Adult English As A Second Language Research Articles

The negotiation of knowledge in an adult English as a second language classroom

This article examines how a linguistically based analysis of conversational structure can reveal the relationship between teachers and students in an adult English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom and how they negotiate their roles as knowers and knowledge providers at various stages of a teaching cycle. Recent research within an Interactional/Sociolinguistic paradigm (Gumperz, 1986) into the structure of classroom discourse has focussed on patterns of talk that challenge previous notions of student and teacher roles as unvarying across stages of the curriculum. Further work being done within an educational linguistic paradigm in Australia, as well as the United States, has identified that curriculum activity is structured into pedagogically distinct stages, each with characteristic discourse features. This study uses a functional linguistic analytical methodology, grounded within a social semiotic theory, in order to complement the perspectives of Interactional/Sociolinguistic studies into classroom discourse. In this article, a conversational structure analysis will be used to examine how knowledge is differentially negotiated between teachers and adult ESL students at various stages of a curriculum cycle.

Challenging Student Approaches to ESL Vocabulary Development

Vocabulary is a "current word" in second language (L2) pedagogy (Anthony & Menasche, 1991). In a communicative approach to language teaching, this is helpful due to the importance of meaning both in learning and understanding English as a second language (ESL). However, to date student approaches to vocabulary acquisition have essentially been neglected in the classroom. This article describes an activity that used a questionnaire on student methods of vocabulary learning as a springboard for class discussion of helpful strategies suggested in the literature. After introducing the background for the activity, the procedures and results are outlined. Then suggestions for using a similar questionnaire in other adult ESL contexts are summarized.

Effects of training in rapid decoding on the reading comprehension of adult ESL learners

We report an experimental investigation of the effects on comprehension of increasing the decoding speed of three adult learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). Participants were taught to read lists of 25 difficult words in isolation until they could read the entire list at a mean rate of not more than 1.5 secs per word. They were then asked to read passages containing these words. Decoding speed and accuracy measures, for both the word lists and passages, and passage comprehension measures, were obtained. In a temporally contiguous within-subjects repeated trials reversal design, decoding training on isolated words was shown to be associated with significant increases in decoding speed and accuracy both in isolation and context, and improvements in the participants' comprehension. With all participants rate and accuracy gains in context were maintained in the final reversal phase, though the comprehension score gains did not. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for a decoding sufficiency hypothesis.

Measuring ESL readers’ ability to apply reasoning in reading: a validity study of the TOEFL reading comprehension subtest

ABSTRACTThis paper reports the results of an attempt to measure English as a Second Language (ESL) students’ability to apply reasoning in reading. The elicitation instrument was an experimental test which was developed from a model of reading comprehension based upon cognitive activities which Piaget referred to as concrete operations. The experimental test delineated Piaget's concrete operations in prose text and set them against difficulty criteria. The experimental test which measured the ability to apply reasoning in reading and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) were administered to a pool of adult ESL subjects. The results indicated that the TOEFL reading comprehension subtest does not measure the ability to apply reasoning in reading; thus, its validity as a measure of reading is in doubt. Significant effects were also shown for the paragraph types and the item types in the experimental test. The items based on the classification paragraphs were significantly more difficult than the items based on the serial paragraphs. In like manner, the items based on the multiplication paragraphs were significantly more difficult than the items based on the addition paragraphs. And finally, the intension questions which concerned the properties of a class were significantly more difficult than the extension questions which dealt with the members of classes.The results of this study indicate a need for further, increased attention to the measurement of reading to solve problems in ESL reading assessment and to the effects of the different structural organizations of ideas (e.g., addition, classification, multiplication, and series) and the interrelations of ideas on the comprehension process. The motivation for this line of research derives from the pragmatic interest of those researchers concerned with the communicative aspects of a text and the manner in which authors organize their ideas. Current research is beginning to explain the complex interaction between text structure and the reader's processing of such structure which further explicates the comprehension process.

Listening and Language Learning in ESL: Developing Self-Study Activities for Listening Comprehension

An examination of materials development for independent study in listening comprehension of English as a second language (ESL) begins with an outline of current directions in second language instruction. The discussion that follows has two parts. The first is a review of some changing perspectives on the role of listening in language learning and teaching, including historical notes, the distinctions emerging in the field during the 1970's, and the 1980's' emerging focus on the importance of listening. Part two presents guidelines for developing materials and examples of special listening activities designed for a segment of a self-study aural comprehension curriculum. The materials are intended for adult and teenage ESL learners at elementary and intermediate levels, and are designed to focus intensive attention on selected listening tasks in two broad categories. One is functional listening and vocabulary building, with an emphasis on understanding message content and intent in building vocabulary. This category is further divided into notional/informational listening and situational/functional/informational listening. The second category of tasks is structural analysis listening, with an emphasis on analyzing sound patterns, spelling patterns, and some grammatical elements. This category is subdivided into discrimination-oriented listening practice and sound-spelling listening practice. A bibliography is included. (MSE) LISTENING AND LANGUAGE LEARNING IN ESL: Developing Self-Study Activities for Listening Comprehension Practice