Matching Items (11)
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- All Subjects: English as a Second Language
- Creators: James, Mark
Description
South Sudanese refugees are among the most vulnerable immigrants to the U.S.. Many have spent years in refugee camps, experienced trauma, lost members of their families and have had minimal or no schooling or literacy prior to their arrival in the U.S. Although most South Sudanese aspire to become U.S. citizens, finally giving them a sense of belonging and participation in a land they can call their own, they constitute a group that faces great challenges in terms of their educational adaptation and English-language learning skills that would lead them to success on the U.S. citizenship examination. This dissertation reports findings from a qualitative research project involving case studies of South Sudanese students in a citizenship preparation program at a South Sudanese refugee community center in Phoenix, Arizona. It focuses on the links between the motivations of students seeking citizenship and the barriers they face in gaining it. Though the South Sudanese refugee students aspiring to become U.S. citizens face many of the same challenges as other immigrant groups, there are some factors that in combination make the participants in this study different from other groups. These include: long periods spent in refugee camps, advanced ages, war trauma, absence of intact families, no schooling or severe disruption from schooling, no first language literacy, and hybridized forms of second languages (e.g. Juba Arabic). This study reports on the motivations students have for seeking citizenship and the challenges they face in attaining it from the perspective of teachers working with those students, community leaders of the South Sudanese community, and particularly the students enrolled in the citizenship program.
ContributorsJohnson, Erik (Author) / Adams, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Renaud, Claire (Committee member) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This yearlong project examines how multilingual undergraduate writers--including international visa students and U.S. permanent residents or citizens who are non-native English speakers--exercise agency in their first-year composition placement decisions. Agency is defined as the capacity to act or not to act contingent upon various conditions. The goal of the project is to demonstrate how student agency can inform the overall programmatic placement decisions, which can lead to more effective placement practices for multilingual writers. To explore the role of agency in students' placement decisions, I conducted a series of four in-depth interviews with eleven multilingual writers between Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 in the Writing Programs at Arizona State University. To triangulate these placement decisions, I interviewed some of the multilingual student participants' academic advisors and writing teachers as well as writing program administrators. Findings showed that when conditions for agency were appropriate, the multilingual student participants were able to negotiate placement, choose to accept or deny their original placement, self-assess their proficiency level as deciding to choose a writing course, plan on their placement, question about placement, and finally make decisions about a writing course they wanted to take. In the context of this study, conditions for agency include the freedom to choose writing courses and information about placement that is distributed by the following sources: advisors' recommendations, other students' past experience in taking first-year composition, the new student orientation, and other sources that provide placement related information such as an online freshman orientation and a major map. Other findings suggested that the academic advisor participants did not provide the multilingual students with complete placement information; and this affected the way the multilingual students chose which section of first-year composition to enroll in. Meanwhile, there was no formal communication about placement options and placement procedures between the Writing Programs and writing teachers. Building on these findings, I argue for improving conditions for agency by providing placement options, making placement information more readily available, and communicating placement information and options with academic advisors, writing teachers, and multilingual students.
