ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Basic and Advanced Skills They Don't Have: The Case of Postgraduates and Literature Review Writing
Author: Hei, Kuang Ching
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Basic Skills,Skill Development,Graduate Students,Foreign Countries,Literature Reviews,Doctoral Dissertations,Masters Programs,Doctoral Programs,Academic Discourse,Writing Workshops,Writing Skills,Reading Writing Relationship

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the difficulties postgraduate students face in writing the literature review for their thesis and dissertation. Methodology: Seventy postgraduate students from 9 faculties in one public university in the Klang Valley consented to participating in this study. They were 49 Masters candidates and 21 doctoral (PhD) candidates attending a workshop on academic writing. Among them, 31 were Malaysians and 39 were foreigners with the majority being Arabs and Africans. After an icebreaking session, participants were asked what their writing difficulties are when doing their literature review. They were told to write their responses in English in a paper. A linguistic analysis was then applied to the written phrases and expressions which denote their difficulties. These were then categorised under common themes and manually counted in terms of the frequency. Findings: A total of 37 categories of difficulties were detected. They encompassed basic and advanced skills in reading and writing including &quot;not knowing what to read&quot;, &quot;how to read&quot;, &quot;how to start writing&quot;, &quot;organising&quot;, &quot;doing a critical analysis&quot;, &quot;summarising&quot; and &quot;synthesising&quot;. Significance: The findings imply that most of the participants do not possess the necessary skills of reading and writing which are required in most postgraduate programmes. Thus, it is imperative that institutions of higher learning develop stricter criteria for student selection. Alternatively, a programme providing support in reading and writing may enable these postgraduate students to raise their level before being admitted. This kind of support can help to mitigate the burden imposed on supervisors as well as develop better quality postgraduate students.
Mastery of Scientific Argumentation on the Concept of Neutralization in Chemistry: A Malaysian Perspective
Author: Heng, Lee Ling
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Persuasive Discourse,Science Instruction,Chemistry,Scientific Concepts,Group Discussion,Observation,Science Tests,Comparative Analysis,Group Activities,Cooperative Learning,Secondary School Students,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis

Purpose: Argumentative practices are central to science education, and have recently been emphasised to promote students' reasoning skills and to develop student's understanding of scientific concepts. This study examines the mastery of scientific argumentation, based on the concept of neutralisation, among secondary level science students, when engaged in individual and group argumentations. Methodology: 356 form four science students were first randomly assigned to an argumentative condition, after their lesson on acids and bases, presented using the developed instructional materials. Each individual or group was then asked to answer an Open-ended Scientific Argumentation Test (OSAT). Discussions during group argumentations were observed and recorded. All the answers provided in the OSAT were then analysed based on their accuracy, the triplet relationship in chemistry and for the presence of argumentation elements. Observations from the group argumentations were transcribed and assessed. Findings: The results show that in both argumentative conditions, most of the arguments constructed tend to consist of the elements of claim and evidence. The results also show that students who work in groups outperform students who work individually. As individuals, most of the arguments presented tend to be simple with reasoning at a macro-level. As groups, the arguments presented are more complex, where justifications are provided at the sub-micro and symbolic levels, and with fewer misconceptions. That is because group argumentation participants have the opportunity to share ideas, detect and correct each other's mistakes, seek explanations and explain ideas. Significance: The study implies that group argumentation enhances students' argumentation and reasoning skills and improves their mastery of scientific concepts. In addition, this study also investigates students' performance from the Malaysian perspective.
Using Diacritics in the Arabic Script of Malay to Scaffold Arab Postgraduate Students in Reading Malay Words
Author: Salehuddin, Khazriyati
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Semitic Languages,Distinctive Features (Language),Native Speakers,Written Language,Romanization,Indonesian Languages,Reading Processes,Computer Assisted Instruction,Vowels,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Teaching Methods,Arabs,Reaction Time,Scaffolding (Teaching Technique),Learning Processes,Accuracy,Psycholinguistics,Statistical Analysis,Instructional Effectiveness,Foreign Countries,Graduate Students

