School of Languages and Linguistics - Theses
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ItemThe development of metacognition of L2 listening in joint activity( 2009)This study investigates the development of metacognition of L2 listening in joint activity. Two complementary aspects are examined, namely, the role of collaborative dialogue in mediating learners’ development of metacognition of L2 listening in joint activity, and the social-cultural-historical contradictions shaping learners’ development in this regard. The study took place at a research site in central Japan, and involved ten pairs of Japanese, advanced-level EFL learners who completed a sequence of tasks in a process-oriented pedagogical cycle for five lessons. The listening material used in the study was BBC news videotexts. Audio and video recordings of each pairs’ collaborative dialogue formed the primary data source for the first part of the study, and were complemented by diary and interview data. For the second part of the study, the reverse occurred, with diaries and interviews being the main sources of data, and information from each pairs’ collaborative dialogue providing support. Two case study pairs formed the focus of the investigation, and the data analysis approach was primarily qualitative. With respect to the first part of the study, the analysis found that a number of common functions were activated and operationalized as learners shared, selected, and reflected on their listening strategies in collaborative dialogue: recognizing, determining, explaining, clarifying, evaluating and confirming. An analytical framework of receptive, active, and responsive dimensions illustrated how collaborative dialogue acted as a mediating artifact affording learners opportunities to develop their metacognition of L2 listening as they operationalized these functions. Corresponding diary entries and interview responses reflected the utility of collaborative dialogue in mediating learners’ metacognitive development. In addition, the study found collaborative dialogue mediated learners’ awareness of a range of features under three primary categories: strategy awareness, comprehension awareness, and text awareness. This enabled a working definition of awareness of L2 listening from a sociocultural theory perspective to be formulated, i.e., awareness is the conscious realization of one’s own and others’ knowledge and beliefs about how, and what, strategic, comprehension, and text variables function and interact to influence outcomes in joint activity. In addition, collaborative dialogue mediated learners’ control of their L2 listening with respect to various features associated with the three stages of regulation recognized in sociocultural theory: object-regulation, other regulation, and self-regulation. It also mediated learners’ transition between these stages. Regarding the second part of the study, a joint activity system analysis explored each case study pairs’ joint activity at the start and end of the study. Each analysis focused on learners’ motives, history and beliefs, personal task goals, pair work, and pattern of interaction, and identified a range of related primary and secondary social-cultural-historical contradictions shaping learners’ metacognition of L2 listening across the study. Furthermore, the joint activity system analysis illustrated that these social-cultural-historical contradictions were either resolved, moving towards resolution, or unresolved across the five lessons in the study. This was irrespective of whether or not they were recognized by learners, or remained latent. These findings highlight the utility of collaborative dialogue in mediating knowledge-building and problem-solving with respect to metacognition of L2 listening and as a unit of analysis for exploring aspects of learners’ development in this respect. In addition, the findings show the joint activity system model utilized offers a functional framework for representing and examining the dimensions of joint activity influencing L2 learners’ metacognitive development.
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ItemThe process of the assessment of writing performance: the rater's perspective( 2000)The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the process by which raters of texts written by ESL learners make their scoring decisions. The context is the Special Test of English Proficiency (step), used by the Australian government to assist in immigration decisions. Four trained, experienced and reliable step raters took part in the study, providing scores for two sets of 24 texts. The first set was scored as in an operational rating session. Raters then provided think-aloud protocols describing the rating process as they rated the second set. Scores were compared under the two conditions and comparisons made with the raters' operational rating behaviour. Both similarities and differences were observed. A coding scheme developed to describe the think-aloud data allowed analysis of the sequence of rating, the interpretations the raters made of the scoring categories in the analytic rating scale, and the difficulties raters faced in rating. Findings demonstrate that raters follow a fundamentally similar rating process, in three stages. With some exceptions, they appear to hold similar interpretations of the scale categories and descriptors, but the relationship between scale contents and text quality remains obscure. A model is presented describing the rating process. This shows that rating is at one level a rule-bound, socially governed procedure that relies upon a rating scale and the rater training which supports it, but it retains an indeterminate component as a result of the complexity of raters' reactions to individual texts. The task raters face is to reconcile their impression of the text, the specific features of the text, and the wordings of the rating scale, thereby producing a set of scores. The rules and the scale do not cover all eventualities, forcing the raters to develop various strategies to help them cope with problematic aspects of the rating process. In doing this they try to remain close to the scale, but are also heavily influenced by the complex intuitive impression of the text obtained when they first read it. This sets up a tension between the rules and the intuitive impression, which raters resolve by what is ultimately a somewhat indeterminate process. In spite of this tension and indeterminacy, rating can succeed in yielding consistent scores provided raters are supported by adequate training, with additional guidelines to assist them in dealing with problems. Rating requires such constraining procedures to produce reliable measurement.
