Socially orientated digital storytelling among Saudi EFL learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed A. Al Khateeb
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Digital Storytelling ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Social Orientation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Efl Students

Purpose The current research presents a 14-week experience of developing socially orientated narratives in a digital mode, which involved 60 female Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Initially working together, they were later divided into groups of approximately eight members each. The purpose of this research is to determine the benefits and challenges facing EFL leaners who are engaged with socially orientated digital-storytelling tasks. It also explores the nature of creating language-related socially orientated digital-storytelling projects and the main features associated with such projects. This practice targets the use of a new form of educational technologies that promotes educators’ pedagogical strategies, as well as their social needs, by sharing learners’ personal thoughts with others and cooperating and coordinating with other team members. Design/methodology/approach The current research has been designed in line with qualitative analysis. A qualitative analysis approach was chosen as the study seeks to gain further understanding about the issue of socially orientated digital storytelling among EFL learners in Saudi Arabia. The two main research methods used for conducting this research were semi-structured interviews and analysis of the content produced by the participants. Both methods were selected to enable the participants to express their personal thoughts and feedback directly to the researcher. Findings The findings have shown several benefits of this method, as well as highlighted the challenges regarding the application of such a practice in English language classes at university. The findings have indicated that such a novel educational atmosphere would result in the role of social orientation as a culture for enhancing learners’ competence and willingness to share a co-learning experience being regarded more highly. In addition, the results have revealed how such group work can be constructed and the main aspects of content that exist in the digital stories produced. Research limitations/implications One limitation of the current research is that it only included a group of female EFL students. Therefore, it is recommended that the same research be conducted on male EFL students in Saudi Arabia so that a comparative analysis can be made regarding the effects of socially orientated digital storytelling on both genders. In addition, it is recommended that the research be carried out among more classes containing female and male EFL students to be able to analyse the data quantitatively. Lastly, there remains the issue of convincing administrators, parents and instructors opposed to these ideas to implement this kind of project in formal language education, which is often independently orientated. Practical implications The effect of such a practice is the improvements made to learners’ academic and digital literacies. Specifically, students’ academic-writing skills and abilities to tell stories are essential parts of this process that can be improved by learners during the online storytelling process. Originality/value The research presents an application of a promising pedagogy that integrates digital technologies into different learning settings, including the context of learning English as a foreign language.

Study of Consonant Pronunciations Errors Committed by EFL Learners

2019 ◽  
pp. 48-56
Author(s):  
Ali Akbar Khansir ◽  
Afsaneh Salehabadi
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Listening Skill ◽  
English Pronunciation ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Knowledge Of Language

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.

An exploration of target L2 morphemes in the oral production of young EFL learners in Croatia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena O'Reilly ◽  
Eva Jakupčević
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Simple Construction ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
The Past ◽  
Base Form ◽  
Production Study ◽  
Efl Students

Although the second language (L2) acquisition of morphology by late L2 learners has been a popular research area over the past decades, comparatively little is known about the acquisition and development of morphology in children who learn English as a foreign language (EFL). Therefore, the current study presents the findings from a longitudinal oral production study with 9/10-year-old L1 Croatian EFL students who were followed up at the age of 11/12. Our results are largely in line with the limited research so far in this area: young EFL learners have few issues using the be copula and, eventually, the irregular past simple forms, but had considerable problems with accurately supplying the 3rd person singular -s at both data collection points. We also observed a be + base form structure, especially at the earlier stage, which appears to be an emergent past simple construction.

