Research Paper: ‘The Power of Story in the ESL Classroom’ by Bonnie J. Nicholas, Marian J. Rossiter & Marilyn L. Abbott

[ELTWeekly Volume 6, Issue 3 | January 27, 2014]

Although considerable research has examined the use of literature in the second language (L2) classroom, there has been less investigation into the integration of learners’ personal stories in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom. Following Wajnryb’s (2003) categorizations of story as language learning, genre, and the creation of what she termed a “storied classroom,” this study explores the ways in which learners’ stories are used in the ESL classroom. Five ESL instructors and nine adult ESL learners enrolled in ESL classes at a settlement agency in Edmonton were interviewed about the practice, benefits, and challenges of incorporating personal stories into the L2 classroom. (more…)

Continue ReadingResearch Paper: ‘The Power of Story in the ESL Classroom’ by Bonnie J. Nicholas, Marian J. Rossiter & Marilyn L. Abbott

Research Paper: ‘The Reliability of the OWLS Written Expression Scale with ESL Kindergarten Students’by Gina L. Harrison, Keira C. Ogle & Megan Keilty

[ELTWeekly Volume 6, Issue 3 | January 27, 2014]

A reliability analysis was conducted on the Written Expression Scale from the Oral and Written Language Scales, (OWLS, Carrow-Woolfolk, 1996), with 68 ESL and 56 non-ESL kindergarten students. Interrater and internal consistency estimates for the Written Expression Scale were examined separately for each language group. Despite lower oral English vocabulary and syntactic knowledge, ESL students performed similarly on the writing measure and reliability estimates were comparable across language groups. (more…)

Continue ReadingResearch Paper: ‘The Reliability of the OWLS Written Expression Scale with ESL Kindergarten Students’by Gina L. Harrison, Keira C. Ogle & Megan Keilty
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