published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

Each year a group of university students from English speaking countries go to Chile and work as volunteers under the National Volunteer Centre Program. The purpose of this case study is to examine how a group of novice volunteer teachers describe their experiences in a foreign country and how these experiences shape their understanding of teaching. Participants went through the process of open-ended questionnaires and one-on-one interviews of their experience. This study was sustained in the literature by the domains of volunteerism, English Language Teaching, and volunteerism and ELT, and a socio constructivist and experiential lens was adopted. Even though volunteer teaching abroad is an increasing worldwide trend, there are few studies that combine these areas, showing that the existing blend of volunteerism and English language teaching needs to be further examined. The analysis of the data showed that novice volunteer teachers experience five types of experiences when teaching English: language teaching experiences, language learning experiences, challenges, general experiences, and volunteering experiences. Novice teachers recalled their expectations before teaching and those were maintained, modified, or unfulfilled. Volunteers stated what teaching means to them after working in public schools, they were able to describe diverse language teaching experiences, and make recommendations to future volunteers.

Wong Shee-hei. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 173-181). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / List of Abbreviations --- p.iii / List of Tables and Figures --- p.v / Abstract / -English --- p.vii / -Chinese --- p.iv / Chapter Chapter One: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1. --- An Overview --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Reasons for the Study --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2. --- Previous Research --- p.7 / Chapter 1.2.1. --- Studies on the Acquisition of Chinese as Second Language --- p.8 / Chapter 1.2.2. --- Studies on the Acquisition of English Passives by ESL learners --- p.12 / Chapter 1.2.3. --- Studies on the English L2 Overpassivization Errors ´ؤ Passivization of Unaccusative Verbs by ESL --- p.14 / Chapter 1.3. --- Theories of Interlanguage --- p.19 / Chapter 1.3.1. --- Prior Linguistic Knowledge and Language Transfer --- p.19 / Chapter 1.3.2. --- Language Universals and Universal Grammar --- p.22 / Chapter 1.4. --- Research Question of the Present Study --- p.24 / Chapter 1.5. --- Preview of Other Chapters --- p.24 / Notes to Chapter One --- p.25 / Chapter Chapter Two: --- Passive Constructions and Related Structures in Chinese and English --- p.27 / Chapter 2.0. --- Introduction --- p.27 / Chapter 2.1. --- Chinese Passives --- p.29 / Chapter 2.1.1. --- Chinese Bei-passives --- p.32 / Chapter 2.1.1.1. --- Some Characteristics of Chinese Bei-passives --- p.35 / Chapter 2.2. --- English Passives --- p.41 / Chapter 2.2.1. --- English Be-passives --- p.42 / Chapter 2.2.2. --- Get/Have-passives in English --- p.44 / Chapter 2.3. --- Structures related to Passives --- p.46 / Chapter 2.3.1. --- Topic Structures --- p.46 / Chapter 2.3.1.1. --- Topic-comment Structure in Chinese --- p.47 / Chapter 2.3.1.2. --- Topic Structure in English --- p.50 / Chapter 2.3.2. --- Unaccusative Verbs --- p.50 / Chapter 2.3.2.1. --- Chinese Unaccusative Construction --- p.53 / Chapter 2.3.2.2. --- English Unaccusative Construction --- p.56 / Chapter 2.3.2.3 --- Japanese Unaccusative Construction --- p.58 / Chapter 2.4. --- Conclusion and Interlanguage Problems Predicted --- p.60 / Notes to Chapter Two --- p.62 / Chapter Chapter Three: --- Methodology --- p.64 / Chapter 3.1. --- Aims of the Experiment --- p.64 / Chapter 3.2. --- Research Hypotheses --- p.65 / Chapter 3.3. --- Subjects in the Experiment --- p.68 / Chapter 3.4. --- Types of the Test Structures --- p.70 / Chapter 3.5. --- Experiment Materials --- p.75 / Chapter 3.5.1. --- The Picture Description (PD) Task --- p.75 / Chapter 3.5.2. --- The Grammaticality Judgment (GJ) Task --- p.77 / Chapter 3.6. --- Experimental Procedure and Test Scoring --- p.83 / Notes to Chapter Three --- p.84 / Chapter Chapter Four: --- Results of the Experiment --- p.85 / Chapter 4.1. --- Overall Results --- p.85 / Chapter 4.1.1. --- The Picture Description (PD) Task --- p.86 / Chapter 4.1.2. --- The Grammaticality Judgment (GJ) Task --- p.101 / Chapter 4.2. --- English-speaking Learners verse Controls --- p.119 / Chapter 4.3. --- Japanese-speaking Learners verse Controls --- p.125 / Chapter 4.4. --- Possible Shortcomings of the Experiment --- p.126 / Chapter 4.4. --- Conclusion --- p.127 / Notes to Chapter Four --- p.128 / Chapter Chapter Five: --- Discussion and Conclusions --- p.129 / Chapter 5.1. --- The Research Questions and Hypotheses --- p.129 / Chapter 5.2. --- A Summary of the Findings in the PD Task --- p.131 / Chapter 5.3. --- A Summary of the Findings in the GJ Task --- p.132 / Chapter 5.4. --- Some Important Issues --- p.133 / Chapter 5.4.1. --- Evidence of Ll Transfer --- p.133 / Chapter 5.4.2. --- Overpassivization of Chinese Unaccusative Verbs and the Universality of Overpassivization Phenomenon in IL Grammar --- p.136 / Chapter 5.4.3. --- Further Difficulties in the Acquisition of Chinese Passives and Related Structures --- p.139 / Chapter 6.5. --- Conclusions --- p.140 / Chapter 6.6. --- Suggestions for Further Studies --- p.142 / Appendices --- p.145 / References --- p.173

