Life Without Grammar Equals Chaos, Article Writing Example

Abstract

Communicating coherently in the English language requires a comprehensive understanding of the proper use of grammar.  Instruction of English as a Second Language (ESL)/English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at the fundamental levels may not collectively include sufficient instruction that enables students to successfully transition to English language courses in higher learning institutions.  Education is construed as an imperative aspect of an individual’s life in America and the cornerstone of any educational model is undoubtedly the teacher(Lam, 2006).  The efficacy of the teacher’s ability to grammatically instruct their students additionally impacts the individual’s ability to acquire the second language. Furthermore, students that are attempting to become bi or multi-lingual do not always speak properly, illustrating that code-switching and code-mixing are common phenomena in speech when at least two languages exist in a community (Annamali, 1989).  The ability of the teacher to effectively interpret student communication and respond in grammatically appropriate manners is imperative to the proper development of the target language as it models such actions for the student to mimic. This discourse will discuss the importance of grammatical comprehension for ESL/EFL students with respect to educator efficacy, examining how teachers impact grammar and overall literacy development.

Life without Grammar Equals Chaos: Introspection on the Value of Grammar & the Educator in ESL/EFL Language Acquisition

Introduction

Regardless of whether an individual speaks English as a first language (L1) or is learning English as a Second Language (ESL)/English as a Foreign Language (EFL), grammar is extremely important.  The specifics of grammar help us as well as those we communicate with understand specifics such as when an event occurred (time), which requires the use of grammatical incidentals (Goldenberg, 2008).  This includes phrases such as‘has happened’, ‘had happened’, ‘is happening’, and ‘will happen’, all of which are used to communicate tenses and provide temporal differentiation. Theorists that ascribe to the naturist perspective surmise that grammar is innate, positing that it will emerge when it is ready and basically hopetheir students will learn grammar via reading, writing, listening, and speaking (Dai, 2010).  In some societies, the expected means of communication is code-switched speechand code-mixing, which were previously as interference phenomena among imperfect bilinguals but these entities have come to be recognized as imperative and indispensable communication strategies (Gluth, 2008).  Consequently, instruction based on this method does not rely onformal classroom instruction of grammar, which has been evidenced to be erroneous sincestudents’progress to freshman English classes without a proper comprehension of grammar and freshman courses are designed to teach writing and not grammar (Chen, Kyle, & McIntyre, 2008).This discourse will demonstrate that grammarmust be a taught course in non-English speaking environments, such as ESL/EFL/Foundation classes in order for students that do not speak English as their native language to properly grasp the grammatical foundations necessary to progress further with English reading and writing courses.

Research Questions

Research has indicated that a teacher’s effect on their students is often the result of the students’ psychological responses to the teacher’s behavior, and the instructor’s behavior is dependent upon their satisfaction with the job(Wei, Brok, & Zhou, 2009).  The reputation of an educational institution and its subsequent influence on the lives of those within the community it serves invariably depends on the kind of instructorsemployed therein, which is a reflection of the training they have received.  In this dimension, the degree of satisfaction an educator experiences from his/her employment deeply impacts their dedication to successfully fulfilling their duties, and thus, their efficacy as an educator (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2008).  The many dimensions influencing job satisfaction has been combined within these four facets, which includes: teacher learning, professionalism, inter-personal relations, and innovation(Chen, Kyle, & McIntyre, 2008).Teacher learning denotes the accessibility of new pedagogical knowledge to instruct theeducatorin the most relevant methods to successfully cope with new situations, successfully preside over their classes, encourage their student’s active participation in the lessons, implement innovative techniques for teaching, and develop a systematic plan to present the curriculum(Suryanarayana & Luciana, 2010).

