Education Commons^™

For Better Or Verse – Poetry In The Esl Classroom, Fredrick Schroeder

MA TESOL Collection

This Independent Personal Project considers the use of poetry with regard to reading, writing, listening, and speaking in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom. The first part of the paper deals with the author’s background in poetry and journey to using it in class. The next part is concerned with the reasons for using poetry in the ESL classroom. Then the paper focuses on general concerns using poetry in class, which segues into a more specific discussion of assessment and correction. The final part of the paper presents twenty activities that can be used in the classroom. The …

Circles And Letters: I Do; I Understand, Thomas Kitchen

MA TESOL Collection

How do we writing teachers respond to our students’ writing? How does our response affect both us and the students? Is it irresponsible to mark only a few recurring errors? Or is irresponsible to mark every error? Do students learn better when the errors are labeled or not? What about positive feedback?

This thesis explains an action research project I conducted with my reading/writing students. In the project, I explored many methods of responding to student writing, and I documented how one of those techniques affected me and my students. That technique called the reduced grammar technique focuses on recurring …

Integrating Writing Within The Foreign Language Classroom: Shifting Dynamics, Not The Task, Patricia Ann Evans

MA TESOL Collection

This classroom based research project considers the following questions: Why should my foreign language students write? From Pedagogy to Purpose; what happens when students use technology with their writing; what transitions take place with regard to the role as teacher when integrating writing into the Spanish language classroom? This project follows the shift from writing , disconnected activities to writing. How a student-centered writing process and technology support the shift away from the perception that good writing is voiceless and mechanical. It traces the shift from learning to write to writing to learn. The project studies the shift that occurs …

Videos Educativos: El Uso De La Tecnología En La Elaboración De Materiales Generados Por El Alumno., Maria Clara Herrera Rekow

MA TESOL Collection

El siguiente documento se basa en la narración y comentarios acerca de la elaboración de un video para la enseñanza del español. El video en cuestión fue planeado, producido y editado por los alumnos del octavo grado de la escuela Hyla y servirá como material suplementario en los cursos sexto y séptimo durante años venideros. A través de este manuscrito se hará una descripción y análisis de los acontecimientos que ocurrieron a lo largo del proyecto y se discutirán las técnicas de enseñanza que se usaron durante su elaboración. Uno de los objetivos principales de este documento es servir como …

Making Connections With Dialogue Journals, Catherine Elliott

MA TESOL Collection

This paper makes a case for the use of dialogue journals in the second language classroom. In Part One the author examines the research of experts in the fields of second language acquisition and writing instruction and presents their findings as a rationale which supports the use of dialogue journals. In Part Two the author draws from her own experience in the classroom to illustrate how dialogue journals can be used effectively with second language learners.

Making Meaning: A Teacher’S Journey, Joanne Griffin Yorks

MA TESOL Collection

This thesis shows how one teacher gained an increased understanding of the way she learns, discovered a theoretical support base for her learning style and found validation for her way of making meaning. Melding this new awareness with what was for her a new theoretical approach to teaching reading, reader-response theory, and then adapting the theory for the ESL classroom, she sought to offer her students opportunities similar to those she’d had to use reading to bring about new understandings of self and increased confidence in one’s ability to make meaning for oneself. The first chapter is an introduction to …

It’S All About M.E. (Motivation Through (Self) Evaluation), Wendy Pillars

MA TESOL Collection

Middle school is a paradox. Students want nothing more than autonomy, while classrooms become more structured and demanding. With the increased structure, however, are increased expectations for the students to determine what to do and when to do it, on their own. This rapid increase in personal responsibility creates confusion in an already tumultuous time in their lives, and a common retaliation, out of fear, apathy, or simply not knowing, is to do nothing. It is a given that students differ in their motivation to learn, and tapping each one of those sources becomes, in effect, a quest for the …

Creating The Fluent, Confident Writer: Innovative Techniques For Esl Writing Courses, Prudence Ingerman

MA TESOL Collection

ESL students are usually concerned with writing with no errors and this built-in critical editor stifles the rich writing potential which all students have. Through creating a safe environment and activities which nurture the creative spirit, it is possible to limit this editor to infrequent but necessary appearances and encourage writing large quantities of ungraded material. This paper suggests techniques for building a classroom community, including the use of a scripted writing process, responding to instructor writing and one-to-one conferencing. The essay also demonstrates how fluency can be achieved via a weekly silent class, mind-mapping and copious free-writing. These techniques …

Publication Projects With Esl/Efl Students:A Handbook For Teachers, April A. Minerich

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is based on my experience teaching courses in which students created publications. I frequently teach both newsletter classes and memory book classes to students of other languages who are studying English in an intensive program. I have also taught classes in which ESL students produced student directories. I have participated in developing cookbooks. I also publish student work in certain classes that I teach.

It describes the process I use to do publication projects. I include theory to support the soundness of this idea in ESL/EFL instruction. The strategy for implementing the class is described. It then moves …

The Affect Of Writing On The Internet, Jane Hoelker

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is a description of the development, objectives, implementation and results of an advanced composition course conducted on the Internet with IWE (International Writing Exchange) of the Helsinki University of Technology. The purpose of the course was to motivate students of English who were discouraged during the difficult IMF era in Korea in 1998. During the 90's the majority of English Education majors at Pusan National University in Korea had studied and/or traveled overseas for extensive periods of time during their undergraduate career. But, in 1998 opportunities for overseas travel and study had been greatly curtailed due to IMF …