Accommodating College ESL Learner Communication Needs: Perceptions, Policies, and Practices

The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to determine how the Practical Nursing and Pharmacy Technician programs in one southern Ontario community college could more effectively accommodate ESL learners' communication needs. The literature review examined (a) linguistic issues, such as language testing and second-language learning theories, (b) organizational matters, such as ESL curriculum and teacher training, and (c) affective issues, such as motivation for second-language learning, learning styles, and the student-teacher relationship. I gathered perceptual data from the programs' administrators, faculty members, and ESL learners. Eleven participants took part in individual interviews or a focus group session. The results suggest that ESL learners need assistance with discipline-specific vocabulary and cultural nuances. College ESL learners' weak communicative competence, together with misleading acceptance standards for ESL learners and limited support available to faculty members and to students, decrease opportunities for successful completion of the programs. The results point to re-assessment of the college's admission policies and procedures, program evaluation practices that consider the needs of ESL learners, discipline-specific language support, and strategies to enhance the ESL student-teacher relationship. The study highlights theory relating to ESL learners' self-perception and engagement, as well as the importance of including the voice of college ESL learners in educational research. The results suggest that despite ESL learners' perseverance in completing their studies, power imbalances remain. The college has yet to implement organizational strategies such as discipline-specific communications and ESL courses and extended language support that could meet the communication needs of ESL learners in the two programs.

Coaches' use of and impressions of computer-mediated communication (CMC) media /

The study examined coaches' usage of text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) media (e.g., text-messaging, email) in the coach-player relationship. Data were collected by surveying Ontario-based male baseball coaches (n = 86) who coached players between 15 and 18 years old. Predictions were made regarding how demographic factors such as age and coaching experience affected coaches' CMC use and opinions. Results indicated that over 76% of respondents never used any CMC media other than email and team websites in their interactions with players. Results also revealed that coaches' usage rates contrasted with their opinion of the usefulness of the media, and their perception of players' use of the media. Coaches characterized most CMC media as limited, unnecessary, and sometimes inappropriate. Additional research should explore players' CMC usage rates and possible guidelines for use of the new media in authority relationships. Academia needs to keep pace with the developments in this area.

Out of the darkness and into the light : a study of inauthentic and authentic speech

