ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Perceptions of People in Canada: Canadian-Born vs. Internationally-Born Postsecondary Students' Perspectives
Author: Packer, Shira
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Immigrants,Sociolinguistics,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Cultural Pluralism,Cultural Education,English (Second Language),English for Academic Purposes,Acculturation,Mixed Methods Research,Comparative Analysis,College Students,College Graduates,Online Surveys,Interviews,Caring,Attitudes,Student Attitudes,Cultural Traits,Likert Scales

Explicit sociolinguistic instruction in language classrooms has become more widely accepted than ever, but the understanding and teaching of Canadian culture remains a controversial issue, particularly as Canadian culture becomes increasingly diverse. The degree to which Canadians are perceived to exhibit characteristics such as &quot;politeness&quot; and &quot;friendliness&quot; has stirred debate, particularly in ESL (English as a second language) and EAP (English for academic purposes) classrooms, owing to differing personal experiences and acculturation processes. This Canada-wide, mixed-methods study compared Canadian-born (CB) and internationally-born (IB) postsecondary students' and recent graduates' perceptions of people in Canada. Employing social media outreach, the study consisted of an online survey and follow-up e-interviews. Emphasis is given to quantitative rather than qualitative data analysis. Findings suggest that the overall perceptions of CB and IB groups are more similar than different. However, when unprompted, CB respondents are more likely than IB respondents to perceive people in Canada as &quot;polite,&quot; &quot;kind,&quot; and &quot;caring.&quot; In addition, Likert-scale results demonstrate that CB respondents are significantly more likely to perceive people in Canada as &quot;funny,&quot; &quot;intelligent,&quot; &quot;caring,&quot; and &quot;hardworking.&quot; Implications are drawn for the degree to which IBs are acculturating to Canadian society and the extent to which a positive acculturation process can be explicitly addressed in ESL/EAP programs.
Career Development and Professional Attrition of Novice ESL Teachers of Adults
Author: Valeo, Antonella
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Career Development,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Language Teachers,Statistical Analysis,Teacher Education,Teacher Certification,Foreign Countries,Adult Students,Teacher Attitudes,Teacher Surveys,Interviews,Correlation,Teacher Effectiveness,Self Efficacy,Teacher Persistence,Novices,Teaching Experience,Accreditation (Institutions),Teacher Education Programs

Research and development in language teacher education and, more recently, teacher accreditation has had enormous impact on the professional lives of ESL teachers in Canada. There has been less interest, however, in examining the career development and employment experiences of accredited ESL teachers as they transition from TESL programs to ESL classrooms. In this article, we report on a study examining this issue for ESL teachers of adults in Ontario, in which 147 ESL teachers responded to a survey and a select group participated in follow-up interviews. The data were collected for a broader study investigating the link between teacher education and teaching efficacy of novice ESL teachers. Quantitative analysis of the survey data revealed the professional backgrounds and career development of recently accredited ESL teachers in Ontario. Qualitative data analysis revealed concerns with employment in the first years of practice. The findings suggested a high risk of attrition for novice ESL teachers and highlighted the impact of current teacher education programs and the professional landscape of ESL teaching on their career development. We discuss the implications of these findings for TESL institutions, accreditation bodies, and ESL teachers.
Pragmatics in the Post-TESL Certificate Course &quot;Language Teaching for Employment&quot;
Author: Bartel, Joan
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Pragmatics,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Immigrants,Foreign Countries,Employment Qualifications,Units of Study,Feedback (Response),Language Teachers,Teacher Education,Role,Curriculum,Vocational English (Second Language)

For those immigrants to Canada who need some language training in order to access employment in their field, occupational ESL classes have been available in Ontario for several years. Recent additions to Occupation-Specific Language Training and Bridging programs, as well as a new emphasis on work-related content in LINC classes, have created a need for trained instructors for this area of ESL. The Language Training for Employment (LTE) is a Post-TESL Certificate course that addresses this need. Within the course, Pragmatics is 1 of 12 units--one that participants have little knowledge of or practice with before the course, and 1 of 2 units that receive unanimously positive feedback from participants at the end. This article explains the conceptual framework of LTE, the content of the Pragmatics Unit, its implementation and participant feedback.
Is It Rude Language? Children Learning Pragmatics through Visual Narratives
Author: Ishihara, Noriko
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Pragmatics,Instructional Materials,Task Analysis,Foreign Countries,Personal Narratives,Intervention,Picture Books,Teaching Methods,Metalinguistics,Scoring Rubrics,Elementary School Students,Scaffolding (Teaching Technique),Teacher Attitudes,Lesson Plans,Dialogs (Language),Males,Video Technology

