ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Investigating the Effect of Using Multiple Sensory Modes of Glossing Vocabulary Items in a Reading Text with Multimedia Annotations
Author: Rezaee, Abbas Ali
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Reading Comprehension,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Vocabulary Development,Second Language Instruction,Multimedia Instruction,Films,Statistical Analysis,Recall (Psychology),Test Format,Multiple Choice Tests,Language Tests,Scores,Illustrations,Pretests Posttests,Student Attitudes,Adult Students,Institutes (Training Programs),Computer Assisted Instruction

In recent years, improvements in technology have enhanced the possibilities of teaching and learning various subjects. This is specially the case in foreign language instruction. The use of technology and multimedia brings new opportunities for learning different areas of language. In this regard, the present study attempts to find out if the use of multimedia, images and movies, helps learners in learning vocabulary items included in a reading comprehension text. For this purpose, 70 students studying English at pre-intermediate level have been selected. These participants are then divided into three groups, each of which receives a different kind of instruction. The members of the first group were required to read some texts in which certain vocabulary items were included as the target of teaching. Those in the second group received the same texts with some pictures added so that the grasp of the unknown words would become facilitated. The students in the third group were exposed to the same material along with some movie strips. The strips were selected in a way to include the specific vocabulary items. The course duration was about 45 days. At the end of the course, all the students in the three aforementioned groups were sat for taking a vocabulary test. The test format was multiple-choice. The results of the ANOVA indicated that annotating reading comprehension passages with movie clips contributes to better learning and recall of vocabulary through reading texts.
Motivating Students in the EFL Classroom: A Case Study of Perspectives
Author: Bahous, Rima
Date: 2011-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Student Motivation,Student Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,Teacher Surveys,College Students,Questionnaires,Semi Structured Interviews,Qualitative Research

Motivating EFL students to develop in the target language is quite complex. In many cases, these students face difficulties in learning English and are often demotivated to learn. Research in classroom motivation has found that certain strategies can help these students adopt more positive attitudes and become more motivated in the learning process. This exploratory study investigates the perceptions through interviewing students and surveying teachers' views in an EFL Program of the problems that hinder these students' learning in the English classes related to motivation. Findings show that learners are not motivated to learn English because of an over-focus on writing skills with very little new learning experiences, uninteresting materials, and unclear links between language courses and their majors or future careers. Results also indicate that teachers complain of unmotivated students and pre-structured syllabi leaving little room for communicative methods. Implications are made for the classroom.
Finding a Place for Critical Thinking and Self-Voice in College English as a Foreign Language Writing Classrooms
Author: Barnawi, Osman Z.
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Critical Thinking,College Second Language Programs,Empowerment,Writing Instruction,Workshops,Educational Practices

Although the concepts of critical thinking and self-voice have been extensively discussed in a second language writing, little attention has been given, on the pedagogical level, to critical thinking and self-voice in college EFL writing instruction. To fill such a void, this paper attempts to propose some pedagogical tasks namely: persuasive writing tasks, draft workshops one-on-one mentoring approaches for finding a place for critical thinking and self-voice in EFL classrooms. In doing so, this paper provides the operational definitions of critical thinking and self-voice concepts. It then discusses how these two concepts are closely related to complement EFL writing learning. In what follows, it presents the rationale for finding a place for critical thinking and self-voice in EFL writing. It then touches on some pedagogical practices for developing critical thinking and self-voice in classrooms. Lastly, it addresses some challenges related to implementing critical thinking and self-voice tasks in EFL classrooms.
The Teacher of English: Pedagogic Relevance in Saudi Arabia
Author: Khan, Intakhab Alam
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Teacher Characteristics,Teacher Effectiveness,Educational Philosophy,Teacher Role,Sociolinguistics,Facilitators (Individuals),English Teacher Education,English Teachers,Parent Attitudes,Student Attitudes,Inservice Teacher Education,Ethics

The present paper attempts to explore the characteristics of an effective teacher of English. Some related factors such as qualification, attributes, roles, and professional ethics have also been dealt with. In Saudi Arabia, the teacher of English plays the most important role in the process of teaching/learning. There are so many factors such as L1 interference, parental attitude, home environment, schooling etc that are usually influential in the case of educational setting in general and English classes in particular. It is believed that if the teacher of English has undergone a pre-service teacher training it is better for the learners of Saudi Arabia. In the other case, those who have not attended pre-service teacher training, they should go for in-service professional development programs in order to equip them further for innovative teaching and educational output.
Generative Semantics
Author: Bagha, Karim Nazari
Date: 2011-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Transformational Generative Grammar,Semantics,Linguistic Theory,Syntax

