ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Extensive Reading in an EFL Classroom: Impact and Learners&apos; Perceptions
Author: Ateek, Mohammed
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Reading Processes,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Reading Habits,Reading Programs,Semitic Languages,Arabs,Language Proficiency,Student Attitudes,Diaries,Language Tests,Vocabulary Development,Reading Skills,Correlation,Foreign Countries,Recreational Reading

A number of studies have suggested that extensive reading can lead to gains in different language skills. Few studies on extensive reading have been conducted outside the East Asia classroom setting. This study investigated the impact of an extensive reading programme conducted over 12 weeks with 90- minutes group sessions 3 times a week involving 10 Jordanian Arabic first language English foreign language learners with low-intermediate proficiency. The participants were situated in a print-rich environment, and given access to a library of graded readers, and did various extensive reading activities in and out of class. The participants were assessed for reading fluency and vocabulary knowledge before during and after the programme. In addition, the participants' perceptions of extensive reading were explored. A mixed-methods action research design was employed over an extensive reading programme. Data were collected from multiple sources (e.g., tests, interviews and diaries), and the results were both statistically and thematically analysed. The findings of the study indicate that the impact of the extensive reading approach was positive on the learners' reading fluency and vocabulary knowledge. The results also revealed a positive correlation between the amount of reading and reading fluency and vocabulary knowledge. The learners' perceptions of the extensive reading approach and its implications are also discussed.
Cultural Vocabulary in Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language
Author: Tüfekçioglu, Burak
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Vocabulary Development,Turkish,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,College Faculty,Language Teachers,Teaching Methods,Language Proficiency,Word Frequency,Computational Linguistics,Oral Language,Written Language,Cultural Context,Nouns,Verbs,Language Usage,Diversity,Dictionaries,Word Lists,Teacher Attitudes

This study aims at specifying cultural words in teaching Turkish as a foreign language according to their proficiency levels (A1/2, B1/2, and C1/2) and analyzing the difference between the proficiency levels of these cultural words in terms of their frequency. For this purpose, a cultural corpus of 112.350 tokens in total has been created based on written and oral cultural texts. In this cultural corpus, nouns and verbs in the first 2000 in terms of their frequency have been compared with nouns and verbs in the most common 2000 Turkish words, and nouns and verbs that are not in the most common 2000 Turkish words have been marked as cultural words. Then, the cultural words have been compared with the textbooks used in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. The proficiency levels of their English equivalents in Cambridge Learner's Dictionary and the context in which they are used in the corpus have been checked and listed according to their levels. Finally, the list has been edited according to the opinions of two experts teaching Turkish as a foreign language at university level. The differences in the frequency of cultural words according to their proficiency levels have been analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. Findings show that there is a statistically significant difference between A1 and A2; A2 and B1; B1 and B2; C1 and C2 levels of the cultural words in terms of frequency, whereas there is no significant difference between cultural words at B2 and C1 levels in terms of frequency. In these findings, it has been seen that the most cultural words are at B1 level in terms of number and concept diversity, and it has been concluded that B1 level could be a threshold in the teaching of cultural words.
Focused Direct Corrective Feedback: Effects on the Elementary English Learners&apos; Written Syntactic Complexity
Author: Valizadeh, Mohammadreza
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Error Correction,Feedback (Response),Teaching Methods,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Syntax,Phrase Structure,Accuracy,Pretests Posttests,Writing Instruction,Language Proficiency,Comparative Analysis,Computer Software,Computational Linguistics,Foreign Countries,Student Placement,Language Tests,Scores

This experimental study, using a pretest-treatment-posttest design, compared the effects of focused direct written corrective feedback and additional writing practice on L2 learners' written syntactic complexity. The participants were 60 Iranian elementary EFL learners, whose L2 proficiency as well as L2 writing syntactic complexity and accuracy were controlled by administering the Oxford Quick Placement Test and a paragraph writing test. They were assigned to two groups: Focused direct corrective feedback (FDCF) and additional writing practice without feedback (No CF). The investigation included five sessions and lasted for three weeks. Every session, each participant wrote a paragraph of descriptive type in class. The experimental group received FDCF, while the control (i.e. No CF) group was provided only with additional writing practice. Lu's (2010) web-based L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer was utilized to calculate the five indices of syntactic complexity measures, including mean length of clause (MLC), mean length of sentence (MLS), mean length of T-unit (MLT), clauses per sentence (C/S), and verb phrases per T-unit (VP/T). The MANOVA test revealed no statistically significant difference between the two groups.
Investigating the Contribution of the European Union Erasmus+ Youth Exchange Project to Foreign Language Learning
Author: Cantez, Koray
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,International Programs,International Educational Exchange,Second Language Learning,English (Second Language),Program Effectiveness,Language Fluency,Learning Motivation,Youth Programs

