Master of Arts (Applied Linguistics)

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20 years of research into L1 use in Malaysian ESL classrooms : a qualitative analysis
(2019)
Tan, Grace Huimin
This study examines research on the use of the first language (L1) in the Malaysian English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom through qualitative analysis. In particular, it aims to discover the themes which have dominated this field of research and to identify their key findings as well as issues found in the studies.

The data comprised of 16 studies that were conducted between 1998 and 2018 in Malaysian primary and secondary schools. These studies were subjected to several cycles of coding based on the constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006) which allowed for the dominant themes, key findings and issues to emerge from the data. From the qualitative analysis, three dominant themes were found in the data: (1) beliefs of L1 use in the Malaysian ESL classroom, (2) L1 use in the Malaysian ESL classroom, and (3) issues found in research on L1 use in Malaysian ESL classrooms. Key findings from the three themes revealed a mixture of negative and positive beliefs towards L1 use and classroom functions which the L1 was used for. The analysis also discovered effects of L1 use on teachers and students found by the studies. From the data, three types of contradictions became apparent. These were: (1) contradictions between beliefs and practices, (2) contradictions between beliefs and (3) contradictions between policies and practices. The analysis revealed issues regarding the lack of theory and evidence-based principles, the stigma of L1 use and the ambiguous stand of the Ministry of Education (MOE) regarding L1 use.

The findings of this study reveal a need for relevant parties in the Malaysian English language teaching (ELT) circle to reexamine their beliefs on L1 use in the ESL classroom and call for the MOE to clarify its position on L1 use in ELT. These findings also point at the need for more experimental research that would rigorously examine effects of L1 use in L2 learning. In sum, three key observations have surfaced from a critical understanding of this area:

