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.