scholarly journals ON ORAL ATTAINMENT IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 117-133
Author(s):  
Magdalena Pospieszyńska-Wojtkowiak
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
Main Determinants ◽  
Teaching Programs ◽  
Oral Skills

The article is devoted to oral attainment in a foreign language. It revises the term speaking, and explains its difficult role, yet fundamental both in teaching and in learning. Although oral communication is not easy to success in, it is, inevitably, one of the main determinants of students’ achievements in a classroom situation. The article presents what happens during a typical classroom interaction situation, emphasizing the cooperation between the speaker and the listener, quoting Grice’s (1975) four maxims governing the cooperation in communication, namely, the maxim of quantity, quality, relation and manner. Then, various features, factors and functions related to speaking are enumerated, underlining the difficult role of speaking in the whole process of foreign language learning. According to Common European Framework (Council of Europe 2001), all the features of spoken language, also mediating and interaction, are important in designing speaking tasks/tests, setting the assessment criteria, establishing and organizing principles and curricula for the teaching programs. The last section of the article is devoted to assessing oral skills, hence different approaches and scales are presented as examples, together with a brief explanation of the constructs of reliability and validity is speaking assessment. Special reliability and validity procedures have to be employed by test designers in order to obtain objectivity of the scores.

Kommunikation und "Kommunikation" im Schulischen Fremdsprachen -Unterricht

1983 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-149
Author(s):  
Henning Bolte
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Conversational Analysis ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Response Formats ◽  
Teaching Learning

The article deals with the relationship between verbal communication as a teaching objective and as a medium of teaching/learning. This relationship is of special interest for foreign language teaching/ learning aiming at ccmnunicative competence in spoken language. The article enters into the question in which ways teaching/learning ob-jects are constituted in the course of ongoing interaction, how acti-vities with regard to such objects are stimulated and steered, and what kinds of activities are defined by the participants themselves as LEARNING or count for them as such. Psycholinguistic input-(in-take) output models are being argued against, because classroom learning is not simply characterized by ready-made prestructured in-put and predetermined output, but both have first to be constituted through some strategic form of social interaction. Two examples of foreign language learning in the classroom are pre-sented: first of an EFL lesson, where the distortion of target langu-age function potential is demonstrated and the "staged" production of language prof iciency within a pedagogic interaction pattern is shown; and second of a German FL lesson, where a grammatical item is focussed and exercised. The sequence is an example of rigorous reali-zation of the I(nitiation)-R(esponse)-E(valuation) pattern as the ba-sic pattern of sequential organization in the classroom. It clearly shows how LEARNING is defined/executed as standardized response for-mats and "conditioned" chains of I-R-pairs. Many of the performed linguistic deviations(of the target language)seem due to interaction mechanisms rather than to general principles of language development. Conversational analysis of teaching-learning discourse shows that learning is not merely to be considered as a direct conventionalized consequence of ( initiating ) teaching ( acts ). On the one hand the inter-action pattern is merely a framework wherein "inner" mental processes are evoked and organized, which can manifest themselves in various forms. On the other hand there is a strong tendency for the teacher to control the entire learning process and to make expected outcomes collectively significant and thus for the learner a tendency mainly to adjust to prefabricated response formats, which at the same time serve as evidence for didactically intended cognitions. Hence, the stronger the predetermination and imposing of LEARNING by the teach-er, the more learning tends to become a mere guessing game and pure-ly mechanical. The restrictions of traditional classrooms are obvious from these examples: restrictions with regard to the experience of functional potential of the target language and with regard to the embedding of focussed learning-items into a functional perspective. These re-strictions have to be changed in order to enable learners to parti-cipate in problem-constitution, to bring in own perceptions of con-cepts/problems and to bring in own problem-solving strategies as systematic parts of language development and as systematic parts of official classroom discourse, i.e. as objects of active mutual indication and interpretation. Conversational analysis can be an important tool for the study of such "alternative" structuring of classroom interaction and its con-tribution to a more learner-centered and functionally oriented (foreign)language LEARNING.

scholarly journals Autonomous learning of english as a foreign language in a culturally integrated b-learning ecosystem

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 182-202
Author(s):  
Lorena Julieth Rojas Salazar ◽  
Luis Facundo Maldonado G
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Autonomous Learning ◽  
Dynamic Learning ◽  
Learning Ecosystem ◽  
Oral Skills ◽  
Learning English

The low level of oral skills in learning English  as a foreign language seems to be related to the lack of spaces and opportunities to interact in dynamic learning environments since the texts and study materials are not related to the context in which the student lives. This research answers the question of whether a b-learning ecosystem with devices for monitoring learning and integrated into cultural dimensions of the students’ environment improves the learning of oral skills in learning English. The proposal is based on advances in research on ecosystems of learning and embodied cognition. A system  is designed from the specification of learning spaces integrated into a spiral structure. An online learning environment integrates with an ecosystem with elements  of  Boyacá  cuisine  to develop communicative interactions and autonomous learning activities.  The  proposal is validated by taking as population, grade 11 students from the Colombian system and two equivalent samples of selected students, based on previous performance in the English subject in the current school year.  Statistical analysis  of results supports the positive answer to the research question and supports the importance of the cultural integration of learning b- learning ecosystems in foreign language learning.  

