Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'ESL and TESOL curriculum and pedagogy'

The purpose of this doctoral research is to analyse the 1999 NSW HSC English syllabus through the lens of its reception and implementation, to produce an account of the theoretical changes that are embedded in the syllabus documents and the impact that these changes had on selected stakeholders. The findings made about the 1999 HSC English syllabus are discussed in relation to Hunter’s genealogy of the functions of schooling (1993), to explore the desired purposes of schooling reflected in both the English curriculum, and in stakeholder’s attitudes. Using grounded theory methods in a qualitative approach to exploring the experiences of teachers at two schools through interview and observation data, as well as an analysis of the reactions represented in the public through newspaper publications from 1995-2005, core categories of experience and concern are identified relating to the implementation of the mainstream mandatory courses in English for the HSC. These core categories are used as a basis for a content analysis of key extracts of the English syllabus, with the finding that curriculum changes such as the inclusion of visual texts and language modes constituted an important theoretical shift in the content and objectives of English as a school subject. Also, while some challenges faced by stakeholders are seen to arise from problematic constructions of English in the syllabus itself, other tensions can be seen to be based on the particular demands of the local school contexts, and intensified by pressure from largely negative newspaper portrayals of English teachers and curriculum.

Abstract Drama is an ancient art form and progressive pedagogy in education. It is the collective act of imagining and seeing ourselves in action, in the moment, towards a destiny. Film is a modern art form and an evolving pedagogy in schools. Narratives in moving pictures are a dramatic form of mediated communication. This research concerns drama teachers’ experiences with screen drama and filmmaking pedagogy. In a rapidly digitised world, mediated forms of communication through technology are a vital source of social connectivity, information and storytelling. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration in education is a response to the digital culture but the integration has been likened to the ‘hammer in search of a nail’. ICT in education is demanding the development of pedagogies that connect a deep understanding of technology, curriculum outcomes and teacher professional learning. This research is concerned with exploring and developing best practice in a creative and critical pedagogy for moving pictures as aesthetic learning in schools. Drama teachers as teachers of aesthetic, embodied, collaborative and narrative learning are uniquely placed to respond to and critique the development of an authentic and effective pedagogy for film narrative. The school and curriculum structures and resources to support film learning are also examined through the drama teachers’ experiences. The research is praxis-oriented and uses a montage of interpretive practices in a collective case study to explore in depth six teachers’ experience with film learning. The study’s design involves the facilitation of film learning workshops and explores the participants’ aspirations, expectations and realisations for film learning in their schools. The participants’ experiences highlight the problems, possibilities and opportunities of film learning as aesthetic learning and raise issues about the role of and tensions with arts pedagogy as a learning paradigm in schools and the curriculum. The teachers’ stories reflect an educational culture, leadership and curriculum structure that does not necessarily allow, support or develop on-going professional learning and teacher innovation for authentic student learning.

This study investigates linguistic, perceptual, and pedagogical change (LPPC) in a short-term, study abroad English immersion program. It proposes the LPPC Interactive Model of second language acquisition based on Gardner's 1985 socioeducational model and Woods' 1996 beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge (BAK) structure. The framework is applied in a cross-cultural context, highlighting participants in the 1993 Camosun Osaka Aoyama English Language Institute involving Japanese English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students from Aoyama Junior College in Osaka, Japan, and non-Japanese ESL teachers at Camosun College and Canada's University of Victoria in British Columbia. The study examined the definition of teacher achievement; distinctions between language activation and language acquisition in the short-term, study abroad context; development of the constructs student BAK+, teacher BAK+, and class BAK+ to describe interactions in "class fit"; and the influence of temporal parameters on linguistic, perceptual, and pedagogical change. Data from teacher and student surveys and interviews suggest that change occurs in each of the linguistic, perceptual, and pedagogical dimensions and support constructs proposed for the model.

