Education Commons^™

Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices Post-Covid: A Classroom Action Project, Jillian Weemaes

MA TESOL Collection

Out of recognition of experienced trauma, trauma-informed practices have existed in schools and classrooms long before the start of the pandemic and will continue to exist and evolve after. Programs need to evolve due to the changing nature of the pandemic such as the possibility of teachers experiencing trauma alongside their students, and distance learning complicating the ability of students to make connections with peers, teachers, and administrators. Limited literature currently exists in the field showcasing how teachers have changed and updated their practices since the start of the pandemic. The objective of this action research is to add to …

Approaches To Narrative Instruction For Second Language Learners, Mathew Peters

MA TESOL Collection

Narratives have reemerged as a dominant form of rhetoric over the last fifty years. This dominant use of narrative discourse has only increased with the rise of social media. Walther Fisher (1987) proposed the narrative paradigm as a unifying theory of human communication. His major claim is that people are inherently storytellers and that people use a narrative rationality and a logic of good reasons to inform their beliefs, values, and actions. This paper utilizes his theories, along with recent findings in neuroscience, to establish an argument for greater inclusion of narratives into second language teaching. Narratives can have a …

Designing An Integrated Education And Training Program For English Language Learners At A Community-Based Literacy Organization, Courtney J. Lord

MA TESOL Collection

Since the passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) in 2014, adult education programs across the country began to plan and implement integrated education and training (IET) programs. IET programs combine adult basic education or ESL instruction with workforce preparation activities and training to not only help participants improve their basic skills or English language proficiency, but also help them advance in their educational or career paths. This model has been particularly challenging for community-based literacy organizations (CBLOs) to adopt, as IETs require additional funding streams, collaborative partnerships, and significant support services. In addition, literature regarding how to …

Critical Complexity: A Challenge To Engage For Educators, Elizabeth Johnson

MA TESOL Collection

Education is a means of ensuring the survival of the human race. By passing on knowledge and awareness, humans attempt to craft adaptability of future generations. Adaptability allows humans to respond to unforeseen events that may challenge their survival.

Education is a process that works to achieve change and growth of the individual and the regeneration and transformation of society. The outcomes of interactions in educational systems are uncertain and emergent. Educational systems are open, adaptive, complex, dynamic and non-linear.

In the near past, reducing the complexity of natural and social phenomena has allowed the human race to simplify and …

Developing And Implementing A Sustainable Assessment Program For The Self-Aware College Language Tutor, Brian L. Adler

MA TESOL Collection

The aim of this project was to determine whether language tutors at a community college in the U.S. state of Virginia who play an active role in the design and implementation of new assessment strategies will see an increase in awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses and whether this awareness will drive them to change and adapt their learning and tutoring for the better. The author will show that assessment can be used as an avenue for tutors to share strengths with one another through indirect observation in the form of recorded tutoring sessions, qualitative surveys, and informal interviews. …

Implementing An Extensive Reading Program In An Intensive University Eap Curriculum, Matthew Peel

MA TESOL Collection

The goal of this project was to integrate an extensive reading (ER) program within an existing 8-week intensive reading curriculum in a university English for academic purposes (EAP) program. The merits of both intensive and extensive reading approaches were examined and used to develop the methodology for the ER program. Additionally, implementation parameters, as agreed upon by the EAP program director and academic coordinator, were used to determine the design and implementation of the ER program that was piloted on a low-intermediate level reading class. A method of anonymous student feedback, via questionnaires and reading logs, were developed and applied …

Reflective Teaching Practices: Looking Beneath The Surface And Emergent Cyclical Experiential Learning Processes And Outcomes, Mazie E. Black

MA TESOL Collection

In this professional paper, I examined the kinds of processes I experienced for English language acquisition (ELA) in practice. This journey is about my transition from a generalist to a TESOL specialist. One of my most successful lessons was not in English, but a science lesson to students who were majority users of English as a second or third language. It was about the use of reflective and refractive telescopes. My approaches were very student centered and project based. They worked in groups, chose which type of telescope to make, kept journals with notes, drawings and key vocabulary, made inferences, …

Utilizing The Interactive Reading Model In A Continuing Education Course, Shawn Mcrae

MA TESOL Collection

This paper seeks to provide an alternative method of reading instruction to female Saudi Arabian university students enrolled in a continuing education class for banking. Rather than a teacher-centered approach that relies on textbooks for materials development, a student-centered approach has been utilized in order to encourage participation, allowing the learners to have more input in the learning process. The use of student-generated materials allows for an authentic medium of communication, enabling students to practice their language learning skills using topics of social and personal relevance. From a teaching perspective, this is extremely important; it can increase students’ motivation, stepping …

