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Kolsaker, Ailsa. "Managerialism and academic professionalism in English universities." Thesis, University of Surrey, 2007. http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/807465/.
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The purpose of this thesis is to illuminate the relationship between managerialism and academic professionalism. It aims to examine how managerial discourses affect academic professionism and the role played by manager-academics. The research surveyed full-time academic staff at chartered and statutory universities. Employing a mixed methodology and stratified random sampling, a focus group and interviews at various institutions were followed by a quantitative survey in which 7,000 full-time staff were invited to participte; 708 responded. The methodology enabled a comparative analysis of variables such as institutional type, rank, gender and number of years employed as an academic across various structuring contexts including workload, managerialism and professionalism. Mirroring earlier literature, the current research indicates worsening conditions across the sector in terms of workload, bureaucracy, prescription and finding time for research. The contribution of this research is the discovery that despite greater demands, academics appear resilient, demonstrating a high level of normative professionalism and surprisingly little instrumentality. They appear generally ambivalent towards managerialism in universities, tending to blame broader societal and political changes for the worsening conditions. Manager-academics were not rated well however, and were not generally seen as supportive. The implications of these findings for public policy and institutional middle management are discussed. It is concluded that academics are perhaps more resilient than earlier studies suggest; that they can be expected to resist managerial activities that threaten their values and autonomy and that hitherto they have been relatively successful in defending their professionalism. It is suggested that efforts now should be directed towards ensuring that the cadre of professional administrators appointed by universities over the last decade or so actually deal with the administration, allowing academics to concentrate on pedagogy. It is also further suggested that manager-academics abandon bureaucracy as a mode of indirect control and develop more 'hands on' social skills to enable them to manage in a consultative, inclusive and motivating manner. For their part, academics need to be cognizant of the political discourse challenging their professionalism and how new forms of accountability might be built upon to enhance trust, motivation, reflexivity and democratic dialogue in an era driven by economic rationality.
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Mattsson, Kershaw Anneli. "Teaching Academic English to English Learners : A literature Review on Classroom Practice." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Engelska, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-25394.
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The level of fluency in the genre specific language of schooling, also known as Academic English (AE), determines students’ success in school. Government agencies that legislate school policies therefore give teachers the directive to conduct education in ways that promote communicative abilities in academic English across all curricula. While the acquisition of an AE register entails hard work for native English-speaking students it presents an enormous challenge for English language learners (ELLs) who are faced with the triple burden of leaning basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS) in addition to content knowledge and academic English. Classroom practices, teachers’ training, and students’ cognitive abilities are predictive factors in the successful acquisition of academic English by ELLs. This literature review, which draws on cognitive theory in addition to systemic functional linguistics theory, contributes to the topic of how to most effectively teach AE to ELLs in English speaking classrooms. The results from seven peer reviewed research sources indicate that teaching practices differ depending on the nature of the subject, but that systemic learning theory, scaffolding, and contextual awareness are reoccurring elements. Furthermore, the results imply that there are challenges including that ELLs constitute a very heterogeneous student body with varying cognitive abilities that require a variety of teaching approaches. In addition educators’ attitudes, competences and training in teaching AE across all curricula pose a challenge to the quality of instruction. Further research on the topic could involve making actual classroom observations in addition to conducting teacher interviews in schools that have content and language integrated learning in Sweden to explore what instructional methods are used to teach AE in CLIL- education.
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Wilson, Roy. "The PTE academic and outer circle students : assessing proficiency in English, ownership of English, and academic performance at UK universities." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2016. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/90065/.
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This mixed methods study explores the relationship of an academic English language proficiency test - the Pearson Test of English Academic (PTEA) - to the academic performance of its test takers at university. The particular focus is on the English language proficiency and academic performance of students from the “outer circle” (Kachru, 1985), many of whom have an accompanying ownership of English (Norton, 1997, Widdowson, 1994; Higgins, 2003). The implications of this proficiency and ownership of English for admissions, test performance and academic performance, are explored in the two strands of the study. The first strand uses mixed methods including statistical analysis of a large data set of PTEA test scores; analysis of university admissions policy documents; and thematic analysis of interview and survey data. The second strand of the research uses interviews (tutorials) to investigate the interpretability of the test for four individuals from the outer circle (Anglophone West Africa), in particular, looking at what can be inferred from the PTEA score profiles about their English language proficiency at university. The strand investigates whether the test served any purpose for the evaluation of these four individuals’ English language proficiency. The study indicates that there are some statistically significant differences in the proficiency of test takers from the outer circle as compared to the expanding circle (as expressed through mean test scores) according to nationality sub-groups and L1s. Ownership of English is a theme manifested in the educational and social background of the survey and case study participants emerging from thematic analysis of the data. Regarding inferences from test scores, the PTEA score profiles for the four cases do, to some extent, match their actual experiences at university regarding linguistic difficulties encountered on their courses. The case study also reveals other important factors in academic performance which are related to language proficiency but are also part of the adjustment to university experienced by all students including acquisition of academic skills and academic literacy. The study makes a contribution to the study of World Englishes and language testing, in particular the legitimacy of the English of test takers from the outer circle and how they are viewed and processed in the admissions system to UK universities.
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Li, Juan. "Revision strategies in English-second-language academic writing." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape3/PQDD_0007/MQ45284.pdf.
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Laib, Nicole A. "Promoting academic success for limited English proficient students." Online pdf file accessible through the World Wide Web, 2007. http://archives.evergreen.edu/masterstheses/Accession89-10MIT/Laib_N%20MITthesis%202007.pdf.
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Klein, Luciana Conceição. "Brazilian college students': awareness of academic written english." Florianópolis, SC, 2002. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/83640.
