Form-focused instruction in Irish-medium immersion education: a critical examination of teachers' perspectives and practices. A small-scale qualitative case study

It has been suggested that the less than optimal levels of students’ immersion language “persist in part because immersion teachers lack systematic approaches for integrating language into their content instruction” (Tedick, Christian and Fortune, 2011, p.7). I argue that our current lack of knowledge regarding what immersion teachers think, know and believe and what immersion teachers’ actual ‘lived’ experiences are in relation to form-focused instruction (FFI) prevents us from fully understanding the key issues at the core of experiential immersion pedagogy and form-focused integration. FFI refers to “any planned or incidental instructional activity that is intended to induce language learners to pay attention to linguistic form” (Ellis, 2001b, p.1). The central aim of this research study is to critically examine the perspectives and practices of Irish-medium immersion (IMI) teachers in relation to FFI. The study ‘taps’ into the lived experiences of three IMI teachers in three different IMI school contexts and explores FFI from a classroom-based, teacher-informed perspective. Philosophical underpinnings of the interpretive paradigm and critical hermeneutical principles inform and guide the study. A multi-case study approach was adopted and data was gathered through classroom observation, video-stimulated recall and semistructured interviews. Findings revealed that the journey of ‘becoming’ an IMI teacher is shaped by a vast array of intricate variables. IMI teacher identity, implicit theories, stated beliefs, educational biographies and experiences, IMI school cultures and contexts as well as teacher knowledge and competence impacted on IMI teachers’ FFI perspectives and practices. An IMI content teacher identity reflected the teachers’ priorities as shaped by pedagogical challenges and their educational backgrounds. While research participants had clearly defined instructional beliefs and goals, their roadmap of how to actually accomplish these goals was far from clear. IMI teachers described the multitude of choices and pedagogical dilemmas they faced in integrating FFI into experiential pedagogy. Significant gaps in IMI teachers’ declarative knowledge about and competence in the immersion language were also reported. This research study increases our understanding of the complexity of the processes underlying and shaping FFI pedagogy in IMI education. Innovative FFI opportunities for professional development across the continuum of teacher education are outlined, a comprehensive evaluation of IMI is called for and areas for further research are delineated.

Form-focused instruction in second language teaching and learning : theoretical proposals and research findings.

El artículo revisar diferentes propuestas de investigación y teóricas sobre el aprendizaje y enseñanza de la segunda lengua.

I. C. S. reference library; a series of textbooks prepared for the students of the International correspondence schools, and containing in permanent form the instruction papers, examination questions, and keys used in their various courses.

Elements of Pen and Ink Rendering--Rendering with Pen and Brush--Elements of Water-Color Rendering--Rendering in Water Color--Drawing from Nature--Drawing from Cast--Elements of Figure Drawing--Drawing from the Figure.

L’enseignement de la distinction entre le passé composé et l’imparfait et l’utilisation de ces temps verbaux en classe d’immersion française : observations et proposition didactique

La présente étude avait pour objectif de décrire comment est enseignée (si elle l’est effectivement) la distinction d’emploi entre le passé composé et l’imparfait, une distinction aspectuelle posant problème aux apprenants du français langue seconde, dans trois classes de 3e à 5e années en immersion française précoce aux Territoires du Nord-Ouest et de décrire l’utilisation que font les enseignantes de ces temps verbaux. À partir de dix-neuf heures d’observation en classe et d’entretiens menés avec deux enseignantes, nous avons élaboré une proposition didactique basée sur la réflexion guidée avec exemples positifs et négatifs de Nadeau et Fisher (2006) mettant en évidence le contraste d’emploi entre le passé composé et l’imparfait. Cette proposition didactique fournit aux enseignantes une façon de l’enseigner alors qu’elles ne le font pas à ces niveaux, et aux apprenants, un intrant où la fréquence des emplois atypiques est plus grande que dans le discours de leur enseignante.

Orals ain't orals : how instruction and assessment practices affect delivery choices with prepared student oral presentations.

Despite an ostensibly technology-driven society, the ability to communicate orally is still seen as an essential ability for students at school and university, as it is for graduates in the workplace. The need to develop effective oral communication skills is often tied to future work-related tasks. One tangible way that educators have assessed proficiency in this area is through prepared oral presentations. While some use the terms oral communication and oral presentation interchangeably, other writers question the role more formal presentations play in the overall development of oral communication skills. Adding to the discussion, this paper is part of a larger study examining the knowledge and skills students bring into the academy from previous educational experiences. The study examines some of the teaching and assessment methods used in secondary schools to develop oral communication skills through the use of formal oral presentations. Specifically, it will look at assessment models and how these are used as a form of instruction as well as how they contribute to an accurate evaluation of student abilities. The purpose of this paper is to explore key terms and identify tensions between expectations and practice. Placing the emphasis on the ‘oral’ aspect of this form of communication this paper will particularly look at the ‘delivery’ element of the process.