Generative semantics is (or perhaps was) a research program within linguistics, initiated by the work of George Lakoff, John R. Ross, Paul Postal and later McCawley. The approach developed out of transformational generative grammar in the mid 1960s, but stood largely in opposition to work by Noam Chomsky and his students. The nature and genesis of the program are a matter of some controversy and have been extensively debated. Generative semanticists took Chomsky's concept of deep structure and ran with it, assuming (contrary to later work by Chomsky and Ray Jackendoff) that deep structures were the sole input to semantic interpretation. This assumption, combined with a tendency to consider a wider rang of empirical evidence than Chomskyan linguists, lead generative semanticists to develop considerably more abstract and complex theories of deep structure than those advocated by Chomsky and his students. Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, there were heated debates between generative semanticists and more orthodox Chomskyans. The generative semanticists lost the debate, in so far as their research program ground to a halt by the 1980s. However, this was in part because the interests of key generative semanticists such as George Lakoff had gradually shifted away from the narrow study of syntax and semantics. A number of ideas from later work in generative semantics have been incorporated into cognitive linguistics (and indeed into main stream Chomskyan linguistics, often without citation).
Culture Differences and English Teaching
Author: Wang, Jin
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Cultural Differences,Cultural Influences,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Foreign Countries,Cultural Awareness,Asian Culture,Comprehension,Language Proficiency,Language Usage,Oral Language,Communication Skills,Reading Comprehension,Teaching Methods

Language is a part of culture, and plays a very important role in the development of the culture. Some sociologists consider it as the keystone of culture. They believe, without language, culture would not be available. At the same time, language is influenced and shaped by culture, it reflects culture. Therefore, culture plays a very important part in language teaching, which is widely acknowledged by English teaching circle. This thesis depicts the relationship between culture and language. As a result, the gap of cultural differences is one of the most important barriers in English teaching and study. Among the students, lacking of cultural background knowledge can, to a great extent, hold up the improvement of English teaching and become a noticeable problem. At present, the objective of English teaching has broken free from the traditional listening, speaking, reading and writing, and the demand for cultural background knowledge in language learning has been gradually concerned. Presentation of history of the country which has the target language, cultural background knowledge and customs is the proposed solution to the problem. This paper mainly discusses how to present cultural background knowledge and expose learners to it in the need of English teaching at Chinese schools so as to solve the problems caused by cultural differences, help learners grasp the crux of the language and develop their comprehensive English ability.
The Effect of Form versus Meaning-Focused Tasks on the Development of Collocations among Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners
Author: Pishghadam, Reza
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Grammar,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Teaching Methods,Foreign Countries,Phrase Structure,High School Students,Language Proficiency,Language Tests,Control Groups,Task Analysis,Communication (Thought Transfer),Vocabulary Development,Silent Reading,Instructional Effectiveness,Comparative Analysis,Pretests Posttests

This study attempts comprehensively to investigate the effect of form versus meaning-focused tasks on the development of collocations among Iranian Intermediate EFL learners. To this end, 65 students of Mashhad High schools in Iran were selected as the participants. A general language proficiency test of Nelson (book 2, Intermediate 200A) was used to measure their general language ability. Moreover, a teacher-made collocation test was implemented to examine the participants' collocation knowledge. Participants were divided into: form-focused instruction group (FFI), meaning-focused instruction (MFI) group, and a control group. The FFI group performed dictogloss task (DT) which focused on both target items and meaning. The MFI group assigned communicative task (pair /group discussion task) which did not required attention to the target items. The control group is designated as the &quot;Conventional Group,&quot; simply to reflect the fact that they did not receive focus-on-form instruction but rather received combination of explaining collocation or new vocabulary and reading a text silently to mention its main idea or answer to comprehension questions. The results revealed the fact that FFI group (dictogloss task) significantly outperformed the other two groups on the collocation test.
The Effects of Portfolio Assessment on Writing of EFL Students
Author: Nezakatgoo, Behzad
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Language Tests,Pretests Posttests,Computer Software,Statistical Analysis,Portfolio Assessment,Student Evaluation,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Writing Improvement,Scores,Quasiexperimental Design,Writing Instruction,Writing (Composition),Teaching Methods,College Freshmen,Foreign Countries