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Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente.Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-20T01:57:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0Bitstream added on 2015-02-04T21:04:36Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 184734.pdf: 13428595 bytes, checksum: 36669ade3412f325017b820ee58e0c11 (MD5)
O objetivo deste estudo é contribuir para o entendimento das atitudes de alunos universitários brasileiros em relação à atividade da escrita acadêmica em língua inglesa e investigar sua consciência em relação aos procedimentos envolvidos no processo da escrita. O estudo se baseia na Teoria da Escrita como Processo Cognitivo de Flower e Hayes (1981) e investiga o entendimento que os sujeitos demonstram do ambiente da tarefa de escrita, dos processos de escrita e da importância do conhecimento prévio para o processo de escrita como um todo. A pesquisa foi conduzida com onze alunos cursando Letras no Centro Universitário de Jaraguá do Sul - UNERJ e dezoito na Fundação Universidade Regional de Blumenau - FURB. O método utilizado na pesquisa consistiu de (1) uma amostra de texto escrito pelos sujeitos, e (2) um questionário para levantar dados referentes à percepção de escrita acadêmica que esses alunos têm, assim como seu envolvimento com a tarefa de escrever em língua inglesa. Os resultados mostraram que os sujeitos desse estudo (1) estão cientes dos processos e sub-processos descritos pelo modelo de Flower e Hayes (1981) e que (2) essa consciência não resulta em uma produção mais fluente de inglês escrito. O estudo também revelou a preocupação dos sujeitos com sua proficiência lingüística principalmente no que se refere à gramática e ao vocabulário. No entanto, o conteúdo a ser transcrito não foi afetado por essas limitações lingüísticas. A conclusão desta dissertação apresenta as limitações do estudo, sugestões para pesquisas posteriores e implicações pedagógicas.
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Haas, Mark J. Neuleib Janice. "Conversations in context a genre-based pedagogy for academic writing /." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1996. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p9721395.
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Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1996.Title from title page screen, viewed May 26, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Janice Neuleib (chair), Douglas Hesse, Dana Harrington. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 206-218) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Gamaroff, Raphael. "English proficiency testing and the prediction of academic achievement." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17870.
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Includes bibliographical references.The study investigates the ability of English proficiency tests (1) to measure levels of English proficiency among learners who have English as the medium of teaching and learning, and (2) to predict long-term academic achievement (Grade 7 to Grade 12). The tests are "discrete-point" tests, namely, error recognition and grammar tests (both multiple-choice tests), and "integrative" tests, namely, cloze tests, essay tests and dictation tests. The sample of subjects consists of two groups: (1) those taking English as a First Language subject and those taking English as a Second Language subject. These groups are given the familiar labels of Ll and L2. The main interest lies in the L2 group. The main educational context is a high school in the North West Province of South Africa.
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Fujiwara, Yoshimichi. "Spatial expressions in English and Japanese." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 1992. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/97.
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This item is only available in print in the UCF Libraries. If this is your Honors Thesis, you can help us make it available online for use by researchers around the world by following the instructions on the distribution consent form at http://library.ucf.edu/Systems/DigitalInitiatives/DigitalCollections/InternetDistributionConsentAgreementForm.pdf You may also contact the project coordinator, Kerri Bottorff, at kerri.bottorff@ucf.edu for more information.Bachelors
Arts and Sciences
English
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Winberg, Dan-Erik. "English Academic Word Knowledge in Tertiary Education in Sweden." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för utbildning, kultur och kommunikation, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-24981.
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The English language has established itself as the academic lingua franca of the world. For example, Swedish universities are mainly using English textbooks in their teaching. For students in tertiary education in Sweden, it is thus necessary to have an academic English vocabulary. This study examines the academic word knowledge of 148 students in different disciplines at a Swedish university. The method used was a vocabulary test. The test design was based on the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) and the words were chosen from the Academic Word List (AWL) due to their frequency in academic written texts. There was a rapid decline of the participants' word knowledge the less common the words were according to the AWL. The results indicate that Swedish students’ academic word knowledge in English is generally unsatisfactory, which could make the reading of academic texts troublesome for them.
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Thiele, Klaus. "Metaphors in spoken academic discourse in German and English." Thesis, Aston University, 2013. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/20907/.
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Metaphors have been increasingly associated with cognitive functions, which means that metaphors structure how we think and express ourselves. Metaphors are embodied in our basic physical experience, which is one reason why certain abstract concepts are expressed in more concrete terms, such as visible entities, journeys, and other types of movement, spaces etc. This communicative relevance also applies to specialised, institutionalised settings and genres, such as those produced in or related to higher education institutions, among which is spoken academic discourse. A significant research gap has been identified regarding spoken academic discourse and metaphors therein, but also given the fact that with increasing numbers of students in higher education and international research and cooperation e.g. in the form of invited lectures, spoken academic discourse can be seen as nearly omnipresent. In this context, research talks are a key research genre. A mixed methods study has been conducted, which investigates metaphors in a corpus of eight fully transcribed German and English L1 speaker conference talks and invited lectures, totalling to 440 minutes. A wide range of categories and functions were identified in the corpus. Abstract research concepts, such as results or theories are expressed in terms of concrete visual entities that can be seen or shown, but also in terms of journeys or other forms of movement. The functions of these metaphors are simplification, rhetorical emphasis, theory-construction, or pedagogic illustration. For both the speaker and the audience or discussants, anthropomorphism causes abstract and complex ideas to become concretely imaginable and at the same time more interesting because the contents of the talk appear to be livelier and hence closer to their own experience, which ensures the audience’s attention. These metaphor categories are present in both the English and the German sub corpus of this study with similar functions.
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Pierce, Robert D. "Phrasal verbs in academic lectures." PDXScholar, 1990. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4140.
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Phrasal verbs are a pervasive and distinctly Germanic part of the spoken English language that has been alive for centuries. They have preceded American history, and yet considered to be "the most active and creative pattern and word formation in the American language" (Meyer, 1975). Distinctly colloquial, idiomatic and varying in shades of literalness and figurativity, phrasal verbs are largely dominant in casual usage, such as conversation, while the Latinate verbs of English are dominant in formal usage, such as in making reports (McArthur 1989). While foreign educators and their students, such as from Chinese countries, are found to emphasize English study for formal and academic purposes, the acquisition of phrasal verbs may not be considered instrumental to the purposes of the students coming to the United States in pursuit of academic degrees.
Because of the pervasiveness of phrasal verbs in spoken English language, and because of the largely conversational nature of American lectures, this study is intended to answer the following research questions:
1. In university classrooms, are the phrasal verbs spoken by native English speaking lecturers?
2. Are figurative phrasal verbs in academic lectures significantly greater in frequency than non-figuratively classified phrasal verbs in the academic lectures?