There has been an upsurge of interest in teaching second/foreign language (L2) pragmatics in recent years, but much of this effort has been targeted at adult learners. This article introduces small-scale informal instruction exploring the pragmatic development of 9-year-olds in Tokyo, facilitated through dialogic intervention on pragmatics using the visual presentation of narratives. Although the instruction took place in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context, the same dialogic approach is relevant to ESL in Canada and elsewhere, as picture books enrich narratives, visually mediating the context of language use in a manner comprehensible and captivating to young learners. The learners' pragmatic development was scaffolded dialogically through instructional materials doubling as teacher-based assessments, including formality judgment tasks, discourse completion tasks, and student-generated visual discourse completion tasks, assessed through predesigned rubrics and written reflections by the teacher. Video-recorded data showed that repeated visual assistance provided by the teacher and peers led to enhanced pragmatic awareness and metapragmatic judgments of the relative levels of formality and politeness of the target pragmatic formulas. However, with little L2 exposure, these learners were often unable to produce newly introduced expressions and failed to match the demands of the context with appropriate language choices during this isolated series of instructional events.
Engineering College Lecturers Reluctance to Adopt Online Courses
Author: Pundak, David
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Online Courses,Engineering Education,College Faculty,Lecture Method,Resistance to Change,Teacher Attitudes,Teacher Surveys,Questionnaires,Teaching Methods,Knowledge Level,Faculty Workload,Low Achievement,Change Strategies,Educational Practices,Teacher Characteristics,Intermode Differences,Conventional Instruction,Integrated Curriculum,Distance Education,Foreign Countries

The paper investigates difficulties involved in integrating online courses in academic colleges. Despite their growing prevalence in Israel and worldwide there are still no online courses offered as part of the learning process in many colleges. In order to identify factors for this phenomenon, a study was conducted to investigate the attitudes of 137 lecturers in an academic college concerning online courses. A questionnaire was employed to examine attitudes in four areas: cognizance of the online courses, willingness to teach these courses, influence of online courses on the college's reputation and teaching methods in online courses. The study identified four sources of reluctance among college instructors to teach in these courses: lack of knowledge concerning teaching methods, fear of a heavy work burden, concern that students' achievements might fall and impairment of the college's reputation. Since there is desire to integrate online courses in academic colleges, it is recommended that an online pedagogy support centre should be opened in these colleges, and that colleges should consider making it mandatory for students to take at least one compulsory online course during their degree course.
Learners' Perceptions on the Structure and Usefulness of E-Resources for the Thesis Courses
Author: Aghaee, Naghmeh
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Theses,Electronic Libraries,Electronic Journals,Electronic Publishing,Online Surveys,User Satisfaction (Information),Usability,Database Management Systems,Educational Resources,Multimedia Materials,Questionnaires,College Students,Student Attitudes,Student Surveys,Foreign Countries,Statistical Analysis

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education is a way to facilitate interaction and accessing information for learning in higher education. However, finding a set of structured e-resources to facilitate learning within specific courses is still a big challenge in most higher education institutions. This includes the problems and challenges for thesis courses in both undergraduate (Bachelor) and graduate (Master) level in Sweden. To overcome or reduce the problems and enhance quality of outcomes in thesis courses, the department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) at Stockholm University has developed a Learning Support System, SciPro (Scientific Process), to support the thesis process. The aim of this study is to investigate learners' perspectives on the usefulness of structured e-resources in SciPro, to reduce challenges for finding information related to the thesis process. This was done based on an open online survey, carried out in 2012-2013 of students' perspectives at DSV. The study found the actual problems that students have encountered in the thesis courses and hence suggested a general model as a way forward to sort the e-resources to reduce the problems in the thesis process.
Student-Centred Outcomes of an E-Learning Course on Public Health in Hanoi and New York
Author: Tran, Bach Xuan
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Centered Curriculum,Electronic Learning,Online Courses,Public Health,Health Education,Distance Education,Online Surveys,Pretests Posttests,Course Evaluation,Teaching Methods,Instructional Effectiveness,Academic Achievement,Factor Analysis,Academic Ability,Interaction,Learner Engagement,Multivariate Analysis,Statistical Analysis,Participant Satisfaction,Student Characteristics,Student Experience,Achievement Gains,College Students,Foreign Countries

