Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemCaught in the middle : teachers' perceptions of the usefulness of the Record of oral language when used with ESL students( 2004)In the present educational context, large-scale literacy reform has been hotly debated in the media by various stakeholders while on the other hand the " voice that has been largely absent from these debates has been that of teachers". This study attempts to correct this imbalance by reporting on a study of teachers' perceptions of the usefulness of the ROL as a testing tool for students learning English as a second language. It was designed to offer the researcher, the participants and other stakeholders great insight into the current complexities that teachers face when assessing the oral competence of students learning English as a second language. Teachers were given the opportunity to critically examine their own assumptions, beliefs and practices about oral language learning and assessment and challenge the current use of the ROL in the Children's Literacy Success Strategy (CLaSS) program. A qualitative case study approach was selected to allow the voices of the participants and the researcher to be heard in a familiar setting. Thirty minute semi-structured interviews were conducted separately so that teachers could speak freely thus enabling the researcher to follow individual trains of thought and obtain in-depth responses. The study concluded that the usefulness of the Record of Oral Language as a testing tool for students from language backgrounds other than English was not the central issue. Research findings instead highlighted the difficulties faced by mainstream teachers expected to effectively assess the oral language skills of students for whom English is a second language without effective Professional Development support. The central issue that has emerged in this study is the place of teacher professional knowledge for these teachers of ESL students. Not only are ESL students disadvantaged in the current educational climate but so are the mainstream teachers. Teachers' responses to this study reaffirm the need for Professional Development in ESL pedagogy as a way to effectively support the Oral Language and Literacy Learning of ESL which was valued pre Literacy Advance.
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ItemFinding a place for intercultural communication in VCE Indonesian( 2004)This research project came about in response to two innovations introduced to the language-learning curriculum for the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), the curriculum for the final two years of secondary schooling in Victoria. These innovations, which gave the teacher more control over oral assessment and introduced a vocationally oriented focus to the generalist curriculum, appeared to offer positive change to the curriculum. Yet a more detailed investigation into the structure of the curriculum led to a concern that it had the potential to set back rather than advance language learning. Central to this concern was the fact that the curriculum design seeks to foster language learning for interpersonal communication in an assessment model that is grounded in an outcomes- and competency-based framework, thus bringing together the ambiguity inherent in intercultural communication and the clarity demanded by a curriculum that focuses on behavioural outcomes. A need was identified for language-specific research to investigate the role of intercultural knowledge in communication and to propose a way for this knowledge to be incorporated into the curriculum framework. This research project took up this challenge with a focus on the Indonesian language. A topic was chosen from the curriculum as the basis for collecting authentic data in Indonesian settings. The topic was 'finding accommodation' and data collection focussed on finding accommodation in a kos, a type of room rental common for single people in Indonesia. Data were collected from research sites in two Indonesian towns over a period of six months in 2001. Four methods of data collection were used: ethnographic interviews, participant observation, comment banks and role-plays. Cultural themes in the data were identified through domain analysis and noticing, and themes identified in one source of data were verified in other sources. One source of data, the kos interview role-plays, was analysed using discourse analysis to help patterns emerge and thus develop a model for a generic text-type for teaching. This research project found that cultural knowledge and values are expressed in the course of communication in a kos interview that are different to what the learner might expect if approaching this text-type from a position grounded in Australian culture; that different norms to Australian norms can be identified and a workable pattern of these norms extracted from the data and incorporated into a framework for meeting the requirements of the VCE curriculum. The model for incorporating intercultural communication into the VCE curriculum proposed in this research project serves as a starting point for further research into the intercultural dimensions of Indonesian interaction in different settings with the aim of enhancing the resources available to teachers of Indonesian in Australia.