3. Do certain academic subjects tend to generate a significant increase in the number of phrasal verbs spoken by instructors, of either figurative phrasal verbs, or the more literal non-figuratively classified phrasal verbs?
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Weeden, Scott R. Hesse Douglas Dean. "Teaching discipline-specific academic writing a qualitative study of four semesters /." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p9835922.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1998.Title from title page screen, viewed July 7, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Douglas Hesse (chair), Janice Neuleib, Dana Harrington. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-183) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Lange, Marjory. "An anatomy of English Renaissance tears." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/186565.
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This dissertation traces shifts in the way tears were perceived during the English Renaissance, from roughly 1509 to 1660. Examining medical treatises, sermons, and lyric poetry, I demonstrate that tears and weeping underwent a paradigm shift both as literary symbols and phenomena. Although this revaluation is inconsistent between the different discourses, by the end of the Renaissance, patterns in place a century earlier had been significantly challenged, even redefined, as the most popular model in each genre gradually yielded to new insights. Chapter One examines medical treatises, primarily on melancholy. The Renaissance inherited the paradigm of humours theory to explain human psycho/ physiology. During the seventeenth century, dissection began to replace humours with an empirical model based on the existence of glandular paths for tears. Chapter Two investigates the effect upon lyric poetry of this loss of vital, currently grounded metaphors derived from humoural models. Sixteenth-century poetic miscellanies are replete with tears wept unabashedly by poetic speakers to honor their unrequited love, tears shed in a type of serious, often melancholic play. By the end of the seventeenth century, although humour-based metaphors are still present, increasingly they are devoid of fundamental content. This drought embodies alterations in medical paradigm, as well as the homiletic tradition's long-standing distrust of affect. Chapter Three explores sermons, where, unless they were shed in repentance for sin, tears signified human sinful weakness. All "natural" grief was suspect. In addition, preachers struggled with the vestiges of the medieval 'gift of tears.' Theologically unpopular, this conception was sufficiently prevalent to require frequent rebuttal from the pulpit. Sermons on the verse, "Jesus wept" preached between 1509 and 1700 demonstrate an hermeneutical transmutation: from an early characterization as the superior, almost condescending, but compassionate king, Jesus has by 1700 become the divine architect, weeping only because his exalted design for humanity will be rejected. In Chapter Four, the works of three seventeenth-century devotional poets, John Donne, George Herbert, and Richard Crashaw, are shown to incorporate the most dominant effects of the overall change that tears underwent. In their poetry, metaphoric depletion is offset by gains in imaginative liberty. Donne wrestles with the dilemma of placing tears between himself and God; Herbert offers tears to God--with a problematic humility--because he is human; and Crashaw celebrates the sheer human wonder of tears. The vitality of poetic tear imagery culminates in their work.
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Mattsson, Kershaw Anneli. "Academic English in CLIL-programs : Classroom practices that promote or hinder proficiency inacademic English vocabulary." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Engelska, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-27458.
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English CLIL-instruction in Sweden is supposed to be beneficial to students who want to improve their academic English vocabulary proficiency in preparation for studies or employment abroad. However, recent research shows that there is no difference in academic English proficiency between students in upper secondary school CLIL-programs and students in regular upper secondary schools in Sweden. Furthermore, educational researchers question if CLIL-programs in Sweden qualify to be defined as CLIL-instruction since Swedish translanguaging is extensively used which does not make the programs 100% Englishmedium instruction. Through teacher observations and questionnaires, this study investigates the classroom practices at a CLIL-program in Sweden in addition to ask the CLIL-teachers about their teaching strategies in regards to promoting students’ acquisition, development, and use of academic English. The findings include that the classroom practices are in accordance with practices considered beneficial to students’ proficiency in academi c English by numerous previous studies. In addition, all the teachers questioned in this study purposely work to support and develop students’ academic language proficiency in their respective subject areas and across the curriculum. The study also found four possible factors that perhaps can undermine the acquisition, development and use of academic English vocabulary and those include the following: First, the teachers believe that the students are already sufficiently fluent in academic English, and thus concentrate more on content than on language in their instruction. Secondly, extensive translanguaging in the classroom is common in addition to the students’ habit of speaking Swedish to each other in stude nt-tostudent communication. Thirdly, the students do not receive the corresponding level of education in their native language of Swedish as they do in English, which can have detrimental effects on their abilities to develop their English past their Swedish language abilities. Finally, classroom practices that are not inclusive of all students can work to undermine the acquisition and use of academic English vocabulary.
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Shen, Ying 1974. "A study of Chinese students' academic listening needs for academic success in Canadian universities /." Thesis, McGill University, 2007. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=99604.
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With English becoming a world language, an increasing number of non-native-English-speaking (NNES) students are pursuing studies in English-medium universities. Of these NNES students, Chinese students constitute a large proportion. Most of these Chinese students are NNES and need English language support to help them meet academic demands in English-speaking settings. However, there are a very limited number of studies conducted on linguistic needs and deficiencies among Chinese students at English-speaking universities in Canada.The main objective of this thesis is to discover Chinese students' perceptions of academic English listening competence and to investigate their academic listening needs for academic success at Canadian universities. This small-scale study at two Canadian universities, conducted through a questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews, fills a gap in the limited number of studies concerning Chinese students' language-development needs at Canadian universities.
Findings of this study support the following points. Firstly, Chinese students think that having sufficient English academic listening competence is crucial and necessary for academic success in academic English settings. Secondly, Chinese students still have difficulties in various academic listening skills, and factors that affect students' listening comprehension are both linguistically and socio-culturally related to the new settings. Thirdly, Chinese students still need target-language linguistic support even though they are admitted into English-medium universities. Finally, apart from academic listening competence, Chinese students report deficiencies in academic writing, reading and speaking as well. In addition, this study also suggests that Chinese students may lack good strategies for enhancing their English-language proficiency.
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Devi, Sarojani. "Validating aspects of a model of academic reading." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/296771.
