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Sample records for english case study

  1. A case study of an ESL Student learning English in an English Speaking Country

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    Wahyu Taufiq

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Different students who learn English as the second language has various problems and strategies to overcome. A case study on an international student who learns English as a second language in an English speaking country raised some problems he had and offered some strategies he used during the process of learning. The progress of learning from the first time coming and studying at a college in Australia was mainly the core data collected on this study. The data copes from his formal academic learning experience and also from informal situation that he met at his everyday life. This study applied qualitative research method and use interview and recording as the instruments. The data were analized through three stages: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The results of the study show that the learner experiences a range of English learning problems which happened after his coming to Australia and some strategies he used to overcome.

  2. Cuban Voices: A Case Study of English Language Teacher Education

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    Smith, Steven John

    2016-01-01

    This case study uses qualitative research methods and a postcolonial paradigm to listen to the voices of Cuban teacher educators describing how they educate and prepare English language teachers in Cuba. English language teacher education in Cuba includes features that are considered innovative, contemporary and good practice in the Western world.…

  3. A Case Study of Inter-sentence Conjunctions in Chinese_English Legal Parallel Texts

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    Yan Xi

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available The present study is a contrastive study of inter-sentence conjunctions in Chinese/English legal parallel texts. Conjunction is one of the five cohesive devices put forward by Halliday and Hasan (1976. Many scholars have applied their model of cohesion to the study of English and Chinese languages. As for the use of conjunction in Chinese and English, most scholars believe that there are more cases of conjunction in the English legal texts than in the Chinese ones because it is generally considered that Chinese is predominantly paratactic and English mainly hypotactic. Besides, up to now little detailed contrastive study has been done on conjunctions in Chinese/English non-literary texts. Legal language is a specialized language whose distinctive feature is the pursuit of precision. As a result of the importance attached to the letter of law and the pursuit of precision in legal texts, most studies on legal language are devoted to the characteristic features of legal language at the word and sentence level, to the exclusion of textual and pragmatic considerations. The present study will mainly look at the features of legal texts from the perspective of conjunction at the textual level and find out whether Chinese uses fewer cases of conjunction than English in legal texts. The Chinese and English legal parallel texts about arbitration rules will be used for this contrastive analysis. It is hoped that the findings of this research will test the explanatory force of hypotaxis and parataxis in the use of conjunction in legal texts and give a clearer picture of conjunction at the textual level in Chinese and English legal parallel texts, and therefore reconstruct the discourse on the Chinese language.

  4. A case study on the teaching of English in Environmental Education masters’ training program

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    Montejo, N. J.

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The article describes a part of the result of a bibliometric study of the total number of theses presented as the graduation exercise by the participants of the third edition of Environmental Education Master Training Program, particular the results connected with role of the English Language in accessing, processing and communicating information. The results are compared to the objectives and contents of the English language syllabus used at the training program. By means of the methodology delivered by the Master Training Program Committee, and the use of bibliometric techniques a quantitative study of the whole population was carried out, later on the same basis a case study was completed involving two graduates of high, medial and low results in English. The authors arrived at conclusions in relation to the effectiveness of the English syllabus and the way graduates make use of English as a research tool. .

  5. Making Meaning with Multimedia in Secondary English Language Arts: A Multiple Case Study

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    Mahoney, Kerrigan Rose

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this multiple case study was to learn about how secondary English language arts (ELA) teachers help students to make meaning with multimedia. The study focused on how and why teachers plan and implement meaning-making learning experiences. The cases represent the experiences and perspectives of five ELA teachers who use digital and…

  6. On Becoming a Good English Language Learner: An Exploratory Case Study

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    Panzachi Heredia, Damaris Ana Ruth; Luchini, Pedro Luis

    2015-01-01

    This paper reports a case study that explores the cognitive process and the language learning strategies and styles that one Spanish trainee used to become a good English language learner. The participant held an in-depth, semi-structured interview and completed a learning style survey. Results show that the conscious use of multiple…

  7. STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE (A CASE STUDY OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT STUDENTS

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    Anna Riana Suryanti Tambunan

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The real challenges for teachers and learners lie in finding ways of sustaining the motivation through the long and often arduous process of learning a language. The aim of this study was to describe the students’ instrumental and integrative motivation in English language learning. A case study was used in this study by distributing the motivation questionnaire to the 36 second-year students of English Department at Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa university in Serang, Banten. Then, the data from the returned questionnaire were analyzed by describing the types of motivation the students use. Findings from this study indicated that the second year students were instrumentally motivated and their integration was sufficient, too. The instrumental motivation was found to have more impact on students than integrative one. Three interrelated instrumental motivations in studying English were identified: future study, scores and career. In addition the students mentioned that good marks in English were required for their future studies and a good qualification for their careers. In conclusion, motivation has a contribution towards the students’ English language learning. The findings could be useful for researchers and teachers in improving students’ English language learning by conducting effective teaching and learning strategies to develop the students’ motivation.

  8. Cultivate Mindfulness: A Case Study of Mindful Learning in an English as a Foreign Language Classroom

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    Wang, Yang; Liu, Chao

    2016-01-01

    This case study investigated how the use of mindfulness affected college English as a foreign language (EFL) students' learning and how mindful learning strategies supported their learning of English. Mindful learning considers the students' abilities to be aware, perceive and conceive. Mindfulness results in an increase in competence, memory,…

  9. Teaching Literacy to English Language Learners in the Borderlands: A Case Study of A Sixth Grade Language Arts and Reading Teacher

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    Smith, Ann Marie; Salgado, Yolanda

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this case study was to investigate how an English language arts teacher used young adult literature to help English language learners improve English and literacy comprehension. Through the lens of Anzaldua's (2007) "borderlands", and Rolon-Dow's (2005) "critical care", the authors analyze the case study…

  10. Inclusion and Exclusion: A Case Study of an English Class for LGBT Learners

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    Moore, Ashley R.

    2016-01-01

    This article presents a case study of an English conversation class organised by a nonpolitical group of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) people in Japan. The primary aims of this study are to explore what kinds of learning needs these students had and to consider more generally how educators can best meet LGBT students' needs. Using…

  11. Variable Production of English Past Tense Morphology: A Case Study of a Thai-Speaking Learner of English

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    Prapobaratanakul, Chariya; Pongpairoj, Nattama

    2016-01-01

    The study investigated variable production of English past tense morphology by an L1 Thai-speaking learner of English. Due to the absence of the past tense inflectional morphology in the Thai language, production of English past tense morphemes poses a persistent problem for L1 Thai-speaking learners of English. Hypotheses have been made in…

  12. Addressing the Teaching of English Language Learners in the United States: A Case Study of Teacher Educators' Response

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    Hallman, Heidi L.; Meineke, Hannah R.

    2016-01-01

    This article discusses teacher educators' response to how teacher education programs should prepare prospective teachers to be teachers of English language learners. In the case study presented, the authors note that discussions have ensued about whether teaching English language learners (ELLs) should be addressed through separate coursework or…

  13. A Case Study of Knowledge Management in the "Back Office" of Two English Football Clubs

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    Doloriert, Clair; Whitworth, Kieran

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: This study aims to explore knowledge management (KM) practice in the "back office" of two English football clubs. Design/methodology/approach: The paper takes the form of a comparative case study of two medium-sized businesses using multi-method data including unstructured interviews, structured questionnaires and document…

  14. Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Blended Learning for English Courses: A Case Study of Students at University of Bisha

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    Ja'ashan, Mohammed Mohammed Nasser Hassan

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents a case study of students' perceptions and attitudes towards Blended Learning course in English at University of Bisha. The statement of problem that blended learning of English course annoys students at University of Bisha. Most of the students do not understand well the objectives of e learning through blended learning courses…

  15. The Effect of English Language Learning on Creative Thinking Skills: A Mixed Methods Case Study

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    Sehic, Sandro

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed-methods case study was to investigate the effects of English language learning on creative thinking skills in the domains of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration as measured with the Alternate Uses Test. Unlike the previous research studies that investigated the links between English…

  16. Towards an Integrated Approach to Cabin Service English Curriculum Design: A Case Study of China Southern Airlines' Cabin Service English Training Course

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    Xiaoqin, Liu; Wenzhong, Zhu

    2016-01-01

    This paper has reviewed the history of EOP (training) development and then illustrated the curriculum design of cabin service English training from the three perspectives of ESP, CLIL and Business Discourse. It takes the cabin crew English training of China Southern Airlines (CZ) as the case and puts forward an operational framework composed of…

  17. Unathi: The case study of a South African ESL learner who excels at writing in English

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    Susan Ntete

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available This article discusses the case study of a learner in Mdantsane Township in the Eastern Cape. Most black learners find it difficult to express themselves effectively in English. According to a survey made by Bot (1996 majority of black grade 7 learners are unable to read in English.  Many black learners in South Africa The study, which focused on five learners was an attempt to explain why some learners whose mother tongue is Xhosa are an exceptionally proficient writers of English. The article describes one of these learners and his writing practices. The data collected include formal interviews with this learner as well as an analysis of some of his writing. Some tentative conclusions are reached relating to the role of the teacher and certain affective factors. The article concludes with a few implications for researching teachers.

  18. Pre-service mathematics teachers' attitudes towards learning English: A case study in Yogyakarta

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    Setyaningrum, Wahyu

    2017-08-01

    This study investigated attitudes of pre-service mathematics teachers towards English as one of the subject at the university. It is a qualitative study in which questionnaire and face-to-face interview were employed to collect the data. The participants of this study were sixty students of mathematics education department at one of the university in Yogyakarta. The main research question was concern with how pre-service mathematics teachers perceive the importance of learning English. This study found that most of the participants perceive English as an important language that should be acquired by mathematics teachers. Their beliefs about the importance of English were mostly due to instrumental orientation rather than integrative orientation, such as getting a good job, getting a scholarship and understanding learning sources that are written in English. The data also revealed some obstacles faced by pre-service mathematics teachers in learning English as an additional language for them. The main obstacles were related to the differences between English for mathematics and English in daily life including its vocabulary and structure. Most of the participants argued that several mathematics vocabularies had precise meaning and different from daily English. In addition, they found difficult to understand some sentences used in the paper journal due to its structure. This study therefore, provided an insight into the pre-service mathematics teachers' perception and obstacles when learning English that could be use in improving pre-service teachers' education.

  19. English reading and writing performance of Xitsonga-speaking Grade 7 learners in township schools: A case study

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    Manyike, Tintswalo V.

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available A clear preference for English as language of teaching and learning (LoLT is evident in most South African schools. However, discrepancies exist between language policy aims and educational outcomes with regard to the successful acquisition of English among English second language (ESL learners. Effective participation in all learning activities is closely linked to learners’ proficiency in the LoLT; poor English proficiency leads to underachievement across the curriculum. In the light of this, a case study as conducted to investigate the English reading and writing performance of Grade 7 Xitsonga-speaking learners in three selected township schools in the Tshwane metropolitan area, Gauteng Province. Firstly, a literature review was undertaken to explore the importance of reading and writing skills in the classroom with particular reference to the demands made on ESL learners. Following this, standardised tests were used to assess the learners’ English reading and writing performance. Findings indicated that learners performed poorly in both reading and writing; however, no significant relationship could be demonstrated between reading and writing, possibly due to the nature of the components of the test. The overall lack of reading and writing competence in English holds implications for learners’ academic achievement in all learning areas in situations in which English is used as the LoLT.

  20. Characteristics of Effective Pedagogy of Third Grade English Learners in Language Arts: An Exploratory Case Study

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    Merwin, Gregory J.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to identify pedagogical and non-pedagogical factors that affect the academic achievement of English Learner (EL) students in the area of language arts at Dr. Albert Schweitzer Elementary School in Anaheim, California. The researcher conducted an exploratory multiple case study to develop a comprehensive, contextual…

  1. Patterns of Stuttering in a Spanish/English Bilingual: A Case Report

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    Ardila, Alfredo; Ramos, Eliane; Barrocas, Robert

    2011-01-01

    Stuttering patterns may differ when comparing two languages. In bilinguals, specific patterns of stuttering in each one of the languages may potentially be found. This study reports on the case of a 27-year-old Spanish/English simultaneous bilingual whose dominant language is English. Speech and language testing was performed in both languages…

  2. A Case Study Exploring the Reading Engagement of Middle Grades English Learners

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    Protacio, Maria Selena

    2017-01-01

    This study investigates the reading engagement of four middle school English learners in their English or English as a Second Language classroom. Students with high levels of reading engagement are those who (a) are motivated to read, (b) use strategies when reading, (c) use reading as a way to construct meaning from texts, and (d) participate in…

  3. On the Pragmatic Functions of English Rhetoric in Public Speech: A Case Study of Emma Watson's "HeForShe"

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    Yuan, Bin

    2018-01-01

    The current research is mainly conducted to explore the pragmatic functions of English rhetoric in public speech. To do this, methods of close reading and case studies are adopted. The research first reveals that the boom of public speech programs helps reexamine the art of utterance, during the delivery of which English rhetoric plays an…

  4. Teaching English Stress: A Case Study

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    Sadat-Tehrani, Nima

    2017-01-01

    This article addresses the issue of teaching pronunciation in English as a second language (ESL) classes by specifically looking at the impact of teaching lexical stress rules and tendencies on learners' stress placement performance. Sixteen rules in the form of interactive worksheets were taught in three ESL classes at pre-intermediate,…

  5. The Implementation of Lesson Study in English Language Learning: A Case Study

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    Wakhid Nashruddin

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Lesson Study as a growing interest in the education world has attracted educators, experts, and professionals in the area to make use of it in improving the lessons—it also happens in Indonesia. Originally applied in the teaching of mathematics in Japan, now it turns to be used in other fields, and English is one of them. This paper highlights the guideline on Lesson Study and pictures its application in a private senior high school in Malang, East Java, Indonesia. The adaptation of Lesson Study is interesting since Japan and Indonesia have different cultural background. How Lesson Study is usually implemented in Japan and the US and how it is applied in Indonesia will be seen here. As this is a case study, it will only focus on a school and the result should not be used to generalize Lesson Study applications in Indonesia. Interview and observation were instruments used in this study. The interview was used to gain information on how Lesson Study was normally conducted and observation (and the researchers’ involvements was used to see the real implementation of Lesson Study. What happened during the implementation of Lesson Study and during the teaching and learning process become a great attention here.

  6. Exploring English-Language Teachers' Professional Development in Developing Countries: Cases from Syria and Pakistan

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    Dayoub, Ruba; Bashiruddin, Ayesha

    2012-01-01

    This paper attempts to present the findings of a study carried out in Pakistan that explored English-language teachers' professional development in developing countries. The main guiding question for the study was: How do English-language teachers at secondary schools learn to teach and develop professionally in Syria and Pakistan? Two cases were…

  7. Developing the Basic English Language Skills in Nigerian Colleges of Education: A Case Study of Three Colleges of Education

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    Oris Tom-Lawyer

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines the pedagogies employed in developing the Basic English language skills in Nigerian Colleges of Education, with particular reference to three colleges. It investigates the adequacy of the English language skills in the preparation of the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE English language teachers as the poor performance of Nigerian students in external English language examinations has become a source of concern to educational stakeholders (Patrick, Sui, Didam & Ojo, 2014. The Nigeria Certificate in Education is the principal qualification for teaching in Nigeria (National Policy Brief, 2005. The paper constitutes a section of a larger study that evaluated the implementation of the NCE English Language curriculum. The Context, Input, Process and Product (CIPP Evaluation model is the theoretical framework in the study. A mixed methods approach was adopted within the CIPP framework, while utilizing a case study. Twenty lecturers and one hundred and twenty students from three Colleges of Education comprise the sample drawn through multistage and purposive sampling. The instruments were documentary reviews, observation checklists, interviews, questionnaires and field notes. The methods of analysis were thematic content analysis and descriptive/ inferential analysis. The study revealed that lecturers do not adopt contemporary and appropriate pedagogy for the teaching of the four language skills. It recommends this aspect should be re-considered. Similarly, an immediate review of the Practical Listening Skills and Speech work aspect of the course outline is required as the lecturers have noted that it is abstract.

  8. An Event-related Brain Potential Study of English Morphosyntactic Processing in Japanese Learners of English

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    Tatsuta, Natsuko

    2014-01-01

    This dissertation investigated the neural mechanisms underlying English morphosyntactic processing in Case, subject-verb agreement, and past tense inflection in Japanese learners of English (JLEs) using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in terms of the effects of the age of second language (L2) acquisition (the age of learning English), L2 proficiency level (the English proficiency level), and native/first language (L1) transfer. Researchers have debated for a number of years the question...

  9. Case Study of Chinese College Students’ Attitudes Toward Only English-Medium Teaching in EFL Classrooms

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    Sun Yue

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Facing the current situation that Chinese students are poor in English productive ability, the mode of only English-medium teaching is put forward to completely improve students’ English abilities and comprehensive competence by creating second language acquisition atmosphere. Since few studies have been conducted on students’ attitudes toward only English-medium teaching in ELT classrooms especially from the perspective of students themselves, this paper, through questionnaires and interviews, focuses on students’ attitudes to figure out their preferences, evaluations and suggestions of teaching modes, and further discusses the practical application of only English-medium teaching in EFL classrooms from five respects: teaching purpose, course design, teacher’ qualification, students’ language level and teaching effect. It is concluded that only English-medium teaching is not of popularity among students giving their own English levels and the advancement of only English-medium teaching quality depends on the qualified teachers and suitable courses.  Keywords: English teaching, Teaching effect, Teacher qualification, Students’ language level, Course design

  10. Cultivate Mindfulness: A Case Study of Mindful Learning in an English as a Foreign Language Classroom

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    Yang Wang

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This case study investigated how the use of mindfulness affected college English as a foreign language (EFL students learning and how mindful learning strategies supported their learning of English. Mindful learning considers the students’ abilities to be aware, perceive and conceive. Mindfulness results in an increase in competence, memory, creativity, and positive affect based on the previous studies. In this study, 24 undergraduate freshmen participated at a Northeastern University in China. The data collection included those undergraduates’ pre-surveys, post-surveys, work samples, the instructor’s observation notes and the researcher’s reflective journal entries. This practice found that by engaging in mindful strategies, EFL students took ownership of their learning in the following ways: students built and became aware of a comfortable learning environment in their classroom through mindfulness; mindful writing helped students generate new thoughts and become aware of their thinking; mindfulness facilitated their learning process, cultivated creativity and intelligence; mindful cooperative learning provided students with an opportunity to discover their awareness, learn from others, reflect and think critically.

  11. Learner corpus profiles the case of Romanian learner English

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    Chitez, Madalina

    2014-01-01

    The first three chapters of the book offer relevant information on the new methodological approach, learner corpus profiling, and the exemplifying case, Romanian Learner English. The description of the Romanian Corpus of Learner English is also given special attention. The following three chapters include corpus-based frequency analyses of selected grammatical categories (articles, prepositions, genitives), combined with error analyses. In the concluding discussion, the book summarizes the features compiled as lexico-grammatical profiles.

  12. "Fan Fic-ing" English Studies: A Case Study Exploring the Interplay of Vernacular Literacies and Disciplinary Engagement

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    Roozen, Kevin

    2009-01-01

    Drawing from a study of one student's literate engagements with English studies and fan fiction and related fan art over her two years in an MA program, which also reached back to the earlier writing she did for English classes and other writings before the study began, this article employs sociohistoric theory to examine the profoundly dialogic…

  13. AN INTERLANGUAGE STUDY: A CASE STUDY OF AN INDONESIAN LEARNER OF ENGLISH

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    Widya Ratna Kusumaningrum

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The aims of this study are to investigate whether Indonesian grammar affects error oral production and leads to the creation of interlanguage (IL grammar, also whether this grammar causes fossilization. The proposed Null Hypotheses (H0 are Indonesian grammar does not affect error production in English and it does not systemize IL grammar, also this IL grammar does not triggers fossilization. The subjects are a NNES (an Indonesian who has unique exposure in which after two years being exposed to English and being in temporary pause state for two years, he has been living in the US for a year and a NES. The instrument used is a wordless image book. In this project, both subjects narrate the sequential pictures into a good story for 25 minutes, and their oral productions are recorded and analyzed by employing qualitative evaluation design. From the data calculation, the Null Hypotheses (H0 are rejected. On the basis of NES’ oral production, NNES speaks inaccuracies such as in possessive pronouns, verb tenses, and articles. To sum up, he uses Indonesian grammar to create his IL grammar by transferring and overgeneralizing it when he produced English grammar. However, it has no sufficient evidence to claim that his IL has fossilized or become signals for achieving native-likeness. Thus, in doing so it is suggested to do longitudinal verification.

  14. Nordic Journal of English Studies

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    2008-01-01

    In difficult economic times, the place of education in the economy comes to the forefront with questions about how effective our programs are in preparing students to become contributing members of the workforce and society. As the discipline of English studies sits at the cross-roads of humanities...... and education for a global society, it has traditionally enjoyed high enrollments and unquestioned value. However, two trends are affecting the position of English studies in the academy: 1) the emergence of communication studies as a discipline and 2) the movement towards education in English as a global...... language across many disciplines in Scandinavia. Because of these movements, the place and purpose for English studies is being called into question. In addition, the ability of an English studies degree in preparing students for the global workforce is also being examined. To address these emergent trends...

  15. A Case Study of Mobile Technology-enabled English Language Learning: the Amazon Kindle e-Reader Initiative in Palestine

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    Khitam Yousuf Shraim

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The proliferation of increasingly interactive e-reader devices such as the Amazon Kindle represents an opportunity to explore their evolving pedagogical value. This study aims to investigate how use of the Kindle can enhance individuals’ English language learning—more specifically their attitudes, reading comprehension, vocabulary development and pronunciation performance—in the context of informal and lifelong learning in Palestine, and to explore the further potential of scaling up the use of e-readers at a national level. At the piloting stage of this initiative, the study operated at two levels (micro and meso of the M3 evaluation framework. Mixed methods were used: qualitative data were obtained through a case study of the practices and perceptions of two teachers in two classrooms in the Qalqilia center and quantitative data were collected through a survey of 114 learners. The study shows that the Kindle’s technological affordances are effective in creating a flexible, authentic and interactive environment for English language learning, provided that teachers change their teaching methods to take full advantage of the features of mobile technologies to create innovative learning approaches aligned with the needs of the e-generation. It was also found that despite some concerns with the usability issue, attitudes towards learning English changed positively and learners’ vocabulary and pronunciation improved.

  16. A Case Study of Chinese College Students' Attitudes toward Only English-Medium Teaching in EFL Classrooms

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    Yue, Sun; Ying, Wang; Jingxia, Liu

    2015-01-01

    Facing the current situation that Chinese students are poor in English productive ability, the mode of only English-medium teaching is put forward to completely improve students' English abilities and comprehensive competence by creating second language acquisition atmosphere. Since few studies have been conducted on students' attitudes toward…

  17. Application of Case-Task Based Approach in Business English Teaching--A Case Study of the Marketing Course in SEIB of GDUFS

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    Guiyu, Dai; Yi, Cai

    2017-01-01

    Business English Teaching aims at cultivating students' ability to analyze and solve problems, improving students' comprehensive language competence and honing their business practical skills. Adhering to the principle of learning by doing and learning by teaching others, Case-Task Based Approach emphasizes students' ability of language use in…

  18. The Impact of Online Communication on Learning English: A Case Study of Saudi EFL Learners

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    Bakr Bagash Mansour Al-Sofi

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available This study examined the perceptions and views of Saudi undergraduate EFL learners regarding the role of online communication in improving their English, including the basic skills and the other aspects of language learning. It also aimed to identify the impact of some factors on the learners' perceptions on the role of online communication in developing their English level.  This study is quantitatively designed in which a written questionnaire was used to collect the data of the study during the first semester of the academic year 2015-2016 from 171 randomly selected students who joined different levels in English Department, College of Sciences and Arts, University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia. For analyzing the data of the study, different statistical techniques in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, 21.0 version were ran. The results indicated that the students had high positive perceptions of the significant role of online communication in fostering their English. Furthermore, it was found that there were statistically significant differences in the online communication scores for the factors of foreign friendship, university level, and the frequent use of the Internet. On the contrary, the results revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in the online communication scores for the other two factors of age and the frequent use of English online. Students are invited more than ever before to grasp every online chance for developing their English. In particular, they are required to employ online communication not only for socialization purposes, but for using it as an educational tool as well.

  19. English Language Schooling, Linguistic Realities, and the Native Speaker of English in Hong Kong

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    Hansen Edwards, Jette G.

    2018-01-01

    The study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students' English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants' English and Cantonese language use at…

  20. An Exploratory Case Study of Young Children's Interactive Play Behaviours with a Non-English Speaking Child

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    Lee, Joohi; Md-Yunus, Sham'ah; Son, Won In; Meadows, Michelle

    2009-01-01

    This study is an examination of preschool-age English speaking children's interactive play behaviours with a non-English speaking child (NEC). The play types of a NEC were reported using the Parten's categories of solitary, parallel and interactive play. In addition, English-speaking children's interactive play with a NEC were reported in this…

  1. An Analysis of Technical Students' English Learning Motivation——A Case Study in Hainan Technician College%An Analysis of Technical Students'English Learning Motivation——A Case Study in Hainan Technician College

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    韩燕

    2017-01-01

    In recent years, because of the large-scale colleges' enrollment, the number of students is increasing while the quality of their English learning level is lower than before. So the gap between students' achievement in English is becoming larger and larger. The author aims to reveal problems of learning motivation in the English learning process. By the ways of handing out questionnaires, interviewing subjects and attending some classes, she find reasons of the problems and give suggestions to the English teachers and technical students. Base on this, teachers could find out how to stir students' English learning motivation. Through analysis of 117 questionnaires, it finds that students of Hainan Technician College (HTC) have different motivations, and some English learning problems. In the college English learning process, teachers should first of all make an acquaintance with students' English learning motivation and fully understand the link between academic result and motivation. Then according to their different situations, teachers should use different teaching methods and skills so as to stir and keep students learning motivation, especially in the process of college students' classroom learning. Only if teachers keep students' interest and stir their inner motivation, students can make good teaching achievement in teaching round. At the same time students should actively cooperate with teachers, have a clear attitude and goal in English learning, change the original bias to English, raise English learning motivation, and work hard for English in order to meet the needs of times.

  2. Student Voice on the Instructional Qualities of the Effective English Language Teacher: A Collective Case Study

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    Corinne Vong Siu Phern

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available A majority of Malaysian students only have average English language proficiency, although instructional qualities of the effective English language teacher have by far been expounded by English language experts. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the extent to which the responses of student voice representing above average, average and below average English language proficiency from the primary, secondary and tertiary levels - have agreed with expert opinion’s description of instructional qualities of the effective English language teacher. In this respect, student voice was analysed using triangulation not only on the instructional qualities discussed, but also on the literature review. Interesting findings revealed that student voice still had something extra to contribute in determining the instructional qualities of the effective English language teacher, with a touch of irony and constructive criticism on how such qualities of English language teachers/lecturers could still improve, so as to appear more effective in learners’ eyes.

  3. Pre-aspiration in Welsh English: a case study of Aberystwyth

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hejná, Michaela

    -aspiration would be manifested as a h sound inserted in the following words as indicated: paht, peht, piht, poht, puht, mahp, mahtt, mahck, ohff, mohth, mahss, mahsh. Because the sound is understudied in English, the work focuses on what other sounds condition the presence of the phenomenon and its duration......Lay abstract This thesis examines pre-aspiration in English spoken in Aberystwyth, mid Wales. Pre-aspiration is a sound very similar to h (as in honey), and it can be found mainly in the sequences of vowels (a, e, i, o, u, etc.) and certain consonants (p, t, k, f, th, s, sh). In English, pre......, if it is sensitive to social factors such as age or gender as well, and it suggests some implications for sound changes including pre-aspiration. Chapter 1 summarises the questions addressed in this thesis and outlines where this work is positioned with respect to our current knowledge of the phenomenon...

  4. English for Specific Purposes: A Case Study in an Industrial Setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexander, Clare

    A course outline and sample materials for a course in English for garment workshop employees in New York are presented, and theoretical considerations in establishing an English for specific purposes (ESP) course are explored. Attention is directed to the needs analysis process undertaken in the garment industry. Specifically, ESP is used to mean…

  5. Independient virtual english language learning: a case study in higher education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Esther Nieto Moreno de Diezmas

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The development of independent and self-learning strategies for Foreign Language Learning is of special interest in Higher Education. In particular, these strategies are essential in the Foreign Language Learning area (EFL, since students need to practise and strengthen their exposure to language so as to develop receptive and productive skills. The goal of this paper is to show how independent and virtual learning are developed by means of ICT. To this end, a group of tasks and activities have been designed, distributed and implemented by means of Moodle in the setting of a teaching innovation project in which different campuses and faculties of Education of the University of Castilla-La Mancha where English I is studied have taken part. Additionally, the initial results in terms of students’ perceptions about their independent and virtual learning are shown. Therefore, this paper focuses on a case study at Higher Education in which valid conclusions may be drawn for other similar settings where language learning and virtual learning need to be combined. Initial results suggest the students have responded positively in terms of their perception and participation. This validates the tasks and procedures carried out in the implementation of virtual foreign language learning.

  6. State Education Policy Formation: The Case of Arizona's English Language Learner Legislation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawton, Stephen B.

    2012-01-01

    This historical case study focuses on policy making at the state level by analyzing the development of a new policy for English language learners (ELLs) in Arizona. "New institutionalism" is used as a framework, with political culture and educational regimes acting as environmental factors affecting state policy choices. Key events…

  7. Gender Construction through Textbooks: The Case of an Ethiopian Primary School English Textbook

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gebregeorgis, Mehari Yimulaw

    2016-01-01

    The objective of the study was to explore how gender was constructed in the "English for Ethiopia Student's Book" for grade four. In order to find out the discursive actions, representations and identifications by unpacking the employed genre, discourse and style, respectively, the case study was conducted using Fairclough's…

  8. The Process of Writing Research Articles in English and Getting Published: A Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Süleyman Başaran

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Getting published in indexed English journals is a rather long and challenging process for non-native academics that have to write in English. In this study, we interview four Turkish academics (two physicists and two civil engineers, who use English as a foreign language, and analyze the processes they undergo while writing research articles (RA and striving to get them published. We also interview other four academics (a historian, a linguist, a sociologist and an educational scientist, who have no published works in indexed journals, to gain more insight about the difficulties entailed in getting published in English journals. In Turkey, it is a prerequisite to get published in indexed journals, most of which are English, in order to get a tenure position at Turkish universities. However, this process is much more difficult and demanding for those who have no US or UK background and who have had no formal education in writing of any kind. The interviews we conducted and the observation process hint that science and engineering articles have preset rules and conventions and that writing such articles is a mechanical process

  9. Development and Evaluation of English Listening Study Materials for Business People Who Use Mobile Devices: A Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamada, Masanori; Kitamura, Satoshi; Shimada, Noriko; Utashiro, Takafumi; Shigeta, Katsusuke; Yamaguchi, Etsuji; Harrison, Richard; Yamauchi, Yuhei; Nakahara, Jun

    2011-01-01

    This study aims to verify the effectiveness of English language materials using mobile devices for business people in terms of the effect on motivation, overall learning performance, and practical performance in real business situations. We compared the use of materials developed from business English for a sales department in a company…

  10. Understanding the Role of Teaching Materials in a Beginners’ Level English as a Foreign Language Course: A Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elio Jesús Cruz Rondón

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Learning a foreign language may be a challenge for most people due to differences in the form and structure between one’s mother tongue and a new one. However, there are some tools that facilitate the teaching and learning of a foreign language, for instance, new applications for digital devices, video blogs, educational platforms, and teaching materials. Therefore, this case study aims at understanding the role of teaching materials among beginners’ level students learning English as a foreign language. After conducting five non-participant classroom observations and nine semi-structured interviews, we found that the way the teacher implemented a pedagogical intervention by integrating the four language skills, promoting interactive learning through the use of online resources, and using the course book led to a global English teaching and learning process.

  11. A case for teaching English as a service subject at universities in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    A case for teaching English as a service subject at universities in Kenya. ... of this is that the learner is expected to acquire and utilize skills using a language he or she is not quite ... paper discusses the English language needs of Kenyan students at the time of entry to ... EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT

  12. Associations between Psychosocial Aspects of English Classroom Environments and Motivation Types of Chinese Tertiary-Level English Majors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bi, Xuefei

    2015-01-01

    This study involved whether psychosocial aspects of English classroom environments had associations with the English learning motivation types of Chinese tertiary-level English majors based on a case study of approximate 1,000 English majors in their first 2 years at one of the key universities located in South China. Canonical correlation…

  13. Researching awareness and attitudes : a study of world Englishes and English teachers in South Korea

    OpenAIRE

    Ahn, Hyejeong

    2017-01-01

    This study explores the awareness and attitudes of English teachers in South Korea (ETSK) toward eight selected varieties of English: American English (AmE), British English (BrE), Canadian English (CaE), Singaporean English (SiE), Indian English (InE), Chinese English (ChE), Japanese English (JaE) and Korean English (KoE). Data, consisting of 204 questionnaires and 63 interviews, is collected from both Korean and non-Korean English teachers, from two major regions, Busan Gyeongnam and Seoul ...

  14. AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH THESIS WRITING: A Case Study of English Department of UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andang Saehu

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available This is a report of a study designed to examine the process of thesis—a final (research-based paper for undergrads prior to academic completion—writing of English Department students who graduated in Academic Year 2007/2008. Using a descriptive method, this case study aimed to describe the stages, to identify the problems, and to explore the techniques of solving problems used by respondents in the thesis writing by involving six students who had engaged in writing and research project course. The data concerning writing stages, problems, and coping with strategies were collected by using questionnaires, interviews, and documentation (thesis. The results showed that all participants went through the thesis writing stages determined by Faculty of Adab of UIN Sunan Gunung Djati, Bandung, namely: 1 Starting process; 2 Researching; 3 Reporting; and 4 Doing consultation. These also showed that all respondents encountered: 1 Procedural problems, which were likely to be the major problems shared by all respondents; 2 Academic problems; and 3 Nonacademic problems. However, whatever problems they dealt with, each of them had his/her own strategies to cope with. The procedural and academic problems were coped with by reading, doing consultation, and peer-collaboration. Meanwhile, non-academic problems were solved by having a rest and managing time.

  15. Learning through English Language in Early Childhood Education: A Case of English Medium Schools in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mwalongo, Leopard Jacob

    2016-01-01

    In China the English medium schools are now mushrooming and many parents send their children at very early age. These schools enroll children of pre-school to school age to learn through English as foreign language regardless of their proficiency in the first language. Therefore the study aims at examining the learning English language as a…

  16. Glogsters and Other Motivating Technology: A Multiple Case Study of English Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez-Alba, Gilda; Cruzado-Guerrero, Judith; Pitcher, Sharon

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate how undergraduate Latino English learner (EL) students were motivated to read using technology by their teachers throughout their education. To examine this, they were interviewed, asked to perform a task that involved reading online, required to make a Glogster (an online interactive poster) about…

  17. Aida and Her Mainstream Classroom: A Case Study of a Young English Language Learner's Literacy Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bambang Yudi Cahyono

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available This article reports a nine-month study of literacy development of Aida, a young English language learner from Indonesia, who was mainstreamed in a Grade 2 classroom in a primary school in the south-eastern part of Australia. This article initially reviews the literature concerning features of the mainstream classroom conducive for second language learning and for literacy development. Following the presentation of methodological issues, it examines English learning activities in Aida's classroom and highlights her literacy development with examples of her work. The results from this study show that Aida developed literacy skills considered important for her second language and learning development. The variety of English learning activities and the encouraging environment in her classroom contributed much to her literacy development.

  18. An Exploration of English Language Teaching Pedagogy in Secondary Yemeni Education: A Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yehia Ahmed Y. Al-Sohbani

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The teaching of English at the Yemeni public schools has been criticized as ineffective due to the poor level of the language competency of most school leavers though they spend six years studying English whose curriculum, according to Bose (2002, is largely based on the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT. In this respect, this paper mainly attempted to: 1 investigate Yemeni English teachers’ classroom teaching practices in secondary schools, (2 Explore the Yemeni teachers’ awareness of CLT, and 3 explore the constraints teachers face while implementing the CLT. The results of the study indicate that the Grammar Translation Method (GTM is the predominant pedagogy practiced by the EFL teachers participated in this study. The use of the mother-tongue, both by teachers and students were noticed to be the prevailing. The meanings of words are given in Arabic and the teachers do not focus on developing students’ fluency rather they focus on grammar. The results also show that the participants do not have a clear cut idea regarding the principles and concepts of CLT and are not clear about what they do in the classroom. The constraints faced by the participants while implementing CLT are also investigated and presented in the paper.

  19. New issues in attendance demand: the case of the English football league

    OpenAIRE

    D Forrest; R Simmons

    2005-01-01

    This paper uses an attendance demand model with panel data on over 4,000 games to examine economic problems of fixture congestion in English Football League schedules. We find that televised midweek Champions League matches involving English Premier League clubs have substantial adverse impacts on lower division Football League gate attendance. This suggests that affected clubs may have a case for compensation from the Premier League for loss of gate revenue from this source. Scheduling of ho...

  20. The consequences of English language testing for international health professionals and students: An Australian case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rumsey, Michele; Thiessen, Jodi; Buchan, James; Daly, John

    2016-02-01

    To discuss the perceptions about the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and its impact on migration and practice of migrant health professionals in Australia. Thematic analysis of interviews with 14 health industry participants and 35 migrated health professionals in Australia. Language testing is a barrier to health professional registration for migrant health workers in Australia. While two English language tests are recognised by the registration authorities in Australia, it is the International English Language Testing System that is most commonly used. This paper reports that study participants had underlying negative perceptions of the International English Language Testing System which they report, affect their move to Australia. These negative perceptions are caused by: frustration due to changes to processes for migration and registration; challenges regarding the structure of IELTS including timing of when test results expire, scoring requirements, cost, and suitability; and the resulting feelings of inadequacy caused by the test itself. This study has shown that some respondents have experienced difficulties in relation to the International English Language Testing System as part of their migration process. It was found that there is very little research into the effectiveness of the IELTS as it is currently administered for overseas health care professionals. Several recommendations are provided including areas for further research. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Working in English personal study book

    CERN Document Server

    Jones, Leo

    2001-01-01

    Working In English is a comprehensive course for Business English learners from Leo Jones, co-author of the successful New International Business English course. The core course comprises 40 one-hour units, focusing on thye practical day-to-day activities that all business people are involved in, and organised into seven modules. This pocket-sized Personal Study Book offers useful reference material and fun practice activities to do out of class. It comes with a free audio CD to provide extra self-study listening practice.

