http://hdl.handle.net/10092/806 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:01:10 GMT 2013-06-19T07:01:10Z http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7873 Title: Developing Effective Online Resources to Encourage Student Engagement in Carpentry Theory: A case study of High School Carpentry students in a blended learning environment Authors: Hay, Malcolm John Abstract: This case study examines some key factors that influence student engagement in a blended learning environment, in particular, when using interactive online resources to learn Carpentry theory. The participants were volunteers from two parallel classes of secondary school students working toward Level 1 Building Construction and Allied Trade Skills Certificate designed for secondary schools by the Building Construction Industry Training Organisation. The participant researcher was also the teacher for both classes. Data in this case study was collected by observation, reflective journal writing, student records, group discussion and analysis of student course results. It showed that the students responded positively to the blended classroom environment and the interactive online resources developed by the researcher for this study. The blended learning environment in the classroom increased student participation, aided classroom management, and more than halved the time needed for both classes to finish the Instrumental Drawing Unit Standard 7502 while the interactive online resources enhanced student engagement and achievement in other areas of their theory. Students responded positively to the automated formative feedback and were encouraged by knowing their results instantly; working to gain top results and correct answers rather than just completing an activity by filling in the blanks. A competitive element was introduced by integrating a timer into the resources. Challenges encountered included limited access to computers and the necessity for students to share computers, a network failure which made the online resources unavailable for an extended period, and storage problems for the online resources to allow them to be accessed from the online learning environment at school and at home. This study concluded that technology can enable teachers to enhance their teaching and enrich the student learning environment through the introduction of a variety of media. Students still depended on face-to-face teacher input but, in the blended classroom environment and the online environment, the role of the teacher changed noticeably to a role of facilitator. Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7873 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7837 Title: An Investigation of the Predictors of L2 Writing Among Adult ESL Students Authors: Wong Su Chu, Alice Abstract: The three studies reported in this thesis investigated the contributing factors of L2 writing among adult ESL learners in the academic setting. The major purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between L2 proficiency, writing strategies, writing attitude, writing errors and L2 writing performance. This thesis aimed to provide insights for the contributing factors that are predictive of L2 writing performance in adult ESL learners, studying in English and non-English dominant settings. Study 1 (reported in Chapter 3) focused on determining the appropriate measures for investigating the individual factors of writing performance; particularly learners’ writing strategies, learners’ second language proficiency, first language (L1) interference and their relation to writing performance. Thirty-one intermediate students of L2 served as participants. A measure of vocabulary size and a writing strategy questionnaire were administered to the students. Findings in this study indicated that most of the participants’ planning strategies were limited to having a mental or written plan whereas over half of the respondents reported that they always start with an introduction and were more likely to stop drafting after a few sentences. In terms of drafting strategies, it was found that most respondents reread what they had written to get ideas on how to continue but did not go back to their outline to make changes in it. With regard to L1 use, a majority of participants do not write bits of text in their native language. Nevertheless, quite a number of participants indicated that they would write in their L1 if they don’t know a word in English. Findings in this study also suggested that participants’ biggest concerns were related to grammar and vocabulary, which resulted in them making surface level changes and checking. An overall analysis of participants’ writing output and responses from the questionnaire also provided important insights to the improvement of the measures. The revision process included rewording and rephrasing ambiguous items, removing irrelevant items from the questionnaire and restructuring the writing task for the next study. In Study 2 (presented in Chapter 4), a follow-up study was conducted to examine L2 writers’ proficiency level, writing attitude, writing errors and writing strategies in an English-dominant setting. Nine research questions were designed to guide the study framework and gather specific data regarding the research aims. A writing measure, vocabulary tests and a questionnaire were administered to the students. Findings from Study 2 indicated that L2 proficiency, particularly vocabulary size, was related to writing performance. In addition, it was also discovered that L2 writers who performed poorly were prone to performing writing strategies related to surface level checking. Therefore, it was concluded that linguistic barriers in L2 affect both writing performance and students’ ability in applying the effective strategies in writing. Apart from that, Study 2 also found that the use of L1 and translation into L2 was associated with lower writing performance. Additionally, Study 2 found that pronoun, word and sentence errors were the most prevalent errors among ESL