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In the past, the focus in language testing, teaching and research has largely been on careful reading while expeditious (quick, efficient and selective) reading has been largely ignored. However, some research suggests that careful reading ability alone is inadequate for students to meet the demands of undergraduate academic reading. In the main English for Academic Purposes (EAP), test instruments have been previously based on careful reading models which assume reading to be unicomponential. If this is not the case, the issue for language testing is whether the construct of academic reading can be validly measured by a focus on careful reading alone. The aims of this study were to investigate the types of academic reading required of firstyear undergraduates based on Urquhart and Weir's (1998) four-cell matrix of reading types which also forms an important part of Khalifa and Weir's (2009) reading model. Based on this, a valid academic reading test battery for undergraduate students was developed and used to examine the divisibility of the academic reading construct. The literature review on reading models suggested that current models were nearly all premised on careful reading and expeditious reading had in the main been ignored. The findings of a pilot and main questionnaire survey with undergraduates suggested that both careful and expeditious reading were important in accomplishing academic reading tasks at the undergraduate level. Accordingly, the empirical data generated by these surveys validated Urquhart and Weir's (2009) reading matrix and aspects of the reading model by Khalifa and Weir (2009). Based on this matrix and aspects of the model, a valid reading test was developed and administered to first-year undergraduate students. The performance of undergraduates across the different parts of the reading test confirmed that academic reading was a divisible construct. The findings of this study add to the literature on EAL academic reading by lending empirical support to a componential approach to the teaching and testing of reading. The componential model and the test design methodology employed should help test designers develop valid academic reading tests embracing both careful and expeditious reading types. The results from such tests might usefully inform pedagogical practice leading to more efficient reading practice at undergraduate level.
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Hamp-Lyons, E. M. "Testing second language writing in academic settings." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.381167.
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Carlson, Carrie Lea. "Menominee County Writing Center and Lab a rural Michigan academic achievement project /." Online version, 2009. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2009/2009carlsonc.pdf.
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Wille, Jessica R. "Measuring the academic achievement and English language proficiency of students at the secondary level." Menomonie, WI : University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2006/2006willej.pdf.
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Dunworth, Catherine Mary. "Tertiary entry level English language proficiency : a case study /." Full text available, 2001. http://adt.curtin.edu.au/theses/available/adt-WCU20030804.113909.
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Farnsworth, Timothy Lloyd. "The construct of academic English in tests of academic achievement and its effect on student performance a confirmatory factor analytic study /." Diss., Restricted to subscribing institutions, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1579966941&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=1564&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Stein, Marcela. "The academic writing experience of non-native speakers of English /." Full text available online, 2008. http://www.lib.rowan.edu/find/theses.
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McLaughlin, Janet-Marie [Verfasser]. "English Academic Writing: Social constructivism and corpora / Janet-Marie McLaughlin." Aachen : Shaker, 2013. http://d-nb.info/1051572401/34.
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Matsubara, Shigeki, Kenji Sugiki, Yuta Sakai, and Shunsuke Kozawa. "Automatic Extraction of Phrasal Expressions for Supporting English Academic Writing." Springer, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2237/15207.
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Middleton, Marissa. "An examination of academic dishonesty in secondary online english education." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 2012. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/589.
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Online schooling is the newest form of education and it is quickly gaining popularity. However, this educational format also comes with one of the challenges that has always been present in schools, which is academic dishonesty. In the English Language Arts content area, academic dishonesty is most often manifested as plagiarism, however, cheating on online quizzes or exams still exists. Although this issue has always been present in English classes, it is becoming more of a concern because of the vast number of technological resources available to students including websites with pre-written papers and the various methods students can now use to instantly communicate with each other. This study combines and synthesizes a literature review and a survey of secondary online English educators at Florida Virtual School to give their perspective on aspects of cheating and plagiarism in online English education including a comparison between online and face to face academic dishonesty, reasons students cheat or plagiarize in online education and attitudes toward academic dishonesty, how students cheat and plagiarize in online classes, how teachers detect academic dishonesty in their online classes, consequences and policies of academic dishonesty in online education, and preventing academic dishonesty in online education. The overall new finding, from comparing both the literature review and the FLVS survey results, was that academic dishonesty in online education is not vastly different from academic dishonesty in face to face classrooms; therefore, academic dishonesty in the online environment is not as much of a mystery as commonly perceived. The survey did, however, expand the knowledge about online academic dishonesty at the secondary level, and specifically in the English Language Arts content area.B.S.
Bachelors
Education and Human Performance
English Language Arts Education
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Channing, O. Ernestien. "English written proficiency as a contributing factor to academic performance." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/65481.
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Internationally English is increasingly being used as a language of instruction in education. This is also true within the South African context, a country with eleven official languages. Many non-native English speaking (NNES) students, for whom English might be their second, third or even fourth language, are studying through the medium of English. Previous studies on this topic acknowledge that the level of English proficiency which NNES students have, affects their academic performance. The problem under investigation in this case study was the relationship between students’ academic performance in particular modules and how their written responses in examinations contributed to them failing a module. The purpose was to establish to which extent limited English proficiency contributed to the poor academic performance of NNES preservice teachers studying through distance education. This study is underpinned by Cummins’ theory of Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (1984). It is supported by related literature which emphasises the challenges NNES students experience in understanding academic content and responding to written assessment tasks in a language other than their home language. A quantitative approach was used which focused on the written responses to examination papers of thirty undergraduate B Ed students who had failed a particular module, at a private higher education institution. The contribution of inadequate or incoherent English, as the reason why marks were not allocated to answers, was calculated and analysed. Results indicated that students’ English grammatical proficiency does have an influence on their academic performance, though it is not the main contributing factor to students failing their modules. For this case study it was determined that the pre-service teachers’ inadequate English written proficiency contributed almost a third (25,6%) of the reasons for their poor academic performance. This finding suggests the need to develop new teaching strategies to accommodate and offer language support to NNES students in higher education institutions that offer qualifications using English as the medium of instruction.Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
Humanities Education
MEd
Unrestricted
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Hadia, Gharnasa M. "An analysis of english academic writing in a Libyan university." University of the Western Cape, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/7356.
