student research profile: James Corcoran

Name: James Corcoran
Degree/Year: Second year Master’s
Program & Department: CTL (SLE/CIDE)
Supervisor: Jim Cummins. Second Committee member: Antoinette Gagne
Why I chose OISE: I chose OISE due to the interdisciplinary approach (and professor expertise) to teacher education in the SLE department. Also, inclusion in the Comparative, International and Development Education program was a big factor. Finally, the guaranteed funding for the 1st year was the best financial choice for me.
Funding: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Graduate Scholarship
What it entails: SSHRC offers a one-year $17,500 award for students with outstanding grades and research potential.

Thesis: L1 in the L2 Classroom: Framing NNES EFL teacher beliefs and practices

The idea: My thesis investigates questions surrounding the use of the first language (L1) in the second language (L2) classroom. While literature strongly suggests the benefits of incorporating the L1 in the EFL classroom, the L1 is typically excluded or ignored in this context. This study will investigate the gap between theory and practice through the lens of teacher beliefs. The main research question is why do non-native English-speaking (NNES) teachers include, exclude or ignore the L1 in the adult L2 classroom (teacher and student use)? The context of this study is two distinct private English Language Teaching (ELT) institutions in Northeastern Brazil. The participants are teachers, teacher-administrators, owners and students at these schools.

Background: I am a Canadian teacher who has worked in private ESL/EFL institutions in Ontario, Quebec and Brazil. I graduated from the BEd. (TESL) program at McGill University in 2006. While teaching ESL/EFL in largely homogeneous L1 classrooms, I frequently observed both advantages and disadvantages of including the L1 in my practice. This, my first major research project, is a step towards better understanding my own practice by investigating the beliefs and practices of teachers in a similar teaching/learning environment to the one in which I taught for several years.

My Work: My thesis work investigates the factors that contribute to teacher beliefs regarding the L1/TL issue, hoping to highlight the most salient factors, including prior learning experience, learner characteristics, prior teaching experience, teacher education, student demand etc…Having carried out a heavily qualitative study (observations, interviews, focus groups), I am in the process of analyzing the rich, descriptive data collected this past summer.

Importance: The importance of this work is three-fold. First, it will contribute to teacher reflexivity regarding this polemic issue. Second, dissemination of findings may lead to modification of teacher education workshops, programs at the participating schools and perhaps their affiliates in Brazil. Third, this study will provide Brazilian NNES EFL teachers with a voice rarely heard in SLA literature.

Hope for the future: I hope to widely disseminate the findings of this study. However, the most rewarding context would be at the BRAZTESOL conference this July. I aim to continue my research into this area at the doctoral level.