First and Second Language Acquisition Commons^™

Developing Learners’ Lexicon Through Vocabulary Cards, Andrew Noonan

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the author’s process in using flashcards to teach formulaic sequences. First, there is a discussion of the terminology, which ties the term “formulaic sequences” to earlier discussions about the Lexical Approach and collocations. The importance of teaching formulaic sequences is then explored, as a way to build vocabulary and to aid in general skill development. Rote learning through the use of flash cards is then argued for, with a variety of card types presented and compared. The author then discusses the methods by which flash cards have been used to teach formulaic sequences in his own classroom, …

Teaching Pronunciation As A Core Skill Using The Silent Way Approach, Jordan Cael

MA TESOL Collection

These materials were developed as part of an exploration of how to interweave the study of pronunciation together with the study of the meaning and structure of the language in a way that makes pronunciation practice a central, present, and prominent part of every lesson. Within the framework of teaching pronunciation with the materials, techniques, and principles of the Silent Way Approach, the focus was placed on creating activities that would (1) help students to notice and practice the essential pronunciation elements of the language, known in the Silent Way as the ‘melody’ (i.e., intonation, stress, phrasing, rhythm, etc.), (2) …

Acting For Transformation: An Esl Teacher And Her Adult Immigrant Students Dramatize The Students’ Life Stories, Dana Horstein

MA TESOL Collection

This paper documents the implementation of a year-long drama project that was conducted with adult immigrant English as a Second Language (ESL) students at Asian Human Services, a community-based organization in Chicago. Throughout the year, during the fall, winter, and spring terms, three classes of students dramatized their life stories. This paper provides background for the project by explaining the history and role of drama in language education. It also considers the teacher’s motivations for the project and its design; its ultimate challenges and successes; as well as the insights that it provides about what it means to be a …

Teaching English To Children With Adhd, Natalia Turketi

MA TESOL Collection

The focus of this paper is primarily put on enhancing the ESL teaching process and making foreign language learning successful and manageable for every student. The paper explores the process of teaching English to children who experience difficulties in learning languages due to their attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder problems. The author considers the process of second language acquisition for children with ADHD in terms of input and output speech issues, motivation problems and learning preferences. The ESL methodologies that can be applied effectively in addressing such learners’ needs and the rationale of their choice are then argued for. Examples …

Grounding Theory In Practice: A Reflection On Designing And Delivering A Workshop On Intercultural Sensitivity For Korean Public School English Teachers, Kevin Giddens

MA TESOL Collection

In this paper I will use a process of rigorous reflection to explore the design and implementation of a cross-cultural simulation workshop as a means of developing intercultural sensitivity among Korean public school English teachers in Daegu, South Korea. After introducing the workshop design I will describe in detail my experience of delivering the workshop. I will overlay Milton J. Bennett’s model for developing intercultural sensitivity (1993) with participant reflections as a means of grounding theory to practice and exploring whether or not participants were able to demonstrate observable movement within Bennett’s model. I will then highlight some possible modifications …

Dance Your Way Into Culture: A Teacher’S Experience Using Dance In The Foreign Language Classroom, Jannely Almonte Ortiz

MA TESOL Collection

Although dance is an expression of culture, it has seldom been used in the foreign language classroom as a teaching tool. Using Patrick Moran’s Cultural Knowings Framework as an organizational foundation throughout the paper, the author shares why this topic became of great interest to her. She also addresses research and perceptions on movement and dance in an educational environment, and attempts to describe benefits and ways of including movement and dance in any foreign language classroom. Though this paper focuses on the author’s experience using merengue music and dance in the teaching of Spanish, it is intended for any …

A Competency-Based Proficiency Framework For Ritsumeikan Secondary Schools, Ann Flanagan

MA TESOL Collection

This paper describes the research and development of a competency-based Proficiency Framework for Ritsumeikan Secondary Schools in Kyoto, Japan as part of curriculum renewal with the campus relocation. The author developed a six-year competency-based curriculum for the EFL classes. It is based on the Common European Framework of Reference. In addition to creating guiding principles and proficiency frameworks, the author has included suggested vocabulary and content, sample themes and topics, entry and exit profiles, and teacher competencies. Two programs, extensive reading and pen pals, have been integrated into the curriculum in order to offer more support for students’ second language …

