Papers by Dr. Michael T Gentner
rEFLections, 2019
This purposive homogeneous study explores the relationship between reading and speaking in the EF... more This purposive homogeneous study explores the relationship between reading and speaking in the EFL context and attempts to integrate the two language skills in a manner that encourages learners to practice and develop their receptive and productive capacities with greater enthusiasm. To this end, tertiary-level learners from two universities in Thailand representing six English-prominent fields of study were presented with a questionnaire, participated in structured interviews, and took part in five in-class online reading and speaking lessons designed and evaluated by this author. The study questions focused on the English reading habits of service industry and communication majors for whom English proficiency figures prominently in employment pursuits. The goal was to discover reading patterns and sources and forge links that would combine reading and speaking classroom activities. The two language skills are connected but rarely considered an alliance and thus are paired less frequently than most other language skill combinations. The results of this descriptive-correlational study found the majority of participants derived their English readings from online sources. Oral narratives read from online information sources proved to be an efficient blend of receptive reading and productive speaking performances that found favor with participants as task models.
The intent of this paper is to provide a contrastive analysis of Thai and Cambodian university st... more The intent of this paper is to provide a contrastive analysis of Thai and Cambodian university students’ use of coordinating conjunctions in English narrative writing essays. The narrative writings of 175 students at a university in Bangkok, Thailand were examined and compared to 79 related essays written by students at a University in Battambang, Cambodia. The data was used to explore the application of coordinating conjunctions as sentence extenders and propagators of constructs. The study found that although the Thai study subjects exhibited a higher distribution rate of coordinating conjunction types, the Cambodian study subjects employed coordinating conjunctions at nearly twice the frequency of Thai students resulting in a more than two-fold increase in sentence length and words per paper. The sentence length for the Cambodian subjects was within the recognized standard sentence length (15-20 words) for English academic writing while the average sentence length for the Thai s...
rEFLections Journal, Jun 26, 2019
This purposive homogeneous study explores the relationship between reading and speaking in the EF... more This purposive homogeneous study explores the relationship between reading and speaking in the EFL context and attempts to integrate the two language skills in a manner that encourages learners to practice and develop their receptive and productive capacities with greater enthusiasm. To this end, tertiary-level learners from two universities in Thailand representing six English-prominent fields of study were presented with a questionnaire, participated in structured interviews, and took part in five in-class online reading and speaking lessons designed and evaluated by this author. The study questions focused on the English reading habits of service industry and communication majors for whom English proficiency figures prominently in employment pursuits. The goal was to discover reading patterns and sources and forge links that would combine reading and speaking classroom activities. The two language skills are connected but rarely considered an alliance and thus are paired less frequently than most other language skill combinations. The results of this descriptive-correlational study found the majority of participants derived their English readings from online sources. Oral narratives read from online information sources proved to be an efficient blend of receptive reading and productive speaking performances that found favor with participants as task models.
Korean TESOL Conference Proceedings, 2017
The objective of this workshop was to offer native-speaking and Korean instructors of English a c... more The objective of this workshop was to offer native-speaking and Korean instructors of English a culturally relevant lesson design strategy for Korean EFL learners. To this end, research studies by both Korean and foreign scholars on motivation, the social-linguistic factors influencing learner behavior, and communicative competence were discussed. The combination of these circumstances was used to generate motivational task-based lessons applicable to primary-, secondary-, and tertiary-level classrooms. Designing task material to a specific indigenous audience was the result of several studies that determined the existence of ethnicity-based learning preferences and an inclination towards material that mirrors the L1 culture. Therefore, Korean students, as a result of all things historical and ethnological, have a unique set of prior knowledge perspectives. These particulars were used by the presenter and workshop attendees to construct information-gap activities where existing cognitive concepts were matched to the instructor's English input.
Nile TESOL Conference Proceedings, 2018
Abstract
Though much of the EFL literature today centers on the use of contemporary technology
wi... more Abstract
Though much of the EFL literature today centers on the use of contemporary technology
within a learner-centered medium, the majority of English language learners worldwide
are living in areas of reduced circumstances. Educational institutions, in many cases,
cannot afford multimedia or blended learning tools; nor can they incur simple textbooks.