Not You/Like You, With You: Toward A Praxis Of Love, Learning, And Liberation In Teaching Efl Writing — On Zombies, De-Colonial Feminisms, And Freire In Efl Contact Zones, Jessmaya Morales

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores EFL writing as a critical contact zone in which identity and subjectivity are found, denied, contested, de/constructed and occupied. The author opens with an account of a dream, utilized as a metaphor to examine EFL learning through the analytical lens of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The paper’s first section is a self-reflexive discussion of Freire’s pedagogy and why his unambiguous analyses of power, subjectivity, and the “banking system of education” are vital to the field of ELT. In the second section, the author discusses subjectivity, identity, and intersectionality as rooted in the work of …

English Language Teaching Using The Whole Student Philosophy, Tahira Y. Muhammad

MA TESOL Collection

Education in Kuwait is centered on rote learning methodology. Historically, the Kuwait educational system was created to mimic the Egyptian rote learning systems that date back to Pharaonic times. Furthermore, Kuwaiti educators are convinced that rote learning is the optimal form of education. In this paper, I will attempt to prove that this method is unsuccessful, and that educators, within their classroom and lesson planning, should adapt their teaching strategies to the adoption of the whole language philosophy.

The major limitation of this research is that the observer is also participant. However, the fact that the observer is fully trained …

Cognitive Load And Its Major Pedagogical Implications, Focus On Education In Jordan, Bassam Kutkut

MA TESOL Collection

Through my teaching experience in Jordan, I noticed the amount of work students had to do. I noticed the tremendous amount information they received from their teachers on a daily basis. I also noticed that students forgot most of the information they learned in class right after their exams. I was wondering if that’s the right way of teaching. Then, after my study at SIT, I learned that this is a cognitive overload that can impair the learning process.

Cognitive load refers to the information processing abilities in the human memory system which has limitations. When these limitations are exceeded, …

Building A Learning Community Within The Constraints Of Open Enrollment, Megan Pugh

MA TESOL Collection

This paper introduces the ways in which the challenges of open enrollment ESL programs affect both students and teachers and the importance of group cohesion in adult learning. The effects caused by open enrollment can be abated by building a strong community of learners through involving new students to build a sense of belonging to the class, meeting the needs of individuals within the group, having a supportive learning environment, and using selected best teaching practices to build community. With the solutions proposed in this paper, teachers can meet student needs and the negative effects of open enrollment will be …

Using Games In A Foreign Language Classroom, Amy Talak-Kiryk

MA TESOL Collection

This independent professional project researches the value of games in a classroom setting. The research focuses on the educational benefits as well as on recommendations how to incorporate games into a learning environment. Also included are games that can be used in a foreign language classroom to enhance student learning. The games were developed by various sources and used in a Spanish classroom in an American high school with teenagers ages fourteen to eighteen.

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 Peer Assisted Approach To Assessment And Evaluation In A Korean University, John Steere Wendel

MA TESOL Collection

This paper details collaborative professional development with a focus on classroom assessment and evaluation of Korean University students. The observations, opinions, and conclusions reported herein are based on committee work carried out by the author at Dongguk University during the fall semester of 2007. Members of the committee were first asked to define areas of assessment and evaluation of students that either interested them, or that they found problematic. Through methods described in this paper (journaling, committee meetings, materials sharing, observation and feedback), each team member had opportunities to actively reflect on their own practices, to both articulate and challenge …

Nate And The One Sixty-Eight, Michael S. Mcmillan

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the fate of 168 students who failed the Level 4 test at the American University Alumni (AUA) Language Center in Bangkok, Thailand. It examines enrollment trends of all Level 4 students during a one-year study period spanning 2006 and 2007, and reveals what happened to the students – who dropped out (and when), and who continued to study. It also examines why students might have dropped out. It then takes a critical look at certain aspects of the Level 4 test, explores what makes a test a “good” test, and recommends a series of improvements to AUA’s …

Becoming A Reflective Practitioner: A Classroom-Based Research On Mentor Work With A Novice Teacher In Tuzla Canton, Bosnia And Herzegovina, Dijana Markovic

MA TESOL Collection

The small post-war former socialist country of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been under constant reform in each area of its existence for the last ten years now. The reforms concerning the education system have been of the greatest interest for me, an educator who truly believes the future of every country depends on tolerance, open-mindedness and the absence of prejudice. These three basic principles of a successful democratic society are best acquired through competent teaching in the classroom. Sharing my teaching experience and helping novice teachers develop their own knowledge, awareness, skills and attitudes has not only helped the growth …

Balance In Language Teaching And Learning: Honoring Tradition And Celebrating Innovation, Natalia Tsarikova

