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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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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ItemAssessing the writing of Chinese as a second language learners( 2005)This thesis is concerned with the assessment of Chinese as a second language in the Language Other Than English (LOTE) program in Victoria schools. In particular, its purpose is to investigate how Victorian secondary Chinese teachers carry out a common assessment of Chinese Second Language (CSL) students and Chinese Second Language Advanced (CSLA) students. The study explores how eight VCE Chinese teachers differentiate their assessment between five CSL students and five CSLA students' performance in a writing test. Teachers adopted the official criteria to assess the written samples, including holistic scales and analytical scales. The results indicate that there is little stable agreement within the teachers of how to differentiate between the two levels. Moreover, lacking a training process prior to assessment, teachers' judgements are mainly based on their own expectations and their interpretations of official criteria are heavily influenced by their various experience and backgrounds.
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ItemApplications of item response theory to identify and correct for suspect rater data( 2006)This thesis describes a plausible values imputation approach for deriving population estimates on several language proficiency domains. The approach harnessed a multi-dimensional item response analysis combining student responses, rater judgements and student background variables. The target student population was lower grade primary school students enrolled in the Hong Kong schooling system. The raters consisted of local teachers of English employed within the sampled target schools. The primary objective of this research was to impute plausible values where no data was provided or where rater data was deemed suspect. By necessity, a secondary objective of this study was to establish rules for justly excluding particular data on the basis of questionable validity. Surveys such as TIMSS, PISA and NAEP have used such "plausible value" methodologies to account for incomplete test designs and person non-response (Beaton & Johnson, 1990; Yamamoto & Kulick, 2000; Adams & Wu, 2002). The point of difference between this study and other similar studies was the use of item response theory (in particular plausible values imputation) to identify and correct for invalid rater judgements in a large-scale educational survey. An additional research outcome included a derived index of rater data quality based upon imputation scores.
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ItemCritical language awareness and academic writing skills in English for overseas post-graduate engineering students( 2002)This research project examines the problems associated with bringing overseas post-graduate students to a satisfactory level of competence in Engineering Academic Writing in English. Having acknowledged that the teaching of more and more English grammar does not resolve the problem completely, this research project explores the possibility that an intervention program, based on a Critical Language Awareness approach, offers a promising alternative. By bringing to the students' conscious level aspects of their writer identity, which include issues of experience, status and power relations, their interests, values and beliefs, their voice(s), practices and ownership of their writing and issues of accommodation or resistance to change, it is shown that there is limited but promising evidence that student writing can be brought to a satisfactory level. However, as cultural norms are embedded deeply, change cannot be brought about readily.
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ItemLearner access to language research( 2008)This is a study of how my class of learners perceived the relationships between English language learners, teachers, and researchers, during a five week Intensive Academic Preparation ELICOS course at an Australian university. As a starting point, it seizes on the fact that learners, unlike teachers and researchers, are rarely, if ever, encouraged to engage with language research as a potentially valuable resource for language learning. Noting the dearth of literature surrounding this topic specifically, this study focuses on the appropriateness of various practitioner inquiry models for a naturalistic exploration of my own classroom. The approach taken is one of Exploratory Practice, which is a set of guiding principles motivated by a strong ethicality towards learners and teachers. Using everyday pedagogical activities as data collection methods, such as group discussions and summaries as well as individual written pieces, this study reveals three important characteristics of my learners: a sense of pride in their personal knowledge of English language learning, an understanding of themselves as individuals within the language learning process, and a deep concern with the practical aspects of learning English. Meanwhile, my learners generally portray the relationships between learners, teachers, and researchers as hierarchical and unidirectional, with researchers and research on top. Overall, the study suggests that there is some value in providing access for my learners to language research, and in the conclusion to the study I make some recommendations for future research centring around ideas of learner identity, teacher/learner understandings of roles, and the place of the individual language learner within language learning.
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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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ItemFilm as cultural resource for tertiary learners of English in Vietnam( 2009)The goal of English learning in Vietnam today is linguistic proficiency and competence in intercultural communication. Despite the consequent need for access to native-speaker cultural meanings for developing Vietnamese tertiary students of English to this standard, to date the existing instructional conditions have not accommodated this need. The problem lies largely in the use of decontextualised language learning, traditional methodology and, inappropriate textbooks. This study was designed to begin resolving this problem by examining the potential of a target language feature film, "Million Dollar Baby". The aims were to ascertain the affordances of the film for providing access to the designated learners to native-speaker meanings of language, how these might be realised, and at what cost. A theoretical framework of language and culture drawing from the work of Hymes, Halliday, and Bourdieu was established as the basis on which principles and strategies for examining and teaching the fi lm were developed. Firstly, three cultural themes were identified that were significant in the film and of likely continuing value to learners. Secondly, discourse analyses of key scenes manifesting each theme were made using published resources and the opinions of native speaker informants. Thirdly, a set of lessons were trialled with representative volunteer learners in Vietnam, in which the film was shown and the language and cultural aspects of one key scene for each theme taught through an integrated process of informed discussion, embodied experience and personal reflection. The classroom experience was videoed and also documented in teacher and student journals, supported by interviews. Analysis reveals that film can offer a diverse set of language and culture resources for teaching classroom-bound students to access the cultural base of the meanings of language in use. It suggests that a scaffolded process of both guided cognitive exploration and physical experimentation modeled on an actual scene is necessary if students are to perceive and recognise native-speaker meanings as intended. The demands on both teacher and student were not inconsiderable, but were highly rewarding and the results suggest careful exploitation of a suitable film may be a rich seam to follow for developing learners' intercultural competence far from any real social interaction in the target language.
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ItemInteractions between literacy in Korean and English in Korean immigrant children in Australia( 2008)Previous research has found that literacy skills, knowledge and strategies transfer across languages, and a strong establishment in one language facilitates development of a second language. This research is ultimately concerned with the interactions between literacy in different language contexts - Korean and English. That is, the research explored how bilingual children's literacy in the first language (Korean) affects the acquisition of a second language (English). To accomplish this objective, this study investigated the strategies that Korean bilingual children use for reading and writing in Korean script and whether these strategies have a positive or negative transfer to English. This research also exposed the reading and writing behaviours, and attitude towards the two languages and how they affect the transfer of literacy skills and strategies. The study was based on the qualitative case-study method with some additional quantitative measures, in search for in-depth understanding about bilingual children's language acquisition and development. The subjects for this project consisted of three Korean immigrant children aged eight to ten for the purposes of comparison. This research asked them to display their literacy experiences in both languages and their attitudes. The main precise method for reading was the running-records technique, which tests contextual reading accuracy and strategy use during which children read the appropriately leveled texts. Whether the texts are appropriate is decided by the error rate that is simply estimated by the number of words read incorrectly to the total number of words read. Reading data was analysed though the running records coding scheme and conventions. A running record was suitable for the research in terms of helping assess children's reading ability, and capture various reading behaviours and strategies use, based on the children's errors and self-corrections. To look into the writing process, think-aloud protocols were employed. This is defined as verbalising thought processes while reading or writing. Children's introspective verbal reports were coded and analysed through Arndt's (1990) modified version of the coding scheme developed by Perl (1981). The method helped the researcher discover the writing processes and interactions between the first and second languages. Discussion centred on the transferable strategies and the relationship between Korean and English reading and writing. The result was that the reading and writing behaviours and strategies that the children displayed were consistent across languages. All in all, this research provided a better understanding of Korean English bilingual children's biliteracy development. The research concluded that a positive transfer of strategies occurred from Korean to English, and accordingly Korean literacy had a positive effect on English literacy development.
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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.