Introduction Man can be described as the being who shows himself in speech, and from birth to death is continually speaking. Communication is so close to us, so woven into our very being, that we have little understanding of the way it is constituted; for it is as hard to obtain distance from communication as it is to obtain distance from ourselves. All communication is not alike. There are two basic modesl of communication, the inauthentic and the authentic, between which there occurs a constant tension. It is in the inauthentic mode, points out Heidegger, that we find ourselves "proximately and for the most part"; 1. Being and Time, pg. 68 Dasein decides as to the way it will comport itself in taking up its task of having being as an issue for it. " •.• it~, in its very being 'choose' itself and win itself; it can also lose itself and never win itself or only "seem" to do so. But only in so far as it is essentially something which can be authentic--that is, something of its own--can it have lost itself and not yet won itself." 2. therefore Heidegger also terms it "everydayness".2 Caught up in the world of everydayness, our speaking covers over and conceals3 our rootedness in being, leaving us in the darkness of untruth. The image of darkness may be inferred from Heidegger's use of the image of "clearing,,4 to depict being as 2. ibid. pg. 69 "Dasein's average everydayness, however, is not to be taken as a mere 'aspect'. Here too, and even in the mode of inauthenticity, the structure of existentiality lies ~ priori and here too Dasein's being is an issue for it in a definite way; and Dasein comports itself towards it the mode of average everydayness, even if this is only the mode of fleeing in the face of it and forgetfulness thereof." 3. ibid. pg. 59 "covering over" and "concealing" are 1;yays Dasein tries to flee its task of having being as an issue for itself. " ••• This being can be covered up so extensively that it becomes forgotten and no question arises about it or its meaning ••• n How everyday speaking accomplishes this will be taken up in detail in the second chapter which explores Dasein's everyday speech. 4. ibid, pg. 171 lI ••• we have in mind nothing other than the Existential - ontological structure of this entity (Dasein), that it is in such a way as to be its 'there'. To say that it is -' illuminated' [tlerleuchtet"] means that as Being-in-theworld it is cleared [gelichtetJ in itself7 not through any other entity, but in such a way that it is itself the clearing. Only for an entity which is eXistentially cleared in this way does what is present-at-hand become accessible in the light or hidden in the dark •••• " 3 dis-coveredness and truth. Our first task will be to explore the nature of communication in general and then to explore each of the modes manifested in turn. The structure of the inauthentic mode of communication can be explored by asking the following questions: What is this speaking about? Who is it that is speaking and who is spoken to? Does this speaking show man in his speech? The authentic mode is distinguished by the rarity with which we encounter it; as the inauthentic conceals, so the authentic reveals our rootedness in being. Yet this rarity makes it difficult to delineate its elusive structure clearly. Its constituent elements can be brought into focus by asking the same questions of this mode that we previously asked of the inauthentic mode. Our initial response to the disclosure of the authentic mode is to attempt to abandon the inauthentic mode and leave the darkness behind dwelling only in the "lighted place". All through the ages, some men pushing this to extreme, have, upon uncovering their relatedness to being, experienced a deep longing to dwell in such a "place" of pure truth and oft times denigrated or attempted to exclude the everyday world. Such 4. flight is twice mistaken: first it atbempts to fix truth as unchanging and static and secondly, it opposes this to untruth which it seeks to abolish. This is both the wrong view of truth and the wrong view of untruth as Heidegger points out in The Origin of The-Work of Art: The Way-to-be of truth, i.e., of discoveredness, is under the sway of refusal. But this refusal is no lack or privation, as if truth could be simply discoveredness rid of all covers. If it could be that, it would no longer be itself . ••• Truth in its way-to-be is untruth.5 Pure light is not the nature of Being nor is pure unconcealedness possible for man. Failure to remember this is the failure to realize that communication destroys itself in such flight because it no longer maintains the contingency of its task, i.e., the dis-closedness of being. We are reminded of the strong attraction this flight from darkness held for Plato. Light, truth and Being are all beyond the darkness and have nothing to do with it. In Book VII of the R~public, Socrates' explanation of the Allegory of the Cave to Glaucon points to a decided preference men have for the "lighted place". 5. The Origin Of The Work Of Art, pg. 42 5. Come then, I said, and join me in this further thought, and do not be surprised that those who attained to this height are not willing to occupy themselves with the affairs of men, but their souls ever feel the upward urge and yearning for that sojourn above. For this, I take it, is likely if in this point too the likeliness of our image holds. 6 Despite the attraction to pure truth, human communication is more complex than putting down one mode of communication and picking up another. Due to the fact that we are always on the way, the title of my thesis will have to be amended: OUT OF THE DARKNESS AND INTO THE LIGHT--AGAIN AND AGAIN. It must be this way because this is what it means to be human. This is the point made by Mephisto to Faust in pointing out that man, standing between God and the devil, needs both darkness and light: Er findet sich in einem ewigen Gl~t Uns hat er in die Finsternis gebracht, Und euch taugt einzig Tag und Nacht. 7 6. Republic z (517 c & d) It should be noted however, that while the philosopherking must be compelled to return to the cave for purely political reasons, once he has taken adequate view of the "brightest region of being" he has the full truth and his return to darkness adds nothing to the truth. 7. Faust, pg. 188 6. This thesis proposes to examine the grounds that give rise to communication, uncovering the structure of its inauthentic and authentic modes and paying close attention to tpeir interrelationship and to their relationship to language as "the house of Being": language that both covers and opens up man's rootedness in Being, transforming him as he moves along his way, taking up his "ownmost task" of becoming who he is. roots. He is the being who shows himself inn that reflects his forgetfulness or remembrance of his rootedness in being. Man comes into an already existent world and is addressedl through things in the world which are c

A needs assessment of public health professionals: supporting the implementation of Ontario 2010 revised elementary health and physical education curriculum

Based on the Comprehensive School Health framework, Ontario's Foundations for a Healthy School (2009) outlines an integrated approach to school health promotion. In this approach the school, community and partners (including public health) are fully engaged With a common goal of youth health. With the recent introductions of the Ontario Public Health Standards (2009) and the revised elementary health and physical education curriculum (2010), the timing for a greater integration of public health with schools is ideal. A needs assessment was conducted to identify the perceived support required by public health professionals to implement the mandates of both policy documents in Ontario. Data was collected for the needs assessment through facilitated discussions at a provincial roundtable event, regional focus groups and individual interviews with public health professionals representing Ontario's 36 public health units. Findings suggest that public health professionals perceive that they require increased resources, greater communication, a clear vision of public health and a suitable understanding of the professional cultures in which they are surrounded in order to effectively support schools. This study expands upon these four categories and the corresponding seventeen themes that were uncovered during the research process.

Clinician-Perceived Bridges and Barriers to Parental Implementation of Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS): An evaluation.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is an augmentative and alternative communicative system that improves communication and decreases problem behaviors in children with Developmental Disabilities and Autism. The mediator model is a validated approach that clinicians use to train parents to perform evidence-based interventions. Parental non-adherence to treatment recommendations is a documented problem. This qualitative study investigated clinician-perceived factors that influence parental adherence to PECS recommendations. Three focus groups (n=8) were conducted with Speech Language Pathologists and Behavior Therapists experienced in providing parents with PECS recommendations. Constant comparison analysis was used. In general, clinicians believed that PECS was complex to implement. Thirty-one bridges were identified to overcome complexity. Twenty-two barriers and 6 other factors also impacted parental adherence. Strategies to address these factors were proposed based on a review of the literature. Future research will be performed to validate these findings using parents and a larger sample size.

The development of a Flanders Interaction Analysis style instrument for use in educational computer mediated communication research

Please consult the paper edition of this thesis to read. It is available on the 5th Floor of the Library at Call Number: Z 9999 E38 D56 1992