ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
EFL Teaching in the Amazon Region of Ecuador: A Focus on Activities and Resources for Teaching Listening and Speaking Skills
Author: Gonzalez, Paul F.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Listening Skills,Speech Skills,Class Activities,Extracurricular Activities,Educational Resources,High Schools,Public Schools,High School Students,English Teachers,Secondary School Teachers,Mixed Methods Research,Questionnaires,Interviews,Observation,Language Tests,Language Proficiency

Research on teaching listening and speaking skills has been conducted at many levels. The purpose of this study was to analyze the current implementation of classroom and extracurricular activities, as well as the use of educational resources for teaching both skills in public senior high schools in the Amazon region of Ecuador, particularly in the towns of Zamora and Yantzaza. The participants included 188 students between the ages of 15 and 18 years, and 10 English teachers in the area. This study was conducted using a mixed-method (quantitative and qualitative) approach. The instruments to collect information were students' and teachers' questionnaires, teacher's interviews, and observation sheets. In addition, the Cambridge English Unlimited Placement Test was applied in order to determine the students' English proficiency level of listening and speaking skills. The findings revealed that the completion of exercises based on a listening passage and dialogues were the most frequent activities used by students to practice listening in the classroom; meanwhile, dialogues and repetition drills were the most frequent activities applied to develop speaking. With respect to extracurricular activities, listening to English music with lyrics, watching videos, discussions, and conversations with native speakers were most frequently suggested for enhancing listening and speaking. Among the resources, audio CDs and textbooks were the most frequent aids to prompt listening and speaking activities.
The Mental Lexicon and English Vocabulary Teaching
Author: He, Huaqing
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Vocabulary Development,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Language Processing,Semantics,Language Teachers,Dictionaries,Psycholinguistics,Networks,Teaching Methods,Memorization,Morphology (Languages)

In China, English as a foreign language (EFL) learning mainly occurs in the classroom, and the resultant lack of practice using English in authentic settings makes it quite difficult for many Chinese learners to learn English words. They may often feel that English words are &quot;difficult to learn and easy to forget.&quot; As such, how to effectively teach English vocabulary in classrooms is an essential point for English teachers. Assuming that the goal of vocabulary teaching is to build up students' mental lexicon, this paper first briefly introduces the properties of the mental lexicon and examines differences between the mental lexicon and (print or electronic) dictionaries. More importantly, it then discusses how to teach English vocabulary based on a proper understanding of the organization of the mental lexicon and means of accessing it. Finally, the author poses some suggestions on vocabulary teaching: learning words from context as against word lists, establishing semantic relations between words, providing learners with frequent exposure to words, and teaching morphological knowledge pertaining to the words.
Connecting Reading and Writing: A Case Study
Author: Li, Zhanfang
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Reading Writing Relationship,Case Studies,English (Second Language),Majors (Students),College Students,Student Journals,Qualitative Research,Second Language Learning,Foreign Countries

Connecting reading and writing, proposed by many scholars, is realized in this case study. The 30 participants in this study are the English majors of the third year in one School of Foreign Languages in Beijing. They are encouraged to write journals every week, based on the source text materials in their Intensive Reading class, with the final piece as a reflective journal of their mind work in writing. All their journals written during the first 12 weeks of the whole semester are analyzed qualitatively. Analysis of their source-text-based journals shows that they have unique ways in integrating reading and writing, and the results of the reflective journals indicate that the participants have perceived the obvious merits of writing journals after reading. Journal writing helps them gain a better understanding of the source text, gives them a chance to review the text, cultivates their critical thinking abilities, and guarantees them a special opportunity to communicate with the teacher.
English Spelling Errors Made by Arabic-Speaking Students
Author: Al-Busaidi, Saleh
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Spelling,Error Patterns,Semitic Languages,Second Language Learning,College Students,Vowels,Pronunciation

