The role of foreign language requirements in domestic students’ first-year success at one internationalising Japanese university

Author(s):  
Charles Allen Brown
2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ni Kadek Wulandari ◽  
I Made Rustika

Personal Adjustment is a process which includes all the individual behavior and mental response in harmonize needs and demands in which it is derived from the inside of individual as well as from the environment. The ability in personal adjustment is needed to help the individual in facing many changes and demands from the environment. Personal adjustment is needed for first-year students in facing the school’s transition, especially for the students who proceed their education in a boarding school. Personal adjustment is affected by the ability in managing the emotion and mental readiness to solve a problem without a help from others. This research is aimed to explore the role of autonomy and emotional intelligence to the personal adjustment in the first-year boarding students. The subjects were 125 boarding students in grade X of SMK Kesehatan Bali Medika Denpasar. The instrument in the research were personal adjustment scale, autonomy scale and emotional intelligence scale. The results of multiple regression analysis showed the value of R=0,783 (p<0,05) and R2=0,613, which concluded that the personal adjustment and emotional intelligence conjunctly contributes as much as 61,3% to the personal adjustment in th first-year boarding students. Standardized beta coefficient of autonomy showed the value of 0,296 (p<0,05), which concluded that the autonomy contribute to the personal adjustment. Standardized beta coefficient of emotional intelligence showed the value of 0,541 (p<0,05), which concluded that the emotional intelligence contribute to the personal adjustment.Keywords: autonomy, emotional intelligence, personal adjustment, boarding students, first-year


Author(s):  
Piia Valto ◽  
Piia Nuora

During recent years, the Department of Chemistry at the University of Jyväskylä has made an extensive effort to support chemistry students’ first study year. The first-year curriculum includes enhanced study counselling course, intensive orientation course and support for academic study skills via a specific course.  In this study, the effects of the revisions were studied by exploring the chemistry students study continuation and what factors contributed to it.  In 2015 to 2017, data were collected from first-year chemistry students (n = 106), who completed a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of their first semester. The results show that the percentage of dropout rates after the first year decreased. Students’ current challenges are different than they have been previously, thus putting new demands on their guidance. The results of the study indicate that students value guidance and study counselling especially at the beginning of their studies.


Author(s):  
Mounia Benjelloun

Speaking English as a foreign language presents one of the most common challenges for learners of English due to many factors related to their perception of the teacher as “a sage on the stage,” their own shyness, a lack of appropriate vocabulary and accurate grammar, and a lack of cooperative learning skills. To help students remedy this problem, the Think-Pair-Share’ strategy was used in this study of online classes during the COVID 19 pandemic. Research has demonstrated that learners can improve their speaking skills and learn more effectively through meaningful collaboration and sharing. This study aims to investigate the role of the Think-Pair-Share’ approach in promoting students’ speaking skills. The study adopts a qualitative approach and addresses the following two research questions: (i) To what extent does the Think-Pair- Share help in improving students’ speaking skills? (ii) How can this improvement be justified? Twenty-eight first-year Moroccan university students took part in this study. The research instruments used combined pre- and post-speaking tests, students’ self-evaluation, and classroom observations. Data were video recorded, analysed qualitatively using the FCE speaking-assessment criteria, and compared to the students’ self- evaluation of their own performance. The results show that the Think-Pair-Share strategy enabled predominantly average and weak students to exchange their views on a range of familiar topics with more ease, confidence, and fluency using more appropriate vocabulary and a clearer organisation of ideas. Although the learners still had problems with their pronunciation and accurate grammar, they demonstrated better interactive communication.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Cristina Morilla-García

The objective of this study is to enquire how effectively the application of emotional intelligence is in the process of the acquisition of the oral skills in the foreign language at an early age, specifically in the first year of primary education. The findings obtained in this investigation proceed from a study in which we have analyzed and compared a bilingual educative programme that integrates the dimensions of emotional intelligence in its curriculum, AMCO, with other approaches in which this type of attention is not previously organized in their programs such as CLIL and the teaching of a foreign language. The results show that students who have been exposed to a methodology that integrates techniques for the application of emotional intelligence obtain better marks in the oral production of the L2 favouring its acquisition. Furthermore the study found evidence that these students were more motivated in the process of speaking and showed more self-esteem, and self-control in the classroom interactions. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 826-832
Author(s):  
Abhishek Chaturvedi ◽  
Anitha Guru ◽  
Naveen Kumar ◽  
Ling Yi Lin ◽  
Daniel YeapTze Wei ◽  
...  

