scholarly journals Fostering Tertiary Student Professional Mobility Skills via Convergence of the Professional Training and Foreign Language Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1919-1936
Author(s):  
Valentyna I. ◽  
Elvira V. ◽  
Tetiana S. ◽  
Larysa H. ◽  
Olena O.
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Professional Mobility ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
Professional Field ◽  
Mobility Skills ◽  
Experimental Group

<p style="text-align: justify;">The purpose of the study was to identify how the instructional model that converges professional training and foreign language learning can influence the students’ professional mobility and students’ readiness to build their careers. The study used the methods of a quantitative kind for the evaluation study and descriptive research. The variables for the study were as follows: levels of student professional mobility skills proficiency that included students’ competence in their professional field, foreign language proficiency, students’ networking skills, personality qualities, and sampled students’ satisfaction with the reshaped course. The field phase of the study found that the Erasmus and Work-and-Travel programmes contributed to the former students’ adaptability and flexibility, the experience of work abroad, and practical specialism-related experience gained during study. The students developed their abilities to project a positive social image, ability to build and maintain relationships, foreign language proficiency, proficiency in presenting and negotiating, and theoretical knowledge. The English Language-delivered Professional Mobility course brought shifts in the levels of students’ professional mobility skills. The experimental group students reported that they improved their competence in their professional field, foreign language proficiency, networking skills, and personality qualities. The experimental group students’ judgements concerning the quality of the course were complimentary.</p>

scholarly journals COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT AMONG STUDENTS OF NON-LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITIES WITH THE HELP OF TBLT APPROACH IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LESSONS

2021 ◽  
pp. 409-414
Author(s):  
Svitlana Nykyporets ◽  
Nataliia Hadaichuk
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Competence Development ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency

The article contains a comparative analysis of PPP and TBLT approaches to the foreign language learning including the detailed description of the main stages of teaching and lessons planning in the framework of each approach; the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches are also considered in the article. It is also emphasized that using TBLT approach in groups of students from non-linguistic universities with a low level of foreign language proficiency (A2) is rather difficult. In such situations authors recommend considering the traditional PPP method, which allows practicing and fixing the necessary speech patterns.

Integrating content and foreign language learning

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lasagabaster
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Content Learning ◽  
Organizational Conditions ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programmes have recently gained momentum in many European countries in the belief that students will significantly improve their foreign language proficiency while content learning is not negatively affected. Based on a longitudinal qualitative approach, this article focuses on students’ reflections on their experience with CLIL. Previous studies have shown that students are able to reflect on organizational conditions and their learning process, while their reflections allow researchers to identify some of the key elements in students’ beliefs. Through focus groups carried out over a three-year period, this study gathers secondary education students’ reflections on their motivational stance, the CLIL experience, and the use of their linguistic repertoire in the CLIL classroom. By tapping into students’ language beliefs, reflections, and motivation, a clearer picture of CLIL settings will be available by bringing to light both the strengths and weaknesses of these programmes.

scholarly journals Foreign Language Learning at a Technical University in the Modern Period

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
Margarita Ivkina ◽  
Lyudmila Merkulova ◽  
Olga Martynova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learning System ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Self Development ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
Technical University

Abstract Introduction. The article is devoted to the problems of the foreign language learning at a technical university. The theoretical importance of the research is in the analysis of the existing language learning system at a technical university in light of a modern engineer’s professional activity model’s change. Grounding of certain corrections in the language learning system also provides the theoretical importance of the research. The practical importance of our research is in the modification of the existing language learning system based on the environmental and activity approaches. Materials and Methods. While carrying out the research we used a complex of methods; that is: literature analysis, empiric and praxymetric methods, and a modeling method. Results. 4 main types of an engineer’s professional activity are defined in the engineer’s activity model. These types correspond to the main activity types by M.S. Kagan’s concept – value-motivating, cognitive, reorganizing and communicative activities. An engineer’s activity results analysis led to discovering new features in the engineer’s personality structure lying in the communicative competence role increase. It was also found out that successfulness becomes a link between value-motivating and communicative activities. Consequently, we have made a conclusion on the increasing demands to the students’, masters’, post-graduates’ and academic researches’ language proficiency. Foreign language proficiency should provide for the ability to participate in the international conferences, to attend foreign professors’ lectures, and to take part in the students’ exchange programs. All of the above presupposes rather high foreign language proficiency and requires a foreign language learning system creation. The authors analyzed language learning courses at a technical university and carried out a post-graduates’ survey. As a result, lack of syllabuses being able to fill in the gaps in language proficiency and to support speech skills was found out. Basing on the conclusions mentioned above an extra multi-purpose and multi-level structure syllabus was worked out. This syllabus allowed to solve the existing programs, to increase foreign language learning and general learning motivation, to create conditions for self-development and self-realization in the professional activity. The article also describes in detail a foreign language learning system developed by the Department of Foreign Languages and Russian as a Second Language in the general learning environment of a technical university, which acquires for the modernization and reaching the education level corresponding to the leading universities’ level. Conclusion. The learning environment created by the Department of Foreign Languages and Russian as a Second Language of Samara National Research University named after academician S.P. Korolyov and including a compulsory language learning system and a system of extra language learning courses provides for the students’ individual needs in foreign language proficiency satisfaction at various levels. It also provides for their intellectual and moral self-development.

