title: Does direct grammar instruction improve students’ performance on grammar-based tests of English as a foreign language?

authors: Wu, Hsiao-li

subjects: language learning

abstract: This paper reports the results of an experiment designed to test the hypothesis that direct grammar instruction has a positive impact on the test performance of learners of English as a foreign language. At first sight, the results appear to indicate that direct grammar instruction had a negligible effect overall on test performance. However, a more detailed examination of the results suggests that there was a marked positive effect in the case of some students. Furthermore, the test itself proved useful as a diagnostic tool and as a measure of student progress. Perhaps most significant is the fact that a comparison of the results of a pilot study and the experimental study itself raises issues about the significance, or otherwise, of research on teaching and learning second and foreign languages that is based on single experiments. Teachers of languages (international, community and indigenous) need to be sure that experimentally-based research is both robust and of direct relevance to the particular contexts in which they work. This is of real importance for many Pacific and Pacific-rim countries where the teaching and learning of English can have implications for economic success, and the teaching and learning of indigenous languages can have implications for the very survival of these languages.

text: Does direct grammar instruction improve students’ performance on grammar-based tests of English as a foreign language? This paper reports the results of an experiment designed to test the hypothesis that direct grammar instruction has a positive impact on the test performance of learners of English as a foreign language. At first sight, the results appear to indicate that direct grammar instruction had a negligible effect overall on test performance. However, a more detailed examination of the results suggests that there was a marked positive effect in the case of some students. Furthermore, the test itself proved useful as a diagnostic tool and as a measure of student progress. Perhaps most significant is the fact that a comparison of the results of a pilot study and the experimental study itself raises issues about the significance, or otherwise, of research on teaching and learning second and foreign languages that is based on single experiments. Teachers of languages (international, community and indigenous) need to be sure that experimentally-based research is both robust and of direct relevance to the particular contexts in which they work. This is of real importance for many Pacific and Pacific-rim countries where the teaching and learning of English can have implications for economic success, and the teaching and learning of indigenous languages can have implications for the very survival of these languages.

year: 2004-09

title: Teacher thinking and teacher actions: a study of six teachers

authors: Haigh, Neil John

abstract: This study is predicated on the assumption that teaching is an intentional behaviour and that a study of teaching therefore requires attention to teachers’ thoughts as well as their observable actions. It is an attempt to describe and account for: (a) the cognitive activities involved in teacher planning; (b) the contrastive features of teachers’ attention to and thoughts about elements of lessons; and (c) the relationship between planned and actual lessons. Data concerning these aspects of teaching were gathered from three experienced classroom teachers and three student teachers who were each asked to teach three small-group discussion lessons. 

Several data collection and analysis procedures were developed to help the teachers report fully on the focus of their thoughts prior to and in the course of their lessons, and to allow the researcher to categorise accurately the content of their self-reports. Pre-lesson planning thoughts were captured by having teachers make a written ‘stream of consciousness’ record of emerging thoughts, and a ‘stimulated-recall’ procedure was used to help them identify incidents in the course of lessons during which their attention and thoughts had been consciously registered. Additional data about the planning undertaken for specific lessons were obtained from questionnaire responses, while a structured interview technique was used to identify teachers’ perceptions of ‘typical’ features of their conscious experience of teaching. 

A comprehensive system for categorizing these data was developed and, as a means of ensuring that teacher self-reports were accurately categorized, the researcher systematically discussed their meaning with the teachers who were asked to confirm, disconfirm and where necessary correct the researcher’s interpretations.

The analysis of the data obtained revealed a number of significant similarities, differences, consistencies and inconsistencies in features of the teachers’ pre-lesson planning, their within-lesson attention and thoughts and plan-reality relationships. In accounting for these contrastive features, a number of explanatory propositions were formulated. These highlighted: (a) reasons why planning is likely to be undertaken before lessons; (b) the problem-solving nature of the planning process; (c) the contribution that factors internal and external to teachers may make to the nature of the planning process and the content of their plans (e.g. tolerance for uncertainty, teaching theories, information processing capabilities, availability of time and material resources); (d) factors that influence the focus of teachers’ within-lesson thoughts (e.g. the directive influence of plans, the ‘press’ of immediate events, significance and meaning attached to learner behaviours); and (e) the variables that influence teachers’ efforts to monitor learner behaviour (e.g. the availability, ambiguity and objectivity of behavioural cues). 