Spelling is a basic literacy skill in any language as it is crucial in communication. EFL students are often unable to spell or pronounce very simple monosyllabic words even after several years of English instruction. Similarly, teachers and researchers usually focus on the larger skills such as speaking and reading and ignore the smaller components. This study attempted to investigate the problems that university Arab learners face in spelling English vowels. The reason for focusing on vowels is that they appear to be more problematic and irregular than consonants, probably because of the perceptible mismatch between phonemes and graphemes. The study has primarily focused on monosyllabic words in order to (a) test the students' knowledge in spelling these basic words and (b) to avoid the impact of other factors, such as stress and intonation which affect the pronunciation of vowel sounds in multi-syllable words. Data were collected through a battery of tests. The study has important implications for future research and for teaching.
Using Wmatrix to Explore Discourse of Economic Growth
Author: Hu, Chunyu
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Computer Software,Computational Linguistics,Economic Development,Periodicals,Semantics,Statistical Analysis,Information Retrieval

Growth is a concept of particular interest for economic discourse. This paper sets out to explore a small corpus of economic growth, which consists of articles from &quot;The Economist&quot;. The corpus software used in this study is a web-based tool Wmatrix, an automatic tagging software able to assign semantic field (domain) tags, and to permit the extraction of key words and key semantic domains by applying the keyness calculation to tag frequency lists. The results show that at 99% confidence (or p &lt; 0.01), the cut-off of 6.63 (log likelihood value) indicates that there are 1051 positive keywords (including multiword expressions) and 80 key semantic domains generated from the corpus. It is evident that BRICs or the emerging economies/markets, in particular China and India, are a big concern regarding economic growth over the past years. A number of examples of possible ways forward in teaching methodology are presented.
An Analysis of Comprehension Performance of Sudanese EFL Students
Author: Ahmed, Mahgoub Dafalla
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Secondary School Students,Gender Differences,Reading Comprehension,Reading Tests,Questionnaires,Vocabulary,Mixed Methods Research

This study examines the Sudanese EFL students' comprehension performance and measures the differences in their performance according to gender. After one semester of participation in extensive reading, 300 secondary school students from 15 schools in the state of Khartoum are randomly selected for the study. A comprehension test followed by a questionnaire on how they think while completing the test are used as instruments. The study's results reveal an average performance and statistically significant differences in the background, explicit, vocabulary and general understanding questions of the reading comprehension. However, these significant differences are not found in the implicit and the interpretation questions and in using lower and higher levels of processing skills. In addition, significant differences have appeared between males and females students in the background, explicit, implicit and interpretation, and vocabulary questions, but not found in the general understanding questions. Then, findings are discussed and recommendations are provided. Drawing on these findings the study, for example, recommends that good applications of techniques and procedures of teaching EFL reading might be a viable intervention for improving students' performance in EFL reading.
The Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Beliefs about Language Learning: A Study of Iranian Postgraduate EAP Students
Author: Ariani, Mohsen Ghasemi
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Graduate Students,English for Academic Purposes,Socioeconomic Status,Student Attitudes,Beliefs,Second Language Learning,Questionnaires,Statistical Analysis,Likert Scales

This study explored the probable interaction between Iranian language students' beliefs about language learning and their socio-economic status. To this end, 350 postgraduate students, doing English courses at Islamic Azad University of Neyshabur participated in this study. They were grouped in terms of their socio-economic status. They answered a questionnaire in which they indicated their beliefs about language learning in different contexts of language use. The quantitative data were subjected to a set of parametric statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics. The findings manifested a positive relationship between the participants' economic status and their beliefs about language learning. The findings reflected that social factors exert substantial influence on the process of language learning and language teachers should be highly qualified to make professional judgment about the actual language ability of language learners to decrease error of measurement. Language teachers should also create pleasant learning environment fostering learners' positive attitude toward language learning.
A Case Analysis of Business English Teacher Development in China with GDUFS as an Example
Author: Wenzhong, Zhu
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Business English,English Teachers,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Faculty Development,College Faculty,Case Studies,Business Administration Education,Expectation,Questionnaires

Business English education has evolved into a cross-disciplinary programme in China as one of the hottest majors pursued by students and professionals. As Business English teaching develops in terms of diversity, richness, and depth, the demands placed on the teacher are also increasing. The paper assumes that the kind of teachers with multi-skills of both English language and business knowledge are the best to meet the requirement of Business English teaching. It makes a case analysis of the practice of Business English teacher development in China by taking Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS) as an example, which mainly reflects into the types of teachers teaching Business English courses, the expectations of learners for Business English teachers, and the ways of Business English teacher development, etc. It summarizes the triple types of Business English teachers and the five approaches of Business English teacher development. On this basis, it proposes some implications for the trend of growing professionalism of Business English teachers.
The Empirical Assessment of English for Specific Business Purpose (ESBP) among Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI) Staff
Author: Moazzen, Ahmad
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Business English,English for Special Purposes,Banking,Employees,Language Proficiency,Technical Writing,Writing Skills,Quasiexperimental Design,Pretests Posttests,Correlation,Language Tests

