Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, EDU Teaching and Learning

Argumentative writing is a crucial skill in the school years and beyond, and there is an emphasis in various local, state, and national standards on argumentative writing. However, such writing is known to be a challenging and complex genre for English Learners (ELs) with limited English proficiency as well as cultural differences in terms of how argumentative thought and writing are conceptualized (Hirvela, 2013). It can be equally challenging and complex for many English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers, who are often ill-equipped for writing instruction (Larsen, 2013, 2016). From a research perspective, there have been few studies exploring the abilities and needs of ESL teachers as relates to instruction in argumentation, especially in high school settings, where various learning and achievement standards are increasingly requiring a focus on argumentation despite the difficulty of teaching and learning argumentative writing regarding ELs. To address the gaps in the scholarship discussed above, this dissertation explores how a ESL teacher, Ms. Patrick, sought to develop her expertise in teaching argumentative writing in a suburban high-school ESL class for ELs over a two-year period using a classroom-based research methodology that involved ongoing observations of her class sessions, interviews with her and her students, and examination of her teaching activities and materials as well as her students' responses to her instruction. This study employed as an analytical tool the notion of expertise, particularly a distinction between what is known as routine and adaptive expertise, to examine how Ms. Patrick initiated and engaged in change as a teacher over time with respect to her understanding of argumentative writing, her curricular planning, and her instructional activities. The study's findings revealed that Ms. Patrick acquired at least a degree of Hedgcock and Lee's (2017) three types of knowledge essential for ESL teachers: (1) subject matter knowled (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alan Hirvela (Advisor); George Newell (Committee Member) Subjects: English As A Second Language; Pedagogy; Teacher Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, East Asian Languages and Literatures

Abstract Effective language learning entails a lifelong experience of performing the target language in meaningful contexts. Assuring the effectiveness of a language program therefore requires us to assess our students' performances throughout their learning career. Standardized foreign language assessment such as OPI, however, is found problematic in many aspects and cannot meet the needs to recommend foreign language learners for employment. This study therefore proposes a paradigm shift by switching the focus of assessment from “proficiency” to “expertise.” By bridging the advances in studies of expertise in the field of cognitive psychology and what is emerging in the field of foreign language pedagogy, this dissertation consists of two sub-studies. The first study operationalized the concept of “expertise” in using Chinese as a foreign language. To identify characteristics working towards expertise, the author shadowed two Americans subjects who speak Chinese at work, interviewed them and their Chinese counterparts working with them on the subject of domain-related Chinese use. The study found non-native expert users of Chinese possessed a highly developed communicative repertoire characterized by colloquial expressions including regional and dialectical usage and by formal expressions including occupational use of jargons, literary allusions, and formulaic polite speech. Moreover, experts are able to manipulate these discourse features skillfully, in an automated and creative manner. The achieved automaticity can be seen from the expert's ability to hold new information in short-term memory while continuing the on-going interactions. Moreover, their ability to repurpose the linguistic forms for their own communicative intention marks the achieved flexibility in indexing socio-cultural information through language practices. The second study explores how a domain-related performance given by a non-native expert user of Chinese is assessed by peo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Walker Galal (Advisor); Mari Noda (Committee Member); Xiaobin Jian (Committee Member) Subjects: Foreign Language