scholarly journals Current Methods for Assessing the Level of Foreign Language Proficiency of University Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 304-322
Author(s):  
Nataliia S Ivasiv ◽  
Mariya S Kozolup ◽  
Olena V Oleniuk ◽  
Nataliia V Rubel ◽  
Nataliya Y Skiba
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Computer Programs ◽  
Diagnostic Methods ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
Different Content ◽  
Experimental Stage

The associative technique is a traditional method to estimate a student’s foreign language proficiency. The aim of this article is to review the current methods for monitoring and assessing the level of foreign language proficiency of students; the arguments in favour of choosing the associative method of testing for knowledge of lexical semantics; and how assessments are conducted using this method through an associative experiment. The article is based on semantic analysis and field construction of the associative concept at the post-experimental stage. The experiment involved two groups of Ukrainian-speaking students studying German as a foreign language. Each group (control and experimental) consisted of 20 people. The results demonstrate that the assessment of the students’ linguistic and communicative competencies requires consideration of parameters in multiple aspects: paradigmatic, syntactic, syntagmatic relations; knowledge of typical idiomatic and phraseological correlations and all possible logical-associative relations. The experiment revealed shortcomings to include: contamination; weak knowledge of phraseology and moderate ability to establish logical relationships. In order to avoid the above shortcomings, there is a need to use associative experiment in foreign language learning and computer programs to achieve traditional associative learning methods. Lexical-semantic concept analysis revealed different content for semi-peripheral, peripheral and extreme peripheral zones. The article also outlines further promising areas of research, including psycholinguistic and metalinguistic ones. The research is potentially useful for the development of didactic computer programs, for the improvement of associative diagnostic methods in foreign language teaching, etc.

scholarly journals RELATION OF EXTRAVERSION/INTROVERSION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY IN THE EFL CLASSROOM

2020 ◽  
Vol XI (33) ◽  
pp. 253-266
Author(s):  
Biljana Radić-Bojanić
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Final Grade ◽  
Second Grade Students ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
Novi Sad

Due to the fact that extraverted and introverted personalities are rather different, especially in the context of foreign language learning, teachers and learners often believe that these two personality types have different learning habits and require different learning environments. Moreover, teachers and learners often believe that extraverts are more successful at foreign language learning because they easily communicate in the foreign language and overcome their anxiety without much difficulty. For that reason we aim to determine whether there is a difference between extraverted and introverted students in terms of their foreign language proficiency and in order to establish that we rely on the EPQR-S to determine the students’ personality type and the final grade from the previous semester, the grade from the previous English test and the score from the Language and Skills Test to determine the participants’ foreign language proficiency. The participants who took part in this research were N=60 first and second grade students from a medical high school in Novi Sad aged 15 to 17. The results from this research were analyzed quantitatively and, based on the results, we can conclude that introverts are slightly more proficient than extraverted students, but taking into consideration the manner of assessment of English language proficiency, this result must be taken with caution and serves as an indicator of deeper issues that point to the need for a relatively individualized classroom approach in which teachers pay attention to their students’ personality and modify their approach to learning and assessment accordingly.

scholarly journals Online Foreign Language Learning in Higher Education and Its Correlates during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 781
Author(s):  
Maria-Anca Maican ◽  
Elena Cocoradă
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Protective Role ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
Student Relationship

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the online learning of foreign languages at higher education level has represented a way to adapt to the restrictions imposed worldwide. The aim of the present article is to analyse university students’ behaviours, emotions and perceptions associated to online foreign language learning during the pandemic and their correlates by using a mixed approach. The research used the Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) scale and tools developed by the authors, focusing on task value, self-perceived foreign language proficiency, stressors and responses in online foreign language learning during the pandemic. Some of the results, such as the negative association between anxiety and FLE, are consistent with those revealed in studies conducted in normal times. Other results are novel, such as the protective role of retrospective enjoyment in trying times or the higher level of enjoyment with lower-achieving students. Reference is made to students’ preferences for certain online resources during the pandemic (e.g., preference for PowerPoint presentations) and to their opinions regarding the use of entirely or partially online foreign language teaching in the post-COVID period. The quantitative results are fostered by the respondents’ voices in the qualitative research. The consequences of these results are discussed with respect to the teacher-student relationship in the online environment and to the implications for sustainable online foreign language learning.

scholarly journals Listening Skill Requires a Further Look into Second/Foreign Language Learning