  2. Motivation Change of Pre-Service English Teachers: A Hong Kong Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Icy; Yuan, Rui

    2014-01-01

    This paper reports a study that investigated the motivations towards teaching of six pre-service English teachers enrolled on a teacher education course in Hong Kong. A qualitative case study approach was adopted, using data gathered from pre- and post-course interviews with individual participants, their dialogue journals with the teacher…

  3. English Language Teaching Through Literature : An Application of English Poetry in the High School English Textbook to the Classroom

    OpenAIRE

    濵口, 脩

    2004-01-01

    The aim of this present paper is to review the present state of English poetry in the high school English textbooks in Japan and to propose some practical application of English poems to the English language classroom. Several cases in which English poems are found in actual English high school textbooks are discussed, and then, since there seems to be no explanation of teaching English poems, with some notes of them and of reading English poems in general, some practical suggetions for impro...

  4. Intervention for bilingual speech sound disorders: A case study of an isiXhosa-English-speaking child.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rossouw, Kate; Pascoe, Michelle

    2018-03-19

     Bilingualism is common in South Africa, with many children acquiring isiXhosa as a home language and learning English from a young age in nursery or crèche. IsiXhosa is a local language, part of the Bantu language family, widely spoken in the country. Aims: To describe changes in a bilingual child's speech following intervention based on a theoretically motivated and tailored intervention plan. Methods and procedures: This study describes a female isiXhosa-English bilingual child, named Gcobisa (pseudonym) (chronological age 4 years and 2 months) with a speech sound disorder. Gcobisa's speech was assessed and her difficulties categorised according to Dodd's (2005) diagnostic framework. From this, intervention was planned and the language of intervention was selected. Following intervention, Gcobisa's speech was reassessed. Outcomes and results: Gcobisa's speech was categorised as a consistent phonological delay as she presented with gliding of/l/in both English and isiXhosa, cluster reduction in English and several other age appropriate phonological processes. She was provided with 16 sessions of intervention using a minimal pairs approach, targeting the phonological process of gliding of/l/, which was not considered age appropriate for Gcobisa in isiXhosa when compared to the small set of normative data regarding monolingual isiXhosa development. As a result, the targets and stimuli were in isiXhosa while the main language of instruction was English. This reflects the language mismatch often faced by speech language therapists in South Africa. Gcobisa showed evidence of generalising the target phoneme to English words. Conclusions and implications: The data have theoretical implications regarding bilingual development of isiXhosa-English, as it highlights the ways bilingual development may differ from the monolingual development of this language pair. It adds to the small set of intervention studies investigating the changes in the speech of bilingual

  5. Intervention for bilingual speech sound disorders: A case study of an isiXhosa–English-speaking child

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kate Rossouw

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: Bilingualism is common in South Africa, with many children acquiring isiXhosa as a home language and learning English from a young age in nursery or crèche. IsiXhosa is a local language, part of the Bantu language family, widely spoken in the country.   Aims: To describe changes in a bilingual child’s speech following intervention based on a theoretically motivated and tailored intervention plan.   Methods and procedures: This study describes a female isiXhosa–English bilingual child, named Gcobisa (pseudonym (chronological age 4 years and 2 months with a speech sound disorder. Gcobisa’s speech was assessed and her difficulties categorised according to Dodd’s (2005 diagnostic framework. From this, intervention was planned and the language of intervention was selected. Following intervention, Gcobisa’s speech was reassessed.   Outcomes and results: Gcobisa’s speech was categorised as a consistent phonological delay as she presented with gliding of/l/in both English and isiXhosa, cluster reduction in English and several other age appropriate phonological processes. She was provided with 16 sessions of intervention using a minimal pairs approach, targeting the phonological process of gliding of/l/, which was not considered age appropriate for Gcobisa in isiXhosa when compared to the small set of normative data regarding monolingual isiXhosa development. As a result, the targets and stimuli were in isiXhosa while the main language of instruction was English. This reflects the language mismatch often faced by speech language therapists in South Africa. Gcobisa showed evidence of generalising the target phoneme to English words.   Conclusions and implications: The data have theoretical implications regarding bilingual development of isiXhosa–English, as it highlights the ways bilingual development may differ from the monolingual development of this language pair. It adds to the small set of intervention studies

  6. An investigation on normal school students’ learning burnout – A case study of English normal students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Linjing Xu

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Learning burnout is a phenomenon in which students hold a negative attitude to curriculum learning, which manifests in aspects of physiology, psychology, behavior and interpersonal communication. China attaches great importance to higher education, colleges and universities shoulder the important task of training national modernization personnel. The problem of university students’ learning burnout has become a social phenomenon that cannot be ignored. Normal university students are one of the important groups of college students, and this phenomenon of learning burnout may also occur among them. English majors are the backbone of English teachers in primary and secondary schools in the future. The learning status of these groups affects the overall quality of teaching in normal colleges and universities and, more importantly, the quality of teachers in primary and secondary schools in the future. This paper first reviews the definition of learning burnout and the research methods of measurement. Subsequently, it investigates the learning burnout of English matriculation students by taking the first-year English majors of Jiangxi Normal University as an example. In this way, this research is hoped to promote the study on learning burnout not only among English normal students but also other normal students.

  7. Chinese English in as lingua franca in global business setting: A case study of ongoing emails of a foreign company in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Wenpu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available With the process of globalization, English has been increasingly become the lingua franca for people speaking different languages to communicate with each other, among whom the number of non-native speakers of English far outnumbers those native speakers in traditional sense. Against this background, the principle of taking the rules of native English speakers as the norms is undergoing challenges. The non-native speakers are claiming the ownership and rights of norm-providing to the English language (Crystal, 2003. In business setting, this is especially true (Charles, 2007. This paper intends to explore the use of Chinese English as lingua franca in business setting. Taking a foreign enterprise based in China as the case, this paper investigates over 400 ongoing business e-mails written in English by its Chinese employees, including the management and other staff. Four most salient patterns of Chinese English structures are identified, i.e., punctuations, absence of inflectional markers in number and tense, serial verb construction, and zero articles, which are then analyzed cultural, linguistic and social-linguistic perspectives. The effectiveness of such language patterns are proved according to the principle of “understandability” proposed by Kachru and Nelson (2006 from both intra-cultural and inter-cultural aspects. Based on the afore-said analysis, this paper concludes that Chinese English, during the process of language contact, has become a legitimate English variation, and has been providing new norms for the other countries to follow. It is suggested that business English users in China need to use their Chinese English with a confident stance, while business partners from other countries need to get familiar with this English variation in order for them to communicate effectively with their Chinese partners.

  8. A Study On English Reading Habits Of Students Of English Study Program Of Riau University

    OpenAIRE

    Al Nazhari, Hafiz; Delfi, Syofia; ', Syafri K

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study is to find out the habits of English reading among the students of English Study Program of Riau University. The method used in this research is quantitative research and the design is survey study. A questionnaire was used as the instrument of this research. The questionnaire involved seven indicators of reading habits: attitudes toward reading, reading frequency, reading materials read, time spend on academic reading, time spend on non-academic reading, motivation in t...

  9. Research on the Education System of Business English Courses Based on the Case of GDUFS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhengguo, Zhu; Lili, Lin; Wenzhong, Zhu

    2016-01-01

    In order to develop a more scientific education system of Business English courses, this paper studies the case of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS, one of Chinese top-three foreign language universities) by questionnaires. The result shows that: 1) Most of the students hope that the school could add more business courses in the…

  10. Korean University Students' Attitudes and Motivation towards Studying English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geddes, Aaron J.

    2016-01-01

    The main objective of this study was to identify the attitudes of Korean university students towards studying English and to determine if attending after-school English academies has had a negative impact on their attitudes towards studying English. The study also sought to determine if studying English leads to anxiety, and more importantly if…

  11. THE ROLE OF OUT-OF-SCHOOL ENGLISH LITERACY ACTIVITIES IN PROMOTING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LITERACY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    LILIES SETIASIH

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper reports on a case study of the role of out-of-school English literacy activities in promoting students’ English literacy at an elementary school in Bandung. The study is an attempt to respond to controversy among decision makers about the idea of offering English at elementary schools and the reality that at the school where the research was conducted, English is fully used as a means of instruction for English, Mathematics, and Science. Considering that literacy is shaped in socio-cultural contexts, the researcher assumed that the students acquired and developed their English literacy not only at school but also outside of school. Their out-of-school English literacy activities might contribute to their English literacy development. The research aims were to investigate the students’ English literacy level and to identify their out-of-school literacy activities. The theoretical framework covered the cognitive and socio-cultural theories of literacy. The research results were: 1 the majority of the fourth grade students were in early advanced and advanced levels for the aspects of reading and writing proficiency; and 2 their out-of-school English literacy activities played an important role in building their English literacy.

  12. The relationship between English language learning strategies and proficiency of pre-university students: A study case of UMS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiram, Johannah Jamalul; Sulaiman, Jumat; Swanto, Suyansah; Din, Wardatul Akmam

    2014-07-01

    This paper seeks to investigate the relationship between language learning strategies and proficiency in English. Fifty-six pre-university students (22 males, 34 females) of University Malaysia Sabah participated in this study. Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) self-report questionnaire was adopted to identify the students' language learning strategies, whereas their proficiencies were judged based on their Malaysian University English Test (MUET) Results. Pearson's correlation coefficient, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and the t-test were utilized to make statistical interpretation about the relationship. The knowledge obtained from this study will be helpful for future studies on how to improve the quality of learning and proficiency in English.

  13. Can Learning Motivation Predict Learning Achievement? A Case Study of a Mobile Game-Based English Learning Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, Chia-Hui; Cheng, Ching-Hsue; Yeh, Duen-Yian; Lin, Shih-Yun

    2017-01-01

    This study applied a quasi-experimental design to investigate the influence and predictive power of learner motivation for achievement, employing a mobile game-based English learning approach. A system called the Happy English Learning System, integrating learning material into a game-based context, was constructed and installed on mobile devices…

  14. School of English for Applied Economics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lidia K. Raitskaya

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Department of English Language № 5 was created at the Institute of Foreign Economic Relations in 2000, and since 2011 it has been working with the students of the Department of Applied Economics and Commerce. Department of English Language № 5 prepares training materials, multimedia courses, manuals and tutorials based on the up-to-date educational technologies. A series of textbooks and teaching materials was recently published by the Department. They are widely used in teaching business communication for Economists. This series include textbook "Commercial correspondence and documentation in English" by L.K. Raitskaya and L.V. Korovin, textbook "Business English with the use of case studies (case studies" edited by O.V. Desyatova? and textbook "Two-way translation of dialogues commercial content"by O.V. Desyatova.

  15. Teacher Representations of English as a Foreign Language: Case Study of Two Teachers in Turkey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sultan Turkan

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available In a developing nation like Turkey, the English language plays a significant role in educational and socioeconomic mobility. English is acquired and taught as a foreign language (EFL primarily in the classrooms. However, the ways in which English language is represented in classroom instruction have been hardly examined and understood. With that, this paper aims to depict two teachers’ representations of the English language as influenced by a university entrance English language test administered in 2008 in Turkey. The two teachers’ representations of the English language are projected from a 12th grade classroom at an Anatolian Lycee located in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. Doyle's task framework is employed, specifically in order to map what content representations emerged out of the teachers' classroom practices. Data sources include biweekly teacher logs, biweekly interviews, and biweekly classroom observations. The paper highlights that the two teachers' classroom representations of English were entrenched with the idea of highstakes test preparation for university admissions as they deemed test preparation as a major part of their classroom instruction. That is, representations of the English language were contracted to tested structures and items. The paper illustrates the teachers’ representations of reading and grammar with the insight that division of labour, though not in the form of collaboration, made it possible for the teachers to cope with the contraction effect of test preparation

  16. Editorializing in L2: The Case of Philippine English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dayag, Danilo T.

    2004-01-01

    This paper examines the discourse structure of newspaper editorials in Philippine English in terms of their macrostructure and their lexico-grammatical features. Data were taken from three leading English-language newspapers in the Philippines. Toulmin's framework is used in analyzing the macrostructure of the editorials. The study posits that the…

  17. English Name Transition from Taiwan to the United States: A Case Study of Taiwanese International Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi-An Jason Chen

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The way in which Taiwanese students use English names to construct their identities in a new sociocultural setting has received minimal scholarly attention. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 10 Taiwanese international students, I focused on how the use of ethnic names and English names is structured through social interaction and cultural context at an American university. The results suggest that the acquisition of an English name is not a personal choice, but an authoritative order that originates from private English education in Taiwan. Even though the choice of ethnic and English names in the United States is often constrained by linguistic factors, the use of English names by Taiwanese international students not only discloses their attitudes toward English name adoption, but also greatly influences their identity and acculturation.

  18. Football fans and food: a case study of a football club in the English premier league.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ireland, Robin; Watkins, Francine

    2010-05-01

    Although there is growing awareness of the impact of diet on health, little attention has been given to the food available in our sports stadia. We used a football club (Citygrene FC) - Citygrene is a fictional name - in the English Premier League as a case study to examine the attitudes of male and female football supporters to the food and drink available at their home stadium (Citygrene Stadium). The research design used five focus groups of male and female fans. The discourse was audiotaped, transcribed, coded and analysed for themes. A football stadium in the English Premier League, England. The participants were season ticket holders drawn from two stands at Citygrene Stadium. The research showed a high level of dissatisfaction with the food and drink supplied. There were key differences in the views of the male and female participants in the focus groups, with the women more concerned about wider issues such as the lack of healthy food. Both men and women were aware of their role as consumers and felt that there was an opportunity for Citygrene to improve their catering profits, if they provided a better selection of food and drink and an improved service. The study shows that there is a demand for healthier food options (and a wider choice of food and drink in general), which may provide an economic opportunity for stadium and catering managers. In addition, a stadium may be considered a potential 'healthy setting', which can serve as a supportive environment for healthier food choices.

  19. Qzone Weblog for Critical Peer Feedback to Improve Business English Writing: A Case of Chinese Undergraduates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xianwei, Gao; Samuel, Moses; Asmawi, Adelina

    2016-01-01

    This study explores Qzone weblog for critical peer feedback (CPF) in Business English writing (BEW) among the Chinese undergraduates. A qualitative case study is conducted by Nvivo 8 to analyze the three research data of semi-structured interviews, BEW writing assignments, and CPF artifacts on Qzone weblog. Three research questions are focused to…

  20. Primary seborrhoea in English springer spaniels: a retrospective study of 14 cases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott, D W; Miller, W H

    1996-04-01

    Primary seborrhoea was diagnosed in 14 English springer spaniels over a 17-year period. Seven of the dogs developed clinical signs by two years of age. The dermatosis began as a generalised non-pruritic dry scaling which gradually worsened. Some dogs remained in this dry (seborrhoea sicca) stage, but in most cases the dermatosis became greasy and inflamed (seborrhoea oleosa and seborrhoeic dermatitis). Eight of the dogs suffered from recurrent episodes of superficial or deep bacterial pyoderma. Histological findings in skin biopsy specimens included marked orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis of surface and infundibular epithelium, papillomatosis, parakeratotic capping of the papillae, and superficial perivascular dermatitis in which lymphocytes and mast cells were prominent. The dogs with seborrhoea sicca responded more satisfactorily to therapy with topical emollient-humectant agents or oral omega-3/omega-6 fatty acid supplementation. Dogs with seborrhoea oleosa and seborrhoeic dermatitis did not respond satisfactorily to topical therapy. One dog, however, responded well to etretinate and omega-3/omega-6 fatty acid administration. No dog was cured.

  1. Courseware Integration into Task-Based Learning: A Case Study of Multimedia Courseware-Supported Oral Presentations for Non-English Major Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, Shu-Chiao

    2011-01-01

    This study reports on the integration of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) multimedia courseware for oral presentations into a self-learning and elective program for non-English major students in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting. A computer-aided instruction approach, combined with a task-based learning approach, was adopted.…

  2. Post O-Level English--The Study of Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gannon, P.

    1976-01-01

    Examines objections to the study of language and linguistics in secondary education and suggests that it is time to resolve the false dichotomy between English literature and English language by providing a modest optional language element in A-level English. (Author/RK)

  3. ESP AS A CHALLENGE TO CONFRONT – A CASE STUDY OF TECHNICAL ENGLISH IN A PRE-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL UNIVERSITY CLASSROOM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    LUSTIGOVÁ, Lenka

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Drowned in explosive amounts of information, new technology developments, globalisation, international job opportunities and large-scale job migration, ESP courses are faced with the increasing requirement of tailoring language-learning to accommodate employer/employee specialisations. This dynamism is currently being transmitted to courses at the university level, along with the accompanying challenges for all involved. This paper reviews these potential barriers to implementation of ESP courses for students with low proficiency of English, taking a pre-intermediate-level Technical English course at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague as a case study. After analysing various scholarly references aimed at ESP, the classroom-based research for this paper confirms the feasibility and efficacy of implementing ESP and TE, in particular, even into pre-intermediate classrooms. The self-motivating design of 6 TASKS, as well as authentic video sessions, combined with a student survey and teacher observations, all serve to point to ESP introduction on the pre-intermediate level as achievable in terms of application and resourceful regarding future life-career situations in which students will eventually find themselves.

  4. Language Learning Motivation, Global English and Study Modes: A Comparative Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lanvers, Ursula

    2017-01-01

    Exploring the popular explanation that the global spread of English may demotivate students with English as their first language to learn other languages, this study investigates relations between student motivation and perception of Global English and tests for differences between traditional "campus" and distance university students…

  5. Individual Variables, Attitudes towards English and Being a Teacher: A study on Prospective Teachers of English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Berna Güryay

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The achievement in learning a foreign language depends not only on cognitive factors such as intelligence, aptitude etc., but also on affective factors such as attitude and motivation. As the main branch of prospective teachers of English is teaching a language, their attitudes towards English and towards being a teacher are of vital importance in their future careers. The purpose of this descriptive study is to determine whether the attitudes of the students of English Language Teaching Department towards English affect their attitudes towards being a teacher of English and whether the students’ attitudes indicate significant differences with regard to individual variables such as gender, class, the types of High Schools from which they have graduated, their socio-economic background, and whether there is a teacher in their family. The sample group of the study were composed 540 prospective English teachers of the first, second, third and fourth year students of the Department of English Language Teaching at Buca Faculty of Education at Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir. For data collection, personal information sheet, the scale for attitudes towards English developed by Altunay (2002 (Alpha Reliability Coefficient: 0.96 and the scale for attitudes towards Being a Teacher developed by Semerci (1999 (Alpha Reliability Coefficient: 0.68 were used. The results indicate that the more positive the students’ attitudes towards English are, the more positive the students’ attitudes towards teaching profession are. Fur thermore, when attitudes towards English and towards being a teacher are compared,” it is indicated that the students’ attitudes towards English are a little bit higher.

  6. Spelling and Phonetic Inconsistencies in English: A Problem for ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    But it is not the case in English. English spelling is defective. It is a poor reflection of English pronunciation as we have not enough symbols to represent all the sounds of English. The problems of these inconsistencies to foreign and second language learners can not be overemphasized. This study will look at the historical ...

  7. CMC and Japanese University Students Studying English

    OpenAIRE

    Claro, Jennifer

    2008-01-01

    Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is becoming common in foreign language classes worldwide. In many countries, Japan included, students study English for years, rarely have the chance to use it. CMC has proven to be a viable and possibly even preferable alternative to face-to-face communication, providing an ideal environment in which English can be used in communicative situations. In addition to begin an environment where using learning, and modifying English takes place. CMC offers man...

  8. Names in Literary Translation: A Case Study of English Versions of the Slovenian Tale Martin Krpan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Darja Mazi – Leskovar

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available This article presents three English translations of the Slovenian tale Martin Krpan z Vrha (1858 by Fran Levstik and focuses on the translation of personal and geographical names with the aim of examining the application of domestication and foreignization translation strategies. The comparative analysis of the English names aims to find out if the cultural gap between the source and the target cultures has been diminishing over the years. The study also highlights the role of the chronotope that gives the work, one of the most frequently translated Slovenian texts, a distinctive cultural character.

  9. China English and ELT for English Majors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Mingjuan

    2008-01-01

    This paper is a general study of one of varieties of English--China English and its influence on English Language Teaching (ELT) for English majors. The status of English as an International language breaks the situation in which British English or American English is the sole standard. English becomes World Englishes, taking on a plural form,…

  10. A Case Study of the Flipped Classroom in a Korean University General English Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choe, Erika; Seong, Myeong-Hee

    2016-01-01

    Research has proven the effectiveness of Flipped Classrooms (FC) for a variety of settings. However, more exploration needs to be done in regards to how FC can be used effectively in foreign language classrooms. The purpose of this study was to 1) explore student perceptions of FC in a Korean university general English course and 2) provide…

  11. English Language Arts and Science Courses in a Virtual School: A Comparative Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tustin, Rachel Sarah

    Virtual K-12 schools have rapidly become a popular choice for parents and students in the last decade. However, little research has been done on the instructional practices used in virtual courses. As reflected in the central research question, the purpose of this study was to explore how teachers provided instruction for Grade 7-10 students in both English language arts and science courses in a virtual school in a southern state. The conceptual framework was based on Piaget's theory of cognitive development and Garrison, Anderson, and Siemens' research on instructional design. The units of analysis in this qualitative, comparative case study were four virtual courses; the data were collected from teacher and student questionnaires, threaded student discussions, student work samples, and archival records. The first level of data analysis involved coding and categorization using the constant comparative method, and the second level involved examining the data for patterns, themes, and relationships to determine key findings. Results indicated that a standardized virtual course design supported teacher use of direct instruction and summative assessments and some individualized instruction to deliver course content, including adjusting the course pace, conducting individual telephone conferences, and providing small group instruction using Blackboard Elluminate. Opportunities for student interaction and inquiry learning were limited. This study is expected to contribute to positive social change by providing educators and policymakers with an awareness of the critical need for further study of research-based instructional practices in K-12 virtual courses that would improve student learning.

  12. Modeling the language learning strategies and English language proficiency of pre-university students in UMS: A case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiram, J. J.; Sulaiman, J.; Swanto, S.; Din, W. A.

    2015-10-01

    This study aims to construct a mathematical model of the relationship between a student's Language Learning Strategy usage and English Language proficiency. Fifty-six pre-university students of University Malaysia Sabah participated in this study. A self-report questionnaire called the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning was administered to them to measure their language learning strategy preferences before they sat for the Malaysian University English Test (MUET), the results of which were utilised to measure their English language proficiency. We attempted the model assessment specific to Multiple Linear Regression Analysis subject to variable selection using Stepwise regression. We conducted various assessments to the model obtained, including the Global F-test, Root Mean Square Error and R-squared. The model obtained suggests that not all language learning strategies should be included in the model in an attempt to predict Language Proficiency.

  13. A Case Study about Communication Strategies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Grace Hui Chin

    2011-01-01

    The primary purpose of this case study was to identify what were Taiwanese University English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' perceptions about learning communication strategies. This study collected qualitative data about students' beliefs and attitudes as they learned communication strategies. The research question guiding the study was:…

  14. Learner Resistance to English-Medium Instruction Practices: A Qualitative Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Yi-Ping

    2018-01-01

    The internationalization of higher education has resulted in the growth of English-medium instruction (EMI) practices and research. The existing EMI research has documented learners' favorable attitudes toward EMI but not necessarily its practices. Learners' dissatisfaction has not been viewed as a form of resistance. Through the notion of learner…

  15. Study on a Quality Evaluation Method for College English Classroom Teaching

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mao-hua Sun

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available A quality evaluation method is an important means and the main basis on which to evaluate the college English classroom teaching quality of teachers. To overcome the one-sided subjectivity and resulting imprecision of the traditional classroom teaching quality evaluation method, a scientific and reasonable quality evaluation index system for college English classroom teaching is constructed. The fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method and the analytic hierarchy process method are combined to propose an improved multi-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model for obtaining a new college English classroom teaching quality evaluation method. In the proposed method, according to the fuzzy characteristics of a college English classroom teaching quality evaluation, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is used to transform the qualitative evaluation indexes into limited quantitative evaluation indexes, then a judgment matrix is constructed to determine the weights among different levels by using the analytic hierarchy process method. Additionally, the college English classroom teaching quality is evaluated in detail. Finally, an actual case of college English classroom teaching is used to verify the effectiveness of the college English classroom teaching quality evaluation method. The results show that the proposed college English classroom teaching method can overcome the subjectivity and randomness shortcomings of the traditional classroom teaching quality evaluation methods, and improve the reliability, accuracy, and objectivity of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. It is an effective method to evaluate college English classroom teaching quality.

  16. The Routledge Dictionary of English Language Studies

    CERN Document Server

    Pearce, Michael

    2012-01-01

    Filled with real examples of the way people use English in different contexts, The Routledge Dictionary of English Language Studies is an indispensable guide to the richness and variety of the English language for both students and the general reader.From abbreviation to zero-article, via fricative and slang, the Dictionary contains over 600 wide ranging and informative entries covering:the core areas of language description and analysis: phonetics and phonology, grammar, lexis, semantics, pragmatics and discoursesociolinguistics, including entries on social and regional variation, stylistic v

  17. Studies on English Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Three-year Business English Majors

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Liu Fang-rong

    2008-01-01

    Vocabulary learning strategies have been studied by a lot of scholars and teachers to a different extent on language learner of different levels. Little research has been done on three-year .Business English majors. This study is intended to examine the vocabulary learning strategies applied by those students to their vocabulary learning during the course of English learning. This study is carried out in the form of doing a questionnaire among 117 three-year Business English majors. The collected data is analyzed in the computer by using the SPSS software. The result is that most of the students give up the concept and strategy of repetition and accept the concept of context and practicing. In addition, most of the students know how to make use of cognitive strategies to learn vocabulary. However, those students seldom employ metacognitive strategies and social/affective strategies to facilitate their vocabulary learning. In fight of these, some recommendations have given to those students to help them learn more vocabulary by appropriately using the vocabulary learning strategies.

  18. Erasmus Students Using English as a "Lingua Franca": Does Study Abroad in a Non-English-Speaking Country Improve L2 English?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Llanes, Àngels; Arnó, Elisabet; Mancho-Barés, Guzman

    2016-01-01

    There is a lack of research on the impact of study abroad (SA) on the development of L2 English when students study in non-anglophone countries. The aim of the present study is to fill this gap by examining 39 Catalan/Spanish students who, as part of an Erasmus exchange, spent a term at universities in non-English-speaking European countries. In…

  19. An Empirical Study on the Curriculum Construction of Business English for International Trade Based on the Case of GDUFS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wenzhong, Zhu; Cheng, Zhang

    2013-01-01

    Business English education concern is of great significance. Business English for International Trade in Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS) is widely acclaimed, and it is also a popular major. GDUFS has adopted the slogan "Learn from East and West, moral integrity and direct behavior". It is a famous cradle of learning,…

  20. Study on Correlation of English Pronunciation Self-Concept to English Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Xin; Zhang, Shengqi; Li, Yucong; Zhao, Miqiang

    2013-01-01

    English pronunciation self-concept is formed in the process of pronunciation learning, which refers to the learners' self-conception and assessment of one's English pronunciation proficiency and pronunciation (Gimson, A. C. 1980). This paper reports an investigation on 237 non-English major college students into the relationship between English…

  1. Students of Today Changing English Language Studies of Yesterday

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irena Vodopija-Krstanović

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In recent times, concern has been expressed as to whether English Language Studies are in tune with the wider social, political, technological and economic trends, and the latest developments in applied linguistics and English language education. In line with these views, the aim of this study is to explore – by means of interviews with 25 English majors from the University of Rijeka – the students’ expectations with respect to the skills and competencies (to be developed in their course of English studies, their relevance to the job market, as well as the teaching approaches and methods used to reach these learning outcomes. By comparing and contrasting the emerging educational trends triggered by the Bologna Process with primary data collected in our interviews, we focus on the implications that our results might have in terms of introducing changes to traditional English Language Studies educational paradigms.

  2. Emotional Intelligence, Self-Esteem and Academic Achievement: A Case Study, English Department Students

    OpenAIRE

    Wiwik Andreani.

    2013-01-01

    This study examines the comparison between English Department students’ emotional intelligence (EQ), their self-esteem and their academic achievement. Twenty-two students participated in the research by answering EQ test and two Self-Esteem questionnaires. The result shows that there is no relation between students’ GPA and their self-esteem and EQ. This means that academic ability does not correspond to social skills. Though most students have average EQ and self-esteem, one student has High...

  3. A Comparative Analysis of Contracted versus Alphabetical English Braille and Attitudes of English as a Foreign Language Learners: A Case Study of a Farsi-Speaking Visually Impaired Student

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mobaraki, Mohsen; Nazarloo, Saber Atash; Toosheh, Elaheh

    2017-01-01

    In the educational system of Iran, in which English is a foreign language, the duration of primary school is six years. After that, these English as a foreign language students enter high school and start to learn English during an additional six-year period. In years seven and eight, English textbooks are embossed in alphabetic English braille;…

  4. A multiple case study on the effects of temperamental traits in Chinese preschoolers learning English

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sun, He; de Bot, Kees; Steinkrauss, Rasmus

    2015-01-01

    Aims The current study tests Clarke’s (1999) findings on phases and variations of the English development of young second language learners in a Chinese EFL setting and explores the cause of these variations under the following questions: 1. What verbal and nonverbal behavior can be observed in

  5. Communicative Case Studies for EFL--Lessons for Interactivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Witte, Anne E.

    1999-01-01

    Discusses use of case studies and role play throughout the curriculum at the Ecole de Hautes Etudes Commerciales du Nord, a French graduate school associated with the Catholic University of Lille. Provides a case study that was developed to reconcile conflicting needs in the business English classroom at the graduate level. Students require…

  6. TEACHER OF ENGLISH NEEDED

    CERN Multimedia

    2002-01-01

    Part-time teacher of primary English needed for September 2002 to teach English National Curriculum (KS2) and NLS to mother tongue or good second language English-speakers aged 7-10. 4 hours contact time per week, team planning, marking and meetings. Candidates should be English mother tongue qualified teachers, confident, flexible classroom practitioners and team players. For further details and how to apply: engnat@hotmail.com or 04 50 40 82 66. Apply as soon as possible, and in any case before 8 July. English National Programme, Lycée International, Ferney-Voltaire.

  7. English Name Transition from Taiwan to the United States: A Case Study of Taiwanese International Students

    OpenAIRE

    Yi-An Jason Chen

    2016-01-01

    The way in which Taiwanese students use English names to construct their identities in a new sociocultural setting has received minimal scholarly attention. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 10 Taiwanese international students, I focused on how the use of ethnic names and English names is structured through social interaction and cultural context at an American university. The results suggest that the acquisition of an English name is not a personal choice, but an authoritative order...

  8. From Needs Analysis to Course Design: A Case of Hotel English in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    From Needs Analysis to Course Design: A Case of Hotel English in Nigeria. ... most hotel staff are untrained for the job and that there is need for in-service training ... tourism and hospitality industry as visitors in Nigeria hotels are from different linguistic ... for Authors · for Policy Makers · about Open Access · Journal Quality.

  9. Promising Instructional Practices for English Language Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prince, Johanna

    2018-01-01

    Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory case study was to understand how teachers, working with English Language Learners (ELLs), expanded their knowledge and instructional practices as they implemented a one-to-one iPad® program. Background: English Language Learners experience linguistic, cultural, and cognitive shifts that can be…

  10. Exploring the Potential for Language Supportive Learning in English Medium Instruction: A Rwandan Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milligan, Lizzi O.; Clegg, John; Tikly, Leon

    2016-01-01

    This article puts forward the argument for language supportive learning for learners in English medium instruction (EMI) classrooms based on the findings from a mixed methods study in Rwanda. The article first reviews the relevant literature and research which looks at the concept of language support, focusing on textbooks and pedagogy in…

  11. Engineering English and the High-Tech Industry: A Case Study of an English Needs Analysis of Process Integration Engineers at a Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spence, Paul; Liu, Gi-Zen

    2013-01-01

    The global high-tech industry is characterized by extreme competitiveness, innovation, and widespread use of English. Consequently, Taiwanese high-tech companies require engineers that are talented in both their engineering and English abilities. In response to the lack of knowledge regarding the English skills needed by engineers in Taiwan's…

  12. Pedagogical Challenges of Spoken English Learning in the Second Life Virtual World: A Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Haisen

    2013-01-01

    As one of the emerging technologies, the Second Life virtual world provides learners of English as a Foreign Language with a unique opportunity of learning authentic language with native and non-native speakers of English in a virtual environment. It enables them to learn the target language in a real-life-like social communication environment. To…

  13. Why Do They Want to Become English Teachers: A Case Study of Taiwanese EFL Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shih, Chih-Min

    2016-01-01

    Although it has been argued that knowledge on initial motivation for choosing teaching as a career is necessary for improving teacher education programmes and teacher education policies, there is a lack of research investigating this issue in the fields of English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL). Grounded in Watt…

  14. Innovative Interpretive Qualitative Case Study Research Method ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    lc2o

    The combined use of case study and systems theory is rarely discussed in the ... Scott, 2002), the main benefit of doing qualitative research is the patience ..... Teaching ICT to teacher candidates ... English Language Teachers. London: Arnold.

  15. A Case Study: Syllabus, Methodology and Assessment with Oral EL Classes for Non-English Majors

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    FengLianyi

    2004-01-01

    In response to the school curriculum reform,approximately 1200 out of the 3000 sophomores of non-English major in our university selected oral English as the optional course for the autumn semester study of 2003. The high demand for the spoken English classes is a challenge to the English teachers concerned. However how to conduct oral English lessons effectively in a considerably big-sized class of 35 plus with varied language aptitudes and personality traits calls forth a good topic for research studies.

  16. A Comparative Study of Food Idioms Between English and Chinese

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    林玲俐

    2017-01-01

    Idioms are the essence of language, the most common language, the strongest expression, the most abundant cultural connotation. In recent years, the study on the contrast between English and Chinese Idioms' has attracted wide attention. But the existing research on comparison of food idioms between English and Chinese involves less. First of all, searching and reading existing related literature about contrastive study on food idioms between English and Chinese by using literature resources in library and summarizing the relevant content. Secondly, selecting the English-Chinese dictionary to look up, collecting the embodiment of food idioms between English and Chinese, and then arranging, analyzing and comparing some examples. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the similarities and differences on food idioms between English and Chinese, and analyzing the causes of the similarities and differences.Through analyzing some examples, this thesis would like to make sure that English learners can understand and use the related food idioms better, so as to help them understand well about the English and Chinese culture, and to achieve success in language communication.

  17. Language Anxiety: A Case Study of the Perceptions and Experiences of Students of English as a Foreign Language in a Higher Education Institution in the United Arab Emirates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lababidi, Rola Ahmed

    2016-01-01

    This case study explores and investigates the perceptions and experiences of foreign language anxiety (FLA) among students of English as a Foreign Language in a Higher Education Institution in the United Arab Emirates. The first phase explored the scope and severity of language anxiety among all Foundation level male students at a college in the…

  18. The Contrastive Study of Igbo and English Denominal Nouns ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The teaching of nominalization has not been all smooth for an Igbo second language learner of English language. That is why this study is set to contrast English and Igbo Denominal nouns. The objective is to find out the similarities and differences between the nominalization process in Igbo and that of the English ...

  19. English for Employability: A Case Study of the English Language Training Need Analysis for Engineering Students in India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clement, A.; Murugavel, T.

    2015-01-01

    This article examines the effectiveness of English language courses offered in the engineering colleges in India. Many engineering graduates in India are found to be unemployable due to their poor communication skills and lack of confidence. There have been a lot of research papers that have reiterated the importance of improving engineering…

  20. Emotional Intelligence, Self-Esteem and Academic Achievement: A Case Study, English Department Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wiwik Andreani

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available This study examines the comparison between English Department students’ emotional intelligence (EQ, their self-esteem and their academic achievement. Twenty-two students participated in the research by answering EQ test and two Self-Esteem questionnaires. The result shows that there is no relation between students’ GPA and their self-esteem and EQ. This means that academic ability does not correspond to social skills. Though most students have average EQ and self-esteem, one student has High EQ, High Self-esteem and a 2.95 GPA (out of 4. 

  1. Motivation and Student Perception of Studying in an English-medium University

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasemin Kırkgöz

    2005-04-01

    Full Text Available Many Turkish universities provide undergraduate degree courses through the mediumof English. Despite a growing popularity of English medium universities, very littleactual information is available about what attracts students to an English-mediumeducation. The present study aims to identify the primary sources of motivationunderlying students’ decision for selecting an English-medium education, students’assessment of their English language skills, and their perceptions of difficulties theymay have studying through the medium of English. With regard to motivationalpatterns, it was found that students prioritized a mix of integrative and instrumentalmotivations, and had a fairly positive self-assessment of their English. Problemsidentified by the students centered on the detrimental effects of learning subjectsthrough another language such as a feeling of being distanced from their nativelanguage and culture. It is argued that more studies are needed in this area to assistuniversities in policy making.

