This report describes an ethnographic case study of an ESL student taking a graduate-level course in a U.S. university. It seeks to identify the ways ESL academic skills (e.g., reading, listening, and writing) were actually used in the university setting. / One Saudi Arabian ESL student was studied over a 15-week semester while taking a course in Comparative Education. Participant observation, in conjunction with tape or video recordings, was used to provide a basis for comparisons of perceptions between the ESL student, the researcher, and other participants in the class. His class notes, written work, and readings were all analyzed and these provided further insights into his version of the reality of the class. Interviews with the teacher revealed the extent to which ideas were accurately transferred from teacher to student. / The final picture of the teacher's demands and the ESL student's strategies challenges a number of the existing language-teaching and curriculum-design assumptions in preparatory ESL programs. The student's reading consisted mainly of extensive coverage of relatively uncomplicated material. His listening was highly selective, governed by the nature of his motivation and by his background knowledge. In writing he lacked the skill to retrieve, assemble, and present data forcefully. He did not participate at all in classroom interactions. / Nevertheless, this ESL student completed the course successfully, regarding it as one of the most interesting he had ever taken. In his motivation, learning conception, and study modes he did not differ radically from others in the class, whether ESL students like himself or native speakers of English. Cultural difficulties, previously a problem, did not adversely affect his learning. However, the competition of other classes for his time did force him into rationalizations regarding the amount of time and effort to be expended on this course. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-02, Section: A, page: 0322. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76013 |
| Contributors | BENSON, MALCOLM JOHN., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 230 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds