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Title: 880-01 Ssaem [ssam] I am : an (auto)ethnographic exploration of novice EFL teachers' imagined and enacted teacher identities in South Korea
Creator: Kennedy, Laura Marie
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: While it is not uncommon for teachers to adopt initial teacher identities (Xu, 2012) based, at least partially, on the ways in which they were taught (Lortie, 1975; Tsui, 2007), novice teachers often experience identity-disrupting moments when their imagined identities (Barkhuizen, 2016; Xu, 2012) formed as pre-service teachers do not align with the lived realities of their classrooms (e.g., Li, 2016; Said, 2014). In his theorization of Communities of Practice, Wenger (1998) argued that...
Show moreWhile it is not uncommon for teachers to adopt initial teacher identities (Xu, 2012) based, at least partially, on the ways in which they were taught (Lortie, 1975; Tsui, 2007), novice teachers often experience identity-disrupting moments when their imagined identities (Barkhuizen, 2016; Xu, 2012) formed as pre-service teachers do not align with the lived realities of their classrooms (e.g., Li, 2016; Said, 2014). In his theorization of Communities of Practice, Wenger (1998) argued that identities are negotiated at the intersection of the individual and the social world (Nasir & Cooks, 2009); this intersection for teachers is often characterized by the dissonance teachers feel between who they perceive themselves to be and who they think they need to become to be teachers.This dissertation project, entitled C324 [ssam] I am, is an (auto)ethnographic and longitudinal case study of novice teacher identity negotiations in which I partnered with 10 first-time English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in South Korea, asking (1) How do first-time teachers come to identify as teachers?, and (2) How can a teacher's community support them in the process of negotiating this identity? Over the course of this study, participating teachers performed a number of different identities, included imagined and enacted teacher identities as well as teacher-researcher and teacher-author identities. Across the three phases of the dissertation study, participating teachers and I generated data in myriad forms, including one-on-one interviews; small-group conversations among participating teachers; monthly reflections on a shared blog; observational field notes generated as participants taught in their EFL classrooms; and teaching artifacts in the form of student work, lesson plans, written reflections, etc.Following a three-piece dissertation model, the first two articles of this dissertation take the form of ethnographic case studies, a research method that recognizes the messy complexity of human experience (Erickson, 1986) and allows the researcher to construct cases to story these lived experiences (Dyson & Genishi, 2005). Article 1, entitled "I teach, but I'm no teacher": Identity Negotiations of a Sojourning EFL Teacher in South Korea, explored the dissonance caused when an imagined teacher identity fell apart.Article 2, entitled Here ghost nothing: A Novice EFL Teacher's Letter to the Ghosts that Haunt Them, used Derrida's (1994, 2002) theories of hauntology and hospitality as a theoretical lens to explore the ways in which another novice EFL teacher engaged with their insecurities and self-doubts, asking: What do these feelings have to teach me? Article 3-coauthored with five participating teachers from the larger study-borrowed from collaborative autoethnographic (Chang, 2013; Chang, Ngunjiri, & Hernandez, 2013) and self-study (Barak, 2015; Samaras, 2010) methodologies to demonstrate the power of community in the negotiation of one's teacher identity. In Collaborative Negotiations of Teacher Identity: A Study of Self in Six Voices, we join a medley of scholars (e.g., Barak, 2015; Hamiloglu, 2014; Sarasa & Porta, 2018) to stress the positive impact of shared reflection in navigating the development of a teacher identity. The identities performed in this dissertation-those of imagined, enacted, and socially negotiated teacher identities as well as emerging teacher-researcher identities-suggest the power of validation that comes from hearing "You are not alone" and call for a community of support approach to teacher education.
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Title: Re-examining functional load in light of raters' perception of error gravity in second language speech
Creator: Pfau, Adam
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The current study looks at the role FL values has concerning the perception that listeners have of the intelligibility and comprehensibility of unclear phonemes in second language speech. A listener's familiarity with accented speech is also considered. Native English listeners from two separate populations - a student population exposed to a variety of second language speech and a community member population with little exposure to accented speech - were presented with recorded speech...
