Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural 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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

The Advantages Of The Shared Reading Experience For Bilingual Elementary Students, Barbara A.T. Franceschini

MA TESOL Collection

The Shared Reading Experience is a method being applied in the Cambridge public school system for bilingual elementary students. The objective of this paper is to discover why this method is effective. Consideration is given to language acquisition factors, reading methodologies, and the psychological and cognitive context of the bilingual child himself. A description of the procedure for presenting within the Shared Book Experience, and an explanation of the rationale for this procedure are contained in this investigation. The subsequent writing that the bilingual children produce finalizes this project. This paper is based on a two-month internship during the Fall …

Handbook For Prospective Esl Teachers To Japan, Linda Veno-Kan

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is a handbook for ESL teachers which high­lights problem areas in the Japanese ESL classroom that can affect teaching/learning effectiveness.

The introduction presents my specific teaching situation in Japan. The next section summaries the process which I use in analyzing the problem areas. Following are ten chapters each of which focuses on a problem area.

Each chapter points out both Japanese and American values in conflict and suggests teaching strategies for working with each area.

A Planning Paper Monolingual To Bilingual: The Conceptualization And Transformation Of A Colombian School, Eileen Nancy Whelan

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is the result of the researcher's recent engagement as the Program Coordinator for a monolingual elementary school in Floridablanca, Bucaramanga, Colombia, South America. As the coordinator must design and implement a bilingual program for successful transition, this paper addresses and discusses the conceptualization and preparation needed to make the task possible.

The Migrant Reading Program At San Elizario, Texas; An Examination Of The Activities Of 1986-87, Robert Scott Morris

MA TESOL Collection

To support and give supplementary educational services to migrant workers and their children, Chapter 1 of the Educational Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 established a fund for the Higher Education System. The purpose of this case study was to describe the activities of the Migrant Reading Program of the San Elizario Texas elementary school from October 1986 to May 1987. Additionally, the author discusses his rationale for each of the lessons, gives an evaluation of the lessons and makes suggestions for improvement of future classes.

Independence In Language Learning: How Can Teachers Encourage It?, Diane Ethel Witters

MA TESOL Collection

This paper documents a teacher's exploration of independence in language learning before, during, and after an eight-week English teaching internship at the Institute Cultural Americana in Orizaba, Mexico. It examines what independence means for language students, and it defines student and teacher responsibilities in a classroom where learners are encouraged to become more self-reliant. Three strategies are outlined for promoting independence in the classroom. These strategies are: increasing communication between student and teacher to ensure that the course is relevant to the student's and teacher's goals, making the student's full range of resources more recognized and used, and having students …

The Subjunctive As An Esl Teaching Tool With Emphasis On The Modal Verbs, Burr Thomas

MA TESOL Collection

Contrary to most analyses, the subjunctive mode plays a major, if sometimes subtle, role in English grammar. Related western European languages have similar subjunctives, and examining the function of the Spanish and the morphology of the German subjunctives helps to illuminate the functions and forms of English.

There are two subjunctive forms in English, Sl and S2. Both have coalsesced with indicative forms, losing much of their saliency, the Sl to a much greater degree. For this reason, the Sl is much less common, surviving primarily in frozen formulations, Imperative Expressions, and as an adjunct to the imperative mode.

The …

The Psychological Issues Involved With Teaching Esl To Incarcerated Hispanic Males In An American Prison System, Sharon Morrison

MA TESOL Collection

On September 4, 1983, I began an ESL teaching position at Southeastern Correctional Center and at Bridgewater State Hospital, both in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The former is a medium security correctional facility which houses approximately 700 men, whose crimes range from murder to auto theft. The latter is a maximum security hospital for the criminally insane which houses approximately 500 men, whose crimes as well range from murder to auto theft. Those men housed at Bridgewater State Hospital are there for one of the following reasons:

1. They are undergoing pre-trial psychiatric evaluation.

2. They have been convicted of a crime …

A Teacher Training Plan For Refugees As Esl Teachers, Estela Libas-Novell

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is addressed to the need of revising a teacher-training plan used in the refugee camp of Vietnamese and Cambodian victims of war. My personal experience in teaching the refugees served as an impetus in making the revised training plan that will seek to answer the following questions:

1. What type of a teacher-training plan can best suit a group of Vietnamese English teachers whose spoken and written English is limited due to lack of contact to the western cultures?

2. What language elements can be infused in the training plan that will help uplift the low sagging morale …

Teaching The Modal Auxiliary Verbs Focusing On Those Used For Suggestion And Advice, Deborah Dewing Dewing

MA TESOL Collection

Modal auxiliary verbs are a neglected group in the lexicon, especially in the EFL classroom. Due to the nature of the nuances they are used to convey, their misuse can cause not just misinformation but also subtle tones that create unpleasant discord in the flow of communication. Modals are easy sources of errors for students of EFL because they follow no readily discernible patterns. Structurally there are six points explained here which can confuse students and cause modals to change their function. There are two main categories of functions: social interaction, which includes advice, suggestion, obligation, social expectation; and logical …

A Series Of Writing Activities For An Intermediate To Advanced Esl Class, John W. Yarrington

MA TESOL Collection

A series of writing activities is proposed for inter­mediate to advanced students of English as a Second Language. The activities constitute a writing course of an intensive ESL program such as the one at Cushing Academy's Summer School, where the author used them.