Professionalism is strongly relative to the degree of job security and social prestige the educational professional associates with the instructor’s role in molding young minds, the amount of appreciation expressed from the community for their efforts, and the individual’s perception of their ability to help students resolve their problems (Suryanarayana & Luciana, 2010).  Inter-personal aspects are correlated with the types of relationships educators form with their peers, colleagues, students, parents, higher authorities,and any additional personnel that participate in the successful functioning of the school (Chen, Kyle, & McIntyre, 2008; Chow, 1993).  Innovation is indicative of the level of creativity, novel techniques in teaching, participation in cultural activities, and co-curricular or social welfare activities the educator implements during their tenure (Suryanarayana & Luciana, 2010).  All of these attributes are relative to successful instruction in grammar because the pedagogical training an instructor receives can be directly measured or linked to the progress of their students as well as their satisfaction.  However, despite the establishment of these benchmarks, gauging the level of a teacher’s job satisfaction remains a difficult task and this calibration is essential to the successful instruction of grammatical basics, as well as other concepts, to EFL/ESL students.

Each individual having a proper grasp of basic grammatical concepts is foundational to future success in higher level English courses.  This research will seek to determine answers to the following research questions in order to add to the existing knowledge regarding instruction of EFL/ESL students in English grammar:

Is it feasible for teachers to wait for innate or inherent grammatical capacities to emerge in EFL/ESL students with diminished grammatical capacities within typical English Composition I collegiate level courses and beyond?

Can EFL/ESL students pass university Composition courses, as well as other university courses, if their grammar comprehension has not emerged?

Should collegiate Composition professors teach grammar in freshman courses, detracting from the time dedicated to teaching writing and would this benefit the EFL/ESL learner in such a freshman class?

Research Methods

This research will primarily examine existing studies to consolidate the most recent, relevant professional deductions through archival research, which principally involves drawing conclusions by analyzing existing sources of data, including both public and private records.  The archival research process typically involves making decisions ahead of time so that the process of data collection is smooth, simple, and systematic (Newman, 2011).   Archival research provides a test of the hypothesis by examining existing data and, thereby, avoids most of the ethical and practical problems of other research designs (Babbie, 2007).  Relative to this aspect, archival research also avoids common complications associated with participant reactivity as well as participant inclinations to behave in a different way when they know they are being observed (Newman, 2011).  All participant based research will incur the difficulty of forging through invalid responses to maintain the integrity of the research.

In contrast, this study will only use peer-reviewed sources from archival data that involves making use of records of people’s natural behaviors and relies on data that is considered validated.  Furthermore, archival research requires the use of relatively few resources while the majority of laboratory experiments allows forthe examination of only one participant at a time, sometimes requiring the dedicated attention of more than one research assistant over a period of an hour or more, which can be expensive and time consuming (Babbie, 2007; Newman, 2011).  In contrast, once data has been collected through the archival research process, it is a relatively simple matter to conduct statistical analyses.  However, archival research limits the extent of control the researcher has since this process relies on whatever form the researchers have presented the information, with no control over the way it was collected and, because archival data often represent natural behavior, it can be difficult to categorize and organize responses in a meaningful and quantitative way.  Archival research often requires some creativity on the researcher’s part, such as analysis and the challenges mentioned will be addressed by careful selection of the studies used to avoid inclusion of invalid details.

Literature Review

Most countries teach English language as part of their public education, but unfortunately, even in countries in which English is the primary language, parents, educators, and officials remainunsatisfied with these programs due to the poor results, outcomes, and performances of many students, especially EFL/ESL students.  Hence, it is easily noted that the quality of instruction has inhibited students’ English language proficiency over the years due to the scarcity of instructional programs designed based on the maintenance approach, which seeks to maintain the student’s native tongue while adding the target language to the EFL/ESL student’s linguistic repertoire (Casteel & Ballantyne, 2010; Chen, Kyle, & McIntyre, 2008). This literature review will examine approaches to EFL/ESL linguistic instruction in diverse countries, such as China, and the U.S., as well as the relevance of the teacher’s instructional ability and the various linguistic theories relative to linguistic development.