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ItemThe nature and conditions of pragmatic and discourse transfer in cross-cultural interaction investigated through naturalized role-play( 2004)For decades, the first linguistic and cultural influence on second language performance (technically known as pragmatic and discourse transfer) in cross-cultural interaction has fascinated researchers because its nature and especially its conditions have never been fathomed out. The aims of this investigation are threefold. First, it examines the nature of pragmatic and discourse transfer in compliment responses by Vietnamese speakers of English as a second language in cross-cultural interaction with Australians. The examination also takes into account data from conversations among Australian English native speakers and interaction between Vietnamese counterparts. Second, the research project investigates the underexplored conditions of pragmatic and discourse transfer. In the quest for the nature and conditions of pragmatic and discourse transfer, research methodologies provoke much debate because they have different advantages and disadvantages, though the ultimate goal remains the controlled elicitation of data that is comparable to real-life production. The third aim of the present study is to propose and validate an innovative methodology of data collection in cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics research the Naturalized Role-play. This methodology is capable of realizing the highly desirable but virtually impossible goal of eliciting spontaneous data in controlled settings. In reference to the methodological design of the research project, the Naturalized Role-play provided the main corpus of data on pragmatic and discourse transfer whose in-depth analysis revealed the nature of this phenomenon. In addition to Naturalized Role-play data, background questionnaire and retrospective interview data was collected to explore conditions of pragmatic and discourse transfer. To demonstrate the effectiveness and validity of the Naturalized Role-play, compliment response data collected by means of the Naturalized Role-play was compared with data from other major methods including the questionnaire, closed role-play, open role-play and natural data recording. Findings of this investigation indicated what was transferred and how pragmatic and discourse transfer patterned, upon which new hypotheses were formulated. The investigation also uncovered as yet unknown conditions of pragmatic and discourse transfer (e.g. awareness in language production) and their interaction. Moreover, the Naturalized Role-play proved to fulfil its aim. It can combine advantages of major methods without their drawbacks and is more effective (i.e. providing more natural data) than existing means of data elicitation. In essence, based on the Naturalized Role-play approach, this investigation sheds new light on the nature of pragmatic and discourse transfer, offers insights into its conditions and features a pioneering creative solution to the controversial methodological problem. The study also presents implications of its findings for second language learners, teachers and native speakers of different languages in social interactions where cultures meet.
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ItemWeb-based hypertext writing for second language learning( 2005)This study investigated the process of creating webpages by L2 learners and the products of this process in a PrOCALL (project-oriented computer-assisted language learning) classroom, and explored their implications for language learning. The study setting was an intact French language classroom at the University of Melbourne where producing web-based webpages collaboratively was the main task for students to accomplish during a semester-long period. Five students in two groups were selected for the observation. Data sources included weekly classroom observations, recordings of the students' group-based oral interactions and the computer screen, individual interviews, email conversations, questionnaires, written drafts, and the final webpage products. Other important data was the information obtained from the class website and the class notes. The data was analysed according to the principles of grounded theory and with the assistance of a qualitative data analysis program, Nud*ist (Non-numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theory-building). Analysis of aspects of the students' webpage writing process revealed that the PrOCALL classroom provided students with opportunities for language learning through naturally occurring oral interactions encouraged by the goal- oriented activities of webpage writing. At the same time however, the analysis also revealed that the quality and quantity of these learning opportunities largely depended on the students' collaborative relationships, which were affected by student participation, motivation, and orientation. The computer was another important factor that affected the collaborative relationships. Technological problems sometimes caused the students to change the established roles in the collaborative relationship between them, to change their orientation, and consequently to change their activities. Although these changes distracted the students from speaking the target language or maintaining orientation to language learning, analysis also revealed many occasions where students generated learning opportunities by reflecting, negotiating, and producing private speech in trying to resolve the problems, which became shared language learning efforts. Analysis of the students' webpage products revealed that the students engaged in writing activities through which they spontaneously endeavored to accommodate the Internet users as their audience and to reflect upon the results of the endeavor. However, the study also revealed that students responded to the audience in various ways. Students who focused on Internet users struggled to accommodate the audience, which resulted in webpages that did not seem to employ effective written communication. Whereas, students who regarded Internet users as secondary to a more specific and personally related audience produced webpages employing successful hypertextual communication and critical literacy practice. Acknowledging the need for further investigation, the study suggests a possibility that students may benefit more from having a specific and personally related audience rather than an uncertain audience such as Internet users. The dissertation concludes that the PrOCALL classroom provided students with opportunities for language learning and experiences of important literacy practice by promoting natural oral interactions through goal-oriented activities of web-based hypertext writing. Importantly, however, the study calls for the need to consider students' collaborative relationships as one of the most important factors to realise the benefits of the PrOCALL classroom. Also, the study suggests that students need to be guided to a more specific and personally related audience than general Internet users for effective web-based hypertextual communication.
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ItemBelonging, being friends and learning to write in a second language: the social construction of self and mind( 2002)This naturalistic study explores how young bilingual children develop as writers of English as they seek to become a member of the social group in a mainstream classroom context. Through a focus on two Mandarin-speaking children as ecological case studies, it aims to understand how learning to write emerges within the sociocultural context of free writing time. As the data are explored, a complex relationship between learning to write, negotiating a place in the social world and identity construction is revealed. The inseparable nature of learning and identity construction is confirmed. The dialogic nature of the data shows how a unique social space or ecosystem is co-constructed by individuals in interaction with their peers to create a powerful micro-context which influences identity construction and learning. This ecosystem affords and constrains opportunities to belong and learn through participation. The study exposes the complexity of learning to write in a second language context and demonstrates how an ecological way of researching supports understanding of this complexity. It provides insights into how individual children and their peers co-construct the activity of writing and influence both their own and others' cognitive and social development. Important questions about learning in mainstream classrooms, which have implications for theory building and pedagogical practice, are raised.