Education Commons^™

Reading Robot, Gillian Watts, Andrew Myers, Sabrinna Tan, Taylor Klein, Omeed Djassemi

General Engineering

Presently, there is an insufficient availability of human experts to assist students in reading competency and comprehension. Our team’s goal was to create an improved socially assistive robot for use by therapists, teachers, and parents to help children and adults develop reading skills while they do not have access to specialists. HAPI is a socially assistive robot that we created with the goal of helping students practice their reading comprehension skills. HAPI enables a student to improve their reading skills without an educator present, while enabling educators to review the student's performance remotely. Design constraints included: physical size, weight, duration …

Pourquoi J’Écris En Français, Julien Kilanga Musinde

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Why have I chosen to write in French? My personal engagement in front of French language, my profession of teacher and researcher in French linguistics, my quality as a writer and the years I worked as director of French at the International Organization of Francophonie have largely contributed to increase my link with this tongue. We say, the language belongs to his speakers and particularly to the people who use it as the place of expression of art and original thought.

The Academic And Cultural Adaptation Of Chinese International Students At Umass Boston: The Struggles And Progress From The Perspectives Of Students And Professors, Pingping Chen, Theodora Chocos, Lorena Fuentes

English Faculty Publication Series

This panel will articulate the struggles and progress of Chinese international students in their learning processes at UMass Boston. Additionally, the challenges some professors have faced in teaching Chinese international students and the pedagogical practice they have used to engage these learners in their courses will be addressed.

This panel was presented as part of the 2014 8th Annual University Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Technology on May 15, 2014. The theme of the conference was "Teaching both What and How for Deep Learning at Every Level."

Second Language Gesture And Acculturation In Study Abroad Contexts, Christie Marie Gardner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Motivationis an integral part of learning; Gestures are an important aspect of human communication, and culture plays a significant role in shaping all of these human elements. This study explores the relationship betweensocial, cultural-historical activityand second language(L2) gesture acquisitionas student motivations both drive, and emanate from, the L2 learning process. Six American students participating in a study-abroad program in Chile were evaluated at three different levels of L2 proficiency (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) for L2 gesture articulations and motivational developments. During the semester-long investigation, three audio-video recorded interviews were conducted to observe L2 gestural behaviors, and two e-mail logs were …

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 …

The Relation Between Speech And Reading, Erin St. Jacques

Honors Projects

An analysis is made of the connection between speech and reading, and language and reading, and how both are related to a Speech-Language Pathologist's job in a school setting, working with struggling readers. Research about the process of learning how to read and how and SLP can be brought in at different stages is examined. This research paper looks at how a child learns to read; programs were executed involving young readers with reading disabilities. It also examines the different stages of learning to read and how an SLP can try to hep. The tactics were examined more closely as …

Esl Learning Through Drama, Chamkaur Gill

Chamkaur Gill

Extract: Drama-based activities can assist learners develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills through constant exposure to the target language. Annarella (2000) and Boudreault (2009) refer to the guided imagery and imagination in drama techniques which assist in the development of these skills.

Prospective English-As-A-Second-Language Educators' Use Of Vygotskian Scaffolding In Mentoring Academic Writing, Ixchell Alejandra Keller

Theses Digitization Project

This study focuses on two prospective teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) who were enrolled in a master's program and were being tutored as they prepared to write a scholarly review of literature. The methodology involved videotaping four tutoring sessions, each tutor was assigned to participate in two tutoring sessions each with the same participant. The videotaped data was then transcribed and analyzed for significant scaffolding occurrences that may have promoted successful transfer of responsibility facilitating autonomy for the learner. The goal of this project was to promote autonomous learning and to help find ways for students …

Critical Analysis Of Total Physical Response As Pedagogy, Rachel Lynn Anderson

Theses Digitization Project

Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language-teaching method, developed by James Asher in the 1960's. In this critical analysis the theoritical origins of TPR were explored along with the work of James Asher. Twenty-three studies by Asher were examined in conjuction with others who have studied TPR, in order to understand the effectiveness of TPR as both theory and pedagogy. In all studies examined, TPR (which focuses on listening comprehension) was found to be an effective means for producing near perfect retention even long term. TPR was found to be a powerful method for teaching a second lanuage.

Neurolinguistic Programming As Observational And Mediational Strategies In Teaching Primary-Level English As A Second Language, Amber Lee Hishmeh

Theses Digitization Project

This project serves as a resource for kindergarten ESL educators to explore more creative multisensory teaching strategies. The five methodologies presented are Neurolinguistic Programming, Suggestopedia, music, storytelling and Total Physical Response.

A Study Of The Perceptual Learning Style Preferences Of Japanese Students, Elizabeth Ann Hoffner

Dissertations and Theses

This study was based on a study by Joy Reid (1987) on the perceptual learning style preferences of English as a Second Language (ESL) students. The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptual learning style preferences of three groups of students: Japanese students studying in the US, Japanese students studying in Japan, and American students studying in the US. The perceptual styles studied were visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile, with the additional styles of group and individual learning also being studied. The learning style preferences were identified so as to determine the relationship between style and the variables …

Second Chance Language Learning: A Study Of What The Slow Language Learner's Problems Are, Why They Exist, And How To Give The Slow Language Learner Help On A Remedial Basis., Pamela S. Plimpton, Helen Kalaya

MA TESOL Collection

In the course of our paper , we will discuss theories of why the problem of the slow language learner exists, what the problem was for our specific situation and how we personally dealt with the problem(s). Realizing that other teachers will not be facing the same physical situation we did, (that of teaching ESL to Greek students at a private Greek high school in Thessaloniki, Greece) we will discuss alternatives concerning physical facilities needed for remedial help. Lastly, we offer an annotated listing of resources dealing with these students; and suggestions for the practical application of materials and methods …