  2. Assessing English Teachers as a Foreign Language (EFL) Telecollaborative Competence: A Case Study from Saudi Arabia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al Khateeb, Ahmed Abdulateef

    2018-01-01

    The role of telecollaborative competence has become vital among twenty-first century English language teachers. Yet, the reinforcement of this competence with its establishment within educational systems is not always straightforward; particularly in traditional educational settings. Looking at telecollaborative competence amongst English as a…

  3. English as a third language in Norwegian schools. A study on English teachers' multilingual competence and knowledge of third language acquisition

    OpenAIRE

    Pedersen, Line

    2016-01-01

    This study investigates whether or not English teachers have the ability to teach English as an L3. The basis of this is the increase in multilingual pupils in Norwegian schools that are acquiring/will be acquiring English as their third language. The research question is as follows: ”Do English teachers have sufficient knowledge and competence in multilingualism to teach English as a third language to multilingual pupils?” As well as answering the research question, the study seeks to an...

  4. Management, Leadership, and User Control in Self-Advocacy: An English Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilley, Elizabeth

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents findings from a qualitative research project on an English self-advocacy organization. In light of recent political and economic developments that have threatened the sustainability of a number of self-advocacy groups for people with intellectual disability, I seek to explore how one particular organization managed to survive…

  5. The Fallacy of Promoting Non Native Varieties of English in Postcolonial Multilingual Settings: The Case of Cameroon English (CamE) in Cameroon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Essossomo, Serges Moïse

    2015-01-01

    This research endeavour is a major contribution to the current debate on the integration of non-native varieties into the school curriculum in non-native settings. Taking the specific case of Cameroon, this work rests on the solid assumption that the promotion of CamE to the detriment of Standard British English accent is definitely a fallacy. The…

  6. A Comparative Study of Discourse Markers: The Case of three English Applied Linguistic Texts with their Farsi Translations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bahram Behin

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available This research was an attempt to find the relationship between English discourse markers and their Farsi translations. It was conducted in order to find out whether DMs translations completely demonstrate source texts orientation and to what extent DMs translations are functionally appropriate compared to the original text? Six instruments were used. Three of them were the original English books and the other three were their translations. Ten pages from each original book were randomly selected. Then they were compared to their translations by the researcher and two translation teachers according to Farahzad's (1992 scale. The results of the study showed that there is a high degree of relationship between English DMs and their Persian counterparts; however, there is not a 1:1 translation about DMs. It can be also said that Persian translations are, functionally and almost totally, appropriate, compared to the original texts.

  7. Teaching English to Young Learners: Supporting the Case for the Bilingual Native English Speaker Teacher

    Science.gov (United States)

    Copland, Fiona; Yonetsugi, Eli

    2016-01-01

    The growing number of young children around the world learning English has resulted in an increase in research in the field. Many of the studies have investigated approaches to learning and teaching, with a particular emphasis on effective pedagogies (e.g. Harley 1998; Shak and Gardner 2008). Other studies have focused on the linguistic gains of…

  8. Hamlet's Suicide Soliloquy: A Case Study in Suicide Ideology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenkins, Andrew P.

    This paper presents a secondary-level teaching technique that can be used in an integrated English and health education curriculum. The exercise provides students and teachers with a case study of a suicidal person for the purpose of teaching the warning signs of suicide, appropriate questioning, and referral skills. The case study uses Hamlet's…

  9. An Analysis of Errors Committed by Saudi Non-English Major Students in the English Paragraph Writing: A Study of Comparisons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nuruzzaman, Mohammed; Islam, A. B. M. Shafiqul; Shuchi, Israt Jahan

    2018-01-01

    The present study investigates the writing errors of ninety Saudi non-English major undergraduate students of different proficiency levels from three faculties, who studied English as a foundation course at the English Language Center in the College of Languages &Translation at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia in the academic year 2016-17.…

  10. Management, leadership, and user control in self-advocacy: an english case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilley, Elizabeth

    2013-12-01

    This paper presents findings from a qualitative research project on an English self-advocacy organization. In light of recent political and economic developments that have threatened the sustainability of a number of self-advocacy groups for people with intellectual disability, I seek to explore how one particular organization managed to survive and grow. In particular, the paper explores themes of management, leadership, and user control, linking these to external perceptions about self-advocacy organizations. The organization in my study developed an "interdependent" governance model based on key organizational roles for nondisabled advisors and self-advocates, which proved popular with external funders. Despite the organization's notable achievements, its success raises questions for the wider self-advocacy movement, notably how leadership capacity can be developed among self-advocates.

  11. THE INDIRECT OBJECT (IO) – ALBANIAN AND ENGLISH

    OpenAIRE

    Shkelqim Millaku; Xhevahire Topanica

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study is too corporate the function of the indirect object between Albanian and English language. The function and the Albanian typical case for indirect object are dative and ablative. This grammatical phenomena is the full contrast between two languages because in English language doesn’t exist dative and ablative us in Albanian. In Albanian and English language, the indirect object is more heterogenic than the direct object. The indirect (direct) object in both of languages...

  12. A Study of Effective Strategies to Stimulate College Non-English Majors' Motivation for Learning English

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    向玉

    2008-01-01

    As an English teacher for non-English majors in a college in Wuhan,I find that most of my students are not interested in learning English.Thus.I am concerned about how to stimulate my students' motivation in learning English.This paper discusses some effective strategies to stimulate college non-English majors' motivation for learning English.such as creating a comfortable atmosphere,buiIding students' confidence,promoting cooperative learning.and incorporating the multiple intelligences concept in the classroom.These strategies do have practical application in my classroom and have motivated my students' interest in English learning.

  13. A Case Study of Chinese Mongolian Students in ELT under the Background of MOOCs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Lili

    2015-01-01

    In response to the current reform of college English teaching, a case study of Chinese Mongolian students in English language teaching under the influence of MOOCs is carried out in an attempt to examine the efficacy of the integration of information technology into English language teaching. After a brief introduction of the teaching mode of…

  14. A Case Study on Teaching Business Courses in English or Bilingualism with Guangwai as an Example

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Wenzhong; Deng, Xuping; Li, Jingyi

    2014-01-01

    Teaching courses in a foreign language was formally promoted by Ministry of Education in China in 2001. Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (Guangwai) as a top 3 Chinese foreign language university has taken the lead in teaching business courses in English instruction or bilingual languages. The paper summarizes and analyzes Guangwai's…

  15. The Loss of Grammatical Gender and Case Features Between Old and Early Middle English: Its Impact on Simple Demonstratives and Topic Shift

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jurczyk Rafał

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we examine the relation between the loss of formal gender and Case features on simple demonstratives and the topic shifting property they manifest. The examination period spans between Old English and Early Middle English. While we argue that this loss has important discourse-pragmatic and derivational effects on demonstratives, we also employ the Strong Minimalist Hypothesis approach (Chomsky 2001 and feature valuation, as defined in Pesetsky & Torrego (2007, to display how their syntactic computation and pragmatic properties have come about. To account for the above innovations yielding the Early Middle English ϸe (‘the’, we first discuss the formal properties of the Old English demonstratives which distinguish number, gender, and Case features. This inflectional variety of forms allows the Old English demonstratives to be used independently and to show the anaphoric and discourse-linking properties of topics. Crucially, the same properties characterise also German and Dutch demonstratives that manifest Case and/or gender morphology overtly, which shows that the syntactic distribution of LIs and their morphological richness should be considered as intertwined. The above properties are then confronted with the determiner system in Early Middle English, whose forms undergo inflectional levelling producing the invariant ϸe/ðe form that loses its distributional independence and acquires the article status. The levelling process in question is argued to stimulate the shift of the [+ref/spec] feature from the formal to the semantic pole. This suggests that the Early Middle English ϸe form no longer counts as an appropriate anaphor in topic shift contexts owing to its indeterminacy of Case, gender, and φ-features, which means that it cannot satisfy the Full Interpretation requirement at the interfaces.

  16. English as the Lingua Franca in Transnational Higher Education: Motives and Prospects of Institutions That Teach in Languages Other than English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilkins, Stephen; Urbanovic, Jolanta

    2014-01-01

    Although there seems to be a wide held assumption that transnational higher education programs have to be taught in English to be legitimate "international" programs, there are a few examples globally of international branch campuses that teach in languages other than English. Using seven institutional case studies from around the world,…

  17. A Place for Project Management in English Studies and Communication studies  curricula

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kampf, Constance; Isohella, Suvi

    2009-01-01

    In this paper, we argue for a place for project management in the English Studies and Communication Studies curricula, often the home of Technical Communication programs, in order to offer students an opportunity to apply their language, discourse analysis, analytical skills, and creativity in a ...... of the project management genres are briefly discussed and related to key skills emerging from English studies and Technical Communication curricula.......In this paper, we argue for a place for project management in the English Studies and Communication Studies curricula, often the home of Technical Communication programs, in order to offer students an opportunity to apply their language, discourse analysis, analytical skills, and creativity...

  18. Expanding Roles: Teacher Educators' Perspectives on Educating English Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniel, Shannon; Peercy, Megan Madigan

    2014-01-01

    Although the underpreparation of teachers to work with English learners is a documented problem in teacher education, little research has addressed teacher educators' perspectives in guiding prospective teachers to educate English learners. This case study of one 13-month elementary certification program highlights teacher educators' efforts and…

  19. Dementia case-finding in hospitals: a qualitative study exploring the views of healthcare professionals in English primary care and secondary care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burn, Anne-Marie; Fleming, Jane; Brayne, Carol; Fox, Chris; Bunn, Frances

    2018-03-17

    In 2012-2013, the English National Health Service mandated hospitals to conduct systematic case-finding of people with dementia among older people with unplanned admissions. The method was not defined. The aim of this study was to understand current approaches to dementia case-finding in acute hospitals in England and explore the views of healthcare professionals on perceived benefits and challenges. Qualitative study involving interviews, focus groups and thematic content analysis. Primary care and secondary care across six counties in the East of England. Hospital staff involved in dementia case-finding and primary care staff in the catchment areas of those hospitals. We recruited 23 hospital staff and 36 primary care staff, including 30 general practitioners (GPs). Analysis resulted in three themes: (1) lack of consistent approaches in case-finding processes, (2) barriers between primary care and secondary care which impact on case-finding outcomes and (3) perceptions of rationale, aims and impacts of case-finding. The study shows that there were variations in how well hospitals recorded and reported outcomes to GPs. Barriers between primary care and secondary care, including GPs' lack of access to hospital investigations and lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities, impacted case-finding outcomes. Staff in secondary care were more positive about the initiative than primary care staff, and there were conflicting priorities for primary care and secondary care regarding case-finding. The study suggests a more evidence-based approach was needed to justify approaches to dementia case-finding. Information communicated to primary care from hospitals needs to be comprehensive, appropriate and consistent before GPs can effectively plan further investigation, treatment or care. Follow-up in primary care further requires access to options for postdiagnostic support. There is a need to evaluate the outcomes for patients and the economic impact on health and care

  20. Constructing professional identity through teaching practicum: an Indonesian case study of pre-service English teachers

    OpenAIRE

    Afrianto, Afrianto

    2017-01-01

    This study investigates the complexities of a group of pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) journey to becoming novice teachers during the teaching practicum in the context of the Indonesian government’s agenda to reform national education, including reforms in the teaching profession. These reforms were a response to current concerns regarding quality education, including the perceived low standards in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Indonesia. The research project, situated in Riau Universi...

  1. Student Achievement Outcomes of Immigrants and English Language Learners in an Urban Classroom: A Case Study of Great Strides and Hope

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Benedict Lazarus

    2017-01-01

    This study entailed understanding how urban teachers supported a population of immigrant students (from non-English speaking countries) and English Language Leaners (ELLs) as well as how teachers made sense of and carried out instruction for this group of students in an urban classroom. The author's ultimate goal as a teacher educator was to…

  2. The effect of tertiary study at an English medium university on the ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The effect of tertiary study at an English medium university on the written English. Jean Parkinson. Abstract. Increasing numbers of South African students speak a variety of English known as Black South African English (BSAfE). Lectures, notes and textbooks are in Standard English, and might be expected to influence the ...

  3. Self-Access Language Learning Programme: The Case of the English Language Voluntary Intensive Independent Catch-up Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated whether and to what extent an English Language Voluntary Intensive Independent Catch-up Study (ELVIICS, a Self-Access Language Learning (SALL programme, was effective in helping first-year Greek-Cypriot students fill in the gaps in their English language learning and come closer to the required language competence level of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR B1 level. It also examined students’ perceptions of such learning. The students followed the ELVIICS at their own pace, time and space until they felt they had reached the aimed level. Analysis of the achievement test results revealed that students’ language competence improved and reached the required level. Additional quantitative data also revealed that students felt ELVIICS also helped them improve their self-confidence, computer skills and autonomous learning. Moreover, students claimed that ELVIICS assisted them in getting through and successfully completing their compulsory course.

  4. English Lecturer’s Attitude Toward English Variety In English Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rahma Yanti

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available This research investigates English lecturers’ attitude toward the variation of English in the process of English learning. The purpose of this study is to discuss the types of English variations uttered by English lecturers who are considered as respondents in this study and their attitudes toward the variations of language that appear to their own speech during the teaching-learning process. This research is descriptive by using qualitative approach. The data to be presented in this research is taken from several words of Indonesian lecturers at several universities in Padang West Sumatra by distributing some questionnaires and also interviews. The method of data analysis is divided into two types, first, methods which related to the correlation of external language objects with a non-linguistic element called correlation method or method of matching, and secondly, methods which related to surgical, processing or internal verbal tampering called the method of operation or distribution method.

  5. [A study on English loan words in French plastic surgery].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansson, E; Tegelberg, E

    2014-10-01

    The French language is less and less used as an international scientific language and many French researchers publish their work in English. Nowadays, Annales de Chirurgie Plastique Esthétique is the only international plastic surgical journal published completely in French. The use of English loan words in French plastic surgery has never been studied. The aim of this study was to describe the frequency and types of English loan words in French plastic surgery. A corpus consisting of all the articles in a number of Annales de Chirurgie Plastique Esthethique, chosen by default, was created. The frequency of English loan words was calculated and the types of words were analysed. The corpus contains 367 (0.8%) English loan words. Most of them are non-integrated loan words and calques. The majority of the plastic surgical loan words describe surgical techniques. The French plastic surgical language seems to be influenced by English. The usage of loan words does not always follow the recommendations and the usage is sometimes ambiguous. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  6. Pilot Study An Investigating Proficiency Learners Attitudes Towards English Language Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr. Ozge Razy

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available This study attempted to investigate foreign students feeling and behaviour towards learning English and different other languages. The study found out that there is any significant difference in the students aspects attitudes positive and negative towards learning English language inside and outside the school based on their response to 25 items. A total of participants were 18 took a questionnaire as an instrument to qualify their attitudes. The participants showed positive attitudes in the high level towards foreign languages such as English. The study presented recommendation to improve other languages in the future as English.

  7. Transitions and translations from Afrikaans to English in schools of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Jean Farmer. Centre for Teaching and Learning, Stellenbosch University, 7600 Stellenbosch, South Africa .... This study examines the linguistic resources and language choices of learners in a specific school, ... Afrikaans-dominant bilingualism, to either English-dominant bilingualism or (in extreme cases) to. English ...

  8. Declarative Specification of Fault Tolerant Auction Protocols: The English Auction Case Study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dragoni, Nicola; Gaspari, Mauro

    2012-01-01

    Auction mechanisms are nowadays widely used in electronic commerce Web sites for buying and selling items among different users. The increasing importance of auction protocols in the negotiation phase is not limited to online marketplaces. In fact, the wide applicability of auctions as resource‐a...... about the specification of an English Auction protocol which tolerate crashes of bidding agents and we discuss its properties....

  9. A Comparative Study of the Use of Persian vs. English in Teaching English Grammar to Iranian Students in Junior High School

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehrseresht, Kowsar; Gowhary, Habib; Azizifar, Akbar

    2015-01-01

    This study compared the relationship between the use of Persian vs. English in teaching English grammar to Iranian students and their achievement in learning English grammar. The participants of this study include 50 female students from a junior high school in Mehran. The researcher randomly selected 2 groups, one group was taught through the…

  10. The Role of the Culture of Japanese Students in Acquisition of Academic English: An Ethnographic Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mertin, Patricia Anne

    2014-01-01

    This ethnographic study examines the role of Japanese students' culture and its effects on the rate of acquisition of academic English. It is based on observation of classes in Japanese schools, both in Japan and Germany, as well as in an international school, together with interviews, questionnaires, student responses and case studies over a…

  11. Bilingualism and Biliteracy in Down Syndrome: Insights from a Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burgoyne, Kelly; Duff, Fiona J.; Nielsen, Dea; Ulicheva, Anastasia; Snowling, Margaret J.

    2016-01-01

    We present the case study of MB--a bilingual child with Down syndrome (DS) who speaks Russian (first language [L1]) and English (second language [L2]) and has learned to read in two different alphabets with different symbol systems. We demonstrate that, in terms of oral language, MB is as proficient in Russian as English, with a mild advantage for…

  12. Adult English language learners and self-assessment a qualitative study

    CERN Document Server

    Wolochuk, Alexandria

    2014-01-01

    This study explores the relationship between adult English-language learners' assessment of their own language proficiency on the English Ability Questionnaire (EAQ) and their performance on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). It addresses aspects of developing the ""autonomous"" student and makes for the integration of self-directed learners who will be more aware of their strengths and weaknesses and how to address them

  13. Spelling acquisition in English and Italian: A cross-linguistic study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chiara Valeria eMarinelli

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available We examined the spelling acquisition in children up to late primary school of a consistent orthography (Italian and an inconsistent orthography (English. The effects of frequency, lexicality, length and regularity in modulating spelling performance of the two groups were examined. English and Italian children were matched for both chronological age and number of years of schooling. Two-hundred and seven Italian children and 79 English children took part in the study. We found greater accuracy in spelling in Italian than English children: Italian children were very accurate after only two years of schooling, while in English children the spelling performance was still poor after five years of schooling. Cross-linguistic differences in spelling accuracy proved to be more persistent than the corresponding ones in reading accuracy. Orthographic consistency produced not only quantitative, but also qualitative differences, with larger frequency and regularity effects in English than in Italian children.

  14. Spelling Acquisition in English and Italian: A Cross-Linguistic Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marinelli, Chiara V; Romani, Cristina; Burani, Cristina; Zoccolotti, Pierluigi

    2015-01-01

    We examined the spelling acquisition in children up to late primary school of a consistent orthography (Italian) and an inconsistent orthography (English). The effects of frequency, lexicality, length, and regularity in modulating spelling performance of the two groups were examined. English and Italian children were matched for both chronological age and number of years of schooling. Two-hundred and seven Italian children and 79 English children took part in the study. We found greater accuracy in spelling in Italian than English children: Italian children were very accurate after only 2 years of schooling, while in English children the spelling performance was still poor after 5 years of schooling. Cross-linguistic differences in spelling accuracy proved to be more persistent than the corresponding ones in reading accuracy. Orthographic consistency produced not only quantitative, but also qualitative differences, with larger frequency and regularity effects in English than in Italian children.

  15. English, Spanish and Ethno-Racial Receptivity in a New Destination: A Case Study of Dominican Immigrants in Reading, PA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oropesa, R.S.

    2015-01-01

    Scant information is available on experiences with language among immigrant populations in new destinations. This study provides a multi-dimensional portrait of the linguistic incorporation of Dominican immigrants in the “majority-minority” city of Reading, Pennsylvania. The results show that daily life for most largely occurs in a Spanish-language milieu, but English proficiency and use in social networks is primarily a function of exposure to the United States. This is consistent with the standard narrative of assimilation models. At the same time, negative experiences with the use of both English and Spanish suggest that the linguistic context of reception is inhospitable for a substantial share of this population. Negative experiences with English are particularly likely to be mentioned by those with dark skin and greater cumulative exposure. Lastly, language plays an important role in experiences with ethno-racial enmity more broadly. Nonetheless, the persistent effect of skin tone indicates that such experiences are not reducible to language per se. PMID:26004453

  16. Merging Regular and Special Education Teacher Preparation Programs: The Integrated Special Education-English Project (ISEP).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Darcy E.

    1991-01-01

    Describes the Integrated Special Education-English Project (ISEP) which facilitated the gradual integration of special education and English teacher preparation programs. A description of the ISEP model and a case study are included. The case study indicated student teachers who participated in the ISEP improved special education and English…

  17. Study on the Significance of Applying Motivational Strategies in College English Teaching

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    #

    2017-01-01

    #%Most college students are passionate and excited about attending college English as freshman. As time goes by, they become bored and poorly motivated in attending the English class. In this paper, the motivational strategies that can be applied in college English teaching will be discussed from four perspectives. These strategies may provide useful references for college English teachers who want to motivate students to get involved in English study.

  18. Study on the Significance of Applying Motivational Strategies in College English Teaching

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    BAO Hong-fang

    2017-01-01

    Most college students are passionate and excited about attending college English as freshman. As time goes by, they become bored and poorly motivated in attending the English class. In this paper, the motivational strategies that can be applied in college English teaching will be discussed from four perspectives. These strategies may provide useful references for college English teachers who want to motivate students to get involved in English study.

  19. A Comprehensive Look into the instruction of Listening Skill in Academic English Programs: A Case Study of two State Universities in Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hamidreza Babaee

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The study reported here thoroughly investigated the instruction of listening skill in academic English programs. This was researched through a semi-structured interview. In this regard, in order to obtain a picture of listening requirements across the academy, data were collected from two different state universities of Iran. To compile the data, five listening lecturers from these two universities were invited to participate in the study. Topics investigated through the interviews included; the importance and objectives of English as a Foreign Language (EFL listening in university study, the nature of listening in academic English programs, quantity and type of listening prescribed on courses, the integration of listening with other skills, and the evolution of changes in students’ listening requirements and practices. The analysis of the interviews revealed the two types of the courses; academic English-oriented courses and general English-oriented courses, each of them having their own perspectives regarding the various aspects of the listening. Regarding the changes in students’ practices, two types of transformations were found; transformation of the processes from bottom-up to top-down and transformation of the materials from textbook-oriented to more internet-oriented perspectives. The findings of the present study suggest some practical implications for the EFL students and teachers. In this regard, students need to equip and accustom themselves with more interpretive skills of listening and internet-oriented materials in their classes. Teachers are also required to balance between different types of skills and course materials in their classes according to their students’ needs.

  20. “Is it English what we speak?” Irish English and Postcolonial Identity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariavita Cambria

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper explores the case of Ireland as an anti-litteram postcolonial context. Within this context, a main concern is that of the relationship between language and identity. Irish English (the variety of English spoken in Ireland enjoys a unique position within the constellation of world-wide English varieties. Various factors led to the emergence of Irish English, it may well have developed as a resistance to the (contrasting forces of colonialism and has been perceived as a different vehicle for communication when compared to received colonial English. Scholars now generally believe that Irish people, at a certain moment in time, decided to use a language which offered better possibilities for work. Via the analysis of some postcolonial issues, such as the linguistic crisis of the colonial subject, the paper will first illustrate the circumstances that led to the emergence of Irish English and then list the main features of this variety.

  1. Assessing Moroccan University Students' English Learning Motivation: A Comparative Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Omari, Otmane; Moubtassime, Mohammed; Ridouani, Driss

    2018-01-01

    This study seeks to survey whether students are motivated to learn English or not and to evaluate the differences within and between three most known universities in Morocco, involving a private one, in terms of students' English learning motivation. Moreover, factors that make a student more motivated to learn English were investigated. This…

  2. A LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT PROFILE OF A VIETNAMESE LEARNER OF ENGLISH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rohani Rohani

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper is a case study to a Vietnamese English learner. The main objective of the study was to describe how the English of a Vietnamese student developed. Interviews were conducted in order to collect the data. The interviews were tape recorded. The recorded data provided information about the learner’s background. Additionally the data served as a sample of the learner’s spoken English. The analysis of the sample revealed that the learner made several grammatical, syntactical, and phonological errors. With a contrastive analysis theory it could be concluded that one of the factors that might have triggered the errors were the difference between English and Vietnamese language. From a personality point of view, the subject of the study showed several positive personalities that supported the development of his English as a second language.

  3. HOW TO MOTIVATE NON-ENGLISH MAJORS TO MASTER ENGLISH

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    1999-01-01

    This paper analyses the factors causing the lack of learning motivation of non-English majors,re-garded as one of the crucial reasons leading to the inefficiency of college English teaching in Chi-na.It also puts forward corresponding ways to motivate non-English majors to study English.

  4. Kindergarten Teachers' Perceptions of Barriers English Language Learners Face in Mathematics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franklin, Martha A.

    2013-01-01

    There is a disparity of mathematics achievement between native English speakers and English language learners (ELL). This study sought to understand the barriers ELL kindergarten students faced in being successful in mathematics. The purpose of this qualitative, instrumental case study was to explore kindergarten teachers' perceptions…

  5. THE ENGLISH READING STRATEGIES OF TWO COLOMBIAN ENGLISH PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ángela López Velásquez

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available This study focuses on the findings of a research project that aimed at identifying the English reading comprehension strategies used by two preservice English teachers, one a successful reader and the other one a less successful reader. The participants were students of a B.Ed. undergraduate program at a public university located in the Colombian Eje Cafetero. Methodological procedures included the collection of reading data through think-aloud protocols, and analysis was based on the constant-comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1999. Findings suggest that three main differences characterized the reading of the two TEFL readers: the number of strategies evoked, the frequency of their use, and the effectiveness of the strategy used by each reader. The article addresses implications for reading instruction and research based on both cases.

  6. The Relationship of Korean Students' Age and Years of English-as-a-Foreign-Language Exposure with English-Reading Ability: A Cross-Age Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fitzgerald, Jill; Stenner, A. Jackson; Sanford-Moore, Eleanor E.; Koons, Heather; Bowen, Kimberly; Kim, Kee Hyung

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of the present cross-age study with South Korean students was to investigate the relationship of age and years of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) exposure with English-reading ability. The main research question was, "Do individuals' age and number of years of English exposure interact in relation to English-reading…

  7. Survey of Native English Speakers and Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners in Tertiary Introductory Statistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lesser, Lawrence M.; Wagler, Amy E.; Esquinca, Alberto; Valenzuela, M. Guadalupe

    2013-01-01

    The framework of linguistic register and case study research on Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) learning statistics informed the construction of a quantitative instrument, the Communication, Language, And Statistics Survey (CLASS). CLASS aims to assess whether ELLs and non-ELLs approach the learning of statistics differently with…

  8. English, Spanish and ethno-racial receptivity in a new destination: A case study of Dominican immigrants in Reading, PA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oropesa, R S

    2015-07-01

    Scant information is available on experiences with language among immigrant populations in new destinations. This study provides a multi-dimensional portrait of the linguistic incorporation of Dominican immigrants in the "majority-minority" city of Reading, Pennsylvania. The results show that daily life for most largely occurs in a Spanish-language milieu, but English proficiency and use in social networks is primarily a function of exposure to the United States. This is consistent with the standard narrative of assimilation models. At the same time, negative experiences with the use of both English and Spanish suggest that the linguistic context of reception is inhospitable for a substantial share of this population. Negative experiences with English are particularly likely to be mentioned by those with dark skin and greater cumulative exposure. Lastly, language plays an important role in experiences with ethno-racial enmity more broadly. Nonetheless, the persistent effect of skin tone indicates that such experiences are not reducible to language per se. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Chilean 12th graders' attitudes towards English as aforeign language

    OpenAIRE

    Gómez Burgos, Eric; Pérez Pérez, Sandra

    2015-01-01

    A favourable attitude towards a language is a crucial factor in the process of learning a foreign language (Shams, 2008). In light of this premise, this article reports on a case study conducted in two subsidised secondary schools that involved 154 students from Puerto Montt, Chile. A questionnaire of five dimensions was given to the participants in order to identify their attitude towards teachers' methodology and language use in the English classroom, English as a subject at school, English...

  10. Fresh Air Practices in English and Scottish Homes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hauge, Bettina

    2013-01-01

    This article presents anthropological research results on how and why English and Scottish families use the fresh air from outside into the home (FAFOH). The introducing exchange was often heard in the English and Scottish families visited. Throughout the entire study the opposite only occurred...... in a few cases: The man opening the window, the woman closing it, in her own words: ”so that I stay snug”....

  11. Perception of English palatal codas by Korean speakers of English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeon, Sang-Hee

    2003-04-01

    This study aimed at looking at perception of English palatal codas by Korean speakers of English to determine if perception problems are the source of production problems. In particular, first, this study looked at the possible first language effect on the perception of English palatal codas. Second, a possible perceptual source of vowel epenthesis after English palatal codas was investigated. In addition, individual factors, such as length of residence, TOEFL score, gender and academic status, were compared to determine if those affected the varying degree of the perception accuracy. Eleven adult Korean speakers of English as well as three native speakers of English participated in the study. Three sets of a perception test including identification of minimally different English pseudo- or real words were carried out. The results showed that, first, the Korean speakers perceived the English codas significantly worse than the Americans. Second, the study supported the idea that Koreans perceived an extra /i/ after the final affricates due to final release. Finally, none of the individual factors explained the varying degree of the perceptional accuracy. In particular, TOEFL scores and the perception test scores did not have any statistically significant association.

  12. Fostering Ecological Literacy: A Case Study of the Saint John Harbour in Two High School English Language Arts Classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Douglas, Velta

    Integrating environmental education into curriculum in a way that tackles the holistic and complicated nature of multi-dimensional issues continues to be a challenge for educators and administrators. There is potential in using ecological literacy to introduce local environmental case studies into English Language Arts high school classrooms. This research examines the experiences of two ELA classrooms in one Saint John, NB, high school with a two-week unit based on stakeholder relationships within the Saint John Harbour. Through presentations by guest speakers and research sourced from local community groups, students learned about the highly complex environmental issues that inform management decisions for the Harbour. Using these materials as background, students participated in a mock stakeholders meeting. Case study methodology was used to explore student learning in both a higher-level and a lower-level grade 10 ELA class. Data for the analysis included: cognitive mapping exercises; oral and written classroom assignments and activities; a videotape of the mock stakeholder meetings; a focus group interview with selected students; and researcher field notes. Data demonstrated significant student learning about environmental issues including increased sophistication in describing links between and among environmental issues affecting the harbour, and much more complex understandings of the positions and roles of the various stakeholder groups. Some important areas of resistance to new learning were also evident. Implications for practice and policy and recommendations for future research are discussed.

  13. Mainstream Teachers' Implicit Beliefs about English Language Learners: An Implicit Association Test Study of Teacher Beliefs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harrison, Jamie; Lakin, Joni

    2018-01-01

    Teacher attitudes toward inclusion of English Learners (ELs) in the mainstream classroom have primarily focused on explicit beliefs as accessed through observation, case studies, and self-report surveys. The authors explore implicit mainstream teacher beliefs about ELs using the newly created Implicit Association Test-EL, with correlations to…

  14. Integration of School Features into Taiwanese Elementary School New English Curriculum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chien, Chin-Wen

    2014-01-01

    Elementary school English activation curriculum, an additional two culture classes, has been implemented only in New Taipei City in Taiwan starting from 2010, so only a few studies focus on it. This is a case study of an English teacher's integration of a school's features into the activation curriculum in a rural elementary school. This study…

  15. The Role of Camp in Promoting the Participants’ Spoken English Expression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    jalaluddin Jalaluddin

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The study investigated the topics of participants’ spoken expressionin an English camp and how the topics were discussed.A case study was applied as the research design. Data were gained from focus-group interviews, observation, and questionnaire. The results showed that the participants talked about various topics, which could be categorized into two types i.e. guided topics and situational topics. Guided topics were discussed by the participants in guided conditions. On the other hand, situational topics appeared naturally with respect to the situation. The data also indicated that the activeness and confidence of the participants to talk in English gradually increasedduring the English camp. The findings suggested that English campsbeheld regularly as they can boost the participants’ English speaking skill.

  16. NON-GRAMMATICAL APOPHONY IN ENGLISH.

    Science.gov (United States)

    WESCOTT, ROGER W.

    AN APOPHONE MAY BE DEFINED GENERALLY AS A POLYSYLLABIC VOWEL SEQUENCE SUCH THAT EACH CONTAINED VOWEL IS LOWER OR MORE RETRACTED THAN THE VOWEL WHICH PRECEDES IT --"SING, SANG, SUNG," AND "CLINK, CLANK, CLUNK" ARE EXAMPLES IN ENGLISH. FOR NEARLY EVERY CASE OF GRAMMATICAL APOPHONY IN ENGLISH THERE IS A NON-GRAMMATICAL (YET…

  17. ENGLISH IN PRESCHOOL CURRICULUM: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS AN INTRA-SCHOOL CURRICULUM IN A PRESCHOOL IN BANDUNG

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuli Rachmawati

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available In this era, the importance of English leads people to introduce English education even in preschools. English education for preschoolers isbelieved to help fosterchildren’s language and cognitive developments. However, to achieve this benefit, a sound curriculum is required.Since creating a sound English curriculum is not an easy thing to do, a careful examination on English in the preschool curriculum needs to be performed. This study therefore aims to find out the goals of integrating English as an intra-school curriculum in a preschool in Bandung and the teacher’s attempts to achieve these goals in terms of four basic components of curriculum taken fromCayadong (2011 and Tyler (Posner,1992; the objectives, the materials, the methods and the assessments. A descriptive study using a document analysis, an interview and an observation as the data collection techniques was employed. The finding showed that English was integrated to help children to be able to communicate using English in school and family context in a simple language. Theme-based teaching and learning using drilling and total physical response (TPR as methods were conducted to achieve the goals. Meanwhile, to make sure of the goals attainment, students wereassessed by using observations and tests.

  18. Korea's "Model Minority": A Case Study of an American-Korean Bilingual Student's Challenges Learning English in South Korea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schenck, Andrew D.

    2013-01-01

    In contemporary South Korean society, there is a strong emphasis on cultural homogeneity and, simultaneously, the development of English proficiency as a human resource. Since language is inextricably linked to identity, bilingual learners from English speaking countries may feel pressure to conform to Korean cultural and linguistic norms, leading…

  19. Learning Strategies in Alleviating English Writing Anxiety for English Language Learners (ELLs) with Limited English Proficiency (LEP)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Chia-Pei; Lin, Huey-Ju

    2016-01-01

    This study utilized the Oxford Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and an English writing anxiety scale to examine the relationship between learning strategies and English writing anxiety in 102 university-level English language learners (ELLs) with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in a university in Taiwan. Kruskal Wallis Test…

  20. The Demotivating Factors of English Language Learning Among Madrasah Tsanawiah Students: The Case of One Madrasah in Jambi City

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    EDDY HARYANTO

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to explore the demotivating factors of the learners in EFL learning at one madrasah tsanawiah in Jambi City. Particularly, this study was to find out the particular factors that demotivate madrasah tsanawiah students’ during the learning process. Many studies have mainly focused on teachers’ motivation or students’ motivation and teachers’ motivation rather than student demotivation in English as a foreign language (EFL learning context, whereas lack of data has been found on the factors that cause student demotivation in Indonesian EFL learning contexts at secondary school level. The participants were a purposive sample of English students who currently studied at a madrasah . The study was designed as a qualitative case study and involved a demographic questioner and face-to-face interviews for data collection. The result revealed that peer influences were as the main demotivation for the students. Other demotivators for EFL students in this research included school condition such as lack of resources and facilities. Suggestions for further research also are discussed.

  1. A Case Study of Using Facebook in an EFL English Writing Class: The Perspective of a Writing Teacher

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Li-Tang

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to address a writing teacher's perspective about integrating Facebook, a social networking site, into a university-level English writing course in Taiwan. Data, including interviews with the teacher and class postings on Facebook, were analyzed inductively, qualitatively, and interpretively, resulting in three…

  2. A case study of culturally appropriate conservation education

    Science.gov (United States)

    David N. Bengston; Michele Schermann

    2016-01-01

    Create culturally appropriate conservation education materials for Hmong Americans, including new refugees and elders with little proficiency in English, as well as the broader, multigenerational Hmong community. This case study discusses an organizational response from the USDA Forest Service, in partnership with others, to better serve the Hmong American community....

  3. English – the new Latin of academia? Danish universities as a case

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mortensen, Janus; Haberland, Hartmut

    2012-01-01

    In recent discussions about the increased use of English at European universities, English is often referred to as the ‘new Latin’. The current article puts this comparison to the test by presenting a critical historical overview of the use of Latin, Danish, English and other languages at Danish...... universities from 1479 to the present day. The article argues that the current use of English in Danish academia cannot, despite some apparent similarities, be compared to the use of Latin at earlier stages of Danish university history. Most importantly, the article argues that the motivation for using English...

  4. A study of the effects of English language proficiency and scientific reasoning skills on the acquisition of science content knowledge of Hispanic English language learners and native English language-speaking students participating in grade 10 science classes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torres, Hector Neftali, Sr.

    2000-11-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of English language proficiency and levels of scientific reasoning skills of Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students on their acquisition of science content knowledge as measured by a state-wide standardized science test. The researcher studied a group of high school Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students participating in Grade 10 science classes. The language proficiency of the students was to be measured through the use of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) instrument. A Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning developed by Lawson (1978) was administered in either English or Spanish to the group of Hispanic English language learners and in English to the group of native English language-speaking students in order to determine their levels of scientific reasoning skills. The students' acquisition of science content knowledge was measured through the use of statewide-standardized science test developed by the State's Department of Education. This study suggests that the levels of English language proficiency appear to influence the acquisition of science content knowledge of Hispanic English language learners in the study. The results of the study also suggest that with regards to scientific reasoning skills, students that showed high levels or reflective reasoning skills for the most part performed better on the statewide-standardized science test than students with intuitive or transitional reasoning skills. This assertion was supported by the studies conducted by Lawson and his colleagues, which showed that high levels of reasoning or reflective reasoning skills are prerequisite for most high school science courses. The findings in this study imply that high order English language proficiency combined with high levels of reasoning skills enhances students' abilities to learn science content subject matter. This

  5. A cross-language study of perception of lexical stress in English.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Vickie Y; Andruski, Jean E

    2010-08-01

    This study investigates the question of whether language background affects the perception of lexical stress in English. Thirty native English speakers and 30 native Chinese learners of English participated in a stressed-syllable identification task and a discrimination task involving three types of stimuli (real words/pseudowords/hums). The results show that both language groups were able to identify and discriminate stress patterns. Lexical and segmental information affected the English and Chinese speakers in varying degrees. English and Chinese speakers showed different response patterns to trochaic vs. iambic stress across the three types of stimuli. An acoustic analysis revealed that two language groups used different acoustic cues to process lexical stress. The findings suggest that the different degrees of lexical and segmental effects can be explained by language background, which in turn supports the hypothesis that language background affects the perception of lexical stress in English.

