Education Commons^™

The Effectiveness Of Semantic Mapping On Reading Comprehension, Sharon Fredricks

Dissertations and Theses

It is the goal of all reading instructors to use techniques that will enhance reading comprehension. This is certainly no less so in the second language classroom. Studies have shown that readers possess schemata for text structure that is activated during the reading process. It has also been shown that a reader's textual schemata may be culturally influenced and that second language students may possess textual schemata that conflicts or interferes with the structure of the text making comprehension more difficult. For this reason, second language learners may benefit from explicit instruction in text structure and content relationships. Semantic mapping …

The Identity In Crisis: A New Approach To The Culture Shock Experience Of University Exchange Students, Christina Maria Luther

Dissertations and Theses

The relationship of language and culture is explored in this thesis for the purpose of better understanding why all sojourners, regardless of preparation, experience some degree of culture shock. The author begins with a review of literature on culture shock establishing that the native language of sojourners is not considered to be of any consequence to the sojourning experience. The fields of intercultural communication, social psychology and psychology are then explored to establish the link between language and culture and to introduce the notion of linguistic identity. Evidence found in each of these fields leads the author to conclude that …

The Natural Approach And The Audiolingual Method: A Question Of Student Gains And Retention, Jeffrey Robert Richards

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in the short term and and long term second language (L2) gains of first year Spanish students exposed to the Audiolingual Method (ALM) and the Natural Approach. The experiment consisted of two randomly selected groups which were exposed to four presentations. Two of these presentations delivered content material following a Natural Approach lesson design while the other two delivered content material following an ALM lesson design in such a way that both groups were exposed to two ALM lessons and two Natural Approach lessons. All subjects were pre-tested prior to …

Adult Esl Students: Traits And Goals - A Case Study, David Miles Wilkinson

Dissertations and Theses

This study was conducted to examine the traits and goals of students enrolled in the ESL program at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington over the past two academic years (1992 and 1993). The study looks at the degree of awareness that these students have of further educational opportunities in the academic and vocational areas, and the degree to which the ESL program at Clark College engenders this awareness. Data was collected from two cohorts of students enrolled in the ESL program on two separate occasions, each approximately one year apart. The goals of the study included the following: ( 1) …

The Study Of Malaysian Learners' Strategies While Studying A Second Language, Phoebe Christina Leong

Dissertations and Theses

In the past, the process by which language acquisition took place was largely ignored. Learning strategies were found to reveal much of the processes that occurred in a learner. In recent years, however, there was a greater emphasis in discovering learner's strategies because of the important role it played in helping the learner control his learning. Most researchers (e.g., Rubin 1975, Stern 1974, O'Malley 1985) emphasize not only the importance of learner strategies in helping the student direct his own learning, but they also emphasize the usefulness of transferring strategies used by successful learners to less successful learners. In order …

Cognitive Development Of Bilingual Korean-Americans In An Oregon School District, Kimiko Okada King

Dissertations and Theses

This research examined whether bilingualism would accelerate or hinder the cognitive as well as academic development of the Korean American individuals in an Oregon school district by analyzing the standardized test scores at grades 3, 5, 7, and 9. Eleven monolingual and 27 bilingual students released the Survey of Basic Skills (SBS) as well as Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) scores for this study.

The analyses of the test scores revealed that the Korean-American students in this school district were performing at a much higher level against the national norm (the 50th percentile), or the school district norm (the 75th percentile). …

Second Language Use In The Workplace: A Case Study Of A Dental Hygienist, Gina L. Crocetti

Dissertations and Theses

This paper describes a case study of a non-native speaking (NNS) dental hygienist in her work environment. The subject learned English by learning to become a dental hygienist rather than through formal language education. Participant observation and discourse, event/network, and componential analyses were the methods used to analyze the subject's communication in her work setting.

The philosophical question as to how ESP differs from ESL is raised and elements of the work setting and the NNS workers' communication with interlocutors in that setting are identified to aid educators in teaching ESP courses. Questions ESP educators might address in designing and …