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Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThis study explores English academic writing in a Libyan university. The results show a number of challenges and issues that Libyan university students experience in using English for academic writing. The study suggests intervention procedures that may correct students’ linguistic academic deficiencies. Using Gee (1999)’s D/discourse theory and Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and field, which view writing as a social practice embedded in social activities, the study takes a purely qualitative approach, presenting data descriptions by both students and lecturers. The sample size of the investigation is eight – four lecturers and four students. The data was collected mainly through classroom observation, open-ended interviews and an analysis of students’ assignment essays. The results indicate several areas of challenge for Libyan students with regard to academic writing; a lack of adequate ‘scaffolding’, a lack of ample time spent on authentic practice, and inappropriate immediate feedback. Findings also show a lack of teaching methods and strategies that correct syntactical and morphological errors, and a lack of skills – research skills. Further to this, results revealed a lack of synthesis and summary skills, referencing skills – and a lack of confidence in tackling academic writing tasks. In addition, the lack of appropriate materials to consult was a contributing factor, as was students’ social and economic status. The study calls for various interventions that may assist students to acquire academic writing skills and hence develop a sense of confidence in taking on academic tasks.
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Dong, Xinran. "Requests in Academic Settings in American English, Russian and Chinese." The Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1245463927.
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Van, Steenbergen Suzanne Michele. "Beyond words making academic language real for secondary English learners /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2008. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p1457299.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008.Title from first page of PDF file (viewed November 6, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Includes bibliographical references (p. 168-171).
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Barletta, Manjarres Norma Patricia. "English Teachers in Colombia: Ideologies and Identities in Academic Writing." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193920.
Full textAbstract:
English Language Teaching (ELT) can be considered an ideological enterprise especially at a time when the spread of English and the ELT profession are related to post-colonial and capitalist interests (Phillipson, 1992, 1997, 2000, 2006; Pennycook, 1994, 1997a; Canagarajah,1999b). In this context, nonnative English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) face particular challenges related to the prevailing ideologies of English, which has consequences in terms of roles, status, power, and access. This dissertation is a critical discourse analysis of the theses written by twenty in-service teachers of English as a Foreign Language in Colombia on completion of a one-year graduate program, during which they were acquainted with theories, approaches, and methodologies in the field of ELT. The objective is, through a close analysis of the language feature of the texts, 1) to identify ideologies of English, teaching and learning, and 2) to describe the identities the teachers construe for themselves in their writing. The analysis is text-driven and it uses categories from different functional approaches. The analysis of the texts shows that the writers engage in ideological discourses regarding the English language, the social and economic consequences of knowing English, and the cultural aims of foreign language teaching. Their discourses convey conceptions of teaching, learning and research that are influenced by acritical interpretations of the literature available to them. This does not seem to contribute to solving their practical problems and is likely to contribute to the maintenance of the students' established roles in their communities. The teacher-authors are faced with the challenge of dealing with the contradicting interests of their own ideals of education, the constraints of the conventions of the discourse community they are trying to enter, the institutional pressures to be updated with newer trends in applied linguistics and obtain visible results, and the needs of the country to find a place in the globalized economy. The study points to the need to encourage more critical interpretations and applications of the theories and approaches emanating from the traditional academic centers which in turn should also take interest in examining the pattern of the unilateral flow of knowledge and its consequences.
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Zhao, Jun. "Metaphors and Gestures for Abstract Concepts in Academic English Writing." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195298.
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Gestures and metaphors are important mediational tools to materialize abstract conventions in the conceptual development process (Lantolf and Thorne, 2006): metaphors are used in the educational setting to simplify abstract knowledge for learners (Ungerer and Schmidt, 1996; Wee, 2005); gestures, through visual representation, can "provide additional insights into how humans conceptualize abstract concepts via metaphors" (Mittelberg, in press, p. 23).This study observed and videotaped four composition instructors and 54 ESL students at an American university to probe how their metaphorical expressions and gestures in a variety of naturally occurring settings, such as classroom teaching, student-teacher conferencing, peer reviewing and student presentations, represent the abstract rhetorical conventions of academic writing in English. By associating students' gestures with the instructors' metaphors and gestures, this study found evidence for the assistive roles of metaphors and gestures in the learning process. The final interviews elicited students' metaphors of academic writing in English and in their first languages. The interviewees were also asked to reflect upon the effectiveness of the metaphors and gestures they were exposed to.This study confirmed the roles of gestures in reflecting the abstract mental representation of academic writing. Twelve patterns were extracted from the instructors' data, including the linearity, container, building, journey metaphors and others. Of these twelve patterns, six were materialized in the students' gestural usage. The similarity of gestures found in the instructors' and students' data provided proof of the occurrence of learning. In the elicited data, students created pyramid, book, and banquet metaphors, to highlight features of academic writing in English and in their first languages. These new metaphors demonstrate students' ability to synthesize simple metaphors they encountered for a more complex one, which is more significant in the learning process. The interviews suggest that metaphors are better-perceived and more effective in relating abstract knowledge to the students. Gestures were not judged by the students to be helpful. This could result from the fact that gestures, other than emblems, are often understood unconsciously and are naturally used to provide additional information to the verbal utterance rather than replacing speech, which is more prominent perceptually and conceptually.
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Albalawi, Anood Sarai. "SAUDI L2 LEARNERS' KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTIONS OF ACADEMIC ENGLISH SLANG." OpenSIUC, 2014. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1442.
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This study investigated the extent to which Saudi students were interested in American academic slang terms and expressions. The goal of this study was to examine their knowledge and perceptions of academic slang as L2 learners living in the US. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were employed. The data were retrieved via an online survey. A written questionnaire was completed by 50 undergraduate SIUC students from Saudi Arabia. The vocabulary task results showed that Saudi L2 learners do not have sufficient knowledge of American academic slang. Saudi students, especially females, revealed a positive attitude towards learning American academic slang in order to communicate successfully in American universities. This research highlights the importance of presenting international students with academic slang as an important register frequently used in academic life.
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Fisher, Tyler. "Jose Marti's Ismaelillo : an english translations." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 2002. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/272.
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This item is only available in print in the UCF Libraries. If this is your Honors Thesis, you can help us make it available online for use by researchers around the world by following the instructions on the distribution consent form at http://library.ucf.edu/Systems/DigitalInitiatives/DigitalCollections/InternetDistributionConsentAgreementForm.pdf You may also contact the project coordinator, Kerri Bottorff, at kerri.bottorff@ucf.edu for more information.Bachelors
Arts and Sciences
Spanish
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Dodson, Eric Dean. "Opportunities for Incidental Acquisition of Academic Vocabulary from Teacher Speech in an English for Academic Purposes Classroom." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1639.