Background: We evaluated the satisfaction and improvement in learning outcomes of students taking a distance course in Public Health facilitated by the Institute for Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Hanoi Medical University and the State University of New York at Albany. Methods: A total of 36 students participated in pre- and post-course surveys online. We developed the Vietnamese E-Learning Student Outcomes Profile (VESOP) to evaluate the impact of distance learning methods on students' learning outcomes. Factor analysis was applied to construct the measure items into five domains: Academic Skills, Intellectual Abilities, Interactions, Responsibility and Educational Engagement. Multivariate regression models, selected using stepwise approach, determined factors associated with changes in students' learning outcomes. Student satisfaction with the course was assessed by determining their willingness to participate in and pay for future distance learning courses. Results: The students showed moderate improvement in &quot;Interactions&quot; and large improvements in the other four domains. Factors associated with improvements included previous academic performance, English proficiency, ease of access to the internet and computers, and time spent studying. All students passed the course, all would be willing to take another distance learning course, and 26 students would be willing to pay for such as course with certification. Conclusions: Findings of this study highlight the potential of distance learning as a complementary educational method that could greatly benefit Public Health students. It encourages and supports the development of such training programs for Public Health students in Vietnam.
Nigerian Students' Perceptions and Cultural Meaning Construction Regarding Academic Integrity in the Online International Classroom
Author: Szilagyi, Annamaria
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Integrity,Student Attitudes,Online Courses,Electronic Learning,Virtual Classrooms,Plagiarism,Phenomenology,Cultural Influences,Indigenous Populations,Learning Experience,Hermeneutics,Focus Groups,Interviews,Graduate Students,Student Research,Citations (References),Learning Strategies,Foreign Countries,Distance Education

By presenting perceptions of Nigerian students enrolled in the online international postgraduate programmes of the University of Liverpool regarding academic integrity, this paper aims to explore Western ideas, such as originality and plagiarism that are extraneous in the students' local cultures. Different historical and cultural circumstances may contribute to the construction of diverse meanings that online students attribute to these concepts. The multidisciplinary study follows phenomenological research design (van Manen, 1997; Creswell, 2007) and combines cultural anthropology (Hall, 1996, Hannerz, 2001; Coleman et al., 2010) as well as online education (Anderson, 2008) in the research. The paper promotes a non-judgmental and culturally aware approach when dealing with issues of academic integrity, intends to find ideological reasons in authentic cultural belief systems that may demonstrate that the common &quot;non-understanding&quot; concerning academic integrity is due to a culture-dependent meaning construction process, which leads to the ideological misinterpretation of these Western concepts.
TPDK, a New Definition of the TPACK Model for a University Setting
Author: Bachy, Sylviane
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Pedagogical Content Knowledge,Models,Measures (Individuals),Teacher Effectiveness,Technological Literacy,College Faculty,Epistemology,Higher Education,Questionnaires,Correlation

In this paper we propose a new Technopedagogical Disciplinary Knowledge model. This model integrates four separate dimensions, which we use to measure a teacher's effectiveness. These are the individual teacher's discipline (D), personal epistemology (E), pedagogical knowledge (P), and knowledge of technology (T). We also acknowledge the existence of relationships between these components. These can be more or less correlated depending on the teacher's individual profile. They are always present, but they do not necessarily have the same weighting. In order to test the potential differences between teachers' profiles, we designed a questionnaire, which tested our model's components, and the relationships between them. This questionnaire was initially submitted to a group of teachers with whom we were familiar, to ensure the questions were understandable and that, based on what we already knew of the teachers' characteristics, the profiles that emerged were reliable. A second test was then carried out, which we used to compare the answers of university and non-university level teachers, based in the two institutions in which we work. This second questionnaire was used to test the consistency of responses, and the correlations between the model's different dimensions. Having analysed the outcome of these questionnaires, it appears that &quot;pedagogical knowledge&quot; is significantly correlated with the other three dimensions. This consolidated framework has helped us to build a system of education development coaching for teaching practices that use technology widely.
To What Extent Do Popular ESL Textbooks Incorporate Oral Fluency and Pragmatic Development?
Author: Diepenbroek, Lori G.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Textbook Content,Content Analysis,Foreign Countries,Oral Language,Language Fluency,Speech Acts,Coding,Teaching Methods,Pragmatics