Show moreThe current study looks at the role FL values has concerning the perception that listeners have of the intelligibility and comprehensibility of unclear phonemes in second language speech. A listener's familiarity with accented speech is also considered. Native English listeners from two separate populations - a student population exposed to a variety of second language speech and a community member population with little exposure to accented speech - were presented with recorded speech samples from L1 Japanese speakers of English. The speech samples contained unclear, or non-native like, examples of two separate phoneme pairs: the /r-l/ consonant contrast and the /s-[theta]/ contrast. The first carries a very high functional load value, while the second carries a very low value. Listeners responded to a comprehensibility and intelligibility task that contained examples of both target contrasts. The results indicated that the student population found the speech samples more intelligible and easier to comprehend. The /r-l/ contrast, with a higher FL value, was more difficult for them to transcribe and comprehend than the /s-[theta]/ but these differences were less pronounced for the community member raters. This suggests that, while teachers may be wise to use FL values as a basis for a pronunciation syllabus or instruction, they should be aware that the FL values do not paint the whole picture concerning how listeners respond to errors made in second language speech.
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Title: L2 English Listeners' Comprehension : An Examination of the Effects of Visual Cues and Nonnative Accented Speech
Creator: Algana, Mashael Saad A
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Visual cues such as seeing the speaker’s face and gestures have been found to facilitate second-language (L2) listeners’ comprehension of native English speech (Sueyoshi & Hardison, 2005). Very few studies attempted to investigate how audiovisual cues affect the comprehension of nonnative accented speech (e.g., Barros, 2010; Zheng & Samuel, 2019). The findings of these studies have been inconclusive, and these mixed results can be ascribed to the varying degrees of speakers’ accents, the lack...
Show moreVisual cues such as seeing the speaker’s face and gestures have been found to facilitate second-language (L2) listeners’ comprehension of native English speech (Sueyoshi & Hardison, 2005). Very few studies attempted to investigate how audiovisual cues affect the comprehension of nonnative accented speech (e.g., Barros, 2010; Zheng & Samuel, 2019). The findings of these studies have been inconclusive, and these mixed results can be ascribed to the varying degrees of speakers’ accents, the lack of comprehensibility and accentedness ratings and/or lack of descriptions of nonnative speaker’s gesture use. To address this, the present study examined: a) whether speaker’s accent (native vs. nonnative) and stimulus condition (i.e., audiovisual (AV) including speaker’s gesture and face vs. audiovisual including only speaker’s face vs. audio (A) only) affect L2 listeners’ comprehension of English discourse, b) whether stimulus condition affects L2 listeners’ accentedness and comprehensibility ratings of native and nonnative speech, c) whether speaker’s accent and stimulus condition affect L2 listeners’ perception of and preference for visual cues, and d) whether speaker’s accent affects L2 listeners’ preference for visual cues in everyday communication and L2 language development. A total of 120 Arab university students who were L2 learners of English in the US, UK, Australia or the Middle East were assigned to one of six conditions: a) native speaker-AV-gesture-face (n= 20), b) native speaker-AV-face (n= 20), c) native speaker-A-only (n= 20), d) nonnative speaker-AV-gesture-face (n= 20), e) nonnative speaker-AV-face (n= 20), and c) nonnative speaker-A-only (n= 20). The participants in each condition completed: a multiple-choice listening comprehension test in segments following audiovisual or A-only clips of a native or nonnative speaker’s lecture on the same topic, a comprehensibility and accentedness questionnaire, a preference for and perception of visual cues questionnaire and an optional follow-up interview. Listening comprehension scores were significantly higher for native speech versus nonnative speech. Results revealed that seeing the native speaker’s gestures had some facilitative effects. Such facilitative effects were not observed for the listening comprehension scores for the nonnative speaker. The positive and facilitative effects of seeing the native speaker’s gestures were also observed in the L2 listeners’ accentedness and comprehensibility ratings of native speech. The native speaker was rated as most comprehensible and nativelike in the AV-gesture-face condition; such positive effects of seeing the speaker’s gestures were not observed in the ratings of nonnative speech. Surprisingly, the nonnative speaker was rated as least nativelike in the AV-gesture-face condition, and stimulus condition had no significant effect on comprehensibility ratings of nonnative speech. Responses to the questionnaires and follow-up interview indicated that, unlike for the native speaker, seeing the nonnative speaker’s face and/or gestures was not facilitative. The responses uncovered a general preference for visual cues in L2 listeners’ everyday communication and in developing their English skills. Responses also uncovered L2 listeners’ general preference for native English speech versus nonnative. The findings of this study shed light on how and when visual cues and accent can decrease or increase L2 listeners’ comprehension. The results provide valuable implications for L2 pedagogy and assessment and it raises a number of important questions that can help further extend this line of research on the effects of visual cues and accented speech.