MA TESOL Collection

This paper presents a study aimed at finding a flexible approach to teaching that is responsive to learner needs and preferences whilst at the same time utilizing communicative language teaching and form-focused instruction. In other words, the author aims to find a balance between CLT (learner centered approaches) advocated by many trainers and teachers in Uzbekistan and the Grammar Translation method (teacher centered approaches) that has been widely practiced as well. The author’s primary purpose is to find an approach which is centered principally on learning rather than on the teacher or the learner. The author maintains that teaching is …

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 …

Tasks In Tbl: What Kinds Of Tasks Promote Meaningful Communication?, Anna Fatneva

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the process of developing and implementing TBL tasks in the EFL classroom. A title page is included. A non-specific abstract was created and included. The structure of this IPP is outlined in the Table of Contents. Teaching context as well as the reasons for my choice of the topic are described in the introduction. Research into ESL/EFL source literature on the topic is illuminated in Chapter 1. Classroom Observations based on the teaching journal kept throughout the project are depicted in Chapter 2. Implications for the use of this paper are considered in terms of advantages for …

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 …

Integrating The Six Skills In Every Esl/ Efl Class, Monica M. Catramado

MA TESOL Collection

The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of integrating listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammaring and vocabulary in the ESL/EFL classroom.

Through this paper, not only will the reader gain an understanding of how to design a theme or content-based syllabus, which integrates all six skills, but also he/she will find numerous activities that will help develop those skills in every student.

Readers will also be shown how students can learn another language and develop these skills through practical every day topics and different materials, which depend on the students’ developmental stage of learning, stage of knowledge …

Building Community With Adolescent English Language Learners, Jill Antal

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines a year of teaching in which the author used social and emotional learning strategies to build community in her classroom of English Language Learners at Macfarland Middle School in Washington, DC in 2001-2002. The author’s adaptations to components of Northeast Foundation for Children’s Responsive Classroom model are discussed. The conception and implementation of the author’s own project, Passport Partners, is included. The major research supporting Social and Emotional Learning is briefly presented, as well as the wider implications of addressing or not addressing students’ social and emotional needs.

Multiple Intelligences In The Efl Classroom: A Perspective In Context, Irena Vodopija- Krstanoviæ

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the implication of Multiple Intelligences Theory for learning styles in the EFL classroom. The multiple intelligence profiles of students and teachers at two secondary schools were obtained in order to determine their strengths and weaknesses in the different intelligences. In addition, the teachers’ and learner’s preferences for EFL activities catering for the intelligences were defined. Furthermore, the frequency of use of the EFL activities was examined in order to determine how the various intelligences were actually addressed in the teaching and learning processes. The research was conducted in Rijeka, Croatia, thus providing insights into a specific cultural …

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 …

The Impact Of Self Assesment And Feedback On Students Learning, Federica Castro

MA TESOL Collection

The independent Professional Project is an exploratory action-research, the main purpose of which was to verify the impact of self-assessment and feedback on students learning; that is, to substantiate how useful these tools are for students and if their really influences students learning and academic progress. Various instruments were designed and applied throughout the research process to a group of Dominican students taking the Level I English course at PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA MADRE Y MAESTRA in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Theoretical implications are also presented here as well as limitations found while conducting the research. Finally, I offer some useful suggestions …

Reading Program For The Third Year Medical Undergraduates, Gabriela Breazu

MA TESOL Collection

The paper provides an examination of the reading program that was devised for the third year medical undergraduates, at the Department of Modern Languages, at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Luilu Hatieganu", Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The reading program, using authentic medical texts and authentic literary texts, is intended for Romanian medical students in order to develop efficient reading skills. At the same time the program aims at pushing learners into experiencing pleasure and joy in reading interactively, inside and outside the English class and classroom. The chapters of the paper analyze in details the different parts of the program from …

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 …

Foreign Languages And Learning Disabled Students: Research And Potential Solutions, Todd Christopher Wheelden

MA TESOL Collection

This paper reviews the latest research on the struggles learning disabled (LD) students have in the foreign language (FL) classroom. Over the last ten years, there have been significant advancements in recognizing the fact that LD students do in fact face greater obstacles when acquiring a FL than their peers do. Over the past five years, advances have been made taking the information garnered from these discoveries and developing appropriate solutions. The paper attempts to summarize the most significant comprehension, reference, and implementation.

The paper begins with an overview of second language acquisition learning disabilities and how they may surface …

Error Analysis And Curriculum Development In An Efl Classroom In Taiwan, Meng Teh Wu

MA TESOL Collection

It is the premise of this paper that errors provide invaluable information for guiding teachers and learners in the process of language acquisition. They offer insights for the teacher in constructing curricula and help the students with their ingerlanguage development. Errors should not be regarded as negative indicators. They are significant guide posts in the learning process. When and how to correct errors and what errors to correct has been the focus of Error Analysis studies. In this respect this paper is no exception. Special emphasis has been laid, however, on how to translate theoretical concepts into the author’s classroom …