  6. Recalling Arabic and English Prefixed and Suffixed Verbs among Arabic-English Bilingual Speakers: An Experimental Study in Relation to Working Memory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiyar Othman

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The current study focuses on how prefixes and suffixes in Arabic and English impact one’s working memory capacity to recall verbs.  Further, it deals with whether or not Arabic-English bilingual speakers recall Arabic and English prefixed and suffixed verbs differently. To investigate this, the study was conducted in the form of two experiments on a group of 10 graduate students. The first experiment was on Arabic prefixed and suffixed verbs, whereas the second experiment was conducted similarly on English. The study concluded that suffixed Arabic verbs were recalled more than the prefixed ones, whereas in English the result was contrary where the participants could recall prefixed verbs more than the suffixed ones. This shows that L2 (Second Language does not differ from L1 (First Language in the effort exerted to recall words. Rather, the findings may suggest that it is easier to recall words in the second language, which might be due to the intensive instruction received in the second language. The study also discovered that several other factors played important roles in making the participants recall the items such as word-length effect, frequency and recency of the words.

  7. EXPLORING MOTIVATION OF LEARNING ENGLISH (A STUDY OF A JAPANESE TEACHER

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Indriyati Hadiningrum

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Motivation, in general, can be described as a reason for doing something; and in language learning this refers to learners‘ need to master a second or foreign language. It is one of causal factors (e.g. age, environment in a language learning, especially in learning the English language. Students or individuals who learn English in a non-English speaking country must have high motivation to be able to speak using the English language. This study is aimed at describing motivation of a native Japanese who is able to speak English. Basically, she speaks Japanese most of the time with her colleagues and students since she teaches Japanese. The result shows that she is eager to learn Englishbecause she wants to have a relationship with many people around the world especially when she has to teach Japanese in some English-speaking countries. She has positive attitudes towards the English language although she realises that her pronunciation is sometimes difficult to understand because she cannot utter /l/ (she utters /r/ instead.

  8. Identification of Ambiguity in the Case Study Research Typology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grünbaum, Niels Nolsøe

    2015-01-01

    . Relevant to varied levels and scales of case study use, the aim of this collection is to provide readers with a comprehensive overview of where we are now with case study research, so that they may better judge their own applications of the case study. From definitions to interdisciplinary methods......The purpose of this four volume collection is to provide an accessible selection of the best writing on case study in the English language internationally. Such a collection is timely and highly relevant to students, researchers and academics in higher education, especially when the case......, this set will address the practical case study by offering a structured selection of some of the best modern and classic writing on the case study in article form, together with a synoptic editorial introduction and overview of the field of research....

  9. Emotional Intelligence, Self-Esteem, and Academic Achievement: a Case Study of English Department Students, Binus University

    OpenAIRE

    Andreani, Wiwik

    2013-01-01

    This study examines the comparison between English Department students’ emotional intelligence (EQ), their self-esteem and their academic achievement. Twenty-two students participated in the research by answering EQ test and two Self-Esteem questionnaires. The result shows that there is no relation between students’ GPA and their self-esteem and EQ. This means that academic ability does not correspond to social skills. Though most students have average EQ and self-esteem, one student has High...

  10. English-Only Europe?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Phillipson, Robert

    and international relations. In this book, Robert Phillipson considers whether the contemporary expansion of English represents a serious threat to other European languages. After exploring the implications of current policies, Phillipson argues the case for more active language policies to safeguard a multilingual......English-Only Europe? explores the role of languages in the process of European integration. Languages are central to the development of an integrated Europe. The way in which the European Union deals with multilingualism has serious implications for both individual member countries...

  11. Mobile English learning: an evidence-based study with fifth graders

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sandberg, J.; Maris, M.; de Geus, K.

    2011-01-01

    Three groups participated in a study on the added value of mobile technology for learning English as a second language for primary school students. The first group had classroom lessons in English about zoo animals and their characteristics. The second group took classroom lessons and worked with a

  12. English in Africa

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    English in Africa was founded in 1974 to provide a forum for the study of African literature and English as a language of Africa. The Editor invites contributions, including unsolicited reviews, on all aspects of English writing and the English language in Africa, including oral traditions. English in Africa is listed in the Journal of ...

  13. English as a Symbol of Internationalization in Higher Education: A Case Study of Vietnam

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duong, Van Anh; Chua, Catherine S. K.

    2016-01-01

    Vietnam universities have experienced remarkable changes brought about by their internationalization policies. The switch to English as a medium of instruction (EMI) for some academic programs was one of these critical changes. Literature has reported numerous issues related to EMI, including inadequate language proficiency of teaching staff. This…

  14. THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH SYLLABLE TIMING BY NATIVE SPANISH SPEAKERS LEARNERS OF ENGLISH. AN EMPIRICAL STUDY'

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francisco Gutierrez Diez

    2001-06-01

    Full Text Available In this article we present part of the results of an empirical research on contrastive rhythm (English-Spanish. Of the several points dealt with in such a research (syllable compression, foot timing, syllable timing and isochrony of rhythmic units, we refer here to syllable duration in English and Spanish as well as the leaming of syllable duration by a group of advanced leamers of English whose first language is Spanish. Regarding the issue of syllable timing, a striking result is the equal duration of unstressed syllables in both languages, which challenges an opposite view underlying a teaching practice common among Spanish teachers of English to Spanish learners of that language. As for the interlanguage of the group of Spanish leamers of English, we comment on the presence of an interference error represented by a stressed/unstressed durational ratio mid way between the ratios for Spanish and English; we have also detected a developmental error related to the tempo employed by the leamers in their syllable timing, which is slower than the tempo produced by native speakers of English.

  15. Making the Case for Irish through English: Eco-critical Politics of Language by Learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John L. Murphy

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines recent accounts by Americans who have learned Irish. Their narratives from the West of Ireland express what translation theorist Michael Cronin calls ‘individualist politics of language’. He claims that the English-speaking majority will determine the survival of 21st century Irish.  Cronin shifts Irish into a globalized, ‘late modern’ network. Foreign-born learners enter this network when they choose to study Irish. They counter the stereotype of Irish schoolchildren forced into rote recitation of a moribund language.  Patricia Monaghan combines goddess-worship with academic research into indigenous spirituality, place-name lore, literature, and the Irish environmental inheritance. Her travelogue and reports by five other American visitors to Gaeltachtaí are compared with John Montague and Éilís Ní Dhuibhne’s literary depictions of 20th-century Irish-born school-level learners.Feminist, post-colonial, and literary criticisms enrich understanding of how American students apply ecological and cultural strategies that seek to recover this indigenous language. Choosing to make the case for Irish, adult students share Cronin’s ‘individualist politics’. In English-language books, American advocates preserve and expand a linguistic ecology in which Irish may survive.

  16. Learning and Teaching Technology in English Teacher Education: Findings from a National Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pasternak, Donna L.; Hallman, Heidi L.; Caughlan, Samantha; Renzi, Laura; Rush, Leslie S.; Meineke, Hannah

    2016-01-01

    This paper reports on one aspect of a large-scale nationwide study that surveyed English teacher educators about English teacher preparation programs throughout the United States. One aspect of the study focused on how technology is integrated within the context of English teacher education programs, asking the question, "As an area of…

  17. Examining English Language Learning Motivation of Adult International Learners Studying Abroad in the US

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weger, Heather D.

    2013-01-01

    The present study reports on the motivations of adult, international learners of English, studying English 20 hours a week in a US-based Intensive English Program (IEP). Though often used as participants in language acquisition studies, there are few studies of these learners' motivational profiles. In the current study, a questionnaire designed…

  18. Learning English Vocabulary in a Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL Environment: A Sociocultural Study of Migrant Women

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kham Sila Ahmad

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper reports on a case study of a group of six non-native English speaking migrant women’s experiences learning English vocabulary in a mobile assisted language learning (MALL environment at a small community centre in Western Australia. A sociocultural approach to learning vocabulary was adopted in designing the MALL lessons that the women undertook. The women provided demographic information, responded to questions in a pre-MALL semi-structured interview, attended the MALL lessons, and completed a post-MALL semi-structured interview. This study explores the sociocultural factors that affect migrant women’s language learning in general, and vocabulary in particular. The women’s responses to MALL lessons and using the tablet reveal a positive effect in their vocabulary learning.

  19. Rhythmic patterning in Malaysian and Singapore English.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Rachel Siew Kuang; Low, Ee-Ling

    2014-06-01

    Previous work on the rhythm of Malaysian English has been based on impressionistic observations. This paper utilizes acoustic analysis to measure the rhythmic patterns of Malaysian English. Recordings of the read speech and spontaneous speech of 10 Malaysian English speakers were analyzed and compared with recordings of an equivalent sample of Singaporean English speakers. Analysis was done using two rhythmic indexes, the PVI and VarcoV. It was found that although the rhythm of read speech of the Singaporean speakers was syllable-based as described by previous studies, the rhythm of the Malaysian speakers was even more syllable-based. Analysis of the syllables in specific utterances showed that Malaysian speakers did not reduce vowels as much as Singaporean speakers in cases of syllables in utterances. Results of the spontaneous speech confirmed the findings for the read speech; that is, the same rhythmic patterning was found which normally triggers vowel reductions.

  20. A Case for Improved Reading Instruction for Academic English Reading Proficiency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Glenn Ole Hellekjær

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available This article presents a study of the academic reading proficiency in English of 217 senior level Norwegian upper secondary school students who upon graduation are considered qualified for higher education. Testing with an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Reading Module revealed that two thirds of the 178 respondents with ordinary EFL courses did not achieve the equivalent of the IELTS Band 6 score minimum that is usually required for admission to British and Australian universities. In comparison, two thirds of a sample of 39 respondents with a single, sheltered Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL subject achieved a Band 6 score or better. Closer analysis indicates that the poor test scores can be attributed to weaknesses in current English as a Foreign Language (EFL instruction where reading is neglected, where students do not learn to adjust how they read to reading purpose, and where they do not learn how to handle unfamiliar words to avoid disrupting the reading process. The article ends with suggestions on how to improve EFL instruction, in Norway and elsewhere.

  1. Mechanism of case processing in the brain: an fMRI study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Satoru Yokoyama

    Full Text Available In sentence comprehension research, the case system, which is one of the subsystems of the language processing system, has been assumed to play a crucial role in signifying relationships in sentences between noun phrases (NPs and other elements, such as verbs, prepositions, nouns, and tense. However, so far, less attention has been paid to the question of how cases are processed in our brain. To this end, the current study used fMRI and scanned the brain activity of 15 native English speakers during an English-case processing task. The results showed that, while the processing of all cases activates the left inferior frontal gyrus and posterior part of the middle temporal gyrus, genitive case processing activates these two regions more than nominative and accusative case processing. Since the effect of the difference in behavioral performance among these three cases is excluded from brain activation data, the observed different brain activations would be due to the different processing patterns among the cases, indicating that cases are processed differently in our brains. The different brain activations between genitive case processing and nominative/accusative case processing may be due to the difference in structural complexity between them.

  2. Listening to middle-school Spanish-speaking English language learners: A qualitative study of their perspectives of science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lopez-Ferrao, Julio E.

    The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding and explanation of the science achievement gap between Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) and their mainstream peers. The sample of purposefully selected participants (N = 23) included students representing eight Spanish-speaking countries who attended three middle schools (grades 6th-8th), 11 boys and 12 girls, with different years of schooling in the United States, English proficiency levels, and science achievement levels. Data gathering strategies included individual interviews with participants, classroom observations, and analysis of secondary data sources on students' English language proficiency and science achievement. Data interpretation strategies using a critical-interpretive perspective consisted of coding and narrative analysis, including analyses of excerpts and case studies. Two major findings emerge from the study: (1) An inverse relation between participants' number of years of exposure to science learning in an English-only learning environment and their science achievement levels; and (2) specific participant-identified problems, such as learning the science vocabulary, writing in science, the use of mathematics in science, and the lack of sense making in the science classroom. Key recommendations comprise: (1) Acknowledging the value of dual language education; (2) supporting the science-literacy connection; (3) ensuring high-quality science through research-informed instructional strategies; and (4) assessing ELLs' science achievement.

  3. Exploring Students' Perceptions about English Learning in a Public University

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiménez, Patricia Kim

    2018-01-01

    This manuscript reports the final findings of an exploratory, descriptive case study that aimed at exploring the perceptions of a group of English as a foreign language students in a public university regarding their English learning and the commitment level through the process. A questionnaire, a survey, and the teacher's diary were the…

  4. Maternal filicide in a cohort of English Serious Case Reviews.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sidebotham, Peter; Retzer, Ameeta

    2018-03-02

    A national mixed-methods study of English Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) was carried out to better understand the characteristics and circumstances of maternally perpetrated filicides, to compare these with paternally perpetrated cases, and to identify learning points for mental health professionals. Published reports for all SCRs of children in England dying as a result of abuse or neglect from 2011 to 2014 were subject to qualitative analysis using a system of layered reading and inductive thematic analysis, along with descriptive and comparative quantitative analysis. There were 86 deaths directly attributable to child maltreatment within the immediate family. The mother was the suspected perpetrator in 20. Twelve of the mother perpetrators were victims of domestic violence, while 15 of the father perpetrators were known to be perpetrators of domestic violence. Those deaths resulting from impulsive violence or severe, persistent cruelty are almost exclusively perpetrated by males, while those with an apparent intent to kill the child are slightly more likely to be perpetrated by mothers. Four key themes were identified through the qualitative analysis: domestic violence, maternal mental illness, separation and maternal isolation, and the invisibility of the child. These findings highlight the important role of domestic violence and its interaction with maternal mental health. Professionals working with mothers with mental health problems need to adopt a supportive but professionally curious stance, to be alert to signs of escalating stress or worsening mental ill-health, and to provide supportive and accessible structures for at-risk families.

  5. CASE STUDY: Kampala, Uganda — From the ground up: Urban ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2006-04-21

    Apr 21, 2006 ... English · Français ... CASE STUDY: Kampala, Uganda — From the ground up: Urban ... Azuba has used this kind of evidence to convert more than one ... a bottomup approach was needed to draft ordinances that would work.

  6. Learner Views on English and English Language Teaching in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Na; Lin, Chih-Kai; Wiley, Terrence G.

    2016-01-01

    Since the 1980s, China has represented one of the major growth areas in the world for English language education, and studying English has been a priority among its foreign language educational policies. As English has gained more popularity in China, some have noted the potential value of English as a means to greater educational access and…

  7. Reading-Strategy Use by English as a Second Language Learners in Online Reading Tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Ho-Ryong; Kim, Deoksoon

    2011-01-01

    This study investigates adult English language learners' reading-strategy use when they read online texts in hypermedia learning environments. The learners joined the online Independent English Study Group (IESG) and worked both individually and collaboratively. This qualitative case study aims (a) to assess college-level ESL learners' use of…

  8. A Case Study: Reading Strategies Training Scheme in a Hong Kong Primary School

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Ho Cheung

    2017-01-01

    This article describes a case study on a reading programme, named Reading Strategies Training Scheme (RSTS), for second language learning in a Hong Kong primary (elementary) school. The scheme, serving learners of English as a second language from Primary One to Six (ages 6--12), was developed by the school's English teaching team. As it was being…

  9. Students’ attitudes to lecturers' English in English-medium higher education in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Christian; Denver, Louise; Mees, Inger M.

    2013-01-01

    This study examines the evaluative reactions of university students to their non-native lecturers’ English skills in English-medium instruction, i.e. when English is used as a lingua franca in an academic context. In particular, we examine the relationship between perceptions of English language ....... This effect should be addressed when universities use student ratings to evaluate teaching in English-medium content courses.......This study examines the evaluative reactions of university students to their non-native lecturers’ English skills in English-medium instruction, i.e. when English is used as a lingua franca in an academic context. In particular, we examine the relationship between perceptions of English language...... proficiency and perceptions of general lecturing competence (defined here as knowledge of subject and teaching skills). Statistical analyses of 1,700 student responses to 31 non-native English-speaking lecturers at a major business school in Denmark revealed that the students’ perceptions of the lecturers...

  10. Bilingual Children in the Nursery: A Case Study of Samia at Home and at School.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drury, Rose

    2000-01-01

    Presents case study of 4.5-year-old to highlight aspects of socialization for young bilingual children learning English as a second language. Identifies social rules/routines, child-adult interaction, and the stage of English language development as areas providing important educational insights. Highlights how children in early stages of second…

  11. Foreign language learning as a complex dynamic process: A microgenetic case study of a Chinese child's English learning trajectory

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sun, He; Steinkrauss, Rasmus; van der Steen, Steffie; Cox, Ralf; de Bot, Kees

    2016-01-01

    The current study focuses on one child's (male, 3 years old) learning behaviors in an English as a Foreign Language classroom, and explores the coordination and developmental patterns of his nonverbal (gestures and body language) and verbal (verbal repetition and verbal responses) learning behaviors

  12. English Downfall

    Science.gov (United States)

    Theamishaugur

    2009-01-01

    In a remix of the infamous Hitler meme--taking a scene from the movie, "Downfall" (2005), and adding subtitles appropriate (in this case) for "Kairos" readers--theamishaugur makes a pointed, humorous (to some) commentary on the status of multimodal composition scholars in English departments during job market season.

  13. Meeting Common Core English Language Arts and English Language Development Standards with Character Education Lesson Plans in Alternative Education Grades 9 through 12

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoedel, Joseph M.; Lee, Robert E.

    2016-01-01

    This is a case study in which the Character Development and Leadership Program replaced an alternative high school's traditional English language offerings. A triangulated case study used student records, field notes, and interviews of stakeholders to compare the academic year prior to this substitution and the 2 academic years following it. All 3…

  14. The effect of tertiary study at an English medium university on the ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The effect of tertiary study at an English medium university on the written English of speakers of Black South African English. J Parkinson. Abstract. No Abstract. Full Text: EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT · http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/tvl.v37i2.53847.

  15. An Analysis of Errors Committed by Saudi Non-English Major Students in the English Paragraph Writing: A Study of Comparisons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammed Nuruzzaman

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The present study investigates the writing errors of ninety Saudi non-English major undergraduate students of different proficiency levels from three faculties, who studied English as a foundation course at the English Language Center in the College of Languages &Translation at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia in the academic year 2016-17. The findings reveal that the common errors the Saudi EFL students make in writing English paragraphs fall under four categories namely grammar, lexis, semantics and mechanics. Then it compares the categories, types and frequency of errors committed by these three groups of students. Among these categories, grammar has been observed as the most error-prone area where students commit errors the most. The study also posits that among the three groups, the students of the College of Medicine make the minimum errors in all the types and the highest number of errors is committed by the students of Engineering College. The College of Computer Science is in the second position in making errors. The frequency of error types is also found different among these three groups.

  16. Attitudes and Attained English Language Proficiency of University Students in Thailand: A Sociolinguistic Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boykin, Arsene; Trungamphai, Arunthadee

    English proficiency of Thai university students studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL) was studied in relation to attitudinal scores on social, economic, travel, or prestige scales. Secondarily, the subjects' attitudes toward their native group and toward the target language group, and their motives for learning English were studied in…

  17. A Study of Autonomy English Learning on the Internet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhong, Yunsheng

    2008-01-01

    With the variety of environment and method of English learning, Autonomy English learning on the Internet is playing a more and more important role in modern English learning. It challenges the traditional learning approach, and also is forwardness. This paper points out that autonomy English learning on the Internet facilitates the improvement of…

  18. Parental perceptions: a case study of school choice amidst ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This article stems from a case study of parental school choice which was nested within a longitudinal .... which solidly advocates maintenance if not also development of home languages in .... urban region in South Africa where the language of instruction has become English. ..... Am Main: Multilingualism Network. Heugh K ...

  19. Making out in English (English phrasebook)

    CERN Document Server

    Crownover, Richard

    2011-01-01

    Making Out in English is a fun, accessible and thorough English phrase book and guide to the English language as it's really spoken. If you are a student, businessman or tourist traveling to the English speaking world and would like to have an authentic and meaningful experience, the key is being able to speak like a local. This friendly and easy-to-use English phrasebook makes this possible. Making Out in English has been revised and redesigned to act as a guide to modern colloquial English for use in everyday informal interactions—giving access to the sort of catchy English expressions that

  20. Pre-Service English Teachers' Beliefs on Speaking Skill Based on Motivational Orientations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dinçer, Ali; Yesilyurt, Savas

    2013-01-01

    This study aimed to explore pre-service English teachers' perceptions of teaching speaking in Turkey, the importance they give to this language skill, and their self-evaluation of their speaking competence. With case design and maximum variation sampling approach, seven pre-service English teachers' beliefs about speaking skills were gathered in…

  1. AN ANALYSIS OF SUBJECT AGREEMENT ERRORS IN ENGLISH ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Windows User

    ENGLISH: THE CASE OF THIRD YEAR STUDENTS AT THE. NATIONAL ... school, communication is done in the first language, Sesotho. English has ..... carelessness, and lack of habitual checking of subject-verb agreement in sentence.

  2. Glossing, transliterating and translating interactional data on languages other than English for international publication

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Egbert, Maria; Hirataka, Fumiya; Sadeghi, Sima

    In the area of pragmatics the numbers of studies on non-English data has been increasing. For the career of most researchers, it is highly desirable to publish internationally, and thus in English. When researchers transcribe and gloss non-English data for publications in English, they often need...... to make practical decisions that have an impact on the analysis and presentation of results. This paper argues methodologically that non-English data should be treated more faithfully. The paper starts by examining how researchers in different fields of pragmatics have handled this issue and what problems...... result from the current ‘mainstream’ way. Most authors make their decisions on a case-by-case basis, considering the publisher’s requirements, possibly taking space requirements into account, and most importantly, balancing the trade-off between precision in the data display and the readability...

  3. A Study of the Use of the Weak Forms of English Grammatical Words ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    More often than not, when grammatical words such as determiners, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs and prepositions occur in Standard English sentences, they are produced in their weak forms. The concern of this study is whether educated Yoruba English speakers appropriately use the weak forms of English ...

  4. Emotional Intelligence, Self-Esteem, and Academic Achievement: A Case Study of English Department Students, Binus University

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wiwik Andreani

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available This study examines the comparison between English Department students’ emotional intelligence (EQ, their self-esteem and their academic achievement. Twenty-two students participated in the research by answering EQ test and two Self-Esteem questionnaires. The result shows that there is no relation between students’ GPA and their self-esteem and EQ. This means that academic ability does not correspond to social skills. Though most students have average EQ and self-esteem, one student has High EQ, High Self-esteem and a 2.95 GPA (out of 4.  

  5. A Phenomelogical Study of Reclassified Elementary School English Learners' Perceptions of Their Educational Experiences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Betanzos, Fernando

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to provide an insight into how former English learners' educational experiences allowed them to attain English language proficiency and meet grade level standards in English Language Arts. This study was informed by the theoretical frameworks of Albert Bandura's social learning theory, and Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural…

  6. Integrating Information and Communication Technology in English Language Teaching: A Case Study of Selected Junior Secondary Schools in Botswana

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mafuraga, Mbizo; Moremi, Mbiganyi

    2017-01-01

    The paper discusses how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) could be integrated in the teaching of English Language in Botswana Junior Secondary Schools. It does so by exploring opportunities and challenges faced by teachers of English Language and the students they teach. Fifty five (55) teachers in eleven (11) Junior Secondary Schools…

  7. A Study of Interactions among Ambiguity Tolerance, Classroom Work Styles, and English Proficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiang, Hui-Hua

    2016-01-01

    This article presents a preliminary investigation of the inter-relationships between English learners' tolerance for ambiguity, their classroom work styles, and their level of English proficiency. The study population comprised 46 English as a foreign language (EFL) students attending a technical college in Taiwan. The findings indicated that a…

  8. Examining teachers’ views on the implementation of English as L3 into primary schools: A case of Kazakhstan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bakhytgul A Zhetpisbayeva

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan changed the State Educational Program for primary education and the curriculum for teaching English as a third language (L3 to grades 1-4in 2013. As with many changes in the curriculum, English language teaching has also been changed and the starting age for learning of English language has been lowered to 6-7 years of age (Grade 1. However, implementation of the curriculum requires readiness on the part of the teachers and teachers' views about teaching English in primary school is important for successful implementation of English language policy. Thus, this research aims to investigate the teachers’ views about the starting age for L3 learning, teachers' professional development, teaching materials and problems of implementation of a language policy in primary schools in Kazakhstan. The data for the study was gathered from 105 English teachers working in different primary schools. The study revealed that most have not yet made a transition to the organized system of teaching English languages in primary school.

  9. The Construction of Social Reality through the Use of the English Language: A Study with Argentinean Pre-Service Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luchini, Pedro Luis

    2010-01-01

    This case study aims at replicating a study conducted in 2007 with a group of ten trainees at the English Teacher Training Program at Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. In 2007, the participants recorded a dyadic interactive task. Speech data were analyzed to see how, through the use of language, learners construed their social reality. In the…

  10. Assessing Moroccan University Students’ English Learning Motivation: A Comparative Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Otmane Omari

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available This study seeks to survey whether students are motivated to learn English or not and to evaluate the differences within and between three most known universities in Morocco, involving a private one, in terms of students’ English learning motivation. Moreover, factors that make a student more motivated to learn English were investigated. This study examines motivation of university students according to their institution, gender, and other variables. Assessment of university students’ motivation was by scores on items from the Academic Motivation Scale. The sample consisted of 329 undergraduate students from three different Moroccan universities. The most important finding was that participants in general are quite motivated to learn English with a score of (M = 3.80 with regard to the overall score using a 5-point Likert scale, and a higher level of introjected extrinsic motivation (M = 4.11, which means that they do such tasks because they are supposed or asked to do them. Moreover, factors such as how students consider university, their location during the academic year, and their decision behind choosing to go to university were found to affect students’ motivation.

  11. CASE STUDY: Cuba — Farmers and Researchers Reshape Cuba's ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2011-01-05

    Jan 5, 2011 ... But working together with groups of farmers, a team of young plant breeders is turning things around. ... English · Français ... CASE STUDY: Cuba — Farmers and Researchers Reshape Cuba's Agriculture ... One method the researchers used to introduce farmers to new or unknown varieties or lines was the ...

  12. Chilean 12th graders’ Attitudes towards English as a Foreign Language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eric Gómez Burgos

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available This article aims to provide the results of a research focusing on 12th graders’ attitudes towards English as a Foreign Language in two secondary schools in Puerto Montt, Chile. Attitude towards a language has been considered as an important factor that influences the process of learning a foreign language (Shams, 2008; for this reason, it is fundamental to identify students’ attitudes since positive attitudes towards English allow the students to have favourable orientation towards learning it (Karahan, 2007. Under this premise, this study corresponds to a case study that includes a quantitative method of data analysis. A survey of five dimensions was conducted amongst 154 students in order to measure their attitudes towards the target language. The results show that their attitudes towards English as a foreign language are favourable; however, the dimensions related to learning English, and English as a subject at school obtained unfavourable attitudes.

  13. Analysis of the English morphology by semantic networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Žáček, Martin; Homola, Dan

    2017-11-01

    The article is devoted to study the morphology of natural language, in this case English language. The research is of the language is from the perspective of knowledge representation, when we look at the word as a concept in the Concept languages. The research is in the relationship of the individual words and their classification in the sentence. For the analysis there are used several methods (syntax, lexical categories, morphology). This article focuses mainly on the word, as the foundation of every natural language (English).

  14. Perception of "English" and Motivation in Learning English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sahin, Mehmet; Seçer, Sule Y. E.; Erisen, Yavuz

    2016-01-01

    This study aims to present high school students' perception of "English" through the impressions and images and the effect of these perceptions on their motivation in learning English. This qualitative study is based on the data about students' metaphors and the focus group interview to determine their effect on the students' motivation.…

  15. Native-English Speaking Instructors Teaching Writing in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Qing; Zhou, Xiaodi; Fu, Danling

    2015-01-01

    This article presents two separate but related studies on native-English speaking (NES) instructors' teaching writing practice in Chinese universities. One study is a case study that explores the teaching practice of three NES instructors' writing instruction in a southern Chinese university as well as students' responses to their practice.…

  16. A Contrastive Study of Persian and English Written Discourse: Ellipsis in Realistic Novels

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Esmail Faghih

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available This study aspires to examine the concept of ellipsis by comparing and contrasting English and Persian written texts. For this purpose, three Persian novels and three English ones were selected. These novels were analyzed carefully; they were compared and contrasted for types and amount of ellipsis used, through a Chi-square analysis.  The results of the data analysis revealed that various types of ellipsis were used differently in these two languages. In other words, in the English corpus, nominal ellipsis was used more frequently than verbal ellipsis but in the Persian one, the use of verbal ellipsis was more frequent than nominal. Moreover, the results of this study lend some support to the idea of the universality of ellipsis, in that, all subtypes of ellipsis were used in these two languages although they  were used more frequently in English than in Persian. This study might have implications for teachers, material developers, and researchers in the field of teaching English as a foreign language. In other words, teaching ellipsis directly to foreign language learners will improve the quality of their writing. Moreover,  the results of the present study have obvious importance in increasing students' awareness of the way native speakers of English organize their writing.

  17. Teacher's and Students' Beliefs on English for General Academic Purposes: The Case of Iranian University Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kojour, Masoud Kermani; Heirati, Javad Kia

    2015-01-01

    This study was framed in the sociocultural theory to look into the evolution of L2 learners' beliefs about the general English course during a term. One hundred ninety-eight male and female university students and their general English course teacher were randomly selected as the participants of the study. Data were gathered through the…

  18. Teaching English to Engineers: Between English Language Teaching and Psychology

    OpenAIRE

    Irina-Ana Drobot

    2016-01-01

    Teaching English to Engineers is part of English for Specific Purposes, a domain which is under the attention of English students especially under the current conditions of finding jobs and establishing partnerships outside Romania. The paper will analyse the existing textbooks together with the teaching strategies they adopt. Teaching English to Engineering students can intersect with domains such as psychology and cultural studies in order to teach them efficiently. Textbooks for students o...

  19. A Corpus-based Study of English Vocabulary in Art Research Articles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ping Wang

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The learning of English as a foreign language is an additional burden for art majors. This study aimed to examine high frequency words in art research articles to improve the efficiency of art majors’ English learning, especially their academic reading and writing. For this aim, the study built a corpus, analyzed data from art research articles and compared data with three base word lists. We found that the General Service List (GSL and the Academic Word List (AWL had a high coverage in our corpus, and there was a different high frequency word order in the Art Research Article Corpus (ARAC. These findings provide some implications for teaching English for art majors.

  20. Evaluating the spoken English proficiency of graduates of foreign medical schools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boulet, J R; van Zanten, M; McKinley, D W; Gary, N E

    2001-08-01

    The purpose of this study was to gather additional evidence for the validity and reliability of spoken English proficiency ratings provided by trained standardized patients (SPs) in high-stakes clinical skills examination. Over 2500 candidates who took the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates' (ECFMG) Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) were studied. The CSA consists of 10 or 11 timed clinical encounters. Standardized patients evaluate spoken English proficiency and interpersonal skills in every encounter. Generalizability theory was used to estimate the consistency of spoken English ratings. Validity coefficients were calculated by correlating summary English ratings with CSA scores and other external criterion measures. Mean spoken English ratings were also compared by various candidate background variables. The reliability of the spoken English ratings, based on 10 independent evaluations, was high. The magnitudes of the associated variance components indicated that the evaluation of a candidate's spoken English proficiency is unlikely to be affected by the choice of cases or SPs used in a given assessment. Proficiency in spoken English was related to native language (English versus other) and scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The pattern of the relationships, both within assessment components and with external criterion measures, suggests that valid measures of spoken English proficiency are obtained. This result, combined with the high reproducibility of the ratings over encounters and SPs, supports the use of trained SPs to measure spoken English skills in a simulated medical environment.

  1. The Development of Effective English Teacher Improvement Program Based on a Case Study of English Teaching in Madrasah in Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siti Nurul Azkiyah

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Teachers play very important roles, yet not all teachers can teach well and hence it is important to develop a teacher improvement program. Therefore, this study observed teaching and learning process to understand current teacher instruction so that priorities could be easily set up. 11 English teachers participated in the study. The eight classroom factors of the dynamic model (Orientation, Structuring, Modeling, Application, Questioning, Assessment, Building Classroom as a Learning Environment, and Time Management are used as the framework since they are theory-driven and have been empirically proven to lead to better student outcomes. The data on the teaching of reading were descriptively analyzed, the results of which show almost no teachers did orientation and structuring, which could serve as pre-reading activities. Modeling was not really provided and students were left not to have sufficient tasks, hence during reading activities were not well delivered. Questioning was practiced by teachers but was limited to “product” questions. Lastly, collaboration and competition among students were not really promoted. The findings of this study suggest that all eight factors should be trained to teachers. It is expected that when teachers practice those factors, student outcomes will be better.

  2. English Phonological Awareness in Bilinguals: A Cross-Linguistic Study of Tamil, Malay and Chinese English-Language Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dixon, L. Quentin; Chuang, Hui-Kai; Quiroz, Blanca

    2012-01-01

    To test the lexical restructuring hypothesis among bilingual English-language learners, English phonological awareness (PA), English vocabulary and ethnic language vocabulary (Mandarin Chinese, Malay or Tamil) were assessed among 284 kindergarteners (168 Chinese, 71 Malays and 45 Tamils) in Singapore. A multi-level regression analysis showed that…

  3. Online Features of Qzone Weblog for Critical Peer Feedback to Facilitate Business English Writing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Xianwei; Samuel, Moses; Asmawi, Adelina

    2016-01-01

    Qzone weblog is one of the most popular weblogs in China. This study explores Qzone weblog for critical peer feedback to facilitate Business English writing among the Chinese undergraduates. A qualitative case study is conducted by NVivo 8 to analyze the three research data of semistructured interviews, Business English writing assignments, and…

  4. Medical Students' Perceptions of Using Mobile Phones for Their English Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iwata, Jun; Tamaki, Yuko; Shudong, Wang; Telloyan, John; Ajiki, Yuri; Clayton, John

    2014-01-01

    The authors conducted a needs analysis to investigate their medical students' needs and preferences for using mobile devices for their English study. The analysis showed the students' expectations of mobile learning were very high and two-thirds of them were interested in building medical English terminology through mobile learning. Then, the…

  5. English Learning Strategies of Various Nations: A Study in Military Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solak, Ekrem

    2014-01-01

    How successful learners learn English has been one of the primary interest of scientists and researchers in recent years. Therefore, this study aimed to determine what language learning strategies the military personnel from different nations used while learning English. 56 subjects from 14 different nations deployed in three different military…

  6. Deconstructing the Environment: The Case of Adult Immigrants to Canada Learning English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreea CERVATIUC

    2008-11-01

    Full Text Available This article identifies and deconstructs the ways in which professionally successful adult immigrants to Canada chose to interact with and reshape different environments in order to foster their English learning process. The sample for this study was selected to be representative of the “brain gain” immigration wave to Canada of the last two decades. All 20 participants belong to the same category of highly-educated (17+ years of education, independent immigrants who came to Canada as young adults. The data collection process consisted of a series of three interviews with each participant. The data were analyzed following the principles of the grounded theory method. Several qualitative themes associated with learning English as an adult immigrant in various types of environments in Canada (instructed environments, ‘manipulated’ naturalistic environments, and unaltered naturalistic environments emerged from the interviews with the participants. The themes are critically explored and special emphasis is laid on the ways in which participants overcame difficulties inherent in the environmental factors that were not readily structured to offer immigrants opportunities to learn and practice English.

  7. The Simple Analysis on Motivation and Attitude in Tertiary College Students' English Study

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    盛洁瑾

    2008-01-01

    In psycholinguisties,motivation and attitude have much effect on students'English study.Because there ale different individuals among students,different students have different study motivations and attitudes.Directed against these individuals in tertiary colleges,we formulate different methods to help students study English well.

  8. Is the Frame Broken? Seeking New Metaphors for Textual Study in English

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKnight, Lucinda

    2015-01-01

    This article draws from a doctoral study of how female teachers design English curriculum around girls' popular culture in a contemporary coeducational secondary setting and focuses on how English teachers contemplate the study of texts in the space of school-based curriculum planning. The article presents an argument for reflexivity around how we…

  9. Japanese College Students' Attitudes towards Japan English and American English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sasayama, Shoko

    2013-01-01

    This study investigated contemporary Japanese college students' attitudes towards Japan English (JE) and American English (AE) through a verbal guise test (VGT) as well as a questionnaire. Forty-four Japanese college students listened to four Japanese and four North Americans reading a text in English, rated them in terms of solidarity-related…

  10. A Study of English Language Learning Beliefs, Strategies, and English Academic Achievement of the ESP Students of STIENAS Samarinda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayati, Noor

    2015-01-01

    This research aimed to investigate; students' English academic achievement, beliefs about English language learning, English language learning strategies, and the relationship of them. Descriptive and correlational design, quantitative methods were applied in this research. The students' final English scores of the first year, BALLI, and SILL were…

  11. The non-English major lecturers speak English: The barriers encountered by adult learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmad Madkur

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available This study was aimed at investigating the difficulties and problems faced by non-English major lecturers when they were taking a part in English discussion. This study was a qualitative descriptive research involving 10 non-English major lecturers who took a part in a twice-a-week discussion so-called English Corner. To collect the data, in-depth interview and observation were used. The collected data were analyzed by using Miles and Huberman’s interactive data analysis data model consisting of data reduction, data display and data verifying. The result of the study showed that those barriers could be classified into three problems namely socio-cultural, linguistic and interpersonal problems. The found barriers were expected to be a consideration to find out the solution to make the betterment of English learning among lecturers with the non-English background of study.

