https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/36016 Sun, 06 Sep 2026 18:51:56 GMT 2026-09-06T18:51:56Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148519 Title: Communication between native Maltese and non-native Maltese nurses : an investigation of clinical nursing handover role-plays Abstract: Clinical handovers are one of the most common and high-stakes communicative events in nursing practice, resulting in the patient’s safety depending on the accuracy and effectiveness of this communicative event. Despite the awareness of this, most research contributing to English for nursing courses has depended on data grounded on surveys and interviews, without reference to findings in the actual language used during handovers. This study aims to conduct a qualitative needs analysis to inform the design of an English for nursing course situated in the Maltese context. It intends to identify communicative needs and mitigating strategies used by native Maltese and non-native Maltese nurses during handovers. Data were gathered through a combination of semi-structured interviews with eight in-service nurses and an expert nurse practitioner, handover role-plays, and retrospective interviews. Findings show that challenges in communication during handovers are not only shaped by a deficiency in language proficiency, but also by the interactional organisation of the communicative event itself. The study shows how monologic turn design can jeopardize completing successful handovers, while code-switching, intelligibility issues, and vague clinical information also form part of the challenges. Nurses were able to draw on a number of interactional strategies to navigate these issues, such as fostering dialogic interaction, initiating clarification sequences, including questioning, and upgrading vague information to measurable values. These findings could contribute to the design of an English for nursing course situated in Malta. Such a course could involve both native Maltese and non-native Maltese nurses, using the data gathered through the extracts as a foundation of the course material, to help inform professionals the benefits of interactional strategies in safeguarding clinical handovers, and essentially the lives of their patients. Description: M.A.(Melit.) Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148519 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/137278 Title: Coherence in novice written texts : a case study of expert readers’ perceptions using topical structure analysis Abstract: This work and its abstract are both under embargo until the restriction is lifted. Description: Ph.D.(Melit.) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/137278 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/85744 Title: Teacher questioning in EFL classrooms : a case study based on a rural junior high school in China Abstract: This case study explores EFL teachers‘ classroom questioning in a rural junior high school in China, primarily in terms of types, functions, and strategies of teacher questioning. In addition, teachers‘ preparation and reflection on questioning, contributing factors to teachers‘ questioning, and the pattern of classroom discourse initiated by questioning are also explored. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through classroom observations, classroom audio recordings and semi-structured interviews with four teachers. The findings indicate that the four EFL teachers asked significantly more close-ended, display, and lower cognitive questions than open-ended, referential, and higher cognitive ones. Moreover, among the limited open-ended and higher cognitive questions, there was a tendency for the teachers to turn them into closed-ended and lower cognitive ones. In terms of the function of questioning, a large percentage of questions were applied for diagnostic purposes and for inviting students to repeat the answer or to practice a particular sentence structure. As for questioning strategies, the teachers distributed most of their questions to whole classes, and the difficult questions were directed to individual students with good grades. And the vast majority of questions had a wait-time of less than one second. The strategies used by the four EFL teachers while questioning also had a special feature: apart from code-switching, they used other strategies, such as rephrasing, repetition, decomposition, and nominate non-volunteers, infrequently. For the preparation of classroom questions, in general, the teachers would prepare some questions with the aid of textbooks and presented the prepared questions on the PowerPoint slides. As for the teachers‘ reflection on questioning after class, the four teachers barely reflect on their questioning, instead they would reflect on the general teaching especially when they don‘t meet teaching objectives. As for the contributing factors to teachers‘ questioning, some are at the individual level, such as teachers‘ and students‘ level of English proficiency and that the teachers took questioning for granted and did not pay enough attention to it. Some are at the school level, such as large class size, limited instructional time, and the lack of facilities and resources. And some are at the culture level: examination-oriented culture. Two patterns of classroom discourse predominated while questioning. The first one is the IRF mode and the second has some variations in the third turn of the discourse which teachers would repeat the former part of the students‘ answer with a question intonation in order to invite students to repeat the latter part of the answer with them in the fourth turn. This case study seems to suggest that English teachers in rural schools in China hold the perception of language learning as a repetition and knowledge-accumulating process in their questioning. However, more studies are needed to corroborate the findings. Description: M.A. TESOL(Melit.) Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/85744 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/85742 Title: Novice teachers of English in China : challenges and support Abstract: The main purpose of this study was to explore the challenges Chinese novice EFL teachers commonly encountered in their induction period and to analyze the benefits of the support they received that helped mitigate these challenges. Although extensive research has been conducted on Western educational settings, not much attention has been directed to both the challenges and support experienced by Chinese novice teachers of English. Therefore, the present study may lay the foundations for further research into what challenges novice teachers are commonly struggling with and what kinds of support are required in order to facilitate the teaching experiences of new teachers of English. The research problem was investigated by means of a mixed methods approach involving the distribution of a questionnaire amongst 50 participants and one-to-one, semi-structured interviews with eight participants. The findings of the present study reveal that novice teachers have to overcome a reality shock and they suffer from two main types of challenges, one being work-related challenges while the other involves social concerns. The two most frequent adaptation challenges appeared as classroom management challenges and relationship issues with parents. Concerning professional support, this was geared specifically for the needs of new teachers and included formal support and informal support. Among these forms of support, collegial support and classroom observation were highlighted by novice EFL as the two most frequent and beneficial methods to assist them in their professional and emotional aspects. This study incorporates the voice of novice English teachers in China and derives deeper insights from an examination of their experiences in order to inform school administrators and stakeholders on how to better assist novice teachers in their transition period at the workplace. Description: M.A. TESOL(Melit.) Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/85742 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z