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Dr. Benjamin White
Assistant Professor, Department of English
Education
B.A. (Modern European History), University of Miami
M.A. (East European Contemporary Studies), University of London
M.Ed. (Multicultural Education), University of Massachusetts
Ph.D. (Second Language Studies), Michigan State University
Research
Dr. White's research investigates the English article system.
In his article, "In Search of Systematicity: A
Conceptual Framework for the English Article
System," Dr. White examined the challenges English
articles pose to both ESL (English as a second
language) learners and teachers. His research
project set out to achieve three main objectives:
(1) to identify how articles are currently explained
by ESL textbooks and teachers, (2) to propose a
systematic perspective through which to interpret
article meaning, and (3) to examine how exposure to
this new perspective influences the ways
international M.A. TESOL (Teachers
of English to Speakers of Other Languages)
students with article-less first languages (L1s)
explain articles.
Toward the first objective,
two ESL grammar books and one article workbook were
reviewed for how they present articles to readers.
Additionally, an experiment was carried out in which
twelve ESL teachers wrote explanations for twenty
examples of article use found in authentic texts.
Confidence levels were also rated for each
explanation. Patterns across teachers’ explanations
were identified, and results were discussed in terms
of what they imply about the current practice of
article instruction.
Toward the second objective,
a conceptual framework was created. Through this
framework, all uses of the map to the same abstract
schematic image, all uses of "a" and unstressed
"some" map to a second schematic image, and all uses
of the zero article (Ø) map to a third schematic
image. This framework was applied to a range of
article uses as well as pedagogical rules for
article use, and implications for linguistic theory
and classroom practice were discussed.
Toward the final objective,
five M.A. TESOL students with L1s of Korean, Thai,
and Chinese were introduced to the framework through
a series of training sessions. The participants’
explanations of examples of article use in authentic
texts before and after exposure to the framework
were analyzed for changes. It was found that
post-exposure explanations were more unified across
individual article uses. Results were discussed in
light of what they suggest about the potential use
of the framework as pedagogical aid in the
classroom.
Dr. White plans to pursue
three broad areas of research. First, he will
continue to investigate the topic of articles. He
plans to evaluate the effectiveness of the
conceptual framework when introduced in ESL classes
of various levels. In addition, Dr. White would like
to explore semantic distinctions between article use
in English and in Spanish, adapt the framework so
that it illustrates such differences, and
investigate use of the framework by L2 learners of
Spanish. More than a pedagogical tool, he believes
the framework serves well as a classification system
for article use. In fact, he hopes to shed new light
on article acquisition by analyzing L2 English
learners’ use of articles in written and oral
production over time. In a second area of research,
he will continue to employ insights from linguistics
and sociocultural theory in order to create and
develop tools for the teaching of English grammar,
in particular the determiner and tense/aspect
systems. Finally, in efforts to promote action
research, he plans to investigate how such research
influences language teacher cognition – including
teachers’ confidence, beliefs, pedagogical
knowledge, and classroom awareness.
Teaching
Dr. White currently teaches Introduction to
Linguistics and Special Topics: TESOL Curriculum
Development and Materials Design.
Service
Dr. White is a member of the American Association
for Applied Linguists, the International Cognitive
Linguistics Association, and TESOL. He has
spent a great deal of time working on the curriculum
for the new M.A. in English with the TESOL emphasis.
This new M.A. has been approved and will begin in
Fall 2011.
Contact Info
Telephone: (304) 696-2357
Email:
whitebe@marshall.edu
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