Strategies used in teaching english language towards the five macro skill
227035478
A Comparative Study to Analyze the Efficiency of Accelerated Learning to Facilitate the Understanding of English Language at Secondary Level
Abdul Khaliq Shams, Muhammad Arshad and Gulzar Ahmed Vol. IV, No. I (Winter 2019) 249 open system tries to adapt and transform as learn more about learning and personal development. These processes have been made better or improve in quality and have learned from neuroscience, learning styles theories, multiple intelligences, cognitive psychology, constructivism, and many various techniques to learning and human development such as experiential education, holistic education theory and practice, and drama in education approaches. Considering traditional educational policies, outdated syllabus and learning method, there has been no understanding of language at secondary level other than remembering specific paragraphs and pronunciations to go through exams. On the contrary, every advanced subject being taught is in English language and requires strong understanding of language to learn at any level after secondary classes. If the gap of language is bridged through assisted learning then learning will become much easier as large pool of knowledge will be available to anyone who desires to learn in accordance with passion. Learning something new stimulating interest, discussion and torment emotionally. The stimulation with which we start something decline over a short period of time, making the assignment functions at hand shown to be unattainable. The process of learning a new language or a new competence, acquiring new expertise need not be always complicated affair. Appropriate strategy attached to the right behavior can help you overcome barriers with more conveniently. Accelerated learning approaches are obtaining much reputation among students of all age's level. These approaches widely committed to making learning an advantageous process (The Peak Performer Center, 2019) The learning can be classified into four different parameters on the basis of information intake. First category visual learning is the "learning via seeing pictures, images, and spatial understanding" Secondly the aural learning is the "learning through hearing sound and music" Thirdly verbal learning is the "learning through saying, writing and speech" and the last is physical learning that "learning through doing using body and sense of touch" The increase in the ability of mathematical representation of students taught through accelerated learning method with the submission of problems from students accelerated learning method with the submission of problems from teachers and conventional methods. The criteria of gain value for the class using accelerated learning method with the application of problems from students and accelerated learning method with the submission of problems from the teacher included into the middle category, where the gain for the class using the accelerated learning method with the application of problems from students is 0.56 and gain value for the class that used the conventional method is 0.17 which fall into the lower category (Amelia, Susilawati, Saf, Ariany, Supian, Subiyanto, 2018) The accelerated learning approach enables the students to learn better, quick, and concise, was advantaged to adapt and preferred approaches applied in the classroom are presentations and debates using an LCD projector. The learning facilitator or teacher expressed that mapping out the intelligence for each learning approaches permits one to be more aware of the differences among the learners related to their learning styles. If a teaching strategy attributes most of the learners' intelligence, then they learn much more within span of time. So, this is a practical experience that the adoption of accelerated learning facilitates in his pursuit of enhanced effectiveness. Without applying assisted learning approaches, learning facilitators could still be effective as long as they are capable to pick out the attention of the learners through appreciation, amusing, entertaining and enjoyable exciting activities and the use of multimedia. The teacher should be advance to learning from the learners and must retrieve a sense of surprise that could be applied to the learners. Professional commitment becomes more fruitful through accelerated learning because it was more exciting and enjoyable (Ganiron, 2013) According to Emunah, (2013) in the educational process dramatization is a specialized technique that always enabled the students to make and believe in play as a significant learning activity. In this method, students can easily be able to role play certain situations, can act out invented situations, or establish fictitious images related to the purposes of understanding and growth. This method can be shaped by a commitment to three processes (a) action (b) reflection, and (c) transformation. Teachers always engage students towards required curriculum and related skills. This opportunity of process oriented method can be used effectively and efficiently at the Secondary, Undergraduate and postgraduate levels. By using this method, students can be able to become leaders in the association known as drama, which can be non scripted cooperative illustration under the supervision of an experienced mentor. In educational process with the help of drama, teaches can clear its concepts, can raise awareness, can assists students with skill development, can promote collaboration in learning, can build awareness to community and can generate aesthetic skills or knowledge. Discussion is as an action or process to talk about a particular topic in to reach on the decision or to share ideas, a discussion or debate about a specific topic or comprehensive management of a topic in speech or in writing (Ten Have, 2017) In extended role plying method, students can be able to create an act that can be