  12. Why Do Primary School English Teachers Decide to Teach English?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amengual-Pizarro, Marian; Garcia Laborda, Jesus

    2015-01-01

    This study is an attempt to explore the nature of L2 teachers' motivation towards English language learning and their decision to become English teachers. A total of 45 third-year prospective Primary school English teachers at the University of the Balearic Islands completed a small-scale survey adapted from Gardner's Attitude/Motivation Test…

  13. A Study on Critical Thinking Assessment System of College English Writing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Tian; Yue, Lu

    2015-01-01

    This research attempts to discuss the validity of introducing the evaluation of students' critical thinking skills (CTS) into the assessment system of college English writing through an empirical study. In this paper, 30 College English Test Band 4 (CET-4) writing samples were collected and analyzed. Students' CTS and the final scores of collected…

  14. English in China's Language Policies for Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Hongmei

    2012-01-01

    Taking ecological language planning and policy as its conceptual orientation and interpretive policy analysis as its methodological framework, and following an embedded single-case study design, this study explores the role of English, as compared with the role of Chinese, in China's educational language planning and policy for higher education.…

  15. On the Auxiliary Status of Dare in Old English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomaszewska Magdalena

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available OE *durran ‘dare’ belongs to a group of the so-called preterite-present verbs which developed weak past tense forms replacing the originally strong forms throughout the paradigm. The present study hypothesizes that the potential sources of this development are related to the decay of the subjunctive mood in Old English. Further, this corpus-based study analyses the status of DARE in Old English, with the findings showing that the verb displayed both lexical and auxiliary verb characteristics. These results are juxtaposed and compared with the verb's developments in Middle English. The databases examined are the corpus of The Dictionary of Old English in Electronic Form (A-G and the Innsbruck Computer Archive of Machine-Readable English Texts. In both cases, a search of potential forms was performed on all the files of the corpora, the raw results were then analysed in order to eliminate irrelevant instances (adjectives, nouns, foreign words, etc.. The relevant forms were examined with the aim to check the properties of DARE as a lexical and an auxiliary verb, and compare the findings with Molencki’s (2002, 2005 observations.

  16. A Survey of Learning Motivation among Junior and Senior English Ma?jors in Non-governmental Universities—A Case Study in Ningbo Dahon?gying University

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    GU Qian-qian

    2017-01-01

    Motivation is an important factor to English learning, it plays an important role. In this thesis, the instrument used in the study is a questionnaire, and this thesis was conducted on December 5th, 2016 at Ningbo Dahongying University involving 182 students. Based on the questionnaire investigation, this thesis discusses the learning motivation of English major juniors and seniors in Ningbo Dahongying University from the motivation types, factors and strategies...

  17. Extramural English

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Signe Hannibal

    activities are more supportive of language learning than others, i.e. gaming, watching television, music, etc. Finally, a qualitative gaming study will be carried out to explore what goes on linguistically when very young children game in English together: type of interaction between players...... and with the game and if this interaction can be seen to support their English language learning. Preliminary results indicate that although children use / are exposed to English in a range of different contexts and through a variety of modalities (internet, console/PC games, music etc.), the one activity...... that seems to have the most impact on children’s English learning is gaming....

  18. A Comparative Study of Reading Strategies Used by Chinese English Majors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Xiaoqiong; Zhao, Yonggang

    2014-01-01

    In this thesis, by means of questionnaire, we made an investigation into the reading strategies used by Chinese first-year and third-year English majors. The purpose of this study attempts to identify the typical types of reading strategies among English majors in a normal university of China, and also, to examine what differences exist in…

  19. EFL Student-Teachers' Identity Construction: A Case Study in Chile

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salinas, Dánisa; Ayala, Maximiliano

    2018-01-01

    The objective of this study is to explore the process of professional identity construction of two English as a foreign language student-teachers from a sociocultural theoretical lens. A qualitative case study was conducted through personal narratives, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group. The data were analyzed using a grounded theory…

  20. The comparative analysis of English and Lithuanian transport terms and some methods of developing effective science writing strategies by non-native speakers of English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. Marina

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available The paper addresses the problem of developing more effective strategies and skills of writing scientific and technical texts by non-native speakers of English. The causes of poor writing are identified and general guidelines for developing effective science writing strategies are outlined. The analysis of difficulties faced by non-native speakers of English in writing research papers is made by examining transport terms and international words which are based on different nomination principles in English and Lithuanian. Case study of various names given to a small vehicle used for passenger transportation in many countries is provided, illustrating the alternative ways of naming the same object of reality in different languages. The analysis is based on the theory of linguistic relativity. Differences in the use of similar international terms in English and Lithuanian, which often cause errors and misunderstanding, are also demonstrated. The recommendations helping non-native speakers of English to avoid errors and improve skills of writing scientific and technical texts are given.

  1. Optimizing the process of teaching English for medical purposes with the use of mobile applications a memrise-based case study

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    Chojnacka, Maria

    2017-01-01

    This book investigates the effectiveness of the use of a mobile version of a flashcard spaced-repetition learning platform (Memrise.com) in learning and teaching of English for Medical Purposes. It outlines design and core principles of the «Mobile Medical English Companion» - a mobile spaced-repetition medical vocabulary tutor.

  2. A Language without Borders: English Slang and Bulgarian Learners of English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charkova, Krassimira D.

    2007-01-01

    This study investigated the acquisition of English slang in a foreign language context. The participants were 101 Bulgarian learners of English, 58 high school students, and 43 university students. The instrument included knowledge tests of English slang terms and questions about attitudes, sources, reasons, and methods employed in learning…

  3. Chinese College Students' Views on Native English and Non-Native English in EFL Classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qian, Yang; Jingxia, Liu

    2016-01-01

    With the development of globalization, English is clearly spoken by many more non-native than native speakers, which raises the discussion of English varieties and the debate regarding the conformity to Standard English. Although a large number of studies have shown scholars' attitudes towards native English and non-native English, little research…

  4. A Way of Teaching English Based on Various Fields of English Linguistics

    OpenAIRE

    小倉, 美津夫

    2018-01-01

     The aim of this paper is to analyze the present situation of English teaching in senior high schools in Aichi prefecture, clarify the problems English teachers have had since the 2010 reform of the Course of Study, and suggest that they should take in and use in their classrooms the perspectives of English linguistics. They had learned the introduction of English linguistics at their university before they became teachers, but they haven't noticed how the knowledge of English linguistics is ...

  5. Students’ Ability and Difficulties in Understanding English Text (A Study at English Program IAIN Padangsidimpuan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eka Sustri Harida

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available This study deals with the ability of the students to understand English texts and types of their reading strategies. It is believed that reading strategies help students improve their reading comperehension.  Based on this theory, then, the qualitative research was carried out to describe students’ reading ability and types of strategy they used. Data were collected through questionnaires that have been distributed to 34 students.  They were also observed and tested.  It was found that the students’ ability in understanding text was still low. They had many problems in understanding English texts because they did not apply appropriate reading strategies in their reading activities. Their low reading comprehension was due to their lack of reading strategies. Copyright © 2014 by Al-Ta'lim All right reserved

  6. What is English?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ulrikke Rindal

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This article considers the developing status of English in Norway, both as a language and as a school subject, making predictions about which ontological and epistemological perspectives will influence English language teaching (ELT in Norway towards 2030. Status quo and predictions for English in Norway is approached from two angles; the development of presiding language beliefs in linguistic science and in ELT practices from the 16th century to the present, and the more recent and rapid development of English as the foremost global language of communication. The article shows how English language beliefs and the status of English are made visible in the national subject curriculum and in the English language practices among Norwegian adolescent learners. The discussion suggests that English is increasingly characterised by those who use it as a second or later language, including Norwegians who negotiate the meanings of English in the ELT classroom. The article predicts that a logical development for Norwegian ELT is increased influence from social constructionist perspectives, in combination with the existing focus on communicative competence. The study shows that global circumstances related to the status of English are reciprocally related to local language beliefs among educational authorities, teachers and students, and that these have major implications for English as a discipline in lower and higher education.

  7. English Language Learners in a Digital Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prince, Johanna

    2017-01-01

    English language learners (ELLs) experience linguistic, cultural, and cognitive shifts that can be challenging and at times lead to isolation for ELLs. While education technology may be an instructional resource and engage learners, devices alone do not shift instructional practices or lead to student gains. This case study was performed at an…

  8. IS ENGLISH THERE?: INVESTIGATING LANGUAGE USE AMONG THE YOUNG ALGERIAN USERS OF INTERNET AT TLEMCEN UNIVERSITY

    OpenAIRE

    KRIM, Sihem

    2015-01-01

    This present work tries to investigate how language is used electronically among the young Algerian users of Internet, and if they use English or not. For doing this study, a case study was conducted at Tlemcen University: English Department relying on two main research instruments: students’ questionnaire and teachers’ interview. After collecting data from the respondents( 20 Master 1 students and 8 teachers), the results reveal that the majority of participants use English vi...

  9. Non-Native English Varieties: Thainess in English Narratives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singhasak, Piyahathai; Methitham, Phongsakorn

    2016-01-01

    This study aims at examining Thainess as a writing strategy used in non-literary texts written by non-professional bilingual writers. These writers are advanced language learners who are pursuing their Master's degree in English. Seven English narratives of their language learning experiences were analyzed based on Kachruvian's framework of…

  10. The Conflation of /l/ and /r/: New Zealand Perceptions of Japanese-Accented English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watanabe, Yutai

    2017-01-01

    As a case study of non-linguists' perceptions of accent, this paper investigates how accurately and on what basis Japanese-accented English (JAE) is discernible from other L2 varieties of English in New Zealand (NZ). The paper sheds light on how a feature salient in speech is associated with the perceived sociolinguistic identity of speakers. An…

  11. A Case Study of Peer Review Practices of Four Adolescent English Language Learners in Face-to-Face and Online Contexts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vorobel, Oksana

    2013-01-01

    Peer review is a complex collaborative activity, which may engage English language learners in reading, writing, listening, and speaking and carry many potential benefits for their language learning (Hu, 2005). While many research studies focused on peer review practices of adult language learners in academic settings in the USA or abroad in…

  12. Case Briefs in Legal English Classes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bilová Stĕpánka

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available A case brief can be described as a succinct summary of a case which specifies the facts, procedural history, legal issue(s, court decision and legal reasoning supporting the judgment, even though exact formats may vary. Case briefing is a demanding activity which is required from students during their law studies. The goal is to teach students to focus on the essential parts of the case and to obtain a thorough understanding of the case and the reasoning, which means the students need to employ their analytical and critical thinking skills.

  13. MAIN ASPECTS IN LANGUAGE TRAINING OF NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING AIRMEN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nataliya Pazyura

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available In the globalized world and rapid development of technical progress aviation industry has been gaining more importance for humanity and requires a deeper understanding of the English language, its basic characteristics and mechanisms of functioning. Purpose: The aim of the article is to study the influence of the proficiency of English on flight safety, to consider the main communication problems of non-English speaking aviation personnel, highlight possible directions for training English-speaking personnel. In the article the author tries to show the disadvantage at which non-English speaking airline staff work in case of emergency. The article highlights the issue about high level aviation English proficiency necessary to avoid communication problem. Methods: For the research scientific general methods have been used which are main ways of studying scientific sources, and comparative method for synchronic comparison of events in the different regions. Results: The author concludes that at the same time it is necessary for aviation personnel to master plain language for understanding context of communication, to minimize uncertainty and improve understanding between the controller and pilot. Discussion: It stresses the idea that the language proficiency level that exceeds the minimum standards according to ICAO, contributes significantly to the reduction of communication problems and in such a way ensures safety.

  14. Medical leadership arrangements in English healthcare organisations: findings from a national survey and case studies of NHS trusts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dickinson, Helen; Ham, Chris; Snelling, Iain; Spurgeon, Peter

    2013-11-01

    This project sought to describe the involvement of doctors in leadership roles in the NHS and the organisational structures and management processes in use in NHS trusts. A mixed methods approach was adopted combining a questionnaire survey of English NHS trusts and in-depth case studies of nine organisations who responded to the survey. Respondents identified a number of challenges in the development of medical leadership, and there was often perceived to be an engagement gap between medical leaders and doctors in clinical roles. While some progress has been made in the development of medical leadership in the NHS in England, much remains to be done to complete the journey that started with the Griffiths Report in 1983. We conclude that a greater degree of professionalism needs to be brought to bear in the development of medical leadership. This includes developing career structures to make it easier for doctors to take on leadership roles; providing training, development and support in management and leadership at different stages of doctors' careers; and ensuring that pay and other rewards are commensurate with the responsibilities of medical leaders. The time commitment of medical leaders and the proportion of doctors in leadership roles both need to increase. The paper concludes considering the implications of these findings for other health systems. © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

  15. Finding focus: a study of the historical development of focus in English

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Komen, E.R.

    2013-01-01

    This study reveals how two important focus articulations change over time in written English. Constituent focus, often accompanied by contrast, makes use of the clause-initial position in the oldest stages of English, but as this position comes to be used for the grammatical subject over time, the

  16. English Verb Accuracy of Bilingual Cantonese-English Preschoolers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rezzonico, Stefano; Goldberg, Ahuva; Milburn, Trelani; Belletti, Adriana; Girolametto, Luigi

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: Knowledge of verb development in typically developing bilingual preschoolers may inform clinicians about verb accuracy rates during the 1st 2 years of English instruction. This study aimed to investigate tensed verb accuracy in 2 assessment contexts in 4- and 5-year-old Cantonese-English bilingual preschoolers. Method: The sample included…

  17. A Study on Metadiscoursive Interaction in the MA Theses of the Native Speakers of English and the Turkish Speakers of English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Köroglu, Zehra; Tüm, Gülden

    2017-01-01

    This study has been conducted to evaluate the TM usage in the MA theses written by the native speakers (NSs) of English and the Turkish speakers (TSs) of English. The purpose is to compare the TM usage in the introduction, results and discussion, and conclusion sections by both groups' randomly selected MA theses in the field of ELT between the…

  18. Conducting a Grounded Theory Study in a Language Other Than English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Intansari Nurjannah

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Translation can be a problem area for researchers conducting qualitative studies in languages other than English who intend to publish the results in an English-language journal. Analyzing the data is also complex when the research team consists of people from different language backgrounds. Translation must be considered as an issue in its own right to maintain the integrity of the research, especially in a grounded theory study. In this article, we offer guidelines for the process of translation for data analysis in a grounded theory study in which the research was conducted in a language other than English (Indonesian. We make recommendations about procedures to choose when, who, and how to translate data. The translation procedure is divided into four steps which are as follows: translation in the process of coding, translation in the process of team discussion, translation in the process of advanced coding, and ensuring the accuracy of translation.

  19. An Exploratory Study of NNES Graduate Students' Reading Comprehension of English Journal Articles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Kate Tzu-Ching

    2017-01-01

    The academic success of non-native English speaker (NNES) graduate students greatly relies on their ability to read and comprehend English journal articles (EJA). The purpose of this study was to identify NNES graduate students' comprehension difficulties and reading strategies when reading EJA. In addition, the study explored how the relationship…

  20. Learning experience of Chinese nursing students in an online clinical English course: qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Anson C Y; Wong, Nick; Wong, Thomas K S

    2015-02-01

    The low English proficiency of Chinese nurse/nursing students affects their performance when they work in English-speaking countries. However, limited resources are available to help them improve their workplace English, i.e. English used in a clinical setting. To this end, it is essential to look for an appropriate and effective means to assist them in improving their clinical English. The objective of this study is to evaluate the learning experience of Chinese nursing students after they have completed an online clinical English course. Focus group interview was used to explore their learning experience. 100 students in nursing programs at Tung Wah College were recruited. The inclusion criteria were: (1) currently enrolled in a nursing program; and (2) having clinical experience. Eligible participants self-registered for the online English course, and were required to complete the course within 3 months. After that, semi-structured interviews were conducted on students whom completed the whole and less than half of the course. One of the researchers joined each of the interviews as a facilitator and an observer. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Finally, 7 themes emerged from the interviews: technical issues, adequacy of support, time requirement, motivation, clarity of course instruction, course design, and relevancy of the course. Participants had varied opinions on the 2 themes: motivation and relevancy of the course. Overall, results of this study suggest that the online English course helped students improve their English. Factors which support their learning are interactive course design, no time constraint, and relevancy to their work/study. Factors which detracted from their learning are poor accessibility, poor technical and learning support and no peer support throughout the course. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  1. The Anxiety-Proficiency Relationship and the Stability of Anxiety: The Case of Chinese University Learners of English and Japanese

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Yinxing; de Bot, Kees; Keijzer, Merel

    2015-01-01

    Adopting a longitudinal design, this study investigates the effects of foreign language anxiety on foreign language proficiency over time within English and Japanese learning contexts. It also explores the stability of anxiety in English and Japanese over time and the stability of anxiety across English and Japanese. Chinese university students (N…

  2. CASE STUDY: Burkina Faso — Learning how not to be poor in ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2010-12-22

    Dec 22, 2010 ... English · Français ... CASE STUDY: Burkina Faso — Learning how not to be poor in .... These drawings have also been used to illustrate handbooks and the ... But, reminds their spokesperson, progress comes at a cost: work ...

  3. Attitudes toward English & English Learning at an Iranian Military University: A Preliminary Survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahdavi Zafarghandi, Amir; Jodai, Hojat

    2012-01-01

    This study intends to represent attitudes toward English and English learning at an Iranian military university. Iranian military staff is required to study English in a social environment where there is little immediate need or opportunity to use the language for real communicative purposes.The subjects included 34 Iranian military personnel who…

  4. The Cultural Roots of Teacher Associations: A Case Study from India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Padwad, Amol

    2016-01-01

    Teacher associations (TAs) are communities located in complex cultural spaces that may affect their functioning, vision, priorities, and policies. This case study of the English Language Teachers' Association of India (ELTAI) attempts to examine the relationship between the Association and the cultural space it inhabits, with specific reference to…

  5. Continental Contemporary Readings of the English Revolution. The Cases of Italy and Spain as Examples

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ángel ALLOZA APARICIO

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Initiated at the very beginning of the movements, discussions about the origin and causes of the English revolution have become one of the most valuable themes within the Anglo-Saxon historiography. On the contrary, continental contemporary readings of those events remain to be decoded and fully comprehended. This article reveals and examines some of those readings, notably those registered in Italian republics and in Spain, including some of them which have remained so far out of the scope of the historian. Despite the common features apprehended among the cases studied, all of them show a wide range of interpretations; variety which derives from the different forms of approaching to the past, from the degree of pragmatism of the reports analysed, and from the ideological and cultural positioning of their authors.

  6. A video for teaching english tenses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frida Unsiah

    2017-04-01

    Students of English Language Education Program in Faculty of Cultural Studies Universitas Brawijaya ideally master Grammar before taking the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan. However, the fact shows that they are still weak in Grammar especially tenses. Therefore, the researchers initiate to develop a video as a media to teach tenses. Objectively, by using video, students get better understanding on tenses so that they can communicate using English accurately and contextually. To develop the video, the researchers used ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation. First, the researchers analyzed the students’ learning need to determine the product that would be developed, in this case was a movie about English tenses. Then, the researchers developed a video as the product. The product then was validated by media expert who validated attractiveness, typography, audio, image, and usefulness and content expert and validated by a content expert who validated the language aspects and tenses of English used by the actors in the video dealing with the grammar content, pronunciation, and fluency performed by the actors. The result of validation shows that the video developed was considered good. Theoretically, it is appropriate to be used English Grammar classes. However, the media expert suggests that it still needs some improvement for the next development especially dealing with the synchronization between lips movement and sound on the scenes while the content expert suggests that the Grammar content of the video should focus on one tense only to provide more detailed concept of the tense.

  7. A Case Study on English Language Learners' Task-Based Interaction and Avatar Identities in Second Life: A Mixed-Methods Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Julian ChengChiang

    2014-01-01

    English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' language use in 3-D virtual environments is a vibrant avenue that still deserves more research attention in the field of CALL. To contribute research and pedagogical implications to the current Second Life (SL) literature, this study aims to examine EFL adult learners' use of communication strategies…

  8. Metonymic-Based Metaphor--A Case Study on the Cognitive Interpretation of "Heart" in English and Chinese

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qian, Li

    2016-01-01

    English is particularly rich in both metonymic and metaphorical expressions making use of the concept "heart" to speak of emotional issues (Niemeier, 2000). It is not difficult to find a large number of Chinese linguistic expressions in terms of "[Chinese characters omitted]" ("xin") ("heart")" to refer…

  9. Introducing English grammar

    CERN Document Server

    Borjars, Kersti

    2013-01-01

    Answering key questions such as 'Why study grammar?' and 'What is standard English?', Introducing English Grammar guides readers through the practical analysis of the syntax of English sentences. With all special terms carefully explained as they are introduced, the book is written for readers with no previous experience of grammatical analysis. It is ideal for all those beginning their study of linguistics, English language or speech pathology, as well as students with primarily literary interests who need to cover the basics of linguistic analysis. The approach taken is in line with current research in grammar, a particular advantage for students who may go on to study syntax in more depth. All the examples and exercises use real language taken from newspaper articles, non-standard dialects and include excerpts from studies of patients with language difficulties. Students are encouraged to think about the terminology as a tool kit for studying language and to test what can and cannot be described using thes...

  10. A Study of the Relationship between Advanced Vocational College Students’ Self-esteem and Their English Achievements

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    王琼

    2011-01-01

    Self-esteem is one of personality traits in the process of language learning.There is a close relationship between the level of self-esteem and language learning achievements.The purpose of the study is to discuss the relationship between EFL self-esteem and English achievements in the process of their English learning.The study also shows that EFL self-esteem can influence English achievements.On the other hand,English achievements can influence EFL self-esteem too.Based on the research,some methods are proposed to help strengthen students’ EFL self-esteem and improve their English achievement.

  11. INFLUENCE OF STUDENT ENGLISH UTILITY AND TEACHER EFFICACY ON ENGLISH PROFICIENCY OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruth A. ORTEGA-DELA CRUZ

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Learning second language considers a number of factors that influence the manner in which the language is taught. Understanding of the learners’ goals and motivation for learning is one. Using descriptive-correlational research design, this study determined the influence of student English utility and teacher efficacy on the students’ English proficiency. A total of 101 students from first year to fourth year level served as the respondents of the study. The study quantified the students’ perception towards English utility and their evaluation of English teacher efficacy which employed a researcher-made survey questionnaire. Results revealed high positive perceptions of students towards English utility. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences in the perceptions of high school students on the efficacy of their English teachers. Correlation coefficients indicated a positive linear relationship among the given variables. The p-value revealed significant relationship of teacher efficacy (r = .691, p-value = .000 and English utility (r = .467, p-value = .000 to students’ English proficiency. Results of regression statistics revealed that English utility has no significant influence on the student English proficiency. Therefore, the main factor that must still be considered then should be the teacher. Finally, there is an explicit indication that high level of teachers’ efficacy performing in teaching has much powerful influence on the English proficiency of high school students. Thus improving the methods of teaching English provides a better way of motivating students to achieve higher levels of proficiency in the future.

  12. NEEDS ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE STUDENTS IN ENGLISH ORAL COMMUNICATION

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    Angga Maulana

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to identify factual information about the needs of students of English Literature in the activities and supporting factors of oral communication by using English, whether linguistic and non-linguistic, and analyzing the difficulties of the situation of oral communication of English Literature students using English. This research uses descriptive method. Data collection is done through two stages: the questionnaire and the interview, followed by the review of someliteratures. The results of this study indicate that in general the students of English Literature feel that participating in a formal discussion is more important than the informal. While in terms of ability in the oral communication activity, generally students mastered informal communication activities. In terms of linguistic factors, the choice of vocabularies, and good and correct sentences are considered very important, although they only feel quite capable in it. It is also found that talking with self-confidence, having proper English pronunciation and mastering the topic of conversation become the important non-linguistic factors. The same thing does not happen on loudness and facial mimic. In general, students feel it is not important enough to master. Regarding situations that facilitate students in oral communication in English, they generally feel that well preparation, self-confidence, and mastery over vocabulary and what is being discussed becomes an easier factor. Different things revealed by most students about the difficult vocabulary and the lack of preparation in oral communication. It is difficult. As for things that require improvement, students generally feel that the confidence and the amount of vocabulary that is mastered should be improved in order to improve the quality of oral communication in English.

  13. Grey literature in systematic reviews: a cross-sectional study of the contribution of non-English reports, unpublished studies and dissertations to the results of meta-analyses in child-relevant reviews.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartling, Lisa; Featherstone, Robin; Nuspl, Megan; Shave, Kassi; Dryden, Donna M; Vandermeer, Ben

    2017-04-19

    Systematic reviews (SRs) are an important source of information about healthcare interventions. A key component of a well-conducted SR is a comprehensive literature search. There is limited evidence on the contribution of non-English reports, unpublished studies, and dissertations and their impact on results of meta-analyses. Our sample included SRs from three Cochrane Review Groups: Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI), Infectious Diseases (ID), Developmental Psychosocial and Learning Problems (DPLP) (n = 129). Outcomes included: 1) proportion of reviews that searched for and included each study type; 2) proportion of relevant studies represented by each study type; and 3) impact on results and conclusions of the primary meta-analysis for each study type. Most SRs searched for non-English studies; however, these were included in only 12% of reviews and represented less than 5% of included studies. There was a change in results in only four reviews (total sample = 129); in two cases the change did not have an impact on the statistical or clinical significance of results. Most SRs searched for unpublished studies but the majority did not include these (only 6%) and they represented 2% of included studies. In most cases the impact of including unpublished studies was small; a substantial impact was observed in one case that relied solely on unpublished data. Few reviews in ARI (9%) and ID (3%) searched for dissertations compared to 65% in DPLP. Overall, dissertations were included in only nine SRs and represented less than 2% of included studies. In the majority of cases the change in results was negligible or small; in the case where a large change was noted, the estimate was more conservative without dissertations. The majority of SRs searched for non-English and unpublished studies; however, these represented a small proportion of included studies and rarely impacted the results and conclusions of the review. Inclusion of these study types may have an impact

  14. Formant compensation for auditory feedback with English vowels

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mitsuya, Takashi; MacDonald, Ewen N; Munhall, Kevin G

    2015-01-01

    Past studies have shown that speakers spontaneously adjust their speech acoustics in response to their auditory feedback perturbed in real time. In the case of formant perturbation, the majority of studies have examined speaker's compensatory production using the English vowel /ɛ/ as in the word...... "head." Consistent behavioral observations have been reported, and there is lively discussion as to how the production system integrates auditory versus somatosensory feedback to control vowel production. However, different vowels have different oral sensation and proprioceptive information due...... to differences in the degree of lingual contact or jaw openness. This may in turn influence the ways in which speakers compensate for auditory feedback. The aim of the current study was to examine speakers' compensatory behavior with six English monophthongs. Specifically, the current study tested to see...

  15. How a Corpus-Based Study of the Factors which Influence Collocation Can Help in the Teaching of Business English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, Crayton

    2011-01-01

    In this paper I use two case studies to show how corpus linguistics can be used to help in the teaching of business English. Senior managers in global companies often find themselves having to do their job in a foreign language. Given that language is one of the key tools of management, the senior managers are normally very keen to develop a…

  16. Rhizomes and plateaus: A study of digital communities of practice in University College English Teaching

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjærgaard, Thomas

    2017-01-01

    Rhizomes and plateaus: A study of digital communities of practice in University College English Teaching......Rhizomes and plateaus: A study of digital communities of practice in University College English Teaching...

  17. Which English? Whose English? An Investigation of "Non-Native" Teachers' Beliefs about Target Varieties

    Science.gov (United States)

    Young, Tony Johnstone; Walsh, Steve

    2010-01-01

    This study explored the beliefs of "non-native English speaking" teachers about the usefulness and appropriacy of varieties such as English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), compared with native speaker varieties. The study therefore addresses the current theoretical debate concerning "appropriate" target…

  18. The sounds of sarcasm in English and Cantonese: A cross-linguistic production and perception study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheang, Henry S.

    Three studies were conducted to examine the acoustic markers of sarcasm in English and in Cantonese, and the manner in which such markers are perceived across these languages. The first study consisted of acoustic analyses of sarcastic utterances spoken in English to verify whether particular prosodic cues correspond to English sarcastic speech. Native English speakers produced utterances expressing sarcasm, sincerity, humour, or neutrality. Measures taken from each utterance included fundamental frequency (F0), amplitude, speech rate, harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR, to probe voice quality), and one-third octave spectral values (to probe resonance). The second study was conducted to ascertain whether specific acoustic features marked sarcasm in Cantonese and how such features compare with English sarcastic prosody. The elicitation and acoustic analysis methods from the first study were applied to similarly-constructed Cantonese utterances spoken by native Cantonese speakers. Direct acoustic comparisons between Cantonese and English sarcasm exemplars were also made. To further test for cross-linguistic prosodic cues of sarcasm and to assess whether sarcasm could be conveyed across languages, a cross-linguistic perceptual study was then performed. A subset of utterances from the first two studies was presented to naive listeners fluent in either Cantonese or English. Listeners had to identify the attitude in each utterance regardless of language of presentation. Sarcastic utterances in English (regardless of text) were marked by lower mean F0 and reductions in HNR and F0 standard deviation (relative to comparison attitudes). Resonance changes, reductions in both speech rate and F0 range signalled sarcasm in conjunction with some vocabulary terms. By contrast, higher mean F0, amplitude range reductions, and F0 range restrictions corresponded with sarcastic utterances spoken in Cantonese regardless of text. For Cantonese, reduced speech rate and higher HNR interacted

  19. Strategic Use of English in Online Romanian Banking Advertising

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena Tălmăcian

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The focus on the present paper is on the strategic use of terms, expressions of English origin (anglicisms in the process of advertising certain banking services on the online Romanian banking market. The reasons for the presence of English terms can vary from necessity in the case when a term is too international so as not to be mentioned in the respective advertising message to the touch of prestige that a term/expression can give to the content in which they appear. Although it may seem a very ambitious objective, taking into account the fact that this issue has been far too little tackled upon, by means of this article we are trying to raise awareness of the impact that the presence (or in some cases the abundance of such English terms may ultimately have upon (Romanian bank clients as well as to offer variants of translation of several banking anglicisms that have “comfortable” Romanian correspondents. The theoretical background of our research is supported by a large number of Romanian banking advertising messages that can be found on the websites of the respective banks. In order to obtain the “pulse” of the bank customer market we have chosen to survey 200 1st year students within the Bucharest University of Economic Studies on the use of English terms in online advertisements of student programmes and bank cards offered by nine important banks in Romania. Ultimately, we think that the great merit of our research is that it manages to signal and study the subliminal and very delicate, but potentially beneficial connection between Romanian banking businesses and the linguistic implications of their online advertising messages containing English terms/expressions.

  20. To Speak Like a TED Speaker--A Case Study of TED Motivated English Public Speaking Study in EFL Teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yingxia; Gao, Ying; Zhang, Dongyu

    2016-01-01

    This paper intends to investigate the effectiveness of a new course pattern--TED-motivated English Public Speaking Course in EFL teaching in China. This class framework adopts TED videos as the learning materials to stimulate students to be a better speaker. Meanwhile, it aims to examine to what extent the five aspects of language skills are…

  1. English Language Proficiency Tests and Academic Achievement: A Study on the Malaysian University English Test as a Predictor of Technical Programme Undergraduates Academic Achievement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nurhazlini Rahmat

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available In the Malaysian education system, English has always played an important role. In acknowledging its importance, Malaysian University English Test (MUET has been introduced to enable continued emphasis on this role.  MUET has been made compulsory for those who wish to pursue a first degree programme in local universities. This study aims to examine the relationship between English language proficiency test (as measured by MUET bands to predict the undergraduates academic achievement (as measured by Cumulative Grade Point Average score. It also aims to determine the recommended MUET band as an entry requirement for prospective technical programme undergraduates in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM. The study was carried out among 225 final year undergraduates of five different faculties in UPM, namely Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Forestry, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.  The data used were obtained by administering a brief questionnaire and were quantitatively analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS version 19.  The study revealed that there is a medium positive correlation between English language proficiency and academic achievement where students who have scored higher bands for MUET are the ones who obtained higher CGPA in their study. Based on the findings, it is recommended that UPM and other local universities make changes towards the minimum MUET entry requirement to help prospective undergraduates excel in their academic study. Keywords: English language proficiency, academic achievement, technical programme, MUET, CGPA

  2. Crafting the English Welfare State

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ydesen, Christian

    2016-01-01

    administrators in England during the constitutive years of English welfare state formation. Using Birmingham local education administration as an empirical and historical case, the influential Children Acts of 1948 and 1963 serve to demarcate the period treated. The theoretical framework is drawn from Bourdieu...... and Wacquant’s concept of state, with the key concept being ‘state-crafting’. The article contributes knowledge about the imaginaries, and the manufacturing and managing of ‘the public good’ – understood as a referent for modern governing – of the English welfare state. The article concludes...

  3. Ethics in Language: The Case from World Englishes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dhillon, Pradeep A.

    2003-01-01

    Discusses the significance of a Wittgensteinian approach to the ethics of language for world Englishes. Focuses on the role of metaphysics in the ethics of language and on the significance of context in the moral use of language. Argues that morality lies not only in its content but also in its use. (Author/VWL)

  4. Bilingualism and Biliteracy in Down Syndrome: Insights From a Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burgoyne, Kelly; Duff, Fiona J.; Nielsen, Dea; Ulicheva, Anastasia

    2016-01-01

    We present the case study of MB—a bilingual child with Down syndrome (DS) who speaks Russian (first language [L1]) and English (second language [L2]) and has learned to read in two different alphabets with different symbol systems. We demonstrate that, in terms of oral language, MB is as proficient in Russian as English, with a mild advantage for reading in English, her language of formal instruction. MB's L1 abilities were compared with those of 11 Russian‐speaking typically developing monolinguals and her L2 abilities to those of 15 English‐speaking typically developing monolinguals and six monolingual English‐speaking children with DS; each group achieving the same level of word reading ability as MB. We conclude that learning two languages in the presence of a learning difficulty need have no detrimental effect on either a child's language or literacy development. PMID:27917003

  5. The elements of English an introduction to the principles of the study of language

    CERN Document Server

    Branford, William

    2015-01-01

    First published in 1967, this book was based on new descriptions of English emerging from recent research. It provides an introduction to the study of the English language for the first-year university student. It will also be invaluable to all those concerned with the teaching and learning of English as a foreign or second language, particularly the teacher in training and the university student.

  6. Development and Usability Test of an e-Learning Tool for Engineering Graduates to Develop Academic Writing in English: A Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Chih-Chung; Liu, Gi-Zen; Wang, Tzong-I

    2017-01-01

    Many non-native English speaking (NNES) graduates are required to write academic papers in English; consequently, recent research in the past decade has been devoted to investigating the usefulness of genre-based Writing Instructions (GBWI) on learners' writing cultivation. There is little specific guidance, however, on how GBWI can be employed in…

  7. A Case Study of Key Stakeholders' Perceptions of the Learning Center's Effectiveness for English Learners at a District in Central California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nava, Norma Leticia

    2016-01-01

    This qualitative study explored stakeholders' (administrators, teachers, and parents) perspectives of English learners in the learning center, a response to intervention model, at a school district in Central California. Research existed concerning the yearly academic growth of students in a learning center, but there was a lack of knowledge about…

  8. The impact of teachers' limited English proficiency on English ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The importance of the role of language in teacher education programmes and in children's learning is crucial. This study focuses on the use of English as the language of learning and teaching and its impact on the language development of English second language (ESL) student teachers and ESL learners. Against the ...

  9. Becoming Blended. A Case Study in Teacher Identity

    OpenAIRE

    Rentería, Victoria

    2014-01-01

    This case-study explores the identities of two teachers in the English Blended Program of a Mexican University during a four month period. The aim is to discover how agency creates different kinds of impacts on teacher's identity in the context of a blended program. Through an interpretive and sociocultural perspective an analysis was conducted by examining data gathered from face-to-face class observations, teacher's Moodle pages, teacher's journals and interviews, as well as questionnaires ...

