Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe academic achievements of language centre students at a secondary college( 2001)What are the academic achievements of adolescent new-arrival English as a Second Language (ESL) students at secondary schools in Victoria, Australia? Research on Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) students in Australia has tended to neglect new arrival ESL students. To examine the academic achievements of this important subgroup of NESB students, the current study will highlight the academic achievements of a cohort of Victorian Language Centre students at a Secondary College over six years with interruption to schooling in their first language (L1) as the key variable linked to academic achievement in their second language (L2). Victorian Language Centres provide new-arrival ESL students with the English skills they need to start their secondary educations in L2. The current study examined the academic achievement of two groups of Language Centre students, those who completed their Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and those who left the Secondary College prior to completing VCE. Their academic results were summarised into spreadsheets for quantitative analysis. Subsequent to the quantitative analysis interviews were conducted with four ESL students from the Language Centre currently completing their VCE studies to provide further insight into the factors that enabled them to do their VCE. Results indicate that the academic achievements of this cohort of ESL Language Centre students are poor and that interruption to education in Ll had a major impact on the students' ability to achieve academically at the Secondary College. The study suggests that L1 education is the key variable influencing the student's ability to acquire the academic language skills necessary to meet the academic demands of secondary education, particularly the VCE. Other factors such as support for learning and strong motivation were found to help students overcome difficulties encountered in their secondary education. However, students who were unable to overcome these difficulties left the College prior to completing VCE. It was concluded that the majority of Language Centre students faced uncertain economic futures once they left the Secondary College. The results of the study suggest that Language Centre students need more support and assistance to enable them to complete VCE or to access educational alternatives to the VCE. This study also suggests that more research into the effect of L1 education on L2 education be conducted as this was found to be the key variable in the students' ability to acquire the academic language skills necessary to meet the academic demands of VCE.
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ItemThe language learning strategies used by Japanese learners of English in Japan and Australia( 2001)The research on language learning strategies (LLSs) to date has been conducted to investigate what kinds of factors (e.g., gender, language proficiency and motivation) affect learners' LLS choice. Although more people move from one language environment to another, there is little research on whether learners change their LLSs in different cultural environments and on what factors affect learners' LLS choice in cross-cultural environments. The current study is intended to fill this gap. For the current study, forty-six Japanese learners of English studying in Australia were recruited. They were given the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) designed by Oxford (1990) in order to investigate what kinds of LLSs Japanese learners tend to use in both Japan and Australia. In addition, a background questionnaire was used to gather information from learners to explore which factors affect LLS choice in cross-cultural environments. Results indicate that Japanese learners tended to use compensation strategies in Japan, while preferring social strategies in Australia. When they moved from Japan to Australia, they changed their LLSs because of the changed cultural context and the different teaching methods used in Australia. The factors affecting LLS choice were mainly gender, English proficiency and motivation. Gender affected LLS choice in Japan, while the influence disappeared in Australia. High proficiency learners tended to use a wider range of strategies than low proficiency learners. Motivation was the most influential factor on LLS choice both in Japan and Australia. The results of this study suggest that students need to increase opportunities to use English in Japan, both inside and outside the classroom, and to enhance their motivation for English learning.
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ItemA cohesion analysis of texts written by adult Mandarin ESL students( 2001)This project aims to explore the written cohesive strategies employed by Mandarin English as a Second Language (ESL) learners, which knowledge will enable educators to better address their specific needs. The participants were members of an adult literacy class of both native and non-native speakers. Students completed several preliminary tasks in order to establish their familiarity with the specific grammatical resources utilised in English. Using a prompt, they wrote letters of complaint, which provided the research data. These were analysed from a functional systemic perspective, identifying patterns of usage of cohesive devices. Questionnaires and individual interviews provided qualitative insights into students' language practices. The study demonstrated that Mandarin students employed a higher percentage of cohesive ties than did the native speakers, which phenomenon may be explained by factors including level of first language literacy, years of formal English language study, and years of residency in Australia. The study suggests that Mandarin ESL learners might moderate their density of cohesive ties, to attain native-like written rhetorical structure. Secondly, register variables proved to have significant implications for cohesive paradigms, in conjunction with contrastive rhetoric cultural conventions. Lexical cohesive patterns point to the crucial role of vocabulary acquisition, an aspect of language acquisition which ought to be addressed in the teaching field. The study also explores the eclectic nature of the language practices acquired by students who have received considerable EFL teaching, and have often lived in English speaking communities for extended periods. Ultimately, this research highlights the need for further study in adult literacy contexts; drawing on larger samples from more diverse language backgrounds, with a specific focus on the role of politeness theory, register variables and contrastive rhetoric.