taken place in advance or after a story or any kind of scene. With the help of this strategy, students can be helped to envisage and can be able to theorize the main cause and effect happening after (Mishra, Koehler, 2016) A Comparative Study to Analyze the Efficiency of Accelerated Learning to Facilitate the Understanding of English Language at Secondary Level 250 Global Social Sciences Review (GSSR) According to Yoon (2008) students participate actively in teaching practices conducted through activities. Where a teacher's role is passive guidance? A teacher must be present in the activity area (classroom) having a close eye, but will remain passive and only to guide the students where they feel difficulty. The ways to which teachers guide the student must not be authoritative. They only gave guideline and ask students to perform it according to their convenience. Kirschner, Sweller, Clark, (2016) stated that activity based method is a way of teaching that most of the teacher adopts to improve their teaching. Most of them have a focus on activity based teaching in order to teach through activities because they know that activity based teaching is most effective method. It is an approach in which child is the center of every activity. In this method, child takes part actively and due to active participation, he is active mentally and physically. So, the learning takes place in the result of this approach has long lasting effect on child's learning. A child learns by doing that creates better understanding and is the method from which rote learning method is reduced from teaching and learning process. Due to this method success ratio of student can be improved as students' focus in this method is to clear their concepts and learn things by practicability. It is proved that activity based teaching stimulates all five senses. Finn, (2010) believed that activities based accelerated learning students' take part with having interest and learn willingly. It means a teacher does not impose knowledge on students. They learn with enthusiasm and implement most of the concepts according to their need. So, understanding got through the activity based method by can be understand as any learning that is carried out with the aim in a social circle, involving student physically and mentally by stimulating their senses for creative work, action or expression. Information and communication technology (ICT) has brought revolutionary changes in the teaching learning process. At present several ICT related instructional devices like computers, smartphones, laptops, tablets, LCD, multimedia and projectors are used in classrooms for making more attractive and productive teaching and learning process. ICT effects on delivery of instruction, evaluation and assessment system for the effective teaching learning process (Ahmed, Arshad Tayyab, 2019) Wolfe (2001) find out that music based activities stimulate our intellectual, visible, auditory, imaginary, and motor systems to different degrees as we listen, see, sing, play, accent, rhythm, read, or construct music and that our cognitive level is inspired to search for channels in music. These activities facilitate the learning process. Akbiyik Simsek (2009) portrayed that accelerated learning activities and environments had a significant effect on academic performance. Radler Bocianu (2017) concluded that both the students and learning facilitator enjoyed and felt the strain of an enhanced technological for study and individual profession. According to Schomack (1996) traditional learning tends to be emphasizing one best way, competitive, restrict and hard work while accelerated learning tends to be dynamic, flexible, geodesic, mutual, multi pathed, natural, multi sensory, state of mind and be joyful. Noreen (2018) found in her comparative study that the activities developed an interest of the students and have proved to be of great significance in teaching and learning method. Instructions and education provided via activities are speedy and accelerated. The teaching learning process through activities stimulate a high level interest in the students and also make the concept clear. Shahzadi (2019) in her study
Abdul Khaliq
64522113
Use of authentic materials trough moodle platform to enhance the listening skill of students of Intermediate Intensive English i at the Department of Foreign Language of the University of el Salvador during the year 2014
Nowadays, technology plays an important role in education not only because it makes things easier to students and teachers, but also because it helps to develop and improve skills. This is essential for those who want to achieve a successful life in the future, by having a good job, and for those who want to overcome any professional challenges. Technology allows teachers to enhance their teaching skills and strategies, there is a free online learning management system which enables teachers to create their own online courses, it is called Moodle, Moodle is an educational tool and it can be used anytime, anywhere, as long as there is internet access available. Martin Dougiamas began his work on Moodle in 1998, today, more than 70,000 universities, corporations and schools, in over 200 countries and 100 languages, trust Moodle for their online learning,Moodle Open source learning platform. Moodle.org. (n.d. Retrieved July 24, 2014, from https:/moodle.org/ The University of El Salvador is not an exception, the Foreign Language Department is using Moodle since 2010, as an extra resource for the language learning process. For foreign language students it is really important to enhance the language skills, in Moodle, students can develop and improve the four macro skills. The four macro skills are important to become English proficient students, however, the research is focused in listening skill, since a person who listens properly is able to react appropriately to a particular situation or towards a particular person.
