Tellers, Makers, and Holders of Stories: A Micro-Analytic Understanding of Students’ Identity Work in Drama-based Adult ESL Classrooms

Despite a wide-spread pedagogical interest and scholarly conviction in the possibilities of educational drama for creating more contextually-situated, engaging, and multi-modal L2 learning experiences (Piazzoli, 2018; Stinson & Winston, 2011), there is scarce empirical evidence concerning what is actually taking place interactionally in L2 classrooms for adults. This article presents a bottom-up microanalysis of classroom interaction in an ESL class in Canada with over 16 adult learners designed to explore the potential and actual impact of educational drama on classroom discourse and students’ L2 learning experiences. Using a discourse analytic approach (Antaki & Widdicombe, 1998; Goffman, 1981), I analyze the dynamic identity work of the class participants. The article presents empirically-grounded research findings that illustrate instances of interaction in and through which drama-based ESL pedagogy contributes to the development of dialogic and democratic classroom discourse and fosters a transformative empowering interpersonal space (Cummins, 2011).

Promoting ESL Students’ Critical Thinking Skills Through a Transitivity Analysis of Authentic Materials

Using authentic materials in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom can develop students’ critical thinking (CT) skills, expose them to more realistic English, and support their motivation. Carrying out text analyses of authentic materials in the ESL classroom can also help students become more critical in their approach to reading. Grounded in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) concepts, this paper puts forward a series of text analysis tasks, so ESL teachers can introduce their adult students to the concepts of transitivity and intentionality found in opposing newspaper articles dealing with conflict. Overall, these analyses show how the active voice can highlight the semantic value of intentionality via material processes, and how writers use strategies such as passivization and fronting of items in clauses to emphasize the responsibility for wrongdoing when reporting news. The analyses also show that context is important in determining degrees of intentionality, and intentionality can be attributed to the material processes of human actors portrayed as non-human actors. Understanding these concepts can help adult ESL students become better critical readers/thinkers. Utiliser des matériaux authentiques dans la classe d’anglais langue seconde (ALS) peut développer la pensée critique (PC) des étudiants et les exposer à un anglais plus réaliste et soutenir leur motivation. Effectuer des analyses de textes de matériaux authentiques dans la classe d’ALS peut aussi aider les étudiants à devenir plus critiques dans leur approche de la lecture. Enraciné dans les concepts de la linguistique systémique fonctionnelle (LSF), cet article présente une série d’exercices d’analyse de texte, de façon à ce que les enseignants d’ALS puissent présenter à leurs étudiants adultes les concepts de transitivité et d’intentionnalité qu’on retrouve dans des articles de presse contradictoires qui traitent du conflit. Dans l’ensemble, ces analyses montrent comment l’utilisation de la voix active peut mettre en lumière la valeur sémantique de l’intentionnalité par l’entremise de processus matériels, ainsi que la façon dont les écrivains utilisent des stratégies comme la passivisation et la mise en avant d’éléments dans les propositions pour accentuer la responsabilité d’actes répréhensibles quand ils font un reportage. Les analyses montrent également que le contexte est important pour déterminer les degrés d’intentionnalité et que celle-ci peut être attribuée aux processus matériels des acteurs humains dépeints comme des acteurs non-humains. Comprendre ces concepts aide les étudiants adultes d’ALS à devenir de meilleurs lecteurs ou penseurs critiques.

Malaysian Tertiary ESL Students' Writing Errors and Their Implications on English Language Teaching

Errors, either in writing or speaking, are common in second language production. Researchers have long been investigating English as Second Language (ESL) learners' errors because they may produce different kinds of errors than native speakers. The purpose of this study was to identify errors made by adult ESL learners and to examine the L1 interference in writing errors. Writing samples were collected from 30 students enrolled in the academic writing class in Universiti Putra Malaysia, and the errors were identified, recorded, and analyzed to determine whether they were intralingual or interlingual ones. The study results showed that most of the errors were in subject-verb agreement and verb tenses, which could be caused by first language (L1) influence. The findings of this study would shed light on the types of errors these ESL learners make and their weaknesses in using the English language. Besides, the findings could support instructors, curricula creators, and textbook writers to create and offer materials that could help learners enhance their command of the English language. Keywords: Error Analysis, Intralingual, Interlingual, writing problems, writing errors

The Effects of Immediate Versus Delayed Teacher Feedback on L2 Writing

This study examined the differential effects of immediate versus delayed teacher feedback. It attempted to explore how best to give feedback on student writing. The focus was on the effects of feedback on the use of cohesive devices in L2 writing. Immediate feedback was provided during the writing process, while delayed feedback was operationalized after the completion of drafts. Six adult ESL learners were divided into two groups: an immediate feedback group and a delayed feedback group. The learners conducted two writing tasks and received feedback at different stages of the writing process. The results revealed that providing immediate oral feedback by asking questions during the writing process was a more effective way of responding to student writing and that it could benefit not only high proficiency students but also those who were at low proficiency level with no awareness of their writing problems.

Improving ESL Learners’ Comprehension through Motivational Synergy

The present study focuses on the use of Motivational Synergy as means to ameliorate the comprehension of ESL Learners at various campuses of the University of Education. The study is correlational. The survey method was adopted to carry out the research. A convenient purposive sampling technique was used to collect the sample which is comprised of 100 public sector university students including 33% males and 67% females studying in the M.A. English program. This study focused on reading comprehension and listening comprehension. The results show that bottom-up training had a negative impact on comprehension. In contrast, top-down training positively affected fluency but had no impact on comprehension. Further, the results do suggest that fast-paced reading may potentially lead to improved comprehension. These findings have implications for the type of language instruction used in classrooms and, therefore, for teachers of adult ESL learners.

Punching through the barrier

This paper aims to investigate how productive oral vocabulary development can be promoted by focusing on word stress patterns. The Rhythmic Fight Club (RFC) pronunciation technique has been used in numerous ESL/EFL classrooms, but its effect on the L2 vocabulary development of learners has yet to be investigated. The present study focused on adult ESL learners and tested a four-stage learning cycle aimed at developing productive oral vocabulary. This paper focuses on findings related to one aspect of that learning cycle which used the RFC to draw learner attention to word stress patterns in order to control productive output. Findings reveal that repetition of target words whilst making a gesture helped to enhance the learners’ productive output accordingly. The paper concludes that kinaesthetic/tactile classroom teaching techniques such as the RFC can help learners to develop productive oral vocabulary by reconceptualising their perception of English speech rhythm.