First and Second Language Acquisition Commons^™

Project On Designing Activities For Teaching Grammar, Sunny Hyon

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

This document outlines a project for a course in second language acquisition taken by undergraduates who intend to be high school or university teachers/professors. The project asks the undergraduates to design a sequence of activities for teaching English language learners (ELLs) a particular English grammatical construction, and to connect those activities to reading or writing assignments in their future classrooms. The students also must explain how their activities will facilitate ELLs' grammatical learning, drawing on research on language acquisition presented in the course.

Effects Of The First Language On Japanese Esl Learners' Answers To Negative Questions, Kosuke Kanda

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates how Japanese learners of English respond to English negative questions. Previous research has reported that Japanese learners of English make errors in yes/no responses to English negative questions due to the first language (L1) influence (Kang & Lim-chang, 1998; Takashima, 1989). From the perspective of L1 influence, there are two learning pitfalls: different functions of the yes/no response and different interpretations of negative questions. Both of these influences were examined in this study.

This study involved 8 Japanese learners of English, 4 females and 4 males, attending Portland State University (PSU). In order to elicit data that …

The History Of Foreign Language Pedagogy: From Methodology To Psychology, Alyssa Pilli '12

Honor Scholar Theses

This thesis investigates the history of studies performed regarding foreign language pedagogy in an attempt to investigate how well the information gained from these studies influences the teaching practices that are in use. The first half looks at earlier studies which focused on the specific teaching methods employed in the language classroom. While the Immersion method is the only method displaying significant benefits in comparison to the others, this method is rarely used in the public school domain for political reasons such as funding and alternate agendas. With inconclusive evidence favoring any other method, research switched focus to the individual …

Phonological Awareness And Its Affect On Second Language Acquisition, Mallory Ann Ruiz

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the role phonological awareness plays in the second language (L2) classroom among English as Second Language (ESL) learners. In order to better understand the reasons behind second language (L2) student's phonological improvements, phonological awareness was tested to see what affect, if any, it had on student's intelligible speech. Six English as Second Language (ESL) college students participated in the study in which they provided three audio recordings of their English speech over the course of ten weeks.

Rule And Meaning In The Teaching Of Grammar, Joseph C. M. Davis

Publications and Research

While the construct of rule as a manipulation of purely formal properties of language has been widely abandoned in both formal and functional linguistics, it persists, though with diminished importance, in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). This is true even in Form-Focused Instruction (FFI), including Focus-on-Form (FonF), which emphasizes meaning as both classroom focus and element of language structure. This paper illustrates the meaningfulness of grammar, even where treatment has often appealed to such rules; identifies areas of overlap between what is identified by the term rule and what is identified by the terms meaning (semantics) and form …

Learning By Heart: Using An Interactive Tutorial On Idioms To Model Acquisition Strategies And Tools, Andrianna Kirsten Jobin

Theses Digitization Project

This project is an interactive tutorial on idioms for a unit in a multi-level English as a second language (ESL) class. The purpose of the tutorial was to develop a resource to consolidate various aspects of idiom learning (e.g., pronunciation, definitions, and usage) into a few easily referenced pages and practice exercises which students can go over at their own pace.

Teachable Articles: A Practical Approach To Teaching English Articles To Japanese Learners, Kayo Fujito

MA TESOL Collection

This dissertation is about English articles and specifically the difficulties that non-native speakers, particularly Japanese learners, face in mastering their use. In this dissertation, I will mainly focus on;

1. An investigation on teaching articles and the use of articles including a survey completed by teachers of English

2. Two charts for determining articles and categories with examples including my adaptation of the chart

3. Some ideas and practical suggestions for teaching articles

The findings from this study have led me to a belief that there are ways for Japanese learners to improve their ability to use articles and by …

“Making Teaching Lexis And Structures To Adult Efl Learners More Effective Through Creating A Learning Community And Fostering Some Specific Learning Skills.” (A Curriculum For A Short-Term Development Course For Non-Native Speaker Efl Teachers), Oleksandr Klyevanov

MA TESOL Collection

Nowadays, EFL teachers are exposed to a large number of different approaches to teaching English. All of them, no matter how much they differ, focus on the objectives shared by all teachers regardless of their theoretical background, namely teaching lexis and structures. However, some approaches ignore what I have come to believe are necessities: creating a learning community, teaching strategies for retention and recycling lexical and structural items. By learning community I mean a group of learners who are focused on learning the target subject of knowledge, who expend their energies on learning, who feel secure being together and working …

Role Of Imitation In Language Assessment Tests, Abha Gupta

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

A study investigated whether imitation plays a significant role in the acquisition of grammar. Three 6- to 8-year-old hearing-impaired children were administered the Grammatical Analysis of Elicited Language--Simple Sentence Level Test (GAEL), which is designed to evaluate hearing-impaired children's use of grammatical aspects of spoken and/or signed English. Subjects' verbal responses to the "imitated" component (in which subjects were asked to say just what the tester said) of the GAEL were transcribed and analyzed. Results indicated that imitated speech is neither longer nor grammatically more advanced than non-imitated, spontaneous speech. Findings suggest that the children produced "unique" language structures to …

Interference Of Brazilian Portuguese On Learning English, Tizuko Hirose, Tsizuco Iwase

MA TESOL Collection

No abstract provided.

Teaching English To Japanese, Kayoko Hisano

MA TESOL Collection

This paper aims at offering some information on the background of Japanese students to native teachers of English. Japanese students have a unique background in English education, which it is advisable for teachers of English to know about if they are to be as effective as possible when teaching them.

CHAPTER I touches on why the Japanese learn English, and CHAPTER II examines the kind of English education that is taught at Japanese high schools. CHAPTER II covers linguistic differences between Japanese and English, and CHAPTER IV deals with the psychology of Japanese students.

Teacher's Manual For "The Magnetic Sentence": A Classroom Aid For Teaching English As A Second Language, Jeffrey Smith

MA TESOL Collection

"The Magnetic Sentence" is a classroom aid for teaching English as a second language. It consists of (1) a set of word-cards on which are written words, phrases, or morphemes; (2) a board for displaying these word cards; and (3) a teacher's manual.

The set is designed to show visually many common grammatical transformations by presenting them on a display board. This is done by placing the word-cards on the display board and rearranging, deleting, and adding to them to show the process involved in a transformation.

The following transformations and constructions can be shown with the set: affirmative statements, …

Lipson Boxes: Square Or Not, Edna Christina Graef

MA TESOL Collection

No abstract provided.

Daily Lessons For A 3 Week Intensive Japanese Course, Chiyo Masaki Soroken

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is designed to provide ideas for daily lesson planning for a three week intensive course. The specific teaching methods are pointed out for most of the material according to the characteristics of the particular items. Realizing the importance of visual aids in foreign language teaching, helpful pictures are included in the text as well as several picture files.

A Report On Teaching Level One Esl To Children And Adults In Orizaba, Mexico, Katherine Bowen Riggs

MA TESOL Collection

No abstract provided.

Max: An Independent Professional Project, Elleen Gillespie

MA TESOL Collection

No abstract provided.

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.