Jessica Rivera Delvia Merab Lopez de Ascencio
152273779
The state of the art of english language teaching Quinchia, Risaralda
The present study was developed in order to accomplish the first step of the Ordenanza policy. As it corresponds to diagnose the state of the language teaching in eleven regions of Risaralda. In this way, the current research took place in a high school of Quinchia where different data related with teaching methodologies, students, teachers and stakeholder's perceptions towards the practice of English was collected in order to identify the scenarios of the instruction of the language within the classroom. To succeed the research, the information was collected through questionnaires observations and interviews taking into account the grounded theory in order to complete the process of coding, categorizing and grouping. As the institution has an emphasis in English language the results indicate that students are used to practicing communication of the target language as a major exercise in the classroom, as well as the role of mother tongue, and the teaching process in the EFL classroom. In general terms, the L1 was used as strategy to monitor understanding, instructions and commands. L2 was evidenced and was commonly used for guiding the lessons, working on the writing skill and interacting with the students. Different teaching activities were observed in the classrooms which were aligned to some of the methodologies for English language teaching. The participant's perceptions informed the student's opinions about their learning process, practicing and challenges faced in the use of the language and finally the educational needs, language process, preparation and expectations of teachers and stakeholders. Thus, this research was a great contribution to the macro project the State of the Art of the English Language Teaching in Risaralda that will serve as a diagnosis for further studies concerning the Risaralda Bilingual Project.
Leidy Yohanna Arredondo Vasquez David Alexander Murillo Gaviria
73560152
Employment Skill Development in South Asian Countries: A renaissance of English Language
"English has a strong demand across society" the reason being its apparent economic and social value. Several policies, initiatives and interventions are taken to promote English language learning programs as part of skills development. In South Asia skills development and English language teaching are in high demand, but the problem is how to meet these demands. In this paper we explore English language as part of skills development and what is the worth in investing our time and energy. We will explore the relationship that exists between education, English language skills, skills development and employment (economic development) South Asia has diverse linguistic backgrounds and hence English acts as a major link language for the people. As a result of Globalization and the subsequent rise in the demand of English, nearly all South Asian countries are introducing English at the early school level. This broadens the spectrum of investigating into the national policies regarding English and examining the categorization of English language in reference to pedagogy in the countries of the South Asian region. I. English as an Asian Language The concept of English as an Asian language is based on the fact that English is here to stay as an irreplaceable language for communication and/or internation. In Southeast Asia, for example, English is used as an irrefutable lingua franca for regional cooperation in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) organization comprising ten states. The extraordinary importance of English is recognized by all the countries as a language of wider communication in Asia and of course the world around. This gives a redoubled emphasis on English language teaching (ELT) China, a country of 1.2 billion people, has 300 million students enrolled in the English classrooms. Japan is one of the countries who has initiated an action program to opened the way for improved ELT in five years, with a focus on teaching English in English in primary and secondary schools. If we talk about India in specific the introduction of English in India was done by The British East India Company, founded in 1599, in the exclusive domains of power government, administration, judiciary, military, education, commerce, and the media between the 18th and the 19th centuries. As such, it was an elite social class marker facilitating upward social mobility in urban, professional circles in South Asia.English continues to enjoy this dominant status in South Asia despite resistance to it in the precolonial India (Gandhi, 1942, p. 62, 1980, p. 46) postcolonial Pakistan (Abdullah,1976) Sri Lanka (Raheem Ratwatte, 2004, pp. 94 6) and Bangladesh (Hossain Tollefson,2007, p. 248) These resistance movements were counteracted by the expansion of English through improved means of communication, especially in the electronic media and cyberspace (Crystal, 2004, pp. 64 91) and the aspiration of the expanding middle class for upward mobility both nationally and internationally. II. Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) There have been efforts across South Asia to expand and improve the quality of post school vocational education, also known as TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) TVET has been defined as: the study of technologies and related sciences and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupation in various sectors of economic life (UNESCO, 2013) The approach is committed to develop a strategy of increasing skills development opportunities and making the TVET system accessible and industry oriented. In India, too, efforts are being made to encourage school leavers to enter TVET by attempting to build correspondence between education and work. III. The role of English in South Asia and TVET English has continually had a presence in the Indian subcontinent due to British colonial history in the region and the language's subsequent emergence as a global force with a high instrumental value in various domains, particularly commerce and education (McArthur, 2002) As the region is linguistically diverse, English Employment Skill Development in South Asian Countries: A renaissance of English Language. www.iosrjournals.org 122 Page serves as an instrumental link language between countries and regions. It has official status in