ContributorsSaenkhum, Tanita, 1976- (Author) / Matsuda, Paul Kei (Thesis advisor) / Rose, Shirley (Committee member) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Situated in the influx of Chinese students entering U.S. higher education and the L2 writing research growing interests in investigating learners’ experience to gain further insights into their emic perspectives on English literacy development, this dissertation argues that the identifying the beliefs as the underlying principle shaping and being shaped by our experience. In this dissertation, I propose a theoretical framework of beliefs and validates the framework by using it to examine multilingual writers’ learning experience in the context of First Year Composition. The framework advances a definition of beliefs and a framework demonstrating the relationship among three constructs—perception, attitude, and behavior. In order to develop the framework, I first synthesized existing literature on language learning beliefs and argue the scarcity of L2 writing researchers’ discussing belief when exploring learners’ experience. I define beliefs as an individual’s generalizations from the mental construction of the experience, based on evaluation and judgment, thus are predisposed to actions. I proposed a framework of belief, consisting three mental constructs—perception, attitude and action—to identify and examine factors contributing the formation and change of beliefs. I drew on drawing on Dewey's theory of experience and Rokeach's (1968) belief theory, and contextual approach to beliefs in the field of second language acquisition. I analyzed the interview data of twenty-two Chinses students accounting their English learning experiences across four different contexts, including English class in China, TOEFL training courses, intensive English program, and FYC classroom. The findings show that their beliefs were formed and transformed in the contexts before FYC. They perceived all the writing learning in those courses as similar content and curriculum, but the attitudes vary regarding the immediate contexts and long-term goal of using the knowledge. They believe grammar and vocabulary is the “king’s way,” the most effective and economic approach, which was emphasized in the test-oriented culture. Moreover, the repetitive course content and various pedagogies, including multiple revisions and the requirement of visiting writing center, have been perceived as requiring demonstration more efforts, which in turn prompted them to develop their own negotiation strategies, the actions, to gain more credits for the class. This dissertation concludes that the beliefs can be inferred from these all three constructs, but to change beliefs of learners, we need to make them explicit and incorporate them into writing instruction or curriculum design. Implications on how to further the research of beliefs as well as translating these findings into classroom pedagogies are also discussed. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of how the framework can be used to inform future research and classroom practices informed by writing beliefs identified in this study.
ContributorsYang, Yuching (Author) / Matsuda, Paul Kei (Thesis advisor) / Matsuda, Aya (Committee member) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
This study investigates how the teaching English as an international language (TEIL) framework can be integrated into the English curriculum of the Korea Military Academy (KMA). Addressing the research gap on TEIL and military settings, this study first critically reviews issues around the varieties of English (i.e., world Englishes), the international functions of English, and the pedagogical implications of TEIL in today’s globalizing world. The study then examines current challenges and objectives of ELT and suggests practical strategies for incorporating TEIL into the English curriculum of the KMA.
The study suggests the following four strategies to apply TEIL into the English curriculum of the KMA: (a) introduce WE/EIL activities into the English Conversation course; (b) establish a WE/EIL course; (c) provide extracurricular WE/EIL activities; and (d) incorporate intercultural content into the Military English course. The study argues that implementing these suggestions would help cadets develop both their linguistic proficiency in English and intercultural communicative competence that are essential for them to become professional military communicators who can effectively communicate with interlocutors from diverse linguistic, cultural, and national backgrounds in international military contexts.
While the study contributes to the literature by bridging the gap between TEIL and military contexts, it demonstrates the following implications: (a) a meaningful case of applying TEIL into the military context in Korea; (b) the importance of both linguistic proficiency in English and intercultural competence for ELT in the KMA; and (c) the possibility of influencing the Korea Air Force and Naval Academy to reexamine their English curricula. The study concludes that the English curriculum of the KMA should be revised based on the recognition of the symbiotic relationship among linguistic proficiency in English, exposure to diverse varieties of English, and intercultural competence in order to produce cadets who can effectively communicate in English as a military lingua franca for the success of their designated military objectives in the future.
The study suggests the following four strategies to apply TEIL into the English curriculum of the KMA: (a) introduce WE/EIL activities into the English Conversation course; (b) establish a WE/EIL course; (c) provide extracurricular WE/EIL activities; and (d) incorporate intercultural content into the Military English course. The study argues that implementing these suggestions would help cadets develop both their linguistic proficiency in English and intercultural communicative competence that are essential for them to become professional military communicators who can effectively communicate with interlocutors from diverse linguistic, cultural, and national backgrounds in international military contexts.
While the study contributes to the literature by bridging the gap between TEIL and military contexts, it demonstrates the following implications: (a) a meaningful case of applying TEIL into the military context in Korea; (b) the importance of both linguistic proficiency in English and intercultural competence for ELT in the KMA; and (c) the possibility of influencing the Korea Air Force and Naval Academy to reexamine their English curricula. The study concludes that the English curriculum of the KMA should be revised based on the recognition of the symbiotic relationship among linguistic proficiency in English, exposure to diverse varieties of English, and intercultural competence in order to produce cadets who can effectively communicate in English as a military lingua franca for the success of their designated military objectives in the future.
