Browsing by Subject "Foreign language pedagogy"
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Item Improving second language oral production : teaching implications from recent research(2012-05) Havelaar, Margaret Enid; Horwitz, Elaine Kolker, 1950-; Sardegna, Veronica G.This work explores various methods teachers can use to promote high quality second language oral production. It consists of a review of empirical research and pedagogical implications related to the following factors: 1) Pre-task planning, 2) within-task planning, 3) task repetition, 4) task design, 5) formulaic sequences, 6) learner strategies, 7) form instruction, and 8) error correction. The work concludes with a consideration of issues within the literature and a brief summary of pedagogical implications.Item Motivated Spanish learning among Anglo-Texan high school students : an exploration of theories, research, and experience, with implications for pedagogy(2015-05) Cotham, William Mark, Jr.; Kelm, Orlando R., 1957-; Horwitz, Elaine K.Research into foreign language and second language learning motivation has progressed steadily over the past half century. Several theories and models have been developed to explain how learners are motivated to learn a foreign language. Context-specific research, however, is lacking for Anglo-Texan high school students learning Spanish. This report applies the theories of foreign language learning motivation to this context, using personal experience and anecdotes from the author as a Spanish teacher and student, in order to prescribe pedagogical applications of the research for high school Spanish teachers in Texas who seek to increase their students' motivation.Item Phonetic training for learners of Arabic(2013-08) Burnham, Kevin Robert; Al-Batal, MahmoudThis dissertation assesses a new technique intended to improve Arabic learning outcomes by enhancing the ability of learners to perceive a phoneme contrast in Arabic that is notoriously difficult for native speakers of English. Adopting a process approach to foreign language listening comprehension pedagogy, we identify and isolate an important listening subskill, phonemic identification, and develop a methodology for improving that skill. An online training system is implemented that is based upon known principles of speech perception and second language speech learning and has previously been used to improve phonemic perception in a laboratory setting. An empirical study investigating the efficacy of the training methodology was conducted with 24 2nd and 3rd year students of Arabic in several different intensive Arabic programs in American universities. The contrast under investigation was the Arabic pharyngeal (/h̄/) versus laryngeal (/h/) voiceless fricatives. Training participants completed 100 training modules, each consisting of a 24 item minimal pair test featuring the /h̄/-/h/ contrast in word initial position for a total of 2400 training trials over 4 weeks. The training website design was based on the high variability training protocol (Logan, Lively & Pisoni, 1991). The experiment finds significantly greater improvement (F₁,₂₂=8.89, p = .007, [mathematical symbol]₂ = .288) on a minimal pair test contrasting /h̄/ and /h/ for a group that received approximately 5 hours of phonetic training (n=10) compared to a control group (n=14) with no training. Critically, these perceptual improvements were measured with stimuli that were not part of the training set, suggesting language learning and not just stimulus learning. Qualitative data from participants suggested that these perceptual gains were not restricted to the simple minimal pair task, but carried over to listening activities and perhaps even pronunciation. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of phonemic perception and foreign language instruction and implementation of phonetic training within an Arabic curriculum.Item Teaching foreign languages with a network of computers : CACD with the Daedalus Interchange program(1994) Jaeglin, Christophe; Swaffar, Janet K.This thesis investigates the perceptions of foreign language students and teachers about the use and pedagogical value of a CACD (Computer Assisted Classroom Discussion) classroom that uses Daedalus Interchange. Specifically, I would like to find out whether students participating in courses that use such programs have definite ideas about what they are learning. Further, do their ideas correspond to those of teacher-users? The answers to these questions should enable me to gain insight into how styles of lesson plans, approaches [to] subject matter, or other variables may correspond to teacher and student perceptions about what a class that uses this technology is learning.