We examined several popular integrated skills textbooks used in Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) and English as a second language (ESL) programs for pragmatics and oral fluency activities. Although many instructors use other resources to supplement classroom instruction, the textbook is still the backbone of many language courses. We wanted to know to what extent textbooks focus on pragmatics and oral fluency, as well as the range of activities featured in each. In light of the recent federal evaluation of LINC programs in Canada, which indicated extremely limited improvement in speaking and listening skills as a result of language instruction, it is important to know which textbooks offer the best opportunities for pragmatics and fluency development. We determined that very few textbook series are consistent in their inclusion of pragmatic content in terms of scope, quality, and quantity. As might be expected, oral fluency is not a major focus in integrated skills texts; however, those activities that are intended to enhance fluency development could easily be improved by an instructor.
English for the Workplace: Doing Patient-Centred Care in Medical Communication
Author: Dahm, Maria R.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Work Environment,Foreign Medical Graduates,Foreign Countries,Patients,Physician Patient Relationship,Immigrants,Cultural Awareness,Discourse Analysis,Intercultural Communication,Health Services,Teaching Methods,Role Playing

Canada, like other first-world countries, relies in large part on professional immigrants trained in other cultures and languages to complement its workforce in a wide range of professions, including medicine. International medical graduates (IMGs) who are nonnative English-speaking (NNES) and who have trained in different medical contexts are often unfamiliar with the sociopragmatic norms underlying both general communication and medical practice in their new host countries, and as a result they can have difficulty using the pragmalinguistic resources needed to strike the appropriate interpersonal note in patient-centred approaches to communication. In this article we used data collected through role-plays performed in an Australian setting by practicing, locally trained, native English-speaking (NES) doctors and NNES IMGs to identify the features of patient-centred medical communication that the latter can find challenging. This approach allowed us to use the discourse to highlight those features of approachability that are likely to be relevant to immigrant professionals in both Canada and Australia. It also helped us to illustrate how discourse data can be used to identify culturally appropriate ways of communicating that can, in turn, contribute to an accurate evidence base from which culturally appropriate communication courses for IMGs and other professionals may be developed.
&quot;Please Consider My Request for an Interview&quot;: A Cross-Cultural Genre Analysis of Cover Letters Written by Canadian and Taiwanese College Students
Author: Hou, Hsiao-I
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Cross Cultural Studies,Letters (Correspondence),College Students,Sentence Structure,Employment Interviews,Computational Linguistics,Cultural Differences,English for Special Purposes,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Discourse Analysis,Employment Qualifications,Job Applicants,Business Communication

In this study, similarities and differences among generic structures in 80 cover letters written by Taiwanese and Canadian college students were investigated, adopting Upton and Connor's (2001) framework. The results demonstrated that Canadian students tend to write longer letters, use a greater variety of word types and sentence structures, and choose more professional words than do Taiwanese students. From the moves-based analysis results, the study revealed that to achieve the main communicative purpose of a cover letter, which is to be contacted for an interview, the Canadians employed lengthy sentences and various strategies to demonstrate their qualifications. By contrast, Taiwanese students employed different communicative elements, including direct strategies to express their desire for an interview and uses of formulaic expressions that were not observed in the Canadian corpus. The research findings suggest that the move-structural and rhetorical differences are due to writers' differences in cultural backgrounds and their rhetorical and lexical knowledge of the particular genre. The results of this study provide implications for teaching English for specific purposes to nonnative speakers.
Pragmatic Rating of L2 Refusal: Criteria of Native and Nonnative English Teachers
Author: Alemi, Minoo
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Pragmatics,Second Language Learning,English (Second Language),Evaluation Criteria,Interlanguage,Native Speakers,Evaluators,Task Analysis,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis,Language Teachers,Second Language Instruction,Language Skills,Written Language,Discourse Analysis,Student Evaluation,Foreign Countries

Many studies have shed light on rater criteria for assessing the performance of language skills (e.g., Eckes, 2005). However, the interface between rater assessment and interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) has remained largely unnoticed. To address this interface, this study explored the ratings native (NES) and nonnative English speaking (NNES) teachers assigned to second language (L2) refusal production and the criteria they applied in their ratings. To this end, 50 NES and 50 NNES teachers participated in rating L2 refusal production of EFL learners that included responses to a 6-item written discourse completion task. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative analysis showed that native teachers applied 11 criteria and nonnative teachers applied 6 criteria in their pragmatic ratings. Reasoning/explanation was the leading criterion in teacher assessment among native raters, whereas politeness was the main criterion for nonnative ratings. Quantitative analysis documented variation in the frequency of drawing on rating criteria and significant differences in ratings, with NNES teachers being more lenient and divergent in their ratings. The results suggest there is a gap between NES and NNES teachers in terms of rating criteria, strictness, and convergence in rating.