Education Commons^™

Understanding And Identifying Specific Learning Difficulties: Dyslexia, Autism Spectrum, And Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity In The Adult Esl/Efl Classroom, Kristen Kearns

Master's Projects and Capstones

Specific learning difficulties (SLDs), including dyslexia, autism spectrum disorders, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders, are significant factors that influence the way and rate at which students learn English as an additional language. However, few Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) training programs address the cognitive and behavioral strengths and challenges these conditions carry for adult learners, in part due to concerns about bias in the over- and under- identification of learning disabilities among K-12 English language learners. Informed by Critical Disability Theory, and framed within a realistic discussion of the obstacles that remain in identifying and researching the parallel …

Uncorking The Speaking Skill: Wine And Prosody In Conversation, Efren Antonio Serra

Master's Projects and Capstones

Although the skill of speaking is necessary for attaining basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS), most traditional second language acquisition programs base their pedagogy and curriculums on lexis and grammar of the written form and phonology/phonetics. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how to effectively adapt content-specific material for developing the speaking skill at community colleges with adult students who are interested in pursuing a career in the wine industry as a sommelier. Courses for becoming a sommelier or a server in the wine industry are traditionally offered at community colleges under the culinary arts and hospitality management programs, …

Navigating Acculturative Stress: A Guide For Supporting Newcomer Students In California Esl Classrooms, Daniela Lopera Ruiz

Master's Projects and Capstones

Acculturation has been widely studied as a post-migration phenomenon that individuals face when coming in contact with their new recipient culture and environment. The different experiences, tasks, and requirements that newcomers must endure upon arrival may lead to their suffering prolonged periods of discomfort. This moderate, intermediate, or acute feeling of uneasiness is defined as acculturative stress. In it, the continued exposure to stressors such as adjusting to a new culture, rules, behavioral patterns, a second language, finding housing, and obtaining an education and employment can lead to trauma. This field project has been designed to provide educators and allies …

Creating An Engaging Environment For Adult Esl Learners In E-Learning Settings: Reducing Affective Filters And Cognitive Overload, Qian Liu

Master's Projects and Capstones

Countless online ESL programs targeting adult learners have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially since the unemployment crisis made people start thinking about self-improvement. This emergence of online education is a life-changing chance not only for the ESL education industry and teachers, but also for countless learners. This field project includes appropriate background, a review of relevant literature, and ultimately presents a free, online self-training session for novice online ESL teachers who teach adults.

Research that informed the creation of this project indicated that online second language education programs that use technological tools can lead to positive learning outcomes. Adult …

Teaching The English Language Through American Holidays: Halloween And Thanksgiving, Naranchimeg Bat-Yondon

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT

Culture remains one of the crucial issues in foreign language education research worldwide, and theories related to linguistics suggest that culture must be emphasized as an important part of language classrooms. Learning any foreign language without learning the focal culture of it is less meaningful, so it is important to include cultural instruction in every language class. Compounding these already tenuous issues in Mongolia, students have little chance to be exposed to real-life situations where they can interact with native speakers from different cultural backgrounds, so the students face great challenges of not being able to become fluent speakers …

Helping New Immigrants Adapt To American Culture: Enhancing Students’ Language And Cultural Competence Through The Use Of The Ellen Degeneres Show, Nuchinun Kluaythong

Master's Projects and Capstones

Adult immigrants face many challenges before they can successfully function in a new country. Beyond learning the new language, adjusting to a different and confusing culture can be difficult and discouraging, often eroding the immigrant’s confidence. These interrelated problems are recognized by the English as a second language (ESL) community, and modern approaches to ESL teaching integrate popular culture and the use of authentic language. It also recognizes that an alert and eager mind is important to learning, so the emphasis is put on developing student interest and confidence by making the class relevant, contemporary, and fun. To accomplish these …

Financial Literacy For Latino Immigrants: A Guidebook For Esl Teachers, Anna Braden

Master's Projects and Capstones

Latino immigrants face many financial challenges in the United States. Language barriers exclude them from jobs as well as financial and consumer markets. Lack of familiarity with the U.S. financial system or bad experiences with financial systems in their home countries can create mistrust and lead to Latino immigrants being unbanked or underbanked. Consumer vulnerabilities may also be exploited as immigrants turn to nonbank financial services such as predatory lenders (check cashers, payday lenders, etc.). Lack of access to jobs and marketplaces results in lower income and less wealth accumulation. Over time this results in wealth inequality between Latino immigrants …