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Title: “IN A NEW NORMAL SITUATION, A NEW APPROACH” : MID-PANDEMIC EFL TEACHER PERSPECTIVES ON IMPLEMENTING TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING IN EAP COURSES
Creator: Siddiqui, Tamoha Binte
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Scarce research exists with regards to TBLT implementation in EAP courses, especially those courses held in EFL settings. Hence, this study explores the extent to which EAP teachers from an EFL country, Bangladesh, hold beliefs that align with core TBLT principles, as well as their levels of receptiveness to using tasks in the classroom. In this mixed methods study, data was collected from 30 tertiary-level EAP teachers in Bangladesh using a questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews. A...
Show moreScarce research exists with regards to TBLT implementation in EAP courses, especially those courses held in EFL settings. Hence, this study explores the extent to which EAP teachers from an EFL country, Bangladesh, hold beliefs that align with core TBLT principles, as well as their levels of receptiveness to using tasks in the classroom. In this mixed methods study, data was collected from 30 tertiary-level EAP teachers in Bangladesh using a questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews. A convergent mixed methods analysis was used to triangulate the data and verify the findings. Results showed that participants agreed with core TBLT principles from a moderate to high level, and consistently favored use of tasks over traditional activities. Moreover, teacher beliefs and practices seem to have become further aligned with core TBLT tenets in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shift to online teaching. I conclude the study by highlighting a number of implications for EFL teaching contexts. Additionally, I suggest that teacher and student autonomy need to be nurtured not only during curriculum development and implementation, but also in theoretical and research design.
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Title: Perceptions of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol Model in the State of Michigan
Creator: Ablan, Elizabeth Grace
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: English language learners are among the fastest growing population in the United States. Due to the high numbers of ELs in public schools, many models and frameworks have been developed including the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). Over the past two decades, many studies have been conducted to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the SIOP model. These studies have had mixed results and many educators also share mixed reviews of the model. This qualitative research...
Show moreEnglish language learners are among the fastest growing population in the United States. Due to the high numbers of ELs in public schools, many models and frameworks have been developed including the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). Over the past two decades, many studies have been conducted to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the SIOP model. These studies have had mixed results and many educators also share mixed reviews of the model. This qualitative research study seeks to investigate the perceptions of the SIOP model in the state of Michigan. The main research questions are: 1.) What are educators’ perspectives of the SIOP model as the main framework for working with English learners in Michigan? 2.) What are the factors that contribute to educators’ perceptions of the SIOP model? SIOP trainers throughout the state of Michigan provide insights through an online survey as well as individual interviews to learn more in depth about the perceptions of the model. The data collected provide timely feedback to education policy makers and state and local administrators to better advocate and support English language learners.
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Title: The contribution of schemata to the reading comprehension of East Asian readers of English as a second language
Creator: Kitao, Susan Kathleen
Date: 1987
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Tracing chinese international students' language and literacy socialization trajectories within and outside the first-year writing context in a u.s. university
Creator: Li, Wenjing
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: While language socialization research has yielded rich insights in understanding international students' language learning and socialization experiences in the instructed academic settings (Duff, 2010, 2019; Duff, Zappa-Hollman, & Surtees, 2019), fewer studies have examined the learning and socialization occurred outside the classrooms (Reinhardt, 2019). As Reinhardt and Thorne (2017) pointed out, focusing on the language socialization in the instructed L2 settings might be limited in (1)...
Show moreWhile language socialization research has yielded rich insights in understanding international students' language learning and socialization experiences in the instructed academic settings (Duff, 2010, 2019; Duff, Zappa-Hollman, & Surtees, 2019), fewer studies have examined the learning and socialization occurred outside the classrooms (Reinhardt, 2019). As Reinhardt and Thorne (2017) pointed out, focusing on the language socialization in the instructed L2 settings might be limited in (1) describing and capturing second language learners' language and literacy practices outside the classrooms, and (2) tracing their complex identity construction and performance across formal and informal, online and offline environments. Therefore, there is a strong need to investigate how their out-of-school language and literacy practices inform/mediate their language learning and socialization in the academic discourses (Kobayashi, Zappa-Hollman, & Duff, 2017).This dissertation set up to portray a comprehensive picture of four Chinese international students' socialization experiences in the U.S. higher education context. Guided by second language socialization framework (Duff, 2010), this ethnographic study traced four Chinese undergraduate students' multilingual and multimodal literacy practices within and outside the First-Year Writing (FYW) class in a U.S. university over an academic year. Data including individual interviews, class observations, social media posts, and written assignments were collected and analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).The findings showed that central to their socialization experiences is my participants' exertion of individual agency to achieve their goals, the construction and negotiation of different identities, and their participation in different communities across various spaces. The study demonstrated that the instructors, their parents, the writing center consultants, the American students, and others they encountered in the informal spaces were all important socialization agents. The interactions with these agents greatly affected how my focal participants positioned themselves and how they negotiated the imposed identities. Their identities then guided their decision-making and socialized participants into different practices, values, and communities. For example, my participants constructed identities as a video editor, an emergent business professional, an intelligent and knowledgeable student, and a bodybuilder in different spaces. More importantly, these identities empowered them to challenge the imposed identity of being the deficient English language learners in academic settings. Therefore, the findings presented that participants were not "passive" novices; instead, they agentively and strategically leveraged linguistic and semiotic resources developed in literacy spaces to navigate academic challenges in the FYW classes and steered their language socialization to positive directions.
