ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Information and Communication Technology Profiles of College Students with Learning Disabilities and Adequate and Very Poor Readers
Author: Fichten, Catherine S.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Information Technology,College Students,Learning Disabilities,Profiles,Reading Ability,Reading Difficulties,Use Studies,User Needs (Information),English,French,Statistical Analysis,Interviews,Questionnaires

We interviewed 58 experts (30 in French, 28 in English) about potentially useful information and communication technologies (ICTs) for Québec college students with a learning disability (LD) and evaluated whether college students with an LD (n = 74), in fact, used these. We also compared ICT use, learning opportunities, and attitudes among three groups of students from Montreal area French and English language colleges: (1) students with an LD, and (2) students who, based on a reading comprehension test, were categorized as adequate readers (approximately top 50%) or (3) very poor readers (approximately bottom 20%). Results indicate important discrepancies between the views of the experts and the realities of students with LDs. Moreover, students with an LD use significantly fewer different types of ICTs than those without an LD.
Developing Pre-Service Teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching Mathematics with the Geometer's Sketchpad through Lesson Study
Author: Meng, Chew Cheng
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teachers,Preservice Teacher Education,Secondary School Curriculum,Technological Literacy,Pedagogical Content Knowledge,Pretests Posttests,Teaching Methods,Methods Courses,Lesson Plans,Questionnaires,Student Teacher Attitudes,Achievement Gains,Instructional Effectiveness,Teaching Skills,Foreign Countries

The purpose of this study was to develop pre-service secondary teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) for teaching mathematics with The Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP) through Lesson Study (LS). Specifically, a single-group pretest-posttest design was employed to examine whether there was a significant difference in the pre-service secondary teachers' TPACK for teaching mathematics with GSP after engaging in LS which was incorporated into the mathematics teaching methods course during the first semester of the 2011/2012 academic session in a Malaysian public university. Forty-six pre-service secondary teachers who enrolled in the course completed both the pretest and posttest questionnaires on teachers' TPACK for teaching mathematics with GSP. The results of the paired-samples t-test indicated that there was a significant difference in the pre-service secondary teachers' TPACK for teaching mathematics with GSP for all the subscales after engaging in LS.
Learning Critical Thinking in Saudi Arabia: Student Perceptions of Secondary Pre-Service Teacher Education Programs
Author: Allamnakhrah, Alhasan
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Critical Thinking,Student Teacher Attitudes,Preservice Teachers,Preservice Teacher Education,Qualitative Research,Case Studies,Secondary Education,Definitions,Rote Learning,Memorization,Educational Change,Educational Quality,Focus Groups,Interviews

Saudi scholars have been agitating for education reforms to incorporate critical thinking in education programs. This paper is a qualitative case study undertaken at King Abdul Aziz University and Arab Open University and examines students' perception of learning critical thinking in secondary pre-service teacher education programs in Saudi Arabia. Definitions of critical thinking are based on the Delphi Report (Facione, 1990). The findings underscore the need for education reforms based on critical thinking to elevate the quality of education in Saudi Arabia.
Investigation into Motivation Types and Influences on Motivation: The Case of Chinese Non-English Majors
Author: Zhao, Lei
Date: 2012-03-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Investigations,Motivation Techniques,Influences,English (Second Language),English Instruction,Nonmajors,Student Motivation,Educational Practices,Student Educational Objectives,Performance Factors,Questionnaires,Teacher Attitudes,Student Attitudes,College English,Foreign Countries

Motivation is one of the most important factors affecting students' performance of English learning, which is widely concerned by foreign language teachers and researchers for a long time. However, how to promote students' motivation in learning English by knowing their English learning motivation types at the initial stages and the factors that influence their sustaining motivation in the long process of English learning is still in need of exploration in the Chinese context. The paper aims to investigate Chinese non-English majors' motivation in English learning to facilitate teachers' understanding of ways to increase it.
Education and Political Restructure in Nigeria
Author: Ayeni, Matthew Adedeji
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Social Change,Foreign Countries,Role of Education,Governance,Public Policy,Educational Philosophy,Ethnic Groups,Values,Political Power,Leadership,Educational Change,Political Influences,Conflict