This study explores how JFL learners take a benefactive stance in Japanese. As Jaffe (2009) observes, stance-taking "plays a complex role with respect to the naturalization of social and linguistic ideologies and the social structures they legitimate." The way in which language is used to take a stance always concerns the social context in which a speaker finds her/himself. In Japanese, benefactive verbs (kureru, ageru, morau and their honorific and humble equivalents) are indispensable stance indicators for showing gratitude or indebtedness. Such expressions do not really exist in English and their grammar is complex. It is assumed that JFL learners will struggle with taking a benefactive stance using those expressions. In order to analyze JFL learners' stance-taking, data were collected from narrative interviews with ten JFL learners who are currently in 300- and 400-level university courses. In order to explore how learners attempt to show stance-reflecting benefaction, they were asked questions that aimed to elicit a speaker's feelings of gratitude. Some examples of such questions are, "Who do you appreciate the most in your life?" or "Who is the most generous person you know?" The data show that (1) learners do use (or attempt to use) benefactive verbs to indicate stance, (2) they also fail to use benefactive verbs in contexts where they are called for, and (3) they misuse benefactive verbs, e.g., using ageru instead of kureru. Furthermore, it revealed that learners tend to show stance using evaluation such as adjectives, adverbs, or ritual expressions that show appreciation but they fail to utilize benefactive verbs. This failure to project a benefactive stance can lead to miscommunication and/or misunderstanding between learners and Japanese speakers. I offer possible ways to promote learners' awareness of the benefaction in Japanese culture.

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This thesis investigates corrective-feedback episodes and learners?? private speech in Japanese language classrooms at a university to examine both overt and covert speech of the adult learners in relation to their target language learning. Corrective-feedback episodes between teachers and learners in language classrooms have been focused on as typical interactions in the classrooms and a factor that contributes to learning of target languages. Ohta (2001) found that learners noticed their teachers?? corrective feedback to the other learners and responded to the feedback in their private speech, and that they also repeated others or manipulated sounds or forms by using their private speech. As learners notice a gap between what they actually can produce and what they want to say, when they produce target languages, even without feedback (Swain, 1985; Swain and Lapkin, 1995), learners?? private speech should be examined as well as their corrective-feedback episodes in classrooms. The data were collected from six learners and two teachers at a Level 2 (upper beginning) Japanese course for two semesters (throughout a year). The data are composed of classroom observations, audio and video-recordings of the classrooms, and stimulated recall interviews with both the teachers and the learners following the classroom recordings. All corrective-feedback episodes and the learners?? private speech were transcribed and coded according to error type, corrective-feedback type, types of response to the feedback, and types of the learners?? private speech. The teachers tended to use recasts often because of the time limitation of the classroom teaching and their teaching policy. However, all the learners preferred to be given opportunities to self-correct their own errors before being provided with correct answers by recasts. Private speech had functions of cognitive/metacognitive, affective/social, and self-regulation, which overlapped with each other. The learners were aware of their use of private speech in the classrooms. The teachers sometimes noticed their learners?? use of private speech in the classes. The learners used both Japanese and English as cognitive tools as well as communicative tools. The learners used every opportunity for their learning, by overtly and covertly participating, in the class.

This study aims to discuss the noun and prepositional phrases in English and in Vietnamese and their impact upon teaching and learning English in the Vietnamese situation. Attempts have been made to state the similarities and differences in noun and prepositional phrases in the two languages and raise and solve some difficulties and problems arising particularly from differences between English and Vietnamese. In this study, Contrastive Linguistics is concerned with the comparison of the two languages with a view to determining the differences and similarities between them. With this practical aim the study tries to provide a model for comparison and determine how and which of the phrases are comparable. It is hoped to provide as much information as is possible in a limited study of this kind on English noun and prepositional phrases, then on Vietnamese noun phrases. The study draws attention to differences with examples. It analyses the heads of noun phrases in the two languages as well as the pre and postmodifications and their positions. It also analyses the uses of the prepositional phrases in the two languages. At the same time, it points out the kinds of errors made by Vietnamese learners in the above-mentioned areas and their causes. Finally, some suggestions are made for those who may be responsible for teaching English as a Foreign Language to younger pupils as well as adults, or to students at universities or colleges