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Title: Second language perception and production of English regular past tense : L1 influence in phonology and morphosyntax
Creator: Chen, Wen-Hsin
Date: 2016
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The goal of this study is to provide a better understanding of the influence from first language (L1) phonology and morphosyntax on second language (L2) production and perception of English regular past tense morphology. The following research questions guided the present study: 1) Do L1 phonology and morphosyntax affect L2 learners’ production of the English past tense morpheme -ed? 2) Do L1 phonology and morphosyntax affect L2 learners’ perception of the English past tense morpheme -ed? 3)...
Show moreThe goal of this study is to provide a better understanding of the influence from first language (L1) phonology and morphosyntax on second language (L2) production and perception of English regular past tense morphology. The following research questions guided the present study: 1) Do L1 phonology and morphosyntax affect L2 learners’ production of the English past tense morpheme -ed? 2) Do L1 phonology and morphosyntax affect L2 learners’ perception of the English past tense morpheme -ed? 3) Does the phonetic form of the regular verbs affect L2 learners’ production of the English past tense morpheme -ed? 4) Does the phonetic form of the regular verbs affect L2 learners’ perception of the English past tense morpheme -ed? 5) Does L2 learners’ perception of the -ed morpheme correlate with how they produce it? To answer these questions, this study compared speakers of Turkish (a language that encodes tense morphologically and permits final consonant clusters) with speakers of Korean (a language that encodes tense morphologically but does not allow final consonant clusters) and speakers of Chinese (a language that does not mark tense and does not license final consonant clusters) on story completion, sentence repetition, self-paced listening (SPL), and perception judgment tasks.Sixty-two L2 learners of English (18 L1 Turkish, 21 L1 Korean, 23 L1 Chinese) and 24 native English speakers participated in this study. The results from the story completion task showed that both the Turkish and Korean groups were significantly more accurate than the Chinese group, although none of the three L2 groups produced the past tense morpheme -ed at native-like levels. In the sentence repetition task, the three L2 groups performed alike, and they all showed high levels of morphology suppliance (all over 90%), but only the Korean group performed in a way similar to the native control group. Moreover, in both of the oral production tasks, the learners in the three L2 groups alike were more accurate with regular verbs ending in a single consonant than regular verbs ending in consonant clusters. These results suggest that L1 morphosyntax might be an important factor in the production of English regular past tense morphology and that there seems to be a general phonological effect on final constraint clusters. The present data also indicate that the phonetic form of the regular verbs plays a role in the production of English past tense morphology.Two tasks examined perception of past tense marking. The results from the perception judgment task revealed that none of the three L2 groups perceived the -ed morpheme in a native-like manner. In addition, while the Turkish group was equally accurate in perceiving the -ed inflection in cluster and non-cluster contexts, both the Korean and Chinese groups were less accurate with regular past forms taking non-syllabic allomorphs [t] and [d]. The results from the SPL task were somewhat inconclusive, but demonstrated that participants were most sensitive to grammatical errors targeting syllabic allomorph [əd]. These results suggest that L2 learners’ perception of English past tense morphology is affected by a combination of L1 phonological constraints as well as more general properties related to the phonetic form of the regular verbs.Finally, Spearman’s correlation tests showed no statistical correlations between the perception and production of the -ed morpheme for any of the learner groups. While these results could be explained by differences in test materials and scoring procedures, they may also reflect a disconnect between perception and production of past tense in individual learners.