This study studies teachers’ use of drama when teaching English in grades 4-6. The material has been collected through semi structured interviews with five teachers. The study concludes that teachers use drama to increase the pupils’ eagerness to learn through variation and commitment. Teachers list passion for the language and the opportunity it creates to work with dialogue in near authentic situations among the advantages of working with drama. Among the disadvantages teachers mention the time and energy required for both planning and conducting this kind of teaching. Teachers agree that the curriculum for English is their starting point when planning classroom activities. Teachers also agree that the knowledge requirement concerning pupils spoken language is the most obvious one to be reached through drama. The teachers can also be said to do things that are not part of the curriculum. However, those tasks can be considered essential stepping stones for pupils to find courage to express themselves. Some pupils reach knowledge requirements through drama, while there are indications that others need drama to build appropriate skills to be able to reach requirements at a later stage. Teachers are in agreement that drama should be seen as part of a long-term method to vary teaching and work with pupils around skills and towards knowledge requirements as described in the curriculum for English.
Studiens syfte är att undersöka lärares användning av drama i engelskundervisning i årskurs 4–6. Materialet för studien har inhämtats genom halvstrukturerade intervjuer med fem lärare. En slutsats av studien är att lärare använder drama i syfte att nå ett lustfyllt lärande genom variation och engagemang. Olika typer av övningar beskrivs, med dialogen och talad engelska i fokus. Bland fördelarna att arbeta med drama nämns lusten till språket och möjligheten att träna dialog i nära autentiska sammanhang. Bland nackdelarna nämns tid och energi som krävs av läraren, i planering och genomförande av sådan undervisning. Kursplanen i engelska ses som utgångspunkt för de intervjuade lärarna, där kunskapskrav kring det talade språket kan uppnås. Lärarna gör även sådant som kan sägas vara utanför kursplanen i engelska, men som kan vara nödvändiga mellansteg för att få elever att våga uttrycka sig på engelska. Vissa elever når kunskapskrav genom och under tillfällen med drama, medan det finns tecken på att andra behöver drama för att bygga nödvändiga kunskaper för att vid annat tillfälle kunna nå kunskapskraven. Lärarna är överens om att drama ses som en del av en långsiktig metod för att variera undervisningen och arbeta med elever kring förmågor och mot de kunskapskrav kursplanen i engelska beskriver.

"This thesis is about the social and cultural contexts of pedagogical practices in selected Australian university Korean language programs." -- abstract. This thesis is about the social and cultural contexts of pedagogical practices in selected Australian university Korean language programs. The focus of the empirical work reported in this thesis is the description and interpretation of the social activities constructed by categories of students, defined by their cultural background, and native Korean-speaking lecturers in goal-oriented pedagogies. The empirical work centres on the interaction between perceptions of teachers' expectations on the part of students and on the cultural attributes of their teachers. In order to accomplish this outcome, the thesis draws on the concepts of social interactionism formulated by symbolic interactionism and the school classroom analyses of Hargreaves (1972) and Nash (1979). These concepts are embedded in the theoretical framework of 'visible' and 'invisible' pedagogies first formulated by Bernstein (1973, 1990). The empirical work, undertaken in two fieldwork periods in two Australian universities during 1998 and 1999, made use of formal and informal interviewing and observation to generate a data-base. A questionnaire survey of students was conducted near the end of the second fieldwork period, and replicated in 2002 to corroborate the qualitative data-based interpretations. The main finding is that the interaction of the cultural backgrounds of students and teachers constantly affect classroom interaction in the Korean language classroom. The cultural framing of classroom life has special significance for Korean-background students who perceive that they are expected to perform constantly at a high level by their Korean teachers. Conversely, Australian students, while they evaluate their teachers positively, react to a perceived lack of high expectation on the part of their Korean teachers. Nevertheless, Australian students perceive that they receive positive expectations from their Korean teachers. In theoretical terms, the study provides evidence that the classroom interaction models proposed by Hargreaves and Bernstein in the schools sector have salience in higher education. Moreover, the fieldwork shows that while there is an identifiable classroom pressure to reach defined learning outcomes predicted by the 'visible' pedagogy model, there are culturally based criteria used by teachers for judging the performance of students. This 'invisible' pedagogy affects the motivation of students in the observed classrooms so that the Korean background students and other Asian students perceive the classroom to be flexible yet demanding, while Australian students perceive it to be easy-going yet challenging. In short, the research demonstrates that Korean language teachers display logical expectations of productivity and standards through culturally desired expectations. This thesis is the firsst study of social interation in an Australian asian language teaching setting. There is sufficient evidence in the thesis to suggest that there is a productive future research agenda in the analysis of the effects of the expectations and consequential levels of motivation and language competency of Asian language learners in Australian universities.