1. The monolingual principle is problematic and impractical for the present-day Malaysian ESL context.
2. Teachers are unaware of literature and research legitimising strategic L1 use which could increase their knowledge and confidence in using the L1 to benefit L2 learning.
3. There is a purpose and place for the L1 in the Malaysian ESL classroom.
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A comparative multimodal analysis of the homepages of Amazon and Shopee
(2023)
Li, Mengna
This dissertation examined the homepages of Amazon and Shopee to reveal how e-marketing elements are expressed semiotically to realise different marketing strategies. The social semiotic framework proposed by Djonov and Knox (2014) was adopted as the analytical framework. The interpretation of findings was informed by the e-marketing mix framework and pull/push marketing strategies. It was found that Amazon's marketing strategy focuses on providing services with the goal of fostering long-term customer loyalty within the Amazon ecosystem. In contrast, Shopee’s marketing strategy focuses on strengthening its reliability as an e-commerce marketplace. In addition, the marketing strategy applied by Amazon is pull-oriented, whereas Shopee’s marketing strategy is push-oriented. The dissertation concludes with implications for future multimodal analysis and the pedagogy of e-commerce business discourse.
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A corpus-based frame semantic analysis of commercialized listening tests : implications for content validity
(2024)
Zhao, Yufan
Commercialized listening tests can significantly impact test-takers’ lives, as they are often required for purposes such as immigration, employment opportunities, and university admissions. However, there is a noticeable research gap regarding the content validity of these tests. To address the gap, this study aims to examine the semantic features of the simulated mini-lectures in the listening sections of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to explore the content validity of the two tests.
This study utilized two study corpora, the IELTS corpus with 68 mini-lectures (46,823 words) and the TOEFL corpus with 285 mini-lectures (207,296 words). The reference corpus comprised 59 lectures from the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE), totaling 571,354 words. The theoretical framework employed in the study is frame semantics that asserts words should be understood within cognitive frames. The data was submitted to Wmatrix5 for automatized semantic tagging, which generated 488 semantic frames. Three comparisons were conducted: IELTS vs. TOEFL, IELTS vs. MICASE lectures, and TOEFL vs. MICASE lectures.
The results suggest that the mini-lectures of IELTS listening tests cover fewer academic discourse fields than TOEFL mini-lectures. Therefore, it is suggested that IELTS test developers prioritize materials resembling genuine academic lectures over non-specialist texts. TOEFL test developers should extend the coverage of the test content and continue to mirror the academic discourse.
Furthermore, IELTS and TOEFL mini-lectures reflected the similarity of 78% and 64% of the examined semantic frames respectively, underlining their relative authenticity. Similarly, a pervasive ‘objectivity’ was evident across all three corpora, with emotion-related categories being sparse. Nevertheless, specific topics, such as politics, war, and intimate and sexual relationships, were notably absent from the test corpora, even though they appeared in the academic lecture corpus.
Finally, as the simulated mini-lectures in IELTS and TOEFL are significantly shorter than authentic lectures, the positive results supporting the authenticity of the simulated lectures are attenuated. It is necessary to confirm whether these mini-lectures in the listening tests can engage test takers in the same cognitive processes as authentic academic lectures.
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A meta-analysis of the reliability of L2 reading comprehension assessments
(2024)
Zhao, Huijun
Score reliability is one of the major facets of modern validity frameworks in language assessment. Specifically, within the argument-based validation of assessments, reliability functions as indispensable evidence in the cause-effect dynamic of generalization and higher-level validity inferences. The present study aims to determine the average reliability of L2 reading tests, identify the potential moderators of reliability in L2 reading comprehension tests and explore the potential power of reliability in predicting the relationship between generalization and explanation inferences.
A reliability generalization (RG) meta-analysis was conducted to compute the average reliability coefficient of L2 reading comprehension tests and identify the potential predictor variables that moderate reliability. I examined 1883 individual studies from Scopus, the Web of Science, ERIC, and LLBA databases for possible inclusion and assessed 266 studies as eligible for the inclusion criteria. Out of these, I extracted 85 Cronbach’s alpha estimates from 60 studies (years 2002-2023) that reported Cronbach’s alpha estimates properly and coded 28 potential predictors comprising of the characteristics of the study, the test, and test-takers. A linear mixed-effects model (LMEM) analysis was subsequently conducted to test for the predictive power of reliability coefficient in the relationship between generalization and explanation inferences. I further examined the impact of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient on the correlation between L2 reading comprehension tests and various language proficiency measures. This involved the reliability estimates of reading comprehension tests from 24 studies and 189 correlation data points between the reading comprehension tests and measures of language proficiency categorized into 11 groups.
