Doing action research in English language teaching:a guide for practitioners

This hands-on, practical guide for ESL/EFL teachers and teacher educators outlines, for those who are new to doing action research, what it is and how it works. Straightforward and reader friendly, it introduces the concepts and offers a step-by-step guide to going through an action research process, including illustrations drawn widely from international contexts. Specifically, the text addresses: •action research and how it differs from other forms of research •the steps involved in developing an action research project •ways of developing a research focus •methods of data collection •approaches to data analysis •making sense of action research for further classroom action. Each chapter includes a variety of pedagogical activities: •Pre-Reading questions ask readers to consider what they already know about the topic •Reflection Points invite readers to think about/discuss what they have read •action points ask readers to carry out action-research tasks based on what they have read •Classroom Voices illustrate aspects of action research from teachers internationally •Summary Points provide a synopsis of the main points in the chapter

E-Support for English Language Course to Enhance University Students’ Learning.

The peculiarities of English language teaching for students at higher educational establishment using some elements of distance learning, developed by the author, are described in this article. The results of students’ questioning, received at the end of the experimental teaching, are suggested and analyzed. The conclusions are formulated and the further ways of teaching English with e-support are outlined.

An evaluation of English language instruction in universities/colleges in Taiwan

The purpose of this study is about to survey the effectiveness of English teaching in universities/colleges in Taiwan and provide suggestions to the educational authorities for upgrading or improving the English language teaching techniques or methods currently in use. On the one hand, the suggestions of English teachers in universities/colleges are the main concerns in this study. On the other hand, equal attention is given to the opinions and learning attitudes of the students, including the interaction between the teachers and the students.^ A social investigation methodology, consisting of questionnaire and data analysis, is devoted to this evaluation and analysis of teaching effectiveness. Among the significant findings reported in this study is the fact that both students and teachers consider evaluation of teaching effectiveness as a very important aspect of English Language programs at the university/college level. Another significant finding is that students are less concerned about the grades earned or awarded in English Language courses and more concerned about how much they learned in these classes.^ The analysis and suggestions based on the results for English teaching evaluation of universities/colleges in this dissertation can help teachers modify their teaching techniques and methods, the students to adjust their learning attitudes, and the authorities to schematize the English teaching plan that can facilitate the teaching goals to be realized. ^

An Examination of the Validity of English Language Achievement Test Scores in a LEP Student Population

Approximately 1,700 limited English proficient (LEP) and recently exited LEP students in grades 4 and 10 were tested using both an English and a comparable Spanish language achievement test. Many LEP and former LEP students performed better in math taking the test in Spanish compared to taking it in English.

Richard Rodriguez, Norman Podhoretz, and Arnold Schwarzenegger: Learning English by “Immersion.” Really?

A close look at the English acquisition processes of Richard Rodriguez, Norman Podhoretz, and Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals that, far from their contentions that they learned English by immersion, which led them to dismiss bilingual education, they benefitted from numerous sources of help largely unavailable to English Language Learners nationwide.

The relationship between the use of Academic Text Talk and the comprehension of scientific academic language for diverse second graders

Changing demographics impact our schools as children come from more linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. The various social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of the students affect their early language learning experiences which expose them to the academic language needed to succeed in school. Teachers can help students acquire academic language by introducing words that are within their Zone of Proximal Development and increasing exposure to and use of academic language. This study investigated the effects of increasing structured activities for students to orally interact with informational text on their scientific academic language development and comprehension of expository text. ^ The Academic Text Talk activities, designed to scaffold verbalization of new words and ideas, included discussion, retelling, games, and sentence walls. This study also evaluated if there were differences in scientific language proficiency and comprehension between boys and girls, and between English language learners and native English speakers. ^ A quasi-experimental design was used to determine the relationship between increasing students' oral practice with academic language and their academic language proficiency. Second graders (n = 91) from an urban public school participated in two science units over an 8 week period and were pre and post tested using the Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey-Revised and vocabulary tests from the National Energy Education Project. Analysis of covariance was performed on the pre to post scores by treatment group to determine differences in academic language proficiency for students taught using Academic Text Talk compared to students taught using a text-centered method, using the initial Florida Assessment for Instruction in Reading test as a covariate. Students taught using Academic Text Talk multimodal strategies showed significantly greater increases in their pre to posttest means on the Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey-Revised Oral Language Totals and National Energy Education Development Project Vocabulary tests than students taught using the text-centered method, ps < .05. Boys did not show significantly greater increases than girls, nor did English language learners show significantly greater increases than the native English speakers. ^ This study informs the field of reading research by evaluating the effectiveness of a multimodal combination of strategies emphasizing discourse to build academic language.^

