Matching Items (4)
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The goal of this research is to increase understanding of the experience of foreign language anxiety (FLA) of Saudi Arabian students who are studying English as a Second Language (ESL) in the United States. Anxiety has been shown to significantly influence foreign language learning. Researchers have reported a negative correlation

The goal of this research is to increase understanding of the experience of foreign language anxiety (FLA) of Saudi Arabian students who are studying English as a Second Language (ESL) in the United States. Anxiety has been shown to significantly influence foreign language learning. Researchers have reported a negative correlation between academic achievement and anxiety. A growing body of research has provided greater insight into anxiety associated with learning foreign languages. In the 1980s, researchers began to focus on the connection between anxiety with foreign language learning, sometimes referred to as foreign language anxiety (FLA). Many studies aimed to identify the underlying factors associated with FLA. However, researchers studying FLA have argued a need for more research. Due to the significant number of Saudi students studying English in the United States at the time of this study, more research is needed to better understand these students’ experiences and the influences of FLA among this population. Therefore, the research question addressed in this study is: What are the factors that influence FLA among Saudi learners who are studying English in ESL classrooms in the United States? The study was conducted as a qualitative research design involving semi-structured interviews with 30 Saudi ESL students in the United States. My findings showed that these themes feeling unfamiliar with classroom activity, feeling unprepared for classroom activity, having unsuccessful attempts at communication, being judged negatively by others and having a negative perception of one’s own language reflect the general view of FLA as consisting of these three components (e.g., communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation). However, my findings also include some themes that do not fit neatly into the three-part model of FLA. The themes that emerged are: having a perception that English language is important, interacting with other sex from the same culture, encountering unfamiliar cultures, having teachers who behave in a negative way, and having teachers with negative characteristics. The findings of the current study suggests that the three component view of FLA might be insufficient for understanding FLA among Saudi Arabian ESL learners. So, I proposed three additional categories. The first category is teachers’ role that contains two themes: having teachers who behave in a negative way and having teachers with negative characteristics. The second category is cultural influence that contains two factors interacting with the opposite gender from the same culture and encountering unfamiliar culture. The third category is learners belief about language learning which has the factor having a perception that English language is important

ContributorsAlmotiary, Haifa (Author) / James, Mark MJ (Thesis advisor) / Matsuda, Aya AM (Committee member) / Van Geldern, Elly EVG (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
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Second Language Learners face a unique set of challenges when it comes to the learning process. This dissertation study specifically focuses on those challenges and how to train teachers working within a co-teaching model in an international school in Bangkok, Thailand. Using the ideology proposed by Stephen Krashen

Second Language Learners face a unique set of challenges when it comes to the learning process. This dissertation study specifically focuses on those challenges and how to train teachers working within a co-teaching model in an international school in Bangkok, Thailand. Using the ideology proposed by Stephen Krashen as a part of his Input Hypothesis Theory and framing the results through the lens of Albert Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory, I studied the effects of a professional development model that focused on phonemic awareness, comprehensible input, and a collaborative teaching approach. Using this as my methodological framework, I found that teachers were able to improve their teaching skills and become more confident in their approach when provided with training that gave them specific responsibilities to address within the process of teaching. Through the use of pre-post surveys, interviews, and observations, I was able to examine how resource sharing and collaborative lesson planning allowed teachers to be more confident in their approach to teaching and their abilities to support students that were attending an international school that was a part of one of the most successful and academically rigorous networks of schools in the United States of America. It was through an intentional designation of tasks and a collaborative training approach that teachers were not only able to better understand the needs of their students but also find ways to work with and learn from one another in the training process. Ultimately, I discovered that allowing teachers to share resources and best practices allowed them to build quality and far more engaging lessons for their students.
ContributorsThies, Elizabeth Ellen (Author) / Nelson, Brian (Thesis advisor) / Wolf, Leigh (Committee member) / Leyba, Ashley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
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Computer assisted language learning (CALL) has become increasingly common as a means of helping learners develop essential skills in a second or foreign language. However, while many CALL programs claim to be based on principles of second language acquisition (SLA) theory and research, evaluation of design and learning outcomes at

Computer assisted language learning (CALL) has become increasingly common as a means of helping learners develop essential skills in a second or foreign language. However, while many CALL programs claim to be based on principles of second language acquisition (SLA) theory and research, evaluation of design and learning outcomes at the level of individual CALL exercises is lacking in the existing literature. The following proposed study will explore the design of computer-based vocabulary matching exercises using both written text and images and the effects of various design manipulations on learning outcomes. The study will use eye-tracking to investigate what users attend to on screen as they work through a series of exercises with different configurations of written words and images. It will ask whether manipulation of text and image features and combinations can have an effect on learners’ attention to the various elements, and if so, whether differences in levels of attention results in higher or lower scores for measures of learning. Specifically, eye-tracking data will be compared to post-test scores for recall and recognition of target vocabulary items to look for a correlation between levels of attention to written forms in-task and post-test gains in scores for vocabulary learning.
ContributorsPatchin, Colleen (Author) / Smith, David (Thesis advisor) / Ross, Andrew (Committee member) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Technology (i.e. the WhatsApp mobile application) can play a positive role in a student’s language and culture learning when it is used in collaboration with a language curriculum that uses a modular framework. When technology tools are used in an intensive language learning environment, those mobile devices will allow students

Technology (i.e. the WhatsApp mobile application) can play a positive role in a student’s language and culture learning when it is used in collaboration with a language curriculum that uses a modular framework. When technology tools are used in an intensive language learning environment, those mobile devices will allow students certain affordances (like modifying, authoring, and reviewing content) as well as opportunities to work independently (e.g., create their own content to demonstrate cultural understanding) and/or to reflect upon cross-cultural issues that impact their intercultural sensitivity (Lee, 2011). Barker (2016) adds that cultural discussions performed during a student’s language learning process can lead to intercultural sensitivity development and learning if done communicatively and in engaging environments. In this study, participants intensely interacted in a three week immersion experience where they used WhatsApp to communicate with each other, with their instructors, and with their host families by completing tasks in three modules that were a part of an Advanced Spanish Conversation and Culture Course.

The argument in this study is that if WhatsApp is well integrated into the course activities and curriculum of an upper level Spanish university course while abroad, the students will use more innovative ways to communicate, thus, allowing for more intercultural sensitivity growth. In this study, the author analyzed the intercultural sensitivity development and Spanish language use of twelve university level students as they learned Spanish in a 13 week study abroad program abroad in Segovia, Spain. The goal of the study was to gauge how effectively the students communicated with one another while simultaneously measuring their intercultural sensitivity growth to see if the integration of the mobile app, WhatsApp, had any effect on their intercultural learning capabilities. The author analyzed data from twelve learners’ interactions while they studied abroad in a country that they were mostly unfamiliar with. As a result of WhatsApp’s various modalities and capabilities, the findings showed that all of the 12 students showed modest intercultural sensitivity growth along the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Bennett, 1993) to assist them in more effectively communicating in the target language about the host culture.
ContributorsAshe Jr, Timothy (Author) / Beaudrie, Sara (Thesis advisor) / Smith, Bryan (Thesis advisor) / Prior, Matthew (Committee member) / García-Fernández, Carlos Javier (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020