The RG meta-analysis found an average reliability of 0.78 (95% CI [0.76, 0.80]) with 40% of Cronbach’s coefficients falling below the lower bound of the confidence interval. The results of a heterogeneity test of Cronbach’s alphas indicated significant heterogeneity across studies (I2 = 97.58%) with variances partitioned into sampling error (2.42%), within-study (24.64%) and between-study (72.95%) differences. The number of test items and test-takers’ L1 were found to explain 19.65% and 13.70% of variation in the reliability coefficients across the studies, respectively. The LMEM analysis showed that alpha coefficients do not predict the correlation between reading comprehension tests and other measures of language proficiency. The implications of this study, its limitations and future studies are further discussed.
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A multidimensional analysis of a high-stakes English listening test
(2024)
Tao, Xuelian
Gaokao, also known as China’s national college entrance exam, is a high-stakes exam for nearly all Chinese students. English has been one of the three most important subjects for a long time and listening plays an important role in the Gaokao English test. However, relatively little research has been conducted on local English listening tests in China or other countries. More importantly, according to the Chinese Ministry of Education, the difficulty of the test papers used in each province or municipality varied depending on their economic development and educational resources over the past two decades. Previous studies of English listening tests have been conducted from limited perspectives, while the difficulty related linguistic features of the English listening test have almost never been examined. This study aims to fill the gaps and examine the assumption by analyzing the typical linguistic features and corresponding functional dimensions of the three different text types in the listening tests and investigating whether the papers used in the three regions of China were differentiated in terms of the co-occurrence patterns of lexicogrammatical features and dimensions of the transcripts.
Linguistic corpora have been universally employed to inform the assessment of writing and speaking skills. However, a significant gap persists in corpus-based approaches when we turn our attention to listening assessment. A multidimensional analysis (MDA), which incorporated register analysis, corpus linguistics, and quantitative analysis methods, of the Chinese Gaokao English Listening Test Corpus was conducted to describe and compare the linguistic features and corresponding functional dimensions of the three text types in the listening tests. The corpus in this study consists of 170 sets of test papers covering nearly all provinces and cities from 2000 to 2022.
Six exclusive dimensions were extracted using MDA: 1. oral versus literate discourse; 2. procedural discourse; 3. informational versus involved production; 4. elaborated discourse - relative clauses; 5. syntactic and clausal complexity; and 6. phrasal complexity. Four of these dimensions are in alignment with the dimensions extracted from previous MDA studies, which provides evidence supporting the universality of some of the MDA dimensions and presents some recommended teaching focus for the future. The results also show that some dimension scores were different in test papers from different regions. Overall, it seems that MOE has decided that if these children wish to go to the same universities as children from more affluent regions, the level-playing field would be to give them listening tests with specific lexicogrammatical features that may facilitate listening for them in Gaokao, such as relative clauses, phrases, procedural discourses, and complex clauses.
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A reliability generalization meta-analysis of foreign language anxiety measurements
(2024)
Qiao, Shuyi
Reliability refers to the consistency of test scores across occasions, instruments or raters. High reliability can increase statistical power and reduce the risk of Type I and Type II errors. Reliability is not the property of tests but the function of test scores that can change with characteristics of the test, the conditions of administration as well as the group of examinees. However, research shows that many previous studies did not measure reliability but induced them instead, which would cast doubt on the accuracy of their statistical analysis conducted. Reliability Generalization (RG) meta-analysis is a useful method to investigate the extent to which the scores obtained from various measurements are reliable and what factors may cause the variance in reliability. This study utilizes RG meta-analysis to investigate the reliability of instruments measuring foreign language anxiety, the most-often investigated affect variable in L2 research.
This study meta-analyzed 204 Cronbach’s alpha coefficients from 197 studies and 48 foreign language anxiety instruments to aggregate the overall reliability obtained from foreign language anxiety scores. It also investigated the possible variables contributing to the variability of anxiety scores. The pooling of effect sizes yielded an average reliability of 0.8717 and 95% confidence interval (0.8629-0.8806). A large amount of heterogeneity was detected. Therefore, a comprehensive moderator analysis of the study, instrument and population characteristics was carried out to explore possible sources of this variability. Features such as standard deviation of test scores, number of items, number of negative wording items, number of factors in factor analysis, administration methods, etc. were found to significantly affect the reliability of anxiety scores. A sensitivity analysis was also performed to test the robustness of the pooled reliability and diagnose the potential publication bias.
This study also extended the scope of conventional RG meta-analysis by investigating the impact of reliability of language anxiety scores on its predictive validity (anxiety-language proficiency correlations). Linear mixed-effect modeling was adopted to examine the effect of moderators on obtained anxiety-proficiency correlations. Based on the final model, the reliability of anxiety scores was found to significantly moderate the anxiety-proficiency correlations. Specifically, higher anxiety reliability coefficients were often associated with larger anxiety-language proficiency effect sizes, indicating that more reliable anxiety scores could strengthen its extrapolation to proficiency test scores. Additionally, as an exploratory study, the p-values around the anxiety-proficiency correlations were also coded and entered into correlation analysis. Higher reliability was found to significantly correlate with lower p-values, indicating that the stronger reliability could decrease the risk of Type I error. Implications of the findings were also discussed.