Promoting 21st-Century Learning: Online Collaboration Through Design Thinking Framework For Today's Esl Students, Hande Yildiz

Master's Projects and Capstones

Learners of the 21st-century engage and learn differently than ever before. Policymakers and teachers are now challenged to makeshift into the 21st-century education model and adapt their approaches to better prepare the students for the future work world. 21st-century ESL classrooms should reflect this learning model through a more engaging, collaborative, and student-centered approach. Collaboration and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills are vital in 21st-century learning. Research shows that ESL learners can benefit from collaborative activities and the use of technology improves students' language reception and production. However, due to the lack of understanding of the paradigm shift in …

Teaching English To Refugees And Immigrants With Low Literacy In Their Native Language And Limited English Proficiency (Using The Language Experience Approach), Jacqueline Hill

Master's Projects and Capstones

Immigrants who enter the United States come with varying degrees of education. Some immigrants come with a bachelor’s degree or higher, and some come with very limited schooling or no schooling at all. Yet many immigrants or refugees that come to the United States with low literacy in their native language, and limited English proficiency never enroll in an ESL class. There are many causes attributed to this lack of enrollment: learners’ embarrassment and anxiety to admitting their lack of literacy, class scheduling conflicts, long waiting lists, and the English-only approach taken by most ESL classes in the United States. …

Digital Awareness For Esl Students, Ehab Khalaf

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT

Many immigrants come to the United States of America seeking to live, study, and work in this country. With an influx of immigrants, there is a need for educational opportunities tailored to meet their needs and demands with the ultimate aim of helping them integrate into society. One of the major demands is for English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, which are useful in equipping immigrants with not only the English language skills, but also in equipping and preparing the students for success in the workplace and with communication skills for navigating life in the United States. The …

Taming Test Anxiety About Multiple-Choice Questions In Academic-Track Esl Students: A Test-Taking Skills Workshop Series, Lori Selke

Master's Projects and Capstones

Test anxiety among students at all levels is a well-documented phenomenon. Academic English learners, however, such as those who enroll in for-credit academic classes in California community colleges, face issues specific to their situation. Most notably, these students are often unfamiliar with the multiple-choice question (MCQ) test format, which is common in the United States but not as frequently utilized in in other countries. Students thus lack knowledge of the specific strategies and approaches that can help them successfully complete an assessment offered in this format. Both test anxiety and cultural unfamiliarity with assessment formats can prevent students from exhibiting …

From Anxiety To Motivation: Creating Anxiety-Free Classrooms Using Culturally Responsive Teaching, Jing Rong

Master's Projects and Capstones

Simultaneous with cultural and economic globalization, English is spread as the key to receiving education in the U.S. This trend is starting to bring about new knowledge ecologies involving English as a second language (ESL) students and instructors. However, learning efficiency issues have been frequently confronted by ESL students, among which learning anxiety is a major setback. There are multiple factors causing learning anxieties, including the cultural transitions that ESL students are experiencing. This study focuses on analyzing the causes as well as the solutions to ESL students’ learning anxiety issues. Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) is a practical and effective …

Self-Directed Learning Practices In Esl: How Beginning Adult Latinx English Language Learners Can Increase Learning Outcomes, Jessica Parisi

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project investigates the self-directed learning (SDL) practices that could increase learner outcomes in English language acquisition for beginning adult English language learners (ELLs), and presents on a website designed for the learner, the practices and local resources to engage them. Non-credit English as a second language (ESL) courses in community colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area have high enrollment and low levels of advancement, especially beginning levels. Latinx adult ELLs face unique challenges that contribute to their low rates of advancement, including linguistic isolation, and work and home duties that often prevent learners from attending classes the …

Conquering Esl Students' English Listening Barriers, Dan Wu

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many students learning English as a Second Language (ESL) have some English pronunciation barriers in their listening and speaking, consisting of incomplete explosion, liaison, weak forms. The project aims to help ESL students find effective ways to conquer these common English pronunciation barriers in listening comprehension. At the same time, ESL students will learn the standard pronunciation habits of English sentences. This project is designed to use specific listening practice to assist in conquering ESL students’ English listening barriers of incomplete explosion, liaison and weak forms. By using the materials in this project, ESL students can learn to find their …

Watch & Learn - A Teacher's Guidebook For Film-Based Esl Course, Xiaoxue Zhu

Master's Projects and Capstones

Educators in the 21st century are continuously discovering more engaging teaching tools to facilitate language learners. In today's increasingly developing visual world, film stands out from other traditional materials for its unique features, such as the visuality and authenticity. With appropriately designed activities, film could be a valuable resource in teaching English as a second language (TESOL) setting, and also a perfect tool for inspiring cross-cultural communication and promoting critical thinking skills.

