PDF DOCUMENT RESUME ED 386 938 FL 023 251 AUTHOR Carney, Thomas A ...

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Carney, Thomas A. The Effects of Formal Instruction on the Oral Production of WH Questions by Adult ESL Students. 95 71p.; Master's Thesis, William Paterson College, New Jersey. Reports Research/Technical (143)

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MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. Adult Education; Adult Students; Classroom Techniques; Comparative Analysis; *English (Second Language); *Grammar; Instructional Effectiveness; *Language Proficiency; Language Tests; Oral Language; Second Language Instruction; *Sentence Structure; Testing Questions; *Wh Questions

ABSTRACT A study investigated the effects of eight sessions of

classroom instruction on the ability of adult learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) to produce Wh- questions orally. Preliminary assessment of the students' writing samples enabled classification of two groups: "proficient" (n=6), consistently able to produce written samples of Wh- questions with subject-verb inversion; and "non-proficient" (n=5), who had not attained this stage. Comparison of pretest and post-test oral scores found that neither group improved in grammatical accuracy of these interrogatives. The "proficient" group had been expected to show statistically significant improvement. However, the instruction was effective in increasing students' oral readiness to produce these questions. Contains 17 references. (MSE)

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THE EFFECTS OF FORMAL INSTRUCTION ON THE ORAL PRODUCTION OF WH QUESTIONS BY ADULT ESL STUDENTS

by THOMAS A. CARNEY

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TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Mice ot Educational Research and Improvement DUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION

CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as

eived from the person or organization originating it.

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Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy.

This is a research paper submitted for CIEE 609/610, Research in Education I & II, to Prof. Rochelle G. Kaplan, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters Degree In Education at William Paterson College.

1995

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Abstract

THE EFFECTS OF FORMAL INSTRUCTION.ON THE ORAL PRODUCTION OF WH QUESTIONS BY ADULT ESL STUDENTS

by Thomas A. Carney Thesis Advisor: Rochelle G. Kaplan Major Advisor: Keumsil Kim Yoon This study involved the effects that eight sessions of classroom instruction had on the ability of adult learners of English to orally produce WH questions. A preliminary assessment of the class' writing samples enabled the classification of two groups; the "proficient" group comprised six subjects who were consistently able to produce written samples of WH questions with subject-verb inversion, and five subjects with the lowest scores constituted the "non-proficient" group, who were assessed as not having attained this developmental stage. Findings based on comparisons of pretest and posttest oral scores found that neither group improved in grammatical accuracy of these interrogative types. The "proficient" group was expected to demonstrate

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a statistically significant improvement in this regard, so the first hypothesis was not supported.

The second hypothesis, which was concerned with the quantitative increases that both groups were expected to demonstrate, was supported by the findings. Results appear to indiCate that the type of instruction that was utilized failed to increase the grammatical accuracy of these specific.syntactical structures (WH questions). The findings of the study indicate, however, that the instruction was effective in increasing the oral readiness of the subjects to produce these types of interrogatives.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ChaOter

I.

II.

Introduction

1

Overview

1

Review of the Literature

2

.

Effects of Formal Instruction 3

Acquisitional Sequence of

Question Types

15

Summary of the Literature Review 22

Statement of the Problem

25

Purpose of the Study

25

Definition of Variables

26

Hypotheses

28

Methods

30

Subjects

30

Materials

31

Procedures

33

Preliminary Assessment

33

Pretest

35

Intervention Procedures

36

Posttests

37

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