The primary focus of this study was to determine the effect of portfolio assessment on final examination scores of EFL students' writing skill. To determine the impact of portfolio-based writing assessment 40 university students who enrolled in composition course were initially selected and divided randomly into two experimental and control groups. A quasi-experimental research design was adopted in this study. In order to appraise the homogeneity of the experimental and control groups Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT) was employed at the beginning of the study. The pre-test was applied to both the experimental group and control group. Later in the study, a post-test of dependent variables was implemented for both groups. Data analysis was carried out by SPSS 16 statistical computer program. The statistical techniques being applied were the Levene statistic of One-Way ANOVA and the Paired-sample T-test. The results of the study revealed that that students whose work was evaluated by a portfolio system (portfolio-based assessment) had improved in their writing and gained higher scores in final examination when compared to those students whose work was evaluated by the more traditional evaluation system (non-portfolio-based assessment).The findings of the present study highlighted the fact that portfolio assessment could be used as a complementary alternative along with traditional assessment to shed new light on the process of writing.
The Use of Verb Noun Collocations in Writing Stories among Iranian EFL Learners
Author: Bazzaz, Fatemeh Ebrahimi
Date: 2011-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Nouns,Phrase Structure,Language Tests,Knowledge Level,Essays,Correlation,Communicative Competence (Languages),Verbs,Doctoral Programs,Graduate Students,Foreign Students,Native Speakers,Statistical Analysis

An important aspect of native speakers' communicative competence is collocational competence which involves knowing which words usually come together and which do not. This paper investigates the possible relationship between knowledge of collocations and the use of verb noun collocation in writing stories because collocational knowledge distinguishes native speakers and foreign language learners and is a significant factor in productive skills especially writing. This study examined the correlation between knowledge of verb noun collocations and their use in written essays. The participants in the study were 27 PhD Iranian students in a Malaysian university. A specially constructed C-test measured the subjects' collocational knowledge and the use of collocations was measured by the number of collocations used in essays written by the subjects. For this purpose, participants wrote six different stories in six weeks based on a writing task designed to illicit verb noun collations. The statistical results demonstrate that there exists a strong positive relationship between knowledge of collocations and the use of verb noun collocation in the writing stories.
The Effects of the 3-2-1 Reading Strategy on EFL Reading Comprehension
Author: Alsamadani, Hashem Ahmed
Date: 2011-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Quasiexperimental Design,Reading Comprehension,Control Groups,Experimental Groups,Comparative Analysis,English Teachers,College Students,College Faculty,Statistical Analysis,Statistical Distributions,Reading Strategies,Teaching Methods,College Second Language Programs,Measures (Individuals),Test Reliability,Pretests Posttests

This quasi-experimental study tested the effect of the 3-2-1 strategy on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' reading comprehension. A sample of Saudi EFL college-level students were randomly selected and divided into two groups: an experimental group (42 students) and a control group (43 students). Students of both groups took a reading comprehension test at the beginning of the 2010 academic year. The researcher used the 3-2-1 strategy when teaching the experimental group for six weeks whereas the students in the control group were not trained on the strategy. Students were matched according to their reading proficiency, taught by the same teacher (the researcher), and were similar in age. After six weeks of instruction, both groups completed the same reading comprehension test again. Measures of the means, standard deviations, and ANCOVA were used to determine the differences between the two groups. The study revealed that at the end of the six-week instruction, there was a significant statistical difference in reading comprehension between the two groups that favored the experimental group. The study concludes with recommendations for training EFL students and teachers on using different comprehension strategies, especially those that have proven to be effective in boosting reading comprehension such as the 3-2-1 strategy.
Logbook Language Characteristics and Recordation Requirement
Author: Huang, Gang
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Chinese,Diaries,Language Usage,Discourse Analysis,Navigation,Employees,Nouns,Case Studies,Sentence Structure,Foreign Countries

With a view of the deficiency irregular phenomena existing in logbook recordation among Chinese crew members, this paper analyzed the language characteristics and recording requirement of logbook, expounded how to employ accurate, concise and precise words to record logbook, listed out matters to be paid attention to in the process of recording the logbook and took examples to make an analysis, with expectation to bring advantages for Chinese crew members to improve their competency of recording the logbook.
Coursebook Development and Evaluation for English for General Purposes Course
Author: Zohrabi, Mohammad
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Textbook Preparation,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Semi Structured Interviews,Check Lists,Textbook Evaluation,Foreign Countries,Questionnaires,Language Teachers,College Faculty,Reading Instruction,College Students,Curriculum Development,Likert Scales

