Browsing by Subject "Second language acquisition--Case studies"
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Item Connecting two anxiety constructs: an interdisciplinary study of foreign language anxiety and interpretation anxiety(2006) Chiang, Yung-nan; Horwitz, Elaine; Schallert, Diane L.In this study, the construct of interpretation anxiety is introduced and distinguished from foreign language anxiety. Quantitatively investigated were the scope, severity, underlying structure of, and relationship between foreign language anxiety and interpretation anxiety. In addition, the relative associations of these two constructs with interpretation achievement were compared to the associations of general anxiety variables. Qualitatively examined were the sources and effects of interpretation anxiety. A total of 327 Taiwanese university students learning Mandarin-English interpretation responded to a survey. The survey consisted of five instruments, including the Interpretation Classroom Anxiety Scale (ICAS), a new instrument developed for this study, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the State Anxiety Inventory (SAI), the Trait Anxiety Inventory (TAI), and a background questionnaire. The participants’ achievement was measured by their mid-term exam scores and semester-end course grades. For the qualitative component, 10 students participated in interviews asking them about their thoughts and emotions in interpretation classes. The quantitative findings showed that interpretation students’ foreign language anxiety was similar to that of general L2 learners in severity and scope, and their interpretation anxiety was both significantly more severe and more prevalent than their foreign language anxiety. Two factors comprised the FLCAS (Communication and Negative Evaluation Anxiety and Worry about Failing English Class), and three factors comprised the ICAS (Fear of Interpretation Class and Negative Evaluation, Cognitive Processing Anxiety, and Low Self-Confidence in Interpretation). Interpretation anxiety and foreign language anxiety were two distinct but related psychological phenomena. In addition, interpretation anxiety and foreign language anxiety had significant negative relationships with interpretation achievement and emerged as significant predictors of learning outcomes, but state and trait anxiety did not. The qualitative analysis of the interview data yielded five major sources and four main effects of interpretation anxiety. The five major sources included speaker variables, audience variables, self variables, task variables, and classroom procedures variables. The four main consequences of interpretation anxiety included physiological effects, life routines effects, cognitive effects, and beyond-classroom effects.Item Early literacy practices by KunHwi: a longitudinal case study of a Korean boy(2004) Kim, Sun Joo; Schwarzer, DavidThis qualitative, longitudinal case study of KunHwi, my son, explores his four-year journey (from kindergarten to third grade) into becoming biliterate in Korean and English while living in the United States. Drawing on a “literacy as social practices” perspective, the purposes of this study are: 1) to gain an in-depth understanding of KunHwi’s literacy development in Korean and English; and 2) to devise a comprehensive model for explaining the complex processes of early biliteracy development. The data were collected from multiple sources including his written artifacts, informal conversation with KunHwi as well as his teachers, observation in and out of school using kidwatching strategies, and various school documents in relation to his literacy practices. Ethnographic fieldnotes were recorded to reconstruct full descriptions of every scene. The data were analyzed recursively using constant-comparative analysis. vii Four themes emerged from the data analysis: literacy development 1) as situated practices; 2) as a process of negotiation of power; 3) as a journey toward taking control of the literacy repertoire; and 4) as complex processes of using languages for different purposes. Moreover, the findings conceptualize early biliteracy development as a complex, nonlinear progression and challenge traditional images of immigrants through the notion of academic transnationalism. The findings suggest various theoretical and practical implications for the education of English language learners in and out of the United States. The theoretical implications are: 1) Examine biliteracy development as a multidimensional configuration of intersecting tenets; 2) Revise the notion of L1 and L2, as well as the native and non-native dichotomy; 3) Recognize language minorities in the U.S. as a heterogeneous and multivoiced group of people; and 4) Appreciate and value parent-child research. The practical implications are: 1) Incorporate different discourses into school curricula; 2) Create an environment in which power is well-distributed across settings and participants; 3) Design and implement literacy practices that allow students to learn literacy through genres to promote their metalinguistic knowledge across languages; and 4) Provide English language learners with opportunities to be engaged in various topics from diverse inquiry areas and cultures with authentic purposes and genuine interest.Item An examination of comprehensibility in a high stakes oral proficiency assessment for prospective international teaching assistants(2007-08) McGregor, Lin Alison, 1970-; Schallert, Diane L.This study investigated the construct of comprehensible English in the context of oral proficiency assessment for international teaching assistants. I carried out a three-part mixed method design to explore instructor rater judgments, results of a speech analysis, and how specific speech variables might have influenced judgments on the assessment criteria. Each step focused on a failed/passed assessment comparison made possible through archived data from which 10 individuals initially failed the oral proficiency test but within the same year retook the task and received a passing score. Part A evaluated the perspective of the instructor raters through the rating scale judgments provided on the assessment evaluation forms. In the second part of the study, I coded and scored grammatical, temporal, and phonological variables that occurred on two-minute excerpts of a field-specific summary task from the set of 10 failed and then subsequently passed assessments performed by the same individuals. I inspected the speech analysis results to evaluate differences in the values of specific speech variables on the set of failed performances in comparison to the set of passed performances. In Part C, I conducted 10 case studies to compare each individual's rating scale judgments and rater comments on grammar, fluency, and pronunciation from their failed and their passed assessment with the results from the speech analysis of grammatical, temporal, and phonological variables. The case study approach facilitated a broad inspection of the interrelation among the rater perspectives on the assessment criteria and the speech analysis results. The study findings showed evidence of an interrelation between temporal and phonological variables on rater judgments of comprehensibility, as well as the role of pronunciation as a criterion for oral proficiency assessments. I concluded with implications for future research on the interrelation among speech variables that influence listener perceptions of comprehensibility and the use of pronunciation as a speaking assessment criterion.