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An analysis of feedback given by a teacher on primary school students' writing: A case study based on the Singapore context
(National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University (NIE NTU), Singapore, 2024)
Wang, Zhiqi
The study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the types of feedback given by a teacher for Primary 5 in English Language composition writing as well as the influences on the feedback process based on the feedback provided on students’ writings. The study attempts to fill gaps in research by specifically examining the nature of feedback provided and the teacher’s perceptions of feedback. The study used a case study design with artefact analysis and a semi-structured interview as the data collection tools in answer to the research questions of the study. Hattie and Timperley’s (2007) model was used as the conceptual framework to determine what feedback was given to students and what influences a teacher’s feedback practices. The study found that task feedback was used most frequently, followed by self-regulated feedback, process feedback and self-feedback. The study found that the teacher’s feedback practices were influenced by a variety of factors including the teacher’s beliefs and knowledge, student ability and the context. In summary, this study is deemed to be significant because it provides a deeper understanding of the feedback a teacher gives as well as influences on the teacher’s feedback practices, contributing to existing research in this area. It is anticipated that the research findings will have implications on feedback practices related to writing in teaching and learning contexts involving primary schools.
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An eye-tracking and neuroimaging investigation of negative wording in an L2 metacognitive awareness questionnaire
(2024)
Wang, Xinhe
This study set out to investigate the effect of cognitive load, related explicitly to constructs (five MALQ constructs) versus wording (negative wording and non-negated wording), on respondents' responses to metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire (MALQ), a widely used instrument for assessing self-perceived metacognitive awareness strategies. Respondents’ (N=109) eye movement measured by eye-tracker and brain activation levels measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) were obtained to examine their cognitive load in responding to MALQ. Distinct gaze behavior and neural activation associated with negatively worded items were identified, indicating increased cognitive load in the presence of negatively worded items, while English second language (E-L2) participants were found to exhibit higher cognitive load than English as first (EL1) respondents. Additionally, linear mixed effect models (LMEMs) were employed to test the power of eye behaviors, neural activations, language, constructs, and wording in predicting MALQ results. The results showed that although models under two-wording conditions caused a significant amount of variation in respondents’ MALQ scores, they had relatively lower explanatory power (R²) compared to the models based on the five constructs. The implications of these findings and recommendations for future studies and questionnaire design are discussed.
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Analysing voice in general paper argumentative essays using appraisal in systemic functional linguistics
(2014)
Low, Tze Hui
Voice has always been a slippery and controversial concept in writing. Although there have been a number of studies on voice in its various guises (Atkinson, 1997; Biber, 2000, 2006; Elbow, 1994, 2007; Hyland, 2005; Labov, 1984; Ramanathan & Atkinson, 1999; Thompson & Hunston, 2000), much of the research has concentrated on the literary aspect of voice, its cultural construct, mass audience texts or academic texts in universities in general. Therefore, this study aims to offer another lens through which written voice can be studied from the appraisal system in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) pioneered by Martin and White (2005) and Martin & Rose (2007). The appraisal system looks at the attitudes evident in a text, the intensity of these attitudes and how these attitudes are sourced that would position the writer and readers, striking a balance between the lexicogrammatical realisation of voice and the social context. This small-scale exploratory study examines argumentative essays written at the pre-university level, where a comparative approach is taken and both high-scoring and low-scoring scripts are analysed to demonstrate the writers’ control over evaluative resources that influence the realisation of voice. It has been observed that high-scoring scripts are more able to utilise dialogic resources to entertain other viewpoints and the writer is more visible through the use of attitudinal resources. Conversely, low-scoring scripts are less dialogic, with the presence of the writer less keenly demonstrated through the lexicogrammar. Teachers interviewed generally found written voice difficult to conceptualise and articulate to students, although they tend to agree that language proficiency and a unique style of writing define voice. Therefore, the findings in this study may be useful pedagogically for educators who find the notion of voice too abstract to teach but nonetheless acknowledge its significance in producing good scripts.
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An analysis of gender bias in Chinese primary school English textbooks
(2016)
Liu, Yu
This study investigates how gender bias manifests itself in a series of widely used primary school English textbooks in China, published by People’s Education Press (PEP), a subordinate institute of Ministry of Education of China. The research questions of this study are:

