LEXICO-SEMANTIC FEATURES OF NIGERIAN ENGLISH THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES, (IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (M.A), ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

ABSTRACT
The global spread of the English language as one of the most far-reaching linguistic phenomena of our time is already an established fact. Evidence of this worldwide phenomenon of language contact, variation and change can be seen through such designation as world English, modern English, West African English, South African English, Australian English, Indian English, Nigerian English, etc. The phrase ‘Nigerian English’ has appeared in the last four decades or so. The purpose of this study is to describe the lexico-semantic features that mark Nigerian English as a distinct variety of English.
The features are considered along ten different categories, namely: loan shift/semantic extension, semantic shift, coinages, clichés, translation equivalents, direct borrowing, acronyms, analogical process, back formation and blends. It is concluded that since Nigerian English is productive at the level of lexico-semantics, it has some implications for the pedagogy of English, as it relates to the acquisition of communicative competence in the language.

LANGUAGE BEHAVIOUR AND ITS EFFECTS IN A MULTILINGUAL SETTING: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION OF OGORI/MAGONGO PEOPLE OF KOGI STATE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES...

ABSTRACT
Multilingualism has been defined as the ability of an individual to speak two or more languages in any communicative event. Therefore, intra-group societal multilingualism is a situation where a speech community has access to two or more languages without any of the languages threatening the existence of the other. The study seeks to find out how Ogori/Magongo people, who are multilingual, use the various languages they speak in that setting and the effects this behaviour produces in them. The aim is to understand the impact of multilingualism on a population where more than one language is in use. Fishman’s theory of language choice in a multilingual setting has been adopted as the framework for this study because of its suitability. In doing this, the questionnaire and interview methods were adopted to elicit responses from the respondents, in addition to non-participant observation method. The findings revealed that certain factors like topic, domain of interaction and role relation determine who speaks what language to whom, when and why in that setting. Also, the study has established that intra-group societal multilingualism is stable and widespread in Ogori/Magongo as well as the fact that multilingualism has positive impact in the behavior of Ogori/Magongo which has given
them wide range of choice of languages.

VERB ACQUISITION IN STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE: LANGUAGE LEARNING BACKGROUND AND ATTITUDES A Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in The Interdepartmental Program in Linguistics

Abstract
In order to determine how learner background and learner attitudes affected English as a
Second Language students’ verb production, eleven ESL learners participated in both oral and written tasks. They were given written surveys to determine what was emphasized more in
learning English in their home countries: speaking or writing. Another survey was administered to determine which of these activities that they liked best. Next, the subjects watched a movie clip, wrote about it, and then spoke about it. Their written and spoken total amount of verbs produced and total amount of verbs used correctly were compared and analyzed to see if there was a relationship between their learning background and production in speaking and writing and activity preference and production in speaking and writing. While the sample size was too small to obtain reliable correlations, so several subjects’ samples were studied in order to determine the effects of preference on production. In the end, individual differences played the largest role in verb production and there was a slight but noticeable relationship between a preference for speaking and amount of verbs produced.

A CASE STUDY OF A TEACHER’S QUESTIONS IN AN ENGLISH SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL) CLASSROOM THESIS Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION (ENGLISH SECOND LANGUAGE)

ABSTRACT
This research study seeks to explore and understand the way a Form C (the third year of high school) teacher asks questions in an English second language (ESL) classroom in a high school in Lesotho.
As this is a small-scale study on a teacher’s questions in a familiar setting, an ethnographic stance was adopted.  The researcher adopted the role of non-participant observer, recorded three different lesson types and took observational notes.  She transcribed the lessons and used the transcription to interview both the teacher and the students.   The interviews were recorded and transcribed by the researcher.  She then analysed the classroom and interview data and invited the teacher to respond to the analysis she had made.  The interview was also recorded and transcribed.
The findings indicated that the teacher asked most questions in the three lesson types. He asked mainly lower order question. However, the nature of the questions varied according to the intentions of the teacher, even when the lesson type was the same.
Although it is difficult to generalize from a small-scale study like this one, it is believed that this study has been beneficial in raising awareness about the nature and role of questions in classroom interaction, and also in raising awareness of the teacher. Consciousness raising may be essential to educators and researchers. Moreover, this research may enable educators to theorize their practice.