students. A possible reason for this is because L2 students need to work with two languages while writing, mainly the grammar rules in English which are not found in their L1 as well as their own native language. Thus, L2 students face the challenge of working out English grammar rules while writing. Overall, findings in this study suggest that prevalent writing errors in English may be a sign of L1 interference and that as the use of L1 increases, writing performance decreases. In Study 3 (reported in Chapter 5), the role of proficiency level, writing attitude, writing errors and writing strategies was explored by measuring the relationship between writing attitude scores, errors in writing, strategy use and essay scores. Additionally, the role of L2 proficiency in writing performance was also investigated by assessing the relationship between vocabulary size scores, writing errors and writing performance. Findings from Study 3 revealed unexpected findings with regard to the relationship between L1 use and writing performance among the three sample groups. L1 use was found to be correlated with writing performance for Group A but not Groups B and C. It was argued that L2 writers of different L2 proficiency level and academic experience may have different orientations of L1 use. Further work on the impact of L1 use on L2 writing will be needed in order to provide insights into this area. With regard to writing errors, a relationship between errors and writing performance was reported. It was found that subject verb agreement error appeared to be a common factor for the three groups in the study that was related to writing performance. In addition, errors were also significantly correlated with L2 proficiency, suggesting that as L2 proficiency increased, errors decreased. Overall, Study 3 argues for the importance of developing and enhancing learners’ L2 proficiency to reduce errors and improve learners’ writing performance. Additionally, Study 3 also argues for the need to emphasize effective writing strategies in the ESL writing classroom. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7837 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7809 Title: Towards a universal model of reading investigations into Persian monolingual and English-Persian bilingual speakers Authors: Sadeghi, Amir Abstract: The research reported in this thesis aimed to investigate potential cognitive-linguistic predictors of reading comprehension levels amongst Persian monolingual and Persian-English bilingual primary school children. The Persian orthography, unlike English, is written from right to left. It is cursive and most of the letters change their shape when connecting to letters on one or both sides. The orthography also has the feature of using marks to represent sounds within the language. These marks are not always included in written text, particularly when the text is targeted at more experienced readers. Over 200 school-children in Iran from grades 2 to 5 were given measures of text reading comprehension involving Cloze completion or passages followed by questions. Comprehension levels were compared to scores on measures of language competence, phonological ability, orthographic processing and speed of processing. Analyses indicated that Persian reading comprehension levels, consistent with English models of reading, were predicted by measures of linguistic competence and word decoding, with the latter being predicted by phonological and orthographic processing skills. However, orthographic skills and speed of processing showed predictions of Persian reading comprehension independent of word decoding processes, findings that differed to those predicted from the English-language derived models. These findings were examined among over 150 Persian-English bilingual children in Persian grades 2 to 5 who attending mainstream schools in New Zealand or Australia. These children were being educated in an English medium context, but with Persian as their home language. Analyses of predictors of reading levels verified the findings reported from the monolingual data. In addition, comparisons of good and poor reading comprehenders argued for deficits in either language or word decoding skills to potentially produce different sub-groups of poor readers, with the findings also being consistent with deficits in phonological decoding and/or orthographic processing skills consistent with dual-route or triangle models of literacy learning disabilities. The thesis findings were used to derive a model of Persian reading comprehension similar to the simple view of reading. The findings can also inform the development of cross-language models of reading and global theories of reading comprehension. Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7809 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7774 Title: What does it mean to be well in schools? an exploration of multiple perspectives on student wellbeing in a New Zealand secondary school context Authors: Soutter, Anne Kathryn Abstract: Despite recognition that wellbeing and academic achievement are compatible educational goals, few education systems have clearly established how wellbeing can be meaningfully and purposefully implemented in educational experiences. The overarching aims of this thesis were to examine the relationships between wellbeing and senior secondary educational experiences, to develop a conceptual framework based on an extensive, multi-disciplinary literature review, to refine the framework through document analysis and experimental study, and to propose a model of student wellbeing that could support both researchers in the development of indicators to monitor student wellbeing and educators seeking to plan for and assess wellbeing-enhancing educational experiences. Implications for the use of the Student Wellbeing Model for the design and review of educational experiences at the classroom level are discussed. Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7774 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z