1. How is gender bias manifested in English language textbooks published in China as shown by visibility, male firstness and gender stereotyping?
a. To what extent are male characters more visible than female characters?
b. To what extent is male firstness more than female firstness?
c. To what extent are male characters and female characters portrayed in gender stereotyped roles?

Qualitative analysis will be adopted to analyze gender bias in the textbooks, supported by quantitative analysis. The findings reveal that male characters are more visible than female characters. In addition, the English language use of male firstnessis prevalent in this series of textbooks. Moreover, male characters are more likely to be associated with occupational roles, engaging in a wide range of occupations, and the occupations they get involved in are associated with high levels of education, status and prestige. In contrast, female characters tend to be portrayed in domestic roles, taking care of children and family. Additionally, they are also restricted to traditional female-oriented occupations, such as teacher, nurse and salesperson.
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An analysis of referential expressions in young Korean EFL learners’ oral narratives
(2011)
Chung, Jee Hyung
The aim of this study is to investigate how young Koreans EFL learners use referring expressions in English narratives to tell a coherent story. The study compared their English oral narratives with those told by native English speakers (NESs) at the similar age. The data were collected from ten Korean children and ten NESs by using a wordless picture book, Frog, where are you? (Mayer, 1969). All the children participated in this study were nine to ten years old. The Korean children produced narratives both in Korean and in English. The recorded narratives were transcribed and analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The analysis focused on how the Korean children made use of referring expressions to refer to characters in the story according to the discourse functions: introduction, maintenance, and reintroduction of reference.