3) POSITIVE FEEDBACK LOOPS IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES.

ABSTRACT

An abstract of the thesis of David Reigel for the Master of Arts in Teaching English
to Speakers of Other Languages presented February 10, 2005.

Title: Positive Feedback Loops in Second Language Learning


What are the effects of positive feedback on student learning in the English language classroom? This study applies ideas from complexity theory to find a
correlation between oral feedback and student language proficiency. The researcher collected data from digital recordings of adult students (N = 41) who attended 3
consecutive terms at the Portland State University Lab School. During the focused observation, the researcher recorded tokens of praise, affirmation, laughter, and
nodding given by teachers and students in response to target student Interlanguage. Students provide far more affirmation than praise tokens to their peers, while
teachers issue nearly equal frequencies of affirmation and praise tokens to students.  Statistical tests support the hypothesis that the rate of positive feedback
received has an impact on English as a Second Language student course level promotion. A multiple linear regression analysis controls for the effects of
confounding student variables such as initial course level, gender, and first language. A logistic regression analysis shows that rate of oral positive feedback significantly
predicts English as a Second Language course level promotion.

The role of gender and language learning strategies in learning english, THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES , IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING (09)

ABSTRACT

THE ROLE OF GENDER AND LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES IN LEARNING  ENGLISH

This study intended to investigate the language learning strategies used by learners of English as a foreign language, aiming to find the amount of strategies and the domain differences of the strategies used; to reveal the link between strategy use and success levels; and to find out the difference in strategy use between genders and its influence on their achievement in English.
(153 male, 104 female) students from Atılım University English Preparatory School participated in the study. At the time of the study all the participants were in the
same proficiency level, and were distributed to different classes of the same level. The data were gathered through strategy inventory for language learning (SILL) of
Oxford (1990), which was translated to Turkish by Cesur and Fer (2007).

The instrument, based on Oxford’s (1990) classification of the language learning strategies, is composed of 50 items in six subscales. The participants responded to the
inventory before the end of the level they were in. The data were analyzed through SPSS (15.0) to find the relationship of language
learning strategies, gender and achievement in learning the target language. To reveal the interconnections between these factors, independent t-tests and an ANOVA test, along with post hoc procedures were performed on the gathered data.
The findings of the study revealed that use of language learning strategies are positively effective in success in English, that females were significantly more successful
than males in terms of achievement tests, and that they used more language learning strategies in learning English. Depending on the statistical results, it is discovered that there is a significant connection between gender, language learning strategies and achievement in English.

1.) HELPING MAINSTREAM TEACHERS LEARN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS A Capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English as a Second Language.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION (in brief)

The Scenario
Vowels were something else. He didn't like them and they didn't like him. There were only five of them, but they seemed to be everywhere. Why,
you could go through twenty words without bumping into some of the shyer consonants, but it seemed as if you couldn't tiptoe past a syllable
without waking up a vowel. Consonants, you know pretty much where you stood, but you could never trust a vowel.
How many times do our students feel this same way as Maniac Magee, a character created by author Jerry Spinelli? There are only five vowel symbols in the
English language, yet these five vowels alone, or with another vowel, can create over a dozen different sounds. To an English Language Learner (ELL), these vowels can create confusion when learning how to perceive and produce vowel sounds. Which sound should they choose? There are rules to follow to help a speaker know what vowel sound to pronounce, but these rules can sometimes be confusing even to native English speakers. To further complicate things, some of these students are just being introduced to the idea of learning to read!
Any mainstream teacher who has ever taught reading knows how students experience frustration over learning the English vowels and their numerous sounds, but
what about the ELLs who are in science class and not only have to weed through science vocabulary and concepts but also have to read and understand the concepts in a language which they still do not completely understand. Or, the math classroom where the teacher explains a concept orally, using content specific words to explain a technically difficult content based problem. Words such as however, compare and contrast, likewise, until, furthermore are used in all disciplines but not taught by all teachers. ............