What secondary english to speakers of other languages (ESOL) teachers know about social and academic language and instructional strategies for limited english proficient students

Abstract

Chin, Judy, "What secondary english to speakers of other languages (ESOL) teachers know about social and academic language and instructional strategies for limited english proficient students" (2002 The dissertation of Judy Chin is approved.Dean Linda Blanton Tashakkori's observations and highly focused questions from the inception of the study to its completion were greatly appreciated. Dr. Sandra Fradd, whose broad knowledge and vast experience in the field of second language acquisition, provided critical commentary and was a constant support. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Judith Slater, not only for her reading, editing, and consulting of the manuscript, but also for her intense dedication to the field of Curriculum and Instruction which imbues her students with a desire to be among those who can and should make a difference. It appeared that this population of secondary ESOL teachers was in the process of evolving their definitions of social and academic language and were at different stages in this evolution. Teachers' definitions of language influenced their instruction. V ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION WHAT SECONDARY ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES (ESOL)TEACHERSFurthermore, those who had clear constructs of language were able to operationalize them in their classroom instruction.vii

Perceptual ratings of pronunciation for L2 learners of English as a function of task type, word position, and listener expertise

“…Also hypothesized in this study was that listeners would rate the L2 learners’ productions in the word‐final position as having less accuracy than those produced in the word‐initial position. This hypothesis was based on the relative lack of final consonant endings in both Mandarin and Korean (Cheng, 1991; Fang & Ping‐an, 1992; Nasukawa, 2004). This study generally found that the L2 learners’ obstruent productions were rated to have greater accuracy when produced in the word‐initial position compared to the word‐final position.…”

“…Second language learners of English frequently substitute the fricative /s/ for /θ/ and the fricative /f/ for /θ/ and for /v/ (Cheng, 1991;Slobin, 1992).…”

“…For example, the English fricatives /v/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /θ/, and /ð/ are not found in the Mandarin language. Second language learners of English frequently substitute the fricative /s/ for /θ/ and the fricative /f/ for /θ/ and for /v/ (Cheng, 1991; Slobin, 1992).…”

“…Native speakers of Korean learning English as an L2 also have difficulty producing a number of English fricatives due in part to these sounds not being produced in their native language, such as /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/, /ʃ/, and /ʒ/. Therefore, when acquiring English, Korean L2 learners often substitute the fricative /θ/ with /s/, and the fricative /ð/ is often replaced with a stop, such as /d/ (Cheng, 1991).…”

“…Similar to Mandarin, the Korean language does not produce fricatives and affricate obstruents in the word‐final position. Also, sounds in the word‐final position are usually devoiced in Korean, and consonant clusters generally do not occur in word‐initial or word‐final position (Cheng, 1991). These phonological and morphosyntactic characteristics of both Mandarin and Korean can interfere with an L2 learner's ability to accurately acquire and produce English obstruents.…”