Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

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, …

Cultivating Knowledge In The School Garden: New Ways Of Teaching Literacy To Esl Students, Michele Durivage

MA TESOL Collection

My thesis project includes a combination of materials development and classroom-based research. In my paper, I explore existing garden-related curricula, and create original garden-based lesson plans to teach literacy to fourth grade ESL students. This curriculum development project contributes to the field of ESL in its innovative garden-based pedagogy. The field study took place during the spring semester of 2009 at Increase Miller Elementary School in Westchester County, New York. Using nature as inspiration for writing descriptive essays and poetry, the ESL students at Increase Miller produced imaginative writing pieces, using their own voices to express their thoughts. The students’ …

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.

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 …

Metaphorizing Grammar And Writing: Visual Learning In The English Classroom, Kulsoom F. Rizvi

MA TESOL Collection

My goals for this thesis include exploring how metaphors are used in the classroom and, in doing so, providing ways in which to help both teachers and students transcend their understanding. I will: (1) analyze and respond to the research on metaphors in the classroom, (2) illustrate and discuss the rationale of different metaphors I have collected from teachers as well as some I created for the English classroom, and (3) share student generated metaphors in the English classroom.

How Esol Teachers Become Aware Of Communicative Peace, Josette Leblanc

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the implications that the relationship between teacher language awareness and communicative peace may have on educational programs for teachers of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The evaluation begins by analyzing proposals set out by the applied peace linguist Francisco Gomes de Matos, who suggests that ESOL teachers should teach communicative peace as an element of communicative competence, and also that education programs should provide training to support this approach. By juxtaposing current literature on structural and linguistic violence with Gomes de Matos’ classroom techniques, the hypothesis is made that teachers who would teach communicative peace …

Framework And Rationale For Developing A Single Language Exploratory Program For Students In Grades 1 – 3, Amy Bentley

MA TESOL Collection

This materials development project provides middle and high school language teachers, in a public school setting, the rationale and curriculum for implementing an introductory language program to elementary aged children in their school. This paper explores the author’s school community and the interest in providing an introductory language program for elementary aged students in the school district. The author, a second language teacher in the school, is also an advocate for introducing this type of programming, with the hopes that it will create enthusiasm and motivation for further language study in the students’ middle and high school years. The project …

Sustained Silent Reading In The Esl Classroom: The Silent Motivator?, Megan V. Ahonen

MA TESOL Collection

This classroom based research paper investigates the use of Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) in the ESL classroom. The purpose is to determine if implementing a SSR program would increase students’ interest and desire to read in English outside of the classroom for pleasure. This paper will share background information on the students and school, different reading inventory samples and questionnaires with student responses, and current findings on SSR compared to my own personal findings. The final chapter is devoted to roadblocks and limitations encountered along the way throughout this study

Creating Avid Readers Across Content Areas: Explicit Reading Instruction In The Esl Classroom, Rashmi Koushik

MA TESOL Collection

Colleges are experiencing budget crises on a paramount scale and are funding programs that place higher demands on students to be able to read academic texts in specific fields of study. Unfortunately, students are often overwhelmed with the level of reading and the types of content that they encounter. Even more often, L2 (Second Language) learners are often left out of academic reading instruction in the college-level ESL classroom, and therefore rarely advance into academic pathways. This paper seeks to define and articulate the use of explicit reading instruction to help L2 learners become better readers in English, particularly of …

Folklore Or Britney Spears: Efl Decisions In An Increasingly Global World, Erin C. Anderson

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores my decisions concerning texts in the EFL classroom in the post-communist cities of Bruntál, Czech Republic in 1993 and Bila Tserkva, Ukraine in 2005. By examining my use of Slavic folklore in these EFL contexts, through the lenses of post-colonialism, folklore studies, and globalization, it is apparent that what has motivated my students has not necessarily been consistent with the goals of post-colonialism, i.e., the development and maintenance of national cultural values. In fact, students have been found to be most motivated by the use of texts they share a fondness for and a familiarity with, …

From Riyadh To Portland: The Study Abroad Experiences Of Five Saudi Arabian Female Students, Dana Kampman

MA TESOL Collection

The number of Saudi Arabian students enrolled in college and university programs in other countries is increasing. This paper reports on a qualitative research project conducted with five female Saudi college students enrolled in a summer program at Portland State University. It examines how notions of culture can explain the source of the challenges that the students faced and how they overcame these challenges. Implications for pre-departure orientation and on-site support are presented and discussed.

Instructional Practices That Hinder And Support Esl Students In The Self-Contained Esl Classroom And The Mainstream Classroom, Ebru N. Bozburun

MA TESOL Collection

This paper describes the academic challenges that many English Second Language (ESL) students must deal with from the moment they start attending a bilingual program at elementary school until they finish the last step of their academic experience. These students continually struggle to keep up with their peers, often fail the state mandated tests, and eventually, drop out before receiving their high school diploma. For the past three years, both as a self-contained ESL teacher and an ESL certified co-teacher in the mainstream classroom, I taught ESL Language Arts to Spanish- speaking students at a public junior high school in …

Using Technology In The Efl Classroom In Saudi Arabia, Neil Oby Morris

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the ways that technology, specifically the use of laptop computers and cellular phones, may be incorporated in the EFL classroom to enhance learning and lower the affective filter of male Saudi Arabian university students.

Saudi Arabia presents the EFL teacher with many challenges that are unique to this gender-segregated Islamic kingdom. Meeting these challenges and turning them into learning opportunities that other EFL teachers may find useful within their teaching contexts is the purpose of this paper.

The appendix includes a writing rubric and a 40-day materials introduction calendar. The calendar illustrates the day-by-day introduction of material …