scholarly journals Exploring new territories in pedagogical stylistics: An investigation of high-school EFL students’ assessments

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vander Viana ◽  
Sonia Zyngier

The growing number of recent publications on pedagogical stylistics indicates that this area is still of much interest to those who invest in the integration of language and literature. However, evidence-based assessments of pedagogical stylistics are still few and depend mostly on teachers’ intuitions. The present study contributes towards filling this gap by examining 28 reflective accounts produced by high-school English as a foreign language (EFL) teenagers who participated in a literary awareness workshop on iconicity. Branching out from pedagogical stylistics, literary awareness is here described as a program which aims at sensitizing students to verbal artistry. The bottom-up analysis of the participants’ accounts reveals five main aspects – “applicability,” “learning,” “materials,” “students” and “teaching” – and indicates that the workshop was to a certain degree transformative. Instead of an instrumental approach to language learning, the workshop aimed mostly at consciousness-raising. Students’ assessment of the workshop was quite positive, and they linked in-class experience with their lives outside the school. The results indicate that, besides learning a foreign language, the process of reflection has led students beyond the text. We conclude by discussing the implications of the workshop for both pedagogy and research.

enadakultura ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana Shavtvaladze

The interest towards studying Georgian, as a foreign language, has been highly established in our century. This interest was stated much earlier as well, which became a reason of publishing the Georgian Language learning materials. It needs to be indicated, that many foreign people have showed interest in speaking Georgian language during past two decades. Teaching Georgian as a foreign language is much more different than teaching Georgian as a second language. Several textbooks have been published past several years. It needs a huge work to create a textbook, especially for the Georgian language. There are many books to study foreign languages, which are tested and result oriented. Nowadays we clearly see that there`s no problem to find new materials and attitudes by using internet sources. Having got introduced to other languages` learning materials, many authors desired, with a belief in themselves, to create textbooks for teaching ‘’Georgian, as a Foreign Language”. Every author has a different attitude, which leads us to a diversity of choices and competitions. Even if there are many resources, paths of learning, methods and strategies shared among people, should be admitted that the structure of the language and methodological approaches must be considered, otherwise, the result won`t be achieved. In order to declare the level of mastering the language, the authors have been using a book “Description of the levels of Georgian language” published by Marika Odzeli in 2006. It`s highly appreciated that the parliament passed a resolution №394 to affirm the terms of Georgian Literature Language. Appendix 4 generally describes the levels of Georgian Language. This official document is very encouraging; It is a support for the indicators and proofs of the Georgian language evaluation. It gives an opportunity to declare the compliance of the materials, textbooks, results in accordance with the language. Main goal of the textbooks must be determined; the way of teaching must be represented; the textbooks must follow the logic; every single assessment must be structured; methodological linkage must be provided; a lead from simple to more complex, must be preserved; lexicology must be put in order with the goal. Georgian language learner has a great choice, one can study with free textbooks uploaded on the Internet, as well as with books printed by different authors. Also, many philologists of Georgian language and literature or non-philologists, teachers of different foreign languages, teach Georgian as a foreign language. It is also very important for them to choose a textbook so that the teaching process is targeted and they do not have to spend time preparing specific materials along the way. The questions is how to choose a curriculum, textbook or how to figure out which book will be useful? It's a difficult process, but crucial for the outcome.When evaluating a textbook, we should describe the book, we should agree with ourselves, and we should set out the criterias; Focused questions are crucial for evaluation; It is now possible to prove our vision with the evidence.


Author(s):  
Claudia Repetto ◽  
Anna Flavia Di Natale ◽  
Daniela Villani ◽  
Stefano Triberti ◽  
Serena Germagnoli ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Kyung Kim ◽  
Tae-Il Pae

The purposes of the present study are two-fold: (1) To examine whether social psychological variables, such as attitude and subjective norm, can predict South Korean English as a foreign language high school students’ intention to learn English, and (2) to identify the best social psychological model for sustainable second language learning in the context of South Korean English as a foreign language (EFL) learning. A total of 614 South Korean high school learners of English participated in the present study. Data collected from a survey questionnaire were analyzed using a structural equation modeling procedure. Results of the present study indicate that South Korean high school students’ attitudes toward learning English and subjective norms made a significant and independent contribution to the variance in their intention to study English. Among the three competing social psychological models examined in the current study, the theory of Planned Behavior and an expanded model of Gardner’s Socio-educational Model proved to be the most effective in terms of the strength of path coefficients and explanatory power. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are provided.


