Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemFocus on form in a Thai university English course( 2006)This thesis reports on an investigation about the application of new pedagogy to the teaching of English grammar to the first year English major students in a Rajabhat University in Bangkok, Thailand. This study sought to explore the effectiveness of an indirect explicit instruction approach on improving students' motivation and attitudes towards learning English grammar. This study was conducted in a normal grammar classroom of thirty three students for sixteen two-hour weekly sessions. Kemmis and McTaggart's (1988) action research cycle method was adopted, involving two cycles of teaching-learning activity. Each cycle was regulated into steps of developing a unit of work, implementing an instruction for six weekly two-hour sessions, observing and reflecting. The data obtained consisted of teacher/researcher's journal, students diaries and interviews and students' self-assessment questionnaires. The teacher's journal provided information about how students were responsive to the new teaching approach whereas students reflected on their new learning experiences in their diaries. Moreover, self-assessment questionnaires using a 5-point Likert scale were employed to obtain a clearer picture on students' attitudes, activities provided and their perceived improvement in learning English grammar. The results of this study reveal that indirect explicit grammar instruction had a great impact on students' motivation and attitudes. Effective learning atmosphere and cooperative learning led to significant changes of students' learning behaviours. Students showed their eagerness to participate in the learning process. They became more self-confident and expressed their willingness to take risks in learning in the language classroom. It could be argued that students' attitudes had improved and they, therefore, were motivated to learn English grammar. However, the students' grammatical knowledge had not significantly developed since the study was undertaken over a short period of time. The study proposes some factors that the teachers should carefully take into consideration in adapting indirect explicit approach to their teaching. Of greater significance were contributions made by the study regarding the advantages of developing own instructional materials that respond to the learners' needs over commercial materials and the value of employing action research to investigate problems arising from teaching practice. Finally, it is suggested that a longitudinal study is worth trying in order to establish the applicability of the indirect explicit approach in teaching English grammar in EFL contexts.
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ItemAn evaluation of quality assurance implementation at a higher education institution in Bangkok( 2005)This study aimed to investigate the implementation of Quality Assurance (OA) regarding two compulsory English courses in a Rajabhat University in Bangkok. Quality of these courses is considered to be crucial because they are required for the completion of all undergraduate degrees in every program of study in the Rajabhat. The study intended particularly, to examine the level of success of QA implementation in order to recommend improvements to the implementation process. The study employed a qualitative case study of the institution to reveal factors affecting QA implementation and to construct an improved QA management model for such courses. Document analysis and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The participants of the research were purposively selected according to their levels of participation in the QA program, namely, policy makers, transmitters of the policy and implementers. Miles & Huberman-style grids were employed to facilitate data analysis and then Fullan's theory of change was used as a framework for discussion of the findings. Analysis revealed that QA was thought to be needed but the level of success of the QA implementation was rather low at the course level due to a lack of efficient communication between the systems level and implementers on the ground. Consequently, teaching staff's knowledge and understanding of the QA operation was inadequate. However, strengths of the program included availability of financial and physical supports, i.e. multi-media teaching materials, IT infrastructure and provision of professional development. Perhaps the most important strength was the awareness and willingness of lecturers to implement QA during routine teaching. Nevertheless, IT literacy, teamwork skills and explicit systematic QA implementation documents were inadequate. Overall, this study has demonstrated a limited level of success regarding QA implementation in this Thai context due to various factors. Therefore, recommendations for improvement are presented and a QA model for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is proposed.
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ItemA critical genre based approach to teaching academic writing in a tertiary EFL context in Indonesia.( 2005)This thesis reports on the effectiveness of using a genre-based approach in teaching academic English writing to studnet teachers who were learning English as a foreign language in a state university.
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ItemThe epistemological authority of an ESL teacher in science education( 2000)This thesis investigates the epistemological authority of an ESL teacher in science education. The state of Victoria, Australia, reflecting a world-wide trend in English speaking countries, has adopted a policy of mainstreaming ESL within the secondary school context. One of the ways this policy has been implemented in government secondary schools in Victoria is by ESL specialists and mainstream teachers jointly planning the curriculum. There has been very little research into how an ESL and a mainstream teacher actually negotiate pedagogic understandings when planning together. This thesis explores the planning relationship with a view to enhancing policies of mainstreaming. The central data in the study are the two planning conversations of two teachers, one on the topic of genetics and the other on motion. The conversations are analysed using positioning theory and appraisal theory within a transformational model of social action. It is argued that positioning theory, with its focus on personal identity formation, offers an analysis of agency and structure, but not of the language used in the conversation. Appraisal theory, with its focus on the linguistic resources used by the teachers to negotiate meaning, allows for a detailed linguistic analysis which assists the positioning analysis. The analysis offers insights into how the teachers maintain and sustain their planning conversations, within a secondary school context. The analysis of the planning conversations reveals overwhelmingly the difficulties and sources of tension that can emerge in a planning relationship between a science specialist and an ESL specialist, even when they enjoy a good working relationship. There are genuine dilemmas and difficulties in attempting to bring together the different and competing epistemological assumptions of the two teachers, who ome from very different disciplinary discourse communities. It is argued that the attempt by the two subject specialists to work together and 'fuse their horizons' is difficult. This is partly because the two discourse communities they represent are very different, and partly because one such community - namely science - enjoys considerably greater power in the working relationship. Overall the findings of this thesis indicate the considerable difficulties in the way of achieving successful mainstreaming of ESL in the secondary school context. The policy directives about mainstreaming have assumed that it is a simple process of the ESLteacher sharing teaching strategies with the mainstream teacher. The study will demonstrate that negotiating pedagogic understandings is a profound journey of epistemological reconstruction, the nature of which had not been anticipated by the policy makers. This is because the two teachers' views of language and teaching are negotiated through their subject disciplinary prejudices and biases. The study offers a model that theorises the personal professional development project implicit within the mainstreaming of ESL policy.