Cognitive Retroactive Transfer of Language Skills From English as a Foreign Language to Hebrew as the First Language

2021 ◽  
pp. 002221942110038
Author(s):  
Liat Feder ◽  
Salim Abu-Rabia
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Intervention Program ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
First Language ◽  
Post Treatment ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Linguistic Skills ◽  
Experimental Group

The study tested whether cognitive retroactive transfer (CRT) of language skills from English to Hebrew takes place; specifically, whether an improvement in linguistic and meta-linguistic skills in English as a foreign language (FL) would lead to an improvement in these skills in Hebrew as the first language (L1). The participants consisted of 124 students in Grade 6 who were randomly assigned to an experimental group or a control group. Each group was further divided into readers with dyslexia, poor readers, and typical readers groups. The experimental group participated in an English intervention program designed for this study. All participants were administered a battery of pre- and post-treatment tests in linguistic and meta-linguistic skills in Hebrew and in English. The findings supported the existence of CRT from skills in English to skills in Hebrew with reference to most of the variables in the domains of reading, writing, and language skills. The improvement in most of the linguistic and meta-linguistic tasks in both English and Hebrew was significantly higher in the experimental group compared with the control group. The innovation of this study was in testing CRT of linguistic and meta-linguistic skills from English to Hebrew. Limitations and direction for future research are discussed.

Effect of the Bullying: The Power to Cope Program on Children's Response to Bullying

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Markopoulos ◽  
Michael E. Bernard
Keyword(s):  
Intervention Program ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Behaviour Therapy ◽  
Coping Responses ◽  
Emotional Coping ◽  
Self Report Data ◽  
Children's Coping ◽  
Experimental Group

This study evaluated the Bullying: The Power to Cope program (Bernard, 2012), which is designed to teach children the ideas espoused in the practice of rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) to employ in response to bullying. Self-report data were collected at pre- and post-test of children's cognitive, behavioural, and emotional coping responses to four written bullying vignettes. At pre-test, children's personal qualities of intrinsic resiliency were also measured. The sample consisted of 139 participants in Melbourne, Australia (n = 80 in the experimental group and n = 59 in the control group), aged from 10 to 14 years. Results indicated children in the experimental group improved in cognitive and emotional coping responses relative to children in the control group. Females showed greater improvement than males in coping responses to bullying as a consequence of the intervention. Entering levels of intrinsic resiliency did not moderate the effects of the intervention program on children's coping responses. The cognitive and emotional coping responses of females to bullying vignettes (pre-test) were significantly more negative and emotionally intense than males. The implications of these findings are discussed, as well as limitations and directions for future research.

scholarly journals The Use of Web 2.0 Tools in the Foreign Language Classroom

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Tawffeek A. S. Mohammed ◽  
Blanche Nyingome Assam ◽  
Mustapha Saidi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
Web 2.0 Tools ◽  
Brick And Mortar ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Experimental Group

The present study aims to investigate the role that Web 2.0 tools can play in the enhancement of productive and receptive language skills of students of Arabic as a foreign language. The study is part of an ongoing project on the integration of Web 2.0 tools in teaching Arabic as a foreign language and the attitudes of the learners towards them. The design of the study is pre-post, experimental-control group. The sample consisted of (30) students: an experimental group (n=15) and a control group (n=15), doing their BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the International Peace College South Africa (IPSA). The experiment took place in the Language Skills module for 12 weeks.  A technology-enhanced programme that utilises a myriad of Web 2.0 tools was used in teaching the experimental group. The control group students, however, were taught using a traditional teaching methodology in a brick-and-mortar classroom and they did not receive any technology-enhanced instruction. The study concluded that the use of Web 2.0 tools has contributed to the enhancement of the language skills and vocabulary of the students.  The findings indicated that there was a significant statistical difference between the scores of the two groups in the language skills and vocabulary post-test in favour of the experimental group.

scholarly journals Blended Learning to Improve University Students’ Language Skills in the Iraqi Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-255
Author(s):  
Hero Said Mohammed Nuri, Et. al.
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Dramatic Effect ◽  
And Control ◽  
Experimental Group