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Title: A pathway between academic and ESL classes : academic tasks and their potential impact on teaching and testing writing
Creator: Yigitoglu, Nur
Date: 2008
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: In search of systematicity : a conceptual framework for the English article system
Creator: White, Benjamin J.
Date: 2010
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: A psycholinguistic analysis of native German speakers reading English : implications for teaching reading
Creator: Mott, Barbara Willoughby
Date: 1977
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: English as a foreign language : an identification of multidisciplinary dimensions of non-native teacher preparation in linguistics, literature, and pedagogy
Creator: Abdel Monem, Sanad Mohammad Mostafa
Date: 1986
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Efficacy of gestures and recasts on the acquisition of L2 grammar
Creator: Nakatsukasa, Kimi
Date: 2013
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The present study investigated whether gestures can be used to enhance noticing of the saliency of linguistic targets during verbal recasts and whether they can lead to better L2 grammar acquisition. -- Abstract.

Title: English-language acquisition through social interaction in classrooms in which children speak various languages
Creator: Fry, Jessie Jean Storey
Date: 1981
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Learning to write in the digital age : ELLs' literacy practices in and out of their Western urban high school
Creator: Pu, Jiang
Date: 2013
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: ABSTRACTLEARNING TO WRITE IN THE DIGITAL AGE: ELLS' LITERACY PRACTICES IN ANDOUT OF THEIR WESTERN URBAN HIGH SCHOOLbyJiang PuThe definition of literacy is constantly changing and expanding. A sociocultural view ofLiteracy considers literacy to be multiple, multimodal, and multilingual as situated in and acrossthe social and cultural contexts. As technology, new media and social network has reformedmany aspects of writing, they provide ELLs (English language learners) with supports...
Show moreABSTRACTLEARNING TO WRITE IN THE DIGITAL AGE: ELLS' LITERACY PRACTICES IN ANDOUT OF THEIR WESTERN URBAN HIGH SCHOOLbyJiang PuThe definition of literacy is constantly changing and expanding. A sociocultural view ofLiteracy considers literacy to be multiple, multimodal, and multilingual as situated in and acrossthe social and cultural contexts. As technology, new media and social network has reformedmany aspects of writing, they provide ELLs (English language learners) with supports andresources while at the same time raising new challenges. Although adolescent ELLs are avery active group that use technology, new media and social network, they remain an under-represented group in the L2 writing research; and very little is known about the the socialpractices of these writers as they use technology and digital media to develop and maintainsocial relationships in the local and global contexts. It is important to examine their writingpractices across the school, home, and community contexts as they are immersed in technologyand digital literacy practices.In the light of a sociocultural and socio-critical view of literacy, I conduct the year-longethnographically oriented multiple case studies of 4 high school students in a Western ur-ban community in the United States in order to understand their school-sponsored and self-sponsored writing practices in the digital age; and to examine the relationship, potential linkand possible gaps between these practices. I observe their in-class writings in a 6-week period,and throughout the year collect multiple sources of data from formal and informal interviews,survey, field notes, literacy log, writing samples, and their self-select writing artifacts. I also be-come a member of their web-based social networks and gain access to their writings on the weblogs, forums, Facebook, and Twitter. In the inductive analysis of the data, I notice importantand recurrent themes such as the writers' identity construction and negotiation, socialization,and language use.Findings reveal that while school-sponsored writings provide opportunities for both indi-vidual and collaborative writings and chances of sharing, students consider certain tasks moremeaningful than others. As the four participants in this study engaged in a wide range of self-sponsored out-of-school literacy practices, every participant was unique in their choice of thetypes of literacy practices, their preferences for the medium of composing, the sharing of theirwritings, and the language choices for their writings. One important findings is that their choicesof languages, code meshing, and frequent use of internet and urban slangs showed their eager-ness to belong to an adolescent social circle which valued their ethnicity, gender, linguisticheritage, and popular cultural literacies. As they consider English "extremely important", theyall value their heritage languages as part of their identity construction. The links between theschool and self-sponsored writings are obvious. There is overlapping in topics, genres, recurrentthemes, language uses, sociocultural experiences that feed the writings. The writing processesare also impacted by each other. As for the gaps, while self-sponsored writings provide morechances for sharing and expressing, they are more informal and sometimes even fragmentary. Iargue that while it is important to acknowledge the richness of students' self-sponsored writingsand the potentials of technology and social networks, educators should not over-romanticizethese writings or the role of technology, as they may also become distractions. It is also impor-tant to focus on the meaningful connections and possible gaps rather than drawing a boundarybetween the in-school and out-of-school literacy.This study offers new understandings and insights into the writing practices of the Englishlanguage learners in the digital age. It calls for future longitudinal studies that connect thesecondary and post-secondary education which will provide more complete descriptions anduseful information on how they could be better prepared for college writing classes.
