Applied Linguistics Commons^™

Development Of Oral Communication Skills Abroad., Christina Isabelli

Scholarship

This study examines the impact of a semester study abroad experience in Argentina on the second language acquisition of three American university Spanish learners. The goal is to measure development of two aspects of oral communication skills: fluency and performance in the oral functions of narration, and description and supporting an opinion.

Self-Perceptions Of Non-Native English Speaking Teachers Of English As A Second Language, Kathryn Ann Long

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present study was to examine the self-perceptions of effective non-native English speaking teachers (non-NESTs) of English as a Second Language (ESL) regarding their teaching behaviors. The study also sought to discover the relationship between effective non-NEST perceptions of their teaching behaviors and stereotypes for those behaviors. It further sought to define what experiences have contributed to their non-conformation if their perceptions do not fit the negative stereotypes of teaching behaviors of non-NESTs.

A Syntactic Study Of Errors In Tense Of Malays Learning Arabic : With Special Reference To Iium, Matriculation Centre Students, Abdelnasir Osman Abdalla Subair

Student Works (2000-2009)

This is a syntactic study of errors of tense forms of Malays learning Arabic at the International Islamic University Malaysia Matriculation Center. The main aim of this study is to investigate grammatical errors in the area of the verb inflection for tense in both nominal sentences and verbal sentences of 180 scripts written by a group of pre-university level students. The thesis studies types or errors and their underlying causes. The study also suggests a remedial plan which includes leaching grammar. correcting students' errors, and designing a language syllabus. The statistical analysis shows that the learners' errors amounted to 1062. …

¿Corregir O No Los Errores En La Clase De Español Como Lengua Extranjera?, Eva NúÑEz-MéNdez

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

A lo largo de la historia de la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras los errores se han considerado desde diferentes perspectivas: algunas veces se han visto como algo totalmente negativo (como fallos que demostraban la incapacidad del estudiante para expresarse correctamente), otras como la única guía indicativa para examinar el proceso del aprendizaje lingüístico. Desde los años setenta con el método contrastivo hasta el contemporáneo método comunicativo el rumbo de la investigación y corrección de los errores ha cambiado en gran medida. Hasta que Pit Corder publicó “The significance of learners’ errors” en 1967 se pensaba que los errores se …

First Language Transfer Amongst Malay Students In National Primary Schools, Kien Cheng Yong

Student Works (2000-2009)

This study attempts to discover the influence of first language transfer on the production of written English. Since all the subjects are Malay students, their first language is likely Bahasa Melayu. Their second language is the English Language which is taught in their national primary schools. Besides that, this study also seeks to discover the types of errors involved in first language transfer, whether gender and the socioeconomic background of the subjects affect ESL learning. 194 Year 4 students from two national primary schools in Kajang, Selangor were involved in this study. They were given four sets of writing tasks …

Language Attitudes And Academic Achievement: A Study Of Mexican Immigrant Esl Students In The Northwest, Julie Ann Cheshire

Dissertations and Theses

As the population of Mexican immigrant learners continues to increase in the Northwest, an understanding of the cultural, social and psychological realities of these students' lives becomes an ever more important issue for professional language educators, classroom teachers, and school administrators. Our understanding of the needs of these learners will have an important effect on how prepared they are to participate in academic situations and community life.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between language attitudes and ESL learning among young adult Mexican-immigrant learners in one community education program in the Northwest. Learners' values and beliefs …

Portland Dialect Study: The Story Of /Æ/ In Portland, Jeffrey C. Conn

Dissertations and Theses

This study reports on the hypothesized raising of the low, front vowel /æ/, which is characteristic of a regional dialect vowel shift found in cities of the Midwest and Eastern North of the United States. The raising of this vowel is the primary change in a series of vowel shifts that have traditionally been attributed to this region of the U.S. The purpose of this study is to document the production of this vowel by residents of Portland, Oregon, in order to see what light it can shed on dialect research of the Pacific Northwest, especially across age groups to …

Šawaš Ili?I-Šawaš Wawa -- 'Indian Country--Indian Language' : A Participant Observation Case Study Of Language Planning By The Confederated Tribes Of The Grand Ronde Community Of Oregon, Gregry Michael Davis

Dissertations and Theses

The Kwelth Tahlkie Culture and Heritage Board (KTC&HB) of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon (CTGR) have made it a priority to revitalize one of the languages which historically has been associated with being a Grand Ronde Indian-Chinook Jargon, referred to as činuk wawa 'Chinook talk' or simply činuk.