English Language Acquisition in China

In developed countries like China, education is collectively regarded as a vital aspect of a pupil’s life, including their psychological development (Lam, 2006).  With this perspective in the forefront, the Chinese government has attempted to afford educational opportunities to both urban and rural citizenswith the objective of improving the nation’s literacy rates (Chan, 1999).  The educational design was intended to foster the cultural values of the country and improve the overall skills of the Chinese citizens (Chan, 1999).  The scholastic environment, including factors like a supportive school atmosphere and the classroom context as well as language barriers, was determined to be directly related to school satisfaction (Bai, 1995; Lam, 2006).  The numerous studies conducted that examine the effect of the classroom environment, degree of support provided by the educator, the student’s perception of acceptance within their academic environment, level of academic achievement, and peer pressure on the self-perception and moods of the students havedemonstrated that these dynamics have a direct influence on learning as well as classroom behavior (Lam, 2006).  Furthermore, the presence of scholastic satisfaction has been quantified as a cognitive-based appraisal of a student’s overall contentment with their educational experience, which is correlated to comprehension of curricular input, such as grammar(Lam, 2006).

Paradigms of Grammar through Code-Switching in Language Acquisition

Individuals that are attempting to become bi or multi-lingualdo not always speak in the same way, illustrating that code-switching and code-mixing are common phenomena in speech, provided that at least two languages exist in a community (Annamali, 1989).  When used in ESL/EFL communities, theconnotation in code-switching is derived from within the stylistic relationship between phrases or sentences, which is an indication that grammar plays no significant role in it (Lefkowitz, 1991).  Defining conversational code-switching has been challenging because it frequently occurs in conjunction with other kinds of language contact phenomena including convergence, borrowing, and interference (Gluth, 2008; Halmari, 1997). In addition, codes themselves involve a high degree of variability and are often viewed as non-standard, in particular when bilinguals lack proficiency in what is known or perceived as standard codes (Gluth, 2008).Furthermore, research hasproposed that code-switching is performed only for the duration of a conversational discourse, while the code-mixing is not performed with full sentences and has the grammar structures from other languages (Annamali, 1989). Intriguingly, preceding studies determined that one needs to perceive differently the process of selecting one definite code from the process of mixing as many as two existing codes, to generate the product that may be regarded as a third code (Bentahila & Davies, 1983). This phenomenon may be referred to as code-switching, meaning “the use of two languages within a single conversation, exchange or utterance” (Bentahila & Davies, 1983, p. 302). Additionally, it is suggested that code-mixing is essentially the mechanism of mixing elements from a minimum of twolanguages within one utterance, differentiating it from code-switching in that the latter is the product of this mix (Bader, 1995; Myers-Scotton, 1993).

Bilingual Education in America

Education is construed as an imperative aspect of an individual’s life in America and the cornerstone of any educational model is undoubtedly the teacher(Lam, 2006).  As such, our understanding of how students learn has developed and the ways we instruct students has alsoprogressed (Eliason & Jenkins, 2012).  The scholastic setting is expected to act as a cushion and protect the psychological well-being of students as they learn(Lam, 2006).  Furthermore, the burgeoningpopulace of culturally diverse American has unequivocallyamplified the probability that there will be a multitude of students entering scholastic institutions that are not fluent in English (Goldenberg, 2008; Hinkel & Fotos, 2002).  There are numerous factors that affect language acquisition which must be considered by the instructor, such as the individualtraits of the learner, the social setting, and the quantity and quality of the linguistic input the pupil receives, all of which are influential factors in the pupil’s ability to assimilate the target language (Otto, 2010).

It is estimated that 157,000 educatorsleave the educational field every year in the U.S. alone, and an additional 232,000 instructors change schools in pursuit of better working conditions found in prestigious, higher-performing schools as opposed to the environment in low-performing inner-city schools(Alliance for Excellent Education, 2008).  Combined, this represents approximately 12% of the teaching workforce, excluding the teachers that leave due to retirement (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2008).  Furthermore, the population of EFL/ESLstudents has splurged from two to five million since 1990, which denotes a 150% increase during this period despite the overall school population increasing by only 20% (Goldenberg, 2006).  Even greater increases have been noted in states such as North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Indiana, where the increase in the EFL/ESL population during the 1993-94 through 2003-04 school years increased by at least 400% in these states (Goldenberg, 2006).  In areas of such high concentrations of EFL/ESL learners, linguistic diversity is that much more crucial to the success of the student and has an astounding impact on a pupil’s ability to learn in classroom settings that do not consider their degree of language acquisition (Otto, 2010).