This paper offers a perspective on activities from a task-based syllabus that provides
lessons requiring little more than pen, paper, and the resourcefulness of the second
language instructor. The lessons consist mainly of auditory activities that utilize the
second language learners’ existing cognitive concepts. The relevant feature of this taskbased
design is its dependence on the creativity of the instructor who is charged with
developing, constructing, and presenting the tasks that both engage and educate the
learners. In creating lesson material, themes associated with Arabic speaking societies
are adopted rather than culturally sensitive topics often found in the EFL/ESL generated
material dispersed by Eurocentric publishers. Allowing Arabic speaking EFL learners the
opportunity to absorb and display English from the prism of their own societal
consciousness, and in a task-based format, creates a wealth of lesson plan possibilities.
Jeonju University Dissertations (Serial publication room), 2010
Journal of Asia TEFL, 2018
EFL practitioners are often reminded that the age of digital connectivity as an instrument of cl... more EFL practitioners are often reminded that the age of digital connectivity as an instrument of classroom learning is upon us. Administrators in institutions worldwide explain how the new generation is redefining modern academia and the future of second language pedagogy. Conventionalists are resigning themselves to the role of pure facilitator as their once prominent position in the classroom is reduced even further. Lessons planners are encouraged to incorporate motives for connectivity and causes for learners to have, at the ready, their pads, tablets, and the darling of all digital apparatuses—the cell phone. Having replaced the pencil as a learner’s indispensible handheld companion, these mobile devices are concurrently gaining support as a learning tool and criticized for their contribution to teen social isolation, addictive behavior, and the sharp rise in youth suicide. Morgan (2008) calls attention to the amount of electronical learning available and asks whether the pressure from institutional administrators and digital tech suppliers to acquire the latest innovations isn’t clouding their real compatibility to the objectives of a course. Warranted or not, they have become the very symbol of a modern classroom and institutions wishing to stay ahead of the curve are employing all manner and means to include these and other computer assisted language learning mechanisms into their EFL stratagem. For instructors who have not softened their view on ceding ground to these interlopers, finding a common ground is central to maintaining the class dynamic in an era that is hastening the approach of what might soon be referred to as the cell phone-centered classroom. Many of those in support of in-class mobile connectivity recall fleeting attempts at restriction and retribution. Gathering student devices upon entering a given institution was comparable to herding cats. Students offered every excuse for retaining their cellular companions and, with a general lack of parental backing, the idea of confiscation was deemed an exercise in futility. With deliberate speed, the prohibitists movement lost its teeth and the populists prevailed. Looking at the advantages became the new mantra as educational facilities in much of the world bowed out of the fight and settled on a don’t ask don’t tell arrangement. To reject modernity in its many forms is to be old school, antiquated, a timeworn anachronism, and having one foot out to pasture. It’s to one’s benefit to be liberal in resolve and take what Brown (2014:73) refers to as a Utilitarianism or Ostracism temperament. On balance however, the cacophony of dings, vibrations, and other audible warnings of outside forces crashing the lesson and leading learners astray is a genuine cause for concern. Listening to the instructor with one ear and reading textbooks, handouts, and the board with one eye is thoroughly insupportable.
Proceedings from 4th Foreign Language Learning and Teaching Conference , 2016
This paper examines research findings on the impact of oral narrative tasks, the importance of ca... more This paper examines research findings on the impact of oral narrative tasks, the importance of caretaker speech, and their role in the construction of task-based activities in the Thai EFL classroom. The general aim of this study was to merge interrelated research findings put forth by Thai and foreign scholars on the developmental and socio-linguistic conditions influencing learner attitudes and communicative cognition as a consequence of oral narrative instruction. To this end the analyses were drawn largely from international linguistic scholars on the ethnologic mental processes (e.g. cognitive, psychological, and analytical) as well as the socio-linguistic characteristics of Thai EFL learners. The combination of the two constituents provides a path by which EFL instructors can formulate and administer oral narrative/storytelling lesson plans using caretaker speech. The task designs in the sample modules are consistent with the auditory learning preferences of Thai students and thus figure prominently in the implementation of motivational information-gap lesson plans. The composition of these tasks may be adjusted to suit the needs of primary, secondary, and tertiary level learners. Lessons in keeping with CLT-based social constructivism particulars run in opposition to rote memorization lessons. The grammar/translation approach, that has for decades been the dominating method of language learning, has generated little enthusiasm in the classroom and thus the need for alternative communicative-based lesson plans are in demand.
