An investigation of English pronunciation teaching in Ireland

English Today ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 10-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deirdre Murphy

The global expansion of the use of English throughout the last decade has had significant implications for its instruction around the world. Among the issues that have arisen as a result of this expansion has been the selection of appropriate phonological models in the English language classroom. Specifically this particular issue has hinged on the question of whether it is more appropriate to encourage English language learners to strive towards the goal of a particular native variety of English pronunciation, or to promote an alternative target. This question has provoked much discussion, and has been the subject of occasionally heated debate (e.g. Jenkins, 1998, 2000; Scheuer, 2005, 2008; Seidlhofer & Jenkins, 2003).

Author(s):  
Ali Akbar Khansir ◽  
Afsaneh Salehabadi

As the topic suggests, the research paper presents Study of Consonant Pronunciations Errors Committed by EFL Learners. Error analysis always tries to resolve language learners’ problems in acquiring second or foreign language setting. Learning to English pronunciation is perhaps as important as learning listening skill, speaking, and spelling. Errors in English pronunciation create several problems for English language learners in their works. In other words, most of the English language errors of pronunciation are due to the lack of knowledge of language learners. However, all the students in our sample are of age group (16-25) at Bushehr language institute and they are all Iranian nationals. In addition, all of them were female learners. An English pronunciation (consonant) test was used to get information about the knowledge of the learners in English pronunciation. Findings of this article indicated that the first and second hypotheses of this article were accepted, but the third hypothesis was rejected. However, the findings of this paper showed that the Iranian EFL students have problem to pronounce English sounds correctly.


2003 ◽  
Vol 141-142 ◽  
pp. 301-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Pica ◽  
Gay N. Washburn

This study sought to identify and describe how negative evidence was made available and accessible in responses to learners during two classroom activities: a teacher-led discussion, which emphasized communication of subject matter content, and a teacher-led sentence construction exercise, which focused on application of grammatical rules. Data came from adult, pre-academic English language learners during six discussions of American film and literature, and six sets of sentence construction exercises. Findings revealed little availability of negative evidence in the discussions, as students' fluent, multi-error contributions drew responses that were primarily back-channels and continuation moves. Greater availability and accessibility of negative evidence were found in the sentence construction exercises, as students were given feedback following their completion of individual sentences. Results from the study suggested several pedagogical implications and applications.


English Today ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rining Wei ◽  
Jinzhi Su

In the mid-1980s, Crystal (1985) lamented that there were no reliable figures available for the number of learners to whom English is taught as a foreign language in many regions of the world, and that ‘China has always been excluded from the statistical reviews, because of the shortage of information from inside the country’ (Crystal, 1985: 9). More recently, Bolton (2008: 6) similarly notes that because of ‘the absence of accurate language surveys’ academics have to make educated guesses regarding the total number of those learning/knowing English. The figure of the total English learners/users in China has been estimated to be somewhere between 200 and 350 million (cf. Bolton, 2003: 48; Kachru, 1997; McArthur, 2003; Zhao & Campbell, 1995; Graddol, 2006: 95). Fortunately, a national language survey in China conducted at the turn of the century does provide some hard statistics on the number of English language learners/users in the world's most populous country, and also sheds some light on the realities of use of English and English proficiency among the Chinese people.


Active readers use several approaches to comprehend what they read before, during, and after reading. These readers use their previous experience or information to reflect about the subject, guess the text meaning and apply their skimming and scanning skills to predict the overall meaning. However, for a struggling English language learner (ELL) applying this skill may pose as a real challenge especially when the text level becomes more difficult and they are interpreting unfamiliar texts. One of the factors that may contribute to this problem is the absence of reading strategies. Hence, in this study, five 12-years old ELLs from a School in Johor Bahru were involved to record their usage of reading strategies before and after the reading strategy instructions. The study incorporates the quantitative design and the data collected was analysed using SPSS 16. ELLs answered a set of questionnaires from an adapted survey of reading strategies (SORS) developed by Mokhtari & Reichard (2002). The findings showed that despites their struggling in reading, these learners were able to apply some reading strategies to help them in reading English texts and marked differences in the frequency of reading strategies used at the end of the reading instruction in comparison to the early stage of the study.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Lina Masruuroh ◽  
Lyla Anggerwina Kusuma