  10. WHY MUSLIM STUDENTS PLAGIARIZE IN WRITING ENGLISH TEXTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wakhid Nashruddin

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Reasons for copy-pasting someone else’s works has attracted attention from many sides that copy-pasting activities, or more popular with term plagiarism, have been considered as a threat for academic life. It also happens at the case of muslim students, in which Islam teaches the students to be honest and not to steal from others. For understanding why it happens, this exploration is conducted. The students of English Department of IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon have to write many of their assignments in English. The result of my observations, the quality of the students’ writing is not good enough. One of the cases found is the copy-paste works, or plagiarism. Using interviews instrument, I try to figure out why students of English Department of IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon. There are at least three reasons behind why students act plagiarism; ignorance on the quotation and citation rules, poor writing skills, and the need of instant writing result. This paper tries to explore these reasons. Keywords: copy-paste, plagiarism, writing in English

  11. Parental Factors in Children's Motivation for Learning English: A Case in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, Yuko Goto

    2015-01-01

    Schools in China and elsewhere are starting to teach English as a second language or foreign language (FL) to students at increasingly earlier ages. Although young learners (YLs), due to their developmental stage, are likely to be particularly susceptible to the influence of parents, parents' roles in YLs' motivation to learn English as an FL is…

  12. To Investigate ESL Students' Instrumental and Integrative Motivation towards English Language Learning in a Chinese School in Penang: Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong, Yee Chee; Ganapathy, Malini

    2017-01-01

    Malaysians have long realised the importance of being competent in English as one of the success factors in attaining their future goals. However, English is taught as a second language in Malaysia, and it is not easy to teach under such a foreign context, because authentic input may not exist beyond the classroom, especially in Chinese private…

  13. A case study of Markdale High School's implementation of heterogeneously-grouped classes in English, mathematics, science, and social studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pierre-Louis, Fred

    The purpose of this study was to describe Markdale High School's change from separate college preparatory and general level classes to heterogeneously-grouped classes in English, mathematics, science, and social studies, with particular emphasis on the principal's leadership style, change process, and teacher concerns (Hall & Hord, 2006) experienced during this effort. The researcher used Hall and Hord's (2006) Concern-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) as a conceptual framework. Specifically, the researcher applied three elements of the CBAM model: (a) the Twelve Principles of Change, (b) the Change Facilitator Styles, and (c) the Stages of Concerns. Hall and Hord's framework served as a lens through which the researcher analyzed all data. The researcher used a mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) approach to answer the four research questions. The participants completed three instruments: (a) the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ), (b) the Principles of Change Survey, and (c) the Facilitator Style Survey. All three instruments were self-report, paper-pencil surveys. The sample included 72 faculty members who experienced the change over the past three years. Findings from the three data sources and the school principal's comments during debriefing are indicated for each research question and reported by unit of analysis. Respective to the research questions, the researcher concluded that: (1) Markdale High School accomplished the change by implementing both structural and instructional changes supporting to the change to heterogeneous grouping; (2) even though teachers had divergent opinions on the school principal's facilitation style, the principal thought of himself as an incrementalist and a practitioner of differentiated facilitation styles; (3) while half of the faculty felt that they received formal training on heterogeneous grouping, (4) half felt that they did not have a choice in the decision-making process as it occurred with college preparatory and

  14. Research methods for English language teachers

    CERN Document Server

    McDonough, Jo

    2014-01-01

    This book offers a lively introduction to the research methods and techniques available to English language teachers who wish to investigate aspects of their own practice. It covers qualitative and quantitative methodology and includes sections on observation, introspection, diary studies, experiments, interviews, questionnaires, numerical techniques and case study research. Each method is illustrated with examples in language teaching contexts, and techniques of data collection and analysis are introduced. The authors focus particularly on research in the classroom, on tests, materials, the

  15. Lexical Evaluation of Teacher-Made Coursebooks: Thai Case Studies of Foundation English Courses at Tertiary Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wan-a-rom, Udorn

    2012-01-01

    Coursebooks as one of the major issues of language teaching/learning instruction can relieve the overburden as well as under-prepared teacher of a great deal of stress, time and additional work. Currently, both commercial and teacher-made English language teaching (ELT) coursebooks are available for use and seem flexible at hands. In any respect,…

  16. Research on the Relationship between English Majors’ Learning Motivation and Spoken English in Chinese Context

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    陆佳佳

    2014-01-01

    With the increasing importance attached to spoken English, it is of great significance to find how the motivation of English majors affects their oral English learning outcomes. Based on the research results and theoretical frameworks of the previous studies on this area, this paper carries out research in Zhujiang College of South China Agricultural University trying to find out the types of motivation and the correlation between motivation factors of English majors and their spoken English, and thus to guide spoken English learning and teaching.

  17. Studies in the Human Use of Controlled English

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-12-01

    Controlled English (CE) is intended to aid human problem solving processes when analysing data and generating high-value conclusions in collaboration...state of affairs. The second approach is to guide a user face-to-face to formulate free English sentences into CE to solve a logic problem. The paper describes both approaches and provides an informal analysis of the results to date.

  18. The English-Language and Reading Achievement of a Cohort of Deaf Students Speaking and Signing Standard English: A Preliminary Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, Diane Corcoran; Luetke, Barbara; McLean, Meigan; Stryker, Deborah

    2016-01-01

    Research suggests that English-language proficiency is critical if students who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) are to read as their hearing peers. One explanation for the traditionally reported reading achievement plateau when students are D/HH is the inability to hear insalient English morphology. Signing Exact English can provide visual access to these features. The authors investigated the English morphological and syntactic abilities and reading achievement of elementary and middle school students at a school using simultaneously spoken and signed Standard American English facilitated by intentional listening, speech, and language strategies. A developmental trend (and no plateau) in language and reading achievement was detected; most participants demonstrated average or above-average English. Morphological awareness was prerequisite to high test scores; speech was not significantly correlated with achievement; language proficiency, measured by the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4 (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003), predicted reading achievement.

  19. Spoken English in the classroom - A Study of attitudes and experiences of spoken varieties of English in English teaching in Norway

    OpenAIRE

    Hopland, Amalie Alsaker

    2016-01-01

    To be able to express oneself orally is one of the five basic skills that is considered necessary for learning and development in school, work, and in society, and therefore deserves attention. The English language has developed from mainly being a language belonging to the native speakers to becoming a world language. Today, speakers of English use the language mainly to communicate internationally. With this development, the native speaker norm has been questioned by many academics. This is...

  20. Discourse Strategies of Italian and English Sales Promotion Letters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vergaro, Carla

    2004-01-01

    This article describes a contrastive study on rhetorical differences between Italian and English sales promotion letters. It is assumed that cultural differences affect discourse genres traditionally considered as standardized, ritual or even formulaic, written business communication being a case in point. It was our goal to investigate how…

  1. A Study of Two English Language Coursebooks in Turkey: Focus on Multiple Intelligences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arikan, Arda; Soydan, Elif; Isler, Özlem

    2014-01-01

    This study aims to analyze two coursebooks, namely, "Texture of English 4" and "My English 5" on the basis of to what extent the activities and tasks included reflect the intelligent types proposed by multiple intelligences theory. Taking the general characteristics of the intelligences into account, a checklist has been…

  2. THE STATE OF THE COMMONS: CASE STUDIES 2010

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rachel Cobcroft

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: ‘What artists need to see before they can feel confident about the licenses are examples of other[s] taking the licenses; incorporating them into their practices.’ – OpenBusiness.cc, p. 8 The Creative Commons Case Studies initiative, established in 2008, offers the ‘free culture’community a qualitative resource to chronicle trends in open content licensing (OCL. Seeking feedback as to individual and organisational motivations towards OCL adoption, and through its provision of usage data, jurisdiction and disciplinary distribution, the CC Case Studies wiki complements current quantitative research projects such as CC Monitor. Containing over 200 entries in July 2010, the CC Case Studies wiki covers several genres such as publishing, moving images, music, visual arts, interactive resources including games, performance, education, and ‘government 2.0’ open data initiatives. Entries represent 25 contributing jurisdictions, with studies being written in several languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Korean. By sharing stories of success and identifying areas of innovation and collaboration, the CC Case Studies wiki encourages creators to contribute to the Commons, whilst contributing to a broader understanding of the dynamics of ‘free culture.’

  3. A Lesson Study of Internet Usage to Enhance the Development of English Language Teaching in a Libyan University

    OpenAIRE

    El Abbar, Magda

    2016-01-01

    The research discussed in this thesis is based upon a programme of study in a Libyan university, which focused on the use of the Internet in the classroom in order to enhance English language teaching and learning. In the last few decades, information and communication technology (ICT) has strongly influenced society as well as education as it has become a part of daily life, offering access to a world of knowledge. This thesis describes, through a single case study, how three teachers at the...

  4. English Language Proficiency Tests and Academic Achievement: A Study on the Malaysian University English Test as a Predictor of Technical Programme Undergraduates Academic Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahmat, Nurhazlini; Min, Lau Sing; Sungif, Nur Atiqah Md.; Yusup, Farah Nabillah Mior

    2015-01-01

    In the Malaysian education system, English has always played an important role. In acknowledging its importance, Malaysian University English Test (MUET) has been introduced to enable continued emphasis on this role. MUET has been made compulsory for those who wish to pursue a first degree programme in local universities. This study aims to…

  5. The phone makes us scream: corpus study of English and Russian

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julia Kuznetsova

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available This study explores English and Russian speech verbs with phone prepositional phrases (PPs. It investigates two hypotheses: 1 A phone PP produces an independent construction and 2 A phone PP can be freely added to any speech verb. Two constructions in English and two constructions in Russian are used as the material for the analysis. In both languages I explore a neutral phone construction and compare it with a construction meaning ‘speak into the phone’. I present a new method – statistical profiling, that explores which words occur in a slot of a construction most frequently and how that frequency list for a slot is changed if another slot is filled. This paper shows that English on the phone phrase can freely be added to any speech and sound verb, while other phone PPs produce different phone constructions.

  6. Study on Lexical Cohesion in English and Persian Research Articles (A Comparative Study)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mirzapour, Fatemeh; Ahmadi, Maryam

    2011-01-01

    The present study aims to analyze comparatively English and Persian research articles (Linguistics, Literature, and Library and Information disciplines) in terms of number and degree of utilization of sub-types of lexical cohesion in order to appreciate textualization processes in the two languages concerned. The study analyzes 60 research…

  7. English language proficiency and academic performance: A study of a medical preparatory year program in Saudi Arabia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaliyadan, Feroze; Thalamkandathil, Nazer; Parupalli, Srinivas Rao; Amin, Tarek Tawfik; Balaha, Magdy Hassan; Al Bu Ali, Waleed Hamad

    2015-01-01

    All medical schools in Saudi Arabia have English as the primary official medium of instruction. Most of the high school education, however, is delivered in Arabic and hence the transition to an English based learning environment tends to be difficult for some students. Our study aims to correlate English language proficiency with academic performance among medical students in their preparatory year. A cross-sectional study design was used. Test scores of 103 preparatory year students (54 female and 49 male) were analyzed after the students completed an English language course and medical introductory course in their preparatory year. The total score obtained in the English course assessment was compared to each component of the medical content assessment. A significantly positive correlation (Spearman's Rho, at 0.01 levels) was seen between the scores of the English exam and the written exam (P English exam score was not obtained for the other components of the medical assessment, namely; student assignments, presentations and portfolios. English language proficiency is an important factor in determining academic proficiency of medical students in our college at the preparatory year level.

  8. “When I speak English, I feel international”. Exchange students’ construction of social identity in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cancino, Rita

    “When I speak English, I feel international”. Exchange students’ construction of social identity in Denmark. Students from various countries participate in the English courses for Ph.D. and Master students at Aalborg University, Denmark. Here they try to achieve a fluency in English that permits...... them to participate in classes and to pass their exams in English, write their thesis in English, etc. The students have different nationalities and identities. While learning English, they try to adapt to Denmark and the Danish culture and language. English plays the role as the lingua franca per se...... in the globalized world and in Denmark aswell. Studies show that language influence a person’s social identity. In this paper I will present the case of a group of foreign students and the construction of identity while participating in English courses. Particularly interesting is the ‘international identity...

  9. Transformative New Teaching: Adolescent English Language Learners' Multidimensional Language and Identity Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Namsook

    2011-01-01

    In the highest of need for a transformative new pedagogy with adolescent English Language Learners, I designed and conducted this qualitative case study to answer the questions on the in-depth meaning of innovative teaching practices in new times. Grounded in the sociocultural perspectives, and in accordance with the qualitative case study…

  10. Reconsidering English Grammar Teaching for Improving Non-English Majors' English Writing Ability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Yuru

    2012-01-01

    With the globalization of world economy, English learners' writing ability has been attached less and less importance. As a result, many college students in China, especially the non-English majors, cannot express themselves effectively in written English. They make various kinds of mistakes, mostly grammar mistakes, such as writing sentence…

  11. Language and Variation: A Study of English and Persian Wh-questions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laya Heidari Darani

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available It was claimed by variationists that languages experience variation at all levels, which is supposed to be patterned. The present study aimed at exploring how variation occurred in English and Persian wh-questions. More specifically, it investigated whether such a variation was systematic and patterned. To this end, a modified version of the Edinburgh Map Task was used in data collection. The population of this study was 60 Canadian and Persian native speakers who performed the task through the construction of wh-question variants. The results indicated that both languages experienced variation in the construction of wh-questions. However, Persian proved to be more variable than English because it allowed more wh-question variants to be produced. Moreover, this variation was patterned in English and Persian individually, yet a systematic variation could not be observed between these two languages. It followed that the different mind-sets of the Canadian and Iranian participants which were affected by social and cultural factors might account for such a variation.

  12. The Effectiveness of Using Augmented Reality Apps in Teaching the English Alphabet to Kindergarten Children: A Case Study in the State of Kuwait

    Science.gov (United States)

    Safar, Ammar H.; Al-Jafar, Ali A.; Al-Yousefi, Zainab H.

    2017-01-01

    This experimental research study scrutinized the effectiveness of using augmented reality (AR) applications (apps) as a teaching and learning tool when instructing kindergarten children in the English alphabet in the State of Kuwait. The study compared two groups: (a) experimental, taught using AR apps, and (b) control, taught using traditional…

  13. A Comparison of Motivation to Learn English between English Major and Non-English Major Students in a Vietnamese University

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ngo, Huong; Spooner-Lane, Rebecca; Mergler, Amanda

    2017-01-01

    Despite the plethora of literature examining higher education students' motivation to learn a second language, it is not known if students who choose to study English as their major differ from those who are required to study English as the minor component of their wider degree. Drawing on self-determination theory, this paper reports on the…

  14. English in Economy World: an Overview of English Learning

    OpenAIRE

    Setyaningsih, Ani; Kurniasih, Siwi Karmadi

    2007-01-01

    English is not a language for the English-speaking countries anymore. English has spread worldwide to the countries in the five continents. One of the reasons is economy. People need to acquire English since it is one way to cope with the communication in economy trend. English is needed to process information, analyze, evaluate, experiment, negotiate and collaborate in economy. The awareness of English importance in the globalization era has made people learn this universal language consciou...

  15. English Language Teaching Research in South Korea: A Review of Recent Studies (2009-2014)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moodie, Ian; Nam, Hyun-Jeong

    2016-01-01

    This article reviews recent studies on English language teaching (ELT) in South Korea, where a great deal of research has been produced in recent years in local journals. In this article we review 95 studies from a pool of some 1,200 published between 2009 and 2014 on English language teaching and learning, focusing on research within the public…

  16. Prosody teaching matters in developing speaking skills for Farsi-English interpreter trainees : An experimental study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Yenkimaleki, M.; V.J., van Heuven

    2016-01-01

    The present study investigates the effect of explicit teaching of prosody on developing speaking skills for Farsi-English interpreter trainees. Two groups of student interpreters were formed. All were native speakers of Farsi who studied English translation and interpreting at the BA level at

  17. Evaluation of simulation learning materials use to fill the gap in Japanese dental English education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seki, Naoko; Moross, Janelle; Sunaga, Masayo; Hobo, Koki; Miyoshi, Tomoe; Nitta, Hiroshi; Kinoshita, Atsuhiro; Morio, Ikuko

    2016-01-01

    Even though English is most frequently the common language when the patient's native language differs from that of a dentist, the opportunities for Japanese undergraduate dental students to learn dental English are now quite limited. The purposes of our study were to investigate: the effectiveness and feasibility of the computer-assisted simulation materials as one solution strategy for dental English education in Japan, and the needs and demands for dental English from the learners' side. Interactive simulation materials for medical interviews in English and clinical cases which were translated to English, were delivered via Learning Management System (LMS) to nineteen trainee residents of dentistry (residents). Evaluation for the materials, learners' knowledge and interests in the contents, and ease of operation were obtained by post-questionnaire (response rates were 100% and 95%, respectively). Both questionnaire-surveys received positive feedback toward the materials, yet 47% answered that they lacked the level of knowledge about contents of the medical interview in English. Results were sufficient to suggest that the residents would like to have the opportunity to study or practice medical interview in English, or English related to dentistry, and that the simulation materials could be one of the solution strategies for opportunity provision.

  18. Case-control studies in diabetes. Do they really use a case-control design?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramos, Analía; Mendoza, Lilian Cristina; Rabasa, Fernanda; Bolíbar, Ignasi; Puig, Teresa; Corcoy, Rosa

    2017-07-01

    Studies defined as case-control do not always use this design. We aimed to estimate the frequency of mislabelled case-control studies in published articles in the area of diabetes and to identify the predictors of incorrect labelling. We searched Medline and Web of Science for articles with "diabetes" and "case control" in title and filtered for language (English/Romance) and period (January 2010-December 2014). Inclusion criteria were: (1) statement to use a case-control design in title, (2) to be a final full-length publication and (3) to have original data in the area of diabetes. Three independent reviewers went through titles, looked for full texts and reviewed them. Discrepancies were settled with a fourth reviewer. Expert epidemiologist advice was requested in case of doubt. case-control mislabelling; addressed predictors: publication year, journal impact factor and journal subject. proportion of mislabelled CC articles and assessment of predictors by multivariate logistic regression analysis. We retrieved 362 articles, 251 of them fulfilling inclusion criteria. The proportion of mislabelled CC studies was 43.8% (confidence interval 95% 37.7-50.0%). Most mislabelled studies had a cross-sectional design (82.7%). Predictors of mislabelling were publication year, journal impact factor and journal area. A relevant subset of studies defined as case-control in the area of diabetes correspond to mislabelled cross-sectional studies. Incorrect labelling misleads readers regarding the interpretation of results and the cause-effect hypothesis. Researchers, reviewers and editors should be aware of and commit to settle this issue.

  19. English Language Teaching in Malaysia: The Case for a Dual Track English Curriculum [Short Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iber, George

    2014-01-01

    It has been my privilege to work within the ELTC for a period of 10 months, learning about the English language problems and aspirations of the Ministry of Education. While tasked to work directly on a Remedial Instruction Module, it became apparent that the scopes of the initiatives in Malaysia are much more far reaching. In this paper I wish to…

  20. Assessing English proficiency for university study

    CERN Document Server

    Read, J

    2015-01-01

    This book focuses on strategies and procedures for assessing the academic language ability of students entering an English-medium university, so that those with significant needs can have access to opportunities to enhance their language skills.

  1. Characteristics of an Effective English Language Teacher as Perceived by Iranian Teachers and Learners of English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shishavan, Homa Babai; Sadeghi, Karim

    2009-01-01

    This study attempted to characterize qualities of an effective English language teacher (EELT) as perceived by Iranian English language teachers and learners. For this purpose, a tailor-made questionnaire was administered to 59 English language teachers and 215 learners of English at universities, high schools and language institutes in Iran. The…

  2. Contextual Meaning Study of Translation of Children’s Story “The Lion King” from English into Indonesian

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Djuria Suprapto

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Article aimed to present study on the translation of words, phrases, expressions and sentences in a children's story.The story of "The Lion King" was used as case and content analysis was applied as a reference for the study. The focus of this analysis was aimed to observe the appearance of the terms or meaning of certain words that are considered important and supports the goals of the research, in this case is the translation of words, phrases, sentences in the source language (English into the target language (Indonesian. As its criterion, dictionaries was used and rules of contextual translation was applied. It can be concluded that children's stories emphasize the style and meaning contained in it, so the translation is done must consider the context of the story. 

  3. Teaching English through English: Proficiency, Pedagogy and Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richards, Jack C.

    2017-01-01

    Most of the world's English language teachers speak English as a second or third language rather than as their first language. For many, their level of proficiency in English may not reach benchmarks established by their employers, raising the issue that is the focus of this article, namely, what kind of proficiency in English is necessary to be…

  4. Offshore Outsourcing Teacher Inservice Education: The Long-Term Effects of a Four-Month Pedagogical Program on Japanese Teachers of English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, Melodie

    2010-01-01

    This longitudinal study tracked five public junior and senior high school Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) who were sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to study English and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) pedagogy at a host university in Canada. This qualitative case study found…

  5. A STUDY ON ENGLISH TEACHERS’ TEACHING APPROACHES, METHODS, AND TECHNIQUES AT A STATE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN ENREKANG, INDONESIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ita Sarmita Samad

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available This research was aimed at identifying the approaches, methods and techniques used by the English teachers at a state senior high school in Enrekang, Indonesia in teaching English as a foreign language. Furthermore, the consistency of the approaches, methods, and techniques is also identifed. This research applied explorative qualitative research design. The subjects were all of the English teachers in that school. They were chosen through purpossive sampling technique. They were interviewed and observed to get data regarding their teaching approach, method, and technique. Their lesson plan were copied to gain supporting data. Based on fndings and discussion, the approaches used by teacher 1 were communicative and behaviorism approach. Teacher 2 applied systemic functional linguistic and constructivism/ cognitivism. Most of the techniques used by teacher 1 reflected behaviorism approach or principles of grammar translation method while the techniques used by teacher 2 reflected both of behaviorism and constructivism. In the case of the consistency, the English teachers still showed a considerable inconsistency. Yet, comparing with teacher 1, teacher 2 was more consistent. It is concluded that the two English teachers still need further upgrading regarding approaches, methods, and techniques of teaching English as a foreign language.

  6. Investigation into Motivation Types and Influences on Motivation: The Case of Chinese Non-English Majors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Lei

    2012-01-01

    Motivation is one of the most important factors affecting students' performance of English learning, which is widely concerned by foreign language teachers and researchers for a long time. However, how to promote students' motivation in learning English by knowing their English learning motivation types at the initial stages and the factors that…

  7. A Resource-Oriented Functional Approach to English Language Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jia

    2018-01-01

    This article reports on a case study that investigates the learning preferences and strategies of Chinese students learning English as a second language (ESL) in Canadian school settings. It focuses on the interaction between second language (L2) learning methods that the students have adopted from their previous learning experience in China and…

  8. Teacher Educators' Evaluation of the English Language Teaching Program: A Turkish Case

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yavuz, Aysun; Zehir Topkaya, Ece

    2013-01-01

    This study explored the perceptions of teacher educators regarding the changes in the English Language Teacher Education Program introduced by the Turkish Higher Education Council (HEC) in 2006. Employing a qualitative design, open-ended questionnaires were administered to 18 lecturers working at five different state universities. The analysis of…

  9. ENGLISH MEDIUM INSTRUCTION IN THE PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN BANGLADESH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monjurul Islam

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: As it is viewed English Medium Instruction (EMI at tertiary level has emerged as a big educational issue in Bangladesh as well as many parts of the world. Hence, the present trend of Bangladeshi higher education has assessed some crucial reasons of the extended use of English as a medium of instruction. Although education researchers in other countries have worked in this area to understand this educational issue, there has been very little research on EMI at tertiary level in Bangladesh. That is why, this study reports a case study involving teachers and students in a private university in Bangladesh by critically examining the language practice and implementation of EMI policy within the context of Bangladeshi higher education. Based on the analysis of interview data, it is argued that through their language practices and beliefs students and teachers constructed their perception towards the accomplishment of EMI policy, educational choice and effectiveness of EMI policy. It is suggested that implications of MOI policies world-wide and the national level practices of students’ content knowledge and English proficiency development in a globalizing world where English is widely believed to hold mammoth prospective for individuals and societies because of its role in human capital development.

  10. English Language Teachers' Professional Development and Identities (Identidad y desarrollo profesional de docentes de inglés)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mora, Alberto; Trejo, Paulina; Roux, Ruth

    2014-01-01

    This article analyzes the professional development of two English language teachers in a Mexican language center. In particular, it explores the interplay between professional development, identity and agency, and the part played by English language teaching certificates in all of these. Drawing on a case study methodology, which included the use…

  11. Culture Clash in the Multicultural Classroom: A Case Study from A Newcomer School

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansen-Thomas, Holly; Chennapragada, SriPadmini

    2018-01-01

    This ethnographic case study of a multicultural/multilingual classroom in a newcomer school describes an incident that occurred among new immigrant English Language Learners from widely diverse backgrounds in a secondary classroom in Texas. Increased numbers of immigrant students in U.S. schools have resulted in classrooms with tremendous…

  12. Perceptions of ESL Program Management in Canadian Higher Education: A Qualitative Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eaton, Sarah Elaine

    2017-01-01

    ESL programs at post-secondary institutions must often generate revenue in addition to teaching students English. Institutions often impose explicit expectations on these programs to generate profit, creating unique challenges for those who administer them. This qualitative case study investigated challenges faced by ESL program directors at one…

  13. English Course of Study for Buncombe County Public Schools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buncombe County Board of Education, Asheville, NC.

    Developed for 58 courses in the English program at the secondary level, this curriculum guide provides a description, an outline, and lists of the objectives, resources, and activities for courses on such subjects as functional language, basic study skills, basic composition, intermediate composition, creative writing, reading, modern grammar, art…

  14. Models of practice organisation using dental therapists: English case studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, N; Harris, R V

    2011-08-12

    A new dental remuneration system based on bands of activity has changed the reward system operating in dental practices and influenced practitioner behaviour in relation to the delegation of tasks to English dental therapists (DTs). Since dental practitioners operate as independent contractors they are free to innovate. A variety of models incorporating DTs in general practice teams exist, some of which may overcome the apparent delegation constraints embedded within this system of remuneration. To describe the way different practices are organised to take account of DTs in their teams and identify whether any of these models address delegation disincentives arising from the system of remuneration. A purposive sample of six dental practices was identified, comprising two small, two medium and two large dental practices, including a variety of models of practice organisation. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with principal dentists, associate dentists, DTs, practice managers and dental hygienists (35 participants in total). A thematic analysis was applied to interview transcripts. The six dental practices demonstrated six different models of practice organisation which could be grouped into 'practice payment' and 'dentist payment' models according to whether the salary costs of the DT were met by a central practice fund or from the income of individual dentists in the team. In both of the large practices only some of the dentists in the team referred work to the DT because of reimbursement issues. In two practices the system was perceived to be satisfactory to all parties, one of these being a single-handed practice with two DTs. Although the remuneration system contained some potential disincentives to DT delegation, some practices innovated in their organisations to overcome these issues.

  15. Understanding the Development of a Hybrid Practice of Inquiry-Based Science Instruction and Language Development: A Case Study of One Teacher's Journey through Reflections on Classroom Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Capitelli, Sarah; Hooper, Paula; Rankin, Lynn; Austin, Marilyn; Caven, Gennifer

    2016-01-01

    This qualitative case study looks closely at an elementary teacher who participated in professional development experiences that helped her develop a hybrid practice of using inquiry-based science to teach both science content and English language development (ELD) to her students, many of whom are English language learners (ELLs). This case study…

  16. A Model to Rehabilitate a Fossilized Pronunciation Error of Turkish English Language Teachers: the English Consonant Phoneme ( Wrongly Articulated as ( Through Nasal Devoicing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehmet Demirezen

    2007-10-01

    Full Text Available Turkish English language teachers have a general affinity to mispronounce theword-final /ng/ sound combination as /ŋk/ form, but not in an /Iŋ/ form, which is theright case. This is a typical case of a fossilized pronunciation. The result of thearticulation is a bad sounding articulation that gives a serious hardship to the foreignlanguage teacher. It must be borne in mind that bad pronunciation impedes and obscuresintelligibility, accuracy, fluency, and automatic control of pronunciation in the targetlanguage. The fossilized pronunciation errors keep bothering the communicativefluency of the teacher trainees and novice foreign language teachers who are on the job.Since teaching foreign languages is a vocational job, developing a good intelligiblepronunciation skill is an integral part of the profession. In this study, a very commonand wrong articulation of /N/ phoneme as /Nk/ by Turkish English teachers will be triedto be rehabilitated by using the audioarticulation model.

  17. On the Study Motivation-Interaction Between Emotion and knowledge in English Teaching

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    贺桂霞

    2015-01-01

    Emotion psychology makes it clear that where there is psychology activity, there is emotion. And it also holds people’ whole real life. Emotion not only instigates human’s instinctive activities but also affects his social study and creative power. It is our motive power to act, so we can’t ignore this unintelligent factor-emotion in our English study . It directly affects the stu-dents when their integrative motivation is being fostered and for-mal. So,the author mainly states we should pay more attention to the emotion factors in our English teaching , keeping the stu-dents’ emotion healthy and optimistic, and discusses what we can do to hold the students’ emotion ,guide their learning motivation and developing the students’ interest in English. In a word, the teaching pattern of interaction between emotion and knowledge gets the students to gain the knowledge in a relaxing and pleasant teaching atmosphere and moulds the students’ feeling.

  18. The Home Literacy Environment and the English Narrative Development of Spanish-English Bilingual Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bitetti, Dana; Hammer, Carol Scheffner

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the home literacy environment (HLE) on the English narrative development of Spanish-English bilingual children from low-income backgrounds. Method: Longitudinal data were collected on 81 bilingual children from preschool through 1st grade. English narrative skills were assessed in the…

  19. Slovene-English Language Contact and Language Change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nada Šabec

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available The paper focuses on Slovene - English language contact and the potential language change resulting from it. Both the immigrant context (the U.S. and Canada and Slovenia, where direct and indirect language contact can be observed respectively, are examined from two perspectives: social on the one hand and linguistic on the other. In the case of Slovene Americans and Canadians the emphasis is on language maintenance and shift, and on the relationship between mother tongue preservation and ethnic awareness. The linguistic section examines different types of bilingual discourse (borrowing, code switching, showing how the Slovene inflectional system in particular is being increasingly generalized, simplified and reduced, and how Slovene word order is gradually beginning to resemble that of English. In the case of Slovenia we are witnessing an unprecedented surge in the influence of English on Slovene, especially in the media (both classic and electronic, advertising, science, and the language of the young. This influence will be discussed on a number of levels, such as lexical, syntactic and intercultural, and illustrated by relevant examples.

  20. Survey of English Teaching and Learning Process in Maritme Education and Training in Indonesia: A Case Study in Private MET in Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dirgayasa, I Wy.

    2014-01-01

    This paper intends to evaluate the process of teaching and learning of Maritime English in private Maritime Education and Training (MET) in Indonesia. This study was conducted in three private MET such as Maritime Academy Indonesia Medan (AMI-Medan), Maritime Academy Belawan (AMB-Belawan,), and Maritime Academy Sapta Samudra Padang (AMSSP-Padang).…

  1. Out-of-School English and the possible effect it has on Second Language Acquisition : - a study on how students with different backgrounds acquire the English language outside of school

    OpenAIRE

    Fallkvist, Anneli

    2016-01-01

    Second language acquisition is a field that has fascinated linguists for numerous years and is a topic that is very much connected to how English teachers in Sweden try to teach the English language to the students in their classrooms. In 2009 Sundqvist examined what possible effects extramural English could have on learners' oral proficiency and their vocabulary. In her study she found out that extramural English “is an independent variable and a possible path to progress in English” (Sundqv...

  2. The anxiety-proficiency relationship and the stability of anxiety : The case of Chinese university learners of English and Japanese

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jin, Yinxing; de Bot, Kees; Keijzer, Merel

    Adopting a longitudinal design, this study investigates the effects of foreign language anxiety on foreign language proficiency over time within English and Japanese learning contexts. It also explores the stability of anxiety in English and Japanese over time and the stability of anxiety across

  3. A Study On Gender-based Differences In Apology Strategies Of English Department Students In Campus Setting

    OpenAIRE

    AYUBADIAH, FITRAHNANDA

    2014-01-01

    Key words: speech act, apology strategies, gender This study is aimed to find out the apology strategies used by students ofEnglish Department Universitas Brawijaya. There were two problems of thestudy: (1) what are the types of apology strategies used by male and femalestudents of English Department Universitas Brawijaya and (2) what are the factors that facilitate the differences of apology strategies used by male and female students of English Department Universitas Brawijaya.This study us...

  4. English-Medium Programmes at Austrian Business Faculties: A Status Quo Survey on National Trends and a Case Study on Programme Design and Delivery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Unterberger, Barbara

    2012-01-01

    Internationalisation processes have accelerated the implementation of English-medium programmes (EMPs) across European higher education institutions. The field of business and management studies has been particularly affected by this trend (Wachter & Maiworm 2008: 46) with numerous new EMPs introduced each year. This paper presents key…

  5. Community, Voice, and Inquiry: Teaching Global History for English Language Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaffee, Ashley Taylor

    2016-01-01

    This in-depth qualitative case study explores how one social studies teacher implemented teaching Global History for Latino/a English Language Learners (ELLs) in an urban newcomer high school. Using a framework for culturally and linguistically relevant citizenship education, this article seeks to highlight how the teacher discussed, designed,…

  6. "Nonmorphological Derivations" and the Four Main English ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This article addresses the problem of "nonmorphological derivations" in English and its consequences for pedagogical lexicography, i.e. learner's dictionaries. The term "nonmorphological derivation" refers to cases such as sun — solar, moon — lunar, cat — feline, and in general to all cases where instead of, or in addition ...

  7. Understanding Disorder Within Variation: Production of English Grammatical Forms by English Language Learners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bedore, Lisa M; Peña, Elizabeth D; Anaya, Jissel B; Nieto, Ricardo; Lugo-Neris, Mirza J; Baron, Alisa

    2018-04-05

    This study examines English performance on a set of 11 grammatical forms in Spanish-English bilingual, school-age children in order to understand how item difficulty of grammatical constructions helps correctly classify language impairment (LI) from expected variability in second language acquisition when taking into account linguistic experience and exposure. Three hundred seventy-eight children's scores on the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment-Middle Extension (Peña, Bedore, Gutiérrez-Clellen, Iglesias, & Goldstein, 2008) morphosyntax cloze task were analyzed by bilingual experience groups (high Spanish experience, balanced English-Spanish experience, high English experience, ability (typically developing [TD] vs. LI), and grammatical form. Classification accuracy was calculated for the forms that best differentiated TD and LI groups. Children with LI scored lower than TD children across all bilingual experience groups. There were differences by grammatical form across bilingual experience and ability groups. Children from high English experience and balanced English-Spanish experience groups could be accurately classified on the basis of all the English grammatical forms tested except for prepositions. For bilinguals with high Spanish experience, it was possible to rule out LI on the basis of grammatical production but not rule in LI. It is possible to accurately identify LI in English language learners once they use English 40% of the time or more. However, for children with high Spanish experience, more information about development and patterns of impairment is needed to positively identify LI.

  8. A Study of Teaching English for Specific Purposes at a College of Technology

    OpenAIRE

    小澤, 志朗

    1993-01-01

    Some aspects of Teaching English for Specific Purposes, especially English for Science and Technology were examined in order to improve English Education at a College of Technology. First, a survey of the reading classes was carried out in which research papers in English are used as a discussion material by professors of specialized courses. Second, some difficulties are discussed in teaching English for Science and Technology by a teacher of English who has virtually no knowledge of its bac...

  9. English Teachers "On-Line": Developing a New Community of Discourse.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leach, Jenny

    1997-01-01

    Presents the case study of an online conference for students of English in a teacher education course. Argues electronic conferencing reveals the inadequacy of the concept of "reflective practitioner" to describe and analyze the complex process of teacher development. Demonstrates the social character of learning, highlighting the place…

  10. Standard English and Language Attitudes

    OpenAIRE

    ソランキ, ネイディン

    2005-01-01

    This paper investigates the attitudes and opinions surrounding Standard English (SE) within the United Kingdom. The definition of SE, for the purposes of this study, is standard grammar and standard pronunciation of southern English, commonly referred to as 'BBC English'. The subject of SE and attitudes towards different accents and dialects of British English is emotive and attracts strong opinions. The main issues discussed here are the place of language in society, the social implications ...

  11. The Impact of Collegial Instruction on Peers’ Pedagogical Knowledge (PK: An EFL Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Farnaz Latif

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Shared responsibilities such as mentoring, instruction, learner monitoring and classroom management enable the peers to observe, review, reflect on and learn from the overall practical professional expertise of one another through collegial instruction experience. The present exploratory case study has The present exploratory case study has attempted to study collegial teaching as an innovative instruction model (as an alternative to solo-based instruction models in a General Business English course in SAPco (An automotive part supplier in Iran. To this end, the researcher has mainly tried to concentrate  on two expert business English teachers' perceptions concerning their experience of collegial teaching for business English courses, observing their reflections before and after the course, to focus on the possible impacts of this type of instruction on their pedagogical knowledge as language teacher. As a result, as it is indicated in overall reflections of the participant colleagues, collegial instruction is believed to lead toward a more efficient transferability and development of teachers' pedagogical knowledge than what can take place as a result of individually run traditional practices. Moreover, this type of instruction can be a rather cost-effective and timesaving alternative to traditional OJT (on the job training courses for teacher development authorities and curriculum developers who are concerned about and willing to promote professional development of their teachers.

  12. Peace Values in Language Textbooks: The Case of "English for Ethiopia Student Textbook"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gebregeorgis, Mehari Yimulaw

    2017-01-01

    Textbooks are not only meant to deliver subject knowledge; they are also a medium to convey universal and community-specific values. Aiming to explore the social and emotional development goals of "English for Ethiopia Student Textbook Grade 9," this study reviews the content and activities of the textbook by searching for embedded peace…

  13. Native Speakers' Perception of Non-Native English Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaber, Maysa; Hussein, Riyad F.

    2011-01-01

    This study is aimed at investigating the rating and intelligibility of different non-native varieties of English, namely French English, Japanese English and Jordanian English by native English speakers and their attitudes towards these foreign accents. To achieve the goals of this study, the researchers used a web-based questionnaire which…

  14. Prosodic Abilities in Spanish and English Children with Williams Syndrome: A Cross-Linguistic Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez-Castilla, Pastora; Stojanovik, Vesna; Setter, Jane; Sotillo, Maria

    2012-01-01

    The aim of this study was to compare the prosodic profiles of English- and Spanish-speaking children with Williams syndrome (WS), examining cross-linguistic differences. Two groups of children with WS, English and Spanish, of similar chronological and nonverbal mental age, were compared on performance in expressive and receptive prosodic tasks…

  15. A Study on the Developmental Characteristics of Adverbial Conjuncts by Chinese Non-English Majors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Junmei, Jiang

    2015-01-01

    Based on the Chinese Learner English Corpus, the present study seeks to investigate the developmental characteristics of the use of adverbial conjuncts. And the results show that at different learning stages Non-English majors use all kinds of adverbial conjuncts, but their occurrence frequencies are quite different, the enumerative adverbials are…

  16. Benefits and Challenges in Globalization in Christian Higher Education: A Comparative Case Study of English Medium Instruction of Two Universities in South Korea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Minho

    2017-01-01

    Many Christian universities in Korea are pursuing the globalization of Christian higher education to promote maximization of institutional competition, improvement of students' English skills, and enhancement of professors' research development through English Medium Instruction (EMI). EMI's flaws in application are not at all uncommon, as many of…

  17. English Learners: Reaching the Highest Level of English Literacy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia, Gilbert C., Ed.