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Bozorgian
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Listening Skill ◽  
Reading History

Current English-as-a-second and foreign-language (ESL/EFL) research has encouraged to treat each communicative macroskill separately due to space constraint, but the interrelationship among these skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) is not paid due attention. This study attempts to examine first the existing relationship among the four dominant skills, second the potential impact of reading background on the overall language proficiency, and finally the relationship between listening and overall language proficiency as listening is considered an overlooked/passive skill in the pedagogy of the second/foreign language classroom. However, the literature in language learning has revealed that listening skill has salient importance in both first and second language learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of each of four skills in EFL learning and their existing interrelationships in an EFL setting. The outcome of 701 Iranian applicants undertaking International English Language Testing System (IELTS) in Tehran demonstrates that all communicative macroskills have varied correlations from moderate (reading and writing) to high (listening and reading). The findings also show that the applicants’ reading history assisted them in better performing at high stakes tests, and what is more, listening skill was strongly correlated with the overall language proficiency.

scholarly journals A Cross-Departmental Approach to Supporting Students with a Disability Affecting Foreign Language Acquisition

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Lys ◽  
Alison May ◽  
Jeanne Ravid
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Language Education ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Foreign Language Study ◽  
Foreign Language Requirement ◽  
Language Requirement ◽  
Important Objective

Abstract In order to enhance mobility, competitiveness, and opportunities for work, the European Union lists the ability to communicate in a foreign language and to understand another culture as an important objective in their language education policy. Knowledge of a foreign language is also an important objective for many American universities, which require students to study a foreign language as a prerequisite to graduate. Students with documented disabilities affecting the learning of a foreign language or students with poor foreign language learning skills, therefore, pose a significant challenge, since a foreign language requirement may prevent such students from graduating unless universities are willing to make special arrangements such as having students graduate without fulfilling the requirement or letting them take substitution classes. The question of what to do with such students is at the heart of this article. It describes how one mid-sized private university with a two-year language proficiency requirement has approached the problem to ensure that policies are implemented fairly. Rather than pulling students out of the foreign language classroom, the university succeeded in keeping students engaged with foreign language study through advising and mentoring across departments

scholarly journals Year of Intensive Language Learning, A Special Program to Rocket Hungarian Students’ Foreign Language Proficiency: A Success Story?

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-174
Author(s):  
Enikő Öveges
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Secondary School Education ◽  
School Year ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
Contact Hours

Summary Hungary has witnessed several major attempts to improve the foreign language proficiency of students in primary and secondary school education since the political changes of the 1990s, as both international and national surveys reflect a dramatically low ratio of Hungarian population that self-reports to communicate in any foreign language at any level. Among other initiatives, a major one to boost students’ foreign language competence has been the Year of Intensive Language Learning (YILL), introduced in 2004, which allows secondary schools to integrate an extra school year when the majority of the contact hours are devoted to foreign languages. The major objectives of YILL are as follows: 1) to offer a state-financed and school-based alternative to the widely spread profit-oriented private language tuition; thus 2) granting access to intensive language learning and 3) enhancing equal opportunities; and as a result of the supporting measures, 4) to improve school language education in general. YILL is exemplary in its being monitored from the launch of the first classes to the end of their five-year studies, involving three large-scale, mixed-method surveys and numerous smaller studies. Despite all the measures to assist the planning and the implementation, however, the program does not appear to be an obvious success. The paper introduces the background, reviews and synthesizes the related studies and surveys in order to evaluate the program, and argues that with more considerate planning, the YILL ‘hungaricum’ would yield significantly more benefits.

The effectiveness of game-based learning on English as a foreign language proficiency: A meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 78-89
Author(s):  
K.T. Kudarova ◽  
◽  
G.S. Bimasheva ◽  
Sh.G. Iskakova ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
Game Based Learning ◽  
Mathematical Methods ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
The Impact

This study was aimed to synthesize data on the impact of game-based learning on English as a foreign language learning outcome. To achieve the goal, a search for relevant studies was performed via Google Scholar electronic database, followed by the results extraction and their meta-analysis using Meta-Essentials statistical software. Since most of the relevant publications utilized the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) to assess the intervention effectiveness, only those studies that used TOEIC or a TOEIC-derived test were included in the present meta-analysis to unify the performance scale. The final analysis included four experimental interventions involving 148 individuals. According to the results, the combined effect (Hedges g = 0.56) of game-based learning on post-test TOEIC scores exceeds controls, but the difference is not statistically significant. Thus, concerning the study sample, it has to be said that there appears to be no positive impact of gamification on English language acquisition. The findings should be interpreted with caution due to the risk of heterogeneity between the included studies (I2 = 33.81%) and their low number. Nevertheless, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current meta-analysis is one of the few studies to date that employ mathematical methods to obtain a combined effect of gamified learning on English as a foreign language proficiency.

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