The purpose of this study is to investigate the views of the participants of European Union Erasmus+ Youth Exchange project regarding its effect on foreign language motivation and speaking fluency development. Foreign language motivation and speaking are two significant aspects of learning English as a foreign language. There are some studies on the effects of Erasmus+ projects; however, there are very few studies on the effect of Erasmus+ Youth Exchange projects in the literature. Having a qualitative design, this study utilizes purposive sampling method, and participants are those who attended the Erasmus+ Youth Exchange projects implemented between 2014 and 2020. The data were collected via a standardized open-ended interview. The interviews were transcribed and qualitatively analyzed by Content Analysis method via MAXQDA 2018 Qualitative Data Analysis Software. The findings of the research revealed that according to the views of the participants, EU Erasmus+ Youth Exchange Project provided several benefits to participants in terms of improving foreign language level, and the project contributed to their English-speaking fluency and foreign language learning motivation. More specifically, points such as opportunities to do practice, negative comments on Turkish Education System, educational equality provided by Erasmus+ projects and follow-up activities carried out after projects were mentioned by the participants. These findings have implications for learning and teaching English as a foreign language.
Evaluating the Long-Term Effectiveness of English Language Coursebooks at Turkish Public High Schools
Author: Solhi, Mehdi
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Instructional Effectiveness,Textbooks,Textbook Content,Textbook Evaluation,Evaluation Criteria,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Public Schools,High School Students,Foreign Countries

In this pre-use evaluation study, the long-term effectiveness of the contents of the English language coursebooks provided by the Ministry of Turkish National Education for high school students (i.e., 9th to 12th graders) in Turkey were evaluated, exploiting Tomlinson and Masuhara's (2013) fifteen universal coursebook evaluation criteria. In so doing, the evaluators initially used the criteria independently to evaluate the coursebooks before achieving a consensus on their average scores. They discussed each criterion along with the effectiveness of the activities in two units (i.e., Unit 2 &amp; Unit 7). The results indicated that the coursebooks are potentially quite effective in respect of providing students with communicative opportunities, use of idioms, integrated technology, self-evaluation opportunities, and illustrations in use. Conversely, some of the common deficient characteristics of the coursebooks encompass the lack of activities that promote the use of English as a lingua franca, being void of opportunities for students to continue learning English after the course, offering no flexibility for effective localization and insufficient catering for the needs of the students. All in all, the coursebooks can only be partially effective in facilitating long-term acquisition of English.
Digital Design in Artistic Education: An Overview of Research in the University Setting
Author: González-Zamar, Mariana-Daniela
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Art Education,Design,Art Products,Computer Uses in Education,Higher Education,Bibliometrics,Journal Articles,Educational Research,Productivity,Educational Trends,Creativity

Digital design processes in artistic education promote the development of autonomy and self-critical capacities among students. Digital technology has transformed university education and the development of transversal skills. The objective of this study is to analyze research on digital design in art education in the context of higher education during the period 2000--2020. Bibliometric techniques were applied to 1027 articles selected from the Scopus database. The findings yielded data on the scientific productivity of journals, authors, research institutions and countries/territories that promote this topic. The data show an exponential trend, with more insistence in the last three years. Six current schools of knowledge related to art, level, formation, faculty, perception and relationship were detected. This research establishes the link between education, art and technology in the university context, and it is a tool for decision making by promoters of this field of research.
Automatized Evaluation of Students&apos; CAD Models
Author: Bojcetic, Nenad
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Evaluation,Automation,Computer Assisted Design,Computer Uses in Education,Computer Simulation,COVID-19,Pandemics,Engineering Education,College Students,Computer Oriented Programs,Assignments

The article describes an attempt to address the automatized evaluation of student three-dimensional (3D) computer-aided design (CAD) models. The driving idea was conceptualized under the restraints of the COVID pandemic, driven by the problem of evaluating a large number of student 3D CAD models. The described computer solution can be implemented using any CAD computer application that supports customization. Test cases showed that the proposed solution was valid and could be used to evaluate many students' 3D CAD models. The computer solution can also be used to help students to better understand how to create a 3D CAD model, thereby complying with the requirements of particular teachers.
Pragmatic Failure Revisited: Jaworski&apos;s (1994) Study in a New Light
Author: Shleykina, Galina
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Pragmatics,Language Usage,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Foreign Countries,Official Languages,Global Approach,Language Role,Communicative Competence (Languages),Communication Problems,Native Language,Russian,Language Research,Speech Acts,Polish,Discourse Analysis