    This collection of papers examines the critical literacy development of English learners, focusing on English reading instruction in an immersion setting, English language development, and cultural issues pertaining to English learners in and out of the classroom. The 16 papers include the following: (1) "Reading and the Bilingual Student: Fact…

  18. The Relationship between Iranian English Language Teachers' and Learners' Gender and Their Perceptions of an Effective English Language Teacher

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shishavan, Homa Babai

    2010-01-01

    In this study English language teachers and learners engaged in teaching and learning of English in Iranian universities, high schools and private language institutes were asked about characteristics of an effective English language teacher. The aim of the study was to investigate whether male and female teachers and learners of English hold…

  19. The Integration of Technology in a Decentralized Curriculum Setting: The Case of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Instruction in Gorontalo, Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Machmud, Karmila

    2011-01-01

    This qualitative research explored the issues and challenges in teaching English as Foreign Language (EFL) in Gorontalo, Indonesia, from two main cases. First is the implementation of the "Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan" ("KTSP") in EFL Instructions; second is the integration of technology in EFL instruction. This…

  20. Native language effects on spelling in English as a foreign language: a time-course study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dich, Nadya; Pedersen, Bo

    2013-01-01

    The study explores first language (L1) influences on the mechanisms of spelling in English as a foreign language (EFL). We hypothesized that the transparency of L1 orthography influences (a) the amount of hesitation associated with spelling irregular English words, and (b) the size of units EFL...... spellers operate. Participants were adult speakers of three languages differing by the degree of transparency, Danish, Russian, and Italian (n = 60), and a group of English native speakers (n = 20). We analyzed keystroke logs from typed spellings of 30 English words. The amount of hesitation (number...... of corrections and number of long within-word pauses), was equal across all participants groups, thus disconfirming our first hypothesis. Inter-key intervals between onsets and rhymes were longer than within-rhyme intervals, but only in Danes and native English speakers, and not in Russians and Italians. We...

  1. The Role of Generic Competence and Professional Expertise in Legal Translation. The Case of English and Polish Probate Documents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Goźdź-Roszkowski Stanisław

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper seeks to demonstrate how the concept of generic competence (primarily intended for monolingual specialized communication could be extended to address important issues in translating legal texts. First, generic competence is discussed against the backdrop of the related concept of translation competence. Then, a case study is presented which examines a closely related set of documents employed by the professional community of lawyers (represented by an English solicitor and Polish advocate engaged in the specialist domain of probate law (legal process related to the estate of a deceased person. It is argued that both generic competence and professional expertise should be included in the range of competencies required for the translator of legal texts.

  2. Proficiency in English sentence stress production by Cantonese speakers who speak English as a second language (ESL).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ng, Manwa L; Chen, Yang

    2011-12-01

    The present study examined English sentence stress produced by native Cantonese speakers who were speaking English as a second language (ESL). Cantonese ESL speakers' proficiency in English stress production as perceived by English-speaking listeners was also studied. Acoustical parameters associated with sentence stress including fundamental frequency (F0), vowel duration, and intensity were measured from the English sentences produced by 40 Cantonese ESL speakers. Data were compared with those obtained from 40 native speakers of American English. The speech samples were also judged by eight native listeners who were native speakers of American English for placement, degree, and naturalness of stress. Results showed that Cantonese ESL speakers were able to use F0, vowel duration, and intensity to differentiate sentence stress patterns. Yet, both female and male Cantonese ESL speakers exhibited consistently higher F0 in stressed words than English speakers. Overall, Cantonese ESL speakers were found to be proficient in using duration and intensity to signal sentence stress, in a way comparable with English speakers. In addition, F0 and intensity were found to correlate closely with perceptual judgement and the degree of stress with the naturalness of stress.

  3. Role of Narrative Skills on Reading Comprehension: Spanish-English and Cantonese-English Dual Language Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uchikoshi, Yuuko; Yang, Lu; Liu, Siwei

    2018-01-01

    This longitudinal study examined the role of narrative skills in English reading comprehension, after controlling for vocabulary and decoding, with a sample of 112 dual language learners (DLLs), including both Spanish-English and Cantonese-English children. Decoding, vocabulary, and narrative samples were collected in the winter of first grade and…

  4. An investigation of how 100 articles in the Journal of Pragmatics treat transcripts of English and non-English languages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Egbert, Maria; Yufu, Mamiko; Hirataka, Fumiya

    2016-01-01

    of Pragmatics. The study shows a differential treatment of English and non-English data. 45% of the articles which handle only English data do not refer to the studied language at all. In contrast, 94% of the authors publishing on non-English data signify the language. There is great variety in the degree...... to which non-English data is accessible, and there are almost as many different types of transcripts of non-English data as there are articles. Much of the real-life variety of non-English language use is lost in the data displays, and the original is not sufficiently accessible to allow for independent......In pragmatics, as in all sciences, English has become the lingua franca of international publication. The impacts of this state on pragmatics research are examined based on a meta-study of 100 recent articles with transcripts of audio- or video-taped social interaction, published in the Journal...

  5. Using Movies in EFL Classrooms: A Study Conducted at the English Language Institute (ELI), King Abdul-Aziz University

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kabooha, Raniah Hassen

    2016-01-01

    The present study sought to examine the attitudes of Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) learners as well as teachers towards the integration of English movies in their classes as a tool to develop students' language skills. Fifty female intermediate level students studying English in their Preparatory Year Program (PYP) in the English…

  6. Pathways to the Oral and Written Language Competence Among Young Vietnamese English Language Learners

    OpenAIRE

    Duong, Thao Michelle

    2011-01-01

    This case study, drawing upon the ecological perspectives (Kramsch, 2002; van Lier, 2004) as a theoretical framework, described the learning experiences of two second generation and first grade Vietnamese English Language Learners navigating between home and school to develop oral and written L1 Vietnamese and L2 English competence for one school year. In the second school year, the focal students' oral and written language samples were collected without classroom observations or interviews....

  7. Mother-Tongue Diversity in the Foreign Language Classroom: Perspectives on the Experiences of Non-Native Speakers of English Studying Foreign Languages in an English-Medium University

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruen, Jennifer; Kelly, Niamh

    2017-01-01

    This paper considers the position of university language students whose mother tongue is other than the medium of instruction. Specifically, it investigates the attitudes and experiences of non-native English speakers studying either German or Japanese as foreign languages at an English-medium university. The findings indicate that the non-native…

  8. Lecturing in one’s first language or in English as a lingua franca

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Preisler, Bent

    2014-01-01

    The demand for internationalization puts pressure on Danish universities to use English as the language of instruction instead of or in addition to the local language(s). The purpose of this study – though proceeding from the belief that true internationalization seeks to exploit all linguistic...... and multilingual classroom. This case study concerns Danish university teachers' spoken discourse and interaction with students in a Danish-language versus English-language classroom. The data are video recordings of classroom interaction at the University of Roskilde, Denmark. The focus is on the relationship...... between linguistic-pragmatic performance and academic authenticity for university teachers teaching courses in both English and Danish, based on recent sociolinguistic concepts such as “persona,” “stylization,” and “authenticity.” The analysis suggests that it is crucial for teachers' ability...

  9. Code-switched English Pronunciation Modeling for Swahili Spoken Term Detection (Pub Version, Open Access)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-05-03

    model (JSM), developed using Sequitur16,17 and trained on the CMUDict0.7b18 Amer- ican English dictionary (over 134k words), was used to detect English ...modeled using the closest Swahili vowel or vowel combination. In both cases these English L2P predictions were added to a dictionary as variants to swa... English queries as a function of overlap/correspondence with an existing reference English pronunciation dictionary . As the reference dictionary , we

  10. The Effects of the Use of English in Polish Product Advertisements: Implications for English for Business Purposes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Planken, Brigitte; van Meurs, Frank; Radlinska, Ania

    2010-01-01

    English has come to be widely used for the specific purpose of advertising to reach international target groups in various countries. However, few studies to date have investigated the use--and effects of--English in advertising in Eastern European countries. This study investigated the effect of English in advertisements from Polish glossy…

  11. Webster's word power better English grammar improve your written and spoken English

    CERN Document Server

    Kirkpatrick, Betty

    2014-01-01

    With questions and answer sections throughout, this book helps you to improve your written and spoken English through understanding the structure of the English language. This is a thorough and useful book with all parts of speech and grammar explained. Used by ELT self-study students.

  12. From Ambiguity to Deceptiveness: the Case of Hybrid since- Subordinates in English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bénédicte GUILLAUME

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Lorsqu’il est utilisé en tant que subordonnant, since peut introduire une subordonnée circonstancielle de temps ou bien de cause. Cet article s’intéresse aux cas dans lesquels une telle polysémie au niveau du subordonnant déclenche une ambiguïté quant à la nature temporelle ou causale de l’utilisation de la subordonnée. En plus du recours au contexte endophorique ou exophorique, nous proposons des critères syntaxiques de désambigüisation, mis au jour grâce à l’étude d’un corpus de près de cinq cent exemples pris dans le British National Corpus, un corpus d’anglais contemporain de cent millions de mots. En dépit de tout cela, une petite minorité d’exemples reste inclassable, remplissant ainsi les conditions pour être considérés comme « hybrides » en fonction de la définition que nous en proposons, à savoir des subordonnées permettant de remettre en cause la division traditionnelle entre les catégories de subordonnées en anglais, dans la mesure où ils possèdent au moins une caractéristique déviante par rapport à la catégorie à laquelle ils semblent appartenir en fonction de tous leurs autres traits. De tels phénomènes rendent nécessaires la prise en compte d’un « reste », selon la terminologie de Jean-Jacques Lecercle, dans la grammaire d’une langue donnée.When since is used as a subordinator,it can introduce either a temporal adverbial clause or a causal one. My purpose in this paper is to study cases in which such a polysemy at the level of the subordinator results in the production of subordinates whose meaning proves to be ambiguous between the categories of time and cause. In addition to the taking into account of the context, whether exophoric or endophoric, I put forward a series of syntactic criteria which should help disambiguate between the two possible interpretations. These are based on the study of the characteristics of nearly five-hundred examples of since- clauses taken

  13. A Case Study of Conflict in an Educational Workplace: Managing Personal and Cultural Differences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torpey, Michael John

    2006-01-01

    This article is about conflict in an educational workplace setting. It reports on a case study investigating the emergence, development, and management of conflict among diverse native English speakers working as language instructors within a Japanese university. The example of conflict presented, which deals with divergent assumptions about the…

  14. Notes on English used as a lingua franca as an object of study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mortensen, Janus

    2013-01-01

    This article discusses how English used as a lingua franca (ELF) can be defined as an object of study. It offers a critical appraisal of a high-profile definition of ELF (the VOICE/Seidlhofer definition), and argues that definitions of this kind, whether purposely or not, in effect invite...... approach to the conceptualization of ELF where ELF is defined in straightforward functional terms as the use of English in a lingua franca language scenario. This definition underscores the complexity and breadth of ELF as an object of study, and highlights that researchers in the field of ELF studies need...

  15. A Comparative Study of the Use of Collocation in Iranian High School Textbooks and American English File Books

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohsen Shahrokhi

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The present study investigates the extent to which lexical and grammatical collocations are used in Iranian high school English textbooks, compared with the American English File books. To achieve the purposes of this study, this study had to be carried out in two phases. In the first phase, the content of the instructional textbooks, that is, American English File book series, Book 2 and Iranian high school English Book 3, were analyzed to find the frequencies and proportions of the collocations used in the textbooks. Since the instructional textbooks used in the two teaching environments (i.e., Iranian high schools and language institutes were not equal with regard to the density of texts, from each textbook just the first 6000 words, content words as well as function words, were considered. Then, the frequencies of the collocations among the first 6000 words in high school English Book 3 and American English File Book 2 were determined.The results of the statistical analyses revealed that the two text book series differ marginally in terms of frequency and type of collocations. Major difference existed between them when it came to lexical collocations in American English File book 2.

  16. A Study of an English for Academic Purposes Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zohrabi, Mohammad; Shah, Parilah M.; Yunus, Melor M.

    2012-01-01

    English for General Purposes (EGP) is a foundation course which should be taken by all the undergraduate students at the University of Tabriz, Iran. However, the EGP course cannot meet the students' objectives and needs. Evidently, it has some shortcoming and the results of the study indicate that it not only has lost its credibility but also has…

  17. PHONETIC AND NON-PHONETIC LANGUAGES: A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND TURKISH PHONOLOGY FOCUSING ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY-INDUCED PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS OF TURKISH LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (TURKISH EFL LEARNERS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amir KHALILZADEH

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available The present study aims to investigate the pronunciation problems of Turkish learners of English as a foreign language (Turkish EFL learners due to the orthography system of English. Orthography is a standardized system for using a particular writing system (script to write a particular language. It includes rules of spelling, and may also concern other elements of the written language such as punctuation and capitalization. It is clear that English is a non-phonetic and Turkish is a phonetic language, so it is very natural for the Turkish EFL learners to have some phonological problems in learning English. The author has done a contrastive study concerning three linguistic systems, i.e. consonants, vowels and syllable structures of English and Turkish to find the causes of the problems to be used in teaching English as a foreign language to Turks. The results of the study showed that the problems under discussion are caused by some differences between the orthography and the phonology of the two languages. As a result, English teachers, to be helpful, should focus on the differences and help the Turkish learners overcome the pronunciation problems. The author of the paper believes that an English teacher should be both aware of the differences and be able to teach them effectively to the Turkish EFL learners.

  18. –ED ALLOMORPHS AND LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE OF MALAY SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH: A DESCRIPTIVE AND CORRELATIONAL STUDY

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    Maskanah Mohammad Lotfie

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Malay is a language from the Austronesian family and unlike the Indo-European-originated English, it does not generally have inflectional temporal markers. Investigating this from a cross-linguistics - influence perspective, differences between the languages could mean difficulties for Malay speakers to acquire features of English. The objectives of this study are to investigate Malay speakers’ pronunciation of the English language –ed allomorphs – [d], [t] and [ɪd]/[əd] – and the relationship between the morphophonological forms and two types of linguistic knowledge, one of which is implicit while the other is explicit. Data were collated from fifty participants who are social science undergraduates and English majors who speak English as a second language. Four instruments were used to gauge the respondents’ verbal use of –ed allomorphs as well as their implicit and explicit knowledge of the allomorphs. Results indicate that the students’ verbal usage of the target items either lacks approximation to Standard English pronunciation or is largely dropped altogether. Results also suggest a moderate relationship between implicit and explicit knowledge of the allomorphs and their verbal production by Malay speakers of English. The finding illuminates acquisition problem of English language speakers whose mother tongue does not share similar inflectional markers. Pedagogical solutions can help learners of the English language to approximate Standard English and in the long run, enhance effective communication and increase chances of employability.

  19. Examining English Language Teachers' TPACK in Oral Communication Skills Teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Debbagh, Mohammed; Jones, W. Monty

    2018-01-01

    This case study utilized the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) theoretical framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) as a lens to examine the instructional strategies of four English as a second language (ESL) teachers and their rationales for incorporating technology into their instructional practices in teaching oral communication…

  20. Instrumental Analysis of the English Stops Produced by Arabic Speakers of English

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    Noureldin Mohamed Abdelaal

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This study reports the findings of a research that was conducted on ten (10 Arab students, who were enrolled in a master of English applied linguistics program at Universiti Putra Malaysia. The research aimed at instrumentally analyzing the English stops produced by Arab learners, in terms of voice onset time (VOT; identifying the effect of their mother tongue on producing the English stops; and the extent Arabic speakers of English differentiate in terms of pronunciation between minimal pairs. The findings of the study showed that some of the subjects’ VOT values were similar to native speakers of English. It was also found that the subjects could differentiate in terms of aspiration or voicing between /p/ and /b/, which refutes the assumption that Arab learners have a problem in producing the /p/ sound with appropriate aspiration. However, they did not show significant difference in pronunciation between the /t/ and /d/ or between the /k/ and /g/. Moreover, there is a kind of limited effect of the L1 on producing some stops (e.g. /t/ and /g/. However, for the /b/ sound, it cannot be inferred that there is interference from the mother tongue because its VOT value is almost the same in English and Arabic. This research suggests that teachers need to enhance Arab learners’ pronunciation of some minimal pairs such as /t/ and /d/ or /k/ and /g/.

  1. English as a Foreign Language Spelling Development: A Longitudinal Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kahn-Horwitz, Janina; Sparks, Richard L.; Goldstein, Zahava

    2012-01-01

    English as a foreign language (EFL) spelling was examined longitudinally three times (4th, 9th, 12th grades) during 9 years of EFL study among Hebrew first language (L1) students. The study examined the impact of L1 literacy variables including phonemic awareness, word attack, and spelling on EFL spelling and the relationship between EFL literacy…

  2. Mapping Changes in Students' English and Math Self-Concepts: A Latent Growth Model Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Ronnel B.; McInerney, Dennis M.

    2014-01-01

    The aims of this study were to examine changes in students' English and math self-concepts and to investigate the effects of gender and school ability level on these changes. Self-concept in English and math were measured thrice across three years among a sample of 2618 secondary school students from Hong Kong. Gender and school ability level were…

  3. Feedback on Second Language Pronunciation: A Case Study of EAP Teachers' Beliefs and Practices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Amanda; Burri, Michael

    2016-01-01

    In the modern English language classroom, teachers are often faced with the challenging task of supporting students to achieve comprehensible pronunciation, but many teachers limit or neglect giving students feedback on their pronunciation for a variety of reasons. This paper examines the case of five experienced English for Academic Purposes…

  4. Radiological English

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    Ribes, R. [Hospital Reina Sofia, Cordoba (Spain). Servicio de Radiologia; Ros, P.R. [Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States). Div. of Radiology

    2007-07-01

    The book is an introductory book to radiological English on the basis that there are a lot of radiologists, radiology residents, radiology nurses, radiology students, and radiographers worldwide whose English level is indeterminate because their reading skills are much higher than their fluency. It is intended to help those health care professionals who need English for their work but do not speak English on a day-to-day basis. (orig.)

  5. Radiological English

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ribes, R.; Ros, P.R.

    2007-01-01

    The book is an introductory book to radiological English on the basis that there are a lot of radiologists, radiology residents, radiology nurses, radiology students, and radiographers worldwide whose English level is indeterminate because their reading skills are much higher than their fluency. It is intended to help those health care professionals who need English for their work but do not speak English on a day-to-day basis. (orig.)

  6. Up from under: a study of English training on the mines

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    Carol A. Puhl

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available A study was done over six months at the training centre of a large mining house, Gold Fields of South Africa. Four instructors taught English courses to experimental groups using an approach integrating suggestopedic language teaching and thinking skills (called henceforth " the integrated approach". The same four instructors taught English to control groups using traditional methods. English language skills and thinking skills were measured before and after each course. Qualitative data were gathered from learners, instructors and supervisors. Results clearly showed that black workers with low educational levels can gain an appreciable amount of English in a three-week intensive course. All of the qualitative data and one of the two qualitative measures support this statement. Further, support was found for greater benefits to the learners of the integrated approach over traditional approaches to language teaching, especially in ability to think and in positive attitudes including self-confidence. The process of the study yielded additional findings and raised further questions of interest to those involved in language teaching and research. 'n Studie is oor ses maande gedoen by die opleidingsentrum van 'n groat mynmaatskappy, Gold Fields of South Africa. Vier instrukteurs het die gei"ntegreerde benadering gebruik om 'n Engelse kursus aan eksperimentele groepe aan te bied. Dieselfde instrukteurs het ook die kontrole-groepe onderrig deur gebruik te maak van die tradisionele metodes van taalonderrig. Studente se Engelse taalvaardigheid, sowel as denkvaardighede is voor en na elke kursus gemeet. Kwalitatiewe data is van leerders, instrukteurs en toesighouers verlay. Resultate het duidelik getoon dat swart werkers met lae opvoedingsvlakke se Engelse vaardighede aansienlik kan verbeter na 'n intensiewe onderrigkursus van drie weke. AI die kwalitatiewe data en een van die twee kwalitatiewe metings onderslayf hierdie stelling. Verder is gevind dat die

  7. English as a Foreign Language Students' Opinions about the Use of English on the Internet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coskun, Abdullah

    2017-01-01

    As in many other fields, the Internet has been used for educational purposes, especially for foreign language learning. This study has the main objective to investigate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' opinions about the use of English on the Internet. By means of a Likert-type questionnaire dealing with the use of English on the…

  8. Zagreb Conference on English Contrastive Projects, 7-9 December 1970. Papers and Discussion. Studies 4. The Yugoslav Serbo-Croatian-English Contrastive Project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filipovic, Rudolf, Ed.

    The fourth volume in this series contains the papers presented at the Zagreb Conference on English Contrastive Projects. They are: "Recent Center Activities in Contrastive Linguistics," by William Nemser; "The Yugoslav Serbo-Croatian-English Contrastive Project So Far," by Rudolf Filipovic; "The Poznan Polish-English Contrastive Project," by Jacek…

  9. AFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

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    Siti Mariam

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Affective aspect plays important role in man’s life, mainly in making decision, perception, interaction, communication and intelligence. A second behavior domain is the affective domain. The affective domain involves feelings, attitude, interests, preferences, values, and emotions. Emotional stability, motivation, trustworthiness, self-control, and personality are all examples of affective characteristics. Although affective behaviors are rarely assessed formally in schools and classrooms, teachers constantly assess affective behaviors informally, especially when sizing up students. Teachers need to know who can be trusted to work unsupervised and who cannot, who can maintain self-control when the teacher has to leave the classroom and who cannot, who needs to be encouraged to speak in class and who does not, who is interested in science but not in social studies, and who needs to be prodded to start class work and who does not. Most classroom teachers can describe their students’ affective characteristics based on their informal observations and interactions with the students. Statement of the Problem. a Exploration Phase. (1 Can affective aspects improve students’ achievement of English subject for university students of non-English Departments ? (2 Which affective aspects are potentially be used to improve students’ achievement of English subject for university students of non-English Department ? (3 To what extent is the affective assessment of English subject needed by English teachers of non-English Departments ? b Prototype Development Phase. (4 How should the affective assessment model of English subject for university students of non-English Departments be constructed ? (5 How high is the effectiveness of affective assessment model of English subject for university students of non – English Departments ? c Field Assessment Phase. (6 To what extent can the model of affective assessment draft be used to enhance students

  10. English Teachers' Cultural Models about Technology: A Microethnographic Perspective on Professional Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Curwood, Jen Scott

    2014-01-01

    Prompted by calls for research on technology-focused professional development, this ethnographic case study investigates how teachers' participation in learning communities may influence technology integration within the secondary English curriculum. In this article, I draw on educational psychology, cognitive anthropology, and sociolinguistics to…

  11. NEGATION AFFIXES IN ENGLISH

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    Dedy Subandowo -

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: This research entitled "Negation Affixes in English". This study is aimed to describe the various negation affixes in English, morphological process, morphophonemic and meaning. The research data were taken from various sources of English grammar book, morphology, research journal and the book which relatees to the research. English grammar books used in this study are written by Otto Jesperson, Marcella Frank, Greenbaum and Geoffrey Leech.  The method used in this research is the descriptive-qualitative method. While the data collection techniques are performed by using jot-down method. And the results of analysis are presented in tabular form and descriptive method. The result of the research shows that English has six types of negative affixes which are categorized by the intensity of its appearance, such as dis-, in-, non-, un-, anti- and -less. Based on the function, negation affixes are divided into several categories such as adjectives, nouns, verbs, and adverbs. The morphophonemic affix in- has four allomorphs, they are in-, im-, il- and ir- . While the analysis revealed that negation affixes have some basic meanings, such as ‘not’, ‘without’, and ‘anti’.

  12. "Can't Nobody Sleep" and Other Characteristics of Culturally Responsive English Instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adkins, Theresa A.

    2012-01-01

    In this article the author presents a collective case study of two English teachers identified as particularly successful with Black students. Through the use of ethnographic techniques, the study provides a snapshot of how these teachers facilitated academic gains in urban high schools through their use of culturally responsive English…

  13. Gender effects on phonological processing and reading development in Northern Sotho children learning to read in English: A case study of Grade 3 learners

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    Carien Wilsenach

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Gender differences in reading development are a global phenomenon, with girls typically performing better than boys. Some studies have reported gender differences favouring girls in reading comprehension in South Africa, but little systematic evidence exists about gender differences in the cognitive-linguistic abilities that underlie reading development. This study investigated the effect of gender on phonological processing and reading development in Northern Sotho–English bilingual children. Grade 3 learners who received their literacy instruction in English were tested on various phonological processing and reading measures. Phonological awareness was assessed using phoneme isolation and elision tasks. Phonological working memory was assessed using memory for digits and non-word repetition tests while rapid automatised naming was tested using rapid letter, rapid digit, rapid object and rapid colour naming tasks. Reading achievement was assessed with various word reading tasks and with a fluent reading task. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that gender had a significant effect on the phonological processing and reading abilities of Northern Sotho– English bilingual children. Girls performed significantly better than boys on all the reading measures, as well as on some aspects of phonological processing. The findings provide behavioural evidence in support of biological theories of gender differences, in that girls seemed to have developed some of the cognitive-linguistic skills associated with reading before boys. The girls also coped better with tasks that required increased cognitive processing. This study suggests that sex differences in reading development cannot be ignored in South Africa and need to be addressed in future curriculum development.

  14. MOTIVATION AND CONFIDENCE OF INDONESIAN TEACHERS TO USE ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

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    MANGASA ARITONANG

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available This research paper investigates the motivation and confidence of Indonesian teachers of non-English to learn English and to use it as a medium of instruction resulting from their participation in a blended learning course. The purpose of the English learning for this particular group of teachers was to enable them to create English-speaking teaching and learning environment. Such environment is perceived as necessary to enhance English language learning and acquisition in some Indonesian vocational schools. The levels of motivation and confidence have been an issue because they potentially either contribute to or hinder English language learners to learn and use English for interactions. This qualitative research was undertaken using an interpretive research paradigm and a case study approach. Qualitative research data were collected from multiple sources such as in-depth interviews, observation notes, online interaction script, and reflective journals of the participants. Quantitative data were collected through surveys to add meaning to the qualitative data. The research revealed varying increase in the levels of motivation and confidence of the participants. Transformation of extrinsic to intrinsic motivations appeared to occur. Contributing factors to the increase of the motivation and confidence are discussed in this paper.

  15. English as a Second Language and Children’s literature : An empirical study on Swedish elementary school teachers’ methods and attitudes towards the use of children’s literature in the English classroom

    OpenAIRE

    Englund, Micaela

    2016-01-01

    Previous research has shown multiple benefits and challenges with the incorporation of children’s literature in the English as a Second language (ESL) classroom. In addition, the use of children’s literature in the lower elementary English classroom is recommended by the Swedish National Agency for Education. Consequently, the current study explores how teachers in Swedish elementary school teach ESL through children’s literature. This empirical study involves English teachers from seven scho...

  16. Investigating Chinese English Majors’ Use of Reading Strategies : A Study on the Relationship between Reading Strategies and Reading Achievements 

    OpenAIRE

    Sun, Ling

    2011-01-01

    For several decades, reading strategies have aroused many researchers’ interest.Readingis a very important language skill for English learners; however, many English majors feel that their reading proficiency is far from satisfying though they have studied English for more than ten years. Therefore, the current situation of using reading strategies among Chinese sophomore English majors is studied in this paper. The research aims to study the relationship between the use of reading strategies...

  17. On the Importance of Cultural Factors in Oral English Studying

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Xiong Juan

    2016-01-01

    Language communication, in some way, is cultural communication, in order to have a better ability of communicating, students have to know and understand enough culture knowledge. This paper will analyze the relationship between language and culture, emphasize the importance of cultural factors in oral English studying.

  18. A Cognitive Study of English Loan Words in Japanese Discourse.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayashi, Takuo; Hayashi, Reiko

    1995-01-01

    Discusses the use of English loanwords in Japanese discourse from a cognitive perspective and reveals how the world knowledge of English loanwords is applied to a text and constitutes an integral component of the discourse production process both within and beyond the sentence level. (40 references) (MDM)

  19. A Study on Teaching Business Communication/English in Indian Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devimeenakshi, K.; Tyagi, Sarika

    2013-01-01

    The aim of this article is to discuss teaching Business Communication in classroom to Business Administration degree programme students. Indeed, teaching Business Communication in classroom was a different experience when compared with Technical English for B.Tech students. The syllabus for Business Communication (English) was also peculiar…

  20. An action research study of collaborative strategic reading in English with Saudi medical students

    OpenAIRE

    Al-Roomy, Muhammad

    2013-01-01

    This is an investigative action research study on ways of improving the reading comprehension skills of Arabic medical school students. The study first analysed the difficulties of teaching and learning English and reading in English in a Saudi university medical college. An intervention was planned and implemented based on Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR –Klingner and Vaughn, 1996). This involved using group work to teach explicitly a set of reading strategies to a class of students who...

  1. A STUDY OF THE ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN FOUR ENGLISH SKILLS ON GENDER EQUALITY IN SERANG CITY - BANTEN

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    Nurhaedah Gailea

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The objective of the research is to find out deeply the aspects of   equal gender on English textbooks for Senior High School by Indonesian and English writer in Serang City. The method used in this research is qualitative research with content analysis technique.The data collected through document review. The research finding shows that the perecentage of men are higher than women in the aspects of main character and historical event, the use of equal language, public and domestic role, and art talent, sport, and  intellectual competence on the books of indonesia writer in four language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing.This description shows that women are inferior because of culture, misinterpretation of religion, and patriarchy system factor. Whreas the perecentage of men and women are gender equal on the book of English writer, especially in the main character, the  language equal, the public and  domestic role, and the art talent, but the sport and intelectual competence showed that the perencentage of men are high. It means that women have opportunity as men and especially domestic role is responsibility of both men and women. It can be concluded that the Englsh textbook is written by Indonesian that called curriculum 2013 can not be used as English lesson, whereas the English textbook of English writer can recommend as English lesson because it found the equal gender.

  2. Pronouns as Means of Impersonal Presentation in English Quality Press

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    Pavel Skorupa

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The current paper presents the analysis of pronouns as means of impersonal presentation in English quality press. The article gives the definition of the pronoun as a grammatical category and describes the use and purpose of impersonalization strategies. The data for the investigation was taken from the international English quality newspapers: The Financial Times (UK and The Wall Street Journal (US, which are the leading daily broadsheet newspapers in the UK and the USA having millions of both print and online subscribers worldwide. The articles on political, economic, and social issues were chosen on a random basis and scrutinized for pronouns as means of impersonal presentation of fact. The body of 187 cases of impersonalization chosen for the analysis were divided into groups with focus on the grammatical category they belong to. The most and least often used classes of pronouns were identified and compared. The results of the current study may be useful for editors, journalists, writers, as well as for further study of impersonalization strategies in the English language.

  3. Comparative Study Of The Use Of English Modals Should And Ought-To Among Educated Ghanaians

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    Dr. Mustapha Bin Danquah

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available In his study Holloway 2014 intimated that English takes the crown as the most common second language around the world with 55 countries speaking it as a second language. This corroborates Mydans 20072 expression that English is riding the crest of globalization and technology because it dominates the world as no language ever has. By the most common estimates 400 million people speak English as a first language another 300 million to 500million as a fluent second language and perhaps 750 million as a foreign language. Mydansfurther stated that it is the common language in almost every aspect of life from science to air traffic control and to a student playing with his classmates and on the radio pop music carries the sounds of English to almost every corner of the earth p. 2. Little wonder Winter 2014 the coordinator of a multidisciplinary research team refers to English as the most influential language in the world.

  4. Watching with New Eyes: Broadening the English Curriculum through Cinema Studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chipman, Bruce

    One educator's interdisciplinary interests in literature, film, and culture studies led him to the establishment of "Film Study," an upper school English course in which students develop a sense of "film literacy" through detailed "reading" of visual images; in addition, students evolve a working critical vocabulary…

  5. Effects of the Differences between Native and Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers on Students' Attitudes and Motivation toward Learning English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pae, Tae-Il

    2017-01-01

    This study presents findings on three research agendas: (1) the difference between native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) in students' attitudes toward and motivation for learning English, (2) the moderating effect of the type of class (i.e., English Conversation vs. Practical English) on the…

  6. Acquisition of English as a Second Language at College Level--An Empirical Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anil, Beena

    2015-01-01

    English has a universal appeal and in India, English is associated with modernity and progress sometimes with the ideology of its cultural values. The economic value of English is very high in India as even a layman uses English words in his/her "native" communication. The second language acquisition happens for learners at various…

  7. ERROR ANALYSIS IN THE TRAVEL WRITING MADE BY THE STUDENTS OF ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM

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    Vika Agustina

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available This study was conducted to identify the kinds of errors in surface strategy taxonomy and to know the dominant type of errors made by the fifth semester students of English Department of one State University in Malang-Indonesia in producing their travel writing. The type of research of this study is document analysis since it analyses written materials, in this case travel writing texts. The analysis finds that the grammatical errors made by the students based on surface strategy taxonomy theory consist of four types. They are (1 omission, (2 addition, (3 misformation and (4 misordering. The most frequent errors occuring in misformation are in the use of tense form. Secondly, the errors are in omission of noun/verb inflection. The next error, there are many clauses that contain unnecessary phrase added there.

  8. An insight into Twitter: a corpus based contrastive study in English and Spanish.

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    Irina Argüelles Álvarez

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to study the use of Spanish and English in the micro-blogging social network Twitter from a contrastive point of view. A quantitative research methodology is applied in order firstly, to identify specific common characteristics of language, organization and content in the medium and secondly, to find eventual differences in the use of a particular language. To carry out the experiment, two corpora were constructed using language data from Twitter, one in Spanish with a total number of 4,027,746 words and another with similar characteristics in English with a total number of 4,655,992 words. From the results obtained, the conclusion is that there are a number of very general discourse and organizational features common to the two corpora under study. It is also concluded that there are some particular characteristics which differentiate the use of English and Spanish in the medium.

  9. The impact of direct speech framing expressions on the narrative: a contrastive case study of Gabriel García Márquez’s Buen viaje, señor Presidente and its English translation

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    Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The impact of direct speech framing expressions on the narrative: a contrastive case study of Gabriel García Márquez’s Buen viaje, señor Presidente and its English translation This paper discusses an application of Relevance Theory methodology to an analysis of a literary text: a short story of Gabriel García Márquez “Buen viaje, señor Presidente” and its English translation. “Close reading” technique carried out on rather linguistic than literary basis allows for adding yet another layer of interpretation to this complex story. The analysis concentrates on the representation of direct speech and particularly on the impact of direct speech framing clauses on the reading of dialogic turns. Specifically, it is argued that the explicit mention of the addressee by indirect object pronouns (which are optional in direct speech framing turns in Spanish makes the tension between the two protagonists even more palpable, therefore apparently courteous turns can be interpreted as defiant or otherwise antagonistic. In English similar role is played by the contrast between the absence of quotative inversion with subject pronouns and its presence when speakers are identified by full nominals. The parallel effect in both linguistic versions is traced to the distinction between linguistic items carrying mainly conceptual meaning (nominals and carrying mainly procedural meaning (pronouns and to the different ways these two kind of elements are processed in comprehension. The paper also provides some arguments for leaving aside literary considerations and treating a literary text as an act of ostensive communication.

  10. Difficulties in Teaching English for Specific Purposes: Empirical Study at Vietnam Universities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoa, Nguy?n Th? T?; Mai, Ph?m Th? Tuy?t

    2016-01-01

    In recent years, teaching English, especially English for specific purposes at Vietnam universities has received a lot of attention from students, teachers, and relevant authorities because of not high teaching effectiveness. This results in the fact that students after graduation do not meet English requirements of employers, so unemployment…

  11. 7 CFR 247.13 - Provisions for non-English or limited-English speakers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Provisions for non-English or limited-English speakers... § 247.13 Provisions for non-English or limited-English speakers. (a) What must State and local agencies do to ensure that non-English or limited-English speaking persons are aware of their rights and...

  12. English for University Administrative Work: English Officialization Policy and Foreign Language Learning Motivation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jeongyeon; Choi, Jinsook

    2014-01-01

    This study examines how the English officialization policy of higher education in an EFL context interplays with administrative workers' motivational orientations towards English learning. The data consisted of questionnaire responses of 117 administrative members with undergraduate degrees and qualitative interviews with 9 who answered the…

  13. Consumer Citizenship Curriculum Guides for Social Studies, English, Science, Mathematics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacKenzie, Louise; Smith, Alice

    These four consumer citizenship curriculum guides for social studies, English, science, and mathematics incorporate consumer education into these subject matter areas in grades 8-12. Each guide is organized around 10 main component/goals. They are basic economics in the marketplace, credit, consumer law/protection, banking skills, comparison…

  14. Reading, syntactic, orthographic, and working memory skills of bilingual Arabic-English speaking Canadian children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abu-Rabia, Salim; Siegel, Linda S

    2002-11-01

    This study assessed the reading, language, and memory skills of 56 bilingual Arab-Canadian children age's 9-14. English was their main instructional language, and Arabic was the language spoken at home. All children attended a Heritage Language Program in Toronto where they were taught to read and write Arabic. The children were administered word and pseudo-word reading, language, and working memory tests in English and Arabic. The majority of the children showed at least adequate proficiency in both languages. There was a significant relationship between the acquisition of word and pseudo-word reading working memory, and syntactic awareness skills in the two languages. The poor readers in Arabic had lower scores on all linguistic tasks, except the visual task. There were no significant differences between bilingual English Arabic children and monolingual English-speaking children on the reading, language, and memory tasks. However, bilingual English Arabic children who had reading problems in English had higher scores on English pseudo-word reading and spelling tasks than monolingual English-speaking children with reading disabilities, probably because of positive transfer from the regular nature of Arabic orthography. In this case, bilingualism does not appear to have negative consequences for the development of language reading skills in both languages--Arabic and English--despite the different nature of the two orthographies.

  15. The translation of idioms in children’s cartoons: A comparative analysis of English dialogues and Lithuanian subtitles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ligita Judickaitė-Pašvenskienė

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available The article is focused on the translation of English idioms in the Lithuanian subtitles of children’s cartoons. The aims of the article are to find out whether the element of meaning or the composition of meaning and form gets preference in the Lithuanian translation; to present the perception and use of the term idiom in English and Lithuanian; and to show the processes which take place during the translation of English idioms containing proper nouns. The article is a case study and refers to the analysis of five children’s cartoons.