‘Should textbook images be merely decorative?’: Cultural representations in the Iranian EFL national textbook from the semiotic approach perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882199226
Author(s):  
Ali Derakhshan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Dynamic Model ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Instructional Settings

Studies examining culture representation in language textbooks have rarely adopted the semiotic approach, despite its potential for presenting and (re)creating cultural meanings at their various levels (i.e. cultural, intercultural, multicultural, and transcultural) in the co-instantiations of texts, tasks, and images. To address this issue, a qualitative analysis, embarking on the Peircean semiotic theory, was applied on the text-image-task semiotic relationship. It explored its potential for constructing and reconstructing cultural meanings relative to the Iranian national English as a foreign language (EFL) textbook, Vision 1, from the perspectives of Iranian EFL students, teachers, and teacher educators. Content and thematic analyses of the interview records revealed three themes: first, the co-instantiation of the image and text was indexical, cultural awareness and connotations were almost untouched; second, the textual and visual components driving intercultural meanings and interpretations were not in accordance with the tasks; and, third, some alternative more culturally engaging images were provided by the interviewees. On the whole, the findings confirmed the previous findings that the discourse of this brand-new Iranian localized EFL textbook leaves little space to raise cultural awareness for its users. Based on the findings, a dynamic model for evaluating cultural representations in textbooks is suggested, hoping to show how EFL textbooks can be developed, implemented, and received more effectively in instructional settings.

scholarly journals An Attempt at Promoting Undergraduate Sudanese EFL Students’ Performance in Academic Writing Skills

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ammar Mohammed Ahmed Mudawy
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Extensive Reading ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
University Level

The study aims at suggesting effective methods and techniques that could improve English as a foreign language EFL students’ performance in writing skills. The researcher uses the descriptive, analytical method. Four tools were adopted pretest, post-test, supporting program, and a questionnaire for teachers for collecting data. Twenty-five students in Holy Quran University, Sudan, were chosen purposively, and thirty EFL teachers at a university level were randomly selected as a sample for the study. Ninty percent of the teachers agree on the suggested program and techniques. The findings of the study indicate that: using varied techniques and activities in pre-writing stage promotes students’ performances in writing, integration of reading and writing skills in the classroom improves students’ writing skills, as well as encouraging extensive reading outside the classroom promotes students’ performance in writing skills. Accordingly, the researcher recommends that: teachers should focus on the prewriting stage through different activities as well as reading and writing should be used in an integrated way in-class writing to guide the writing process.

scholarly journals EXPLORING ENGLISH LISTENING PROBLEMS AMONG EFL STUDENTS AT IAIN KUDUS

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Azizah Maulina Erzad
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
English Education ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Education Department ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Physical Conditions ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Listening Process

Listening comprehension becomes one of the most difficult skills for most of English learners especially EFL learners. As a foreign language, English is rarely used in communication by EFL learners in their daily life. Therefore, the learners or students always face some difficulties/problems in listening comprehension. It can be seen from the results of their tests. The purpose of this study is to investigate the problems occur in listening class of EFL students at IAIN Kudus and the solutions to overcome those problems. The EFL students in this study refer to the English Education Department students of IAIN Kudus. The participants of this study are the second semester of English Education Department students. This study is a qualitative research. Observation, interview and documentation were conducted to collect the data. By conducting this study, several problems in listening comprehension can be revealed. The listening problems encountered by the EFL students are the pronunciation (accents), speedy delivery and length of the listening, physical conditions, unfamiliar vocabularies and terminologies, and limited facility for listening. Some actions should be done to overcome these obstacles occurred during listening process. The solutions to overcome the problems are students should be focus, practice more in listening English, memorize vocabularies, and prepare a language laboratory.

scholarly journals TEFL and COVID-19: use of digital materials and their impact on efl learners' speaking accuracy and fluency

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3B) ◽  
pp. 729-741
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hossein Besharati ◽  
Golnar Mazdayasna ◽  
Ali Akbar Jabbari
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Digital Storytelling ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Promising Technique ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Quasi Experimental

Digital storytelling has been around in foreign language contexts for at least two decades and showed to be a promising technique for teaching different language skills. This study aimed at investigating the effect of using two types of digital storytelling, i.e. asynchronous and synchronous digital storytelling, on the EFL learners' speaking performance in terms of accuracy and fluency. To this end, a quasi-experimental design with an experimental and a comparison group was devised. Sixty-five intermediate EFL learners were conveniently selected based on their scores on Oxford Placement Test. The speaking module of Preliminary English Test (PET) was used to measure the participants' speaking accuracy and fluency before and after the intervention. The results of the study indicated that both groups made a significant improvement after the course. Nevertheless, the asynchronous digital storytelling group outperformed the synchronous one after the intervention.