Educational implications that follow from these propositions centre on two recommendations. Firstly, those who wish to influence the actions of classroom teachers need to be aware of the manner in which the thoughts of teachers shape their overt behaviours, and to take account of factors that impose constraints on the capacity of teachers to attend to teaching situations in particular ways. Secondly, it is suggested that teachers will benefit from having opportunities to analyze, evaluate and experiment with a variety of ways of thinking about teaching situations.

text: Teacher thinking and teacher actions: a study of six teachers This study is predicated on the assumption that teaching is an intentional behaviour and that a study of teaching therefore requires attention to teachers’ thoughts as well as their observable actions. It is an attempt to describe and account for: (a) the cognitive activities involved in teacher planning; (b) the contrastive features of teachers’ attention to and thoughts about elements of lessons; and (c) the relationship between planned and actual lessons. Data concerning these aspects of teaching were gathered from three experienced classroom teachers and three student teachers who were each asked to teach three small-group discussion lessons. 

Several data collection and analysis procedures were developed to help the teachers report fully on the focus of their thoughts prior to and in the course of their lessons, and to allow the researcher to categorise accurately the content of their self-reports. Pre-lesson planning thoughts were captured by having teachers make a written ‘stream of consciousness’ record of emerging thoughts, and a ‘stimulated-recall’ procedure was used to help them identify incidents in the course of lessons during which their attention and thoughts had been consciously registered. Additional data about the planning undertaken for specific lessons were obtained from questionnaire responses, while a structured interview technique was used to identify teachers’ perceptions of ‘typical’ features of their conscious experience of teaching. 

A comprehensive system for categorizing these data was developed and, as a means of ensuring that teacher self-reports were accurately categorized, the researcher systematically discussed their meaning with the teachers who were asked to confirm, disconfirm and where necessary correct the researcher’s interpretations.

The analysis of the data obtained revealed a number of significant similarities, differences, consistencies and inconsistencies in features of the teachers’ pre-lesson planning, their within-lesson attention and thoughts and plan-reality relationships. In accounting for these contrastive features, a number of explanatory propositions were formulated. These highlighted: (a) reasons why planning is likely to be undertaken before lessons; (b) the problem-solving nature of the planning process; (c) the contribution that factors internal and external to teachers may make to the nature of the planning process and the content of their plans (e.g. tolerance for uncertainty, teaching theories, information processing capabilities, availability of time and material resources); (d) factors that influence the focus of teachers’ within-lesson thoughts (e.g. the directive influence of plans, the ‘press’ of immediate events, significance and meaning attached to learner behaviours); and (e) the variables that influence teachers’ efforts to monitor learner behaviour (e.g. the availability, ambiguity and objectivity of behavioural cues). 

Educational implications that follow from these propositions centre on two recommendations. Firstly, those who wish to influence the actions of classroom teachers need to be aware of the manner in which the thoughts of teachers shape their overt behaviours, and to take account of factors that impose constraints on the capacity of teachers to attend to teaching situations in particular ways. Secondly, it is suggested that teachers will benefit from having opportunities to analyze, evaluate and experiment with a variety of ways of thinking about teaching situations.