India and Pakistan. In Bangladesh, the national language is Bangla, but English has been used as a language of education and in higher law courts since colonial times. In Sri Lanka, English has been brought back as a link language after a postcolonial Sinhala Only' policy (Kennett, 2010) While Nepal was never part of British India, the status of English there is similar: It is classed as the country's primary foreign language and it is used as the language of higher education, particularly in STEM subjects. While English has no official status in Afghanistan, the language plays an important role as a language of development. In Iran, English is taught as a foreign language from Grade 7. Across the region, English is considered as a parameter for accessing the best higher education opportunities, which then ultimately bring about the best employment opportunities. While English was traditionally a prerequisite for specialised education and high level careers, it is now rising in demand in almost all the fields. More and more employers are using English, as recruitment criteria, particularly in the private sector and in public institutions. Communication skills in English are framed as a basic skill' along with computer literacy. This can be seen in the following quote from a major recruitment consultant in India: India's language diversity means that English is like Windows; an operating system. This has always been true for high end services but now applies to even many unorganised services (security, door to door sales, electricians, etc) and manufacturing because of the increased use of distributed IT systems for internal processes (Teamlease, 2012) English is also increasingly instrumental as the language of migration: Capstick (2011) shows how fluency leads to increased opportunities for migration among migrants from Pakistan. Research from Bangladesh suggests that if migrant workers were trained in vocational skills, including English, the remittance earnings could go up by $30 billion a year (Haque, 2010) As English has been upheld as a mark of education, culture and status across South Asia, knowledge of the language is perceived to lead to enhanced social status (Gupta, 2001) Research on attitudes towards English often reflect a strong belief in the power of English and a desire to be one of the many who speak the languages, for reasons of practicality and prestige (see Erling et al, 2012) With the increase in the affinity for English across South Asia, English education has become more important in the national curricula as well as job requisite of these countries. In Bangladesh, for example, it is compulsory from Grade 1 and a mandatory part of a school leaving certificate (Banu and Sussex, 2001; Mc Arthur, 2002: 328) Low cost private English medium schools are mushrooming across the region in response to parental demand for English and as a reaction to the low quality of government school (Baird, 2009) In Andhra Pradesh, India, for example, the uptake of private schooling increased from 24 per cent among children born in 1994 5 to 44 per cent among children born in 2001 2 (Woodhead, Frost and James, 2012) Private English language tutoring schools are also common across the region (see Hamid, Sussex Khan, 2009) Despite these increasing efforts in English teaching and training, the low quality of education provided results in the increase of demands as it's not being met. IV. The relationship between English and economic development Till now, there is only minimal hard evidence to measure the relationship between English language skills and economic for national and individual benefit. The reason being the lack of data and deficiency of proving causality. However, the picture is getting richer as increasingly nuanced econometric studies are being undertaken with ever richer data pools in response to a demand for evidence based policy. In this section, the most recent studies conducted in this area are discussed. The report focuses strictly on quantitative studies and their findings, primarily studies which have been published since 2006. It includes a discussion of: 1. exploring the relationship between education and economic development (with a focus on South Asia) 2. trying to prove that there exists a relationship between TVET and economic development. 3. providing that the relationship between English language skills and economic development is evident(with a focus on studies concerning South Asia) Before going into the evidence, it should be noted that focusing on the returns to education and putting the focus on economic gain exhibits a rather narrow conception of development. Broader conceptions of human development' embrace improved governance, security, better health, the eradication of poverty, social cohesion and environmental sustainability, amongst other things. In line with this perspective, quality education: is important in a rights based perspective and due to its social benefits such as reductions in fertility and mortality, empowerment, better democratic participation, etc. (Fasih et al, 2012:8) Employment Skill Development in South Asian Countries: A renaissance of English Language. www.iosrjournals.org 123 Page Y benefits other people in society (through securing of basic cognitive skills, literacy and numeracy which bring changes that are beneficial to families and communities) (Colclough, Kingdon and Patrinos, 2010) These factors alone justify an investment in education. 4.1 Education and economic development Robust links between quality educat
Deepti Sethi Shruti Agarwal
57513914
Teaching English Vocabulary through Ict's
