuation of intergroup bias. More precisely,we investigate the consequences of the Linguistict Intergroup Bias (LIB, Maass, Salvi, Arcuri, & Semin, 1989). The LIB is a subtle expression of ingroup bias at a linguistic level. The LIB refers to the tendency to use preferentially abstracts terms, i.e. adjectives, to describe positive ingroup and negative outgroup behaviors, and in contrast to use concrete terms, i.e. action verbs, to describe negative ingroup and positive outgroup behaviors. The LIB is widely accepted as playing a role in the transmission and the maintenance of beliefs about groups (Wigboldus & Douglas, 2007), however little is known about the underlying processes. This thesis develops a normative approach of the consequences of the LIB, by examining theevaluation of the use of linguistic abstraction in intergroup context. The research program is divided in eight studies. Three studies focuses on the relationships between the use of linguistic abstraction and the evaluation of the speaker’s bias toward the group being described. Four studies examine the relationships between the use of linguistic abstraction and the evaluation of the speaker’s value as a group member. Finally, the last study focuses on the consequences of social reactions toward the use of the LIB on the perception of norms and on the explicit expression of intergroup bias. In general, our results indicate that the use of linguistic abstraction, and therefore the LIB, may be subject to normative regulations. The implications for the role of the LIB into the perpetuation of intergroup bias are discussed

This exploratory, mixed-design study investigates whether intelligibility is "enough," that is, a suitable goal and an adequate assessment criterion, for evaluating proficiency in the pronunciation of non-native English speaking graduate students in the academic domain. The study also seeks to identify those pronunciation features which are most crucial for intelligible speech. / Speech samples of 19 non-native English speaking graduate students in the Faculty of Education at McGill University were elicited using the Test of Spoken English (TSE), a standardized test of spoken proficiency which is often used by institutions of higher learning to screen international teaching assistants (ITAs). Results of a fined-grained phonological analysis of the speech samples coupled with intelligibility ratings of 18 undergraduate science students suggest that intelligibility, though an adequate assessment criterion, is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for graduate students to instruct undergraduate courses as teaching assistants, and that there is a threshold level (i.e., minimum acceptable level) of intelligibility that needs to be identified more precisely. While insights about the features of pronunciation that are most critical for intelligibility are inconclusive, it is clear that intelligibility can be compromised for different reasons and is often the result of a combination of "problem areas" that interact together. / The study has some important implications for ITA training and assessment, for the design of graduate student pronunciation courses, and for future intelligibility research. It also presents a first step in validating theoretical intelligibility models which lack empirical backing (e.g., Morley, 1994).

An abstract of the thesis of José Luis Perea-Hernández for the Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages presented February 11, 2010. Title: Teacher Evaluation of Item Formats for an English Language Proficiency Assessment. Language testing plays a significant role in the collection of systematic information about English Language Learners' ability and progress in K-12 public schools in Oregon. Therefore, the following thesis reports on a process of the development of this assessment as I was at some point one of the members in the test development team and then drew upon teachers' opinions and judgments to compensate for a gap in this process. For instance, despite the fact that Oregon item-writers produced test items in summer 2004, they identified some deficiencies as they followed the process. Therefore, the need of more examples of item formats in order to develop better items, a proper identification of materials for reading and listening and mainly the lack of detailed item test specifications was imminent. Unfortunately, item writers did not posses a guiding document that would allow them to generate items. The item writing process was not `spec-driven'. Hence, these drawbacks in this test (larger project), provide the basis and rationale for this thesis. Thus, the aim of the present study was to identify what item formats worked best based on professional teacher judgment. Then, once identified these were used to detect what items could potentially be reverse-engineered into specifications for future studies or developmental stages of this assessment. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to analyze through professional teacher-judgment the suitability of item formats, test items and the construct in a way that would be helpful for future item-writing sessions, but most importantly to the better understanding of teachers devising items for this test. Teachers determined what items and item formats were more suitable in a testing situation for the diverse English language learners according to their relationship to the construct of the test, practicality, cognitive level, appropriateness, and similar tasks as used in classroom instruction. Finally, the outcomes based on teacher feedback allowed the required data to establish a process to reverse-engineer test items and item formats into item test specifications. Thus, based on this feedback a more systematic process was illustrated to demonstrate how item formats can be the basis to reverse-engineer item test specifications.

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This study centered on the expectations of a non-native English-speaking undergraduate student and her teacher in a general education course at Portland State University during winter term 2012. This was a qualitative case study, where I collected data throughout the duration of the course by means of interviews, classroom observations, and written assignment sheet data. I triangulated verbal data from interview transcripts from the two participants, along with data from the observation notes and the assignment sheets in order to gain a better understanding of the expectations each participant had about writing assignments. Data from four sources were collected and analyzed: interview transcripts, assignment sheets, the course syllabus, and classroom observation notes. Interview transcripts were the primary source of data, and were triangulated with the other abovementioned data sources. The themes that emerged from verbal interview data were categorized and then subcategorized according to theme. The first category that emerged was Assignment Expectations. This was subcategorized into: Summarize, Examples, Reflect, Critical Thinking, and Theory Application. The second category was Evaluation, which was comprised of the themes Grading and Rubric. The third category that emerged was Student Interaction With Assignment, in which six subcategories emerged: Process, Experience, Time, Reading, Preparation, Understanding, and ESL. Lastly, the category background emerged, which contained the subcategories History and Background. The findings of this study showed that due to the student's extensive background with various academic writing assignments prior to entering the course, she had similar expectations of specific assignment sheet attributes as the teacher. However, there were more salient differences in expectations between the teacher and the student in terms of how the student interacted with the assignment at the individual level. Likewise, expectations of assessment illustrated the murky nature of evaluation, even in a situation where the student had had extensive experience with academic writing assessment in the past.

