Thesis
Attitudes toward English and English learning at three rural Japanese middle schools: A preliminary survey
This study explores attitudes toward English and English learning at three rural Japanese middle schools. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research has, over the past few decades, devoted increasing attention to the influence on language learning of learner motivation and attitudes. Theories backed by extensive empirical surveys among language learners have posited that learners‘ attitudes toward second language culture influence their second language achievement. However, many of these surveys have involved learners who are immersed in the ―target language‖ culture or have direct contact with it. In socio-educational contexts where learners‘ exposure to the target language is limited almost exclusively to their classroom experience, attitudes remain comparatively unexamined.
Influences on Japanese Students’ Willingness to Communicate Across Three Different Sized EFL Classes
This study investigated factors which contributed to willingness to communicate (WTC) as it manifested from moment-to-moment in a Japanese EFL classroom for three different sized class types: a one-on-one classroom, a small group classroom, and a large group classroom. A classroom observation scheme, participant interviews (including stimulated recall) and a questionnaire were adopted as methods to examine factors which predict state-like WTC behaviour in each class type. Inter-group analysis between class types revealed that class size was a very strong factor affecting WTC.
Translation Students’ Use of Dictionaries: A Hong Kong Case Study for Chinese to English Translation
The use of the dictionary and translation are both common language experiences. The
dictionary is an indispensable tool to translating. Yet dictionary skills are grossly neglected in translator training, which assumes that students have acquired all the necessary knowledge and skills before training. In order to reveal the situation in Hong Kong, this case study attempts to investigate the dictionary use pattern of 107 translation students from five local universities for Chinese to English translation, and the dictionary consultation process of four respondents.
A Comparative Study of Korean University Students before and after a Criterion Referenced Test
The study aims to determine the perceptions of first year university students to criterion referenced testing. The students have been tested using norm referenced testing for most of their English language education and this has culminated in The College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT).The poor communication skills of the students has prompted the researcher to question why CLT methodology is not complemented by a communicative test that reflects real life situations practiced in the classroom.
Steps towards improved participation? An analysis of classroom talk and the “ladder of interaction†in the Japanese context
This dissertation builds upon an action research project that set out to investigate the Immediate Method, an approach to classroom management which, according to its proponents, can solve the problem of passive students in Japan. The original study focused on one strand of the Immediate Method, the explicit instruction of meta†communication phrases, which are expressions of classroom language presented early and practised regularly throughout the course.
Investigating the Degree into which CLT is Implemented in Twenty- three EFL Classes in an East-European Post-communist Country
This dissertation is an investigation into the extent to which CLT (Communicative Language Training) is being used in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classes in Albania. As shown below, the Albanian education system – similar to that of many other East European post-communist countries – was heavily influenced by the Soviet models of education. As a result, Albanian students have been taught their L2 (second language) for more than five decades by memorising grammatical rules and isolated words, as well as by translating sentences from English into Albanian and vice-versa.
The Reality of English Conversation Classes: A Study in a South Korean University
Government Language Planning and Policies (LPPs) have affected how English is learned and promoted in South Korea. One result has been requiring university students to take English conversation classes. However, it was through personal interactions with these classes that the focus seemed to be on general English proficiency rather than on conversation learning. Additionally, it seemed that conversation classes were not guided by any acknowledged goals or an evaluation process of those goals, which seems to have generated much divergence across these classes.
Analyzing Aspects of Gender in English Language Jordanian Basic Stage Curriculum from A Socio-Cultural Perspective
This study was carried out to investigate and explore aspects of gender as presented and represented in one of the currently used English language instructional materials “Action Pack Series from grade one to nineâ€, in the basic stage schools in Jordan. The study aimed at answering one major question:
How are gender aspects presented and represented in English Language Jordanian Basic School Curriculum (Action Pack Series) from grade 1-9 ?
Exploratory Practice: An Alternative Tool for Understanding Life in the Language Classroom
In this study, I begin with a reflection on my experience of the pre-service research component of the Initial Teaching Training [ITT] programme at the Higher Language Institute [HLI], Damascus University. I back up my opinions and views of that component with my fellow colleagues’ through a questionnaire I analysed in a previous paper (Ashour, 2008a). Following that I shall address the issue of the relevance of classroom-research for teachers in my institution and some practical issues related to the impediments of classroom-research there.
Morphological Awareness and Its Relationship to Vocabulary Knowledge and Morphological Complexity among Omani EFL University Students
This study examines the relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary size in Omani EFL learners. Morphological awareness refers to the learners’ knowledge of morphemes and morphemic structure, allowing them to reflect and manipulate morphological structure of words (Carlisle, 1995; Carlisle & Stone, 2003), and has been shown to be an important predictor of L1 vocabulary. However, its relationship to vocabulary development in the L2 has to date received only limited attention. The main research question in the present study concerns whether greater morphological awareness will correlate with larger vocabulary size in the L2 learners studied.