Orals ain’t orals : the role of prepared oral presentations in the classroom and beyond. How do instruction and feedback practices guide delivery choices?

Despite an ostensibly technology-driven society, the ability to communicate orally continues to feature as an essential ability for students at school and university, as it is for graduates in the workplace. Pedagogically, one rationale is that the need to develop effective oral communication skills is tied to life-long learning which includes successful participation in future work-related tasks. One tangible way that educators have assessed proficiency in the area of communication is through prepared oral presentations. While much of the literature uses the terms 'oral communication' and 'oral presentation' interchangeably, some writers question the role more formal presentations play in the overall development of oral communication skills. However, such formal speaking tasks continue to be a recognised assessment practice in both the secondary school and academy, and, therefore, worthy of further investigation. Adding to the discussion, this thesis explores the knowledge and skills students bring into the academy from previous educational experiences. It examines some of the teaching and assessment methods used in secondary schools to develop oral communication skills through the use of formal oral presentations. Specifically, it investigates criterion-referenced assessment sheets and how these tools are used as a form of instruction, as well as their role and effectiveness in the evaluation of student ability. The focus is on the student's perspective and includes 12 semi-structured interviews with school students. The purpose of this thesis is to explore key thematics underpinning oral communication and to identify tensions between expectations and practice. While acknowledging the breadth and depth of material available under the heading of 'communication theory', this study specifically draws on an expanded view of the rhetorical tradition to fully interrogate the assumptions supporting the practice of assessing oral presentations. Finally, this thesis recommends reconnecting with an updated understanding of rhetoric as a way of assisting in the development of expressive, articulate and discerning communicators.

Phonics instruction using pseudowords for success in phonetic decoding

This study examined a Pseudoword Phonics Curriculum to determine if this form of instruction would increase students’ decoding skills compared to typical real-word phonics instruction. In typical phonics instruction, children learn to decode familiar words which allow them to draw on their prior knowledge of how to pronounce the word and may detract from learning decoding skills. By using pseudowords during phonics instruction, students may learn more decoding skills because they are unfamiliar with the “words” and therefore cannot draw on memory for how to pronounce the word. It was hypothesized that students who learn phonics with pseudowords will learn more decoding skills and perform higher on a real-word assessment compared to students who learn phonics with real words. ^ Students from two kindergarten classes participated in this study. An author-created word decoding assessment was used to determine the students’ ability to decode words. The study was broken into three phases, each lasting one month. During Phase 1, both groups received phonics instruction using real words, which allowed for the exploration of baseline student growth trajectories and potential teacher effects. During Phase 2, the experimental group received pseudoword phonics instruction while the control group continued real-word phonics instruction. During Phase 3, both groups were taught with real-word phonics instruction. Students were assessed on their decoding skills before and after each phase. ^ Results from multiple regression and multi-level model analyses revealed a greater increase in decoding skills during the second and third phases of the study for students who received the pseudoword phonics instruction compared to students who received the real-word phonics instruction. This suggests that pseudoword phonics instruction improves decoding skills quicker than real-word phonics instruction. This also suggests that teaching decoding with pseudowords for one month can continue to improve decoding skills when children return to real-word phonics instruction. Teacher feedback suggests that confidence with reading increased for students who learned with pseudowords because they were less intimidated by the approach and viewed pseudoword phonics as a game that involved reading “silly” words. Implications of these results, limitations of this study, and areas for future research are discussed. ^

The relationship of culturally responsive instruction and the reading comprehension and attitude of struggling urban adolescent readers