To say that education is a potent factor in any political restructuring is an indisputable fact. For a meaningful political development to take place in any nation, especially like Nigeria. The place of education is never in doubt to influence positively those in the position of authority to ascertain what are needed to put in place for effective administration and good governance. Education as a matter of fact in this sense is not just what one obtains in the institutions of learning, but it deals with all round development which makes one to contribute meaningfully to the development of himself, his family, his society and the entire nation. The national policy on education titled the philosophy of Nigeria Education made observations that since the national policy is geared towards achieving that part of its national objectives that can be achieved using education as a tool, no policy on education can be formulated without first identifying the whole philosophy and objectives of the nation. It is on this note that this paper examines &quot;Education and Political restructure&quot; as the parameter not only for political and social stability in Nigeria but equally for national development.
Application of Online Multimedia Courseware in College English Teaching Based on Constructivism Theory
Author: Li, Zhenying
Date: 2012-03-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Multimedia Instruction,College English,Courseware,Online Courses,English Instruction,Constructivism (Learning),Feedback (Response),Computer Software Evaluation,Usability,Questionnaires,User Needs (Information),Information Literacy,Student Surveys,Student Attitudes,Educational Practices

Based on Constructivism Theory, this paper aims to investigate the application of online multimedia courseware to college English teaching. By making experiments and students' feedback, some experience has been accumulated, and some problems are discovered and certain revelations are acquired as well in English teaching practice, which pave the way for further application of the multimedia internet technology to English teaching.
Lexical Cohesion: An Issue Only in the Foreign Language?
Author: Kafes, Hüseyin
Date: 2012-03-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Native Language,Turkish,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Connected Discourse,Writing (Composition),Pictorial Stimuli,Contrastive Linguistics,Writing Instruction,Semi Structured Interviews,Student Attitudes,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis,Semantics,Language Usage,Foreign Countries

The purpose of this study was to investigate Turkish EFL learners' ability in composing cohesive texts in their first language and in English as their foreign language, and to examine whether there are similarities between lexical reiteration cohesive devices they employ in composing cohesive texts both in Turkish and in English. The study was conducted with the participation of 40 students. The data of the study came from written accounts of a story in both languages based on a set of pictures with eight episodes. The analysis of the data has revealed striking similarities between English and Turkish in terms of the employment of lexical reiteration cohesive devices. The results have shown that repetition of the same lexical items was by far the most frequently used type of lexical cohesion in both languages. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for writing.
Psychological Factors Affecting Medical Students' Learning with Erroneous Worked Examples
Author: Klopp, Eric
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Medical Students,Psychological Patterns,Problem Based Learning,Problem Solving,Competence,Clinical Diagnosis,Models,Prior Learning,Ambiguity (Context),Anxiety,Multivariate Analysis,Error Patterns,Profiles,Correlation,Multiple Choice Tests

The acquisition of diagnostic competence is seen as a major goal during the course of study in medicine. One innovative method to foster this goal is problem-based learning with erroneous worked examples provided in a computer learning environment. The present study explores the relationship of attitudinal, emotional and cognitive factors for learning with erroneous worked examples. 72 medical students from a German university worked with six case-based examples in the domain of arterial hypertension. Domain-specific conceptual prior knowledge, anxiety of making errors, attitudes towards errors, and ambiguity tolerance were measured as independent variables before the students worked with the examples. Diagnostic competence was operationalized by measuring conceptual, strategic, and conditional knowledge, which were assessed as dependent variables after working with the learning environment. A cluster analytic approach yielded three clusters. For each, the relationship with the learning outcome was analysed. Cluster membership significantly influenced the learning outcome in strategic, but not in conditional knowledge. Furthermore, cluster membership had a significant effect on conceptual knowledge; there was also an increase in conceptual knowledge for all clusters when conceptual knowledge measured after the treatment was compared to prior conceptual knowledge. The results clearly indicate the importance of a certain pattern of psychological factors for learning with erroneous worked examples.
An Analysis of the Associations between Ambiguity Tolerance and EFL Reading Strategy Awareness
Author: Kamran, Saeedeh Karbalaee
Date: 2012-03-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Practices,Figurative Language,Ambiguity (Semantics),Statistical Significance,Second Language Learning,English (Second Language),Global Approach,Problem Solving,Reading Comprehension,Reading Tests,Student Surveys,Metacognition,English Language Learners,Cognitive Style,Scores,Likert Scales,Questionnaires,Student Attitudes,Reading Achievement,Foreign Countries

