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> ** Access will be negotiated with all participants and school authorities, and full disclosure of the purpose and aims of the research project will be made to all involved. It should also be noted that participants will be informed of their right to privacy and right to withdraw from the study at any time. It is intended that an information sheet and consent form following ethical research guidelines will be given to all those involved in the research study also, in line with recommendations made by the likes of Cohen, Lawrence and Manion in their work ‘The Ethics of Educational and Social Research’ (in Cohen et al, 2000). Student participants will also be given a brief document outlining the nature and purpose of the study and will require written permission for their participation from parents/guardians.

Suggested Timeline:

Week One:

Obtain permission from relevant school authorities to perform research study

Choose student and teacher participants for study

Circulate Information Sheet to participants and Consent Form

In-class Observation of student participants (2 x lessons)

Conduct Questionnaire with student participants

Conduct Interviews with teacher participants

Week Two:

Conduct Interviews with student participants

Document initial findings from week one data collection

In-class observation (1 x lesson)

Data interpretation

Week Three:

Summary of major research findings and implications of research
Data presentation and interpretation:
In-class observation:

The student participants responded positively to the requirement of in-class observation as part of the research project. This was conducted in week one of the project during two senior English classes, and followed up with a final in-class observation conducted during week two.

The students appeared keen to have someone watching the class lesson in order to offer support and advice on how they might improve their performance. However, on a personal level, some did express shyness when first discussing the idea of having someone other than their teacher in the room.

In-class observation consisted of the researcher sitting in the rear of the room during lesson one, and to the side of the class during lessons two and three of observations. No comments or participation was made in the lesson by the researcher; notes were made at the time of observation. Information was gleaned by observing student behaviour, participation, responses to questioning, and general performance in set tasks.

Of the four participant students, almost all at some stage during the observation used hand-held electronic dictionaries to assist their understanding of either a question or issue being discussed. The students appeared to attempt to solve many problems themselves in their comprehension of the lessons, and were often reticent to ask for assistance from the teacher.

The student participants also resorted to talking to other ESL students in the class on several occasions when it appeared they were experiencing difficulties in coping with task demands in the classroom. The subtle use of these ‘contextual’ clues to aid in their und