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore the literacy practices of marginalized adolescent youth in India and the relationship of these practices to imagination and identity construction. More than just tools for communication, language and literacy practices allow individuals to express their selves and identities as they voice their thoughts, negotiate meaning (Dyson & Genishi, 2005; Gee, 2003), and enact themselves within society (Janks, 2010; New London Group, 1996). This qualitative case study took place in Lucknow, India; the subjects were a group of adolescent girls at a nonprofit all-girls school in a seventh-grade classroom. Using discourse analysis, the data revealed the ways in which the girls used literacy to agentively position themselves as actual selves in their societies, as imagined social selves and others, in relationship to social others, and in imagined events.

In order to comfortably and effectively function in U.S. classrooms, both international students and domestic students benefit from the development of interactive and intercultural communication skills. At Purdue University, a large, public, R1 institution with a substantial international population, the internationalization of the student body is a priority. To examine the relationship between academic and social integration of international and domestic students on campus, international (ESL) undergraduate students (L2 English, n=253) from the Purdue Language and Cultural Exchange Program (PLaCE), and domestic undergraduate students (L1 English n=50) from the first-year composition program (ICaP), participated in a voluntary survey. The framework for investigating students’ interaction with peers and teachers was derived from Severiens and Wolff (2008). Four aspects of new, incoming students’ adaptation (Global Perspective, Intercultural Competence, Acculturation Mode, and Willingness to Communicate) were addressed by the survey. Although there were similarities between international and domestic students, the results revealed international students had more opportunities to interact with peers from diverse language backgrounds in formal academic contexts, including classroom activities, peer-group work in first-year programs and language programs. However, in informal, social contexts, neither international nor domestic students took advantage of opportunities to interact with each other. The tendency to prefer social interactions with co-nationals may contribute to social isolation and limited integration of international and domestic students within broader social contexts outside of classrooms. Yet, rather than resisting this trend, instructors and administrators might enhance opportunities for interaction in academic contexts where both groups are most willing to participate. Findings from this study can contribute to the development of first-year programs that provide realistic solutions for the enhanced internationalization of both domestic and international students on campus.

This four-year study centers on identity research, exploring a two-year student success program in a midwestern school. The program follows a “school-within-a-school” model (Indiana Department of Education website, 2020) as it is housed on the same grounds as the main school but in a different building. The student-to-teacher ratio is lower than traditional schools and the English class covers less material, but in more depth, than parallel 9th and 10^th grade classes. The study follows two students as they progress through the two-year program and integrate into the main student body for 11^th and 12^th grade, to understand how they narrate their journey through high school. The 9th and 10th grade teachers provide a sense of the impact of teacher identity on the student participants. A narrative approach (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990) is used to examine individual’s perspectives- rooted in their experiences- to dig into my participants’ stories, framing them within an equity literacy context (Gorski, 2014). Using equity literacy allows for the exploration of biases and inequities that student participants may face in our education system. The findings of this dissertation study have three major implications: 1. Home identity has a significant effect on student identity. As such, an awareness of what high school students bring to the classroom and how this affects their thinking and motivation to participate in class is critical; 2. The importance of not only making lessons relevant to student lives, but also helpful. Both student participants appreciate being given space to write what they want to write, rather than being told what to write. As a result, writing becomes a means of processing events happening in their lives, and has a positive effect on self-efficacy; 3. Given the second implication, teacher educators need to provide space for preservice teachers to explore ways to make lessons helpful to their students by encouraging them to tell their own stories through discussions in a safe space, while modeling behaviors such as showing vulnerability in the classroom.

In an era of widespread automation—from grocery store self-checkout machines to self-driving cars—it is not outrageous to wonder: can teachers be automated? And more specifically, can automated computer teachers instruct students how to write? Automated computer programs have long been used in summative writing evaluation efforts, such as scoring standardized essay exams, ranking placement essays, or facilitating programmatic outcomes assessments. However, new claims about automated writing evaluation’s (AWE) formative educational potential mark a significant shift. My project questions the effectiveness of using AWE technology for formative educational efforts such as improving and teaching writing. Taken seriously, these efforts portend a future embrace of semi, or even fully, automated writing classes, an unprecedented development in writing pedagogy.