Liu, Li. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-236). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese; appendixes includes Chinese.

The English textbooks evaluated are used to prepare students for the competitive high school entrance examinations in Taiwan, thus students spend a great deal of time studying them. Though the textbooks were stated to be designed for language and cultural learning purposes, it seems no study exists that examines to what degree there is clear articulation between the government's stated culture learning goal and actual textbook content. Therefore, this study examines to what degree the textbooks allow students to reach said goal, that is, "to increase culture awareness of the societies and cultures of foreign countries and our own" (Junior High English Language Curriculum 1985, p.l). This study intends to answer five major questions: (1) what is the scope of the cultures presented?; (2) what sub-cultures represent Chinese and foreign cultures?; (3) what is the nature of inter and intracultural interactions between characters?; ( 4) what level( s) of culture do the textbooks deal with?; (5) how is the socio-cultural information presented? Hernandez's dissertation (1986) was followed in developing this study: the coding system was developed to correspond to the five questions above, and content analysis was the study method used. Data was gathered from two textbooks. Research revealed that the textbooks did not reflect the stated cultural study goal. The textbooks provided a narrow spectrum of socio-cultural elements, presenting the American culture as the only representative of foreign cultures. Both American and Chinese socio-cultural elements were portrayed on the surface level. Little interaction existed between Chinese and American cultures, with relationships confined to primarily acquaintances, and the issues discussed limited to daily life and trivial issues. The readings emphasized surface level culture with few attempts at linking more overt behavioral and cultural features. Most of the readings discussed information from a historical view, and the post-reading questions presented in the textbooks focused on a factual nature.

Listening comprehension strategies have been explored almost exclusively in uni-directional listening when learners are listening to audio recording. The lack of research on students' strategy use in understanding the teacher in the classroom is surprising, given how pervasive it is for students to listen to the teacher. In order to fill this research gap, this study explored the listening strategies adopted by learners in comprehending the teacher's input in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom in Hong Kong (HK). A Likert-scale questionnaire was developed and administered to 867 HK Secondary 3 students, 646 of whom also completed two tests of linguistic knowledge (LK) - a receptive Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) and a grammaticality judgement task (GJT). A sub-sample of 59 students then took part in an innovative computer tracking programme which simulated classroom learning and incorporated different types of teacher input while eliciting learners' strategy use targeted at these inputs. Lesson observation and stimulated recall interviews were also conducted to give insight into learners' strategy use in an authentic lesson from a more qualitative point of view. Findings suggested that there were some strategies which were specific to the context of listening to the teacher in the ESL classroom. Furthermore, while learners with low and high LK demonstrated some differences in their strategy use, there existed a sub-group of learners with low LK who were at least comparably strategic with learners with higher LK, providing some evidence that strategy use is not wholly dependent on levels of LK. Finally, findings also pointed to the importance of the type and difficulty of teacher input on learners' strategy use. Implications for further research and pedagogy are discussed.

M.A. / The language and learning problems experienced by the majority of African pupils at Secondary level are constantly in the public eye. The cause of many of these problems lies in the primary schOol system, where English is introduced as the language of learning from Grade 5 onwards. At this stage pupils are expected to learn a large volume of vocabulary to cope with all the subjects in English. This paper offers a framework for analysing language teaching issues and problems. It explores the relationship between education and the language of learning, language ability and cognitive skills, teaching styles, classroom materials and the learning process. Arising out of these investigations are a set of guidelines as to the major factors that affect the readability and comprehensibility of textbooks. The paper ends with a set of guiding principles for a language policy aimed at providing maximum learning opportunities for all children. The ultimate hope is that the suggested approach would in the long help in overcoming some of the century old frustrations and failures and contribute to the improvement and greater effectiveness of language teaching that we all strive to achieve.

Program evaluation (PE) is important for ESL programs but also difficult. As the scope of PE has grown, student voices have increasingly been included. Alumni provide unique perspectives, but Portland State University's (PSU) Intensive English Language Program (IELP) currently has no exit survey. Furthermore, little research uses alumni data, so this constructivist, mixed-methods study used data triangulation to compare the perceptions of former IELP students with those of three other stakeholder groups -- the topic: IELP student preparedness for PSU. Both online surveys and interviews were conducted, and participants included 63 former and 33 current IELP students, 27 IELP faculty members, and 29 PSU faculty members. Overall, respondents often praised the program with regard to how it prepares international students for mainstream classes. However, many also expressed that students were less ready for reading, in comparison to other language skills. Additionally, there was agreement regarding emotional challenges, limited faculty supportiveness, vocabulary, and speaking to and in front of native speakers, among other topics. While there are implications for the IELP, perhaps more importantly, there are implications for PSU.