The purpose of the present study was to observe the language planning process as executed by the KTC&HB. Initial guiding questions were: (i) What stages is the KTC&HB going through in the process of planning for činuk revitalization? (ii) How do these efforts compare with theory and …

Training For Volunteer Teachers In Church-Affiliated English Language Mission Programs, Janet Noreen Blackwood

Dissertations and Theses

There is currently a debate among language educators regarding the training and certification of EFL teachers. Largely ignored in this debate are short-term volunteer teachers in church-affiliated English language mission programs. These teachers fall somewhere on the continuum between untrained language teachers and trained professional language educators. The current study took place in response to the lack of research information available on this aspect of ESL/EFL teacher education.

This study focused on the training that is provided to volunteer ESL/EFL teachers affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) denomination. The four research questions sought to determine how the content and procedures …

Opening Doors: Culture Learning And Conversational Narratives With First Generation Hmong Refugee Women, Lucy Vincent Kimbro

Dissertations and Theses

The life experiences of two first generation Hmong refugee women form the basis of this study. Through loosely structured but guided interviews, memories of their lives in Laos and in refugee camps in Thailand, as well as their perspectives, feelings, and opinions about current aspects of their lives, the effects of American culture on their family; and their engagement in the language and culture learning process are explored.

An examination of the involvement of Hmong women in research and ethnographic accounts concerning Hmong culture, history, and experience, show that Hmong women's perspectives have often been overlooked or disregarded. One purpose …

The Importance Of Time For Processing In Second Language Comprehension And Acquisition, Jennifer Lee Watson

Dissertations and Theses

Research findings on the positive impact of interaction on comprehension have led to questions regarding both the connection between comprehension and acquisition and the qualities of interaction which facilitate understanding (Ellis et al. 1994). Ellis et al. found that a high degree of comprehension on an activity which contained unknown words correlated with a high rate of vocabulary acquisition. The present study replicates the activity and testing procedures used by Ellis et al. The main focus of the Ellis et al. study was the connection between second language comprehension and acquisition. This study differs from Ellis et al. in that …

Learning Work In The Esl Classroom: An Evaluation Of Textbooks Designed To Teach Esl In The Workplace, Amy Taylor-Henry

Dissertations and Theses

A growing number of American businesses are offering ESL courses at the work site; likewise, more and more textbooks designed specifically for teaching ESL in the Workplace (EWP), are being written and published. The need for an evaluation of these new texts with regard to current teaching methodology, the particularities of EWP, and the social implications of EWP is a vital one. A good EWP text, besides serving as a guide and resource for learners, can also facilitate intercultural understanding, increase awareness of workers' rights and unions, and promote participation in training programs for job flexibility and promotion. Most importantly, …

Modeling Music With Grammars: Some Examples From Balinese Kotekan, Janet Tom Cowal

Dissertations and Theses

What is the relationship of music and language? Analogies and comparisons of music and language are plentiful in various types of literature. For researchers in the cognitive sciences, the importance of organization, patterning, and structuring of sounds is a common theme in analyzing both language and music. With the success of generative grammars for languages, a number of researchers have used similar kinds of grammars to describe or model particular aspects of music. In addition, researchers are interested in possible universals in musical grammars. However, while grammars of non-Western musics have been written, most of the work has been based …

Predicting Pronunciation From Spelling: Applying The Insights Of Transformational Grammar To The Teaching Of English: Tense And Lax Vowels, Barbara Hancock

MA TESOL Collection

No abstract provided.