Culturally responsive instruction refers to the identification of relevant cultural aspects of students' lives and infusion of these into the curriculum. This instructional approach assumes that a culturally appropriate curriculum can potentially motivate, engage, and lead students to higher rates of achievement. This quasi-experimental study (N=44) investigated the relationship of culturally responsive instruction and the reading comprehension and attitude of struggling urban adolescent readers. The study incorporated the use of culturally responsive instruction using culturally relevant literature (CRL), the Bluford Series Novels, as authentic texts of instruction. Participants were seventh grade reading students at a Title I middle school in South Florida. After a baseline period, two different classes were taught for 8 weeks using different methods. One class formed the experimental group ( n=22) and the other class formed the comparison group (n =22). The CRI curriculum for the experimental group embraced the socio-cultural perspective through the use of small discussion groups in which students read and constructed meaning with peers through interaction with the Bluford Series Novels; gave written responses to multiple strategies according to SCRAP - Summarize, Connect, Reflect, Ask Questions, Predict; responded to literal and inferential questions, while at the same time validating their responses through evidence from the text. The Read XL (basal reader) curriculum of the comparison group utilized a traditional form of instruction which incorporated the reading of passages followed by responses to comprehension questions, and teacher-led whole group discussion. The main sources of data were collected from the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR), and the Rhody Secondary Reading Attitude Assessment. Statistical analyses were performed using Repeated Measures ANOVAs. Findings from the study revealed that the experimental participants' reading attitudes and FAIR comprehension scores increased when compared to the comparison group. Overall, the results from the study revealed that culturally responsive instruction can potentially foster reading comprehension and a more positive attitude towards reading. However, a replication of this study in other settings with a larger, more randomized sample size and a greater ethnic variation is needed in order to make full generalizations.

Phonics Instruction using Pseudowords for Success in Phonetic Decoding

This study examined a Pseudoword Phonics Curriculum to determine if this form of instruction would increase students’ decoding skills compared to typical real-word phonics instruction. In typical phonics instruction, children learn to decode familiar words which allow them to draw on their prior knowledge of how to pronounce the word and may detract from learning decoding skills. By using pseudowords during phonics instruction, students may learn more decoding skills because they are unfamiliar with the “words” and therefore cannot draw on memory for how to pronounce the word. It was hypothesized that students who learn phonics with pseudowords will learn more decoding skills and perform higher on a real-word assessment compared to students who learn phonics with real words. Students from two kindergarten classes participated in this study. An author-created word decoding assessment was used to determine the students’ ability to decode words. The study was broken into three phases, each lasting one month. During Phase 1, both groups received phonics instruction using real words, which allowed for the exploration of baseline student growth trajectories and potential teacher effects. During Phase 2, the experimental group received pseudoword phonics instruction while the control group continued real-word phonics instruction. During Phase 3, both groups were taught with real-word phonics instruction. Students were assessed on their decoding skills before and after each phase. Results from multiple regression and multi-level model analyses revealed a greater increase in decoding skills during the second and third phases of the study for students who received the pseudoword phonics instruction compared to students who received the real-word phonics instruction. This suggests that pseudoword phonics instruction improves decoding skills quicker than real-word phonics instruction. This also suggests that teaching decoding with pseudowords for one month can continue to improve decoding skills when children return to real-word phonics instruction. Teacher feedback suggests that confidence with reading increased for students who learned with pseudowords because they were less intimidated by the approach and viewed pseudoword phonics as a game that involved reading “silly” words. Implications of these results, limitations of this study, and areas for future research are discussed.

The Relationship of Culturally Responsive Instruction and the Reading Comprehension and Attitude of Struggling Urban Adolescent Readers

Culturally responsive instruction refers to the identification of relevant cultural aspects of students’ lives and infusion of these into the curriculum. This instructional approach assumes that a culturally appropriate curriculum can potentially motivate, engage, and lead students to higher rates of achievement. This quasi-experimental study (N=44) investigated the relationship of culturally responsive instruction and the reading comprehension and attitude of struggling urban adolescent readers. The study incorporated the use of culturally responsive instruction using culturally relevant literature (CRL), the Bluford Series Novels, as authentic texts of instruction. Participants were seventh grade reading students at a Title I middle school in South Florida. After a baseline period, two different classes were taught for 8 weeks using different methods. One class formed the experimental group (n=22) and the other class formed the comparison group (n=22). The CRI curriculum for the experimental group embraced the socio-cultural perspective through the use of small discussion groups in which students read and constructed meaning with peers through interaction with the Bluford Series Novels; gave written responses to multiple strategies according to SCRAP – Summarize, Connect, Reflect, Ask Questions, Predict; responded to literal and inferential questions, while at the same time validating their responses through evidence from the text. The Read XL (basal reader) curriculum of the comparison group utilized a traditional form of instruction which incorporated the reading of passages followed by responses to comprehension questions, and teacher-led whole group discussion. The main sources of data were collected from the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR), and the Rhody Secondary Reading Attitude Assessment. Statistical analyses were performed using Repeated Measures ANOVAs. Findings from the study revealed that the experimental participants’ reading attitudes and FAIR comprehension scores increased when compared to the comparison group. Overall, the results from the study revealed that culturally responsive instruction can potentially foster reading comprehension and a more positive attitude towards reading. However, a replication of this study in other settings with a larger, more randomized sample size and a greater ethnic variation is needed in order to make full generalizations.