1 IntroductionVocabulary is the first and foremost important step in language acquisition. This paper is an attempt to study and explore the various methodologies that can be incorporated in the teaching of vocabulary items in a language classroom.Teaching English vocabulary by means of the new technologies and the modern learning methods seems to be a most challenging undertaking, mostly because of the variety of vocabulary types to be learned, including single words, phrases, collocations, and strategic vocabulary, as well as grammatical patterning, idioms and fixed phrases.Vocabulary is a necessary ingredient for all communication. Language learners encounter vocabulary on a daily basis, and must be able to acquire and retain it. As a language teacher, one of my main tasks is to help students develop a rich vocabulary inventory.Learning a new language is a great opportunity for a student because it is required in an international world. Learning English has many advantages that help in the economic, cultural, political, and social aspects of life. A larger vocabulary allows you to speak with greater precision with other people. Words are the currency of communication. A robust vocabulary improves all areas of communication listening, speaking, reading and writing. When students improve their vocabulary, their academic and social confidence and competence improve, too. In my opinion, the greatest tools I can give my students for succeeding, not only in their education, but more generally in life, are a large, rich vocabulary and the skills for using those words.The learner, while learning the vocabulary of a second language can overpass several challenges: making the correct connections, when understanding the second language, between the form and meaning of words; when producing language, using the correct form of a word for the meaning intended. To face these challenges the learners need to acquire a critical mass of words for use in both understanding and producing the new language, remember the words overtime, being able to recall them readily, develop strategies for coping with gaps in word knowledge, including coping with unknown words or unfamiliar uses of known words, and have to take responsibilities themselves for vocabulary expansion.With hundreds of thousands of words in the English language, teaching vocabulary can seem like a very daunting prospect. We have to remember though that the average native speaker uses around only five thousand words in everyday speech. Moreover, students won't need to produce every word they learn, some they will just need to recognize. Selecting what to teach, based on frequency and usefulness to the needs of your particular students is therefore essential. Once you have chosen what to teach, the next important steps are to consider what students need to know about the items, and how you can teach them. Efficiency is achieved only when teachers use the best teaching learning methods.Methods make the material easier to comprehend and assimilate. A teacher would only pay attention towards his methods only when he is completely dedicated his profession and if his profession is his passion.Using modern methods, the students learn the foreign language in the same way as they learn their mother tongue, while in traditional methods they learn English word by word in their mother tongue. But, if the teacher finds the best teaching method for a particular group of students, they are likely to learn more quickly. Furthermore, using a variety of teaching methods will help students from being bored and learn in a new and exciting way.Nowadays, we have great possibilities in terms of teaching methods, visual and listening aids, seating arrangements, etc. With this freedom in teaching, we can use an enormous number of ideas during our classes and we can put into practice a lot of new ideas and activities. One of the teacher's crucial tasks is to compare, analyze and evaluate the methods they use in order to motivate the students and to make the learning process as effective as possible.
Gabriel Barbulet
152257119
Young learners learn how to learn: A comparative study towards Greek young learners who develop the writing skill through strategy instruction.
Writing remains a critical issue both in first and second or foreign language teaching, since it is considered to be a neglected part of the language programme. This underlies the fact that its intricate and miscellaneous nature has led many teachers to intentionally overlook it and focus more on other aspects and skills of the target language, especially when they are addressed to young children. Research has shown that strategy instruction is the key to teaching and learning how to write effectively (Sommers, 1982, Perl, 1980, Smith, 1982, Jones, 1983, Jones Tetroe, 1987, Gaskill, 1983, Zamel, 1983, Connor, 1984, Scardamalia Bereiter, 1986, Cumming, 1989a, 1989b, Raimes, 1987 in Cohen, 1990) In Greek contexts, classroom instructors assume that teaching the writing skill to beginners or pre intermediate learners is through modeling and simply correcting language errors. They neglect the fact that writing process is more of a thinking process (Arndt White, 1991, p.2) which entails intellectual effort in order to conceive what actually goes on during writing. This dissertation is a small scale comparative study on how strategy instruction can contribute to the development of the writing skill to preintermediate learners. The purpose of the study is to inspect how learners can get involved in the writing process so as to control their own learning through employing certain strategies. Particularly, the study aims to explore the effectiveness of strategy instruction and if there are certain independent variables affecting its efficacy; which are the most common strategies that are widely used by effective users of different gender and if strategies related to metacognition lead to greater writing proficiency. To satisfy this intention, an action research report was conducted which was addressed to A2 Waystage level students of a private English school in Thessaloniki. Data were elicited after conducting a five session training program based on Arndt White's recursive writing model (1991,p.4) and in which both direct and indirect strategies related to writing process were implemented (Oxford, 1990) They were elicited through the use of questionnaires and writing scoring rubrics. According to research results, it is implied that young learners have employed a great repertoire of strategies after the implementation of the program which seem to direct them to improvement of their written products and better understanding of the writing process, as it was suggested by Cohen (1990) Oxford (1990) and Pressley Woloshyn (1995) Specifically, the mostly favoured strategies were cognitive and metacognitive ones, as the writing process itself presupposes thinking, planning, monitoring and evaluating skills so that learners, even from the beginning of their language development can become more fluent in writing in the target language. This strategy training has created more independent and autonomous young writers who can be actively involved in extended writing by the scaffolded assistance of the classroom instructor.
