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I also found out that I will be teaching for three weeks starting next week. The only thing I know is that it is a beginner level class without assessment of any kind.  I’m also responsible for choosing a text and materials for the class. The thing is after my three weeks are up, another teacher takes over the class for the remaining six weeks. I should of course consult with that teacher about a book to teach, but since they are outside of the country on vacation, I cannot do that. I have decided to use one of the books I recieved at the last KOTESOL conference and rather than requiring students to buy it, will photocopy the appropriate pages.

This works well, since if the book doesn’t turn out to be as good as I think I can change books or switch to my own material. I will at this time be developing a few more board games and materials in photoshop and testing them out with these students.

Happy New Year.

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On an unrelated note I have added a new module to EE that automatically links acronyms providing a definition upon mouse over. I have added about 12 so far but am looking to add more. If you can add to this list let me know:
CALL, CLT, CSS, EE, EFL, ESL, MT, RSS, S.M.A.R.T, SIG, TEFL , TESOL

As you can see there are a mix of language teaching and internet terms here, any thing in those fields or linguistics would be great. I will, of course, be adding terms as I come to them in my writing - but I am also sure that there are missing terms in older entries. 

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As it stands all the articles I have printed up will be the foundation of the literature review both for the proposal and for the final dissertation. I will be using several peices out of anthologies edited by Joy Reid: Understanding Learning Styles in the Second Language Classroom (Thank you Kangmi for this gift) and Learning Styles in the ESL/EFL Classroom as well as Rebecca Oxfords Language learning Strategies and others.

One interesting article that I came across in my search is Do Asian Students Really Want to Listen and Obey? by William Littlewood in ELT Journal 54/1 January 2000 pg 31-36 This article concludes that Asian students do want to explore knowledge on their own and that the responses between Asian and European contries where statistically similar. This supports what I have found in my own classroom; with a little training in how to move beyond thier educational culture most learners will thrive on participation.

Back on topic - I have a lot of reading to do and then need to narrow my focus down. Unfortunately I’m having trouble with my pragmatics essay which is worth 70% of the grade and is due on the same day. Busy busy busy.

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I do feel that they are very related and may be synonymous in certain situations, however I am unable to find any original sources on the observers paradox. It is not difficult to find secondary sources or secondary quotes (Labov cited in yada yada yada) but what I would really like is to read some original Labov or at least a source that gives a more indepth explanation.

One last thing while googling for observers paradox I opened a pdf that is really a book (263 pgs) that someone may be interested in. Apologizing in British English - I saved it to my hard drive and will look later.

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¹Brown, J. D. (1988). Understanding Research in Second Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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The topic is to evaluate qualitative and quantitave research and pay particular attention to issues of validity and reliability; also to suggest possiblities of overcoming the limitations of each method. Finally, we are required to posit three research questions for each method (total 6) and detail why the research is best conducted with that methodology. All of this must be written in 1500 to 2000 words. Obviously this essay is going to be very compact and tight - in fact I am a little concerned that I will end up being over the word limit.

With this essay I am taking a new approach to writing. Instead of waiting until I have read everything and starting to compose, I will be reading the relevant material for each section and then writing that section. If I come across material related to another section of the essay I will write a short note about it and append it to the end of the essay. Obviously there are dangers here with regards to unity and cohesiveness, but I think that overall this will make the writing process easier for me. I’m sure that I will also have to spend a little more time editing at the end, but I feel this should be worth it.

I have already written the introduction to the paper and have started formulating the evaluation of qualitative research (really I prefer the term ethnographic research - though I am not sure why) in my head and may start writing that later today after I go to the gym and finish my lesson planning.

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Part 1
Which statistical procedure would you employ in the following studies (A-D). Indicate the appropriate procedure by placing a number in the bracket and give the reason for your choice. Only one procedure is required per study.