The analysis showed that the Korean children used different referential strategies according to the types of characters and the discourse functions. It was also found that there were similarities as well as differences between the referential strategies used by the young Korean EFL learners in their English narratives and those used by the NESs. Although the Korean children seemed to be aware of the differences in the referential systems between Korean and English, their tendencies to rely on full noun phrases, to use fewer pronouns and to use nouns without articles or to misuse indefinite and definite articles suggested that their usage of referring expressions in English had some influence from their first language. As a result, the Korean children’s English narratives appeared to be less cohesive and coherent than the NESs’. The findings in this study provide some pedagogical implications for helping young Korean EFL learners not only to know the differences between the referential systems of English and Korean, but also to be able to use language-specific referring forms appropriately in their English oral narratives to produce a more cohesive and coherent story.

The study is presented in six chapters. Chapter 1 explains the background, objectives, research questions and significance of the study. Chapter 2 provides a review of some studies that examine reference and its importance in narrative, as well as some cross-linguistic studies that are related to acquisition of reference in language learning. Chapter 3 describes the methodology used in the study. Chapter 4 presents the analysis and findings of oral narratives produced by the Korean children and the native English speaking children of the similar age. Chapter 5 discusses the findings in terms of the Korean children’s awareness of the referential system in English, referent effects on their use of anaphoric strategies, and influence of their first language on the referential strategies used in their English narratives. Chapter 6 gives the summary of the findings and explains the limitations, suggestions for further research and pedagogical implications.
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Assessing the effects of explicit teaching of text structure and planning and revising strategies on primary two students' narrative texts
(2002)
Long, Miaw Ying
This research focuses on the need to provide explicit instructional support in the form of systematic and directed scaffolding strategies to lower primary school students who are underachieving in their achievement bands in learning to write specifically narratives. Narratives predominate in the high-stake Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE); hence it is imperative that students master the writing of this genre. The impact of explicitly teaching text structures, planning and revising strategies to thirty-six Primary Two students was investigated. The participants underwent fifteen intervention sessions conducted outside curriculum time which focused specifically on teaching them about text structures and strategies for planning and revising. Texts produced during the baseline and post-intervention phases were then examined for improvement in writing quality. Two instruments of assessments were used: a set of theory-informed, genre-specific criteria and the set of impressionistic guidelines used commonly in Singaporean schools. Next, the research examined the effects of the intervention on planning and revising behaviours. Finally, impact of the explicit teaching on students' declarative knowledge of the narrative genre and the writing process- more specifically, the planning and revising stages were studied. Findings showed that explicitly teaching lower primary students about text structures and strategies in planning and writing (i) improved the quality of the narratives produced; (ii) increased the time they spent planning and revising and (iii) increased their declarative knowledge of text structures and the writing process. The results suggest that when a shared meta-language is established via explicit instructional support, teachers and students can enter into productive dialogue to clarify the demands of the writing task for successful negotiation of the writing task.
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Beijing Silk Market street vendors' talk : a sociolinguistic study
(2009)
Wang, Long Long
This study delineates the comprehensive ecology of English in contemporary China, in which its diffusion is in various settings and its speakers are stratified in line with their language mastery continuum. The delineation, according to the history of English contact in China, is a déjà vu scenario. Therefore, this study reviews the complete history of English evolution in China briefly but comprehensively to support the fundamental argument that the multiple varieties CO-exist when English diffusion happens in various settings. The research on the multiple English varieties in China has focused attention on the educated variety exclusively. This study, targeting some samples from the expanding group of Chinese street vendors and using contact linguistics as the theoretical framework, investigates the vendors' English vernacular socially, historically and linguistically. The sociolinguistic features of the Chinese Street Vendors' Talk are discussed at the level of phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax and its social contexts, compared with Chinese Pidgin English (CPE). The analysis is based on 40 audio-recorded naturalistic interactions between Chinese street vendors and foreigner customers. Finding indicate that the Chinese Street Vendors' Talk shares similar external factors with CPE. Most imp6kantly, it shares similar phonological, lexical, morphological and syntactical features with CPE and other pidgin varieties. This study also utilizes the collected interview data investigating the mode in which the Chinese vendors have formed their pidginized English vernacular.
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Being vocal in a foreign land : a narrative analysis of two immigrant professionals' transnational identity in Singapore
(2023)
Zhang, Ling
Sociolinguistics studies the relationships between society and people. At the interface between the social world and the personal world, which are linked by language, people’s identity arises. Tapping on the theoretical knowledge in the field of language and identity, this dissertation traces the life experiences of two immigrants and examines the evolution of their transnational identities against the backdrop of globalization. The participants of this research, two immigrant professionals from Vietnam and Indonesia, were living and working in Singapore at the time when the research was conducted. Using narrative inquiry as the research method, through analysis of their semi-structured interviews and social media, this research deep dives into their life stories with the background of the specific sociocultural environment of Southeast Asia, to investigate the buildup of their linguistic resources, to explore the role linguistic resources play in their lives, to study their interactions with the complex social world, and to collect their linguistic views and perspectives of their gains, losses, and aspirations. Adopting the five principles of identity by Bucholtz and Hall (2005), this research analyses the participants’ negotiations of their dynamic, multiple identities in different complex social contexts, and reinforces that identity is multiple, a site of struggle and subject to change across time and place (Norton Peirce, 1995).