This study investigated the effect of a blended learning approach (BLA) on the main English language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) when learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in Iraq. In order to reveal the effectiveness of the approach, an experiment was carried out involving 40 participants who were divided into two groups: experimental and control. The experimental group was taught using a BLA whereas the control group was instructed with a traditional approach to teach English. The experiment was conducted during a semester (three months) in which two classes of English were taught every week. According to the results of the study, the BLA had a dramatic effect on improving the main skills of the EFL participants

scholarly journals The Effectiveness of an Engaging Program to Reduce Saudi Female University EFL Students’ Foreign Language Anxiety and to Enhance Their Motivation to Learn English at Taif University

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasrah M. Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Attitude And Motivation ◽  
Experimental Group

<p>Teaching a language is a complex but interesting process. It involves teacher, learner, curriculum, and learning environment. Also this process is affected by certain social, cultural and psychological factors. This study is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of a proposed program for developing EFL learners’ engagement in learning English. The sample of this study consisted of 103 females (M = 19.260, SD = 0.876 years), it was divided into two groups; the experimental group consisted of 53 girls and the control group consisted of 50 girls. Students’ engagement was measured by the Handelsaman, Briggs, Sullivan, and Towler (2005) questionnaire, while their foreign language anxiety was measured by the Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) questionnaire. Students’ motivation was measured by Gardner’s (1985) Attitude and Motivation Test Battery (AMTB). The research applied continued for three months which included the proposed program. The data proved that there were statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control group on the post-test of the engagement questionnaire, the foreign language anxiety scale as well as the students’ motivation dimensions, showing a significant increase in students’ engagement and motivation in favor of the experimental group. The findings also indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the pre-test and post-test results for the experimental group on the students’ engagement and motivation. This shows that the experimental group had an increase in skills after having participated in the program as seen on the post-test. In light of these results, the study provides a number of procedural recommendations that may contribute to raising the degree of the importance of students’ engagement and motivation training for the students with foreign language anxiety. The paper concludes that more training should be given in using all engagement activities by embedding them in regular classroom activities. Suggestions are offered for future research.</p>

scholarly journals فاعلية استخدام أدوات الجيل الثاني للويب (Web 2.0) في تطوير المهارات اللغوية في اللغة العربية بوصفها لغة أجنبية / Effectiveness of Using Second Generation for Web 2.0 in developing language skills of Arabic as a second language

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-32
Author(s):  
Taufīq ʿAbduh Saʿīd Muhammad Al-Kināni
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
Web 2.0 Tools ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Brick And Mortar ◽  
Experimental Group