This can become detrimental when the teacher has not received training to accommodate the needs of these students, as is often the case in public school settings (Otto, 2010).  The exit of teachers from the profession and the movement of teachers away from low-performing schools are a costly phenomenon in regards to the loss students experience in the value of being taught by an experienced teacher, the time lost for the schools and districts to recruit and train their replacements, and the overall financial costs of teacher attrition (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2008).

Factors Affecting Teacher Satisfaction

The current consensus is that the status of teachers in most countries, both developed and developing, has declined substantially within recent decades (Wei, Brok, & Zhou, 2009).  However, the circumstances that encourage the ‘de-professionalization’ of the teaching professiontend to be more prominent in low-income developing countries (LICs) and many countries still do not have enough teachers (Casteel & Ballantyne, 2010).  These circumstances include prolonged economic and social crises in many LICs, collective diversification of the teaching force with increasing dependence on less educated and under-qualified instructors with diminished job security, generally degraded standards of teaching, feminization, and dramatic regressions in the standard of living for teachers (Chen, Kyle, & McIntyre, 2008).  Incentives for schools and teachers in the public education system intended to inspire teachers to perform well are frequently weak due to ineffective enticements and sanctions (Chen, Kyle, & McIntyre, 2008).  Additionally, very low pay forces large proportions of teachers to earn secondary income from private tutoring or other activities and poor human resource management also seriously de-motivates employees (Chow, 1993).

Moreover, teacher management at the national and sub-national levels is nothing short of chaotic in many countries (Dai, 2010).  In these situations, teaching positions are little more than sinecures, which means that teachers do not feel accountable to school managements, parents or the wider community.  Furthermore, being employed at a school with predominantly struggling students is likely to be de-motivating for most teachers, especially since this is likely to mean they will have to work longer hours, teach larger class sizes, more subjects, and constantly changing curricula (Casteel & Ballantyne, 2010).  What is expected from teachers, in regards to the implied ‘social contract’, is not pitched at a realistic level in many countries given material rewards, workloads, and work and living environments available based on the majority of teaching professionals’ salaries (Goldenberg, 2006; Goldenberg, 2008).

Language Development Theories

It is currently understood that studentswith mastery of strong oral competencies tend to be more successful in scholastic settings than those that do not (Eliason & Jenkins, 2012).  The five aspects of language knowledge are phonetic, semantic, syntactic, pragmatic, and morphemic (Otto, 2010).  These five aspects form the building blocks which comprise the three levels of language knowledge, which are linguistic, metalinguistic, and metalinguistic verbalization(Otto, 2010).  Linguistic competency also includes listening skills, which is a large part of the literacy acquisition and the comprehensive development of grammatical acumen (Otto, 2010).  Furthermore, linguistic development can be significantly hindered by the language barriers that may exist in the home and the pupil must be taught to communicate collaboratively within the home and school settings for optimal efficacy (Sharp, Ward, & and Hankin, 2009).

For this reason, the pupil’s language and familial background must be considered when making the decision regarding what communicative approach to use for instructional purposes.  The background of the student shapestheir capacity to flourish within various settings and is vital when considering the whole pupil to make determinations about their imminent educational experience.  Students from families whose primary home language is not English will have a very difficult time communicating at home if they are taught speak English without regard for the language barrier that exists in their homes (Otto, 2010).

Linguist Naom Chomsky is the primary theoreticiancorrelated with the nativist perspective of language development, which emphasizes innate linguistic capabilities as the primary contributory factor to language development in students (Chen, Kyle, & McIntyre, 2008).  This perspective of linguistic acquisition encourages educators to employ a curriculum that will allow numerous opportunities for students to explore language as well as various aspects of their growing knowledge and keep their language acquisition device (LAD) active (Otto, 2010).  Alternatively, the cognitive development perspective is based on the theories of Jean Piaget and speculates that linguistic acquisition comes with maturation and cognitive development, which is the foundation for language learning (Eliason & Jenkins, 2012).  This perspective of linguistic development encourages educators to scrutinize the cognitive developmental stages of their students and encourage stimulatory activities as precursors to the onset of linguistic development (Casteel & Ballantyne, 2010).