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the use of diacritics in the Arabic script of Malay to facilitate Arab postgraduate students of UKM to read the Malay words accurately. It is hypothesised that the Arabic script could facilitate the reading of Malay words among the Arab students because of their earlier exposure to the Arabic script in comparison to the Romanised script. Method: Twelve Arabic first language speakers participated in a reading experiment that used DMDX, a Win 32-based display system for psychological experiments, to investigate whether or not Arabic vowel diacritics can facilitate Arabic first language speakers to read Malay words accurately. A total of 100 Malay bi-syllabic words were used as stimuli in three different forms: (1) Arabic script without diacritics; (2) Arabic script with diacritics; and (3) Romanised script. The participants' responses and reaction times were recorded to analyse accuracy and speed. Findings: Arabic first language speakers were more accurate when reading words in Arabic script of Malay with diacritics and when reading Romanised script than when reading Arabic words without diacritics. Arabic speakers read Malay words faster in Arabic script without diacritics and in Romanised scripts than when reading words in Arabic script with diacritics. Significance: This study shows that the use of a more familiar script to a certain extent does facilitate language learners to produce the target language more accurately compared to using a less familiar script. Hence, educators should explore any possible means to scaffold learners in their learning process.
Constraints of Math Teachers' in Conducting Action Research in the Philippines: Rights Analysis
Author: Valdez, Paolo Nino
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Mathematics Instruction,Mathematics Teachers,Action Research,Power Structure,Instructional Materials,Social Influences,Political Influences,Participation,Teacher Researchers,Graduate Study,Semi Structured Interviews,Focus Groups,Grounded Theory

Purpose: This exploratory investigation examines the material and non-discursive constraints of math teachers in conducting action research in the Philippines. It initially describes the contexts of participation of scholars situated in the periphery in knowledge production and teases out the apparent challenges faced in the successful conduct of research. Methodology: Anchored on Lave and Wenger's concept of community of practice and legitimate peripheral participation, the study employs rights analysis as a means to determine the constraints of the respondents in doing action research. Additionally, it traces the mechanisms of power that reinforce and reproduce these challenges. Data was obtained from 13 mathematics teachers employed in different schools under the Manila Archdiocesan and Parochial Schools Association (MAPSA). These teachers have varying work experiences and are teaching different grade levels. The respondents were systematically sampled since they are part of an action research course under the master's program in teaching math offered by the university. Findings: Based on the findings, it is argued that due to the disempowering material, social and political conditions of these teachers, they may be considered as part of a hierarchy of peripheral participation since they possess limited opportunities for academic socialisation in the conduct of action research. Finally, this paper draws implications for the improvement of research training in periphery contexts. Significance: With the increased interest in the socio-political dimension in the teaching and learning process, this work may be of interest to those engaged in conducting research training as well as other stakeholders in the academe to improve the conduct of action research in their respective educational institutions.
Developing Literacy through Play
Author: Mielonen, Alissa Marie
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Play,Literacy,Language Acquisition,Language Skills,Reading Achievement,Writing Achievement,Family Environment,Reading Skills,Writing Skills,Educational Strategies,Interpersonal Relationship,Naturalistic Observation,Interviews,Video Technology,Transcripts (Written Records),Relevance (Education),Learning Strategies,Case Studies,Ethnography

Researchers agree that language and literacy derive from the first days of a child's life. Children become literate members in society by listening and interacting with the people that surround them. This study examines how children develop literacy through play by looking closely at the benefits of uninterrupted play and how it encourages language development. The development of language skills, including reading and writing competence, through social interaction, was observed to see how literacy development occurs within a home environment. This study also offers successful strategies to use during play that will enhance reading and writing skills within young children.
Advising in a Multidisciplinary Master's Program: An Evaluation
Author: Jackson, Kimberly J.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Interdisciplinary Approach,Masters Programs,Professional Education,Academic Advising,Graduate Students,College Faculty,Barriers,Metropolitan Areas,Statistical Analysis,Questionnaires,Academic Rank (Professional),Measures (Individuals),Likert Scales

Multidisciplinary programs have begun to complement traditional models of graduate and professional education. The development of these programs has begun to reflect the change in graduate student advisement. Multidisciplinary programs necessitate the need for quality advisement approaches. This study assessed faculty satisfaction and commitment to advising graduate students in the Multidisciplinary Studies Individualized (MDSI) program at a metropolitan college in New York State. The intent was to examine faculty level of satisfaction, level of commitment and identify barriers to advising MDSI students. This quantitative study employed a paired samples t-test to compare faculty advising groups. The findings revealed MDSI graduate faculty experience lower levels of satisfaction and commitment compared to single disciplinary graduate faculty. Quotes obtained from faculty advising groups revealed academic advising and MDSI program structure as key barriers to advising MDSI students. Recommendations offer strategies for enhancing advising practices to benefit MDSI graduate faculty, students and the college.
Look, Think, Act: Using Critical Action Research to Sustain Reform in Complex Teaching/Learning Ecologies
Author: Patterson, Leslie
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Action Research,Educational Change,Sustainability,Teaching Methods,Feedback (Response),Instructional Leadership,Leaders,Social Sciences