Supported by a summer-long grant from the Purdue Research Foundation, I conducted a small-n quasi-experiment to test claims by online college tutoring site Chegg.com that its EasyBib Plus AWE tool can improve both writing and writers. The experiment involved four college English instructors reading pairs of essays comprising one AWE-treated and untreated version per pair. Using a comparative judgment model, a rubric-free method of writing assessment based on Thurstone’s law, raters read and designated one of each pair “better.” Across four raters and 160 essays, I found that AWE-treated essays were designated better only 30% of the time (95% confidence interval: 20-40%), a statistically significant difference from the null hypothesis of 50%. The results suggest that Chegg’s EasyBib Plus tool offers no discernible improvement to student writing, and potentially even worsens it.

Finally, I analyze Chegg’s recent partnership with the Purdue Writing Lab and Online Writing Lab (OWL). The Purdue-Chegg partnership offers a useful test case for anticipating the effects of higher education’s embrace of automated educational technology going forward. Drawing on the history of writing assessment and the results of the experiment, I argue against using AWE for formative writing instruction. In an era of growing automation, I maintain that a human-centered pedagogy remains one of the most durable, important, effective, and transformative ingredients of a quality education.

Internationalization of higher education is a collaborative responsibility academic and non-academic programs share to facilitate the integration of various student populations within the broader culture of the university. My dissertation project links First Year Writing (FYW) classes of domestic and international students to promote and evaluate their intercultural competence development. My research questions explore the use of reflective writing as a genre for formative assessment in the writing classroom and investigate the data it provides about students’ continuous learning. My research methodology combines qualitative analysis of reflective writing and quantitative analysis of intercultural competence development. Participants come from four sections of FYW courses spanning two semesters – Spring 2016 and Fall 2017. I collected reflective writing data from four embedded reflective journals and a final reflective essay assigned to students in each section. Using a grounded scheme, I applied thematic coding analysis of reflective writing and traced frequencies of codes. I also mapped students’ reflections onto the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS; Bennett, 1993). Results from both coding methods contextualize and interpret students’ development in both intercultural competence and writing skills. I also share pedagogical, assessment, and administrative implications for more effective teaching of reflective writing and better continuous assessment of intercultural competence skills within the context of the linked course model curriculum.

Despite a growing body of research on trainee teachers’ learning during pre-service programs, intensive introductory TESL training courses are still designed to instruct a “standard” type of trainee teacher. This research study investigates the factors that mediate trainee teachers’ learning process as well as the interaction between these factors, which either facilitate and/or hinder trainee teachers’ success during an intensive introductory TESL training course. Using a qualitative holistic single-case study, informed by an interpretivist perspective, this study explores how three trainee teachers learned how to teach during a course in Southern Ontario, Canada. An integrated conceptual framework, formed by a sociocultural perspective of teacher learning, a holistic view of curriculum, and transformative pedagogy was employed and the findings include four major factors that mediated trainee teachers’ teacher learning process and three types of interaction that facilitated and/or hindered their success during the program.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is an increasingly common developmental disability. Students diagnosed with ASD can be challenging to incorporate into mainstream classrooms due to a lack of understanding and negative attitudes of neurotypical peers towards those students. This thesis aims to address the problem in a unit plan centered on the use of young adult literature with a main protagonist on the Spectrum in the English Language Arts classroom. Specifically, it argues the use of such texts in conjunction with a literature circles unit in providing better understanding and greater acceptance of students with ASD. The unit and lesson plans were written to reflect how Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, Bishop’s windows, doors, and mirrors , and the texts students read can influence their thinking and behavior. Using goodreads and local ELA book lists, I selected four YAL texts which portrayed the main character with ASD as they go about their daily lives. These texts were then incorporated into the twenty-lesson unit plan which aims at supporting positive attitudes and acceptance of neurotypical students towards their peers with ASD.