In the current conditions of globalization and the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF), the notions of pragmatic competence and appropriateness as well as pragmatic failure become of paramount importance to the language learners and instructors. The current article discusses these questions through an approximate replication of Jaworski's (1994) study of pragmatic failure in responses to English greetings by Polish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. The need for the replication arises from the lack of studies addressing pragmatic failure of EFL learners and the need to approach pragmatic behaviour of EFL learners in the conditions of ELF. The replication duplicates the methods of data collection and analysis of the original study but alters the native language (L1) of the participants and expands the study through the analysis of responses and the ratings. The data consists of Russian EFL learners' responses to the &quot;How are you?&quot; greeting question in the examination context. The results showed that Russian EFL learners achieve pragmatical success: the majority of the responses was rated as appropriate by the English native speakers. It is concluded that the original study's concern with teaching pragmatics should be applied and investigated in greater details focusing on ELF. Additionally, the notions of pragmatic competence and pragmatic failure need to be reevaluated and applied in the context of ELF.
Task-Induced Involvement Load and Working Memory: Effects on Active and Passive Vocabulary Knowledge of EFL Learners in a Multimedia Learning Environment
Author: Ansarin, Ali Akbar
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Cognitive Processes,Difficulty Level,Short Term Memory,Vocabulary Development,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Instructional Effectiveness,Multimedia Instruction,Paragraph Composition,Sentences,Cloze Procedure,Listening Comprehension,Time on Task,College Students,Foreign Countries

This study aims at comparing the effect of single- and dual-annotation modes, working memory (WM), and three tasks of different involvement loads (sentence writing, close deletion, and paragraph writing) on passive and active vocabulary development of proficient English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. While listening to an expository text, participants (n = 204) were presented with annotations for twenty lexical items. Paribakht and Wesche's (1997) Vocabulary Knowledge Scale was employed as the pre and posttests and via a listening span task, the learners' WM capacities were measured. The results pointed to the efficacy of dual-mode over single-mode annotations concerning both passive and active vocabulary learning. The participants with higher WM capacities significantly performed better regarding active vocabulary learning for both textually and visually annotated words, thus no interaction between WM and input mode was found. The sentence writing task produced the highest scores in the vocabulary tests, whereas the cloze deletion and paragraph writing tasks did not significantly differ. Hence, the results only partially confirmed the Involvement Load Hypothesis. The current study corroborates other studies verifying the modality effect on vocabulary learning and suggests that both WM and task type are significant factors in EFL vocabulary learning.
The Effects of L2 Proficiency on Pragmatic Comprehension and Learner Strategies
Author: Tai, Hsuan-Yu
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Pragmatics,Language Proficiency,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Task Analysis,Learning Strategies,Speech Acts,Correlation,Language Processing,Multiple Choice Tests,Language Tests,Comparative Analysis,Phrase Structure,Intuition,Prior Learning,Teaching Methods,College Freshmen,Foreign Countries,Interpersonal Communication

The present study aimed to examine the effect of proficiency on the pragmatic comprehension of speech acts, implicatures, and routines, as well as the way learners of different proficiency levels employ strategies when comprehending a pragmatic task. Thirty-three high-proficiency and forty-one low-proficiency Chinese learners of English completed a multiple-choice discourse completion task (MDCT). Of the participants, six were selected from the two proficiency groups to perform verbal retrospections to probe their strategy use in the MDCT task. The quantitative results showed that the high-proficiency group performed significantly better than the low-proficiency group on speech acts, implicatures, and routines. In addition, the analyses of verbal reports identified eight major strategies the learners used while performing the task, including sociopragmatics, hearer's response, relevance, keyword/key phrase, life experience/world knowledge, amount of information, intuition, and multiple strategies. The high-proficiency group showed a significant use of multiple strategies, life experience/world knowledge, amount of information and relevance. The low-proficiency group, on the other hand, indicated a significant use of intuition. Close examination further revealed that the high-proficiency group showed more flexibility in strategy use, thus leading to more accurate performance. Conversely, the low-proficiency group did not vary their strategy use, which normally led to incorrect responses on the task. Finally, the study closes by providing pedagogical implications for language teachers as to how strategy instruction can be implemented in L2 pragmatics classrooms.
The Underlying Reasons for the Difficulties in Use of the English Articles for EFL Learners: An Analysis Based on the Learners&apos; Experiences
Author: Ahmad, Khalil
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Difficulty Level,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Form Classes (Languages),Native Language,Indo European Languages,Student Experience,Adolescents,Young Adults,College Students,High School Students,Computer Software,Foreign Countries

