Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, November, 2003. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-139)

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

My Diploma Thesis deals with teaching English language to people with mental diseases. The theoretical part deals with the description of the terms such as handicap, integration and inclusion. Further I describe the project VIVACE and the Domino Centre. I describe the individual diagnoses of the Domino clients. In the next chapters I handle the appropriate teaching methods and principles in teaching handicapped people and I describe the motivation for learning. The practical part deals in detail with English lessons involving cooking which took place in the Domino Centre and I evaluate them. The aim is to describe the appropriate teaching methods and principles in the teaching of handicapped people.

Washback is a concept commonly used in applied linguistics to refer to the influence of testing on teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the washback effect of a new system of English language speaking assessment in Sri Lanka. The new assessment was introduced with the intention of promoting the teaching and learning of English speaking skills in schools as part of a Presidential educational initiative called the English as a Life Skill Programme. The study examined the washback effect of the introduction of speaking assessments at both National and school levels from the perspectives of participants at three levels of the education system: the decision making level, intervening level (teacher trainers and in-service advisors), and implementing level (teachers and students). For this purpose, a mixed methods research approach was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants at the decision making level and intervening level to examine whether there were any important gaps in translating policy intentions to the implementing level participants (teachers and students). A questionnaire survey was conducted with teachers and students to investigate their perceptions of the assessment change and its effects on teaching and learning speaking in the classroom. Classroom observations were conducted to gain insights into actual classroom practices in relation to teaching and learning speaking, along with follow-up interviews to seek teachers’ accounts of their classroom practices. The study found that the assessment change did influence teachers’ and students’ perceptions of teaching and learning speaking in the classroom, as well as teachers’ instructional practices. Therefore, some of the policymakers’ intended aims were achieved. However, the intensity and direction of washback were shown to be influenced by several mediating factors such as teachers’ training and contextual factors such as the availability of classroom resources. The findings of this study suggest that assessment reforms can be used to promote change both in what is taught in the classroom and how it is taught, but to different degrees. The study indicated that washback does occur in this context, but it operates in a complex manner associated with many other variables besides the assessment itself. The findings of this study have implications for the improvement of future assessment policies in Sri Lanka, highlighting the importance of timely implementation of reforms and of monitoring them. The findings suggest that it is especially important to listen to key stakeholders’ (teachers’ and students’) voices in the initial planning and feasibility study phases of reform.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis compared science teaching and learning in English and isiXhosa in the Intermediate Phase (Grades 4-6) in two primary schools in the Western Cape. It explored the effects of using learners' home language (isiXhosa) and second language (English) as languages of learning and teaching science. The study is part of a broader project called the Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa (LOITASA). The study was conceived against the background of English as a means of social, economic and educational advancement, and the marginalization of African languages in education. / South Africa

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This thesis is written within the field of education. I will be explaining what international students want to learn about in the subject areas of History and English. The question being answered is, “What Do Students Want in English and History Teaching?” The goal was to gain more specific insight into what students want to learn about and how. This paper will use and critique Lev Vygotsky and John Dewey’s theories on education as well as more current research done regarding the needs and wants of students.Several books and many articles regarding education theory and what students want were used to get an insight into current theory. My contribution of evidence to this area is through a questionnaire that was given to middle school students in four different classes in two different grades. The results of this questionnaire showed that students have a great demand for content that covers many different facets of English and many areas and time periods of History. Students had clear ideas of what a good teacher is like. The conclusion of this research is that students see the value in motivating, knowledgeable teachers who vary their lessons. Students want their teachers to be fun and sympathetic to the life of students today.

A lack of English proficiency in the Latino community living in America has great repercussions, especially in communication between family members and education or health care providers. Latin parents are left to rely on their children to act as translators when communicating with their teachers or school personnel. Furthermore, Latino parents often have a limited understanding of the U.S. school system, curriculum, and what they are entitled to as parents. Latin-American parents could benefit from learning specific education-related terms to better understand the education system. Stimulus equivalence is a behavioral technique that can be applied to language learning and target these specific terms. This study worked with Latin-American parents with a lack of English proficiency in education-related terms such as national education initiatives. Six education-related terms were selected and two participants were tested and trained for relations among the stimuli through match-to-sample procedures. Stimuli were presented in five different categories: name, acronym, picture, English definition, and Spanish definition, creating a total of twenty possible relations. Results showed the emergence of 9 and 11 relations, while only two to four were explicitly taught to the two participants. This adds to the literature on stimulus equivalence and demonstrates the effectiveness of using stimulus equivalence procedures to teach language to parents in the Latino community. / Teaching & Learning

No description available.

Teachers undergo changes in their beliefs, knowledge and practices on an individual level as they learn how to teach. If society undergoes significant change, as Hong Kong did during the transition from British to Chinese rule in 1997, then social groups within society such as teachers are likely to react to change in different and complex ways. The purpose of this investigation is to exam.ine the changes experienced by teachers of English in Hong Kong, with a focus on teachers who received their teacher preparation at one Hong Kong institution during the final years leading up to the transition. The educational, linguistic, social and political context of Hong Kong is first described through a study of the research literature and a number of theories and models of change are presented through which the findings of the investigation are analysed. The main sources of data for the investigation consist of questionnaire responses, interview transcriptions and lesson observation reports of trainee English teachers during and after graduation from a BA course in TESL at a Hong Kong university. The main conclusions of the investigation are: (i) Educational issues and particularly those affecting ELT became more high-profile and politicised in the lead up to and after the changeover. (ii) English teachers in Hong Kong experience conflict between their desired approaches and the realities and constraints of the Hong Kong teaching context. These constraints provide a common justification for lack of innovative behaviour and make it possible for teachers to put off being innovative in the classroom indefinitely. (iii) At the same time, English teachers in Hong Kong are becoming more empowered within the educational system in reaction to challenges to their competency and as they have realised that they can affect educational policy through individual and collective action. The findings suggest that colonial discourses as documented by Pennycook (1998) of English language teaching still persist in Hong Kong, as they have been shown to do in other post-colonial societies, and Hong Kong is undergoing a post-handover period of change as it struggles to synthesise the educational legacies of the colonial period with new initiatives adopted to address Hong Kong's changing educational and social needs. The results of the research are developed into an original model of the factors impacting English language education in Hong Kong. The generic model is then elaborated in two versions, one of which applies before the changeover and the other after it.