scholarly journals Exploring the Unknown: The Autonomy of Saudi EFL Learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fakieh Alrabai
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
T Test ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Saudi Students ◽  
Standardized Achievement Tests

This study addresses a new area of research in Saudi Arabia. Using a sample of 630 Saudi students, it investigates learners’ level of autonomy and its relationship to academic achievement in English as a foreign language (EFL). Learners’ level of autonomy was measured by a survey, whereas their achievement was evaluated using standardized achievement tests. The data were analyzed using descriptive analyses and a t-test. The findings revealed that learners were non-autonomous, with a mean autonomy score of 2.35 out of 5; and also low language achievers (M = 66 out of 100). Gender had a significant effect on autonomy and achievement. These findings emphasize the vast lack of awareness of the vital role of learner autonomy in the Saudi EFL setting. The study suggests that Saudi learners and teachers alike require increased awareness of the importance of the concept of autonomy and that practical means to promote Saudi EFL learner autonomy should be sought and practiced.

Linking or delinking of ideas?

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noelia Navarro Gil ◽  
Helena Roquet Pugès
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
American University ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Argumentative Texts ◽  
Linguistic Backgrounds

Abstract This paper explores the use of adversative Linking Adverbials (LAs) in the academic writing of advanced English Foreign Language (EFL) learners with different linguistic backgrounds. The learner corpus used in this study consists of 50 argumentative texts, which are contrasted with a native corpus: the American university students’ corpus (LOCNESS). Liu’s (2008) comprehensive list of adversative LAs has been used for the analysis. Findings reveal that both non-native (NNS) and native speakers of English (NS) use similar types of adversative LAs, but NNS place them regularly in sentence- and sometimes in paragraph- initial position, which often results in punctuation issues and misuse. A total of 9 LAs were found to be overused (e.g., nevertheless) and underused (e.g., actually) by NNS. The analysis performed according to L1 has yielded unexpected results in terms of preference, frequency, and placement of adversative LAs. The so-called ‘teaching effect’ is considered one of the main factors influencing the learners’ choices.

The language of quoting in academic writing

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lieke Verheijen
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Lexical Items

Because quotation is a fundamental aspect of academic texts, this corpus study examines the language of quoting in (L2) academic writing. To find out whether there are subtle linguistic differences in the use of quotation by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and professional academics who are native speakers of English (NSE), I compare two corpora of scholarly writings: one by upper intermediate and advanced EFL students and one by NSE experts. 1201 Quotes were extracted from the writings and examined for a broad range of lexico-grammatical features relevant to using quotes, including introductions to quotes, lexical items in introducing quotes, ‘special’ quotes, and punctuation surrounding quotes. The findings make clear that EFL students and NSE experts differ significantly on various points in their language of quoting. Making students aware of these differences could make their academic writing more professional, native-like, and sophisticated.

scholarly journals Effect of Foreign Language Anxiety on Gender and Academic Achievement among Yemeni University EFL Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Norizan Abdul Razak ◽  
Amr Abdullatif Yassin ◽  
Tengku Nor Rizan Bt Tengku Mohamad Maasum
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Random Sampling ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
English Department ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Department Faculty

This study aimed to investigate the gender differences in terms of anxiety among Yemeni university EFL learners. It also aimed to investigate the correlation between the level of anxiety and the academic achievement of the students. The participants of this study were 155 students chosen from the population through stratified random sampling. The participants are selected from English Department, Faculty of Arts, Ibb University, Yemen. The data was collected by using a questionnaire adopted from Yassin (2015), and the data was analysed by using 22nd version of the SPSS. The data of the first question was analysed by using T-test and the result of the analysis showed that the females experienced higher level of anxiety than male students, but the difference between both groups is not significant. The second question was analysed by using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the result showed that there is not significant correlation between the level of anxiety and the academic achievement of the students.

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