The current study is an attempt to investigate whether any statistically significant relationship existed between Iranian EFL learners' ambiguity tolerance (AT) and their reading strategy use. To this end, three instruments of Survey of Reading Strategy (Mokhtari &amp; Sheorey, 2002), Second Language Ambiguity Tolerance Scale (Ely, 1995), and a reading test were administered to 114 (60 female and 54 male) intermediate level EFL learners of Iran Language Institute. The results of data analyses indicated that no statistically significant relationship existed between participants' AT and their overall reading strategy use. Also no statistically significant relationship existed between participants' AT and their use of Global, Problem Solving, and Support subscales of reading strategy. Further, the results revealed a statistically significant and positive relationship between AT and reading comprehension scores of the participants. Regarding findings of the study, pedagogical implications were presented for teachers and materials developers in the field of EFL teaching/learning.
Foreign Language Identity and Its Relationship with Travelling and Educational Level
Author: Khodadady, Ebrahim
Date: 2012-03-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Second Language Learning,Self Concept,Self Concept Measures,Likert Scales,English (Second Language),Females,Private Schools,Statistical Analysis,Factor Analysis,Study Abroad,Identification (Psychology),Student Attitudes

This study explored the relationship between identity and learning English by designing and administering a 30-item Foreign Language Identity Scale (FLIS) to 470 female participants enrolled in English courses offered at advanced levels in private institutes in Mashhad, Iran. The application of the principal axis factoring to the responses and rotating the factors resulted in extracting six latent variables, i.e., idealized society, idealized communication, idealized means, idealized opportunities, global connection, and global self-expression, explaining forty percent of variance in the FLIS. With the exception of the last, the first five factors revealed strong interrelationships among themselves and thus showed that female Iranians in Mashhad learn English by creating an identity in an idealized society in which they can acquire the means to communicate best and find the opportunity they lack, reveal and improve the personality they possess, get better jobs and connect to the rest of the world. The foreign language identity, however, seems to disappear when the learners go abroad and study at universities.
Non-Empirically Based Teaching Materials Can Be Positively Misleading: A Case of Modal Auxiliary Verbs in Malaysian English Language Textbooks
Author: Khojasteh, Laleh
Date: 2012-03-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Textbooks,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis,Computational Linguistics,Grammar,Verbs,Written Language,Oral Language,Language Usage,Computer Software,Secondary School Students

Using corpus approach, a growing number of researchers blamed textbooks for neglecting important information on the use of grammatical structures in natural English. Likewise, the prescribed Malaysian English textbooks used in schools are reportedly prepared through a process of material development that involves intuition. Hence, a corpus-based study with the population that was sourced from five Malaysian English language textbooks (Forms 1-5) was adopted to identify modal auxiliary verbs' order and ranking in both whole text-types and spoken text-type of these textbooks. The WordSmith Tools 4.0 was used almost entirely to support quantitative and qualitative data analysis in this research. This study has revealed that for almost all modal auxiliaries, there is a discrepancy between frequency order in the textbook corpus and natural English. The findings of this study also show that the currently used pedagogical language in Malaysian textbooks is mainly based on written rather than spoken English.
Reading in L2 (English) and L1 (Persian): An Investigation into Reverse Transfer of Reading Strategies
Author: Talebi, Seyed Hassan
Date: 2012-03-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Investigations,Reading Strategies,English (Second Language),English Instruction,Indo European Languages,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Reading Comprehension,Questionnaires,Pretests Posttests,Educational Practices,Scaffolding (Teaching Technique),Teaching Methods,Instructional Effectiveness,Achievement Gains,Transfer of Training,High School Students,Foreign Countries,Likert Scales

This study investigates the effect of reading strategies instruction in L2 (English) on raising reading strategies awareness and use and reading ability of Iranian EFL learners in L2 (English) and L1 (Persian) as a result of transfer of reading strategies from L2 to L1. To this purpose, 120 students of intermediate and advanced English proficiency levels constituted the control and experimental groups. Then, a test of reading comprehension and a reading strategy questionnaire in L2 and L1 as pretests were distributed to the participants. After giving the experimental groups reading strategy instruction the post tests were distributed to all participants. Analysis of the data showed the experimental group outperformed the control group on the English and Persian reading comprehension strategy questionnaire and reading comprehension tests. Through teaching reading strategies in L2 we can enhance the reading strategy awareness and use and reading ability of EFL students both in L2 and L1.
Common Error Types of Iranian Learners of English
Author: Nezami, Ali
Date: 2012-03-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Error Patterns,Writing (Composition),Language Proficiency,Language Tests,Second Language Learning,Statistical Analysis,College Students,Majors (Students),Feedback (Response)