The activities are organized around four themes: 1) self/personal relationships; 2) education; 3) international/global issues; 4) the future and goal setting. An estimated time allotment for each activity is given. The activities cover 30-35 hours of writing class in a program that includes 130 hours of instruction. The writing course is coordinated with the reading course and …

A Retrospective-Introspective Look At Second Language Acquisition, Janet R. Zinner

MA TESOL Collection

This is a personal paper in which I discuss my family’s acquisition of French during a two year sabbatical stay in Brussels, Belgium from 1979 to 1981. I discuss the factors influencing our decision to learn French, our respective modes of acquisition, our rates and degrees of proficiency, and then how that second language fared upon our subsequent return to the United States. I also offer a comparison between child and adult second language acquisition based upon our experience as well as discuss certain relevant psycho/social intra-familial dynamics which came into play while there as a result of our individual …

Teaching Communicative Competence To Adult Learners: An Intensive Foreign Language Program In China, Wang Lingjun

MA TESOL Collection

The main purpose of this paper is to explore some feasible ways in which communicative competence can be taught at the Beijing Second Foreign Language Institute in Beijing, China. In the first part of the paper, a portrait of the institute's intensive language program, including its philosophy, a brief history and a description of the students, is provided so that the readers will have some idea why the paper is focused on communicative competence. Language is then described as a communication process involving linguistic, interactional and variational competence. The main part of this paper focuses on some innovative techniques by …

First Language (L1) Interference In Second Language (L2) Learning (Suggested Techniques And Procedures To Aid Spanish Esl Students Overcome First Language Interference), Burnis Lewis

MA TESOL Collection

"First Language (L1) Interference in Second Language (L2) Learning: Suggested Techniques and Procedures to Aid Spanish Speaking ESL Students Overcome First Language Interference;" explores the evolution of the issues in the area of language interference and particularly the first language interference problems of Spanish speaking ESL students. A contrastive analysis is performed examining similarities and differences of Spanish and English. Theoretical predictions are checked out with actual Spanish speakers learning English. Finally, techniques and procedures are suggested to overcome first language interference.

A Personal Guideline For The Use Of Correction In The Classroom, Carol Ann Wilson

MA TESOL Collection

Correction is an important aspect of teaching, one that ESL teachers face daily. At issue is the ability to match the teacher's goals or priorities with what is supposed to be taught or learned, and the specific teaching-learning environment.

The study presents my original definition of correction, the beginning reference point for this work, which is eventually compared to a new definition of correction. The evolution of the new definition is based upon documentation and analysis of five case studies and the systematic generation and development of a model for correction use.

The model is adaptable for use by any …

Esl/Efl Homework: Philosophical Considerations And Their Application In Esl/Efl Homework Design, David Anderson Plumb

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines ESL/EFL homework and homework design first through the exploration of two distinct approaches to homework and homework design and second through the presentation an explanation of the conclusions I reached regarding homework and homework design.

This paper is divided into five sections. The first section provides a working definition of homework and examines the different function of class time and homework time. In the second and third sections two approaches to ESL/EFL homework, traditional and non-traditional, are examined through the presentation and discussion of their constituent parts. The fourth section contains an elucidation of the conclusions I …

Advising An Institution: A Report To The Administration Of Deerfield Academy Regarding Thier Foreign Students, Stuart P. Salomon

MA TESOL Collection

No abstract provided.

An Annotated Bibliography Of M.A.T. Projects, Reports And Papers In The S.I.T. Library, David Michael Bumbar

MA TESOL Collection

This project is an annotated and edited bibliography of the independent professional projects, reports and other materials that have been written by students in the Master of Arts in Teaching program. This booklet which is a reference guide to the MAT writings found in the S.I.T. library has been indexed according to the major topics within the MAT program and is accompanied by a set of index cards.

National Michigan Test Score Improvement Averages For The International Students Of English At The School For International Training Of Ten Programs From January 1974 Through June 1976, Robert J. Thomas

MA TESOL Collection

This project contains student data, consisting of nationality, test scores, and age, from ten programs of International Students of English at the School for International Training. The data has been calculated to produce national test score averages which are helpful when comparing the various national and language group abilities of performance on the Michigan Test. In general this material supports the hypothesis that the closer a student's native language is to English linguistically the greater his score improvement will be on the Michigan Test.

English As A Second Language In Up With People: A Proposal And Plan For Implementation, Cynthia Gay Barnes

MA TESOL Collection

The purpose of this paper is to provide the Up With People organization with a clear and workable plan for implementing an English as a Second Language program as a part of their existing program.

The paper is presented in two parts. The first part includes a description of the Up With People program focusing on its need for an English as a Second Language program. The various benefits to UP With People are explained. Also in the first part of the paper are descriptions of two language learning programs, Spanish Language Training at Oaxtepec, Mexico, July, 1980, and The …