Asian EFL Journal, 2016
As the importance of English in Indonesia gathers force, a style of teaching, instep with the glo... more As the importance of English in Indonesia gathers force, a style of teaching, instep with the globally accepted and established communicative approach, is sought. The present discussion addresses the issue of how the unique interplay between cognition, cultural literacy, economic realities, and learner preferences in Indonesia propagates the use of advanced organizer lesson plans in a task-based framework, and how prior knowledge and situated inference activating devices correspond to auditory-based tasks. Considerable attention is devoted to activities moored to the oral narrative or storytelling modality as a vehicle by which tasks are administered. Explanations of, and rationale for the use of advanced organizer material in the ESL classroom are proffered and interspersed with accounts examining learner percepts to such activities and theoretical research that draws on the existing endorsements of scholars both international and Indonesian. The analysis concludes with the particulars of advanced organizer task constructions.
Thai TESOL Journal, 2016
This study presents an analysis of definite, indefinite, and zero article selections made by 153 ... more This study presents an analysis of definite, indefinite, and zero article selections made by 153 Thai freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior university English majors and a control group consisting of 21 non-English major international students in a gap-fill cloze procedure format essay. The 27 gap-fill responses of each student were coded based on a taxonomy of English article conditions and requirements. The data were used to examine patterns in article selection, or no selection, for reference structures and to determine if accuracy in article function assimilation showed improvement between freshman and senior years of English instruction. Statistically the study found that the average number of article selection errors remained consistent within all tertiary levels and the control group suggesting no equitable progress in article-need recognition, with the types and positioning of errors varying appreciably. The results exhibited a lack of symmetric distribution suggesting random or erratic selections due largely to a deficiently in the assimilation of specificity and definiteness. The international student control group displayed the highest success rate for proper article identification, expressly in anaphoric references, whereas the sophomore subjects scored lowest in article ascription, notably the overuse of the definite and zero articles. The data produced from this research would be of use in determining where learners are most disorientated in their understanding of article usage and creates opportunities for instructors to develop the materials necessary to foster more accurate article discernment and momentum from one academic phase to the next.
Panyapiwat Institute Journal, 2016
The intent of this paper is to provide a contrastive analysis of Thai and Cambodian university st... more The intent of this paper is to provide a contrastive analysis of Thai and Cambodian university students' use of coordinating conjunctions in English narrative writing essays. The narrative writings of 175 students at a university in Bangkok, Thailand were examined and compared to 79 related essays written by students at a University in Battambang, Cambodia. The data was used to explore the application of coordinating conjunctions as sentence extenders and propagators of constructs. The study found that although the Thai study subjects exhibited a higher distribution rate of coordinating conjunction types, the Cambodian study subjects employed coordinating conjunctions at nearly twice the frequency of Thai students resulting in a more than twofold increase in sentence length and words per paper. The sentence length for the Cambodian subjects was within the recognized standard sentence length (15-20 words) for English academic writing while the average sentence length for the Thai subjects was nearly six words below average.
Thesis Chapters by Dr. Michael T Gentner
Jeonju University Dissertations , 2010
The primary goal of this research is to examine student reactions to task material presented in t... more The primary goal of this research is to examine student reactions to task material presented in the non-assessed, native English speaking instructor EFL high school classroom and to establish which task types are appropriate and incongruous to the Korean learners’ disposition. Definitions as to what a task signifies vary depending on the researcher. In general, a task can be defined as “an activity that requires learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some processes of thought, and which al10ws teachers to control and regulate that process" (Prabhu, 1987: 17).
The findings in this paper may assist current and future EFL instructors in the design and presentation of tasks and prompt alterations and improvements in pedagogical strategies. Korean high school students are exposed to a rigorous academic schedule and pressure to achieve a respectable scholastic ranking in preparation for the CSAT. Long hours of studying multiple disciplines brings about enervating attention levels that challenge the native speaking instructor’s ability to provide motivational task material.