Khrusoula Deliopoulou
221244676
Teaching Story Prompt Writing Through WH Questions Cube among Year 5 Students
Today's education field in Malaysia has undergone various transformations in line with progressive global educational trends. Henceforth, revolution of teaching and learning styles, methods and approaches are essential to ensure that students' learning, skills and thinking are optimized and concurrently nurture motivated and confident learners starting from primary school level. Numerous studies on teaching and learning writing had highlighted that it is one of the most challenging skills to be mastered in English language. With respect to this, this study aims to explore the necessity of incorporating WH Foldable Cube to facilitate expansion of ideas in teaching story prompt lessons. WH Foldable Cube is a writing learning strategy which emphasised on expansion of ideas through the use of question words to facilitate generation of ideas in writing story prompt. Expansion of ideas becomes less strenuous through students' engagement with the question words that are used in the WH Foldable Cube template to stimulate their thinking about the pictures stimulus given. The data were collected using writing tasks and interview which were administered among five Year 5 students in SK Parish, a suburban school in Balingian district. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents agreed that the use of WH Foldable Cube had positive impacts towards their story prompt writing to generate and expand their ideas. This research also highlighted the potential use of WH Foldable Cube to expand students' motivation and confidence in their learning.
Daisy Kunang anak Kuah@ Jebi Hamidah Yamat Ahmad Fakulti Pendidikan
212960978
Raising Bilingual and Biliterate Heritage Speakers of Russian in a Monolingual Context: The Impact of Family and Supplementary Education Language Policies
Author(s) Ice, Anna Advisor(s) McCarty, Teresa L; Vroon, Ronald W Abstract: Framed by Spolsky's (2004) three part model for language policy, this qualitative case study examines the ways in which supplementary education and family language policies assist in raising bilingual and biliterate speakers of Russian and English. It explores two domains of the children's life: the contexts of family and a Russian Saturday School by investigating specific language beliefs, practices, and language management strategies at the Russian School and the families of five of its graduates as well as by providing a threefold perspective of parents, teachers and adolescents. Observations, interviews and surveys provide different types of data that helps us understand of how these different contexts impact the adolescents' language development and their attitude towards their heritage language. In line with previous research, this study confirms the leading role of parents in heritage language preservation. The main components of the parents' language policy that supported bilingualism were (1) dedication to the home language and culture, (2) adherence to strict rules about when each language is used, and (3) support of Russian language development by providing additional opportunities to practice both receptive and reproductive skills in Russian. In the family context, language management was largely implemented through language practices and parental language use was one of the main tactics of such management. The study demonstrates that the Russian School played an important role in the lives of these families not only as a place of supplementary education but also as a community builder where children socialized in the Russian culture in a pressure free atmosphere. It played an important role in building a positive attitude towards the Russian language in adolescence.The analysis also reveals a diminishing role of parents and teaching in affecting language choices and language practices of children in adolescence. At this stage, their choice to use Russian for personal activities was closely related to the opportunities to use the Russian language outside of the home and the Russian School, especially in communication with their peers.This study has implications for the theory of family language policy, heritage language educators, program planners, and immigrant families interested in raising bilingual biliterate children.