Conversely, the behaviorist perspective emphasizes the role of “nature”, including stimuli, responses, and reinforcements that occur in the pupil’s environment based on B.F. Skinner’stheory of operant conditioning along with the notion that students are blank slates before they are taught through various situations and learn language through imitative speech (Otto, 2010).  This perspective encourages teachers to focus on the types of stimuli and reinforcements regarding language that students encounter and to communicate verbally.Similarly, the interactionist perspective is based on the sociocultural exchanges that help studentsimprove their linguistic aptitudes and is based on the philosophies of Lev Vygotsky, whose premise posits that language development is formed through social interactions with those in their surroundings that create a language acquisition support system (LASS) (Otto, 2010).  This theory requires the instructor to create conditions for effective development and to be aware of the pupil’s zone of proximal development and know what the pupil can accomplish on their own and what will require scaffolding from the supervising adult (Sadker & Zittleman, 2009).

Discussion

The analysis of both qualitative and quantitative research reveals that the levels of anxiety and confidence of students influence their participation in oral activities as well as their classroom behaviors (Cheung & Hui, 2003; Forrester & Lok, 2008; Tong, 2010). Increasing the confidence levels of the student while decreasing their anxiety and discomfort will help the teacher achieve better behavior patterns in their students, which can be accomplished by allocating a sufficient amount of time to allow students to organize their responses to teachers’ questions or to formulate questions (Casteel & Ballantyne, 2010).  Students should be allowed to talk about the lessons and compare notes with their classmates before they give responses, which will give them the confidence to voice their opinions while their fellow student’s work, like when classmates are doing exercises or completing compositions (Chen, Kyle, & McIntyre, 2008).  Additionally, students were more comfortable with verbal communication when they were not called upon individually to speak in front of their classmates and displayed more cooperative behavior in groups (Tong, 2010). Under these conditions, students were able to give complete answers to their teachers’ questions in a collective way and classroom disruptions were reduced to a minimum (Tong, 2010).

It has been established that language learning is especially successful when the objective language is used to facilitate an understanding of the language overall as well as for the purpose of enhancing their reading or listening skills (Nassaji & Fotos, 2011).  To achieve this end, EFL educators encourage their students to participate vocally in language classrooms and produce intelligible feedback (Hinkel & Fotos, 2002).  Such involvement can help students establish a foundation that will enable them to accurately communicate what they want to say and can be the determining factor in whether they are able to say it (Tong, 2010).  Furthermore, student “participation in verbal interaction offers language learners the opportunity to follow up on new words and structures to which they have been ex-posed during language lessons and to practice them in context” (Tong, 2010, p.240). These factors can provide students with the motivation to learn and improve their conversational skills and behavioral patterns.

There are numerous specific needs that must be met for the successful bilingual education of EFL/ESL students. Chief among these is that (1) primary language instruction enhances EFL/ESL students’ academic achievement, (2) in many important respects EFL/ESL students learn in much the same way as non-EFL/ESL individuals, and (3) certain accommodations must be made when EFL/ESL students are instructed in English, primarily, although not exclusively, because of the students’ language limitations (Sadker & Zittleman, 2009). These accommodations must probably be in place for many years, at least for some students, until students reach sufficient familiarity with academic English to permit them to be successful in mainstream instruction. such as in California, that block use of the primary language and limit instructional accommodations for English learners are simply not based on the best scientific evidence available (Goldenberg, 2006).

Reviews concerning the efficacy of pairing EFL students in groups to encourage oral participation found that when second language learners worked in groups, their motivation increased, they took more initiative, and experienced lower levels of anxiety regarding their learning (Tong, 2010). Such participation is of particular import to researchers due to the supposition that a relationship may exist between student oral participation and the teachers’ questioning techniques and selection of classroom activities, which can encourage students to continue talking (Wong, 2010).  Studies suggest that “students’ oral participation is increased if application and presentation activities are used; the right vocabulary is offered when students need it to continue; questions related to students’ prior experiences are asked; and an informal and friendly classroom atmosphere is present” (Tong, 2010, p. 240).