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 …

Relájate Y Disfruta: Lecciones De Una Vida Musical Y Temporal En El Zaidín = Relax And Enjoy: Lessons About A Temporal Musical Life In Zaidin, Granada, Laura Westman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the following paper, I describe the volunteer project that I conducted during my fall 2009 semester in Granada, Spain. I spent a few hours each week accompanying voice lessons in a music school located in the neighborhood in which I lived while I was learning Spanish. This paper chronicles the importance of language and communication to my work, including problems that I had with the language barrier in communicating with people in the school before I was comfortable with the language. Though I originally planned to analyze relationships between teachers and students as a major theme in my project, …

The Neglect Of Listening Activities Among Egyptian Preparatory School Efl Teachers, Mohamed Eltawila

MA TESOL Collection

This thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one describes the reasons for this study, the learning environment in which this study was done--La Seifer Prep School which is the school in which I teach, the general aims for TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) at Egyptian preparatory schools which is a foreign language context, the ten teachers of English who have been working or have worked at La Seifer Prep School who were interviewed for the study, and the textbooks used at the school and how they address listening. The second chapter is devoted to reviewing the literature …

Curriculum And Student Motivation, Jennifer Jones

MA TESOL Collection

This paper details the process and results of an experimental project-based curriculum for a college preparatory ESL course and its effects on student motivation. The course, designed to appeal to students’ desire for variety, community and self-expression, was divided into three modules, each with a different focus. Participants were international adults studying English at a private school in Austin, Texas. Results indicated that the course structure and content can play a large role in students’ motivation levels. Course documents are appended.

The Role Of Pragmatics In Second Language Teaching, Roberto Eduardo Echeverria Castillo

MA TESOL Collection

This research paper explores the application of pragmatics in second language teaching. It presents pragmatics as a discipline that may be taught and learned utilizing the experiential learning cycle. The paper explores challenging pragmatic experiences and how the cycle was used to overcome them. Additionally, it proposes a model to teach pragmatics, illustrated by a lesson based on an episode of a television show. Finally, the paper ends with my personal view of this project, and its applications on my learning of English and to my language teaching.

Imaginary Friends: Using Guided Imagery, Line Drawings And Webquests To Incorporate Culture Into The Foreign Language Curriculum, J.E. Buckingham

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the integration of authentic cultural experience into the foreign language curriculum through the use of guided imagery, line drawings, and a WebQuest designed to facilitate the creation of an imaginary friend living within a country where the target language is spoken. The student uses these techniques to vicariously communicate with and experience a proscribed facet of that imaginary friend’s life. Through the use of the guided imagery and web-based research, the student will breathe life into a black and white line drawing by coloring in an appropriate complexion and by giving the character a name which would …

Exploring Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies For Efl Advanced Learners, Monica Miriam Flores Rojas

MA TESOL Collection

This research paper explores the former and current status of Vocabulary learning and teaching, as well as the intricacy and relevance of word knowledge. By presenting a personal introspection on the challenges of Vocabulary acquisition at an advanced level, the present work also provides important insights into vocabulary development in the four skills. In the next section, two Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies for advanced learners are described and illustrated followed by an analysis. The final chapter is devoted to the conclusions of this research journey, the limitations faced and some suggestions for further research.

An Exploration Of Language Dominance, Michael Bishop

MA TESOL Collection

When two or more cultural groups make contact and interact over a period of time, language dominance often occurs. In this situation, one dominates the others both culturally and linguistically. This in turn, causes the weaker to start using the language of the more powerful until eventually it shifts its language and then its culture over to that of the more dominant group. Eventually its own language and culture dies. Language dominance, language shift and language death are social and linguistic phenomena that has been occurring for thousands of years. Historically, there were two great waves of language dominance, and …

Exploratory Learning: The Digital Recorder Project: An Investigation Into A Student Designed Project For Finding And Addressing Esl Students’ Listening And Speaking Needs, Joel Cooke