ملخص البحث:  تهدف الدراسة الحالية إلى معرفة الدور الذي يمكن أن تؤديه التكنولوجيا وأدوات الجيل الثاني للويب، في تطوير المهارات اللغوية الإنتاجية لطلبة اللغة العربية بوصفها لغة أجنبية، وشملت الدراسة ثلاثين طالباً في كلية السلام العالمي بجنوب أفريقيا، وبواقع خمسة عشر طالباً للمجموعة التجريبية، وخمسة عشر طالباً للمجموعة الضابطة، وقد تم جمع البيانات على مدار اثني عشر أسبوعاً خلال الفصل الدراسي الثاني من العام الأكاديمي 2015 -2016م، أثناء تدريس مقرر المهارات اللغوية (نصوص وتطبيق). وقد تم استخدام التعليم التقليدي مع المجموعة الضابطة، والتعليم الممزوج مع المجموعة التجريبية، وخضعت كلا المجموعتين للاختبارات القبلية والبعدية. وتوصلت الدراسة إلى أن استخدام تكنولوجيا التعليم وأدوات الجيل الثاني للويب قد أسهمت إسهاماً فاعلاً في تنمية الكفاءات اللغوية لطلاب المجموعة التجريبية؛ إذ أظهرت النتائج وجود فروق دالة إحصائياً في مستوى تحصيل الطلبة للمهارات الأربع والألفاظ ولصالح المجموعة التجريبية. الكلمات المفتاحية: أدوات الجيل الثاني للويب-المهارات اللغوية – اللغة العربية للناطقين بغيرها-المفردات. Abstract The present study aims to investigate the role web 2.0 tools can play in the enhancement of productive and receptive language skills of students of Arabic as a Foreign Language. The study is part of an ongoing project on the integration of web 2.0 tools in teaching Arabic as a Foreign language and the attitude of the learners towards them. The design of the study is pre-post, experimental-control group.  The sample consisted of (30) level 1 BA students: an experimental group (n=15) and a control group (n=15), studying Arabic as a Foreign Language at the International Peace College South Africa (IPSA). The experiment took place in the Language skills module for 12 weeks.  A technology-enhanced programme that utilizes a myriad of web 2.0 tools used in teaching the experimental group. The control group students, however, taught using a traditional teaching methodology in a brick-and-mortar classroom and they did not receive any technology-enhanced instruction. The study has concluded that the use of web 2.0 tools has contributed to the enhancement of the language skills and vocabulary of the students.  The findings indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups in the language skills and vocabulary post-test in favor of the experimental group.  Keywords: Web 2.0 tools, language skills, Arabic as a foreign language (AFL), vocabulary.   Abstrak Kajian ini bertujuan untuk melihat peranan peralatan web 2.0 dalam mengembangkan kemahiran mengucap dan menerima bahasa para pelajar Bahasa Arab sebagai satu bahasa asing. Kajian ini adalah sebahagian daripada satu projek yang sedang dijalankan berkenaan dengan penggabungan peralatan web 2.0 dalam mengajar Bahasa Arab sebagai satu bahasa asing dab juga sikap para pelajar terhadapnya. Rekabentuk kajian ialah pra pos, kumpulan terkawal kajian. Sampel mengandungi 30 pelajar tahap satu Sarjana Muda: satu kumpulan kajian (n=15) dan kumpulan kawalan (n=15) yang sedang mempelajari Bahasa Arab sebagai bahasa asing di Kolej Keamanan Antarabangsa Afrika Selatan. Kajian ini diapplikasikan kepada Modul Kemahiran Bahasa untuk 12 minggu. Satu program yang dikembangkan dengan teknologi yang menggunakan gabungan peralatan web 2.0 digunakan dalam pengajaran kumpulan kajian. Kumpulan ini walaubagaimanpun, telah mengajar dengan mengajar menggunakan cara pengajaran tradisional dalam suasana kelas yang asas yang tidak langusng mendapat pendedahan daripada apa-apa cara pengajaran yang berasaskan teknologi. Kajian ini mendapati bahawa penggunaan peralatan web 2.0 telah menyumbang kepada perkembangan kemahiran bahasa dan perbendaharaan kata para pelajar. Dapatan kajian menyatakan terdapat perbezaan yang amat jelas di antara kedua-dua kumpulan tersebut dalam pra ujian kemahiran bahasa dan perbendaharaan kata yang lebih memihak kepada kumpulan kajian. Kata kunci: Peralatan Web 2.0, kemahiran bahasa, Bahasa Arab sebagai bahasa kedua, perbendaharaan kata.

The effect of collaborative writing in an EFL secondary setting

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 874-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Izaskun Villarreal ◽  
Nora Gil-Sarratea
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
School Context ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Experimental Group

Collaborative writing (CW) has been proven advantageous to enhance the second and foreign language skills of university students. However, little research to date has explored whether CW practices are fruitful for secondary school learners in foreign language (FL) contexts, a population characterized by low language proficiency levels, and few opportunities to engage with the FL. The present classroom-based study examines CW in this setting and aims to determine whether CW fosters language opportunities, operationalized as language-related episodes (LREs), which will allow learners in low-input scenarios to compose better texts. Two parallel intact classes were studied: a control group ( n = 16) which produced an argumentative essay individually, and an experimental group ( n = 16) which did so in pairs while recording their interactions. The findings revealed that the pairs produced shorter but more accurate and slightly more lexically and grammatically complex texts and obtained higher scores in content, structure and organization. Collaboration afforded students the opportunity to pool ideas, deliberate over language use, and provide each other with feedback (collective scaffolding). Most importantly, collaborating seemed to be beneficial for all intermediate secondary learners and, thus, a useful strategy for improving FL writing skills in the secondary school context.