The use of English articles is the most challenging task for the EFL learners particularly when there is no articles in their native language (L1). The purpose of this study is to investigate the underlying reasons for the difficulties in using English articles by analyzing the learners' own experiences. The data was collected in the form of written feedback from seventy-five adult Pashto (L1) learners of English (L2) having three different educational backgrounds. The data were analyzed by using qualitative thematic analysis software 'MAXQDA Analytics Pro 2020'. The results brought forth useful insights for learning and teaching the use of English articles for the adult EFL learners. The underlying reasons were found to be the failure in the identification of the concepts of countability, definiteness/indefiniteness of nouns, variability in physical form and concept of nouns, variability across languages, learners/teachers' attitudes towards articles, lack of article-check in computer software and pedagogical instruction.
Uncovering Emerging Identity Performances of Turkish Foreign Language Teaching Assistants
Author: Bursali, Nihan
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Identification (Psychology),Self Concept,Interaction,Cultural Context,Language Teachers,Teaching Assistants,Turkish,Role Perception,Personal Narratives,Graduate Study,International Educational Exchange,College Faculty,Native Speakers,Foreign Countries,Intercultural Programs,Grants

The aim of the study is to show emerging identity performances of Turkish Fulbright foreign teaching language assistants (FLTAs) in social and academic contexts during their sojourn experiences in the US. The grant program brings institutional roles of being a teacher and a learner and social duties of culture transmission in the host country. The dynamic triad of these roles yields negotiated identities manifested through reflections to the experiences of interaction, communication, and participation in the host community. In an attempt to reveal the interplay of these roles, 5 Turkish grantees were interviewed to elicit personal storylines. The narratives were analyzed adopting Davies and Harré's (1990) positioning theory rooted in discursive psychology relying on Bauman's (2013) postmodern conception of identity where identity is seen as fluid, multilayered, and negotiated. The participants' emerging identities formulated in the personal narratives are depicted through the negotiation of self-other positioning. The findings showed that affinity, racial, national, gender, cultural, second language, professional, and learner identities were revealed as emerging identity performances with an intersectional structure. This study provides a useful depiction of the FLTAs' sojourn experiences with a microanalytic eye and recommends covering different aspects with various focal points to better understand the educational and cultural aspects of such sojourn experiences.
Teaching Mathematics during the COVID-19 Lockdown in a Context of Historical Disadvantage
Author: Chirinda, Brantina
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: COVID-19,Pandemics,School Closing,Mathematics Instruction,Grade 12,Secondary School Teachers,Teaching Methods,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Online Courses,Foreign Countries,Social Justice,Secondary School Mathematics,At Risk Students,Low Income Students,Racial Bias,Social Media,Videoconferencing

The COVID-19 global pandemic widely affected education across the world and engendered unprecedented scenarios that required expeditious responses. In South Africa, the pandemic came on top of pre-existing inequalities in the education system. Using a qualitative research method of exploratory and descriptive nature, this study engaged a social justice framework to explore the teaching and learning of mathematics during the COVID-19 lockdown in a context of historical disadvantage. A sample of twenty-three Grade 12 mathematics teachers at various public secondary schools in Gauteng, South Africa was used in the study. The teachers were selected through purposive sampling. A Google-generated open-ended questionnaire and follow-up telephonic interviews were used to collect data. Data were analysed thematically in five steps. The findings revealed that the WhatsApp platform is a valuable tool that can support the teaching and learning of mathematics beyond the classroom in the contexts of historical disadvantage. The findings also provided insights into how mathematics teachers became learners themselves during emergency remote teaching (ERT) as they had to adapt to digital teaching, find solutions to unfamiliar problems and acquire knowledge from a larger mathematics education community around the globe. The article discusses these findings and teachers' challenges of transitioning from traditional face-to-face classrooms to ERT and how they were addressed. At the time of publishing the article, most learners in South Africa had started going to school on a rotational basis. Nonetheless, the study reported in this article is of importance as ERT in the context of historical disadvantage has foregrounded issues of inequality in the South African education system that must be dealt with urgently.