A collection of elegant extracts from some of the best English authors : with notes and explanations for The facility of those, who appley themselves to the study of the English language

selected by James Charles Carey

The English language used by the Chinese: A new variety of English?

The topic was chosen because of a simple fact that there are more Chinese studying English in China than U.S. Americans who speak English. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the unique linguistic features that make the Chinese use English in a particular style. First, it shows the development of the English language used by the Chinese: Chinese Pidgin English, Chinglish, Chinese English and China English. Second, it takes a deeper look into certain linguistic features regarding the English language used by the Chinese: lexical features morphosyntactic features and pragmatic features

Proving My Competency One Test at a Time: Internationally Educated Nurses and the Canadian English Language Benchmark Assessment for Nurses

Abstract Professional language assessment is a new concept that has great potential to benefit Internationally Educated Professionals and the communities they serve. This thesis reports on a qualitative study that examined the responses of 16 Canadian English Language Benchmark Assessment for Nurses (CELBAN) test-takers on the topic of their perceptions of the CELBAN test-taking experience in Ontario in the winter of 2015. An Ontario organization involved in registering participants distributed an e-mail through their listserv. Thematic analyses of focus group and interview transcripts identified 7 themes from the data. These themes were used to inform conclusions to the following questions: (1) How do IENs characterize their assessment experience? (2) How do IENs describe the testing constructs measured by the CELBAN? (3) What, if any, potential sources of construct irrelevant variance (CIV) do the test-takers describe based on their assessment experience? (4) Do IENs feel that the CELBAN tasks provide a good reflection of the types of communicative tasks required of a nurse? Overall, participants reported positive experiences with the CELBAN as an assessment of their language skills, and noted some instances in which they felt some factors external to the assessment impacted their demonstration of their knowledge and skill. Lastly, some test-takers noted the challenge of completing the CELBAN where the types of communicative nursing tasks included in the assessment differed from nursing tasks typical of an IENs country or origin. The findings are discussed in relation to literature on high-stakes large-scale assessment and IEPs, and a set of recommendations are offered to future CELBAN administration. These recommendations include (1) the provision of a webpage listing all licensure requirements (2) monitoring of CELBAN location and dates in relation to the wider certification timeline for applicants (3) The provision of additional CELBAN preparatory materials (4) Minor changes to the CELBAN administrative protocols. Given that the CELBAN is a relatively new assessment format and its widespread use for high-stakes decisions (a component of nursing certification and licensure), research validating IEN-test-taker responses to construct representation and construct irrelevant variance is critical to our understanding of the role of competency testing for IENs.

Digging up the frequency of phrasal verbs in English for the Police: the case of "up"

The present study focuses on the frequency of phrasal verbs with the particle up in the context of crime and police investigative work. This research emerges from the need to enlarge McCarthy and O’Dell’s (2004) scope from purely criminal behavior to police investigative actions. To do so, we relied on a corpus of 504,124 running words made up of spoken dialogues extracted from the script of the American TV series Castle shown on ABC since 2009. Based on Rudzka-Ostyn’s (2003) cognitive motivations for the particle up, we have identified five different meaning extensions for our phrasal verbs. Drawing from these findings, we have designed pedagogical activities for those L2 learners that study English at the Police Academy.