This paper argues that educators interested in sustainability should look to complexity science for guiding principles. When we view our classrooms and campuses as living, dynamic ecologies, we can, as insiders, make sense of what might otherwise seem chaotic or meaningless. This perspective enables us not only to describe and explain what is happening around us, but also to use our findings to influence emerging patterns across our classrooms, campuses, or our larger communities. We suggest that educators use a Look, Think, Act cycle recommended by Professor Ernie Stringer to encourage and support sustainable school reform.
Stylistic Patterns in Language Teaching Research Articles: A Multidimensional Analysis
Author: Kitjaroenpaiboon, Woravit
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Language Styles,Journal Articles,Educational Research,Language Patterns,Second Language Instruction,Grammar,English (Second Language),Form Classes (Languages),Verbs

This paper presents the results of a multidimensional analysis to investigate stylistic patterns and their communicative functions in language teaching research articles. The findings were that language teaching research articles contained six stylistic patterns and communicative functions. Pattern I consisted of seven salient positive features (i.e. Present Perfect Aspects, Split Auxiliaries, Type Token Ratio, Possibility Modals, Total Adverbs, Infinitives, and That Relative Clauses on Subject Position) which co-occurred to perform a &quot;Persuasion Focused&quot; function. Pattern II consisted of eight salient positive features (i.e. Predicative Adjectives, Be as Main Verbs, Analytic Negations, Downtoners, Emphatics, Demonstrative Pronouns, Predictive Modals, and Adverbs) which co-occurred to perform an &quot;Evaluative Stance Focused&quot; function. Pattern III consisted of seven salient positive features (i.e. Suasive Verbs, The Pronoun It, That Verb Complements, Private Verbs, Wh Relative Clauses on Subject Positions, That Deletion, and Adverbial Subordinators) which occurred to perform a &quot;Claim Focused&quot; function. Pattern IV consisted of five salient positive features (i.e. Present Tense, Conjuncts, That Verb Complements, Attributive Adjectives, and Phrasal Coordinations) and three negative features (i.e. Past Participial WHIZ Deletion Relatives, Past Tense, and Agentless Passives) which co-occurred to perform &quot;Established Knowledge versus Past Action Focused&quot; functions. Pattern V consisted of six salient positive features (i.e. First Person Pronouns, Public Verbs, Third Person Pronouns, Causative Adverbial Subordinators, and That Deletion) which co-occurred to perform a &quot;Ownership Focused&quot; function. Pattern VI consisted of five salient positive features (i.e. Gerunds, Present Participial WHIZ Deletion Relatives, Average Word Length, Present Participial Clauses, and Demonstrative Adjectives) which co-occurred to perform a &quot;Modified Information Focused&quot; function. The implication for instruction and future research has been presented in the Discussion.
The Practice of &quot;Grammar Naziness&quot; on Facebook in Relation to Generating Grammar Learning: A Motivation or Demotivation in Updating Statuses in English on Facebook
Author: Amin, Noraziah Mohd
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Grammar,Social Media,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Motivation,Error Correction,Student Surveys,Feedback (Response),Undergraduate Students,Foreign Countries,Statistical Analysis

It is common for learners of English to make grammatical errors in their English Facebook posts that can be noticeable on their walls, which this perhaps as a result, influences the other Facebook users who know about the language to perform the unofficial duty as grammar Nazis and correct the errors. Thus, this research aims to examine if Malay learners of English from UiTM are motivated or demotivated to practice their English on Facebook by posting more statuses in English after receiving corrective feedback from their Facebook friends who act as grammar Nazis. Since the learners are aware that there are other Facebook users who seem to be concerned about their errors, do Malay learners of English welcome such concern and perceive it as a motivational drive that will encourage them to update more statuses in English on Facebook, as a strategy of learning English (through corrective feedback) or not? To find the answer to this question, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 100 UiTM students who are active Facebook users. The findings showed that the respondents in majority welcomed the corrective feedback provided by their Facebook friends who acted as grammar Nazis for the grammatical errors committed by the respondents in writing their Facebook statuses in English.
Teaching the Vocabulary of Citation: Action Research in a Southeast Asian Context
Author: Lynch, Jena
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Citations (References),English for Academic Purposes,Action Research,Vocabulary,Direct Instruction,Second Language Instruction,Undergraduate Students,Writing Assignments,Essays,Instructional Effectiveness,Foreign Countries,Statistical Analysis,Pretests Posttests