  16. The Role of Reflection in Developing Eupraxis in Learning to Teach English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smagorinsky, Peter; Shelton, Stephanie Anne; Moore, Cynthia

    2015-01-01

    This case study focuses on one beginning English teacher's work toward eupraxia, i.e., good practice informed by reflection in a setting in which a degree of free choice is available. The study uses a Vygotskian framework for studying concept development that focuses on the settings of human activity and how ambiguous social concepts are developed…

  17. Reflections of College English Majors' Cultural Perceptions on Learning English in Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Ching-Mei

    2013-01-01

    This study was conducted with the participation of nine English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students and two EFL teachers of the Department of Applied English at an institute of technology in central Taiwan. Based on in-depth interviews with the students and teachers, the findings suggest that the participating students' perspectives of culture…

  18. THE USE OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING: A CASE STUDY AT ONE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN JAMBI

    OpenAIRE

    Haryanto, Eddy; Oktalia, Dwi

    2015-01-01

    This research is aimed to describe students’ perception toward the use of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) in language learning. The objective of the study is to know students’ perception toward the use of ICT in language learning and to know the problem that they encountered during the use of ICT. The design of this research was survey method. The subject of this research was sixth semester students’ of English department Jambi University. A questionnaire was main instrument to...

  19. Phonetic Change in Newfoundland English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clarke, Sandra

    2012-01-01

    Newfoundland English has long been considered autonomous within the North American context. Sociolinguistic studies conducted over the past three decades, however, typically suggest cross-generational change in phonetic feature use, motivated by greater alignment with mainland Canadian English norms. The present study uses data spanning the past…

  20. An Empirical Study on Business English Teaching and Development in China--A Needs Analysis Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guiyu, Dai; Yang, Liu

    2016-01-01

    This paper first reviews the developmental history and status quo of Business English Program in China. Then based on the theory of needs analysis, it researches on 226 questionnaires from Business English Program students from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies to investigate the problems encountered and current situation of Business English…

  1. Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) variant of primary rectal lymphoma: a review of the English literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelley, Scott R

    2017-03-01

    Primary rectal lymphoma (PRL) is the third most common cause of rectal cancer following adenocarcinoma (90-95 %) and carcinoid (5 %). The most common variant of PRL is the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) type. To date, no study has been able to recommend an optimal treatment algorithm for this rare disease. The aim of our study was to review the English literature on primary rectal MALT lymphoma. A review of the English literature was conducted to identify articles describing the MALT variant of PRL. Fifty-one cases were identified. A complete response was achieved in 12 of 19 cases treated with Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy, 5 of 6 with radiation, 2 of 4 cases with chemotherapy, 2 of 4 with endoscopic resection, 6 of 8 cases with surgical resection, and all 8 with combination therapies. Cases failing initial therapies were responsive to various second-line treatments. Two cases spontaneously regressed with observation alone. Complete regression of primary rectal MALT lymphoma was achieved using various therapeutic strategies, although the numbers of different treatment modalities are too small to draw definitive conclusions.

  2. An English Teacher's Developing Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Using Groupwork

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wyatt, Mark

    2010-01-01

    In this article, I explore how an English teacher's self-efficacy beliefs in using groupwork developed, specifically with regard to his work with young learners, while he was engaged part-time on an in-service BA TESOL programme in the Middle East. Using qualitative case study methodology, I uncover various aspects of his self-efficacy growth,…

  3. Gender Differences In Giving Directions: A Case Study Of English Literature Students At Binus University

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tjoo Hong Sing

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Many researchers have said that there are differences in the ways people give direction between males and females, especially in spatial task (cardinal directions, topography, mileage, building, right/left markers (e.g., Lawton, 2001; Dabbs et al., 1998. Here, the thesis investigates what differences occur between both genders in giving direction. The respondents are 25 females and 25 males of fifth semester Binus University students majoring in English Literature. The respondents answered with a certain route from Binus’s Anggrek Campus to Senayan City. The study was conducted by qualitative and quantitative method. From the data analysis, the writer discovered that gender does affect in selecting the key words in explaining direction it is found that there were differences in choosing key words in giving direction between females and males. The difference is women use more than twice spatial references than men do. In terms of verbal abilities, it was confirmed that female use longer explanation. However, in other aspects such as serial orientation and maintenance words, the result is inconclusive. 

  4. Influence of Second Language Proficiency and Syntactic Structure Similarities on the Sensitivity and Processing of English Passive Sentence in Late Chinese-English Bilinguists: An ERP Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Xin; Wang, Pei

    2016-01-01

    To investigate the influence of L2 proficiency and syntactic similarity on English passive sentence processing, the present ERP study asked 40 late Chinese-English bilinguals (27 females and 13 males, mean age = 23.88) with high or intermediate L2 proficiency to read the sentences carefully and to indicate for each sentence whether or not it was…

  5. The Moral Imperative: The Case of the English Education System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spangenberg, Sabine; McIntosh, Bryan

    2014-01-01

    In England, social choice in education faces trade-offs between equity and efficiency. The scope of these trade-offs ranges from the introduction of choice to correcting "market failures" to reduce inequalities and restrict social injustices. The article analyses the English school education system and its relationship with social…

  6. PROMOTING ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (TPD THROUGH THE PRACTICE OF LESSON STUDY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yanuarti Apsari

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper sheds some lights on the practice of lesson study conducted in higher education level in relations to teacher professional development. This study employed an explorative research design which involved a team of three English teachers of STKIP Siliwangi and one class of English Department. The team was involved in jointly designing, teaching, researching, refining a research lesson. The research was conducted in three cycles, in which each cycle was evaluated. The data were collected through two instruments: classroom observation and teachers’ reflective notes. The result revealed that the practice of lesson study can create multiple pathways for teaching improvement, especially in terms of collaborative activities done by teachers involved in the lesson study team. The result also revealed that the practice of lesson study the practice of lesson study can improve not only students’ academic skills, but also students’ social skills.

  7. Introducing Business English

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nickerson, C.; Planken, B.C.

    2015-01-01

    Introducing Business English provides a comprehensive overview of this topic, situating the concepts of Business English and English for Specific Business Purposes within the wider field of English for Special Purposes. This book draws on contemporary teaching and research contexts to demonstrate

  8. Spanish Speakers Apologizing in English: A Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cordella, Marisa

    1991-01-01

    The speech act of apologizing in English between Chileans and Australians is examined in terms of the frequency, distribution, and function of apology-strategies. It is argued that positive politeness strategies are more frequently used in Spanish than English, and the sex of the apologizer and recipient must be considered. (41 references)…

  9. A Critical Content Analysis of Korean-to-English and English-to-Korean Translated Picture Books

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Mi-Kyoung

    2013-01-01

    This study explores cultural representations and cultural adaptations made by translators in translated children's picture books. This study has two focuses. In the first part of this study, which is a critical content analysis, I examine the cultural representations depicted in Korean-to-English and English-to-Korean translated picture books,…

  10. Study methodology and diabetes control in patients from the non-English diabetes management project (NEDMP).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dirani, Mohamed; Dang, Trung M; Xie, Jing; Gnanasekaran, Sivashanth; Nicolaou, Theona; Rees, Gwyneth; Fenwick, Eva; Lamoureux, Ecosse L

    2017-03-01

    To describe the clinical characteristics of non-English speaking patients from the Diabetes Management Project (NEDMP), and compare their diabetes management and severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR) with the English-speaking DMP sample (EDMP). A prospective study was conducted on non-English speaking adults with diabetes who attended the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. 136 (90.1%) non-English speaking adults were assessed, with a mean age of 72.2 years (range: 50-88 years); 74 (54.4%) were male. Participants completed interviewer-administered questionnaires and underwent visual acuity, fundus photography, optical coherence tomography, biochemistry and anthropometric measurements. The EDMP assessed 609 patients in 2009 using a similar protocol. Type and duration of diabetes, diabetes control and diabetic retinopathy. A total of 127 (93.4%) and 8 (5.9%) participants reported having type 2 and type 1 diabetes, respectively, with a median (IQR) duration of 17 (14) years. The proportion of patients with poor diabetes control (HbA1c ≥ 7%) in the NEDMP was similar to the EDMP (64.0% and 68.2%, respectively; P = 0.411). A significantly higher proportion of patients with DR in the NEDMP were found to have poor diabetes control (HbA1c ≥ 7%) compared to those without DR (80.9% vs. 50.0%, P = 0.003). Almost two-thirds of NEDMP patients (74/118) had DR and 23% (27/115) had diabetic macular edema. The prevalence of DR was similar between the NEDMP and EDMP studies, ranging from 25-30% and 28-29%. The clinical characteristics, diabetes control, and DR severity of English and non-English-speaking patients were similar. The high proportion of poor diabetes management in non-English speaking patients with DR suggests educational and behavioural interventions to improve glycaemic control are warranted. © 2016 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

  11. When places change their names on maps. Cases study from the Arab world

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dhieb, Mohsen

    2018-05-01

    The transcription of geographical names on maps in one given language is a very complex process. Depending on the used language, toponyms are mostly deformed from their natural language. In the Arab world, this deformation is treated in various ways. In many cases, Arabic place names suffer a double distortion when first transcribed from Arabic or another original language into French or English, and second when taking the same way back. Through a review of examples from some Arab place names, a few cases are analyzed to reveal the mechanisms of such anomaly and a strategy is recommended to avoid it. Departing from Arabic atlases, we will realize three steps. First, we examine this anomaly through case studies taken from the English and French toponymic transcriptions. Second, the produced names area compared to those of other countries, considering the processes and mechanisms involved. Third, we propose a global strategy to overcome this anomaly in transcribing names in the Arab world by prioritizing produced transformations. The proposed strategy witnesses the concept of standardized "exendonyms" presented and discussed in a previous research for foreign languages such as French or English. When Arabic is used, the phonetic local transcription is recommended but should also fit transcription rules of the used language as much as possible. In doing so, transcripts should not shift or deviate so far from original name places and much ambiguity can be avoided. This strategy must obey standardized international rules and may repose on modern techniques or media.

  12. Conceptions of effort among students, teachers and parents within an English secondary school

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stables, Andrew; Murakami, Kyoko; McIntosh, Shona

    2014-01-01

    ‘Effort’ and ‘ability’ (understood as potential, intelligence or achievement) are concepts widely used in the everyday language of schooling in Britain but each term lacks clear definition of its use in the school context. Meanwhile, the assessment of effort, alongside that of achievement, remains...... widespread. This article reports on an exploratory case study of conceptions of effort among three major actors in an English secondary school. Qualitative and quantitative data from questionnaires and interviews with teachers, students and parents at an English comprehensive school were collected. Analysis...... reveals that understandings of ‘effort’ are not uniform. Rather, ‘effort’ is a shorthand term, which can be used variably, therefore can be construed as a tool of negotiation, or a form of investment in a set of aims distinctive to each group or individual case. There is a strong case for more sustained...

  13. Autonomous Pluralistic Learning Strategies among Mexican Indigenous and Minority University Students Learning English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Despagne, Colette

    2015-01-01

    This critical ethnographic case study draws on Indigenous and minority students' process of learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Mexico. The study specifically focuses on students who enrolled in a program called "A Wager with the Future." The aim of the study is to identify and understand contributing factors in these…

  14. A study of the extent to which university English education fulfills workplace requirements for Vietnamese graduates and of the extent to which action research can lead to improvements in university English education

    OpenAIRE

    Vo, Thi Hong Le

    2014-01-01

    This study focuses on possible approaches that can be undertaken at university to prepare undergraduate students with English language communicative competence required at the workplace. In exploring how English is taught at a university and whether English education met the needs of business, the main concern of this study is how materials design and teacher education can support learners to develop the skills to communicate effectively in the Vietnamese workplace. The purpose of the stud...

  15. Notions of Gender in the Construction of English.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, Kim

    1991-01-01

    Feminism and gender in the construction of English as a university discipline and the historical development of English are discussed. Generally, English is studied by women and taught by men. The teaching of English today is examined through interviews with four university English department lecturers in the United Kingdom. (SLD)

  16. Reshaping High School English.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pirie, Bruce

    This book takes up the question of what shape high school English studies should take in the coming years. It describes an English program that blends philosophical depth with classroom practicality. Drawing examples from commonly taught texts such as "Macbeth,""To Kill a Mockingbird," and "Lord of the Flies," the…

  17. English speech acquisition in 3- to 5-year-old children learning Russian and English.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gildersleeve-Neumann, Christina E; Wright, Kira L

    2010-10-01

    English speech acquisition in Russian-English (RE) bilingual children was investigated, exploring the effects of Russian phonetic and phonological properties on English single-word productions. Russian has more complex consonants and clusters and a smaller vowel inventory than English. One hundred thirty-seven single-word samples were phonetically transcribed from 14 RE and 28 English-only (E) children, ages 3;3 (years;months) to 5;7. Language and age differences were compared descriptively for phonetic inventories. Multivariate analyses compared phoneme accuracy and error rates between the two language groups. RE children produced Russian-influenced phones in English, including palatalized consonants and trills, and demonstrated significantly higher rates of trill substitution, final devoicing, and vowel errors than E children, suggesting Russian language effects on English. RE and E children did not differ in their overall production complexity, with similar final consonant deletion and cluster reduction error rates, similar phonetic inventories by age, and similar levels of phonetic complexity. Both older language groups were more accurate than the younger language groups. We observed effects of Russian on English speech acquisition; however, there were similarities between the RE and E children that have not been reported in previous studies of speech acquisition in bilingual children. These findings underscore the importance of knowing the phonological properties of both languages of a bilingual child in assessment.

  18. Environmental Education in China's College English Context: A Pilot Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jing

    2013-01-01

    This article addresses the questions of what the current state of environmental education (EE) is in China's College English context and how it can be improved. It does this by examining the perceptions of the College English teachers concerning the practice of linking language and environment learning. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 45…

  19. Earphone English.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldsmith, Francisca

    2002-01-01

    Describes Earphone English, a student club sponsored through a partnership between Berkeley High School and the Berkeley Public Library that offers students whose primary language is not English to practice their spoken and aural English skills. Discusses the audiobooks used in the program and the importance of multicultural content and age…

  20. Constructing English as a Ugandan Language through an English Textbook

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stranger-Johannessen, Espen

    2015-01-01

    English is a national language in Uganda and is widely used in elite areas such as politics and business, but most Ugandans master English to only a limited degree. In this situation, English can be seen as either a foreign language or a second language--influencing how English is taught. One goal of language teaching espoused in this article is…

  1. Practices That Promote English Reading for English Learners (Els)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martínez, Rebecca S.; Harris, Bryn; McClain, Maryellen Brunson

    2014-01-01

    Schools are becoming increasingly diversified; however, training and professional development related to working with English language learners (ELs), especially in the area of English reading, is limited. In this article, we identify three "Big Ideas" of effective and collaborative practices that promote English reading achievement for…

  2. Formality as a Feature of Postcolonial English in Kenya: a Contrastive Analysis Based on the International Corpus of English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalia Budohoska

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available In monolingual countries where English is the native language of the majority of population, it is used across all domains and registers, and by all members of society. In post-colonial, multilingual countries it comes to be used as a lingua franca in more restricted contexts. Because there is a significant difference between the role and use of English in a native and monolingual environment and a non-native, multilingual environment (Trudgill 1999 the following paper concentrates on differences in the formality level of English in postcolonial Kenya and Great Britain on the basis of parameters set up for this study. The data for this paper come from the International Corpus of English for East Africa and for Great Britain. The conclusions concerning the formality of English were drawn basing on a quantitative study employing the chi square test for evaluating significance of the features discussed and revealed a higher level of formality of English in the ICE-K. This study is an introduction to further qualitative research of characteristic morpho-syntactic features of English in Kenya.

  3. Private English Tutoring and Adolescents' Motivation to Learn English as a Foreign Language: A Self System Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Hung-Tzu

    2017-01-01

    The present study investigated how self-related English learning motivation among Taiwanese adolescent learners differs between students who only receive English instruction in formal schooling and those who have additional private tutoring. A total of 1,698 teenage English learners in public secondary schools across Taiwan completed a…

  4. The English as a Foreign Language / Lingua Franca Debate: Sensitising Teachers of English as a Foreign Language Towards Teaching English as a Lingua Franca

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gillian Mansfield

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The function of English as a lingua franca for communication needs rethinking in the teaching of English as a foreign language classroom as a consequence of globalisation. The present contribution is an empirical study carried out in an Italian university environment which aims to show how teachers should take on board awareness raising activities in the recognition of other varieties of English which, albeit not exploited as benchmarks for language testing and certification, must nevertheless boast a relevant place in the global scenario. This can be achieved in practical terms by interrogating an expressly made corpus of Chinese English news texts and carrying out simple concordance activities.

  5. Life after oral English certification

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dimova, Slobodanka

    2017-01-01

    , this study discusses the consequences resulting from score and feedback interpretations and uses as part of the validation process of TOEPAS (Test of Oral English Proficiency for Academic Staff), which is a performance-based test used for oral English certification of lecturers at the University......Internationalization of higher education has resulted in rapid developments of English-medium instruction (EMI) courses in non-Anglophone countries in Europe and Asia. Due to the growing concerns about lecturers' ability to teach in English, several European universities have implemented policies...... for internal assessment of lecturers' English proficiency to ensure the quality of teaching in EMI programs. However, research on the measured construct and the reliability and the validity of these assessments remains scarce. Based on interviews with tested university lecturers and formative feedback analysis...

  6. Asian Varieties of English: Attitudes towards Pronunciation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tokumoto, Mina; Shibata, Miki

    2011-01-01

    According to previous studies, Japanese EFL learners who wish to acquire American or British English pronunciation are reluctant to speak their L1-accented English. In view of this tendency, the present study examined the attitudes of Asian learners toward their L1-accented English. University students from Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia…

  7. Agency Construction and Navigation in Oral Narratives of English Learning by Chinese College English Majors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Qiuming

    2017-01-01

    The current study aims to investigate the discursive construction and navigation of agency in oral narratives of English learning by Chinese college English majors. Based on the theoretical framework integrating Bamberg et. al.'s theory of identity dilemma and Hallidayan systemic functional linguistics, the study has addressed two research…

  8. Feline-transmitted sporotrichosis: A case study from California.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rees, Rachel K; Swartzberg, John E

    2011-06-15

    We report a case of cat-associated sporotrichosis in an adult female in California. A retrospectively diagnosed cutaneous sporotrichosis infection in the patient's cat and the unusual site of the primary lesion in the patient contributed to delayed diagnosis and treatment. Here, we also review the English literature regarding the epidemiology of Sporothrix schenkii as a cat-associated zoonosis.

  9. Chinese English Learners' Strategic Competence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Dianjian; Lai, Hongling; Leslie, Michael

    2015-12-01

    The present study aims to investigate Chinese English learners' ability to use communication strategies (CSs). The subjects are put in a relatively real English referential communication setting and the analyses of the research data show that Chinese English learners, when encountering problems in foreign language (FL) communication, are characterized by the frequent use of substitution, approximation, circumlocution, literal translation, exemplification, word-coinage, repetition, and the infrequent use of cultural-knowledge and paralinguistic CSs. The rare use of paralinguistic strategies is found to be typical of Chinese English learners. The high frequency of literal translation, one first language (L1)-based strategy in our study sample, suggests that FL learners' use of L1-based CSs may depend more upon the developmental stage of their target language than the typology distance between L1 and the target language. The frequency of repetition reveals one fact that the Chinese English learners lack variety and flexibility in their use of CSs. Based on these findings, it was indicated that learners' use of CSs is influenced by a variety of factors, among which the development stage of their interlanguage and their cultural background are identified as two important factors. Some implications are finally suggested for the English foreign language teaching practice in China.

  10. Syntactic and Lexical Complexity of B2 Listening Comprehension Subtests in English: A Comparative Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ilc Gašper

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Adopting Weir’s (2005 socio-cognitive validation framework, the present paper focuses on the syntactic and lexical complexity of listening comprehension subtests in three B2-level examinations: The City Guilds international examination in English, The First Certificate in English, and the General Matura in English. By analysing and interpreting the results obtained from different automated tools, the research aims to determine to what extent the three subtests are comparable. The results of the study suggest the unreliability of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR as a sole mechanism for test comparisons.

  11. Development and Use of English Evaluative Expressions in Narratives of Chinese-English Bilinguals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Liang; Yan, Ruixia

    2011-01-01

    This study compares the development and use of evaluative expressions in the English narratives elicited from 80 Chinese-English bilinguals and 80 American monolingual peers at four ages--five, eight, ten, and young adults--using the wordless picture book "Frog, where are you?" (Mayer, 1969). Results revealed both similarities and differences…

  12. Effective instruction for English learners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calderón, Margarita; Slavin, Robert; Sánchez, Marta

    2011-01-01

    The fastest-growing student population in U.S. schools today is children of immigrants, half of whom do not speak English fluently and are thus labeled English learners. Although the federal government requires school districts to provide services to English learners, it offers states no policies to follow in identifying, assessing, placing, or instructing them. Margarita Calderón, Robert Slavin, and Marta Sánchez identify the elements of effective instruction and review a variety of successful program models. During 2007-08, more than 5.3 million English learners made up 10.6 percent of the nation's K-12 public school enrollment. Wide and persistent achievement disparities between these English learners and English-proficient students show clearly, say the authors, that schools must address the language, literacy, and academic needs of English learners more effectively. Researchers have fiercely debated the merits of bilingual and English-only reading instruction. In elementary schools, English learners commonly receive thirty minutes of English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction but attend general education classes for the rest of the day, usually with teachers who are unprepared to teach them. Though English learners have strikingly diverse levels of skills, in high school they are typically lumped together, with one teacher to address their widely varying needs. These in-school factors contribute to the achievement disparities. Based on the studies presented here, Calderón, Slavin, and Sánchez assert that the quality of instruction is what matters most in educating English learners. They highlight comprehensive reform models, as well as individual components of these models: school structures and leadership; language and literacy instruction; integration of language, literacy, and content instruction in secondary schools; cooperative learning; professional development; parent and family support teams; tutoring; and monitoring implementation and outcomes

  13. Errors in translation made by English major students: A study on types and causes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pattanapong Wongranu

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Many Thai English major students have problems when they translate Thai texts into English, as numerous errors can be found. Therefore, a study of translation errors is needed to find solutions to these problems. The objectives of this research were: 1 to examine types of translation errors in translation from Thai into English, 2 to determine the types of translation errors that are most common, and 3 to find possible explanations for the causes of errors. The results of this study will be used to improve translation teaching and the course “Translation from Thai into English”. The participants were 26 third-year, English major students at Kasetsart University. The data were collected from the students' exercises and examinations. Interviews and stimulated recall were also used to determine translation problems and causes of errors. The data were analyzed by considering the frequency and percentage, and by content analysis. The results shows that the most frequent translation errors were syntactic errors (65%, followed by semantic errors (26.5% and miscellaneous errors (8.5%, respectively. The causes of errors found in this study included translation procedures, carelessness, low self-confidence, and anxiety. It is recommended that more class time be spent to address the problematic points. In addition, more authentic translation and group work should be implemented to increase self-confidence and decrease anxiety.

  14. Cultural Identity in Korean English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Bok-Myung

    2010-01-01

    This study aims to investigate the cultural identity of Korean English and to make the intercultural communications among non-native speakers successful. The purposes of this study can be summarized as follows: 1) to recognize the concept of English as an International Language (EIL), 2) to emphasize cross-cultural understanding in the globalized…

  15. The Method of High School English Word Learning

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    吴博涵

    2016-01-01

    Most Chinese students are not interested in English learning, especially English words. In this paper, I focus on English vocabulary learning, for example, the study of high school students English word learning method, and also introduce several ways to make vocabulary memory becomes more effective. The purpose is to make high school students grasp more English word learning skills.

  16. Gender effects on phonological processing and reading development in Northern Sotho children learning to read in English: A case study of Grade 3 learners

    OpenAIRE

    Carien Wilsenach; Patricia Makaure

    2018-01-01

    Gender differences in reading development are a global phenomenon, with girls typically performing better than boys. Some studies have reported gender differences favouring girls in reading comprehension in South Africa, but little systematic evidence exists about gender differences in the cognitive-linguistic abilities that underlie reading development. This study investigated the effect of gender on phonological processing and reading development in Northern Sotho–English bilingual children...

  17. To Teach Standard English or World Englishes? A Balanced Approach to Instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrell, Thomas S. C.; Martin, Sonia

    2009-01-01

    This article suggests that English language teachers should consider all varieties of English, not just British Standard English or American Standard English. In order to better prepare students for the global world, and to show them that their own English is valued, teachers can implement a balanced approach that incorporates the teaching and…

  18. Profiling the “native speaker” of English: myths and implications for ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The article then goes on to show how the notion of the “native speaker” of English affects ESL teaching and learning. In each case, it is argued that an insistence on “native speaker” norms, such as the use of “standard” English, suffocates the growth of regional varieties that have characterized, over many generations, the ...

  19. English Medium Instruction (EMI) as Linguistic Capital in Nepal: Promises and Realities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sah, Pramod Kumar; Li, Guofang

    2018-01-01

    This article reports on a critical qualitative case study of an EMI-based, underresourced public school in Nepal through Bourdieu's lens of linguistic capital. As the data analysis revealed, parents, students, and teachers regarded EMI as a privileged form of linguistic capital for developing advanced English skills, enhancing educational…

  20. Methodologies for Teaching English to Adult Students in Spanish Vocational Education Programs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castañeda, Sergio Bernal

    2016-01-01

    This paper explores strategies used by teachers of English in Spain to compensate for learning limitations associated with student age. As part of a qualitative study of multiple cases, twenty teachers from different vocational programs volunteered to participate in semi-structured interviews. The interviews revealed the difficulties that older…

  1. Placing Math Reform: Locating Latino English Learners in Math Classrooms and Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erbstein, Nancy

    2015-01-01

    This article explores how place matters in public school reform efforts intended to promote more equitable opportunities and outcomes. Qualitative case studies of three California middle schools' eighth grade math reforms and the resulting opportunities for Latino English learners are presented, using the conceptual frameworks of critical human…

  2. Chinese students' writing in English implications from a corpus-driven study

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    Leedham, Maria

    2014-01-01

    Chinese students are the largest international student group in UK universities today, yet little is known about their undergraduate writing and the challenges they face. Drawing on the British Academic Written English corpus - a large corpus of proficient undergraduate student writing collected in the UK in the early 2000s - this study explores Chinese students' written assignments in English in a range of university disciplines, contrasting these with assignments from British students. The study is supplemented by questionnaire and interview datasets with discipline lecturers, writing tutors and students, and provides a comprehensive picture of the Chinese student writer today. Theoretically framed through work within academic literacies and lexical priming, the author seeks to explore what we know about Chinese students' writing and to extend these findings to undergraduate writing more generally. In a globalized educational environment, it is important for educators to understand differences in writing st...

  3. Between Languages and Cultures: Arabic into English Transliteration in English Travel Literature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nusaiba Adel Almahameed

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available This essay aspires to examine the use of transliteration of some words and phrases from Arabic to English in travel literature books. This has been conducted by exploring the transliterated Arabic words and phrases, and comparing the different transliterations of the same words and phrases by different writers. It investigates the way that the travel writers employ in making plural nouns, the use of the definite article (Al (ال, and Al-tashdid (the duplication of a letter. The conclusion drawn is that travel literature writers resort to transliteration for three reasons; one of the main reasons is that sometimes there is no one-to-one correspondence; the second main reason suggests that transliteration avoids the loss of meaning; and the third one stems from the fact that transliteration helps to find transculturation between cultures. The contributions of this essay would be of concern to scholars, who are interested in Arabic into English transliteration, specifically in English travel literature. According to the researchers’ knowledge, this essay can be considered a leading pioneer study in the field that deals with transliteration from Arabic into English in English travel literature.

  4. Investigating the Target Language Usage in and outside Business English Classrooms for Non-English Major Undergraduates at a Chinese University

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Qing

    2017-01-01

    This article reports an investigative study on the target language use in and outside business English classrooms for non-English major undergraduates in a Chinese university context. The aims of the study are to identify the actual situation of target language use in business English teaching and to suggest ways for improvements. The study uses…

  5. Teaching and Learning English in a Multicultural Classroom: Strategies and Opportunities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xerri, Daniel

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: This paper aims to explore the beliefs and experiences of a group of teachers endeavouring to enhance their students' learning of English while adapting to a multicultural classroom reality. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on the results of a case study involving a number of semi-structured interviews. Findings: The paper…

  6. A Modest Critical Pedagogy for English as a Foreign Language Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Mi Kyong; Pollard, Vikki Ann

    2017-01-01

    This paper uses the introduction of critical pedagogy to an English as a Foreign Language class in the Republic of Korea as a case study for a "modest critical pedagogy" (Tinning 2002). Focusing on the stress and resistances experienced during the introduction, we suggest a modest critical pedagogy that 1) makes the paradigm itself an…

  7. Cultivation and Stimulation of the English Learning Motivation

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    马茹

    2014-01-01

    In recent years, more and more researches show that we should pay more attention to students to play a main role in English study, because students who get the final effect on English learning motivation play central role in numerous students' learning affected factors. Therefore, in the education teaching activities, many teachers regard learning motivation of English effect as important aspect and use it in teaching through different ways and methods to cultivate and motivate students to learn English motivation. According to the definition of learning motivation,combined with the modern middle school students’English study, such as, the current situation of teachers' teaching, the actual situation of the relationship between teach-ers and students to talk about encouraging and educating high school students in English learning motivation by means and methods, in order to culti-vate and stimulate students`English learning motivation and improve English teaching level.

  8. WEBLOGS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING: Students’ Perceptions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juida WAN

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available The digital explosion of information on the Internet has resulted in a need for a new and up-to-date way for Digital Natives to learn English. Educators have reported numerous benefits of using weblogs in English language learning. This article presents a small scale study on the use of weblogs for English language learning at tertiary level in Malaysia. Twenty six students kept weblogs for a duration of a semester. This study investigated how students perceived the use of weblogs for English language learning. A questionnaire which was made up of both close-ended and open-ended questions was administered at the end of the study. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to analyse the students’ responses to the questionnaire. The study found that students were aware of their audience when they blogged and that they geared their writing towards their audience. In addition, they also interacted with others through the use of the comment feature on their weblogs. Furthermore, the majority of the students enjoyed blogging and found weblogs useful for English language learning. This study found that weblogs are promising interactive tools for English language learning.

  9. Singing well-becoming: Student musical therapy case studies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tim Murphey

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Much research supports the everyday therapeutic and deeper socialneurophysiological influence of singing songs alone and in groups (Austin, 2008; Cozolino, 2013; Sacks, 2007. This study looks at what happens when Japanese students teach short English affirmation songlet-routines to others out of the classroom (clandestine folk music therapy. I investigate 155 student-conducted musical case studies from 7 semester-long classes (18 to 29 students per class over a 4-year period. The assignments, their in-class training, and their results are introduced, with examples directly from their case studies. Each class published their own booklet of case studies (a class publication, available to readers online for research replication and modeling. Results show that most primary participants enjoyed spreading these positive songlets as they became “well-becoming agents of change” in their own social networks. “Well-becoming” emphasizes an agentive action or activity that creates better well-being in others, an action such as the sharing or teaching of a songlet. The qualitative data reveals a number of types of well-becoming such as social and familial bonding, meaning-making, teaching-rushes, and experiencing embodied cognition. The project also stimulated wider network dissemination of these well-becoming possibilities and pedagogical insights.

  10. WORD-MAKING IN PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH.

    Science.gov (United States)

    SIMONINI, R.C., JR.

    WORDS CAN BE STUDIED BY DESCRIBING THEIR ORIGIN INDUCTIVELY OR DEDUCTIVELY. EITHER WAY, A PRECISE DEFINITION OF ETYMOLOGICAL CLASSES WHICH ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE IS NEEDED. PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH IS CLASSIFIED INTO--(1) NATIVE WORDS WHICH CAN BE TRACED BACK TO THE WORD STOCK OF OLD ENGLISH, (2) LOAN WORDS NEW TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WHICH HAD…

  11. Sociocultural and Academic Considerations for School-Age d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Multilingual Learners: A Case Study of a Deaf Latina.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Sharon; Scott, Jessica

    2016-01-01

    For decades , research has focused on American Sign Language/English bilingual education for d/Deaf and hard of hearing students whose families used English or ASL. However, a growing population of d/Dhh children come from households where languages other than English (e.g., Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese) are used. In a longitudinal case study, the authors document the K-12 educational pathway of a deaf Latina student. Anecdotal records, semistructured interviews, assessment data, and document reviews of the participant's school and clinical records are used to develop the case study. The findings provide the basis for recommendations for future research and for critical factors to consider to improve the education of d/Dhh Multilingual Learners (DMLs). These include ensuring appropriate educational placements, addressing early communication and language needs, determining effective instructional techniques and assessments, strengthening the L1 to support L2 learning, and providing students with opportunities to learn their heritage language.

  12. English Voices in "Text-to-Speech Tools": Representation of English Users and Their Varieties from a World Englishes Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karakas, Ali

    2017-01-01

    English has experienced grave transformations recently in terms of socio-demographic and geographical characteristics. While such transformations have resulted in diverse types of English uses and various English users, the existing ELT materials still fail to represent the global varieties and dynamic uses and users of English. Moving from a…

  13. Intercultural awareness and intercultural communication through English: an investigation of Thai English language users in higher education

    OpenAIRE

    Baker, William

    2009-01-01

    Over the previous few decades there has been an increased emphasis on the cultural aspects of English language teaching. However, in settings where English is used as a global lingua franca the cultural associations of the language are complex and the role culture plays in successful communication has yet to be extensively investigated. To conduct such a study it is necessary to explicate the role and nature of English in global contexts and particularly how English functions as a lingua f...

  14. Where do borders lie in translated literature? The case of the changing English-language market

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard Michael Mansell

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Anecdotal accounts suggest that one reason for the perceived resistance to translated literature in English-language markets is that commissioning editors are averse to considering texts that they cannot read. In an attempt to overcome this barrier, English translations are increasingly commissioned by publishers of source texts and agents of source authors and used to stimulate interest in a book (not just in English-language markets, a phenomenon this article terms ‘source-commissioned translations’. This article considers how this phenomenon indicates a shift in the borders between literatures, how it disrupts accepted commercial practices, and the consequences of this for the industry and the role of English in the global book trade. In particular, it considers consequences for the quality of translations, questions regarding copyright, and the uncertain position for the translator when, at the time of translating, a contract is not in place between the translator and the publisher of the translation.

  15. Effects of Adapted Dialogic Reading on Oral Language and Vocabulary Knowledge of Latino Preschoolers at Risk for English Language Delays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Correa, Vivian I.; Lo, Ya-Yu; Godfrey-Hurrell, Kristi; Swart, Katie; Baker, Doris Luft

    2015-01-01

    In this single-case design study, we examined the effects of an adapted dialogic reading intervention on the oral language and vocabulary skills of four Latino preschool children who were at risk for English language delays. We used adapted dialogic reading strategies in English and two literacy games that included a rapid naming activity and…

  16. Resisting English: Excavating English Ideologies of Young Boys through Chutkule at an Indian Orphanage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhattacharya, Usree

    2017-01-01

    The prevailing scholarship on Indians' beliefs about English has, with few exceptions, largely failed to capture ideological resistance. Given the supremacy of English within the hierarchically ordered and unequal linguistic landscape in India, this study intervenes within this limited area of research. This investigation excavates ideologies of…

  17. Developing English Writing Proficiency in Limited English Proficient College Students through Cooperative Learning Strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gooden-Jones, Epsey M.; Carrasquillo, Angela L.

    A study followed ten limited-English-proficient (LEP) community college students who were taught English largely using a cooperative learning approach. For four months, the students worked together using brainstorming techniques and collaborative reading and writing tasks. Task emphasis was on development of thinking skills through collaboration…

  18. Using PELA to Predict International Business Students' English Writing Performance with Contextualised English Writing Workshops as Intervention Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Caroline; Delante, Nimrod Lawsin; Wang, Pengji

    2017-01-01

    This study examines the effectiveness of Post-Entry English Language Assessment (PELA) as a predictor of international business students' English writing performance and academic performance. An intervention involving the implementation of contextualised English writing workshops was embedded in a specific business subject targeted at students who…

  19. English Studies as Creole Scholarship: Reconfiguring the Discipline for Postcolonial Conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Canagarajah, Suresh

    2011-01-01

    The shifts underway in contemporary social conditions call for a new alignment between the specializations constituting English Studies: namely, literature, applied linguistics, and rhetoric and composition. Postcolonial social movements have generated new language, textual, and literary practices. These developments bring to the fore practices…

  20. Communicative Textbooks: English Language Textbooks in Iranian Secondary School

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dahmardeh, Mahdi

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available English language teaching materials (textbooks play an important role in many language classrooms, but recently there have been a lot of debates within the English language teaching profession based on the actual role that materials play in teaching English as a foreign language. Arguments have encompassed both the potential and the limitations of materials used for 'guiding' students through the learning processes and curriculum as well as the needs and preferences of teachers who are using the textbooks that are available. Other issues that have arisen in recent years include textbook design and practicality, methodological validity, the role of textbooks in innovation, the authenticity of materials in terms of their representation of language, communicative textbooks, and balance in presenting the language skills as well as cultural components.The purpose of this article is to report the findings of a study carried out in 2006 into how Iranian textbooks could be made more communicative. The textbooks referred to are three English language textbooks, which are currently used in Iranian Secondary Schools. Although the work has been done within Iranian context, many suggestions could be applied to other foreign/second language situations.I will start my discussion by presenting an overview about the English language teaching in Iran, before and after the revolution. This will be followed by presenting the findings of this research that would include the Iranian ELT curriculum, the questionnaire survey (author's and teachers' perspectives as well as their discomfort will be addressed as well as introducing the English language coursebooks for secondary schools in Iran (topic, progression, structure of the lessons, types of exercises etc.. I will then present a discussion on findings of this research which would be a detailed exemplary criticism and suggestions for changes to make the materials communicative.The findings of this explanatory case