Unfolding the multi-faceted identities of the participants and revealing their linguistic struggles as immigrants, this research report also discusses the root causes of their linguistic struggles. This research serves as a call-to-action for society to create space for English-as-a-Secondl anguage (ESL) learner/users to speak, and for ESL learner/users to “dare to speak”, breaking the notion of thinking of native-speaker proficiency as the norm. The argument is that immigrants can tackle the linguistic challenges and other life challenges through adaptation, lifelong-learning, and human agency. Also, the research indicates that people’s maturation and recognition of the cultural heterogeneity in the world with the features of “superdiversity” play a part in their reconciliation and eventually help them find dignified places in a foreign land.
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Beliefs, knowledge and practices of grammar pedagogy : a case study of specialist teachers at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore
(2011)
Lin, Vin Lian Cherry
Teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, experiences, assumptions and attitudes have a powerful impact on their teaching practice. In Singapore, very few studies have focused their attention on teacher beliefs, and while these studies are highly informative, they mainly discuss teacher beliefs in mainstream settings. This paper seeks to examine the beliefs, knowledge and practice of specialist teachers who teach the English Language to dyslexic learners at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS), an organization which specializes in providing support to learners with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties. Dyslexia is a neurological condition which affects a learner’s acquisition of reading skills. However, in recent years, studies have found dyslexia to affect the syntax and grammatical competence of learners as well, and this weakness in grammar competence is likely to affect language learning. Given the central focus of grammar in second language acquisition studies and second language methodology, the role of grammar pedagogy in teaching dyslexic learners is of particular significance. This study seeks to explore the pedagogical bases of teachers’ work in grammar teaching and to investigate the extent to which personal beliefs and knowledge held by these teachers have informed instructional practices. The results reveal weaknesses in the teachers’ language awareness and a general lack of grammatical knowledge, which had negatively impacted their effectiveness as teachers of dyslexic learners. There is a call to provide teachers the knowledge on language teaching in teacher development programmes, as well as for DAS to develop a common belief system on pedagogical practice amongst the teachers.
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Bilingual processing of formulaic sequences
(2019)
Tay, Linda Poh Ling
Formulaic sequences (FSs), or multiword units, have been identified as a ubiquitous linguistic phenomenon that is critical in successful language acquisition; how FSs are processed and produced has therefore been the focus of studies that seek to understand the differences between native and non-native language use. One potential difference lies in how frequency and mutual information (MI) turned out as better predictors of non-native and native speaker processing of academic FSs respectively (Ellis, Simpson-Vlach, & Maynard, 2008). This study attempts to extend the investigation to spoken FSs and early bilinguals for whom English and Chinese were both acquired in childhood. In a phrasal-decision reaction- time experiment, participants judged the likelihood of visually presented FSs being found in English. The results show that differences were found not only in how academic and spoken FSs are processed, but also in how the three speaker groups process them. Mirroring the results in Ellis et al. (2008), a clear frequency effect for second-language speakers in both types of FSs was obtained, but for native speakers MI appeared as a predictor only for spoken FSs. While both frequency and MI did not appear to predict early bilingual reading of both types of FSs, the findings suggest that language-related factors such as language dominance and proficiency in English may play a role in how they, as well as second-language speakers, process FSs. In line with usage-based accounts of language acquisition, it is proposed that language experience – current and cumulative – accounts for these differences.
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A case study of four terms of address in Singapore English
(2011)
Fairuz Said Abdul Rahman
In sociolinguistics, terms of address constitute an important area of study as “they signal transactional, interpersonal and deictic ramifications in human relationships” (Leech, 1999). Wardaugh (2006) also notes that a variety of social factors affect the choices of address terms such as the social status or rank of the speaker and addressee, their gender, age and family relationships. Though various studies have been conducted to study address terms among different languages, the English used in Singapore has not been studied. This dissertation investigates the Singapore English terms of address such as "aunty‟, "makcik‟, "uncle‟ and "pakcik‟. A structured interview on each of the above Singapore English terms of address and their occurrence was constructed and administered to 20 randomly selected speakers of Singapore English. Results from the study reveal striking issues which indicate that speakers of Singapore English make a distinction between the use of "aunty‟ vs. "makcik‟ and "uncle‟ vs. "pakcik‟ as terms of address. Factors such as "age‟, "ethnicity‟, "relationship between the speaker and hearer‟ and "educational level‟ affect the speakers‟ choice of term of address and that it is a highly complex process. Singapore English terms of address and the related use of these terms in a referential sense show that there are interesting patterns in Singapore English which do not quite fit the theoretical frames discussed in the literature.
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Celebrate English! 3 : to what extent is the teacher's guide a useful resource for genre-based writing instruction?
(2003)
Tan, Shook Yin
With the adoption of the genre-based approach to teaching writing in the new 2001 English Language Syllabus, there is a need to raise the genre-consciousness of language teachers so that they are able to translate the theoretical principles of the new writing approach into meaningful practice. But, is teacher education only a matter of in-servicing? How do teachers manage the day-to-day demands of the new approach in the classroom? In the Singapore educational context, teachers will invariably seek help from the Teacher's Guide, a manual that comes with the textbook selected for use in school. This, then, raises questions of the role of the Teacher's Guide. Is it a viable teaching resource to which teachers can turn to for information and support when they plan their genre-based writing lessons?

For the purpose of this research, the Teacher's Guide of Celebrate English! 3, the most popular textbook used in Primary Three, was selected for examination to determine, firstly, if the principles of the genre approach have been sufficiently borne out to enable its users to achieve the goals set out in the Syllabus and, secondly, the extent of explicit instructional support the Teacher's Guide provides to help teachers develop their students' understanding and mastery of the written genres to be learned in school.