This action research project sought to investigate the role of explicit citation vocabulary instruction in the learning of citation style guidelines for an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing course at an English-medium university in Northern Thailand. The participants consisted of 120 undergraduate students enrolled in the EAP writing class who were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The class included a step-by-step essay writing assignment that included source selection and use of quoted material from sources. Participants in the experimental group were exposed to a multi-week treatment in which citation vocabulary terms were reviewed in subsequent lessons. All participants were assessed through a citation quiz and the citation part-score on the rubric for the final draft of an essay. Results of the study were inconclusive about the effectiveness of a vocabulary approach on participants' ability to apply knowledge of citation style. Further research is needed on this topic.
Testing University Learners' Interlanguage Pragmatic Competence in a Chinese EFL Context
Author: Xu, Lan
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Interlanguage,Semi Structured Interviews,Speech Acts,Content Analysis,Statistical Analysis,Language Proficiency,Pragmatics,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Foreign Countries,Language Tests,Task Analysis,Models,Test Validity,Test Reliability,Majors (Students),Questionnaires,Qualitative Research,College Students

Speech acts are the major concern of interlanguage pragmatists. The present study aimed to 1) examine the reliability and validity of an interlanguage pragmatic (ILP) competence test on speech acts in a Chinese EFL context, and 2) investigate EFL learners' variations of ILP competence by language proficiency. Altogether 390 students participated in the present study. The students were divided into three groups based on their language proficiency. The data were collected with an ILP competence test and semi-structured interviews. The ILP competence test was in the form of a written discourse completion task (WDCT), including ten speech acts and 30 situations. Data analysis methods included the Many Facets Rasch Model (MFRM), one-way ANOVA, post-hoc Scheffe test and content analysis. The results indicated that the ILP competence test was with high reliability and validity, and variations existed in four aspects of conducting speech acts: 1) use of correct speech act, 2) typical expressions, 3) amount of speech and information, and 4) degrees of formality, directness and politeness, according to the level of language proficiency. Overall, the students with higher language proficiency performed better than the ones with lower language proficiency.
Development and Use of a Corpus Tailored for Legal English Learning
Author: Skier, Jason
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Computational Linguistics,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,English for Special Purposes,North American English,Court Litigation,Language Usage,Laws,Legal Education (Professions),Foreign Countries,Higher Education,Computer Software,Phrase Structure,Teaching Methods,Validity,Specialists,College Faculty

While corpus linguistics has been applied towards many specific academic purposes, reports are few regarding its use to facilitate learning of legal English by non-native English speakers. Specialized corpora are required because legal English often differs significantly from ordinary usage, with words such as bar, motion, and hearing having completely different meanings and use. This paper documents the process of creating and validating a sixteen million-word corpus of (American) legal English, and provides examples of analyses available for language learners. Written decisions and oral argument transcripts from the U.S. Supreme Court and other appellate courts were ultimately chosen to comprise the corpus due to their authentic and comprehensive use of legal jargon. Overall, this corpus demonstrates that appellate court decisions, available online, can comprise a corpus tailored for legal English learning.
Children's Voices and Positive Affective Outcomes Regarding Play-Based Language Learning
Author: Cheep-Aranai, Rin
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Centered Learning,Play,Teaching Methods,Second Language Learning,English (Second Language),Grade 3,Qualitative Research,Student Attitudes,Foreign Countries,Social Development,Affective Behavior,Elementary School Students,Semi Structured Interviews,Observation

Learner-centeredness is a consistent theme in the field of education. Yet, the perspectives of young learners are still barely considered. Lightbown and Spada (2013) have pointed out that even though young children have not developed cognitive maturity and the metalinguistic awareness of adolescents or adults, they learn a language without any stress or anxiety. They have the freedom to speak, be silent, pause, and make mistakes when producing the language. It is extremely important, therefore, for teachers to consider presenting relaxing learning contexts and environments for young language learners. This paper reports the positive affective outcomes that have been found in a play-based language learning (PLL) classroom and young EFL learners' opinions of play-based English language learning. The participants were third graders that took part in PLL activities for 15 weeks. Qualitative data were gathered from observations to shed light on the participants' positive affective outcomes and interviews in order to investigate their opinions toward PLL activities. These young language learners' voices and reflections on the PLL activities provide a unique perspective on the usefulness of play activities integrated into young learners' classroom language learning.