However, research has shown that ESL teachers feel reluctant to use film as a significant component in their classrooms even though they have recognized and affirmed the benefit …

Using Games To Teach English In Chinese High School Classroom, Wenyu Zhu

Master's Projects and Capstones

In the 20th century, English played an important role in international communication as an international language. English is a bridge between countries' economies, cultures, and trade. However, current English education in Chinese high schools is still test-oriented which is ineffective, and students are tired of it. Moreover, teachers also have trouble engaging students in the class. The purpose of this project is to create a curriculum for high school English teachers in China to use games to teach English language skills. Krashen’s (1982) Theory of Second Language Acquisition contains five main hypotheses which support this project. The project includes twenty-three …

Thinking Outside The Box: Incorporating Critical Thinking Strategies In Esl Reading & Writing Instruction, Johanna Carranza

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT

ESL students in the United States avail the resources of community college to achieve their goal of academic excellence. However, many community colleges struggle to prepare their students for mainstream four-year institutions. Aside from reading, writing, and speaking, learning a second language requires the development of critical thinking skills which are not emphasized enough for many ESL students in contemporary American academia.

As such, there are two major problems that this project aims to address. The first is that English as a Second Language (ESL) and English instructors have different expectations for ESL students. ESL instructors do not focus …

English Language Learning At National Historic Sites In The San Francisco Bay Area, Elizabeth Bognar

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project focuses on lowering language learners’ affective filter by exposing them to the English language in the outdoors through visiting national parks in the San Francisco Bay Area. The purpose of this project is to provide a supplemental handbook for English as a Second Language classes that include outdoor learning activities.

The locations selected for this project are National Park System locations in the San Francisco Bay Area; however, the lesson plans are designed to be adapted for park locations in other regions of the United States. The project concentrates on four specific National Park System locations in the …

Creating An Energetic Classroom: A Handbook For Esl Teachers, Lusha Sha

Master's Projects and Capstones

Low classroom energy is a common problem in English language teaching. This field project discusses the problematic low-energy classroom from both the student side and the instructor side. The first aspect explored is the silence of students. Because speech shows the process of language acquisition and is also the precondition of language acquisition, it is crucial to discover and understand the reasons for some students’ unwillingness to speak (Baran-Lucarz, 2014). The project explains the willingness to communicate and the cultural variations in learning. The second aspect of a low-energy classroom in this project is the ESL teacher lack of enthusiasm. …

Creative Teaching: Using Creative Teaching Methods In A Student-Centered Esl Environment, Ivy Johnson

Master's Projects and Capstones

Creative teaching is a viable approach to education in the digital age. In addition, engaging students’ individual talents and abilities through a method of principled eclecticism involved in creative teaching will motivate them to learn English by engaging them as whole person (Duffy & Hoffman, 1999). All in all, what ESL students need now is not a place to acquire textbook knowledge of the English language through rote memorization, but a safe space to hash out, work with, and work through the language that involves a student centered curriculum, which relates directly to students’ lives. This type of curriculum, brought …

No More Games: A Pronunciation Guidebook For New Efl Teachers Working In Asian Countries, Chiara A. Coombs

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many cram schools in Asia and online TESOL certificate programs often do not include training focused on pronunciation instruction. Consequently, teachers lack confidence and skills to teach pronunciation. The area of instruction is commonly ignored, and a need exists for instructional materials designed for new EFL teachers to support their students. This guidebook is a tool for inexperienced pre-service or in-service EFL teachers who plan to teach abroad. The overall purpose of the project was to raise the level of pronunciation training for inexperienced teachers, give them confidence to include it as a part of their curriculum, and to instill …

Global Voices: A Student-Centered Guide To Teaching English As An International Language, Megan M. Mcara

Master's Projects and Capstones

It is time for change in the world of English language teaching. The dominant view and practice of teaching English as a neutral, straight-forward act of imparting “objective” grammatical, phonological and semantic knowledge to passive students does not serve the interest or needs of the estimated 1.5 billion students learning English in today’s interconnected, dynamic world. Critical theories and approaches such as critical pedagogy, critical literacy, and the participatory approach can help identify this problem and offer solutions, yet little has been done to apply and translate these theories into practical, useable materials for teachers in the classroom. This project …

Enhancing Listening Comprehension Skills Through Exposure To Authentic Conversation, Michael Mcclure

Master's Projects and Capstones

In this field project, the author created a listening comprehension workbook for adult ESL students. The emphasis of the project was to improve the listening comprehension abilities of students through exposing them to authentic American English. The recordings were provided by StoryCorps.gov.