Wykorzystanie Gramatyki Kognitywnej w klasie językowej: Nauczanie angielskich konstrukcji dzierżawczych, czasu i aspektu

Wydział Neofilologii: Instytut Filologii Angielskiej

Teaching English tense and aspect with the help of cognitive grammar: An empirical study

Form-focused instruction is usually based on traditional practical/pedagogical grammar descriptions of grammatical features. The comparison of such traditional accounts with cognitive grammar (CG) descriptions seems to favor CG as a basis of pedagogical rules. This is due to the insistence of CG on the meaningfulness of grammar and its detailed analyses of the meanings of particular grammatical features. The differences between traditional and CG rules/descriptions are exemplified by juxtaposing the two kinds of principles concerning the use of the present simple and present progressive to refer to situations happening or existing at speech time. The descriptions provided the bases for the instructional treatment in a quasi-experimental study exploring the effectiveness of using CG descriptions of the two tenses, and of their interplay with stative (imperfective) and dynamic (perfective) verbs, and comparing this effectiveness with the value of grammar teaching relying on traditional accounts found in standard pedagogical grammars. The study involved 50 participants divided into three groups, with one of them constituting the control group and the other two being experimental ones. One of the latter received treatment based on CG descriptions and the other on traditional accounts. CG-based instruction was found to be at least moderately effective in terms of fostering mostly explicit grammatical knowledge and its effectiveness turned out be comparable to that of teaching based on traditional descriptions.

Exploring the use of effective learning strategies to increase students' reading comprehension and test taking skills /

This study examined the effects of providing students with explicit instruction in how to use a repertoire of reading comprehension strategies and test taking skills when reading and responding to three types of questions (direct, inferential, critical). Specifically, the study examined whether providing students with a "model" of how to read and respond to the text and to the comprehension questions improved their reading comprehension relative to providing them with implicit instruction on reading comprehension strategies and test taking skills. Students' reading comprehension and test taking performance scores were compared as a function of instructional condition. Students from 2 grade 8 classes participated in this study. The reading component of the Canadian Achievement Tests, Third Edition (CAT/3) was used to identify students' level of reading comprehension prior to the formal instructional sessions. Students received either explicit instruction, which involved modelling, or implicit instruction, which consisted of review and discussion of the strategies to be used. Comprehension was measured through the administration of formative tests after each instructional session. The formative tests consisted of reading comprehension questions pertaining to a specific form of text (narrative, informational, graphic). In addition, students completed 3 summative tests and a delayed comprehension test which consisted of the alternative version of the CAT/3 standardized reading assessment. These data served as a posttest measure to determine whether students had shown an improvement in their reading comprehension skills as a result of the program delivery. There were significant differences in students' Canadian Achievement Test performance scores prior to the onset of the study. Students in the implicit group attained significantly higher comprehension scores than did students in the explicit group. The results from the program sessions indicated no significant differences in reading comprehension between the implicit and explicit conditions, with the exception of the 6th session involving the reading and interpreting of graphic text. Students in the explicit group performed significantly better when reading and interpreting graphic text than those in the implicit group. No significant differences were evident between the two study conditions across the three summative tests. Upon completion of the study, the results from the Canadian Achievement Test indicated no significant differences in performance between the two study conditions. The findings from this study reveal the effectiveness of providing students with explicit strategy instruction when reading and responding to various forms of text. Modelling the appropriate reading comprehension strategies and test taking skills enabled students to apply the same thought processes to their own independent work. This form of instruction enabled students in the explicit group to improve in their abilities to comprehend and respond to text and therefore should be incorporated as an effective form of classroom teaching.

Um estudo sobre a intervenção com o professor de educação física para a inclusão educacional do aluno com deficiência visual

It was aimed to identify how the physical education teachers worked to include a student with visual impairment; intervene with the teacher from the identified necessities and assess the intervention. Data were collected in three stages: 1) Weekly monitoring and filming the classes, 2) intervention by the reflection of videos coming from the previous step and suggesting new actions, 3) development of filming for evaluating the intervention. Before the intervention, it was identified that the explanation of the activities happened collectively. It was held the physical help as the first form of instruction, the student with visual impairment participation occurred depending on the company of a classmate who held hands and did the activities together. Along the intervention it was reflected about the structure of the classes, the ways of explanation of the activities and the strategies and the resources to assure an enjoyable participation of students with visual impairments. The training of peer tutors was a strategy used. After the intervention it was identified in the classroom the assistance of the trained peer tutors; the maintenance of oral explanation and demonstration, though, the first way to explanation for the student with visual impairment started to be the oral tip.

I.C.S. reference library.

"A series of textbools prepared for the students of the International Correspondence Schools, and containing in permanent form the instruction papers, examination questions, and keys used in their various courses."