This paper aimed at obtaining a clear understanding of Iranian EFL learners' L2 writing error types. To develop such an understanding, a research question was formulated to see whether there is any significant difference between the participants' language proficiency level and their error types in writing. To this end, a sample version of the structure and reading sections of a paper-based TOEFL test, and a Test of Written English (TWE) were administered to 103 university students majoring in English. The statistical analyses revealed that a) there were statistically significant differences among proficiency groups on overall error types they made in their compositions, and b) frequency of occurrence of error types in each group was different.
Integrating Vocabulary Learning Strategy Instruction into EFL Classrooms
Author: Lai, Ying-Chun
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Vocabulary Development,Learning Strategies,English (Second Language),College Freshmen,Student Attitudes,Opinions,Training,Outcomes of Education,Study Habits,Language Proficiency,Usability,User Satisfaction (Information),Intention,Questionnaires,Pretests Posttests,Language Tests,Statistical Analysis,Difficulty Level

In the current study, explicit vocabulary learning strategy instruction was integrated into an EFL curriculum to investigate its effects on learners' vocabulary acquisition. A total of 180 EFL learners enrolled in the freshmen English program at a university in Taiwan participated in the study. The participants were guided to explore and practice an array of vocabulary learning strategies over a full semester. Participants' use of these different vocabulary learning strategies and their perceived usefulness of the strategies before and after strategy training were then compared. Student attitudes and opinions toward vocabulary learning strategy use and strategy training were compiled as well. The results suggest that vocabulary learning strategy training can bring about positive effects in students learning, as the majority of the participants reported using a greater number of strategies, using strategies more frequently, and found that such use of strategies was more useful. Differences in changes in vocabulary study habits after strategy training were found among those participants who had different levels of vocabulary proficiency. The most striking result to emerge from the data is that strategy training resulted in a radical increase in the frequency of low-level students' strategy use.
A Study on the Effectiveness of Applying &quot;Readers' Theater&quot; as English Remedial Instruction for Underachievers
Author: Chou, Chi-ting
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Theater Arts,Instructional Effectiveness,Teaching Methods,English (Second Language),Remedial Instruction,Low Achievement,College Freshmen,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Speech Skills,Reading Ability,Outcomes of Education,Language Attitudes,Pretests Posttests,Oral Reading,Reading Fluency,Self Efficacy,Anxiety,Learning Motivation,Quasiexperimental Design,Learning Strategies,Questionnaires,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis

This study investigates the effectiveness of applying Readers' Theater as remedial instruction for underachieving students. The participants of the study are 49 underachieving Freshman English students. The experimental group was taught using Readers' Theater as remedial instruction, and the control group received regular remedial instruction. The purpose of the study is to assess the effectiveness of instructing underachieving English learners using Readers' Theater by measuring changes in their speaking and reading abilities, English learning outcomes, and English learning attitudes. Qualitative data was obtained by administering pre- and post-tests gauging oral reading fluency, English learning achievement, English self-efficacy, English learning anxiety, and English learning motivation as well as collecting interview data to gain a deeper understanding of student reactions to the use of Readers' Theater. The results of the study indicate that the experimental group performed significantly better than their control group counterparts in terms of oral reading fluency, English learning achievement, English self-efficacy and English learning motivation, but did not display significantly lower English learning anxiety. Furthermore, the incorporation of diverse teaching strategies in a comfortable and supportive learning environment facilitated the successful application of Readers' Theater.
Teaching Reading and Spelling to Adult Learners: The Multisensory Structured Language Approach
Author: Ali, Shamim
Date: 2012-03-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Reading Instruction,Spelling,Adult Learning,Adult Students,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Teaching Methods,Phonological Awareness,Phonemic Awareness

All over the World most effective methods for teaching reading to beginning-level adults have been applied. My continuing challenge has been to determine how reading acquisition research can be applied to teaching reading to adults. In this article, I describe the techniques I have found most useful; I hope other teachers working with beginning readers will find them helpful. This year my class includes 18 students all were men six men. Their ages range from late 20s to late 50s and all are employed. Their educational experiences range from completing four to 12 years of school; 12 students have a high secondary school certificate, 3 students have Higher Secondary School Certificate and 3 students were graduates.
Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice by the Use of Iterative Processes
Author: Olander, Mona Holmqvist
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Theory Practice Relationship,Teaching Methods,Action Research,Scores,Learning Processes,Professional Development,Statistical Analysis,Mathematics Education,Number Concepts,Outcomes of Education,Pretests Posttests,Test Results,Grade 7

The aim of this study is to study learning the positional ten base notation by the increase of students' test scores during the learning study process. Five teachers, one researcher and 53 students participated. Three research lessons in three different groups of students were conducted. The improvement in the third lesson (C) correlates with the more developed theoretical based assumptions the design is made, which resulted in a pattern of variation that stronger pointed out the aspect needed to discern to understand the object of learning in a new and more developed way. The differences in the third research lesson (C) was significant** p = 0.005 while the differences in research lessons A and B were not significant.