Pragmatic instruction in L2-Russian

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-95
Author(s):  
Daniele Artoni ◽  
Valentina Benigni ◽  
Elena Nuzzo
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Instructional Treatment ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
Pragmatic Instruction

Over the last three decades, a growing number of studies have investigated the effects of instruction on the acquisition of pragmatic features in L2. The bulk of this research has focused mainly on the teaching of English as a second/foreign language. However, instructional pragmatic studies in L2-Russian are lacking. The main purpose of our study is to contribute towards filling this gap by analysing the effects of pragmatic instruction on the acquisition of two speech acts by Italian learners of Russian. Furthermore, we aim to explore whether the Multimodal Russian Corpus (MURCO), a multimedia subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus, can be an effective tool for teaching speech acts in L2-Russian. Our research was composed of one experimental group (n = 18) and one control group (n = 11); each was composed of two intact classes of Italian university students at an intermediate level of L2-Russian, who were pre- and post-tested using a written discourse completion task. The experimental group was subjected to a programme of pragmatic instruction – eight thirty-minute MURCO-based lessons devoted to requests and advice, while the control group was taught according to the standard syllabus, that is, with no pragmatic instruction. The results revealed that the use of the target pragmatic features varied significantly in the experimental group, but not in the control group, thus showing a general positive effect of the instructional treatment based on the MURCO corpus. However, some limitations were identified with regard to the usability of this tool by teachers and learners.

Electronic texts or learning through textbooks: An experimental study

ReCALL ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 539-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
NINETTE CARTES-ENRIQUEZ ◽  
M. I. SOLAR RODRIGUEZ ◽  
R. QUINTANA LETELIER
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Computer Lab ◽  
Electronic Texts ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Search For Information ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Traditional Class

This is an experimental study in the area of Didactics applied to the learning of English as a foreign language and complemented by CALL. The main objective of this work is to know the degree of incidence existing between two groups of students: one, based on conference-style classes where students, guided by the teacher, have to search for information about a topic in the computer lab and present it in front of the class and, in the other, where students are taught by the teacher according to a printed text. The experimental design consisted of a pre-test/post-test plus the application of different techniques to develop the different linguistic and cognitive strategies, between these tests. The methodology used by the Experimental Group forced learners to generate their own knowledge, so they had to apply the information and work by themselves in Workshops; and the Control Group participated in the classroom according to the communicative approach, guided by the teacher in the traditional class. Statistics were applied to the scores obtained between both tests, and the scores obtained weekly in the different competences contributed to knowing whether there were significant differences between both groups.

Investigating Chinese University Students’ Enjoyment in a Web-Based Language Learning Environment: Validation of the Online Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale

2021 ◽  
pp. 003151252110417
Author(s):  
Xin Wang ◽  
Yang Wang ◽  
Yizhi Yang ◽  
Lu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
First Language ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Chinese University ◽  
Confirmatory Factor

The revolution in web-based technologies has enriched pedagogical practices and motivated scholars to address learners’ positive and negative emotions in the web-based language learning environment. In this study, we first examined the psychometric properties of the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (FLES) and then developed the Online Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (OFLES). We adopted a mixed-method approach using a sample of 383 first language Chinese EFL undergraduates. In stage one of the research, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis supported an 11-item and 4-factor OFLES structure with an ideal model fit. The four sub-domains of the new enjoyment construct were OFLES- Teacher, Private, Interaction, and Competence. The Teacher domain accounted for most variance. In stage two, the qualitative analyses of feedback on an open-ended question concerning enjoyable episodes from 56 of the 383 participants revealed various sources of enjoyment for Chinese university EFL learners attending online English courses. Our findings contribute to an emerging wave of research examining the cross-contextual application of the FLES and provide important pedagogical implications for L2 practitioners and researchers. We discuss suggestions for future research.

Using comprehension strategies for students' self-efficacy, anxiety, and proficiency in reading English as a foreign language

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hung-Chang Liao ◽  
Ya-Huei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Comprehension Strategies ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Verbal Persuasion ◽  
Reading Comprehension Strategies ◽  
English Reading ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Experimental Group

We examined whether or not instructing Taiwanese students in the use of comprehension strategies when they are reading English as a foreign language, reduces their English reading anxiety and increases their English reading self-efficacy and proficiency. We used a quasiexperimental design and conducted a 15-week course. The experimental group (n = 31) received instruction in reading comprehension strategies and the control group (n = 31) received instruction by traditional teaching methods. The results show that the experimental group had less anxiety when reading English and higher proficiency than the control group. In regard to self-efficacy when reading English, the experimental group also performed better than the control group in terms of self-affirmation, perseverance, verbal persuasion, and performance overall. However, there was no statistically significant difference for learning attitude between the groups.

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