year: 1981

title: E hoki ki to maunga: The quintessential elements of home

authors: Emery, Debra Joy Tepora

subjects: hau kainga

abstract: He kopu puta tahi, he taura whiri tātou;
whiringa a nuku, whiringa a rangi, te whatia e
Issue of one womb, we are a rope woven of many strands; woven on earth, woven in heaven, it will not break (Rev Māori Marsden, 1992)
Ngati Te Takinga is a hapū (sub-tribe) belonging to the Iwi (tribe) Ngati Pikiao. An affiliated member of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes, Ngati Pikiao occupies the Okere and Rotoiti Lakes district of Rotorua in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand.
This thesis seeks to acknowledge and address the concerns that Ngati Te Takinga has regarding impending cultural discontinuity. The concerns arise due to the hapū's limited human capability and capacity being the result of three things. Firstly, the ongoing demise of tribal elders (and leaders) and the subsequent loss to the hapū of cultural knowledge, skills, leadership and expertise. Secondly, the low numbers of adept,
culturally proficient successors 'coming through' (to replace the elders) and finally, the detribalised and diasporic (dispersed) nature of our people. The hapū and the marae Te Takinga (a last outwardly discernible bastion of Ngati Te Takinga cultural identity and distinction) are jeopardised as a result of these phenomenon.
This thesis is part of a hapū strategy that attempts to address these problems. Positing the
reconnection of our dispersed Ngati Te Takinga 'away-dwellers' as a beginning
solution, the central questions raised by this thesis are  how [does] Ngati Te Takinga
'home-dweller' discourse impact on the 'coming home' experiences and 'reconnection'
of Ngati Te Takinga away-dwellers?  and  what are the [are there] implications for Ngati
Te Takinga cultural continuity? 
The maintenance of Ngati Te Takinga cultural continuity forms the aho mātua or main thread of this work. Using narrative enquiry as a broad methodological framework,stories were gathered from four different groups of Ngati Te Takinga peoples. The groups were home-dwellers (mana whenua or ahi kaa), te ahi tere (away-dwellers who
have returned home to live); te ahi tere (away-dwellers who intend returning in the future) and te ahi tere (away-dwellers who have no intention of returning home to live). The stories (narratives) investigated notions of home, belongingness and Māori identity in relation to the trichotomy of the connection, disconnection and the reconnection of Ngati Te Takinga peoples; the stories were analysed and co-constructed with participants for meaning.
The stories showed that while the hapū aspires to gather up the strengths of a dispersed people to reinvigorate our culture and the marae, existing and competing discourses around authenticity, authority and Ngati Te Takinga identity create a tension between the home (mana whenua/ahi kaa) and away-dwelling Ngati Te Takinga people; including those away-dwellers who have returned. As a basic requirement, this tension must be
diminished in order to build the relationships necessary to improve hapū allegiance
(whānaungatanga), to build hapū strength and to maintain hapū culture and identity. As a priority, decolonising strategies that facilitate an understanding of diversity, promote
participation, maintain tikanga and include our away-dwellers, our 'returnees' and/or our
disconnected people in our hapū-marae interactions, must be considered, developed,
promoted and practiced.

text: E hoki ki to maunga: The quintessential elements of home He kopu puta tahi, he taura whiri tātou;
whiringa a nuku, whiringa a rangi, te whatia e
Issue of one womb, we are a rope woven of many strands; woven on earth, woven in heaven, it will not break (Rev Māori Marsden, 1992)
Ngati Te Takinga is a hapū (sub-tribe) belonging to the Iwi (tribe) Ngati Pikiao. An affiliated member of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes, Ngati Pikiao occupies the Okere and Rotoiti Lakes district of Rotorua in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand.
This thesis seeks to acknowledge and address the concerns that Ngati Te Takinga has regarding impending cultural discontinuity. The concerns arise due to the hapū's limited human capability and capacity being the result of three things. Firstly, the ongoing demise of tribal elders (and leaders) and the subsequent loss to the hapū of cultural knowledge, skills, leadership and expertise. Secondly, the low numbers of adept,
culturally proficient successors 'coming through' (to replace the elders) and finally, the detribalised and diasporic (dispersed) nature of our people. The hapū and the marae Te Takinga (a last outwardly discernible bastion of Ngati Te Takinga cultural identity and distinction) are jeopardised as a result of these phenomenon.
This thesis is part of a hapū strategy that attempts to address these problems. Positing the
reconnection of our dispersed Ngati Te Takinga 'away-dwellers' as a beginning
solution, the central questions raised by this thesis are  how [does] Ngati Te Takinga
'home-dweller' discourse impact on the 'coming home' experiences and 'reconnection'
of Ngati Te Takinga away-dwellers?  and  what are the [are there] implications for Ngati
Te Takinga cultural continuity? 
The maintenance of Ngati Te Takinga cultural continuity forms the aho mātua or main thread of this work. Using narrative enquiry as a broad methodological framework,stories were gathered from four different groups of Ngati Te Takinga peoples. The groups were home-dwellers (mana whenua or ahi kaa), te ahi tere (away-dwellers who
have returned home to live); te ahi tere (away-dwellers who intend returning in the future) and te ahi tere (away-dwellers who have no intention of returning home to live). The stories (narratives) investigated notions of home, belongingness and Māori identity in relation to the trichotomy of the connection, disconnection and the reconnection of Ngati Te Takinga peoples; the stories were analysed and co-constructed with participants for meaning.
The stories showed that while the hapū aspires to gather up the strengths of a dispersed people to reinvigorate our culture and the marae, existing and competing discourses around authenticity, authority and Ngati Te Takinga identity create a tension between the home (mana whenua/ahi kaa) and away-dwelling Ngati Te Takinga people; including those away-dwellers who have returned. As a basic requirement, this tension must be
diminished in order to build the relationships necessary to improve hapū allegiance
(whānaungatanga), to build hapū strength and to maintain hapū culture and identity. As a priority, decolonising strategies that facilitate an understanding of diversity, promote
participation, maintain tikanga and include our away-dwellers, our 'returnees' and/or our
disconnected people in our hapū-marae interactions, must be considered, developed,
promoted and practiced.

year: 2008