2012 ◽  
pp. 407-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Alnufaie ◽  
Michael Grenfell

This study was part of a PhD research to explore the writing strategies of 121 second-year undergraduate Saudi student writers who are studying English as a foreign language and for specific purposes in one of the Saudi industrial colleges: Jubail Industrial College (JIC). The writing strategies under investigation had been classified into two categories (process-oriented writing strategies and product-oriented writing strategies) based on their instructional philosophies. A strategy questionnaire was designed to collect data. Although JIC writing classes were assumed to be product-oriented as reported by the majority of the participants’ description of their teachers’ writing approach, the results showed that almost all of the participants (95.9%) were mixing the two kinds of strategies. More surprisingly, the top five writing strategies used by the participants were process-oriented.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 1584
Author(s):  
Gökhan Baş ◽  
Mehmet Özcan

This research aimed to identify the differences in foreign language learning (FLL) anxiety levels between high school and university students based on some variables such as gender, current educational status, parents’ (father and mother) educational status, and monthly income of families.  The survey model was adopted in the research.  The research included high school (n = 333) and university (n = 341) students from Nigde and Afyonkarahisar provinces. In the research, “Foreign Language Learning Anxiety Scale” (FLLAS) was used in order to collect data. For the analyses of the data, independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were performed. The results of the research indicated that gender, fathers’ educational status and monthly income of family variables did not have a significant impact on foreign language anxiety levels of high school and university students. It was also found that students’ educational status as well as their mothers’ educational status variables influenced their FLL anxiety significantly.


Author(s):  
Amal Msimeer ◽  
Eman Elmejie ◽  
◽  

This paper presents an experimental research study in which the two researchers aim to promote learner autonomy in language learning by means of learner-produced learning materials. The study was conducted at the Department of English in the Faculty of Arts in Misurata, Libya during the academic term-spring 2018. The participants were 50 Libyan students who major in English and they were all enrolled in semester 2 and studied Grammar II course. The participants were required to produce their own learning material which was about a particular grammar item. Semi-structured interviews with the participants were undertaken to know about their reaction towards the experience of taking responsibility to create a learning material, what autonomous strategies they were able to develop while designing the learning materials, what type of learning materials they were able to produce. The findings of the current study revealed that learner autonomy can be fostered in EFL classes in Libya and that Libyan students can develop some autonomous learning strategies. It is concluded that learner-produced learning materials can be a successful and an effective tool to promote learner autonomy in EFL (English as a foreign language) classes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Raneem Alyousif ◽  
Zainab Alsuhaibani

Demotivating factors are one of the sources that can reduce students’ motivation toward language learning. This study investigated language learning demotivating factors among high school EFL students. It also explored the educational implications and recommendations for promoting EFL students’ motivation from teachers’ perspectives. A total of 365 Saudi high school EFL students and 18 secondary English language teachers from six public schools participated in the study. The data of the study were collected via two research instruments: a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with students and teachers. The results revealed that subject- related and teacher-related demotivating factors were the most reported demotivating factors for Saudi high school EFL students. The results also showed that lack of interesting topics, lack of activities for practicing English, overemphasis on grammar, and incompetence of teachers were the most demotivating factors for EFL students toward English learning. Moreover, several recommendations for promoting students’ motivation have been suggested by teachers such as technology use, extrinsic motivation and encouragement, and competitive and collaborative work. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Uun Undarti Septiani ◽  
I Nyoman Sudana Degeng ◽  
Nurmida Catherine Sitompul

Problem-based learning connects new problems that exist in daily life. It optimizes the ability to think through the process of group work and experimental activities. The students have difficulties in solving problems. They have little experience and are not highly motivated. It makes them unable to explore what students have. The conventional methods lack of training in critical thinking for students. This causes students to lack confidence to play an active role in the learning process. Based on these problems, the present study therefore developed the Indonesian language learning materials for Grade 7 at the junior high school level using the Problem Based Learning model.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir H. Abdalla

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential benefits of using the intercultural approach to teaching English as a foreign language in the preparatory –year programme (male branch), Taif University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The intercultural approach is considered a viable means of foreign language education that seeks to address issues of culture in foreign language learning and teaching and how best to address them. Hence, this study intends to explore the attitudes of first year EFL Taif university students to the potential benefits of the intercultural approach to EFL. A sample of 200 EFL students participated in the study. Participants’ views on the topic of the study are collected via a questionnaire the researcher designed and administered to the participants. In addition, the views of 50 EFL instructors teaching in the preparatory programme were gathered by a questionnaire regarding the topic researched. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the collected data.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document