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Title: Translanguaging, investment and gendered identity : a case of Nepali immigrant women in Michigan
Creator: Rawal, Hima
Date: 2015
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This study explored the identity of Nepali immigrant women in Michigan from three different theoretical notions: their gendered identity, investment in learning English, and translingual practices. Data were collected using multiple sources: interviews, questionnaires, journal entries, observations and group chats on Facebook. The collected data were recursively read to trace the recurring themes related to the three themes in question. The analysis and interpretation of data were done on the...
Show moreThis study explored the identity of Nepali immigrant women in Michigan from three different theoretical notions: their gendered identity, investment in learning English, and translingual practices. Data were collected using multiple sources: interviews, questionnaires, journal entries, observations and group chats on Facebook. The collected data were recursively read to trace the recurring themes related to the three themes in question. The analysis and interpretation of data were done on the basis of those themes and subthemes to support the research questions. This study yielded three key findings. First, the Nepali immigrant women in Michigan have re-constructed their initial gendered identity after their arrival in the US. Second, they are not only motivated to improve their English but are also highly invested in doing so. Third, they adopt different translingual negotiation strategies for the purpose of meaning-making among linguistically diverse groups of multilingual speakers. They resort to mobilizing their multiple resources to achieve communicative success. The study will be significant mainly for those directly or indirectly connected to ESL classrooms for adult immigrants as these immigrants constitute a substantial proportion of the US population.
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Title: Negotiating el difícil : English literacy practices in a rural Puerto Rican community
Creator: Mazak, Catherine M.
Date: 2006
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: English language teaching in Vietnam : a comparison of teachers' beliefs and practices, and students' perceptions
Creator: Hien, Huynh Van
Date: 2006
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Negotiating linguistic certainty for ESL writers at the Writing Center
Creator: Chiu, Chien-Hsiung
Date: 2011
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The Writing Center provides an alternative space for learning English writing inan academic context. For ESL writers who have particular concerns with the Englishlanguage, the one-on-one writing consultation in the Writing Center provides potentialopportunities for the L2 writers to resolve their linguistic uncertainty in their L2 writing.This study examines five cases with multiple consulting sessions in the WritingCenter. Based on the theoretical framework of sociocultural perspective and...
Show moreThe Writing Center provides an alternative space for learning English writing inan academic context. For ESL writers who have particular concerns with the Englishlanguage, the one-on-one writing consultation in the Writing Center provides potentialopportunities for the L2 writers to resolve their linguistic uncertainty in their L2 writing.This study examines five cases with multiple consulting sessions in the WritingCenter. Based on the theoretical framework of sociocultural perspective and the analyses of Language-related episodes (LREs) in the collaborative dialogues in writingconsultations. This study illustrates how L2 learners are engaged in the conversation and scaffolded for language learning during writing consulting.The results support the concept of collaborative dialogues as language learningoccasions (Swain & Lapkin, 1995, 1998, 2002) and highlight the importance ofrecognizing L2 learners' individual difference in L2 writing development, which affectsthe effectiveness of interaction and feedback (Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994). A model ofwriting center consultation is created to illustrate the scaffolding processes with differentwriters and in various contexts based on writing center pedagogy.For teaching practices in the Writing Center, the findings raise questions abouthow writing center pedagogy can empower L2 writers on their language control when the writing consultants have the ultimate control in language and the L2 learners have the inherent uncertainty. While writing center work draws on the advantages of collaborative dialogues and effects better language control for ESL writers based on a sociocultural learning perspective, writing center pedagogy needs to continue reconsidering the needs and beliefs of ESL writers (Blau & Hall, 2002; Powers, 1993). The language issue in ESL writing is not a lower order concern in the writing, but more likely a primary concern for the writer. As also found in this study, when the broader contextual factors such as the focus of writing and writers' beliefs are taken into account, language knowledge and control are not just about linguistic correctness to ESL writer development. In striving to create better writers but not just better writing for any writers, it is crucial for writing centers to continue rethinking their staff training on the topic of language issues with their diverse multilingual clientele who speaks English as a second language.
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Title: Composing and revising at the computer : a case study of three Jordanian graduate students
Creator: Khwaileh, Faisal Mahmoud
Date: 1998
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

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