The present study has been conducted with the purpose of exploring the relationship between EDBI staff's General English proficiency and their technical English Writing as well as the way each ESBP and GE courses affect their writing skill. The kind of the study is quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test, being conducted among EDBI staff in Tehran Branches and Headquarters. In data collection two standard tests were used, namely Preliminary English Test (PET) for homogenous subjects, and also the level of their GE progress at the end of the treatment, and Business English Certificates (BEC) test Level B1, to measure their technical writing skill with appropriate validity and reliability. The findings indicate that: 1) there was a correlation between subjects' general English proficiency and their business writing proficiency; 2) teaching writing of banking texts significantly improved EDBI staff's General English; 3) teaching writing of banking could significantly improve EDBI staff's Business English proficiency; 4) teaching writing of banking could significantly improve EDBI staff's Business English proficiency more than GE proficiency.
The Use of Supplementary Materials in English Foreign Language Classes in Ecuadorian Secondary Schools
Author: Dodd, Alexander R.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Secondary School Teachers,Secondary School Students,Mixed Methods Research,Interviews,Teacher Attitudes,Instructional Materials,Student Attitudes,Student Motivation,Student Participation,Comprehension,Academic Achievement,Teaching Methods,Questionnaires

This mixed-methods study investigated the use of supplementary materials by EFL teachers in Ecuadorian secondary schools. Via the use of teacher interviews (n = 12) it was found that teachers believe the use of supplementary materials increases the motivation of the students, which in-turn improves the learning possibilities of the students. The quantitative sample (n = 695) showed the students' preferences for supplementary materials and confirmed our results that the use of certain supplementary materials does in fact increase the motivation, understanding and participation of the students in their English language classes. Four variables were considered to do this research; motivation of students when any material was used, whether students' participation increased or not when using supplementary material, the third one focused on whether the students felt as though their understanding had increased in class as a result of the use of the material. The final variable aimed to measure whether the student felt their performance in class had improved as a result of the use of the material in question. The results showed that more dynamic and interactive classes are created when teachers use any supplementary material.
Developing a Practical Rating Rubric of Speaking Test for University Students of English in Parepare, Indonesia
Author: Latifa, Ammang
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Scoring Rubrics,Speech Tests,College Students,English (Second Language),Research and Development,Interviews,Mixed Methods Research

This study aims to develop a practical rating rubric of speaking ability in the classroom setting. This research study involves the English speaking lecturers at a number of higher education institutions in Parepare, Indonesia. The product is designed based on Research and Development (R&amp;D) approach, which is adopted from Gall, Gall, and Borg (2003). This approach is implemented in six steps: problem identification, need analysis, designing product, revising product, field test, and implementation.The data is collected through interview for need analysis issue and product development. The other data collection is from tryout process that aims to evaluate the new product. Both of interviewed data and tried out data are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. This research study finds a new design and scoring mechanism of analytical rubric of speaking test. This rubric calls Practical Rating Rubric of Speaking Test (P2RST). It enables the rater to perform scoring mechanism more shortly than the existing analytical rubric. It is also supported by some components such as a) evaluation criteria of communicative competences; grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, discourse, and strategic competence, b) band score; scale 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, c) descriptors.
Sustaining Science through Language in a Pluralistic World
Author: Ogunsiji, Yemi
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Language Usage,Sciences,Scientific Methodology,Interpersonal Communication,Language Proficiency,English,Language of Instruction,English (Second Language),Foreign Countries

In any society, the role of language has always been a very vital and incontrovertible one. The bible made us to understand that at the beginning, there was word and the word was with God and God was the word. The world and all that we have therein were created through word. This makes one to wonder about the power in language today. At all levels in life, we make use of language to perform one operation or the other. At the level of education, there is no doubt that language is the tool that we use not minding the area of one's study. This is why we can boldly say that language is the vehicle through which whatever we do in the world can forge ahead. With all these as our launching pad, this paper looks into the necessity and the intermingling of science and language. It examines some areas of complementarities in the two fields where effective teaching, learning, comprehension and positive application can effectively take place. Since science is the in-thing in the present world, it then becomes imperative that language will continue to sustain and promote the growth of science in the present global setting.
The Effects of CMC Applications on ESL Writing Anxiety among Postgraduate Students
Author: Hussin, Supyan
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Graduate Students,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Writing Apprehension,Computer Mediated Communication,Mixed Methods Research,Semi Structured Interviews,Measures (Individuals),Observation,Writing Instruction,Process Approach (Writing),Student Attitudes