ContributorsJin, Seonghan (Author) / Matsuda, Aya (Thesis advisor) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Prior, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Studies in Second Language Acquisition and Neurolinguistics have argued that adult learners when dealing with certain phonological features of L2, such as segmental and suprasegmental ones, face problems of articulatory placement (Esling, 2006; Abercrombie, 1967) and somatosensory stimulation (Guenther, Ghosh, & Tourville, 2006; Waldron, 2010). These studies have argued that adult phonological acquisition is a complex matter that needs to be informed by a specialized sensorimotor theory of speech acquisition. They further suggested that traditional pronunciation pedagogy needs to be enhanced by an approach to learning offering learners fundamental and practical sensorimotor tools to advance the quality of L2 speech acquisition.
This foundational study designs a sensorimotor approach to pronunciation pedagogy and tests its effect on the L2 speech of five adult (late) learners of American English. Throughout an eight week classroom experiment, participants from different first language backgrounds received instruction on Articulatory Settings (Honickman, 1964) and the sensorimotor mechanism of speech acquisition (Waldron 2010; Guenther et al., 2006). In addition, they attended five adapted lessons of the Feldenkrais technique (Feldenkrais, 1972) designed to develop sensorimotor awareness of the vocal apparatus and improve the quality of L2 speech movement. I hypothesize that such sensorimotor learning triggers overall positive changes in the way L2 learners deal with speech articulators for L2 and that over time they develop better pronunciation.
After approximately eight hours of intervention, analysis of results shows participants’ improvement in speech rate, degree of accentedness, and speaking confidence, but mixed changes in word intelligibility and vowel space area. Albeit not statistically significant (p >.05), these results suggest that such a sensorimotor approach to L2 phonological acquisition warrants further consideration and investigation for use in the L2 classroom.
This foundational study designs a sensorimotor approach to pronunciation pedagogy and tests its effect on the L2 speech of five adult (late) learners of American English. Throughout an eight week classroom experiment, participants from different first language backgrounds received instruction on Articulatory Settings (Honickman, 1964) and the sensorimotor mechanism of speech acquisition (Waldron 2010; Guenther et al., 2006). In addition, they attended five adapted lessons of the Feldenkrais technique (Feldenkrais, 1972) designed to develop sensorimotor awareness of the vocal apparatus and improve the quality of L2 speech movement. I hypothesize that such sensorimotor learning triggers overall positive changes in the way L2 learners deal with speech articulators for L2 and that over time they develop better pronunciation.
After approximately eight hours of intervention, analysis of results shows participants’ improvement in speech rate, degree of accentedness, and speaking confidence, but mixed changes in word intelligibility and vowel space area. Albeit not statistically significant (p >.05), these results suggest that such a sensorimotor approach to L2 phonological acquisition warrants further consideration and investigation for use in the L2 classroom.
ContributorsLima, J. Alberto S., Jr (Author) / Pruitt, Kathryn (Thesis advisor) / Gelderen, Elly van (Thesis advisor) / Liss, Julie (Committee member) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
In the current globalized world, English is an international language that makes it possible for people from different language backgrounds to communicate with each other. In this situation, English users in EIL (English as an international language) should be able to comprehend various accents spoken by English speakers from all over the world. Therefore, in order to investigate how to help Korean high school EFL (English as a foreign language) learners to develop their listening comprehension of various accents of English, this study conducted an experiment by having them listen to various accents of English. Participants were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group received a treatment of listening to various accents and solving listening comprehension questions. They did reading while listening activity with the same accents when checking their answers. On the other hand, the control group received the same treatment and did the reading while listening activity when checking their answers. The only difference between the groups was that the experimental group listened to various accents of English and the control group listened to American accents. After the treatment, both groups took two pretests. It was found through test score analyses that listening to various accents helped participants to develop their listening comprehension of the accents better than listening to American accents. Furthermore, participants in the experimental group could transfer their listening comprehension developed through the treatment to new contexts such as listening to English accents that they did not practice and listening to real-life listening materials. Along with test score analyses, it was found through a questionnaire that participants who received the treatment of listening to various accents of English perceive that they could transfer their developed listening comprehension. In addition, their responses showed that they recognize the importance of dealing with various accents for international communication and they think English classes in school should deal with various accents of English. With the results, this study insisted that CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test) listening comprehension section should include various accents of English in order to help Korean high school EFL learners to prepare for international communication situations. With washback effects of CSAT, it will lead Korean EFL stakeholders to be able to prepare for English communications in EIL situations.