Proper Teacher Talk (TT) used in the EFL classroom contributes to the effective communication in  TEFL. Teachers who are expected to implement proper and effective teacher talk are apparently seeing this as one of the most complicated elements to be appropriately integrated in EFL class due to the different context between target language and first language and also the excessive target language exposure that is given by English teacher to the students as one of authentic learning process in the classroom. Many research focus on researching effective TT strategy in general EFL classroom, however, there is ony limited number of them that focuses on researching this concept in Islamic classroom with its Islamic culture, Islamic learners and Islamic situations. This descriptive qualitative study discussed and proposed the effective teacher talks in supporting the success of teaching english as a foreign language classroom in Islamic context. This article had anaysed the interview result from 7 English-Islamic lecturers in Islamic Broadcasting and Communication Learners (KPI) major and used TT features which later focussed on its ammount, diction and questioning type under SLA theory. This article aims to explain why and what types of language of the proper communication style and strategies should be applied by the English lecturers in Islamic higher education for having the effective teacher talk to English-Islamic  learners, specifically to Islamic Broadcasting and Communication Learners, that could contribute to a professional development in English Language Teaching.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Zakeya Sultana

Feeling of anxiety is exceedingly experienced by the English language learners throughout the world. Though the impact of anxiety on learning and performing in English has been widely studied in United States, Canada, Japan, Taiwan and many other countries; this present study, in contrast, tries to find out the reasons of anxiety in learning and performing English in the classes among the Bangladeshi cadet college students. Data has been collected through questionnaire from 30 participants from different cadet colleges in Bangladesh. Finally 10 students (one third of the total participants) were interviewed to get supportive data on their responses. An analysis of their responses indicate that preoccupied fear, peers’ parents’ and teachers’ reactions (sometimes)hold the participants back to flourish and express themselves properly. The responses of the participants quite clearly show that peers’, parents’ as well as preceptors’ amiable attitude towards the learners can pave the way for anxiety free learning and performance. So the findings can clearly facilitate both the students and the teachers in this respect.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Rini Estiyowati Ikaningrum ◽  
Sri Sarwanti

Since literacy deals with the ability to read and write therefore information using technologies is really vast developed. In this digital era, students of English need to get accustomed to various disciplines, such as computer, ICT, and media literacy. Digital literacy deals with social practices and conceptions through digital texts. This reveals four main elements, i.e.: understanding cultural, social, and historical contexts of technology use; critical thinking and analysis; reflective practice; and facility with the functional skills and tools of digital technology production. This is a qualitative study which examined students’ critical digital literacy when they did online reading activity outside the class. The data were collected by using questionnaire. The subject of this research were the fourth semester students of English Department of Universitas Tidar Magelang. The findings navigate students with their critical digital literacy and understanding of the text with their background knowledge and interpret text effectively. This research implies to the concept of online class implementation, especially in reading class.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-23
Author(s):  
Caroline Kim

While many English Language Learners (ELLs) embark on a path towards higher education in universities centered around Standardized English, they must undergo rigorous training to prepare for these demanding TOEFL exams. Students that have been exposed to World Englishes, or lingua francas, for communicative purposes are now asked to abandon these English varieties to assume the elevated importance of the Standardized form of English implemented across universities around the world. This paper analyzes the juxtaposition and negotiation of these languages as learners are often encumbered with not only linguistic barriers but cultural hindrances that contribute to identity displacement. As language is deeply entrenched in one’s cultural background, it is necessary to reflect on how these English proficiency exams negate the learner’s L1 along with the unique qualities that they strongly identify with.


2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Marie Holloway

The study explores visual literacies and critical literacies students may experience utilizing photography aimed at engaging youth in thinking more deeply about their relationships to the environment and the communities they live in. This is a case study based on interviews with a total of 5 participants. I argue that visual literacy expands students’ opportunities to build productively upon print-based literacy practices, evens the playing field to some extent for English Language Learners, and connects youth in creative ways to think about being citizens in their communities and the world.


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