This study investigates the effects of the CMC applications on the ESL/EFL writing anxiety. This is a descriptive study using a mixed-method that adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Three instruments were employed to answer the research questions of the current study which are Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI), Semi-structured Interview, and Documents Observation. The respondents consisted of twenty eight post-graduate ESL/EFL students who enrolled in the elective course of Computer Application in ESOL (SKBI6133) at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, School of English Language Studies, National University of Malaysia (UKM). The findings showed a significant change in their attitudes toward writing after they had engaged in writing process approach and CMC applications in the course. In addition, the respondents perceived that there was a positive effect of on their writing performance and improvement on their writing anxiety level particularly through the use of CMC applications.
Korean Learners' Metacognition in Reading Using Think-Aloud Procedures with a Focus on Regulation of Cognition
Author: Kim, Hyang-Il
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Metacognition,Protocol Analysis,Cognitive Processes,College Students,Reading Processes,Change,Reading Strategies,Reading Instruction,Interviews

The primary goal of this study was to explore the changes that four Korean university students made in their regulation of cognition during reading processes. The students were trained using explicit reading strategy instruction based on the CALLA model. To this end, first, metacognition was framed and categorized by the definition from Baker and Brown (1984) and, second, a scoring scale for measuring the readers' regulation of cognition was developed based on the study by Block (1992) to examine and trace any changes in their regulation processes. For data analyses, the participants' think-aloud protocols were used. The results indicate that there were marked changes in the frequencies of their regulation processes over time. Specifically, the students' overt strategic and regulatory behaviors in a regulation process showed more flexibility and organization toward the end of the strategy training. This study suggests that students would benefit from being provided with sufficient time for practice in order to build effective regulation of cognition in reading processes and that the teacher should understand the complex nature of the regulation processes that students go through. In addition, think-aloud procedures as an instructional tool for effective strategy training was shown to be a worthwhile technique in the classroom.
Challenges Confronted by Korean Students in a Chinese University: An Interview Study
Author: Li, Ying
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Students,Student Experience,College Seniors,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Majors (Students),Cultural Influences,Barriers,Foreign Countries,Semi Structured Interviews,Student Attitudes,Teacher Student Relationship,Language Usage,Chinese,Language Proficiency

During recent decades, both institutions of higher education and university students of the world are trying to become international by offering or gaining some form of international education, which has caught the attention of increasingly more researchers (Jackson, 2004; Trenchs-Parera, 2009). As East Asian students have increasingly become the majority of international students on university campuses (Xia, 2009), Chinese institutions of higher education have also been recruiting more and more international students. Nevertheless, research on international students in China has been scarce. The present interview study aimed to document the challenges Korean students had while studying full-time in a prestigious university in Beijing. Interviews with 10 senior Korean English majors revealed that they confronted a series of academic, linguistic and cultural challenges while studying in the university. Based on this finding, some implications are discussed.
Promoting the Reading Culture Towards Human Capital and Global Development
Author: Olasehinde, M. O.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Reading Skills,Cultural Influences,Human Capital,Reading Habits,Foreign Countries,Cognitive Development,Surveys,Attitude Measures,College Students,College Faculty,Student Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,Questionnaires,Reading Materials,Parent Role,Poverty,Crime,Libraries,Access to Computers,Change Strategies

It is commonly agreed that a country cannot be fully developed without large-scale investment in her educational scheme since the breakthrough of a country is directly proportional to her educational level. Since the acquisition of effective reading skills has a positive effect on all school subjects, then reading is sine-qua-non for human capital and global development. Yet, it has been observed that many Nigerians today have a poor reading habit. Thus, this paper focuses on this poor reading habit among our people today and its causes. The paper is rounded off with suggestions as to what concerned stakeholders can do to develop and re-invent the reading culture in Nigeria.