1. Independent t test
2. Dependent t test
3. Chi square
4. Analysis of Variance
5. Mann Whitney’s U
6. Wilcoxon’s Matched Pairs Signed Ranks Test
7. Pearson’s correlation

A This study investigated the relationship between scores on a traditional standardised test of oral proficiency and a new test of communicative speaking ability. One hundred participants took both tests. The investigators wanted to determine whether the participants who scored well on the traditional test did well on the innovative test and vice versa.
[ ]Give your reason

B This study examined the effect of content familiarity on the reading comprehension of secondary level second language learners. Eight participants were given two test passages to read, and their comprehension was tested on a multiple choice test. The test passages were analysed using the Lix readability formula which showed they were both at the same level of linguistic difficulty. However, one passage was on a topic familiar to the students while the other was on an unfamiliar topic.
[ ] Give your reason

C In this investigation, the researcher wanted to find out whether the native like production of word final consonants and consonant clusters varied according to the type of communicative task in which the learner is engaged. She collected data from a single subject as he took part in three different tasks - free conversation, oral reading of continuous text, and elicited imitation of word and short phrases.
[ ] Give your reason

D A study was established to test the hypothesis that field dependent learners would benefit more from learning grammar inductively, while field independent learners would benefit from learning deductively. One group of field dependent participants and one group of field independent participants were taught inductively. A second group of field dependent participants and a second group of field independent participants were taught deductively. Pre- and post-treatment scores on a standardised test of grammar were administered.
[ ] Give your reason

Part 2
The following hypothetical study is presented by Brown. Read the study and identify the independent and dependent variables. Jas Menbrow noticed that people do not always perform in their native language with equal ability. It occurred to him that there might be some relationship between the native language ability of his American students and their proficiency in French after three years of high school study. To investigate this possibility, he administered the verbal sub- test of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (to measure proficiency in native English) and his school district’s French Proficiency Test to all 132 students who were finishing their third year of study. He was concerned that differences between the sexes should not interfere with the results, so he eliminated all males from his analysis. Thus 89 female students were left. In addition, he wanted to determine what differences there might be between the women in the college-bound track (44 students) and those in the accelerated track (45 students). So he considered the two groups separately on this basis.
Part 3
RESEARCH OUTLINE

Jane Smith, in addition to having an imaginative name, is a creative and innovative teacher. She developed a genre-based writing package and wanted to collect evidence that the package was more effective than the writing program currently in use, which had been developed some years before by her head of department, and was based on a process writing approach. Last semester she taught an EAP writing course to two different classes. Class A consisted of undergraduates from the International Christian University in Tokyo who were spending a semester studying in an Australian university. Class B consisted of a group of NESB immigrant students who were taking the EAP course for credit in their undergraduate degree programs. Jane decided to use her innovative genre-based package with class B, and the traditional course with class A. At the end of the course she administered a test in the form of an essay assignment. Students received a score out of 100 based on the following criteria.

1. Schematic structure Is the schematic structure of the text appropriate for the genre of the text?
2. Topicalization Does the writer explicitly identify the topic and was the topic developed appropriately?
3. Reference Does the writer use reference appropriately?

When group means were computed, Jane found that class A obtained a class average of 64.35%. Class B, on the other hand, obtained a class average of 71.32%. She therefore concluded that the innovative package was superior to the traditional package. She wrote up an account of her research and presented it to her head of department.

1. Identify the following:
“ Research question:
“ Participants:
“ Dependent variable:
“ Independent variable:
“ Key concept(s)/ construct(s):
“ How concept(s)/construct(s) are operationalized:
“ Population to which research applies:
2. Jane’s report was severely criticised by her head of department. The head was particularly critical of the internal and external validity of the study. What do you think these criticisms were?
3. If you wanted to test Jane’s data for significance, which of the following statistical tools would you employ? Give a reason for your choice.
a. ANOVA
b. dependent t test
c. correlation
d. Mann Whitney U
e. chi square
f. Wilcoxon’s matched-pairs signed-ranks
g. independent t test
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