To determine the usefulness of the Teacher's Guide from the researcher's perspective, an overview text analysis was, first, conducted. This is, then, followed by a specific text analysis of two writing lessons, each demonstrating the instruction of a different genre. To determine the usefulness of the Teacher's Guide from the users' perspective, a teacher-opinion survey was included. Data from this survey shows that, although 96% of the teachers used the Teacher's Guide to plan their language lessons, its usefulness in terms of providing information and support for the teaching of genre-based writing is limited. Data from the text analyses shows that, although the writers of Celebrate English! 3 claim adoption of the genre approach, their translation of the theoretical principles and strategies of the approach into pedagogical practice is found much wanting.

In other words, the Teacher's Guide of Celebrate English! 3 is not a useful resource from which teachers can seek enough information and instructional support to help them teach genre-based writing well.
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"Changing landscapes" : raising genre awareness through the meaningful context of project work
(2003)
Payne, Emmeline
The purpose of this thesis was to discover whether Singaporean secondary students, participating in the meaningful context of project work and receiving explicit instructional support, could become more aware of genres. In doing so it sought to combine 'Project Work' and the 'English Language Syllabus 2001', two new government initiatives in the Singapore education system.

The focus group for this study was a class of secondary one and two students, and the project, which took the form of weekly enrichment classes, lasted one semester. Called "Changing Landscapes", it looked to explore Singapore's developing skyline from kampong to financial district.

The touchstone for the project was an interview which the students conducted with a senior citizen, after which they wrote two texts for specific audiences, the first was a historical recount and the second a narrative. The students received explicit instructional support while writing these different texts, through the use of a metalanguage.

In particular the study sought to find out whether project work was an effective context for learning about different text types, whether the students could indeed use the metalanguage as a working language and whether they were able to apply it to their own written work; also whether authentic materials and a specific audience empowered the students to write.

The field notes collected consisted of the teacher's diary, the students' completed texts, their oral and written feedback and reflections, their correspondence with their primary school pen-pals and with the teacher, two questionnaires, and the 'class work' which was undertaken along the way.

This thesis, encompassed by the multi-layered metaphor of "Changing Landscapes", charts the inception of the project, from the changing educational landscape for English language teaching in Singapore in Chapter 1, through to the theoretical foundations which underpin the approach to teaching English being advocated by this study, in Chapter 2. It also details the way in which the physical landscape of the project had a strong hand in shaping the actual project (Chapter 3), and how this informed project was realised in the classroom (Chapter 4). The students' journey through the changing social landscape of the genres is described from their starting point or rather starting points in Chapter 5, to their growing understanding of the genres (Chapter 6), and on to their movement into new territory and ultimately their independent writing in Chapter 7. The thesis ends by reflecting on this journey and considering the implications for future journeys of this kind (Chapter 8).
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Characteristics of teacher written feedback on student revision
(2003)
Lee, Sandra Seow Yen
This study investigates the effects of teacher written feedback, namely the use of advice, criticism, and praise, on students' writing in the Singapore primary school context. It aims to find out if the various characteristics of feedback will encourage student revision and, in turn, revision success. Data was collected in the form of composition scripts from 33 ten-year old students. Each student was asked to write two compositions and after teacher written feedback was given, the students had to submit a second draft for each of the scripts. In all, 132 composition scripts were collected from the students. They were then given a questionnaire to complete. The analysis of the composition scripts consisted of the identification of the errors made by the students in their original drafts and the type of changes made in their revised drafts, prompted by the three different characteristics of feedback. Three raters ranked the students' compositions using a modified version of Ferris' (1997) subjective rating scale. The revisions were then ranked according to whether the revisions were successful. The findings indicate that most students preferred feedback framed as advice and praise. They responded to the feedback on advise most positively as this led to substantive revisions but they disliked criticism. Neither substantive nor minimal change in revision resulted in revision success. These findings imply that a host of other factors could have played a part in the results. This study thus raises some pedagogical implications for the writing instruction in a Singapore primary school classroom context.
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