Education Commons^™

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, …

Effective Vocabulary Teaching Strategies For The English For Academic Purposes Esl Classroom, Joseph Mukoroli

MA TESOL Collection

Vocabulary learning is an important and indispensable part of any language learning process. The author of this thesis focuses on effective vocabulary teaching strategies in the English for Academic Purposes ESL classroom. Drawing on findings obtained from observing three English for Academic Purposes ESL classrooms across the U.S.A, several current databases and his personal experience as a teacher and learner, the author discusses various effective vocabulary teaching strategies in the English for Academic Purposes classroom which could greatly assist English language learners in their journey of language acquisition and therefore expedite the language learning process.

Teaching English To Children With Adhd, Natalia Turketi

MA TESOL Collection

The focus of this paper is primarily put on enhancing the ESL teaching process and making foreign language learning successful and manageable for every student. The paper explores the process of teaching English to children who experience difficulties in learning languages due to their attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder problems. The author considers the process of second language acquisition for children with ADHD in terms of input and output speech issues, motivation problems and learning preferences. The ESL methodologies that can be applied effectively in addressing such learners’ needs and the rationale of their choice are then argued for. Examples …

Exploratory Learning: The Digital Recorder Project: An Investigation Into A Student Designed Project For Finding And Addressing Esl Students’ Listening And Speaking Needs, Joel Cooke

MA TESOL Collection

The Digital Recorder Project was designed to present students with an opportunity to design and implement, as a class, a project that would address speaking and listening issues they experience as ESL students. Each student was required to observe their own speaking via a self-created digital recording and in conjunction with the class, design a unique, individualized method to work on issues he or she identified. This document will present the observations and conclusions about the nature of such a project from the teacher’s perspective. In addition, the paper will use transcripts of class recordings as a means of placing …

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 …

Teaching Adult Efl Learners In Japan From A Japanese Perspective, Patricia Jean Gage

MA TESOL Collection

This paper presents teaching materials that were developed for adult EFL learners in Japan. The author’s primary purpose for developing these materials was to create lessons that would utilize content from a Japanese perspective and the students’ personal interests. The author asserts that students are able to communicate more effectively when the topic and the content of the lessons are familiar to the students. Developed around topics chosen by the students, these lessons contain anecdotes written by the students along with activities that integrate listening, reading, speaking, and writing. The five lessons and the rationale for designing them are included …

Connecting Language And Culture Through Storytelling: A Materials Development Project, Sarah M. Anderson

MA TESOL Collection

This materials development project presents a Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS) unit created around an authentic Mexican legend. The author wrote and taught ten mini-stories in preparation for using the legend as the main story of the unit.

The author first discusses the theory behind the TPRS approach and its effectiveness in regards to language teaching and learning. An overview of how the TPRS process works, including examples specific to the author’s teaching context, is also described.

The paper then presents the rationale and design of the project itself. The author incorporated an authentic legend with the intention of connecting …

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.

Praxis: Do I Practice What I Believe? A Course In Research In The Language Classroom For The English Language Teacher Education Program At Universidad Centroamericana, Nicaragua, Sarah Renata Wright

MA TESOL Collection

I have asked myself to describe my teaching beliefs and analyze my teaching practice in order to see if the two are congruent and if in fact I do have a teaching praxis. This is a professional paper about course development based on a classroom research project. First, through a discussion of theories, experiences, and observations I describe my teaching beliefs. Second, I describe the Research in English Language Teaching course that I designed and taught to a group fourth year student teachers at the Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua. This description is based on a selection of student writings, lesson …

Two-Week Training Course For English Language Teachers In The Ukraine, Maryna Gayduchenko

MA TESOL Collection

This is a two week teacher training course for Ukrainian secondary school EFL teachers. What is innovative about this particular course is that it was designed and written by a non-native EFL teacher and trainer for non-native EFL trainees. The following advantages make its importance particularly relevant: a non-native trainer is a role model for trainees – living proof that it IS possible to master new approaches and techniques; a non-native trainer is intimately acquainted with the challenges trainees and learners face and the strategies for dealing with them. The main objective of the course is to help trainees develop …

Catering To Learner Needs Using Cards, Lisa M. Corbin

MA TESOL Collection

Catering to the needs of a learner is of great concern in a whole learning approach to language instruction. This paper will explore what is intended by whole learning, outline the needs of a learner, and provide a series of tasks and activities to use with cards. The first chapter introduces the topic and briefly describes the author’s classroom situation. The second chapter describes my initial experiences and discoveries while using cards in the classroom. The third chapter outlines the theoretical principles behind whole learning, details the needs of a learner and parallels how cards comply with these needs. The …

Connecting With Elementary School Esl Students Through Dialogue Journals, Amelia Myers Collins

MA TESOL Collection

This paper presents my experiences using dialogue journals with English as a Second Language students at Ephesus Road Elementary School in Chapel Hill, NC. The history and background of dialogue journals is discussed, as well as my philosophy of teaching. The practical aspects of using dialogue journals with elementary school non-native English-speaking students and the benefits and difficulties associated with them are described using student material. In addition, the work covers how my experience using dialogue journals differed from my expectations when I began using them. Excerpts of written dialogues between students and teacher are included.

Simplification And Personalization Of French Grammar, Regina Dee

MA TESOL Collection

The materials included in this project have been developed as a result of my emerging understanding of French grammar since I began studying it in 1976. I began teaching a French Activities class in 1986 to eighth graders at St. Andrews and third and fourth graders at an elementary school in Baltimore as a student at Morgan State University. While I was completing my student teaching at Baltimore City College Preparatory School, I found that my students had difficulties understanding textbook explanations. I therefore began to create my own explanations during sessions when students came for after school help. I …

Using Innovative Language Learning Methods With Mombusho Textbooks, Janet Melinda Beane

MA TESOL Collection

This paper shows how chapters from two different textbooks at different levels might be taught using several different methods. The paper begins with a discussion of my reasons for choosing this topic and goes on to lay out what I feel a method needs to consider in order to be a good method. In the next section, I go on to introduce various innovative language teaching methods such as ALM, TPR and the Silent Way. For each method I include a short section of background information including the principles and techniques of each lesson. Then I contrast a typical lesson …