Research has been conducted to determine the level of student participation in classroom activities requiring verbal proficiency in qualitative and quantitative findings support the proposal that teaching about involvement in classroom activities can “increase students’ oral participation in class, and lead to the improvement of students’ speaking proficiency” (Tong, 2010, p.240).  The more proficient in English the students were, the more willing they were to participate in speech communication and the more positive they were about it (DeCapua, 2008).  In order to support student communications in English, teachers could make clear that student oral participation is an integral part of the teaching and learning processes at the beginning of the term/course(DeCapua, 2008).  These lessons can be combined with the teachers’ unremitting support or gentle reminders for students to orally participate in the lessons (Suryanarayana & Luciana, 2010). The teaching of conversational English can promote turn-taking skills, which can be useful in numerous ways (Casteel & Ballantyne, 2010).  Silent behavior and inflection patterns in turn-taking can be built in the pronunciation course and students’ attention can be used to draw insinuations of silence in target language conversations (Casteel & Ballantyne, 2010).  In addition, students’ understanding of the intonation patterns in the conversational turn-taking processes can be raised and conclusions drawn that contributory instruction will improve students’ speaking proficiency, and also cultivate a positive attitude towards English lessons (Tong, 2010).

Subsequently, students learn to spot the moments when they are to take turn in conversations (Tong, 2010).  Additional noteworthy points demonstrate that “there is a continuation of high on-task level, conduct co-operation and rules compliance in the non-target classrooms when token reinforcement or increased teacher approval is adopted” (Chow, 1993, p. 111).   Reinforcements can include praise and encouragement from the instructor, prizes, or incentive programs implemented by the teachers, which can successfully deflect the ‘side-effects’ produced by the stressful conditions (Goldenberg, 2008). Furthermore, ensuring that the ESL/EFL students encounter multiple opportunities to hear or engage in the target language outside of the classroom has been proven especially effective and helps elicit verbal responses from particularly troublesome pupils (Nassaji & Fotos, 2011).  The open approval of the teacher is also an encouraging aspect that can be beneficial to their students (Chow, 1993).  Students at secondary schools should be able to behave themselves and without the necessity of praise form their teacher, but the need for encouragement among students is a universal phenomenon affecting all school teachers (Chow, 1993).

Conclusion

The growth and progress of the students in all developmental areas is the goal of not just literacy, but the entire educational process (Hinkel & Fotos, 2002).  These determining characteristics allow educators to evaluate the progress of the students and the effectiveness of the educational models being implemented so that students that are not progressing developmentally can receive the needed attention and so dysfunctional educational models can be replaced with functional ones (DeCapua, 2008).  To be the most effective educators we can be, it is necessary to be aware of the best tools of the trade, which includes the best educational procedures, books, and various other associative media useful in facilitating learning and the highest level of retention among students.

In summation, instruction for EFL/ESLstudents must either include or ensure that students are proficient in formal grammar, which has been evidenced by numerous researchers to be lax since students’ progress to freshman English classes without a proper comprehension of grammar and freshman courses are designed to teach writing, not grammar (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2008; Annamali, 1989; Casteel & Ballantyne, 2010; Chen, Kyle, & McIntyre, 2008).  Collegiate classes must teach curriculum based on the purpose of the course rather than foundational material, and EFL/ESL students with improper grammatical foundations may require instruction be taught in their native languageor fundamental classes.The integrated approach allows the teacher to successfully teach the required curriculum through a variety of flexible approaches that engage and keep the student’s attention with holistic input.  Successfully integrating all of these criteria into the foundation of your literary selective process will help ensure consistently beneficial and appropriate selections are made for the literature program.

References

Alliance for Excellent Education. (2008). What Keeps Good Teachers in the Classroom? Understanding and Reducing Teacher Turnover. MetLife Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.all4ed.org/files/TeachTurn.pdf

Annamali, E. (1989). The language factor in code-mixing. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 74, 47–54.

Babbie, E. (2007). The Practice of Social Research (11th ed.). California: The Thomas Wadsworth Corporation.