MA TESOL Collection

The Digital Recorder Project was designed to present students with an opportunity to design and implement, as a class, a project that would address speaking and listening issues they experience as ESL students. Each student was required to observe their own speaking via a self-created digital recording and in conjunction with the class, design a unique, individualized method to work on issues he or she identified. This document will present the observations and conclusions about the nature of such a project from the teacher’s perspective. In addition, the paper will use transcripts of class recordings as a means of placing …

The Interface Between Self-Efficacy, Life Satisfaction, And Emotional And Informational Support For Korean Learners Acquiring English As A Second Language, Cheryl C.Y. Choe

MA TESOL Collection

The purpose of this study is to examine the interface between self-efficacy, life satisfaction, and emotional and informational support for Korean learners acquiring English as a Second Language. More specifically, the aim of this study is to explore the interface among psychological variables (e.g., speaking, reading, writing, and listening self-efficacy), mediating variables (e.g., emotional and informational support received from parents, teachers, and friends) and behavioral outcomes (e.g., life satisfaction within the family, at school/work, and in personal relationships with friends) by examining the linear structural model developed by Kim and Park (1998) and revised by Choe (2000). Self-efficacy is typically …

Awakening The Muse In The Land Of The Morning Calm: Guidelines For New And Future Teachers Bound For South Korea, Lauren Jennifer Gerken

MA TESOL Collection

How is it to teach English in South Korea? What are the students like? How are the schools? What kind of education system do they have? How proficient are Korean students when speaking English? What types of learning styles do they have? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How can a new teacher prepare her/himself best for an English teaching position at a school or university in South Korea? Where is the best place to teach? What methods and strategies work best in the South Korean EFL classroom? Based on my experience of teaching English for thirteen years in the …

Balance In Language Teaching And Learning: Honoring Tradition And Celebrating Innovation, Natalia Tsarikova

MA TESOL Collection

This paper presents a study aimed at finding a flexible approach to teaching that is responsive to learner needs and preferences whilst at the same time utilizing communicative language teaching and form-focused instruction. In other words, the author aims to find a balance between CLT (learner centered approaches) advocated by many trainers and teachers in Uzbekistan and the Grammar Translation method (teacher centered approaches) that has been widely practiced as well. The author’s primary purpose is to find an approach which is centered principally on learning rather than on the teacher or the learner. The author maintains that teaching is …

Peer Interaction In The Haitian Public School Context, Fenel Pierre

MA TESOL Collection

The purpose of this paper is to define peer interaction and its major components. It identifies and examines the major challenges that language teachers in Haiti will face in incorporating peer interaction within the Haitian public school context. It explains the advantages of using peer interaction as a way to generate knowledge. The author concludes by providing practical guidelines and strategies of how to cope with these challenges and describing what he has learned from his research.

Since language is learned mainly through interaction with other learners and speakers of that language, this paper aims at persuading Haitian language teachers …

A Framework For Teaching A Foreign Language Class Based On The Principles Of Chaos/Complexity Theory, Michael Kozden

MA TESOL Collection

Chaos/complexity theory first emerged in the study of the natural sciences over thirty years ago. Through the years, experts from a variety of fields have held this theory up as a new way in which to view the world around us, including its applications to the study of second language acquisition. The language classroom, like the natural world, can also be observed from this perspective because it exhibits many features of chaotic/complex systems. Language instruction in a classroom setting not only produces strange attractors and fractals, but is dynamic, complex, nonlinear, chaotic, self-organizing, unpredictable, sensitive to initial conditions, open, feedback …

Using Music And Song In The Second Language Classroom: A Description Of The Many Ways Music And Song Can Enhance The Teaching Of French, Christine Geueke

MA TESOL Collection

No abstract provided.