Music Speaks, We Listen: A Teacher's Guide For Using Music In The Adult Ell Classroom, Honora Mitchell

Master's Projects and Capstones

Too often adult ESL students are stymied by high levels of perfectionism, self-consciousness and anxiety when trying to learn English. They are further challenged because they may have come from a country where language teaching methods have not kept up with the times, so have an imbalance of skills—lacking speaking and listening skills. When students’ affective filters are high and their motivation is low they are less open to learning. Students need authentic, culturally-relevant material to stimulate learning and activate their multiple intelligences. The purpose of this project is to introduce adult ESL teachers to using popular songs to teach …

An Esl Instructor's Guidebook For Reducing Test Anxiety At The Community College Level Through Exploring Alternatives In Assessment, Allison D. Grant

Master's Projects and Capstones

The purpose of this project is to decrease test anxiety within ESL community college students by providing their instructors with a guidebook for implementing alternatives in assessment. Chapter one dives right into the problem of ESL students experiencing test anxiety. At the community college level, there are added pressures from family needs, work, legal issues, adjusting to a new culture, and more. Teachers could offset this external anxiety by eliminating test anxiety in their classrooms.

Chapter two outlines much of the relevant literature dealing with the topics of test anxiety, foreign language anxiety, ESL testing practices, ESL at the community …

An Interactive Environmental Approach To Teaching English As A Second Language, Jennifer L. Young

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project offers lessons related to ecoliteracy and environmental understanding for intermediate to advanced English Language Learners. It contains an ESL Ecoliteracy Student Handbook and an ESL Ecoliteracy Teacher Guide. There are two comprehensive units focused on understanding and acknowledging ecosystems in urban areas and foraging. The lessons formed in these units stem from Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and the pedagogical theories of place based and experiential learning. Each unit has an outdoor activity build into the language learning framework, and the lessons are focused on building communicative, reading, vocabulary and grammar skills within an authentic learning …

Humanistic Approach Vs. Technological Approach: Accelerate Language Learning By Having Fun In The Sun, Alex M. Lopez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Technology continues to spread throughout the world, and it seems that this trend will continue for some time. Many students have been left behind because the focus has been largely on viewing computer screens and communicating without the use of a voice, through text messages and chatting.

This project is based on the humanistic approach, and it is designed to promote activities that involve group work, taking the students outside of the classroom, and building a familial support system within the classroom by promoting class chemistry.

The project outlines activities that involve more communication and collaborative activities because these enable …

The Immigrants In The Central Coast Of California Need Motivation To Attend Classes And Learn English As Their Second Language, Martin Rodriguez-Juarez

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project shows that the immigrant community that works in the fields from the Central Coast of California need the motivation to attend adult school to learn English as their second language. A six-week courses is included.

Guidebook For Esl Teachers Of Chinese Students, John M. Tubbs

Master's Projects and Capstones

There are currently many Chinese speakers studying and working in the United States. Some of them find English pronunciation to be very challenging. The Guidebook is meant to be a tool for the teachers of Chinese speaking ESL students. English language instruction in China is often teacher centered, with the instructor lecturing and students taking notes. Most classes do not focus on communicative skills. Different language groups often vary in terms of which English sounds they find difficult to pronounce. Vowel sounds have been identified as a particular challenge for Chinese speaking students. The front-vowels in English are the focus …

From Culture Shock To Cultural Adaptation: A Workbook For International Students, Gregory R. Sugajski

Master's Projects and Capstones

San Francisco’s complex communal tapestry can lead to cultural disorientation, dislocation, and unfamiliarity for recently arrived F-1 and M-1 international students, a series of events that when related to problematic adaptation issues and negative adjustment implementations is known as culture shock. Easing the adaptation process for this population is considered to be of academic importance from a progressive, economic, sociocultural, and intercultural perspective. Thus, the organizing purpose and principle of the project is to enable cultural adaptation for students who reside in San Francisco by instilling in them proximal, behavioral, and situational safety awareness. The project takes the form of …