Education Commons^™

Speech And Gesture In Classroom Interaction: A Case Study Of Angola And Portugal, Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

Correcting Errors In The L2 Classroom: Students' And Teachers' Perceptions, Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

Correcting students’ errors is necessary for improving their linguistic and communicative competence. This study seeks to examine students’ and teachers’ perceptions about error correction in the L2 classroom. An online survey was designed and sent out to a purposive sample. The sample consists of 12 students from the University of Guyana’s Modern Language Programme, who are pursuing a career in Spanish, French and Portuguese (with B1 and C1 language levels), and 9 teachers (7 current/2 former) from the Programme who specialise in teaching these different languages. The results of the survey are analysed and discussed through a mixed method approach, …

Developing Chinese Complimenting In A Study Abroad Program, Li Jin

Li Jin

This article reports on an empirical study investigating what and how two college-level American learners of Mandarin Chinese developed their own understanding of the Chinese complimenting speech act while participating in a 7-week intensive language study abroad program. A case study approach was adopted with a focus on participants’ self-reflection data supplemented with the researcher’s observation data to unpack each participant’s pragmatic developmental process throughout the program. Guided by sociocultural theory, the study uncovered the dynamic, complex and highly individualized developmental process each participant experienced. The findings revealed that Chinese people’s special treatment of the two American students provided more …

Context-Perception Model Of Third Language Learning Motivation, Masanori Matsumoto

Masanori Matsumoto

Through Matsumoto’s recent studies (2009, 2011) on foreign language learners’ motivation in Australian context, a third cultural factor has been detected. Both studies have revealed that besides the conventional account of the cultural distance between learners’ own culture and that of target language, the distance between learners’ own culture and the Australian educational culture in which their language learning occurs also influences the learners’ motivational state. That is, when learners learn a second foreign language in the second language educational context, this additional third culture plays an additional role which affects learner motivation. The study of cultural distance as a …

Investigating Foreign Language Curriculum Planning, Design And Development In Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (Phd Thesis Proposal [Ppt Presentation]), Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

Initial Career Motives And Demotivation In Teaching English As A Foreign Language: Cases Of Korean Efl Teachers, Tae-Young Kim, Yoon-Kyoung Kim

Dr. Tae-Young Kim (김태영, 金兌英)

In order to broaden understanding of English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher motivation, this study examines Korean EFL teachers’ initial job motives and demotivating factors. Four psychological constructs emerged regarding initial career motives: Global Orientation, Job Security, Altruism, and Ought-to Self. Among the constructs, global orientation proved to be the most popular reason for choosing an EFL teaching career. This study also showed three constructs for detrimental factors on EFL teacher motivation: Obstacles to Communicative Language Teaching, Inadequate Administrative Support, and Lack of Social Recognition. It was shown that obstacles to communicative language teaching contributed to the greatest demotivation.

An Investigation Of Nominalization And Lexical Density In Undergraduate Research Proposals, Thu Ha T. Nguyen, Emily C. Edwards

Bahram Kazemian

Academic writing is considered an essential skill for academic success not only for undergraduate study but also for students’ further education and professional development. This writing genre has certain characteristics often lacking in students’ research writing. This study explores two characteristics in students’ research proposals, nominalization and lexical density (LD), after the students completed courses on academic writing and Second Language Research (SLR) in their second year at a Vietnamese pedagogical university. It also investigates the effectiveness of writing training in increasing students’ performance regarding the use of given features. The findings, obtained from analyzing students’ proposals and recorded interviews, …

The Effect Of Motivational Languaging Activities On L2 Learning Motivation: Cases Of Efl Students In South Korea, Tae-Young Kim

Dr. Tae-Young Kim (김태영, 金兌英)

This study highlights the effect of languaging activities on students' EFL-learning motivation. By presenting two different studies, I argue that Swain's concept of languaging can be applied to primary/secondary school students' L2 learning. Motivational languaging activities were particularly useful for elementary school students. Opinion writing group showed significant increase in their motivational constructs at the end of experimentation.

Comparing Student Assessments And Perceptions Of Online And Face-To-Face Versions Of An Introductory Linguistics Course, David Johnson, Chris C. Palmer

Chris C. Palmer

This article examines the issue of whether linguistics is better suited for a face-to-face (F2F) environment than an online teaching environment. Specifically, it examines assessment scores and student perceptions of the effectiveness of an introductory linguistics course at an undergraduate state university that has been taught multiple times in both online and F2F modes. To study this issue data was collected about the types of students enrolled in either version of the course, including their GPAs and course grades. A survey with both closed- and open-ended questions was also used to ask students about their experiences and perceptions of the …

Analysis Of The Methodological Aspects Of An Empirical Research Article (Doctoral Assignment), Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

The analysis of the methodological aspects of the selected article appears in another Doctoral assignment of mine (General Analysis of an Empirical Research Article).

This specific analysis only deals with methodological aspects, while the other assignment deals with an entire structural analysis of the empirical research article.

The Dynamic Ecology Of The Writing Process And Agency: A Corpus-Based Comparative Case Study Of Stancetaking Among Native Speakers And Non-Native Speakers Of English In First-Year Composition Conferences, Kirk Marshall Wilkins

Kirk Marshall Wilkins

While previous research into writing conferences and tutorials has found that sessions with non-native speakers of English (NNSs) differ from those with native speakers of English (NSs), these studies using conversation analysis have tended to approach conferences through more qualitative methodologies. This thesis builds upon and enriches these previous studies by incorporating more of a quantitative analysis through the use of corpus linguistics to systematically analyze the frequency with which particular grammatical devices that express the attitude of the speaker, otherwise known as stance, and power are used and how these frequencies may vary within a specific set of NS …

The Dynamic Ecology Of The Writing Process And Agency: A Corpus-Based Comparative Case Study Of Stancetaking Among Native Speakers And Non-Native Speakers Of English In First-Year Composition Conferences, Kirk Marshall Wilkins

Kirk Marshall Wilkins

The Impact Of Web 2.0 In Education And Its Potential For Language Learning And Teaching, Kerwin A. Livingstone

Kerwin A. Livingstone

The arrival of technology has transited the path for an increased use of the Web, allowing for access to diverse kinds of information and materials. With this advent of technology, a significant number of distinct technologies have been introduced to assist in human communication and interaction. Since the genesis of Web 2.0 technologies, people all over the world now have the Internet at their finger tips, and can execute communicative acts with little or no difficulty. In educational contexts, Web 2.0 is making great in-roads even though its full effectiveness still needs to be further researched in the said environments. …