Anna Ice
226244987
The Impact of Strategy Instruction on Iraqi EFL Learners' Listening Comprehension and Metacognitive Strategy Use1
This study examined the impact of process based listening strategy instruction on Iraqi EFL learners' listening comprehension and their metacognitive awareness of listening strategies. The study also investigated the differences in all of the five factors of the Metacognitive Awareness of Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) offered by Vandergrift et al. (2006) The study was a quasi experimental with a pretest posttest design using intact classes. The participants were 60 sophomore EFL learners in Iraq came from two intact classes. One intact class was assigned as the intervention (n=30) and the other as the control group (n=30) The intervention group received a process based listening strategy instruction based on Siegel's (2015) model. The control group received the conventional teaching of listening without any strategy training. Both groups completed the listening section of the Preliminary English Test (PET) and the (MALQ) at the beginning and the end of the study. Results indicated that listening strategy instruction had generally a positive impact on learners' listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness of strategy use. More specifically, the intervention group outperformed the control group on the listening proficiency post test and the MALQ. The examination of the MALQ factors showed significant increases in problem solving, mental translation, and planningevaluation strategies but decreases in directed attention and person knowledge for the intervention group. The findings suggest a positive effect of explicit instruction of listening strategies on listening comprehension. Resumen Este estudio examino el impacto de la instruccion basada en estrategias para la comprension auditiva en estudiantes iraquies de ingles como lengua extranjera y su conciencia metacognitiva de las estrategias de escucha. El estudio tambien investigo las diferencias en los cinco factores del Cuestionario de Conciencia Metacognitiva de Escuchar (MALQ) ofrecido por Vandergrift et al. (2006) El estudio fue cuasi experimental con un diseno de prueba previa y posterior utilizando clases intactas. Los participantes fueron 60 estudiantes de segundo ano de ingles como lengua extranjera en Irak en dos grupos intactos. Un grupo intacto se asigno como intervencion (n 30) y el otro como grupo de control (n 30) El grupo de intervencion recibio una instruccion basada en procesos en estrategias de comprension auditiva basada en el modelo de Siegel (2015) El grupo de control recibio la ensenanza convencional sin ningun entrenamiento en estrategias. Ambos grupos completaron la seccion de comprension auditiva del Preliminary English Test (PET) y el (MALQ) al principio y al final del estudio. Los resultados indicaron que la instruccion en estrategias de comprension auditiva tuvo generalmente un impacto positivo en la comprension auditiva y la conciencia metacognitiva del uso de estrategias de los alumnos. Mas especificamente, el grupo de intervencion supero al grupo de control en la prueba posterior de competencia auditiva y en el MALQ. El examen de los factores MALQ mostro aumentos significativos en las estrategias de resolucion de problemas, traduccion mental y planificacion evaluacion, pero disminuyo la atencion dirigida y el conocimiento de la persona para el grupo de intervencion. Los hallazgos sugieren un efecto positivo de la instruccion explicita de estrategias auditivas sobre la comprension auditiva. Introduction Listening is of vital importance in English as a Foreign/Second Language (EFL/ESL) learning as it is a major source of input for language learners, it is more frequently used than other skills, and it can grant access to other language skills (Siegel, 2014; Vandergrift, 2007) Despite its importance in L1 and L2 contexts, there is a general belief that listening is a challenging skill to teach (Siegel, 2015) the most difficult skill to master by learners (Renandya Farrell, 2011) the least researched among language skills (Graham Santos, 2015) and that it receives the least attention in teacher manuals and L2 instructional materials (Field, 2012; Vandergrift Goh, 2012) Thus, both researchers and teachers believe that listening is a significant skill in the L2 context, but many teachers do not know how to teach it. Teachers often do not teach listening in such a way that strategies and processes embedded inside a text are revealed to learners and repeatedly practiced inside the foreign language classroom. It is more common for teachers to exploit listening to teach other skills, such as writing and speaking (Vandergrift Goh, 2012) However, when they teach listening, teachers often ask learners to write down the words they hear in conversational exchanges and complete listening activities in tests where only part of the text 1 This is a refereed paper. Received: 20 May, 2020. Accepted: 7 July, 2020. 