This study endeavoured to explore and examine the lived experience of adults learning and using English as a second language within the context of an international charitable and humanitarian organization, and the significance of this for English language teaching pedagogy. The study has at its foundation principles of hermeneutic phenomenology and as such sought to understand what these experiences were like for the respondents. Two clusters of participants contributed responses in different formats from different contexts within the international organization. At level one the 16 participants were working in multicultural teams with an international charitable and humanitarian organization in various locations around the world and contributed one off written responses to guiding questions. The 18 respondents at level two were studying English at an organizational training college in order to fulfil requirements for a standardised level of English proficiency, and took part in semi-structured interviews. Data analysis and interpretation utilised a combination of grounded theory and thematic analysis methods so as to discern themes arising from the data. Findings from the study suggest that significant personal transformation is possible when adults learn English in a country and culture other than their own. Attitudes and approaches to English language learning undergo change as adults endeavour to participate in the target language community. Intercultural awareness and an increased understanding of the host culture develop as adults relate to those from other cultures in the new context. In their everyday routine experiences, English language learners and users experience changes to the self, particularly growth in self confidence and a sense of empowerment. The changes brought about by the ESL experience also necessitate negotiation within existing relationships as families deal with separation from family members and establish routines in the host culture. The role of English within the family also requires ongoing negotiation as contexts change. The role of the English language teacher can be regarded as crucial both in affecting good language learning experiences but also in facilitating learning that is transformative. Within the international organization experiences of learning and using English have a temporal nature that is context dependent. For non-native speakers within the organization the role of English develops as proficiency develops however, fulfilling roles of additional responsibility creates additional pressure from the expectations both of the English language users themselves and from others. The findings suggest that the participants in this study were motivated to learn English by a sense of vocation that also assisted them to maintain their English language learning and to persist in using English to fulfil their vocation through working with the international organization.

This paper is a curriculum proposal for a mid to high beginner adult English as a Second Language class. It is hoped that this curriculum will prove to meet students’ academic needs, especially in terms of development of literacy, listening skills, and language learning strategies. In addition to this, the lessons include a critical orientation; that is, the class is structured to facilitate student engagement with social issues, namely racism and economic struggles. With these considerations in minds, two units comprising half the semester were developed and relevant extra materials are provided.
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The subject area of this study is English Teachers’ usage and attitudes towards textbooks when teaching. From personal work and practice experiences, teachers base their English teaching solely on textbooks. For many years, the use of textbooks in different subjects has been criticized. Despite this, the textbook is still a teaching aid that is widely used today. This study examines how the teachers use the textbook in their English teaching and how much room it gets. This case study begins with a presentation of different findings together with a literature review where it will display the nature of textbooks and teachers’ attitudes towards the use of textbooks. Furthermore, this case study will present the textbooks, and how they relate to the English subject in the Swedish curriculum. This, and how to accommodate the learners when teaching ESL will be displayed. This case study is based on two observations, one in grade 3, and one in grade 4. The observations are done in the same school, which will be referred to as the second school in this study. The contrast between the use of textbooks in the different grades will be analyzed through a review of content. This study will further present what other teaching materials are used. The observations will be analyzed and compared to interviews with six different teachers. Three teachers at one school, two of them in grade 3 and one of them in grade 4, and one teacher in grade 3 and two teachers in grade 4 at the second school. The results of this case study concluded that the use of textbooks differs depending on what school the teacher works in, what view the school has when using teaching aids, and if it is the decision of the teachers or the schools on what teaching aid should be used. The problem where the textbooks are not compatible with the curriculum can be considered as the most frequently appearing mistake that affects the development of young ESL learners. Moreover, any benefits of using textbooks will further be presented.

English Language teaching in post-colonial university settings poses a range of challenges for the teacher as well as students. The main focus of this thesis is to analyse and improve English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in a Malaysian university setting. Drawing on Lea and Street’s work in particular, an Academic Literacies (AL) perspective is employed to capture the complexities of teaching and learning academic writing within and beyond an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classroom. While providing a sound theoretical rationale, the AL perspective does not help with the practical aspects of teaching. Kumaravadivelu’s Post-Method Pedagogy (PMP) is enlisted to guide a teacher with teaching principles. Three PMP teaching principles are collapsed and adapted from an original list of ten to activate three AL conditions: negotiated interaction to reduce power-relational mismatches, the promoting of learner autonomy to improve knowledge conditions, and ensuring relevant culture and contexts in understanding socio-cultural conditions.