Introduction: Postprandial somnolence or commonly referred to as food coma is generally experienced after the ingestion of afternoon meals. The performance of an individual gets affected after the ingestion of a heavy meal and this is more pertinent in a college setup where students have to attend a lecture right after the meal. The objective of this study was to assess the awareness of medical students about the factors responsible for postprandial somnolence, to identify the methods used to counteract it and to ascertain lecturers’ perception on responsiveness and participation of the students in a post lunch lecture. Methods: Total 330 students (first year to third year MBBS students) aged between 18-21 years and 40 lecturers teaching first and second year MBBS students were involved in this study. Two separate questionnaires (Part A: students’ perception, and B: lecturers’ perception) were prepared, peer-reviewed, validated and administered to the respective participants. All the responses were compiled and expressed in frequency percentage. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 15.0 for a level of statistical significance of 5%. Pearson correlation was used to get the association between the variables. Results: About 55.75% students were aware about the role of serotonin and melatonin in drowsiness but 45.75% students did not know that food rich in tryptophan relaxes the brain and results in sleepiness. Students agree that heaviness of their meal might cause drowsiness and indigestion or bloating, which can also result in lethargy and can affect their performance. Majority of the lecturers opined that students disturb the harmony of the class and are less responsive and participative in post lunch break lectures. Conclusion: Thus, the present study provided scope for conducting awareness talks regarding the strategies to counteract postprandial somnolence among medical students which can help improve their concentration during post-lunch lectures. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.20(4) 2021 p.826-832


2021 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 276
Author(s):  
D.S. Bowyer

Students on foreign exchange (FE) programs often fail to make progress in either their creation of intercultural relationships with domestic students or their foreign language (LX) abilities, despite these being the two most common FE student goals (Kudo & Simkin, 2003; Willis Allen, 2010). This article discusses the results of a pilot board game club project created with a Japanese university’s new self-access learning center to provide FE and domestic students more frequent opportunities to interact with and learn from each other. Five people involved in the club, two FE students, one domestic student, and two learning center staff members, took part in a written or face-to-face interview at the end of the first year of the program. Results indicated that the participants believed the club was successful in its two main goals of increased interaction and LX development. However, a more robust future quantitative study is necessary. 外国文化交流(FE)プログラムの学生たちは、最も一般的な学習目標であるにもかかわらず、外国語(LX)の能力向上及び母語話者学生との異文化理解のための関係性構築のいずれをも達成できないことが多い(Kudo & Simkin, 2003; Willis Allen, 2010)。本論はFEの学生たちと母語話者たちで交流し、学び合う機会をより多く与えるために設置された、大学の自律学習センターで行われたボードゲーム・クラブでの予備調査結果について考察する。プログラムの初年度末に二人のFE学生、一人の母語話者学生、及び二人のスタッフがアンケートに回答し、インタビューを受けた。結果から、参加者たちは対象言語能力の向上と異文化理解促進というふたつの目標の達成に、クラブ活動が効果的であると考えていることが分かった。しかしながら、本論の信頼性を確認するために、より多くの量的研究を今後も行っていく必要がある。


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 398-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuya Saito ◽  
Keiko Hanzawa

The current project longitudinally investigated the extent to which first-year Japanese university students developed their second language (L2) oral ability in relation to increased input in foreign language classrooms. Their spontaneous speech was elicited at the beginning, middle and end of one academic year, and then judged by linguistically trained coders for pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and grammar qualities. According to the statistical analyses, the total amount of input (operationalized as number of English classes taken and L2 use outside of classrooms) was significantly related to the participants’ quick and immediate development of fluency and lexicogrammar during the first semester. Their pronunciation development was mixed, either subject to continuous change over two academic semesters (for prosody) or limited within the timeframe of the study (for segmentals). Similar to naturalistic L2 speech learning, the findings support the multifaceted role of input in different areas of oral proficiency development in foreign language classrooms.


2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 137-148
Author(s):  
Slavica Čepon ◽  
Mihaela Zavašnik

This article summarizes some of the findings of a large-scale study of the foreign language needs of economics students (Čepon 2007). It focuses on the rationale behind the lengthy period of disuse of general English (GE) during economics students’ first year of undergraduate study. The article presents evidence for processes of GE attrition that slowly set in and are deemed to be particularly detrimental to economics. It is also important to determine exactly which language needs are essential for the future professional development of the economics graduates. It is hoped that this will spur foreign language policy renewal.


2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Dickson ◽  
Colleen S. Conley ◽  
Kunal A. Patel ◽  
Daniel Cunningham

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 161-179
Author(s):  
Outi Paloposki

The article looks at book production and circulation from the point of view of translators, who, as purchasers and readers of foreign-language books, are an important mediating force in the selection of literature for translation. Taking the German publisher Tauchnitz's series ‘Collection of British Authors’ and its circulation in Finland in the nineteenth and early twentieth century as a case in point, the article argues that the increased availability of English-language books facilitated the acquiring and honing of translators' language skills and gradually diminished the need for indirect translating. Book history and translation studies meet here in an examination of the role of the Collection in Finnish translators' work.


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