Teacher Research

Instructed SLA Research Proposal

My research proposal in FLT 860 was focused on implicit and explicit instruction in the language classroom. I focused my research on grammar instruction in the language classroom. The study included 30 native English speaking high school Spanish learners. Before beginning the study students were to participate in a pretest containing 50 sentences in randomized order. Sentences consist of 20 phrases with verbs correctly and incorrectly written and 30 sentences used as distractors. Learners will be asked to choose if the sentence is written correctly, incorrectly, or there is no verb in the sentence. Following the pretest, 15 students received grammar instruction in the implicit form while the other 15 were explicitly taught grammar. Both groups were provided activities daily to build and observe their grammar progression. After receiving a week of implicit or explicit instruction, students were given a posttest. The posttest included the same 50 questions from the pretest in randomized order. A delayed posttest would be given at a later date to determine the long term memory of the learners.

Spires_FLT860_ClassroomResearch_FINAL.docx

Intercultural Research

In FLT 815, I was asked to research someone who I would consider to have intercultural competence. I was required to have two interviews of a minimum of 30 minutes with my person of choice. Questions for the interview were to gain information about my informant regarding her abroad experiences and cultural interactions and growth through living in various cities and countries around the world.

Spires_FLT815_InterculturalPaperFINAL.docx