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This study examines an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teacher's speech throughout one curricular unit of an intermediate grammar and writing course in order to better understand which high-value vocabulary students might acquire through attending to the teacher and noticing words that are used.
Vocabulary acquisition is important for English for Academic Purposes students, given the vocabulary demands of academic language. The Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000) has been shown to include important vocabulary in written academic texts, and has become a standard part of English for Academic Purposes curricula and pedagogical materials. Although explicit vocabulary instruction is important, research has shown that large amounts of vocabulary may be acquired incidentally by attending to meaning. Classroom instruction provides a great deal of input, and could potentially offer a chance for students to encounter and begin to learn academic vocabulary through incidental acquisition. However, existing research on incidental vocabulary acquisition in classrooms has focused on adult instruction and English as a Foreign Language settings, resulting in a lack of evidence about English for Academic Purposes classrooms.
To respond to these needs, this study analyzes the occurrence and repetition of Academic Word List items in the teacher's speech throughout two weeks of a course in an intensive academic English program in the United States. Two weeks of naturalistic class recordings from the Multimedia Adult Learner Corpus were transcribed and analyzed using the RANGE program to find the number of academic vocabulary types in the teacher's speech and how often they were repeated. Additionally, I derived categories of classroom topics and coded the transcribed speech in order to investigate the connection between topics and academic word use.
Academic Word List items are present in the teacher's speech, although they do not constitute a large proportion overall, only 2.8% of the running words. Most of the AWL types relate to specific classroom topics or routines. There are 13 AWL types repeated to a high degree, and 26 AWL types repeated to a moderate degree. These items are the most likely candidates for incidental vocabulary acquisition, though there is evidence from the videos that most of the students already understand their general meanings. It is unlikely that students could learn a great deal about AWL items that they were not already familiar with. However, it is possible that the teacher's speech provides incremental gains in AWL word knowledge.
These findings show that there may be a substantial number of AWL items that students learn about even before explicitly studying academic vocabulary. Teachers should try to draw out students' familiarity with these forms when explicitly teaching AWL vocabulary in order to connect familiar words with their academic meanings and uses.
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Allardice, Seamus Rory. "Student preparedness for academic writing : an evaluation of the perceptions of preparedness for academic writing of school leavers taking English 178 at Stellenbosch University." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/80193.
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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Student Preparedness for Academic Writing examines perceptions of student preparedness for academic writing in the first-year literary studies course, English 178, located in the English Department at Stellenbosch University. The research was conducted during 2011 and 2012 making use of a survey which was completed by the 2011 first-year English 178 class, and also utilising a series of interviews with students, tutors and lecturers in 2012. Preparedness for English 178 is framed in terms of Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of socially constructed habitus. In addition to the thought of Bourdieu the thesis draws on the writings of Peter Elbow, Arlene Archer and Pamela Nichols, among others, to analyse and frame the quantitative and qualitative information yielded by the study. The dissertation assesses multiple interlocking elements that comprise student preparedness and finds striking discrepancy between student perception of their preparedness and that of the lecturers and tutors. While tutors, lecturers and the report of the National Benchmark Test all suggest that at least half of all first-year students are poorly prepared for academic writing, only about 21% of students perceive themselves to be poorly prepared. Possible reasons for the difference in views between students and other sources are explored. The thesis concludes by asking if the English 178 course at Stellenbosch University truly tests the students’ academic writing abilities and if the course is balancing its “obligations to students [with the]… obligation[s] to knowledge and society” (Elbow 327).
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie verhandeling ondersoek persepsies van studentevoorbereidheid vir akademiese skryf in die eerstejaars-letterkundekursus, Engels 178, gesetel in die Departement Engels aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch. Die navorsing is gedurende 2011 en 2012 gedoen deur gebruik te maak van ’n vraelys wat deur 2011 se Engels 178-eerstejaarsklas voltooi is, asook van ’n reeks onderhoude met studente, tutors en lektore in 2012. In hierdie verhandeling word voorbereidheid vir Engels 178 in terme van Pierre Bourdieu se konsep van sosiaal gekonstrueerde habitus beskryf. Benewens Bourdieu se denke word daar ook na die werke van onder andere Peter Elbow, Arlene Archer en Pamela Nichols verwys om die kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe inligting wat uit die studie voortgekom het, te ontleed en te situeer. Die verhandeling assesseer die veelvuldige ineengeskakelde elemente wat studentevoorbereidheid omvat, en bevind ’n opvallende teenstrydigheid tussen studente se persepsie van hulle eie voorbereidheid en lektore en tutors se persepsie van studente se voorbereidheid. Terwyl tutors en lektore se ervaring en die Nasionale Normtoetsverslag alles daarop wys dat ten minste die helfte van alle eerstejaarstudente swak voorbereid is vir akademiese skryf, beskou slegs ongeveer 21% van studente hulself as swak voorbereid. Moontlike redes vir die verskil in beskouings tussen studente en ander bronne word ondersoek. Die verhandeling sluit af met die vraag of die Engels 178-kursus aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch werklik studente se akademiese skryfvaardighede toets, en of die kursus wel ’n ewewig handhaaf tussen verpligtinge teenoor studente en ’n verantwoordelikheid teenoor kennis en die samelewing (Elbow 327).
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Turnbull, Merrielle. "Becoming one with the university : basic writers and academic voice." Virtual Press, 1994. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/932630.