In this research, thirteen task types representing diverse task configurations were presented to twenty-nine second-year high school students over the course of one academic school year. Seven of these tasks were repeated in the second semester with variations for a total of twenty task sessions. Direct observations, with four tasks offering extracts from field notes, a questionnaire, interviews, and references from literature in the field of second language acquisition were employed to determine which task types produced favorable and unfavorable learner responses.
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Papers by Dr. Michael T Gentner
Though much of the EFL literature today centers on the use of contemporary technology
within a learner-centered medium, the majority of English language learners worldwide
are living in areas of reduced circumstances. Educational institutions, in many cases,
cannot afford multimedia or blended learning tools; nor can they incur simple textbooks.
This paper offers a perspective on activities from a task-based syllabus that provides
lessons requiring little more than pen, paper, and the resourcefulness of the second
language instructor. The lessons consist mainly of auditory activities that utilize the
second language learners’ existing cognitive concepts. The relevant feature of this taskbased
design is its dependence on the creativity of the instructor who is charged with
developing, constructing, and presenting the tasks that both engage and educate the
learners. In creating lesson material, themes associated with Arabic speaking societies
are adopted rather than culturally sensitive topics often found in the EFL/ESL generated
material dispersed by Eurocentric publishers. Allowing Arabic speaking EFL learners the
opportunity to absorb and display English from the prism of their own societal
consciousness, and in a task-based format, creates a wealth of lesson plan possibilities.
Thesis Chapters by Dr. Michael T Gentner
The findings in this paper may assist current and future EFL instructors in the design and presentation of tasks and prompt alterations and improvements in pedagogical strategies. Korean high school students are exposed to a rigorous academic schedule and pressure to achieve a respectable scholastic ranking in preparation for the CSAT. Long hours of studying multiple disciplines brings about enervating attention levels that challenge the native speaking instructor’s ability to provide motivational task material.
In this research, thirteen task types representing diverse task configurations were presented to twenty-nine second-year high school students over the course of one academic school year. Seven of these tasks were repeated in the second semester with variations for a total of twenty task sessions. Direct observations, with four tasks offering extracts from field notes, a questionnaire, interviews, and references from literature in the field of second language acquisition were employed to determine which task types produced favorable and unfavorable learner responses.
Though much of the EFL literature today centers on the use of contemporary technology
within a learner-centered medium, the majority of English language learners worldwide
are living in areas of reduced circumstances. Educational institutions, in many cases,
cannot afford multimedia or blended learning tools; nor can they incur simple textbooks.
This paper offers a perspective on activities from a task-based syllabus that provides
lessons requiring little more than pen, paper, and the resourcefulness of the second
language instructor. The lessons consist mainly of auditory activities that utilize the
second language learners’ existing cognitive concepts. The relevant feature of this taskbased
design is its dependence on the creativity of the instructor who is charged with
developing, constructing, and presenting the tasks that both engage and educate the
learners. In creating lesson material, themes associated with Arabic speaking societies
are adopted rather than culturally sensitive topics often found in the EFL/ESL generated
material dispersed by Eurocentric publishers. Allowing Arabic speaking EFL learners the
opportunity to absorb and display English from the prism of their own societal
consciousness, and in a task-based format, creates a wealth of lesson plan possibilities.
The findings in this paper may assist current and future EFL instructors in the design and presentation of tasks and prompt alterations and improvements in pedagogical strategies. Korean high school students are exposed to a rigorous academic schedule and pressure to achieve a respectable scholastic ranking in preparation for the CSAT. Long hours of studying multiple disciplines brings about enervating attention levels that challenge the native speaking instructor’s ability to provide motivational task material.
In this research, thirteen task types representing diverse task configurations were presented to twenty-nine second-year high school students over the course of one academic school year. Seven of these tasks were repeated in the second semester with variations for a total of twenty task sessions. Direct observations, with four tasks offering extracts from field notes, a questionnaire, interviews, and references from literature in the field of second language acquisition were employed to determine which task types produced favorable and unfavorable learner responses.