ContributorsLee, Joonwon (Author) / James, Mark (Thesis advisor) / Matsuda, Aya (Committee member) / Prior, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
While English language education has become increasingly prominent worldwide, countries have adopted various initiatives to increase English language development. One country making a push for English language development is Taiwan; however, current educational practices and values can prove to be challenges in implementing new methods. For example, although Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methods gained popularity starting in the 1990s, they have been slow to take hold in Taiwan. Additionally, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education is pushing for bilingualism by the year 2030, introducing curricular reforms and new strategies to increase the prominence of English on a social level. In order to analyze current educational methods and practices in Taiwan, as well as predict the efficacy of new strategies, this study focused on gathering the perspectives and experiences of the students themselves. International students were specifically targeted, as they have had exposure to multiple educational environments, as well as firsthand experience applying their English language knowledge in an immersive environment. To gather student perspective, an online survey was made available to Taiwanese international students currently studying in a U.S. university. Respondents were asked multiple-choice questions on curricular focus, as well as short answer questions regarding their educational experiences. Overall, the respondents showed an agreement in regards to the heavy emphasis of reading, writing, and grammar in Taiwan, which they correlated directly with high-stakes exams, particularly the university entrance exam. They also noted the lack of speaking and listening practice, as well as a strong desire to apply English in a communicative sense. These observations hold significant implications for various stakeholders, including teachers, principals, curriculum developers, exam designers, and university admissions.
ContributorsEricson, Rebecca Elaine (Author) / Matsuda, Aya (Thesis director) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
This dissertation explores the professionalization of students enrolled in second language teacher education (SLTE) and their perceptions of the characteristics and obligations of a professional second language teacher (SLT). The sociocognitive approach forms the theoretical foundation, which sees humans as life-long learners and teachers, who adapt by progressively aligning with others and their ecosocial environment. Professionalization is seen as the socialization process of progressive alignment that involves the development of skills, knowledge, identities, norms, and values within a professional community of practice. An SLTE course was observed in an etic ethnographic tradition, all course materials were collected, and semi-structured interviews that focused on SLT professionalism were conducted with 13 participants. Data were analyzed using the lenses of language socialization and membership categorization analysis (MCA) to make visible target phenomena related to professionalization. Language socialization revealed instances of professionalization that took place during the SLTE course or that resulted from processes during the semi-structured interviews, which were illuminated by positive or negative affiliation. MCA revealed participant perceptions about the obligations and characteristics of a professional SLT, from which six themes emerged, which include interacting with students, methods and materials, teacher attributes, student attributes, and the concepts of schools and schooling, which broadly represent the synchronic and diachronic sociocultural contexts for SLTE respectively. The use of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) received further attention. 100% of participants expressed some willingness to use these tools, but 23% had an initial reactionary response that rejected CALL in favor of more traditional methods. Additionally, 54% of responses included unsolicited mentions of the Covid-19 pandemic in a misinterpretation of CALL. Interventions for those with a misinterpretation are suggested to orient CALL appropriately in the context of the pandemic and for 21st century language learning and teaching. Course materials were quantitatively analyzed using semantic similarity indices in an exploratory process with negligible results. Possible modifications are discussed that might result in a useful proxy statistic for professionalization. Further implications are discussed in relation to SLTE curriculum and professionalization along with perspectives about building rapport when using semi-structured interviews as a research method.