The Impact of Global English in Xinjiang, China: Linguistic Capital and Identity Negotiation among the Ethnic Minority and Han Chinese Students

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Towards guidelines for curriculum design and development in English language teacher education in Cambodian higher education institutions

In the current Cambodian higher education sector, there is little regulation of standards in curriculum design of undergraduate degrees in English language teacher education. The researcher, in the course of his professional work in the Curriculum and Policy Office at the Department of Higher Education, has seen evidence that most universities tend to copy their curriculum from one source, the curriculum of the Institute of Foreign Languages, the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Their programs fail to impose any entry standards, accepting students who pass the high school exam without any entrance examination. It is possible for a student to enter university with satisfactory scores in all subjects but English. Therefore, not many graduates are able to fulfil the professional requirements of the roles they are supposed to take. Neau (2010) claims that many Cambodian EFL teachers do not reach a high performance standard due to their low English language proficiency and poor background in teacher education. The main purpose of this study is to establish key guidelines for developing curricula for English language teacher education for all the universities across the country. It examines the content of the Bachelor‘s degree of Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (B Ed in TEFL) and Bachelor‘s degree of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BA in TESOL) curricula adopted in Cambodian universities on the basis of criteria proposed in current curriculum research. It also investigates the perspectives of Cambodian EFL teachers on the areas of knowledge and skill they need in order to perform their English teaching duties in Cambodia today. The areas of knowledge and skill offered in the current curricula at Cambodian higher education institutions (HEIs), the framework of the knowledge base for EFL teacher education and general higher education, and the areas of knowledge and skill Cambodian EFL teachers perceive to be important, are compared so as to identify any gaps in the current English language teacher education curricula in the Cambodian HEIs. The existence of gaps show what domains of knowledge and skill need to be included in the English language teacher education curricula at Cambodian HEIs. These domains are those identified by previous curriculum researchers in both general and English language teacher education at tertiary level. Therefore, the present study provides useful insights into the importance of including appropriate content in English language teacher education curricula. Mixed methods are employed in this study. The course syllabi and the descriptions within the curricula in five Cambodian HEIs are analysed qualitatively based on the framework of knowledge and skills for EFL teachers, which is formed by looking at the knowledge base for second language teachers suggested by the methodologists and curriculum specialists whose work is elaborated on the review of literature. A quantitative method is applied to analyse the perspectives of 120 Cambodian EFL teachers on areas of knowledge and skills they should possess. The fieldwork was conducted between June and August, 2014. The analysis reveals that the following areas are included in the curricula at the five universities: communication skills, general knowledge, knowledge of teaching theories, teaching skills, pedagogical reasoning and decision making skills, subject matter knowledge, contextual knowledge, cognitive abilities, and knowledge of social issues. Additionally, research skills are included in three curricula while society and community involvement is in only one. Further, information and communication technology, which is outlined in the Education Strategies Plan (2006-2010), forms part of four curricula while leadership skills form part of two. This study demonstrates ultimately that most domains that are directly and indirectly related to language teaching competence are not sufficiently represented in the current curricula. On the basis of its findings, the study concludes with a set of guidelines that should inform the design and development of TESOL and TEFL curricula in Cambodia.

Cultural and linguistic context and lexical inferencing in English language learning: A case study

In an increasingly multilingual world, English language has kept a marked predominance as a global language. In many countries, English is the primary choice for foreign language learning. There is a long history of research in English language learning. The same applies for research in reading. A main interest since the 1970s has been the reading strategy defined as inferencing or guessing the meaning of unknown words from context. Inferencing has ben widely researched, however, the results and conclusions seem to be mixed. While some agree that inferencing is a useful strategy, others doubt its usefulness. Nevertheless, most of the research seem to agree that the cultural background affects comprehension and inferencing. While most of these studies have been done with texts and contexts created by the researches, little has been done using natural prose. The present study will attempt to further clarify the process of inferencing and the effects of the text’s cultural context and the linguistic background of the reader using a text that has not been created by the researcher. The participants of the study are 40 international students from Turku, Finland. Their linguistic background was obtained through a questionnaire and proved to be diverse. Think aloud protocols were performed to investigate their inferencing process and find connections between their inferences, comments, the text, and their linguistic background. The results show that: some inferences were made based on the participants’ world knowledge, experience, other languages, and English language knowledge; other inferences and comments were made based on the text, its use of language and vocabulary, and few cues provided by the author. The results from the present study and previous research seem to show that: 1) linguistic background is a source of information for inferencing but is not a major source; 2) the cultural context of the text affected the inferences made by the participants according to their closeness or distance from it.