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Basic writers often require different courses than traditional Freshman Composition 1 students to succeed in college. Ball State University's basic writing program offers a two-semester sequence that provides students with additional time and attention, thereby addressing these students' special needs. The program encourages students to see themselves as academic writers and as part of the academic community.This study examined the degree of presence of academic voice in students' writing as measured at four intervals during the program's initial year. A 2 x 4 analysis of variance measured change in academic voice for female and male students, using the Academic Voice Checksheet. In addition, students' levels of confidence was measured using the Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension Test (W.A.T.) and correlated to the presence of academic voice using the Pearson product-moment correlation. Findings are presented in an analysis of the study group as a whole and in an analysis of six individual students' work. Those students' profiles were examined for overall academic voice, discrete features of academic voice, the W.A.T. overall scores, and specific questions dealing with student confidence.The analysis revealed that a change in the degree of presence of academic voice occured during the two-semester sequence. However, male and female students were seen to have the same basic profile, thereby suggesting no difference according to sex of student, challenging current gender theory. A comparison of the initial measurement and the final measurement indicated a positive change in a majority of academic voice scores.A correlation between the academic voice score and a decrease in students' writing apprehension was found in the final measurements. Five percent of students' W.A.T. score may be explained by the academic voice measurement. In the study group, 65 percent of the students showed a decrease in W.A.T. scores between the two measurements, indicating a positive lessening of writing apprehension.This study suggests that the basic writing sequence at Ball State University is providing an environment that facilitates students' use of academic voice and lessens their writing apprehension. Both factors enhance students' opportunities for academic success.Department of English
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Kosem, Iztok. "Designing a model for a corpus-driven dictionary of academic English." Thesis, Aston University, 2010. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/14664/.
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University students encounter difficulties with academic English because of its vocabulary, phraseology, and variability, and also because academic English differs in many respects from general English, the language which they have experienced before starting their university studies. Although students have been provided with many dictionaries that contain some helpful information on words used in academic English, these dictionaries remain focused on the uses of words in general English. There is therefore a gap in the dictionary market for a dictionary for university students, and this thesis provides a proposal for such a dictionary (called the Dictionary of Academic English; DOAE) in the form of a model which depicts how the dictionary should be designed, compiled, and offered to students. The model draws on state-of-the-art techniques in lexicography, dictionary-use research, and corpus linguistics. The model demanded the creation of a completely new corpus of academic language (Corpus of Academic Journal Articles; CAJA). The main advantages of the corpus are its large size (83.5 million words) and balance. Having access to a large corpus of academic language was essential for a corpus-driven approach to data analysis. A good corpus balance in terms of domains enabled a detailed domain-labelling of senses, patterns, collocates, etc. in the dictionary database, which was then used to tailor the output according to the needs of different types of student. The model proposes an online dictionary that is designed as an online dictionary from the outset. The proposed dictionary is revolutionary in the way it addresses the needs of different types of student. It presents students with a dynamic dictionary whose contents can be customised according to the user's native language, subject of study, variant spelling preferences, and/or visual preferences (e.g. black and white).
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Yamamoto, Natsuki. "The use of modals in ESL academic writing." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1999. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/1727.
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GERINGER, JUDY. "A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN LOW SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1131987706.
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Matuka, Yeno Mansoni. "Patterns of tense, aspects and modality in the metalanguage of academic English prose." Virtual Press, 1987. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/505145.
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Onkol, Pinar Esma. "Perceptions Of Professional Development At Bilkent University Faculty Academic English Program." Phd thesis, METU, 2011. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12613162/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Considering the current demands of our global world, there is a need for educating students equipped with diverse and complex qualities. In order to educate well-equipped students and sustain quality education, teachers and teacher educators have to be keeping themselves up-to-date and develop themselves professionally.
The primary aim of this study is to explore English instructors&rsquounderstanding of professional development through the use of phenomenological research methodology. The data sources were instructors and administrators working at Faculty Academic English Program at Bilkent University. The data collection method was semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. The findings of the study indicated that participants see professional development as a means of individual development, as a means of institutional development and as a source of developing community and environment. The study also revealed that the instructors preferred informal modes of professional development activities to formal ones. Participants of the study overall reflected their agreement on the positive contribution of course design on their professional development, autonomy and self-growth.
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Lee, Ena Grace. "Negotiating the "critical" in a Canadian English for Academic Purposes program." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/31379.
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This thesis represents a one-year critical ethnographic case study of an academic literacy program located within a major Canadian university. Pacific University's English for Academic Purposes program distinguished itself from "traditional" English as a Second Language programs in its innovative pedagogical approach. The program staff believed that the understanding of a language lies in the deeper understandings of the culture in which it is embedded. Because of this, the program emphasized the use of a critical dialogic approach to the analysis of how language is shaped by culture and vice-versa. My research revealed, however, that disjunctions existed between the pedagogy as it was conceptualized and the classroom practices of the instructors teaching there. Furthermore, classroom observations conducted over the course of the year suggested that student identities were being constructed and negotiated vis-à-vis those of the instructors and that the discourses of teachers essentialized culture and, in turn, student identities. I argue that the discourses we co-construct in the classroom can (re)create subordinate student identities, thereby limiting students' access not only to language-learning opportunities, but to other more powerful identities. I therefore propose that a reimagining of a critical language teacher identity and the negotiation of critical praxis can concomitantly serve to reimagine student identities in new and emancipatory ways.Education, Faculty of
Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of
Graduate
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Djauhari, Muhamad Thonthowi, and n/a. "Reading academic English at postgraduate level, Bogor Institute of Agriculture, Indonesia." University of Canberra. Education, 1991. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060705.100939.
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This study, within the framework of improving the English course for
postgraduate level at IPB (Bogor Institute of Agriculture), attempts to determine
the extent of English reading activities for academic purposes expected by
agricultural teaching staff at post graduate level, different expectations across the
study programs or a particular area of specialised discipline, the extent of English
problems experienced by postgraduate students and the strategies used to cope
with English needs in their postgraduate studies, to test a hypothesis that there is
a positive correlation between the students' command/scores of English and their
achievements/scores in agricultural subjects.
Questionnaires for agricultural staff and students were adapted from
Hughes (1988) and Weir (1988) to address these questions. Students' academic
records were obtained to compute the correlation between scores in English and
agricultural subjects. Review of literature and research in current theories of
reading in EFL is given to serve as a theoretical foundation to discuss English
reading lessons from secondary level to tertiary level in Indonesia and to provide
general implications to improve the English course at IPB.
The results indicate that staff reading expectation in English is high in
comparison to the students' level of English and in that all eight types of reading
activities listed in the questionnaires were expected. There are some different
expectations across the study programs. However, the most relevant finding to
note in regard to the the English course is that reading English texts as review of
literature for research proposes and reading English texts for writing assignments
were expected across all the study programs.
It is also found that reading English texts for academic purposes was still
a problem for the majority of student respondents and there are various
interesting reading strategies used by the student to cope with the English needs
of their studies. However, further investigation is essential to assist the students
with reading problems since the results do not specify the nature of reading
problems and methods used by the respondents.