ContributorsWinans, Michael David (Author) / Matsuda, Aya (Thesis advisor) / Smith, Byran (Committee member) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This project emphasizes a complex, holistic, and additive view of content knowledge in the Discipline of Writing, advocating for balanced and affirming scholarship and pedagogy rather than a competitive approach that leads to an epistemology of erasure. As a composite project, the introduction contextualizes three articles linked by their articulation of holistically and additively thinking for students and scholars in the discipline of writing, preparing the reader to see the rhetorical steps that I attempt to take in each article along these lines. Article 1, “The Collaborative Work of Composition,” uses Marxian language of production to highlight the complexities of collaborative writing in a social microcosm drawing focus to the difficulties some students have collaborating, particularly those of linguistic and cultural minority groups, because they or their collaborators struggle to adopt an additive valuing system to position themselves and one another as part of a team with varying strengths. In Article 2, “An Integrative Translingual Pedagogy of Affirmation,” I build on this valuing of writers by advocating for an affirming pedagogy that allows teachers to help students see the complexity and value of their shared languages and their individual (L)anguage as well as the identity connected to these. Article 3, “Familia Académica: Translingual History and the Epistemology of Erasure,” draws on a deep and overlooked history that provides a more complex holistic lens for the current socio-politics of the discipline of Writing’s interaction with the translingual approach, re-orienting to a more additive blend of the extreme perspectives that key scholars have taken between second language writing and translingual writing. Finally, the last section of the dissertation acts as a metaconstruction of the discipline of Writing, pointing to moments within the previous three articles that indicate a sustained effort to complicate binaries and then provide an alternate symbiosis of scholarly perspectives for disciplinary discourse and identity in Writing. Most importantly though, the final section of the dissertation synthesizes the partial approaches introduced in the previous three articles which inform my understanding of disciplinarity. Further, this final section attempts to find equity in the variety of partial approaches developed in the previous articles and which I have since matured into what I call the 8 Aspects of Writing. The 8 aspects and their components move beyond individual issues presented in each article and synthesize a more holistic, additive, and systematic model of defining the content knowledge for the discipline of Writing.
ContributorsFields, Gregory Dale (Author) / Rose, Shirley K. (Thesis advisor) / Hannah, Mark (Committee member) / James, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Language Textbooks often play a major role in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) classrooms, not only to provide information but also to help students construct their identities. Several studies showed that identity and language learning are inseparable, due to the simple fact that every learner has his/her own identity aspects like race, gender, social class, and speaker status (i.e., native speaker vs. non-native speaker of the target language). These aspects should be acknowledged because providing the students with limited identity options might cause the students to resist learning the language or be less invested in this practice (Norton & Toohey,2011).
However, there is limited support for teachers who wish to examine identity in ESOL textbooks. Several scholars attempted to evaluate the range of identity options offered in ESOL textbooks, but they all used either Critical Discourse Analysis or Content Analysis which can be effective; however, these procedures require training and can take a long time, so they may not be practical for teachers. This suggests that there is a need for a less complicated evaluation tool that can be easily used by teachers.
The purpose of this thesis is to develop a teacher-friendly identity-focused checklist for ESOL textbooks, and the thesis is guided by the following questions: (a) what would an evaluation checklist for identity in ESOL textbooks look like?; (b) what can this checklist reveal about ESOL textbooks? The purpose of this thesis was achieved by developing a qualitative checklist that covers, race, gender, social class, and speaker status, and demonstrating how to use it on a collection of five adult ESOL textbooks. The checklist revealed similarities and differences between the textbooks, including important shortcomings, and that kind of information can be useful for the teacher to make decisions about the textbook he/she uses.
However, there is limited support for teachers who wish to examine identity in ESOL textbooks. Several scholars attempted to evaluate the range of identity options offered in ESOL textbooks, but they all used either Critical Discourse Analysis or Content Analysis which can be effective; however, these procedures require training and can take a long time, so they may not be practical for teachers. This suggests that there is a need for a less complicated evaluation tool that can be easily used by teachers.
The purpose of this thesis is to develop a teacher-friendly identity-focused checklist for ESOL textbooks, and the thesis is guided by the following questions: (a) what would an evaluation checklist for identity in ESOL textbooks look like?; (b) what can this checklist reveal about ESOL textbooks? The purpose of this thesis was achieved by developing a qualitative checklist that covers, race, gender, social class, and speaker status, and demonstrating how to use it on a collection of five adult ESOL textbooks. The checklist revealed similarities and differences between the textbooks, including important shortcomings, and that kind of information can be useful for the teacher to make decisions about the textbook he/she uses.
ContributorsAlmatard, Abdulmajeed Mohammed (Author) / James, Mark (Thesis advisor) / Matsuda, Aya (Committee member) / Prior, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019