English has been taught in Vietnam for about forty years and the number of English learners increases every year. Whatever the course of teaching English may be, the teaching of pronunciation is always a beginning part of it. The materials used in teaching pronunciation vary from schools to colleges, but the way of teaching is always the same. It means that students have to imitate what the teachers have pronounced with a very simple explanation of how to pronounce it. This causes great problems, because not all teachers have correct pronunciation and not all students can imitate the teachers in the right way. At the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, students are trained to be teachers of English. They not only need to have correct pronunciation, but also need to know how to pronounce sounds. In order to teach pronunciation effectively, they need to have a certain knowledge of phonetics and know the difference and similarity between the sound systems of English and Vietnamese. To help awareness of the necessity of good pronunciation and the present problems associated with teaching it, this report: a/ points out the importance of teaching English pronunciation in teaching English; b/ gives an overview of English teaching in general and the teaching of pronunciation in particular. To improve the teaching of pronunciation at the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, this report: c/ makes a comparison between sound systems of English and Vietnamese; d/ proposes material for the teaching of pronunciation for the Vietnamese students of the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, bearing in mind the context of the Vietnamese teaching and learning situation. It is hoped that this report will be of practical use: for teachers and students in the Hanoi Foreign Languages College.

There are increasing needs for trained business persons as a result of the recent rapid development of foreign trade in Vietnam. A good command of written commercial English is one of the most important qualifications of a business person. At present the Hanoi Foreign Trade College is the only institution which is responsible for training commerce students. The teaching of writing skill in general and the teaching of commercial letter writing in particular still leave much to be desired. The writing skill of graduates of the Hanoi Foreign Trade College is far from satisfactory This Field Study Report aims at identifying the difficulties and the needs of commerce students in the Hanoi Foreign Trade College. It takes into consideration the language and learning needs of the target students in order to suggest a syllabus for the teaching of commercial letter writing to commerce students more efficiently. The Field Study Report consists of seven chapters. Chapter I provides an analysis of the teaching and learning situations at the Hanoi Foreign Trade College and problems of the teaching of commercial letter writing. Chapter 2 looks at some major theoretical problems and practical issues for Specific Purpose English syllabus design and material production for the teaching of commercial letter writing to commerce students at the Hanoi Foreign Trade College. Chapter 3 is a contrastive analysis of western commercial letters, Vietnamese commercial letters in Vietnamese and Vietnamese commercial letters in English. Chapter 4 is an analysis of the results of a survey made in 1988 to identify the needs of commerce students for commercial letters. Chapter 5 is mainly concerned with designing a communicative syllabus for the teaching of commercial letter writing to commerce students in Vietnam. Chapter 6 is the proposed syllabus for the teaching of CLW to commerce students at the HFTC, Vietnam. Chapter 7 is the conclusion. This Field Study Report should be regarded as an exploratory attempt to adopt the communicative approach in designing a syllabus for the teaching of commercial letter writing to commerce students in Vietnam.

This study, within the framework of improving the English course for postgraduate level at IPB (Bogor Institute of Agriculture), attempts to determine the extent of English reading activities for academic purposes expected by agricultural teaching staff at post graduate level, different expectations across the study programs or a particular area of specialised discipline, the extent of English problems experienced by postgraduate students and the strategies used to cope with English needs in their postgraduate studies, to test a hypothesis that there is a positive correlation between the students' command/scores of English and their achievements/scores in agricultural subjects. Questionnaires for agricultural staff and students were adapted from Hughes (1988) and Weir (1988) to address these questions. Students' academic records were obtained to compute the correlation between scores in English and agricultural subjects. Review of literature and research in current theories of reading in EFL is given to serve as a theoretical foundation to discuss English reading lessons from secondary level to tertiary level in Indonesia and to provide general implications to improve the English course at IPB. The results indicate that staff reading expectation in English is high in comparison to the students' level of English and in that all eight types of reading activities listed in the questionnaires were expected. There are some different expectations across the study programs. However, the most relevant finding to note in regard to the the English course is that reading English texts as review of literature for research proposes and reading English texts for writing assignments were expected across all the study programs. It is also found that reading English texts for academic purposes was still a problem for the majority of student respondents and there are various interesting reading strategies used by the student to cope with the English needs of their studies. However, further investigation is essential to assist the students with reading problems since the results do not specify the nature of reading problems and methods used by the respondents. A significant correlation is found between scores in English and agricultural subjects at the level of 5% and 1% by the Spearman rank- order and the Pearson product-moment correlation formulas. This implies that English is central to the students' success in their postgraduate studies, which is also supported by the student respondents' opinions. General implications and suggestions are provided to assist postgraduate with reading problems and to improve the English course for the students.