Tasks In Tbl: What Kinds Of Tasks Promote Meaningful Communication?, Anna Fatneva

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the process of developing and implementing TBL tasks in the EFL classroom. A title page is included. A non-specific abstract was created and included. The structure of this IPP is outlined in the Table of Contents. Teaching context as well as the reasons for my choice of the topic are described in the introduction. Research into ESL/EFL source literature on the topic is illuminated in Chapter 1. Classroom Observations based on the teaching journal kept throughout the project are depicted in Chapter 2. Implications for the use of this paper are considered in terms of advantages for …

Integrating Writing Within The Foreign Language Classroom: Shifting Dynamics, Not The Task, Patricia Ann Evans

MA TESOL Collection

This classroom based research project considers the following questions: Why should my foreign language students write? From Pedagogy to Purpose; what happens when students use technology with their writing; what transitions take place with regard to the role as teacher when integrating writing into the Spanish language classroom? This project follows the shift from writing , disconnected activities to writing. How a student-centered writing process and technology support the shift away from the perception that good writing is voiceless and mechanical. It traces the shift from learning to write to writing to learn. The project studies the shift that occurs …

Exploring The Teen Efl Classroom: The Students, Their Teachers, And The Tangles Of Dealing With Discipline And Motivation, Anna Burbridge

MA TESOL Collection

This paper discusses specific elements of teaching teens in an EFL context, in particular the areas of teen motivation and discipline. This was a teacher’s development project involving six teachers (including the writer), and lasting for one semester in a Brazilian bi-national language institute. The project was built on videotaped class observations, readings, group meetings, and journal writings. The result was a deeper reflection into the developmental stage dubbed “teenhood”, followed by subsequent considerations of motivation and discipline of teen groups, the role of the teen teacher, the importance of knowing and connecting with the inner teacher, and practical implications …

Mending The Broken Windows: A Curriculum Development Project Using Cooperative Learning Methods To Teach The Concepts Of Short Stories While Building A Community In The Classroom, Nicole Meltzer

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the purpose, process and results of using Cooperative Learning methods to study the elements of short stories in an intermediate English as a Second or Other Language high school class. The goal of this project was to create and build community in the classroom to alleviate the pressures felt by at-risk and immigrant students, while also meeting their academic needs. The project was conducted over three months time and was assessed through qualitative and quantitative methods.

Maintaining And Nurturing The Language And Culture Of Heritage Spanish-Speakers At The Elementary Level, Amanda Amarotico

MA TESOL Collection

In many schools across the United States native Spanish-speakers are enrolled in Spanish foreign language classes in order to fulfill a foreign language requirement. The Spanish foreign language class is inappropriate for the native Spanish-speaker’s needs. It is essential that these students be given opportunities to expand their linguistic skills to become fully bilingual and biliterate. Spanish classes for native Spanish-speakers exist at the high school level in many parts of the country, but elementary students are rarely given such opportunities.

The author of this professional paper and report on the creation of an after school Spanish Club discusses the …

The Role Of Identity In Language Acquisition: A Cross- Generational Perspective., Darlene Annette Snider

MA TESOL Collection

In this paper I will reflect on the role of identity as it relates to second language acquisition. My hypothesis is that second language acquisition can be slowed or even halted when students cannot adapt to the culture of the language they are studying. Student’s facing cultural conflict tend to distance themselves from the community thereby creating barriers in the learning process. This hypothesis is based upon my own experience as a third generation Canadian. I believe the effective classroom will work to reduce cultural conflict by affirming the learner’s cultural identity and sense of self as they explore the …

Ich Rede, Wie Ich Mich Wohl Fühle: Language And Ethnic/Cultural Identity Among German-Born Young Adults Of Turkish Descent In Berlin, Emily R. Jenkins

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My study consisted of ethnographic interviews with young adults ages 19-28, who were born and raised in Germany to parents emigrated from Turkey. My main research question was, “What role does language play in the subjects’ conception of ethnic/cultural identity?” Specifically, I focused on the role of language in how subjects identify with or distinguish themselves from: (1) the ethnic/cultural majority in their country of residence, i.e. Germans; (2) the ethnic/cultural majority in their parents’ country of origin, i.e. Turks in Turkey; and (3) others of similar immigration background, i.e. other German-born people of Turkish descent. Originally I only intended …

A Teacher’S Journal: An Account Of My Choice And Implementation Of Total Physical Response Storytelling As An Approach To Teaching Beginning Level French, Melinda Heins

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is about choosing an approach to teaching a foreign language that is appropriate for me in my teaching context – public high school French classes – and my attempts to become as proficient as possible in the approach I chose called Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS). For eighteen weeks I taught French I grades nine through twelve and kept a detailed teacher’s journal of the experience.