ELC Research Agenda

Learner Variables

1. Language Learning Strategies
   • What effect does strategy training (metacognitive, affective, cognitive) have on rate of language proficiency gain?
2. Individual Differences
   • What makes a successful language learner overall? What makes someone successful in each skill area (reading, writing, speaking, listening)?
   • What factors make some students more proficient in one skill area than another? For example, what characteristics do students that are very proficient orally yet have difficulty with writing have?
   • What effect do individual learner characteristics (learning styles, age, L1 in home, etc.) contribute to rate of gain in language proficiency?
3. Students' Goals
   • What are the English language goals of the students? How well does the curriculum and teaching meet these goals?
   • What is the success rate in reaching these goals?
   • What effect does TOEFL preparation have on overall learning in an intensive English program?
4. Technology
   • What is the relationship between the frequency of using CALL and improvement in listening, speaking, reading, or writing?
   • What combination of presentation (pictures, sound, film, etc.) increase language gains?
   • What is the effect of using mostly technology in a class setting as opposed to using teacher-facilitated, non-technology based, traditional approaches?
   • How do links between the lab and the classroom affect student use of the SASC and its resources?
5. Students' backgrounds
   • How much out of class time of an ELC student is spent using English?

Curriculum Design and Development

1. Content across levels
   • How much overlap in content do students get between level classes? What effect does this overlap have on their language acquisition?
   • How well does the curriculum for each level complement and enhance that from the level before or after it?
   • How much overlap is there within a level between skill areas?
2. Goals
   • What are the curriculum goals of the ELC?
   • What is the success rate in reaching these goals?
   • What is the relationship between the ELC curriculum and the goals the ELC has for its students?
   • What is the relationship between the ELC curriculum and the students' personal goals?
3. Collaborative learning
   • What instructional sequences and approaches work most effectively for different groups of learners (e.g., low-level readers or learners with professional degrees)?
4. Materials
   • How well are our materials (in class or in the SASC) meeting students' needs in listening, speaking, reading and writing?
   • What is the language content (vocabulary, grammar, etc.) of the materials being used?
5. Skill Areas
   • Across skill areas
     • What are the language tasks (in listening, speaking, reading and writing) required of BYU undergraduate students in general education classes? How well does the ELC curriculum prepare students for those tasks?
     • How do the post-ELC BYU-accepted students perform academically?
     • What are the effects on language acquisition of integration vs. separation of skills?
     • How well are skill area objectives related across skill areas?
   • Reading
     • How are teachers using technology in their reading classes? Is it effective in helping the class reach the goals the teachers have?
     • What is the relationship between the level reading rate goals established in the curriculum and actual student performance?
     • What instructional activities can be done to increase students reading rate and comprehension scores?
     • What instructional activities can be done to teach readers (better) decoding skills? What effect do those decoding skills have on comprehension skills?
     • What effect does letting students choose all their extensive reading books vs. having teachers choose the books for the class to read together have on reading proficiency gain?
     • Which vocabulary is most easily learned in context and which needs to be taught explicitly? For example, if a class reads a novel together, which words will most likely be acquired naturally and which ones will only be acquired if they are explicitly taught?
     • How much vocabulary overlap is there between expository and narrative in books that are written for young adults and adults? Looking at Dee Gardner's research with books written at the 5th grade level, will the results be comparable for older audiences?
     • What's more effective in motivating students to do extensive reading: extrinsic motivation through test washback or cultivating intrinsic motivation by teaching the value of extensive reading?
     • What is the difference between skills needed to read narrations and those needed to read exposition?
   • Writing
     • What is the relationship between the content of the feedback given by teachers and the level of language proficiency of the writer?
   • Vocabulary
     • What is the effect of teaching collocations and formulaic sequences on acquisition/fluency?
     • How does vocabulary knowledge correlate with other proficiencies?
     • What is the best method for teaching vocabulary (isolation, context, combinations, morphology awareness raising, dictionary usage, strategies chunks (phrases) literal vs. nonliteral, text signaling)
     • What is the core ELC vocabulary across the curriculum? General vs. ESP vs. EAP?
     • What is the core vocabulary knowledge (e.g. recognition, production, verbal, written) of the students at the different proficiency levels?
   • Grammar
     • How does integrating grammar with another skill area impact grammar production?
     • How effective is the coverage of grammar concepts in each proficiency level?
     • What is the effect of testing grammar in isolation versus testing it in connection with writing and/or speaking skills?
     • What is the effect of teaching grammar in a separate course versus teaching it in writing and listening speaking classes?

Teacher/Teaching Variables

1. Teacher's Background
   • What experiences, values, knowledge, and skills characterize effective adult ESL teachers?
   • What can we do to help our teachers acquire these experiences, values, knowledge and skills?
2. Teacher training
   • What types of linguistics classes/training best prepare teachers for teaching in adult ESL programs?
   • How do BYU's TESOL graduate students perceive the usefulness of the training in courses when applied to teaching at the ELC?
3. Teacher development
   • What are the professional development needs of our teachers? Do we meet these needs?
   • How well do we meet the needs of new teachers?
4. Needs assessment
   • How do teachers use needs assessments in their classes? What effect does needs assessment have on teaching? Learning?
5. Teacher collaboration
   • How much do the teachers collaborate with each other? Does this help them become better teachers? Does it help their students learn better?

Testing and Evaluation

1. Rater Behavior and Training
   • How do raters use the speaking and writing rating scales?
   • How effective are computerized rater training programs?
   • How valid are the rating scales?
2. Assessing Progress
   • What amount of progress can be expected of typical students?
   • What affects progress in language learning (learning styles, strategy use, L1, etc.)?
3. Useful Test Feedback
   • What is effective feedback to students, teachers, and administrators on tests?
4. Test Validity
   • How well do scores on assessment instruments at each level document changes in learner performance?
   • How reliable and valid are scores obtained through computer-rated essays?
   • How well do our assessments predict students' success after the ELC (either at a university or in a job situation)?
   • How valid are the cut scores on the placement and achievement exams?
   • How well do our diagnostic exams show strengths and weaknesses?
5. Standardized Exams
   • What is the correlation between the TOEFL and LATS?
6. Technology
   • What effect does reading on a computer screen vs. reading on paper have on student test scores? How do the students feel about both ways of reading?
7. Test Tasks
   • How do task characteristics affect task difficulty?
8. Specific Skill area Testing
   • Vocabulary
     • What is the best way to measure vocabulary knowledge?
   • Grammar
     • How can grammar production items in LATS be tested through speaking samples and writing samples?
   • Reading
     • How well do reading portfolios measure reading ability?
     • How reliable and valid are current ELC reading exams?
   • Writing
     • How well do writing portfolios measure writing ability?
     • What factors should be considered when judging writing ability?
9. Language Acquisition
   • Systematically collect rated samples of student test data-listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar.
   • Document the nature of spoken learner English at key proficiency levels: Create a corpus of learner English. Collect about 20 samples each form five different L1 backgrounds at 5 different proficiency levels. Tentatively, the samples would include a formal OPI interview, samples of data from the LATs, some oral journal entries and perhaps some spontaneous speech samples. The purpose of the corpus would be to provide a database through which research could be done on the nature of spoken learner English and what it means linguistically and sociolinguistically to be a novice learner or high intermediate learner.