2 hussein.ganim@gmail.com MEXTESOL Journal, Vol. 44, No. 4, 2020 2 is comprehensible (Graham, 2017) This method of teaching listening is much like testing learners' current level of aural text comprehension rather than teaching them how to listen. This approach of teaching listening in which teachers rely heavily on the status quo "Listen, Answer, Check" (Siegel, 2015, p.5) sequence has been called the Comprehension Approach by Field (2008) This approach does not teach effective use of listening strategies, and it may not be the best way to help learners improve their listening comprehension. An alternative to the Comprehension Approach is the Process Approach, which emerged as a new approach to teaching listening in the 1970s. This aimed at describing the listening strategies and the processes (bottom up processing, top down processing or both) learners used to comprehend aural input. Attention to the learning strategies used by successful language learners, which could be taught to the unsuccessful learners, has grown in the field of language learning. As a result of this increased attention, researchers have examined how listening strategy instruction influences language learners' listening performance. However, there is no consensus among researchers on whether listening strategy instruction leads to positive or negative results in different proficiency groups (Berne, 2004; Hassan et al. 2005) In a systematic review article on the effectiveness of strategy instruction, Hassan et.al (2005) found that only five out of 38 studies were directed towards listening, and of these five only one (Thompson and Rubin, 1996) pointed to the positive effect of strategy instruction on listening comprehension. In his metaanalysis review article, Plonsky (2011) stated that few studies on listening have explored the impact of listening strategy instruction on listening proficiency. He confirmed that research on listening strategy instruction suffered from methodological and theoretical flaws such as lack of a solid model of strategy instruction and that "negligible effects resulted from studies with listening, as dependent variables" (p. 1010) among learners from various contexts. In addition, while much attention had been paid to the English language in the contexts of Canada, United States, Japan and China (Cross, 2009) the present study is conducted to examine the effect of listening strategy instruction on listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness of strategy use of Iraqi EFL learners, and on each factor of the Metacognitive Awareness of Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) in particular. This study used a quasi experimental pre test and post test research design with standardized English tests. Empirical Studies on Listening Strategy Instruction The empirical literature on second or foreign language listening strategy instruction is limited (Ngo, 2019; Plonsky, 2011, Renandya Farrell, 2011) Little research has focused on strategy instruction to raise students' awareness of cognitive and metacognitive strategies (Chou, 2016) There is also a lack of consensus on whether or not strategy instruction could benefit learners in developing their listening comprehension and metacognitive strategy use. Researchers are not unanimous about the effects of strategy instruction; there are studies supporting the beneficial effects of listening strategy instruction on the listening ability of EFL/ESL learners (Siegel, 2015; Vandergrift Goh, 2012) On the contrary, there are also researchers who are doubtful about such claims, including Swan and Walter (2017) who argue that there is no need for explicit listening instruction. They believe that listening can be practiced and learned by exposure to the listening tasks. Some of the recent studies on the effects of listening strategy instruction on learners' listening comprehension have led to negative results (Cross, 2009; Lopez, 2017; Milliner Dimoski, 2019; O'Malley et al. 1985; Sharaf et al. 2018; Taguchi, 2017; Tanewong, 2018; Zobler, 2010) which raises doubts about the effectiveness of listening strategy instruction. In an update of his 2011 meta analysis study, Plonsky (2019) has declared that the effect of language learning strategy instruction on listening is quite weak due to its covert nature, difficulty inherent in the aural performance, and the difficulty in measuring the construct of listening. Other researchers studying the effects of listening strategy instruction (Berne, 2004; Hassan et al, 2005; Plonsky, 2011) have had mixed results, indicating a possible mix of advantages and disadvantages following strategy instruction. However, there are also many studies pointing to positive results of instruction on listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness of strategy use. They are summarized in Table 1. MEXTESOL Journal, Vol. 44, No. 4, 2020 3 Researcher(s) Participants Effect of instruction on Listening Comprehension Metacognitive awareness Thompson Rubin (1996) 36 American High intermediate learners of Russian Improved Not measured Graham Macaro
Hussein Ghanim AL-Shammaria
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Pedagogy in Beninese Traditional Convents: Using African Training Modes to Support the Teaching of Oral Skills in EFL Classes
In most Beninese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes, students generally exhibit a poor level of oral proficiency. Despite the use of the communicative approach to teaching, and the considerable efforts being made by curriculum designers and teachers to promote the teaching of the oral skill in school manuals and class sessions, its effective acquisition remains a challenge for the majority of students. To look for solutions to the problem, the present study has tried to gain insights into the pedagogy used in Hounkpamin (Beninese traditional convents),to teach unknown languages to adepts. In fact, the African continent had its own system of transmitting knowledge. Inquiring into these traditional modes of teaching might provide hints or paths to solutions for the current problem. Using an ethnographic research method, this study has inquired into the training modes used in some of these traditional convents to approach the teaching of languages in order to determine whether or not such modes are adaptable in the formal setting of EFL classes to support the teaching of speaking. The findings indicate five major strategies used in these convents to teach unknown languages. Suggestions are made in the study towards a philosophy of education that places emphasis on cultural values.
Flavien Dossou Lanmantchion Juvenale Patinvoh Agbayah