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Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

Second Language Instruction

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Is Spanish Pragmatic Instruction Necessary In The L2 Classroom If Latin American Speakers Of Spanish Take On American English Pragmatic Norms Once Prolonged Exposure In The United States Occurs? A Study On Refusal Strategies, Jeremy W. Bachelor, Lydia Hernandez May 2012

Is Spanish Pragmatic Instruction Necessary In The L2 Classroom If Latin American Speakers Of Spanish Take On American English Pragmatic Norms Once Prolonged Exposure In The United States Occurs? A Study On Refusal Strategies, Jeremy W. Bachelor, Lydia Hernandez

Faculty Scholarship – Spanish

As educators of foreign and second languages debate the most efficient methods of implementing pragmatic instruction in the L2 classroom, is it possible that Spanish pragmatic instruction is not necessary if American Spanish pragmatic norms are no different than American English norms? The present investigation studies the pragmatic norms in refusal strategies of speakers of Latin American Spanish who have had little exposure to English, speakers of Latin American Spanish who have spent over two years in the United States, and native speakers of American English. The study found that the Spanish speakers who had spent over two years in …


Inside Stories: Stories Within, Personal Narrative In The Classroom, Carol Block Jan 2009

Inside Stories: Stories Within, Personal Narrative In The Classroom, Carol Block

MA TESOL Collection

This discussion of a project conducted in 2004 involved two ESOL Middle School Students. The project used personal narrative and autobiographical elements to produce booklets based on these students’ experiences which created a bridge into the academic community, for themselves and their families. This paper discusses the elements that made this project successful and the reasons that personal narrative is so powerful and meaningful for all students and, most especially, second language learners.


A Framework For Teaching A Foreign Language Class Based On The Principles Of Chaos/Complexity Theory, Michael Kozden Jan 2005

A Framework For Teaching A Foreign Language Class Based On The Principles Of Chaos/Complexity Theory, Michael Kozden

MA TESOL Collection

Chaos/complexity theory first emerged in the study of the natural sciences over thirty years ago. Through the years, experts from a variety of fields have held this theory up as a new way in which to view the world around us, including its applications to the study of second language acquisition. The language classroom, like the natural world, can also be observed from this perspective because it exhibits many features of chaotic/complex systems. Language instruction in a classroom setting not only produces strange attractors and fractals, but is dynamic, complex, nonlinear, chaotic, self-organizing, unpredictable, sensitive to initial conditions, open, feedback …


We Talk Too Much: Quantitative And Qualitative Aspects Of Teacher Talk, Lynn Corwin Jan 2004

We Talk Too Much: Quantitative And Qualitative Aspects Of Teacher Talk, Lynn Corwin

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is one teacher’s exploration of teacher talking time. As a language teacher the author understands that teacher talk is an essential tool of the trade and critical to the language learning process. However, she recognized that talking too much could be a problem. This paper describes the journey the author took to understand how and when to talk in the classroom. The author provides reasons and examples of why teacher silence can sometimes be more effective than talking. Throughout the paper, she focuses on the power of silence in the classroom when the teacher values it and when …


Promoting Student Self-Evaluation Of Their Learning Process, Diane Steigerwald Jan 2003

Promoting Student Self-Evaluation Of Their Learning Process, Diane Steigerwald

MA TESOL Collection

This paper describes classroom research on promoting student initiative through self and peer correction, record keeping, goal setting and evaluation. Promoting Student Self-Evaluation of Their Learning Process starts with a look at the author’s experience of self-initiative and authentic interaction among her students which sparked her awareness and began the transformation of her teaching beliefs and approaches. The old belief centered on the need to be the authority in control. The new belief focuses on empowering the students to see themselves as authorities. The paper then describes the forms and activities used in an adult high-intermediate English as a Second …