Bader, Y. (1995). Code-switching to English in daily conversations in Jordan: Factors and attitudes. Abhath Al-Yarmouk (Literature and Linguistics Series), 13(2), 9-27.

Bai, X. S. (1995). Adapting to a new environment: the problems facing Hong Kong youth. Beijing: Beijing University of Foreign Language.

Bentahila, A., & Davies, E. D. (1983). The syntax of Arabic-French code-switching. Lingua, 59, 301–330.

Casteel, C., & Ballantyne, K. (Eds.). (2010). Professional development in action: Improving teaching for English learners. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition. Retrieved from http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/uploads/3/PDF

Chan, S. (1999). The Chinese learner- a question of style. Education & Training, 41(6/7), 294-304.

Chen, C. T., Kyle, D. W., & McIntyre, E. (2008). Helping teachers work effectively with English Language Learners and their families. School Community Journal, 18(1), 7-20.

Cheung, H. Y., & Hui, S. K. (2003). Mainland Immigrant and Hong Kong Local Students’ Psychological Sense of School Membership. Asia Pacific Education Review, 4(1), 67-74.

Chow, Y. M. (1993). A behavioral approach to classroom management at secondary level. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10722/40900

Dai, W. T. (2010). Examine the relations of perceived classroom environment to effectively and emotion regulation of students in Hong Kong.

DeCapua, A. (Ed.). (2008). Grammar for Teachers A Guide to American English for Native and Non-Native Speakers . New Rochelle, New York: Springer Science & Business Media, LLC.

Eliason, C. F., & Jenkins, L. (2012). A practical guide to early childhood curriculum. New Jersey: Pearson.

Forrester, V., & Lok, B. (2008). Native English Teachers in Hong Kong Building Communities of Practice? Asian Social Science, 4(5), 3-11.

Gluth, E. (2008). Code-switching: Grammatical, pragmatic and psycholinguistic aspects: An overview paper. Norderstedt, Germany: GRIN Verlag.

Goldenberg, C. (2006). Improving achievement for English learners: Conclusions from 2 research reviews. Retrieved from Colorín Colorado: http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/12918/

Goldenberg, C. (2008). Teaching English Language Learners what the research does-and does not-say. American Educator Summer, 8-23, 42-44.

Halmari, H. (1997). Government and code-switching: Explaining American Finnish. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Hinkel, E., & Fotos, S. (Eds.). (2002). New perspectives on grammar teaching in second language classrooms. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Inc.

Lam, S. C. (2006). Hong Kong primary students’ perception of satisfaction with their schools. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10722/51395

Lefkowitz, N. (1991). Talking backwards, looking forwards: The French language game verlan. Germany: Gunter Narr Verlag Tubingen.

Myers-Scotton, C. (1993). Duelling languages: Grammatical structure in code-switching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Nassaji, H., & Fotos, S. (2011). Teaching Grammar in Second Language Classrooms Integrating Form-Focused Instruction in Communicative Context. New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis.

Newman, M. (2011). Research methods in psychology. San Diego,CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Otto, B. (2010). Language development in early childhood (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Sadker, D., & Zittleman, K. (2009). Teachers, schools, and society: A brief introduction (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Sharp, J., Ward, S., & and Hankin, L. (2009). Education studies: An issue based approach. . UK: Learning Matters.

Suryanarayana, N. V., & Luciana, M. Z. (2010, August 23). Teaching competency and teacher job satisfaction among secondary school teachers. Articlesbase. Retrieved from http://www.articlesbase.com/tutoring-articles/teaching-competency-and-teacher-job-satisfaction-among-secondary-school-teachers-3108434.html

Tong, J. (2010). Some Observations of Students’ Reticent and Participatory Behavior in Hong Kong English Classrooms. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 7(2), 239–254.

Wei, M., Brok, P., & Zhou, Y. (2009). Teacher interpersonal behavior and student achievement in English as a Foreign Language classrooms in China. Learning Environmental Resources, 12, 157–174.

Wong, R. M. (2010). Mainland students learning English in Hong Kong: Does place-of-origin affect motivation? TESOL Journal, 2, 109-129. Retrieved from http://www.tesol-journal.com