A significant correlation is found between scores in English and
agricultural subjects at the level of 5% and 1% by the Spearman rank- order and
the Pearson product-moment correlation formulas. This implies that English is
central to the students' success in their postgraduate studies, which is also
supported by the student respondents' opinions. General implications and
suggestions are provided to assist postgraduate with reading problems and to
improve the English course for the students.
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Gentil, Guillaume. "Academic writing instruction in disciplines other than English : a sociocultural perspective." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0007/MQ43875.pdf.
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Lezama, Silvia M. "Equal education| School leaders support of English language learners' academic success." Thesis, California State University, Fullerton, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3662516.
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From a critical race theory perspective, this study examined how leaders in a California public school district support English language learners (ELLS) while implementing Proposition 227, a policy that strengthened the structures of inequality by imposing English as the language of instruction. The problem this study addressed was the effect Proposition 227 has had on school leaders' capacity to support the needs of ELLs. A qualitative multiple-case study, this study examined inconsistencies among tiers of leadership with regard to support systems for ELLs, irregular monitoring practices, and a lack of language resources. These findings also reveal a focus on oral and academic language development and outline professional development and review of ELLS' data as best practices.
This study employed nine semistructured interviews. Analysis is presented through a tiered leadership model that includes perceptions from board members, district administrators, and school principals. This study is vital to informing the literature on how leaders understand instruction for ELLs and implement support services in public schools.
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Bushong, Robert W. II. "The academic word list reorganized for Spanish-speaking English language learners." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2010. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4660.
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Published in TESOL Quarterly a decade ago, the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000) has become increasingly influential in the field of TESOL. With more than 82% of the AWL comprised of words of Latin and Greek, much of this important list logically consists of English-Spanish cognates because Spanish originated from Latin. In order to serve Spanish-speaking English language learners (SSELLs) better, their teachers need to know which AWL words are cognates. Using published sources and linguistic analysis of the 570 items in the AWL, the research in this thesis has resulted in a newly reorganized AWL divided into four categories that are more useful for our Spanish-speaking English language learners as well as their instructors, curriculum designers, and materials writers: English-Spanish true cognates, partial cognates, false cognates, and non-cognates.ID: 029050607; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (M.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2010.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-116).
M.A.
Masters
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Arts and Humanities
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Bohrer, J. N. "Regulating academic quality in English higher education between 2010 and 2014." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2016. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1492801/.
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This thesis considers the development of regulation in English higher education between 2010 and 2014. This short period is significant in higher education's recent history because in this time regulation of higher education became established in a more explicit and transparent way. In the absence of a legislative framework, the regulatory approach to English higher education was outlined by the work of the Regulating Partnerships Group, through the development of its Operating Framework. This thesis argues that the consultative process used in developing the UK Quality Code for Higher Education helps to guard against producing criteria that are meaningless to a wider higher education community. Once established, this Code continued to contribute to a basis for regulation because it provided criteria for the review of academic standards and quality in English higher education provision. The thesis concludes by considering how the regulated (higher education providers) can play a critical part in producing criteria used for their own regulation by creating an environment of conformity based on reputational regard and civic community.
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White, Natasha. "Attitudes of School Leaders and the Academic Success of English Learners." Thesis, Notre Dame of Maryland University, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13805837.
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English Learners (ELs) are one of the fastest growing student populations across the country and in the State of Maryland. In tandem with the growth of this diverse student group has been increasing accountability for public schools to ensure academic success for all students. Annual reports of school progress reveal persistent achievement gaps between English speaking students and ELs. This study investigated the relationship between the beliefs and expectations of school leaders and the academic success of English Learners.
A correlational causal comparative, quantitative study was conducted using principal perception survey data and Maryland State assessment data. Principals' perceptions were not found to be good predictors in reducing the achievement gap between English Learners and English proficient students on state assessments. However, a statistically significant relationship was found between school practices and a change in the mathematics achievement gap. Also, principal training was found to have a significant positive relationship to school practices.
These findings, along with survey perception data, underscore the need for targeted professional development for school leaders to combat systemic practices and beliefs that may contribute to the achievement gap between language minorities and their monolingual counterparts. The results may be useful to State leaders as they consider certification requirements for school administrators.
District policies that restrict research and suppressed assessment data served as limitations to this study. Further investigation into principals' perceptions and an assessment of principal adequacy to close the achievement gap is warranted by State education leaders.
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Jordan, R. R. "English for academic purposes (EAP) and needs analysis: implications and implementation." Thesis, University of Manchester, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.488346.
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The research into aspects of EAP covers the twenty-five-year period from 1972 to 1997. The main focus of the submission is the use of needs analysis in relation to EAP, the implications of the findings, and their implementation with regard to teaching materials, course design and methods of teaching. Various methods are used to investigate the language and study skills needs of international students, mostly postgraduates at Manchester University: these include - language tests, self-assessment, questionnaires and surveys, observation and monitoring in class. Evaluation, feedback and follow-up investigations are used to assess the effectiveness of EAP courses and materials. The research covers the common core or study skills strand of EAP which includes the main study skills of listening and note-taking, academic writing, academic reading, speaking and discussion, reference skills, and examination skills. In addition, it covers subject-specific areas, exemplified here through Economics. One of the results of the investigations and the trial of teaching materials is the production of several books catering for students' needs in the main areas of study skills, especially academic writing. Co-operation with the Department of Economics enabled a framework to be developed which was used as the basis for designing and constructing materials for postgraduate students of Economics who needed to improve their study skills and English for Economics. The result of the co-operation was an improved language service for the students and the joint production of a book for their use. One of the main methods of collecting data for use in analysing the needs of students was the structured questionnaire and survey. The findings enabled the needs of students to be prioritised, and enabled EAP courses to be structured so that they met the students' changing needs. Course design was assisted by conducting the first national survey of EAP courses in British universities. Although the main focus of the research is upon the needs of students, the needs of EAP teachers are not overlooked. It had been discovered years ago that no single book catered specifically for the needs of EAP teachers. This had been -confirmed while writing a state-of-the-art article on EAP. Consequently, the first guide and resource book for EAP teachers and those undergoing training to become EAP teachers was written, and published in 1997.