Anxiety and oral performance in a foreign language test situation

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayuki Machida
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
State Anxiety ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Oral Examination ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
Oral Examinations

Abstract This research investigates a situation specific anxiety: oral examination anxiety in a foreign language learning situation. It examines how a particular type of language anxiety - anxiety in oral communication - impacts on the learner’s oral performance. The subjects are first year Japanese language students at tertiary level in Australia. Questionnaire surveys were conducted to measure the students’: a) anxiety in foreign language classes, b) their anxiety toward oral examinations, and c) the anxiety they actually felt in an oral examination. The objectives of the study were to investigate relations between anxiety and scores in oral examinations. The results indicated that state anxiety can be a strong predictor of learners’ performance in an examination. However, the subjects’ trait anxiety had also both direct and indirect influence over their oral performance. A cause-effect relation among trait anxiety, oral performance, and state anxiety (MacIntyre and Gardner 1989) was also observed in this study.

Using Precision Teaching Method to Improve Foreign Language and Cognitive Skills in University Students

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 50-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Cuzzocrea ◽  
Anna Maria Murdaca ◽  
Patrizia Oliva
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Precision Teaching ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Grammatical Accuracy

Learning a foreign language takes time and effort. In the last few years, too much emphasis has been placed on oral communication skills and English teachers make their students speak English without paying enough attention to grammatical accuracy. As a result, while students’ ability in terms of fluency has improved, they often cannot communicate appropriately in English due to a lack of grammatical knowledge. The aim of the study was to explore the potential of Precision Teaching software developed for the improvement of English grammar rules. Two groups were compared, one having used the software and the other following a traditional textbook-based approach. The students who used the software showed significantly higher learning scores than students who did not. In addition, after using the software students show increased scores in some cognitive abilities that are related to foreign language learning.

scholarly journals Shaping the quality of second language learning: Students’ perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 01071
Author(s):  
Irina M. Solodkova ◽  
Elena V. Grigorieva ◽  
Liliya R. Ismagilova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Foreign Language Education ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Learning And Teaching

The paper dwells on the problem of identifying the most crucial factors affecting the quality of foreign language learning from the students’ perspective. Quality foreign language education is a disputable issue in 21 century due to the increased global workforce competition. Human capital has a great impact on education as an important factor in shaping a new quality of country’s economy and well-being of society. Foreign language skill is an integral component of highly qualified professionals as the global economic processes make them participate in cross-border business communication. In these conditions the aim of higher education establishments is to provide quality of language learning and teaching that allows future specialists not to distort the meaning in written and oral communication within their professional framework. The two-phase survey conducted among 67 students of the Institute of Management, Economics and Finance of the Kazan Federal University provided with quantitative data. The respondents ranked differently the factors determining the quality of language learning and teaching responses after two years of completing their foreign language education and were generally satisfied with the quality of service rendered. The obtained results give optimistic forecasts regarding the improvement of foreign language education and help reconsider the way of teaching a foreign language basing on the chosen factors.

scholarly journals CBM language measures as indicators of foreign-language learning: Technical adequacy of scores for secondary-school students

2021 ◽  
pp. 42-57
Author(s):  
Laura Hoefnagel ◽  
Christine A. Espin ◽  
Ralph Rippe
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Progress Monitoring ◽  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
English Word ◽  
School Students

Students with and without learning disabilities often struggle to learn a foreign language (FL). Teachers could benefit from a measure designed to screen and identify students at risk for FL learning difficulties. In this study, we examined the reliability and validity of scores from four curriculum-based measures (CBM) as potential indicators of English FL learning: reading aloud, maze selection, and English-to-Dutch and Dutch-to-English word translation. Participants were 133 Dutch students in Grade 8. Criterion variables were English course grades and scores on a standardized achievement test (Cito-VAS). Alternate-form reliability ranged from r = .77 to .87. Correlations between CBM and criterion measure scores ranged from r = -.04 to .65. Scores from maze selection and reading aloud alone predicted English-language proficiency better than a combination of scores from the four measures, explaining 29.7% and 23.6% of the variance, respectively. Implications for the use of CBM for FL screening and progress-monitoring are discussed.

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