Writing a coursebook is a demanding task and more important than writing is how to evaluate it in order to pin point its weaknesses and improve them. If we yearn to produce a quality and useful coursebook, we need to consider how to develop and evaluate it. The study reported in this article describes the process in which the researcher developed and evaluated a coursebook (&quot;Reading English in Action&quot;) for the English for General Purposes (EGP) course at the University of Tabriz, Iran. In order to investigate this coursebook's virtues and weaknesses, the researcher taught it for four semesters and asked six of his colleagues to use it for their EGP courses. A questionnaire was developed based on a checklist that had been prepared by the researcher and distributed to the six language professors who taught the coursebook and 480 students who studied it for one semester. A semi-structured interview was conducted with the six professors and twenty four students. The aim was to carry out in-use and post-use coursebook evaluation because these are more valid and reliable than pre-use one. Since the objective of the EGP course was to develop the students' reading skill and strategies, the present coursebook was written to fulfill these goals. However, the results of the study depicts that mere emphasis on reading bores the students and they require more interactive communicative use of the language. This study can provide invaluable insights for material writers, curriculum developers, and language teachers.
A Qualitative Case Study of EFL Students' Affective Reactions to and Perceptions of Their Teachers' Written Feedback
Author: Mahfoodh, Omer Hassan A.
Date: 2011-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Qualitative Research,Case Studies,Affective Behavior,Student Attitudes,College Students,College Faculty,English Teachers,Feedback (Response),Semi Structured Interviews,Credibility,Validity,Interrater Reliability

The present paper reports a qualitative case study of investigating EFL students' affective reactions to and perceptions of their teachers' written feedback. In addition, the study reported here also focuses on contextual factors that may influence students' reactions to and perceptions of their teachers' written feedback. Data were collected using multiple methods that included semi-structured interviews, think-aloud protocols, teachers' written feedback, and students' written essays. Results of data analysis revealed that EFL students showed some variations in their affective reactions to their teachers' written feedback. The students perceived their teachers' written feedback as useful and very important for the development of their writing skills. The students wanted their teachers to focus on all aspects of written texts when they provide written feedback. Contextual factors such as students' past experience, teachers' wording of written feedback, students' acceptance of teachers' authority, and teachers' handwriting have their impact on EFL students' affective reactions to and perceptions of their teachers' written feedback.
Why Is Pronunciation So Difficult to Learn?
Author: Gilakjani, Abbas Pourhossein
Date: 2011-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Pronunciation,Misconceptions,Dialects,Suprasegmentals,Learning Motivation,Student Attitudes,Age Differences,Native Language,Interlanguage,Curriculum Design

In many English language classrooms, teaching pronunciation is granted the least attention. When ESL teachers defend the poor pronunciation skills of their students, their arguments could either be described as a cop-out with respect to their inability to teach their students proper pronunciation or they could be regarded as taking a stand against linguistic influence. If we learn a second language in childhood, we learn to speak it fluently and without a &quot;foreign accent&quot;; if we learn in adulthood, it is very unlikely that we will attain a native accent. In this study, the researchers first review misconceptions about pronunciation, factors affecting the learning of pronunciation. Then, the needs of learners and suggestions for teaching pronunciation will be reviewed. Pronunciation has a positive effect on learning a second language and learners can gain the skills they need for effective communication in English.
Effective Foreign Language Teaching: A Matter of Iranian Students' and Teachers' Beliefs
Author: Ganjabi, Mahyar
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Teaching Methods,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Teacher Attitudes,Student Attitudes,Grammar,Error Correction,Language Usage,Cultural Awareness,Questionnaires,Communicative Competence (Languages),Language Teachers,Educational Technology,Likert Scales,English Literature,College Students,Comparative Analysis,College Faculty

This paper reports on a study that investigated the beliefs about language learning of 120 Iranian EFL students and 16 EFL teachers. The primary aim of the study was to reveal whether there was any difference between the beliefs of Iranian students and teachers regarding different aspects of language learning such as grammar teaching, error correction, culture, target language use, computer-based technology, communicative language teaching strategies and assessment. Data were collected using a 24-item questionnaire. It was concluded that there were some differences between the Iranian students' and teachers' beliefs regarding what procedures were most effective in bringing about language learning. Discussion of the findings and implications for further research are also articulated.